At this moment, Feiluo felt as if he had collided head-on with a huge problem. Ever since Heishi had walked into the Primeval Heart, one enigma had followed another. This truth was not one that could be revealed yet.
“Where is General Macksie right now?” Heishi asked.
“In Phoenix City. He’s meeting with Angus. Because Liber perished while carrying out his duty, they have to settle on a new battle strategy to prevent the Iron and Steel Corps from fighting back. He’ll probably return here in about a month. If we want to make a move, we’ll have to do it quickly. If we wait until he returns, he’ll soon learn that you and I entered the Primeval Heart.”
Heishi nodded before getting up and looking out of the window, where the sky was already growing dark. Feiluo picked up the firearms that his subordinates had prepared as he pushed open the door and walked into the dark mountain range.
The night passed, and thousands of rays of sunlight shone down on the far end of the continent where Phoenix City sat. In the early morning, A-Ka brought Percy to the orphanage office, explaining their situation to the supervisor.
“I’ll go find a job,” A-Ka said to the supervisor. He sat there with one knee propped over the other. “As long as we can make enough to support ourselves, then my little brother won’t need to enter the orphanage.”
“All right,” the man agreed without much concern. “Go. I pray for your success.”
A-Ka held Percy’s hand as they walked out of the orphanage. After the rain from last night, the clouds hanging over the horizon had dissipated and sunlight now streamed through the clouds. As Percy stood in the sunlight, tears suddenly began to flow down his face.
A-Ka was shocked. “What’s wrong?”
Percy smiled as he wiped at his face, shaking his head. “I-it’s nothing.”
“Well, let’s find a place to stay.” A-Ka adjusted the messenger bag on his back, switching it to his other shoulder, and they walked into the bustling, busy world of Phoenix City.
“We’re not accepting technicians.” The person in charge of the maintenance shop looked A-Ka up and down with an odd stare.
A-Ka grasped Percy’s hand, saying, “No worries. I’ll go ask at some other places and try my luck there.”
A-Ka led Percy out. This was the fifth shop that he had tried; none of the factories were accepting technicians, and they had virtually none of the money that Moran had left them. He used the last of it to buy two hot dogs, and he squatted with Percy by the side of the road as they ate.
“Is finding a job very difficult?” Percy asked him anxiously.
“Don’t worry, I’ll find one.”
A-Ka’s requirements were that they just had to include room and board, and that they would also take in Percy. But a large portion of the workshops didn’t believe that A-Ka could even repair things, no matter how he explained his past experience again and again. He even tried calling at a few of the clone-run repair shops, but they would ask about Percy’s origins as soon as they saw him. A-Ka would answer that this was Feiluo’s adopted child, and Feiluo was a clone. At one particular shop, the people who heard this began to laugh loudly.
“Adopted child?” the clone boss said, before calling, “Hey! Come over and take a look! This little brat’s a clone’s son. We’ve gotta keep him here.”
“Which one?” someone asked.
“What serial number?”
Everyone surrounded them, making A-Ka feel threatened, but Percy tugged at his hand and said quietly, “Don’t be afraid, A-Ka.”
Percy pulled out an army insignia and handed it over. On it was Feiluo’s military rank, his troop, and designation. The gathered group did believe him after that—but what came with that belief was a period of long silence.
“Your father owes me a lot of money. A very, very large amount,” one clone said after a long while. He leaned forward.
“What are you trying to do?!” A-Ka pulled Percy behind him, shielding him from the clones’ intimidation. Percy was confused and didn’t know how to respond. “Listen, these matters are between you and Feiluo. Go find him when he returns and settle them then.”
“You guys will be taken away,” the clone said, smiling, “and your organs will be removed to be sold.”
“Don’t scare him!” A-Ka snapped. Unwilling to engage further with them, he took Percy and left.
After asking around at a few more places, he realized that Feiluo’s reputation was terrible, to the point that A-Ka stopped daring to bring him up. Instead, they returned to the region where humans gathered so that A-Ka could try to find a repair factory.
Percy asked, “Should I ask Feiluo?”
“No. No need to worry him.”
A-Ka remembered Heishi’s words clearly: At least they were free. Despite walking from dawn to dusk with Percy in tow, he had nothing to complain about.
Once again, it began to rain.
“Let’s spend the night near here,” Percy said.
A-Ka saw a waste processing factory across the street. This was the westernmost district of Phoenix City. They stopped, and he hid with Percy in a huge concrete pipe for the night.
In the heap of junk across from them, a beggar was starting a fire, and he lifted his head to glance at them. A-Ka was afraid that he would come over to take their things or to frighten Percy, so he kept staring at him. A short while later, a man wearing a windbreaker and holding a black umbrella walked through the sulfurous rain and paused to exchange a few words with the beggar. A-Ka suddenly felt that there was something not quite right.
“What’s wrong?” Percy whispered.
“Nothing,” A-Ka said. “Go to sleep.” He hugged Percy, letting him place his head in his lap, no longer looking at the beggar in the distance. Percy closed his eyes.
The man in the distance chatting with the beggar seemed like he wasn’t leaving. A-Ka couldn’t hear what they were saying, and he had no motivation to pay them any further attention. But, slowly, Percy began to shift and sweat until he finally jolted awake.
“Percy?” A-Ka asked. “Are you sick?” He felt Percy’s forehead.
Percy opened his eyes. “I had a dream,” he said in a small voice, his breath a little heavy. “Is there someone near us?”
“You heard footsteps?”
“They’ve noticed us.”
A-Ka jumped and glanced up into the distance, where he saw the man who had been hanging around, talking with the beggar for almost half an hour. A-Ka didn’t think he had time to ask Percy why he said it like that, so he just said, “Get up. Let’s go.”
It was already deep into the night, and the streets were devoid of people. A-Ka didn’t know exactly where they should go, nor if he and Percy would be met with danger in this unfamiliar city.
“I think we should wait here for a little bit,” Percy replied, surprising him.
“Why?”
Percy didn’t respond, but when the man in the distance finished, he turned and strode toward them. A-Ka’s mind raced as he thought of what that clone shopkeeper had told them—this city was extremely dangerous and disorderly. If that man was a threat…
“Go with him,” Percy said into A-Ka’s ear.
“Who are you guys?” The man wore a black windbreaker, and he inspected A-Ka from head to toe.
A-Ka pushed Percy behind him. “What does it have to do with you?”
Percy tugged A-Ka’s sleeve, a wordless reminder.
“If you don’t want to die, don’t stay here. Come with me,” the stranger said in a quiet, deep voice.
A-Ka hesitated for a split second, but the man didn’t give him long to make a decision as he immediately started to leave. A-Ka looked at Percy before turning back to the man. Finally, he grabbed their things, took Percy’s hand, and rose to leave the waste treatment area.
The man wearing the black windbreaker pulled something from his pocket in a habitual manner. A-Ka thought it was a gun, but right as his anxiety spiked, he heard a light click and a small flame burst from the object. The man had a cigarette dangling from his lips, and the end of it burned with the slight glow of fire.
“Who are you?” A-Ka asked.
“Shahuang,” he answered.