No Time

Being 12 years old, my schedule has gotten a little busier.

Dad has a pretty high position in the company he's working in. It's due to my stepmom being the CEO's granddaughter apparently. No wonder Dad had an affair with that woman. He always loved money after all.

Anyways, because he gained the position with that kind of method, he started giving us more money out of guilt. Mom made us take music lessons. She did this before as well, so I was deemed as a prodigy in the piano and violin. I was also forced to take lessons for the harp since Mom wanted to waste all the money that Dad brought and the harp was one of the hardest and most expensive musical instruments to play. But, me, being a genius, astounded the harp teacher and had to learn for higher difficulty...

Oh, and Mom found out about Dad's mistress.

It went like this.

One fateful evening, when cats were meowing and dogs were barking, a drunken man was seen flirting with an equally drunken lady.

Mom was returning home from shopping with her friends. She was humming cheerfully when she turned to a corner she spotted a tottering couple.

Ignoring them, she walked by quickly trying to avoid the drunks. She then heard the drunk man's singing. Turning around to see who had that oh-so-familiar voice, she was shocked to see that it was her husband hugging a woman and singing a love song to her.

Seeing them flirt like that made her face pale and veins bulge but she dared not to do anything.

She always had a suspicion for such a thing to happen, but she had always hoped it wasn't true.

If she yelled out and struck, the neighbors would come out and notice the scene.

This neighborhood was full of gossipy people. So far, her reputation was good and everyone mostly was friendly to her. It was better for her to keep quiet and divorce as soon as possible.

But the chance for divorce never came since Dad never visited the house and Mom never knew where he was since he blocked off Mom's phone number.

And to how I knew that story? Xiao Lai has now become a pro hacker who's pretty famous in the underworld and hacker society. He put the surveillance cameras in our neighborhood under our control. Although I don't know if Mom was thinking of divorce, it was pretty easy to figure out that she loved her reputation. Although she doesn't abuse us anymore because we block her easily every time, she curses at us often, in whispers with a hiss. Our apartment is pretty old since it hasn't had renovation since 2XXX. And that's a long time ago, at least 50 years. Due to this, compared with the new buildings of today, the walls are thin and you can hear anything going on in your neighbor's room if you concentrate hard enough. Due to this, Mom doesn't yell. And to take extra precaution, she whispers.

Besides, she was also looking up information about divorce. That pretty much explained everything.

Ge, Xiao Lai, and Xiao Bing still had an attachment to our parents so when they found out that Dad was cheating on Mom and that Mom was preparing divorce papers, they freaked out. I had to reason with them for 2 hours to get them to believe that Dad and Mom did nothing but harm us. Well, they still count as children so it's understandable for them to feel an attachment to their parents even if they're abused. But still, if they knew what their future would be like, I wonder if they'd be able to throw away our parents so easily?

Anyways, back to the main point.

Dad's giving more and more money to us. So, I've saved the allowance that we're given into my bank account. I have many times the amount I used to have, since I threatened Dad often and was interviewed/tested by researchers and such. It basically amounts to 300 billion yuan or 46.7 billion U.S. dollars. It's also because Xiao Lai and Xiao Bing pitched in that we were able to earn this much money.

With some of the money, I bought a truck that was fairly big and hid it in the warehouse. There are a lot of supplies that will soon be used for our zombie trials that I prepared. I already bought Pico and the other animals that'll be used for the zombie trials as well. Well, that is, besides the cheetah and wolf...

So, where should I head next?

Obviously, the underground slave market.

Over the years, Xiao Lai got better at hacking and became quite a legend.

The underground organizations offered invitations to come and join them for events. We never went till last year for a banquet for a new head of one of the big mafia groups.

They were quite surprised when 4 kids showed up.

It wasn't until we kicked the guards' butts that they finally checked our invitations.

Xiao Lai was invited as the hacker, and the rest of us were his guests.

Since Xiao Lai wasn't fighting while the rest of us fought, we were thought to be his bodyguards. Well, for now, hiding our identities seem best.

The slave market is always big in the underworld. I don't like it, but it's not like I can do anything about it.

These days, Xiao Bing is a pretty big-time thief. The once innocent girl is very mischevious nowadays. She wants to try being a sniper and assassin, but she's still too young to kill. I want to let my siblings stay out of that business as much as possible before they go into the apocalypse.

Ge is now in high school and joined a martial arts club. He wins in every competition he joins. If he didn't, I'd wonder who the monster who beat him was when he goes to dojos and training gyms all day long. His memberships and fees are given by that threatened dad of ours.

We all play musical instruments as said before. I play the piano, violin, and harp. Ge plays the piano and learns the harp from me. Xiao Lai plays the violin and only the violin. Xiao Bing plays the flute and clarinet. They've played for over 2 years now and are pretty good. Xiao Bing doesn't like playing musical instruments though. She would quit if she ever gets the chance to. Xiao Lai thinks it's a waste of time so he also wants to quit. Only Ge and I enjoy playing music. That's kind of sad in a way.

Ok, back to talking about the slave market.

We were invited to a slave auction. It said in the invitation that this time, there were slaves from all over the world and there were a 100 of them. I need to look for a fake guardian so that we can run away without anyone being suspicious. So I'm planning to head over there on my own to find a suitable person for us.

"Yu Ge~ Where are you going? Oh, what's that?"

...Xiao Bing stole the invitation out of my hands... She's been getting better at concealing her presence, but her speed is still slower than mine. I guess I was dozing off by thinking to myself again.

"Jing Ge, Lai Ge, look! Yu Ge was trying to go to the slave market without us!" Xiao Bing whined to the other two in the warehouse.

Damn. I guess I'll have to let them come with me.

"Yu Ge, were you going off to buy a pretty lady?" Xiao Bing's looking at me like she caught me in a terrible act.

"No, I was planning to buy a fake guardian for us." I decided to tell the truth.

"That's a boring reason. Anyways, I'll come with you so we can get a handsome guardian! Jing Ge, Lai Ge, let's go!"

Ge was still uncomfortable with the idea of slave auctions, but being worried about our safety, he decided to come.

Xiao Lai and Xiao Bing were involved too deeply within the underworld, so they were already too used to this stuff. Xiao Bing had already seen people being killed multiple times during her thefts and Xiao Lai ruined several companies that he was given tasks to bring down. Lots of lives were already affected by them. They felt horrible, guilty, and terrified at first, but they dealt with their feelings on their own. Help didn't seem to matter to them. Jing Ge wanted them to stop but they were already too immersed in it. I didn't know if this was good for them or not. Xiao Bing was only 8 and Xiao Lai, only 10. I was in a period of guilt and depression for several weeks at that time. Only when the two told me it wasn't my fault did I feel better. I still believe that if I hadn't dragged them into this mess, they could have been kept innocent. They could have been living like any normal kid at their ages. It would definitely help them during the apocalypse, but I wonder... is it good for them? Psychologically? Unless they tell me, I won't truly know...