To Iris’ relief, Lu Zihao’s sinister smile only lasted for a few seconds. It was so like him to have total control of his emotions. He could change his expressions at will, only presenting what he wanted to show others. If he didn’t want anyone knowing his real thoughts and feelings, then nobody would know except for himself. 

Unlike her who was straightforward, he was very much like the sly and manipulative Vetrov. In a sense, Evelina had been a huge anomaly to be born in the Vetrov family.

He left his perch on the edge of the table and returned to sit on the couch opposite her. Then he poured himself a fresh cup of hot tea. “So my point for saying all this to you is, these new bodies of ours might be inferior to what we had in the past, but that doesn’t mean that we have to be content with them. We have ways of strengthening them, of making them better, and of pushing them closer to the level of superiority we had in our past bodies. It’s not a sin to be weak, but staying weak for your entire life is.”

She covered her eyes with her arm and released a heavy sigh. Drowsiness slowly crept up to her, causing her body to feel heavier on the couch she was lying on. 

“I understand, Big Brother,” she murmured. “Let me think about it. I know that you mean well, but I can’t do much right now because I’m pregnant. Liwei will be furious if I suddenly start training my body harder at this point. We were just fighting earlier before you arrived because he changed my work schedule without discussing it with me first. He says that he doesn’t want me working while pregnant.” 

“I agree that it’s safer for you to stay at home, pregnant or not,” he said in a casual tone.

She removed the arm covering her eyes to glare at him. “The two of you are such cavemen!”

He shrugged, not at all affected by her glare, and continued sipping his tea. Then he looked at her and said, “By the way.”

She huffed. “What?”

“If you’re not able to find any twins in either your man or Long Xiulan’s genealogical records, I may know why you’re having twins that isn’t caused by random chance.”

That triggered her curiosity. “Oh? Tell me!”

He didn’t tell her right away but instead observed her for a few moments. It wasn’t obvious what he was thinking from his impassive face but she imagined that he might be hesitating whether to tell her or not. In the end, he still told her. 

“Actually, our mother’s maiden family has had twins through many generations. Our maternal grandaunt was a twin and so were a few distant cousins.”

Without him needing to explain, she knew that he was talking about Madam Vetrova. The one who sowed the fear of becoming a bad, cruel mother deep inside her soul. [This novel is a contracted work with W e b n o v e l . c o m (remove spaces). If you’re not reading this chapter on W e b n o v e l, it has been stolen. It’s very discouraging to see thieves profitting from my hard work. Please read this novel on W e b n o v e l. Thank you! -Arria Cross]

“I didn’t know that,” she said, her voice a whisper.

“Of course, you didn’t know. Mother never talked about her maiden family. Her entire loyalty rested solely on the Vetrov organization. Nothing was left for the family she was born into.”

“How do you know about this? Did you meet our maternal relatives back then?”

“I’m the heir—was the heir of our organization,” he corrected himself again which caused his mood to plunge. “So I had to accompany Father to meet and manage our organization’s subordinate groups. A few of the most established ones were families, including Mother’s maiden family. But compared to other criminal families, they were nothing special. Almost amateurish, to tell you the truth. You can liken them to a gang lording over a small, insignificant Russian town. 

“However, they did produce someone like Mother who later married Father and became the matriarch. Her maiden family used this connection to spread their influence beyond their small town and grow their power. Although their overall abilities were lacking, they still became quite a successful criminal family with the Vetrovs’ backing. 

“They prided themselves for producing Mother who at a young age had already become a brilliant asset to our organization to the point of catching Grandfather Vetrov’s eyes. He recruited her and personally groomed her to become one of our organization’s best assassins. She also became an incredible biomedical expert specializing in the concoction of untraceable poisons. Many of the lethal substance weapons that our subordinates used were developed by Mother. Father used to say back then that you got Mother’s brains.”

His last sentence sent a shiver down her spine. What if it wasn’t only her intellect that she inherited from Madam Vetrova? What if—

As if he knew what she was thinking, he interrupted and said in a forceful tone, “You’re nothing like Mother, Evelinka. Even when you were only a little girl, you’re already nothing like her. No matter how hard she tried to mould you to become someone like her, she couldn’t. Because you are uniquely you. There’s nobody else like you in the world.”

Her eyes reddened. She wanted to go over and hug her brother but restrained the urge upon remembering that he stunk so badly that she couldn’t take it. “Thank you.”

He waved her off. “If you’re interested, I’ll tell you more about Mother’s maiden family another time.”

She didn’t reply, and he didn’t expect her to make a decision so quickly either. They both knew what kind of difficult relationship she had with their mother. It wasn’t just a matter of differences in ideologies but something more fundamental. It was like they belonged to two different species altogether and were unable to establish proper communication with each other. 

Although her curiosity about Madam Vetrova’s maiden family was piqued, she didn’t want to touch that topic for now. Instead, she focused on another topic which she was more interested in.

“Big Brother, you’re saying that me having twins originated from Mother’s maiden family? But that’s impossible. This body is in no way connected to her by blood.”