Silent Crown

Chapter 280 Let Me Show You Something Good

It poured heavily through the late autumn night. A man wearing a black raincoat stood beside a carriage and opened the door for Andrew.

Andrew paused and nodded. "Apologies for keeping you waiting, Gavin."

"It's my duty, sir." Gavin smiled.

When the door closed, the carriage charged into the rain and toward the uptown district. In the silent carriage, Andrew placed the long cone on his knee and slowly loosened his grip. He had held it too tightly. His whitened knuckles cracked like stones scraping as he opened his fist.

"You can take care of the docking work with the Research Institute," he suddenly said. "Assemble four-hundred within nine days."

Gavin nodded. "Yes, sir."

"Thank you." Andrew closed his eyes. "It's late. Let the driver take you home. I'm tired too. We can discuss the Musician Division tomorrow."

"Yes, sir," Gavin replied. He did not have any complaints.

The carriage soon stopped. After Gavin bid farewell, he left with his black umbrella. The carriage began moving forward again. Even the sound of breathing had stopped in the once again silent carriage. However, there was a pair of eyes that shone faintly like a sword.

Andrew pressed down on the cone on his knee. As if he was touching red-hot iron, his finger split open after brushing past a sharp edge. Scarlet blood oozed out and fell to the floor along the blade. The cone silently turned to powder and scattered on the ground.

"A machine that can replace musicians? What a joke…" Andrew looked up at the darkness before him and said in a low voice, "Someday, Newton, you'll go to Hell too."

-

The sound of the rainstorm traveled through the window. The faint whistling of wind seemed to blow past the sole lantern in the hall, dim light weakening under the rain sound. The once glamorous hall was now a blur under the light as if it was covered in dust after years of weathering.

The drenched young man entered quietly through the door but froze when he saw the old man under the light. The aging man still had a respiratory on his face. The tubes were tangled in his graying hair as if it grew naturally. The rumbling of pulmonary water accompanied the faint breathing. Hearing the footsteps, the old man raised his eyes and looked at Gavin.

Gavin's steps paused. He said softly, "Father, I'm back."

After a stretch of silence, a voice of disgust came from the respirator, "You know to come back? You still think I'm your father?"

Gavin hung his head. "I'm sorry, Father, the Musician Division is busy these—"

"Enough. Don't say things that I don't want to hear." The man waved his hand in annoyance. "Gavin, do you still see yourself as part of this family after joining the Royal Musician Division? Don't disappoint your mother!"

Gavin froze. His gray eyes trembled and he looked down after a long time. "Yes, Father."

The old man huffed coldly. His expression was filled with dissatisfaction. "Deputy Head Andrew took you back today? Why didn't you invite him to stay for dinner?"

Hesitating, Gavin replied quietly, "He said that he's…tired today."

Undisguised disappointment flashed past the man's eyes. He looked away from Gavin. "Whatever. I never expected much from you. All I need is for people like you to not trouble the family."

Gavin gripped his sleeve cuff and did not answer.

"Also." The old man panted heavily. Rising from the wheelchair, he looked at Gavin. "About Banner…how has it been going?"

"Mr. Flynn has promised to me that Banner will have a spot three years later."

"Three years?!" the old man exclaimed in anger. He glared at Gavin and demanded through his muddled breathing, "How many more years do you want Banner to waste? You have no space for your brother in your heart! So disappointed. Gavin, you disappoint me so much!"

He was attacked by a bout of coughs. It sounded like a steel hammer slamming down into an empty cavern. Gavin rushed over to support him but was pushed aside in annoyance.

A hand reached out from behind and pulled him away. Then the newcomer walked forward, gently pressed down on the old man's back, and injected the cough medicine with ease. Gavin froze in his spot.

"It's okay, Father. I can become a royal musician even without my brother's help," Banner comforted the old man softly. He glared at Gavin as he pushed the wheelchair. "You've waited for too long. You should go sleep now."

The youth pushed the old man out of the hall. Gavin stared as their silhouettes disappeared into the distance. He reached out, wanting to say something. But after a long while, his hands fell down weakly.

Under the dim light, he sat on the dust-covered sofa and closed his eyes in fatigue. Outside the window, lightning flashed past, illuminating the rain. A robin on a withered branch looked away and flapped its wings, flying away.

-

During the same thunderstorm, a gold-haired youth returned home and took a nice bath. He sat in the basement with a towel around him. Looking at the completely different metal skeleton, he smacked his lips.

"The internal power cycle is jammed, the pressure pump is broken, eighty percent of the synthetic muscles are torn, and the aether nerves are paralyzed from the overload." He scanned the skeleton and shook his head. "No, it's completely broken. Yezi, you really went hard this time. Did you really fight the legendary Ripper three-hundred times?"

"Pretty much." On the other side of the worktable was Ye Qingxuan, his entire body covered with bandages and face covered with two medicine patches. He looked away. Right now, he was practically paralyzed. The slightest movement would send searing pain through his body.

For some reason though, his eyes looked different under the light. They were supposed to be pure black, but now they seemed translucent. Glancing at them was like gazing into a clear yet deep pool. They were bottomless and borderless. A vortex seemed to be hidden inside that pulled at one's mind, making him space out involuntarily.

After checking for a while, Charles tossed his wrench down and shook his head. "Nope, can't fix it."

"Huh?" Ye Qingxuan froze, starting to panic. "No way."

This steel skeleton had accompanied him through so many life-or-death experiences. Without it, Ye Qingxuan would have long been dead, thanks to his bad physical shape. Hearing Charles's words, he suddenly felt sad. How could he do stupid things without it?

"It's completely done for. Look at this." Charles pointed at the core of the skeleton, showing Ye Qingxuan the hairline cracks. He knocked on it, creating a hollow echo. Ye Qingxuan furrowed his brows.

"You can hear it too, right?" Charles lifted the skeleton and shook it. Broken noises sounded. "The inside is completely broken. I can try to fix it but then it might break apart if you try to move. Well, breaking apart is the best case scenario. What if it gets stuck somewhere? Heh, you probably don't want to find your leg stuck when trying to escape, right?"

"So what do I do now?"

"Toss it." Charles shook his head and sighed. "In this state, it'll be better to make a new one than fix it. After all, it's a feat that something I made when I was fifteen can last 'till now."

After a pause, Ye Qingxuan reached out to caress the skeleton and sighed sadly. "I guess."

"Don't be sad." Charles patted his shoulder and smiled mysteriously. "Let me show you something good." With that, he took an old and thick pamphlet out of somewhere and tossed it into Ye Qingxuan's lap. "Look at this."

"What, your hand-copied erotica?" Ye Qingxuan studied the pamphlet with its blank cover. He opened it suspiciously and sank into silence. After a long while, he looked up again with a pale face. "Senior, do you know how many years of jail time you'll need for stealing this stuff?"

"It doesn't matter if I don't get caught." Charles grinned. "You should pay me if you're gonna make me work, right?"

The book in Ye Qingxuan's hand was filled with tiny cramped writing and a detailed yet compact picture. It was clear that this was an original sketch. There was even a scribbled signature and words. It looked like a dead giant had been dug out of stone. The corpse radiated with menacing coldness. Just looking through it made one shiver.

At first, Ye Qingxuan was confused. However, he was able to guess what this was after putting the content together in his head. "This is the…archangel armor?" Ye Qingxuan asked in a hushed voice.

"Technically, it's an old version from sixty years ago. Relax a bit. This is just the internal skeletal system. It doesn't include the aether system and weaponry system." Charles whistled. "I carried that old guy for two hours in the secret archive to find this thing. Thank God I have sharp eyes, hehe. Otherwise, I would've gone through all that for nothing."

"Sharp eyes my ass!" Ye Qingxuan's features twisted. "You just swiped it because you couldn't control yourself."

"Stop getting off topic. Do you want this or not?"

"Yes!" Ye Qingxuan clutched the book reflexively. "Why not?"

"Good!" Charles hooked arms with him and rubbed his fingers. "Now we have all our tools. We just need the material. Junior, you have connections so can you think of something?"

A prepared list was put before Ye Qingxuan's eyes. Charles had clearly been waiting for Ye Qingxuan to agree so they could do illegal things together.

"…" Ye Qingxuan looked at him with a strange expression. He wanted to speak but stopped himself.

"What?" Charles froze. "Is there something wrong?"

"No but…" After a pause, Ye Qingxuan covered his eyes. "Senior, did you realize that your towel fell a long time ago?"

"…"

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