“Where to?” Liaowu was patiently waiting outside of the hospital, without even moving the van to a different position.


    “The city exit and entry point, there’s a train station there.” Marcus answered as he fastened his seatbelt in the passenger seat.


    “What about your friends?”


    “I asked them to stay for at most two hours, and they should find a place to hide if the people from the city come for them.” Marcus sighed.


    Liaowu nodded, then made a swift turn and drove onto the street.


    Neither of them spoke anything for the first five or ten minutes of the ride. Marcus was tired and kept himself in a half meditative state in order to recover as much as he could. He wanted to tell Liaowu what happened, but since the man did not ask, he had no idea how to bring this topic up.


    The van drove at a non-alarming speed, passing the cars along their way one by one and with enough time between each pass to not appear too hasty. First the two lane street from the hospital, then a one-late road on the side of a bridge, then onto the three-lane bridge. After a short while, they got off the bridge from an exit on the left and into a tunnel under a small hilly area. When they got out of the tunnel, they would be officially out of what most Poison City residents considered the Northern District of Poison City.


    “Did he choose to stay?” Liaowu asked the moment the van exited the tunnel.


    Marcus let out a long sigh: “Yes. He found the base of a pillar inside the building. It was guarded by a wall made of some kind of thick glass, there’s no way any one of us could have made it inside. But he did - he just - just glowed, and went through the glass wall. He then told us to leave, and - ”


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    “Yeah, that sounds like him. ” Liaowu nodded as he merged right to exit the street they were on: “What else did he say? Did he tell you that you need to go to this unnamed graveyard?”


    “Yes, before we head out, actually - ” Marcus opened his eyes wide and turned to Liaowu: “ - you knew?”


    “Yeah. I knew he was about to die. And knowing him, he was probably gonna sacrifice himself - one way or the other.” Liaowu shrugged: “You can probably tell that we don’t have the best of relationships.”


    “Well - ” Marcus wanted to defend the master a little, out of pure instinct, but he decided not to. “Maybe - I thought you just haven’t spoken to each other for a long time.”


    “That’s also true.” Liaowu let out a long sigh: “Because last time we saw each other, I told him to never try to find me unless he’s about to die. And he adhered to that promise. That’s how I knew.”


    “So you knew him - long ago?”


    “I know what you wanna ask.” Liaowu chuckled and shook his head: “Yes. I knew him before he became ‘Master Liaoran’. But I’m not gonna tell you his past. It was hidden for a reason. He agreed to it. He intended it. And I still want to respect that.”


    “Yeah. I’m  - I’m intending to respect that as well. But I do want to know a bit more about the city’s past - the past with the master and you in it.”


    Liaowu clicked his tongue:“Do you know about ‘him?’ The one who planned the datacenter and - all those wiring.”


    “Yes. Master Liaoran mentioned it.”


    “He’s my father. Well, maybe adoptive father. But who the fuck cares..” Liaowu’s answer was like a bomb just dropped.


    “And if you knew about ‘him’, then you probably know that Liaoran used to be my father’s assistant and security guard.” Liaowu continued driving: “Of course, I didn’t know about his research - nothing in detail anyway. Neither did my mother, or my grandparents.


    “Things went - the way they went when my father pushed for the whole city restructuring project. You can imagine, that pissed off a lot of people. A LOT of people. He made a few dozen enemies before he could even get the project started. But he had enough support, from both the city and the community collective. But then one day it happened, while my father and the master were away, these people launched an attack on my family’s old place.


    “All of our security detail were killed. My mother was severely injured - a bullet went through her lungs. Your ‘Master’ eventually made it back to our place , he killed all the rest of the assailants. But he couldn’t save my mother. He just took me away. I begged him to bring my father to me, or bring me to my father. But all I got was the news that he couldn’t protect him either. He was poisoned, and the last thing he asked of your ‘Master’ was to keep me and my mother safe.”


    Marcus took a light deep breath as Liaowu paused. Their van drove onto a small dirt road on the side of the bridge on which the train was running. If they pressed on, they would probably reach the unnamed graveyard soon.


    Liaowu was clearly agitated about this piece of history. But venting it out loud helped - his breathing slowed, and his white knuckles on the steering wheel gradually regained the color of flesh and blood.