Chapter 87
Chapter 87
Three in the morning.
Around the bonfire.
Burton was staring at his sister in a daze, obviously not fully grasping this pile of information.
Elaine sat next to him, whispering, “Did you really get it?”
Burton nodded, “I heard it, but why did our aunt grow up somewhere else instead of coming home?”
“You still don’t get it!” Elaine thought her brother was a bit slow on the uptake.
She explained again, “Our aunt was originally a kid from the Howard family. She was taken away from our home for some reason and was adopted by the Howard family. She always thought that she was a Howard until her foster father died and her foster mother remarried. The man she married happened to be someone from our Lopez family. After moving with her foster mother, she changed her last name. You should get it now!”
Scratching his head, Burton still didn’t get it.
He asked, “So, have grandpa and uncle confirmed that she’s our aunt now?”
“Not completely.” Elaine lowered her voice to avoid being recorded by the drone. “That’s why I came back. I need to get our aunt’s blood for a DNA test.”
“Are you gonna make her bleed?” Burton frowned, asking, “How?”
Elaine shook her head, “I don’t know.”
Burton looked at his sister, asking, “Don’t you have a plan?”
Elaine shook her head, “No.”
Elaine said, “That’s why I told you. Let’s think about it together.”
Burton was silent for a while, then delicately refused, “Actually, this is yours mission, it has nothing to do with me. Your job, your responsibility…”
Elaine suddenly reached out and tightly grabbed her brother’s hand, her eyes wide, “We’re siblings!”
Burton retuctantly withdrew his hand and said awkwardly, “You know how good she is at fighting, right? If I make her bleed, she might beat me half to death, and then you won’t have a brother!”
Elaine was silent for a moment, then lowered her head and mumbled, “I know, it could be dangerous, so… let’s think it through?”
Burton stroked his chin, pondered for a moment and said, “How about hair? Or saliva?”
Elaine shook her head, “The doctor said blood is the most accurate.”
After thinking for more than ten minutes, they still had no ideas. Elaine was really sleepy, and said through a yawn, “Let’s call it a day, I’m going to sleep.” She stood up to leave.
Burton grabbed her, “Where are you going?”
Elaine pointed to the tent behind her, “I’m going to sleep.”
Burton shook his head, “We can’t sleep in the tent. We only prepared two tents, one for Mr. Reed and one for Eileen. We don’t have any, we can only sleep in sleeping bags.”
Elaine asked incredulously, “Aren’t there many tents? I saw it last night, even the monkeys could sleep in tents!”
Burton explained, “We took away the previous tents this morning. They were from the bandits, so it’s a bit difficult to set up new tents tonight. We only set up two. They got one each, but we didn’t get any.”
“I’m injured!” Elaine said angrily.
Burton nodded, stood up and generously said, “Then I’ll give you my spot. There aren’t many rocks here, but be careful not to roll into the fire when you turn over. It’s okay if you get burned, but if your clothes catch fire, you don’t have any to change into. Aunt won’t give you any clothes. She always thinks that having you around is a burden.”
In the end, Elaine had no choice but to sleep on the ground.
Egbert was lying in the tent, listening to the faint sounds outside. He was a bit weary. He raised his hand and rubbed his forehead. It seemed that he needed to make a call.
When Eileen woke up the next day, she saw Elaine sitting on the ground, carefully wiping the dew off the wild fruits with a clean cloth. Seeing her come out, Elaine eagerly handed over a fruit and said flatteringly, “Breakfast?”
Eileen walked over, took a fruit, sniffed it and asked, “Did you wash it?”
Elaine immediately nodded, “I washed it with dew, not with the water from your bottle.”
Eileen suspiciously looked Elaine up and down, took a bite of the fruit, and found that it tasted okay. Elaine hadn’t poisoned it. She ate the fruit and asked indifferently, “Is your leg okay?”
Elaine hurriedly shook her head, “It’s fine. It’s completely healed now. I can move freely after removing the bandages.”
Eileen squatted down, lifted her trouser leg and said, “Eat breakfast. After you finish, I’ll change your dressing.”
Elaine was flattered and quickly said, “I don’t need to change the dressing. The doctor said I could remove it.”
Eileen raised her eyebrows at her, “Are we gonna listen to you or to`me?”
Elaine hurriedly said, “I’ll listen to you. It’s just one leg. However you want to change the dressing is fine.”
Eileen got up and left Elaine. She thought Elaine was a bit off since she came back to life.
When Eileen was going to wash up, she saw Egbert standing behind the bushes, talking to the drone. She shouted, “Hey.”
It took Egbert a while to turn his head and then he walked towards her, “Why?”
Seeing the drone quickly flying up to the sky behind him, Eileen’s face changed immediately. She asked, “Are they secretly tricking you into doing something shady again? Tell me, what are they asking you to do? I’ll stand up for you!”
Egbert pursed his lips, comfortingly held her hand and led her to the other side. At the same time, he said, “They didn’t ask me to do anything.”
Eileen didn’t believe him, “Then what were you talking about in private?”
Egbert was silent for a moment, then shook his head, “Nothing.”
Seeing that he wouldn’t say, it Eileen unhappily pulled her hand back and went to the other side. Egbert looked at her angry figure and his expression also became serious.
In the morning, everyone was chowing down on some wild fruits. After the meal, Eileen started to change the dressing for Elaine. Burton, who was tidying up stuff, stopped in his tracks when he saw Eileen pull out a bottle of medicine from the medical box. He blurted out in surprise, “Isn’t that the same stuff we used for that monkey’s wounds yesterday?”
Elaine was speechless.
Elaine, a bit puzzled, asked Eileen, “Auntie… Is this medicine for animals?”
Eileen calmly replied, “No, it’s for humans.”
Elaine found it hard to believe and stared at her leg in horror.
At this moment, Eileen looked up, a confused expression on her face, “Did you just call me auntie?” This content belongs to Nô/velDra/ma.Org .
Elaine didn’t utter a word.
Burton also remained silent, the awkwardness in the air was palpable.
Meanwhile, back in the homeland.
The door to the office of the Capital’s First Military Region was knocked.
Albert was going through some documents. Hearing the knock, he didn’t look up and just said, “Come in.”
The door was pushed open and a subordinate walked in with a satellite phone in hand, “Marshal, you have a call.”