Chapter 189 - [Bonus chapter]M Pt.2

The voice that spoke out was just as gloomy and eccentric as he remembered. There was always a slight 'twinge' in his voice when he spoke English, that was the best way to explain the pronunciation.

M was foreign born but had a mixed upbringing with a Chinese mother and a European father. Growing up he spoke both languages, so he was fluent in Chinese and English. Yet for some reason, his pronunciation was 'off' and made you believe he was from a different province. There was no problem understanding his words yet it made his voice particularly memorable. 

"Why, do you have a problem with me visiting?"

His voice was light and monotonous, but the comedic tone was obvious. It was a love hate relationship between them where M hated to be disturbed during an experiment. Outside of that time the other couldn't wait to experiment on him given the chance, hence the love. 

"If you have nothing to say you can leave." 

M's body remained turned away from Xi Long while he spoke. Since he was hunched over Xi Long couldn't see his expressions but judging by the noises before he came, he had interrupted something. However, that did not matter to him at the moment and he had no plans of leaving. 

"You sure that's the way to speak to your boss?"

"Boss my ȧss, I work with you not for you remember?" His voice held a snarky tone as he responded. There was nothing wrong technically, they did work together but it was obvious as the 'payer' he was the employer. 

The last comment made M finally turn around and faced him. There was black oil smudged across his face but it did nothing to hide his features. Slightly tanned skin, medium build, auburn hair, grey eyes, and dark rings accompanying them. 

M's father's features blended in seamlessly into his face and took a back seat to the Chinese ancestry. Which, was the prominent holder of his face and identity just by visuals. Thankfully with society now any changes in his features like hair colour and eye colour could be explained by dye or contacts. It was also fashion to have your hair another colour such as brown. The change was strong enough to show your appearance but not too noticeable where you'd be considered weird.

His clothes on the other hand, were casual mismatched items with a lab coat on top. He looked like a mad scientist with horrible fashion taste. Those choices he made with his clothes drew more attention to him than his features ever did. 

Ignoring what he already knew, looking at the oil stains and unknown smells in the air he could tell that something was being made. The temperature was quite high and made him sweat through his thin shirt. For the air to be that warm it meant that they were melting a metal down. The heat emitting from the kiln or whatever was being used, automatically changed the room's temperature as well. Despite it being an abandoned factory with copious ventilation, the heat was too high for it to be natural. 

Switching the bag in his hands to his left, he leaned against the doorway as he stared on. The question on his lips hung in the air without him needing to verbalize it. M stared back at him and sighed before voluntarily answering.

"I'm working on some new technology but couldn't find the parts I wanted. So I'm in the middle of forging my own before you rudely interrupted me. I swear you have the worst timing from all the people I know. One degree variance in the temperature and the whole prototype fails, so will you tell me why you're here or shall we continue this passionate eye contact?"

"What's wrong with a bit of passionate eye contact? Are you afraid you'll fall for me?" A smirk graced his face as a result of teasing him. 

The response he expected was given immediately with a scoff of disgust.

"Do you ever get tired of those comments? You have a stronger chance of growing a third arm before I fall for you? But your body....? You know that I'm more than happy to look....into that....." M's eyes crinkled as a rare smile formed, he truly meant his words then.

For some reason he was entranced by the idea of experimenting on human bodies, Xi Long's being one of his ideal candidates. By some grace M was not the type to gather bodies unethically or by violent means. Him just suggesting Xi Long as a participant was as far as he'd go. The details around what experiments he wanted to pursue were undetermined but he had a feeling that they involved some dangerous technology and some invasive surgeries. 

"Okay okay enough of the jokes. I'll ask you about whatever metal thing is behind you later but I brought something for you to check out." His voice switched back to a serious tone and his eyebrows furrowed in contemplation. 

Leaning forward he handed the plastic bag to M and went back to his original position. 

"What's in it?"

"That's what I need you to tell me. I know physically what the contents are but not the meaning or what it holds. My company received a package today, it went through all security measures and there wasn't anything overtly suspicious. However, the lack of return address was already enough to give me doubts. Inside you'll find a weird usb in the shape of a animal and a shitty letter. The letter itself looks like something that came out of an 80's thriller, has dramatic lines about coming for me and a couple of riddles embedded."

"So its a threat? You get a lot of them what makes this one suspicious? A letter and usb isn't enough for you to drive yourself all the way over here. Especially, not to me when I could be doing other things."

"Well...I have a gut feeling this one isn't so simple....."