"If a single ant can already cause pain, imagine a swarm of ants biting you at the same time." Lu Zihao's amusement turned into restrained menace. "They may not be on your level, my dear Evelinka, but if you aren't careful enough, those lowlifes as you call them, will be able to find a way to hurt you and your loved ones. Not including me, of course."

Iris' fierce expression transformed into that of exhaustion. She let the rest of her body fall to the couch into a lying position. "I get it, Big Brother."

"Good." The menace disappeared and turned into his usual devilish smile. "Be more careful, more cautious, and take more precautions. Your man is doing his part in protecting you by tightening security. I'll also provide assistance in any way possible. But what if all safety measure fails and neither your man nor I could get to you in time? The best defence starts with one's self. You must be the best person to protect yourself and the babies inside you."

Her gaze once again dropped to her own belly. The following days after Wang Yingjie confirmed her pregnancy, she already began developing maternal feelings for the two little beans growing inside her. If she and her brother had this same tedious conversation before she got pregnant, it was highly likely that she might have brushed him off and insisted that she would be fine. 

But now? His words were ultra-effective in triggering a powerful sense of maternal protectiveness inside her. There was no way that she would let anything harm her babies. No way! [This novel is a contracted work with W e b n o v e l . c o m (remove spaces). If you're not reading this chapter on W e b n o v e l, it has been stolen. It's very discouraging to see thieves profitting from my hard work. Please read this novel on W e b n o v e l. Thank you! -Arria Cross]

Then she observed her brother. He was huge and muscular, his skin riddled with different kinds of scars. His current figure was very different from when he was Nikolai Vetrov in the past. Unlike the Lu Zihao now who looked almost like a bodybuilder, Nikolai's figure was more streamlined and refined. Yet despite the smaller-looking muscles on her brother's previous body, she knew that he was stronger back then than now. Those smaller muscles packed more power and lethal punch than what was contained in his current bulky, muscular body as Lu Zihao. 

His current body was like a rugged off-road vehicle, still very powerful, but not as much when compared to a sleek sports car with more than a thousand horsepower engine which was akin to Nikolai's body in the past.

"Is that also the reason why you made yourself look like that?" she asked.

He threw his head back and laughed. The sound was absolutely demonic, yet it brought her comfort because it was her brother. 

"Correct," he said after laughing. The demonic laughter eased off to his usual devilish smile. "This body is also extremely weak. I already strengthened it as much as I could but it's still very far from reaching my previous body's standards. And I think that it will never reach that level because the foundations are too different. The biggest reason might be because the Vetrov genes are more superior." There was great pride in his voice when he said this.

"Our bodies are—were naturally stronger," he corrected himself after remembering that the bodies they were talking about were all in the past. "The training and experiences our forefathers honed in their bodies during their time had been passed down on to us, their descendants, making us naturally powerful. Even someone like you, my dear little sister, who didn't partake in our organization's harshest training and missions, and preferred to spend your time in front of your piano and computers, was stronger and more athletic than normal people."

She couldn't deny what he said because it was indeed true. Her previous body as Evelina may look delicate but it was still strong and easily trained. She just didn't train it as much as their mother would have liked because of her rejection to joining the family's business. 

There was no doubt that the Vetrovs' strength and skills came largely from their intensive and brutal special training. But for descendants like them, the bodies that they were born with also played a big role in determining how strong and powerful they would grow. It was a case of nature and nurture working together in perfect tandem. 

Evelina might not compare to the other Vetrovs who trained their physical strength and skills like machines, but she was the most superior when it came to intellect. She was, after all, a certified genius who had been scouted by the legendary Cross Academy when she was only a teenage girl. It was just that she chose not to use her high-powered brain to contribute to the family business, no matter how many times her father persuaded her or her mother threatened her.

Her thoughts were pulled back to the present as her brother continued to speak about the topic. "My current body can't compare to my past one. I have to always work damn hard pushing it to the limit in order to maintain it because if I don't, it'll just revert to its old weak self. Even so, I'm glad that I could train this body to this level from its pathetic state when I got reborn to it."

"Lu Zihao's body was literally broken and paralyzed when you got it, Big Brother," she told him in wry tone. "Of course it was pathetic. Mine too, actually. Although I heard that Lu Zihao's accident was more terrible than Long Xiulan's. Lots of broken bones."

"And both died."

She sighed. "Yes, both died."

"Us, too. We died."

She closed her eyes and whispered, "Yes. We died, too."

"But we were reborn."

Her eyes were hard steel when she opened them again. "Yes, we did. We were reborn as them. And that's what matters because it gave us a new chance in life."

"Exactly."

She peeked at him and asked, "Big Brother, are you glad that you had been reborn?"

His devilish smile stretched wider but also became more sinister, causing her heart to shake a little.

"Absolutely, my dear little sister. I'm very glad, alright."

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