"No! No, you fucking monster!" his mother screamed, her frail body thrashing against the guard's grip.
"Mum!" Yu Xi cried out, voice cracking.
Gander paused. "I didn't hear you."
Yu Xi wiped his soaked cheeks, voice brittle. "I choose my mother."
Gander's wicked grin widened. "That's right. Good choice, boy."
Yu Xi squeezed his eyes shut, but Gander barked, "Open them!"
He obeyed, trembling. His mother looked at him, her voice a whisper of comfort. "It's okay."
All Yu Xi remembered was red. He remembered the way her blood spilled across the floor and on his face, warm and sticky.
He remembered his mother's limp body being dragged away, the hem of her dress catching on the door's sharp corner, and Gander bending to ruffle his hair with a practiced, patronizing tenderness as if he were the most doting father. "Take good care of your brother," the man had said, voice smooth and cold as polished steel.
Yu Xi remembered sitting in that same spot for three endless days, curled in the shallow pool of her blood, clutching the warm, wailing bundle that was Xiaobao. He had wanted, with the fierce finality of a child, to die there with them both, to follow his mother into whatever dark place had taken her.
When Gander threatened to force-feed them for his obedience, Yu Xi, hollowed and furious, fed his brother himself, shoving the foul gruel past trembling lips to keep the tiny chest rising.
After that night, Yu Xi never cried again. Grief hardened into a patient, iron silence. Days melted into weeks, weeks into years; time became a dull blade that shaved the edges of wonder from both boys. He learned to shield Xiaobao from the sharp ends of their world whenever he could... covering bruises, muffling screams, offering the smallest kindness like contraband.
Still, some things could not be hidden. Xiaobao's laugh, once bright and spontaneous, dimmed in small increments. The light in his wide eyes thinned like a candle in the wind. Each time Yu Xi watched it fade a little more, his heart broke it even more pieces.
Yu Xi had known for years that he would have to get his brother out of that iron cage no matter the cost. For seven long, patient years, he planned, sharpening every detail into a clean, dangerous edge. He taught Xiaobao to read shadows and listen to silence, to hide questions in laughter, to be smarter and braver in preparation for the day.
When the day came, he set the lab alight with a single, decisive spark. The fire took fast and hungry, a ravenous tongue licking through paper, solvent, and brittle insulation. Alarms screamed and metal bent with heat.
In the engineered chaos, Yu Xi grabbed Xiaobao and pushed him toward the garbage chute. They slid into the filth together. The grease-slick refuse, reeking rags, the bitter tang of acid was far better than the hell they left behind.
They tumbled into the subterranean tunnel system. The plan, in all its desperate simplicity, felt perfect in that moment.
But something went wrong. He hadn't expected Gander to return that day.
His father came back like a storm, a monstrous silhouette framed by emergency lights, plasma gun humming in hand. Gander's fury was animalistic and intense.
He was determined to hunt them down; thus, he paid more attention and tracked them down with the precision of a hunter. Yu Xi dragged Xiaobao through wet, claustrophobic tunnels, his heart hammering.
Behind them, his father's voice rolled like thunder. An obscene, terrifying promise. "Xi Xi, come back on your own, or I will make it worse for him when I catch you!"
They crawled through slime and old conduit until Yu Xi found a narrow hole that spat daylight a few yards above. It was barely wide enough for Xiaobao's small frame.
Yu Xi pressed his forehead to his brother's, tasting smoke and iron on his breath from the air. He pulled from beneath his ragged shirt the only thing their mother had left him. It was a small, dark amulet, cool and heavy.
"Remember what we talked about," he whispered, voice hacked by smoke. Xiaobao shook, little body shivering, silent tears tracking through the grime on his face.
"Listen to me," Yu Xi said, urgency sharpening his tone. "Mum said drop blood on it when you reach a place far away from here. Someone will find you, do you understand?" His mother had always had a way to get help, but the thick walls laced with vantacite blocked the signal; thus, it was useless to them then.
Yu Xi heard his father's roar getting closer. His voice quick and fierce, he placed the chain around his brother's neck. "Don't come find me," he whispered, breath hot against the kid's ear, "I will find you." He kissed Xiaobao's forehead, a dry, desperate peck that tasted of smoke and iron.
He had stolen one of the guards' crumpled credits during the chaos, a pale bundle of real cash folded into his palm. In this godforsaken world, under the lax jurisdiction of the Calamity Alliance, physical currency still mattered.
Their systems were janky and corrupt, and credits were less valuable. Yu Xi had learnt everything he knew by observing the guards for years. He shoved them into his brother's pocket saying, "You this."
Xiaobao clutched him so tightly the little fingers bit into his sleeve. Yu Xi forced himself to be stern. "Go," he said, voice steel now.
He shoved his brother through the narrow mouth of the hole and nudged him forward. Xiaobao hesitated, eyes wide and wet. His brother had never raised his voice at him. Obediently and terrified, he crawled into the thin hole.
Yu Xi wedged a heavy rock over the opening, scraping until the dust sealed the rim. Then he ran.
He ran until his lungs seared and the tunnels blurred into a rhythm of stone and shadow. Gander's rage echoed through the tunnels, searching, cursing and promising unthinkable things.
Yu Xi ran faster and wherever he could. Then his father's voice suddenly changed. It was a different cadence, crueler than before. "I caught the little brat," he said.
Yu Xi held his breath, refusing to believe it. It had to be a trick. Xiaobao should have been far by now. But then a ragged, childish plea cut through the tunnel, and his heart sank. "Brother! Help me!" Xiaobao's voice was unmistakable, raw with pain.
Yu Xi didn't think twice. He turned back following the sound, tracking the small, broken cry like a hound. At the opening of the large tunnel, he stepped into view, his hands empty and his face smeared with dirt and rage.
"I am here," he said, voice low and steady. Ahead of him, the dark shape of Gander halted, a gun raised, amusement and malice dancing in his emerald glare. Yu Xi's heart hammered, but whatever torment came next, he would not let his brother face this evil beast alone.