Esper X Family – Chapter 152 – Treading on Thin Ice, Sigh, Treading on Thin Ice

At the very start of the meeting, Lou Wei briefly recounted the recent events.

Not long after he finished, images of Sequence Zero traveling through another city began to circulate.

The silver-haired girl’s stance was clearly seen by the seasoned veterans.

“She does resemble her… truly resembles her…”

Someone couldn’t help but exclaim.

When Lou Wei had suggested that Sequence 002 might be Sequence 001’s elder sister, most of them had been skeptical.

But after seeing Sequence 002’s true appearance, they had no choice but to accept the fact.

Almost everyone tacitly acknowledged that they must be related by blood.

It was undoubtedly a shocking revelation.

Someone couldn’t resist venting their frustration.

“What exactly is the intelligence department doing? Why didn’t they know Sequence 001 had an elder sister?”

“Don’t just push all the blame on us. You know exactly how much effort we’ve invested.”

The head of the intelligence department felt aggrieved.

They weren’t omniscient.

He had already pushed his subordinates to their limits.

With the intensity of their efforts, they should have been able to trace someone’s ancestors eighteen generations back.

They were far more efficient than those debt collectors people often complained about.

Yet, despite all this time, and even with the head of the intelligence department staking his entire career on finding Ye Yao’s biological parents, he had still failed to find anything.

For a while, he even thought that her origin was as mysterious as the Stone Monkey’s ¹ Sun Wukong is also called Stone Monkey because he came from a magical stone that produced a stone egg that became a stone monkey that is Sun Wukong… Yeah, it’s weird. Anyway, Sun Wukong’s tales already exist before The Journey to the West was written, but nobody knew his true origin. .

In the end, he concluded that Ye Yao had no living relatives.

Until he attended this meeting and learned that the target had an older sister.

The head of the intelligence department felt as if the sky had fallen.

This was a blatant criticism of the intelligence department’s competence!

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“Stop arguing over meaningless matters. The intelligence department’s top priority now is to trace Sequence 002’s movements. Now that she’s revealed herself, it should make your job easier.”

“Hmph, let’s hope so…”

“Lou Wei, are you certain she wasn’t disguising herself?”

Lou Wei, who was seated at the center of the meeting, nodded.

“Yes, I could sense an aura similar to Sequence 001’s from her. It’s likely a blood relation.”

“It’s confirmed then.”

Everyone trusted Lou Wei’s judgment.

If he said that there was a connection, then there absolutely was.

“For now, let’s discuss her behavioral patterns. Since we know her true identity, we can now deduce more information from her past actions.”

Right now, Sequence 002 had revealed her true appearance, showing up in this collective outing without being cloaked in black mist.

It seemed that she no longer intended to continue hiding herself.

This turning point might have been triggered by Lou Wei’s accidental discovery, leading Sequence 002 to abandon further attempts at a disguise.

Based on her apparent age and recent personality simulations, it might be an act of resignation.

A very youthful psychological response.

Of course, it could also be intentional.

But none of that mattered now.

“First, let’s revisit where Sequence 002 was first discovered.”

To the public, Sequence 002’s debut was during the Flame Demon incident.

At that time, a figure shrouded in black mist emerged and effortlessly killed Flame Demon.

It was her first exposure to the public eye.

But in reality, that wasn’t her first appearance.

Everyone’s attention turned to Lou Wei.

He was the first to encounter Sequence 002.

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“The first time I met her was near the residential complex. I initially wondered how she knew about Sequence 001. But now, it seems that she had been secretly observing her younger sister all along.”

Lou Wei began to recall that scene.

He could now guess her psychological state at the time.

But there were still many mysteries left unsolved.

Like her ghostly intelligence-gathering capability.

“Wait, does that mean she’s been guarding her near the orphanage all this time? Why didn’t she reveal herself then? Why didn’t she take her sister away?”

“Who knows? Maybe there’s a reason she couldn’t reveal herself.”

Everyone’s minds were already conjuring up a slew of melodramatic scenarios.

Many dysfunctional families were tangled in drama.

No one could guess Sequence 002’s true intentions.

“If we follow this line of thinking, Sequence 002 watched her sister get adopted and then secretly followed to check on her, slipping unnoticed into the heavily guarded residential complex?”

Everyone couldn’t help but glance at Lou Wei.

If that was the case, managing to deceive Lou Wei and infiltrate the area was indeed terrifying.

This suggested that there was no mole within the residential complex.

And it was unlikely that anyone from the Sanctuary had infiltrated.

If there had been someone from the Sanctuary, given Ye Yao’s performance today, she would have sensed them immediately.

She would have pointed them out in an instant.

More efficiently than a certain Cheng Muxue sitting here.

Meanwhile, Lou Wei was lost in thought.

There were too many contradictions.

Some things just didn’t add up.

Everything seemed fine on the surface.

But there were still details that needed deeper investigation.

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Lou Wei vaguely remembered that Sequence 002 wasn’t as powerful when they first met.

Otherwise, she wouldn’t have struggled so much against his attacks.

She might have used some mysterious method to infiltrate the residential area.

And stayed there for quite some time.

Like that impenetrable black mist.

There were always things in this world that defied understanding.

Perhaps her true body had been hidden within the residential area at the time, which was why she needed Sequence 013’s help to escape.

After that, there was no further movement.

She had probably left the residential complex entirely.

To this day, the Countermeasures Bureau still hadn’t fully understood Sequence 002’s ability.

Any unimaginable conjecture could be attributed to her ability.

Her near-immortality, as well as her incredible growth.

Coupled with the vast unknowns surrounding her.

Some might even believe if they were told that she was the true Sequence 001.

Meanwhile, the actual Sequence 001 remained as harmless as ever.

Compared to her older sister, it was as if she had lived her life in vain.

But perhaps that was for the best.

If the child would start devouring people when she awakened, it might be better for her to keep sleeping.

It was no wonder that Sequence 002 possessed such exaggerated strength.

Once they realized that she was Sequence 001’s older sister, everyone felt a sense of relief.

It wasn’t so strange anymore.

And the more they thought about how powerful Ye Yao’s sister was, the more they believed that the real Sequence 001 could destroy the world.

Ye Yao herself hadn’t proven this.

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But her sister had done so with her strength.

“There’s a serious question to discuss now. If Sequence 001 learns that she has a sister out there, how will she react?”

Many looked troubled.

If this issue wasn’t handled carefully, it could shatter the current family.

Any small problem would become a major one if it involved Sequence 001.

Sequence 002’s identity was far too complicated.

She didn’t seem like the type to “turn over a new leaf ² Villains joining the main character’s team. ”.

Ye Yao was obedient and harmless, while her sister was fierce and independent.

Their personalities were complete opposites.

If Ye Yao were to meet her sister, it could trigger uncontrollable reactions.

At this point, some even wished that Sequence 002 would continue to travel in disguise.

At least that way, they wouldn’t have to face this troublesome issue.

“Now that things have come to this, we’ll have to block information about Sequence 002 for now. Slow down the spread of information so that Sequence 001 learns about it as late as possible.”

“In the meantime, Lou Wei and Xiao Jing will need to probe Sequence 001’s thoughts. We must ensure that the current stability isn’t disrupted in any way.”

Treading on thin ice, sigh, treading on thin ice…

Every step must be taken with utmost caution.

Author Note

The weekday numbers aren’t as low as before. And some of our numbers are back, although I don’t know the reason for it. This happiness came so suddenly!

Text: Too much information

Translator Note

For context, this series peaked at 420k reading lists on Fanqie, then it slowly went down to 150k last week before jumping back to 170k yesterday, and 180k this morning.

Numbers dropping is normal on Fanqie. I’ve even seen a series go from 680k to 40k in a month. Anyway, the readers left behind are usually actual loyal fans.

As for the numbers going up, it must be because the author is cooking lately.