The Brain Isn’t Original (Five Updates, 400 Monthly Votes Bonus Chapter, Please Full Subscribe!!)

The next day.

Early morning.

Lake was at the dining table, sipping his coffee and reading the newspaper. After a few days of soy milk and fried dough sticks, Skye had chosen traditional federal breakfast fare.

After all, she was accustomed to federal breakfasts. Soy milk and fried dough sticks were staples for people from China, but for Skye, they were just snacks she’d try when she felt like it.

Skye drank her milk, thought for a moment, and looked up at Lake. "Um…"

Lake didn’t look up. "What?"

Skye shook her head first, then cautiously looked at Lake. "Lake, the adoptive mother you mentioned yesterday, that’s Seifer, not Rachel, right?"

Lake replied, "Of course not. Believe me, Rachel’s computer skills are as bad as mine. No, actually, they’re a bit better than mine."

He certainly couldn’t whip up a news report that didn’t need typesetting in half an hour, but Rachel could.

Skye’s mouth formed an ‘O’ shape. "Two people?"

Lake seemed to recall something, put down the newspaper, looked at Skye sitting opposite him, and smiled. "What are you trying to say, Skye?"

Skye continued to shake her head, then organized her thoughts and looked at Lake. "Um… are you and Rachel, are you guys okay?"

Lake thought for a moment. "My career is booming, I just got back from vacation, so things are pretty good."

Seeing Lake still playing dumb, Skye sighed. She decided against being direct and hinted, "Lake, you’re not an Arab national, are you, or some kind of Mormon?"

Lake raised an eyebrow and smiled. "Skye, I’ll seriously consider those two suggestions you’ve given me."

Right.

Why didn’t I think of changing my nationality? That’s a brilliant move.

Lake glanced at his watch, finished the coffee in his cup, stood up, and grabbed his jacket. Before leaving, he said thank you to Skye.

Skye’s mouth fell open.

By the time Skye came to her senses, Lake had already left home.

What the f***?

What have I done?

Skye couldn’t help but close her eyes and slap her forehead. If she knew some Chinese idioms, she might have thought of phrases like "colluding for evil" or "plotting and scheming."

Now it’s a mess.

Skye felt that if her master asked her about this in the future, she wouldn’t have many options left. It seemed there was no other way but to help Lake conceal it.

Oh my god, what have I done?

Skye wailed. Even the milk, which usually tasted so creamy, now held no appeal. In an instant, after Lake’s thank you, her appetite vanished.

Lake, however, had a great appetite.

In fact…

On his way back to the Homeland Building, driving his specially customized, bulletproof, all-silver Porsche Cayenne with the unique license plate LKNB, he went to Chinatown to pick up a box of sweet tofu pudding before returning to the Homeland Building.

In the autopsy room.

Olivia, who looked adorable and fair-skinned, showing no trace of being a vampire, was now expressionless, arms crossed, glaring furiously at Lake.

She was very angry.

And she had every reason to be angry.

Normally, when he didn’t need her, Lake would occasionally come by to chat and bring a bowl of tofu pudding. But it was always the savory kind. Despite her telling him many times that she preferred sweet, Lake remained unmoved and insisted on buying the savory one.

But when he needed her, look at the tofu pudding today – it was sweet, and the sugar added probably made up half of the pudding.

But that wasn’t the main point.

The main point was that, in Olivia’s opinion, Lake was a typical scumbag. When he didn’t need her, he completely ignored her preferences. But when he did, he was all solicitous and agreeable.

That wasn’t right.

What did he think she was?

A tool?

Lake smiled and handed her the opened tofu pudding. "Liv, this is sweet."

Olivia haughtily snorted. "I don’t want it."

Lake leaned closer. "Smell it, it’s sweet. I specifically bought a separate packet of white sugar and a packet of brown sugar."

Olivia’s little nose twitched. She immediately closed her eyes and turned her face away. "No, I like savory now."

Lake’s mouth twitched. "Stop messing around."

The reason he used to buy Olivia savory tofu pudding was simple: Lake was on the savory team, and those who liked sweet were heretics. He hoped to make Olivia defect from the sweet team using this method.

As for today?

Today was purely an accident. The tofu pudding vendor said the savory pickled radish cubes were out and would take some time to arrive. Lake had no choice but to get a bowl of sweet tofu pudding.

He spent a long time trying to coax her.

Olivia reluctantly accepted the tofu pudding, brought it to her nose, and took a deep inhale. A flicker of joy crossed her face before she put on a stern expression again. She carefully placed the tofu pudding on her desk and then pointed at the corpse, frozen like a block of iron, gesturing to Lake. "Don’t even think about it. I’m not touching that thing."

As she spoke, Olivia pointed to her lips, adorned with the latest lipstick. "Look, these are my teeth. My survival depends on them, not some metal grinder. Besides, someone else has already touched this guy."

Lake handed Olivia the documents in his hand. "These are all autopsy reports."

Olivia took them and walked to her seat, sitting down to flip through the autopsy reports.

After a while.

Olivia closed the documents and looked at Lake with a hint of curiosity. "These autopsy reports… they don’t add up."

Lake shrugged. "That’s what I need to figure out. Someone told me that the detected substances inside only indicate an age of two to three years, which doesn’t match the age of this body."

Olivia walked over to the corpse, put on gloves, and fiddled with the body’s head. Then, she looked up at Lake.

The next second.

With a snap.

She directly opened the corpse’s large head, revealing an empty skull.

"Where’s the brain?"

"It’s here."

Lake walked out of the room, bent down, and returned with a plastic bag, taking out the brain preserved in formalin.

Olivia was stunned.

Her face immediately darkened.

"No!"

"Please."

"No."

Olivia glared at Lake, annoyed. "Would you eat expired tofu pudding soaked in formalin? I swear I want to take a bite out of your neck."

That bastard.

Did he really just treat her like a tool?

Fine.

Although she had been living quite well under Lake’s protection all these years, that wasn’t a reason to treat her like a tool.

Lake rubbed his chin. "Then what should we do?"

Olivia said irritably, "How should I know? Also, who is this guy?"

The autopsy report had no name on it.

Lake casually replied, "Bucky Barnes."

Olivia froze instantly. "Who?"

Lake said, "Bucky Barnes. But, he should be a clone."

Olivia: "…"

As a pure-blooded citizen of the Federation, just as everyone had heard of Captain America Steve Rogers’ exploits, Olivia had clearly also heard of Captain America’s good buddy, Bucky Barnes.

But…

Olivia walked to the side of the corpse and examined it carefully. "This doesn’t look like the guy in the documentaries."

Lake shrugged. "If you shave off the beard and add hair, he looks quite similar. Interested?"

Olivia snapped back to attention, looked at Lake, and rolled her eyes. "Still no. A brain soaked in formalin is like mustard in a salad."

Lake said, "I’ll find you ten brains next month?"

Olivia rolled her eyes.

Lake thought for a moment. "Ten brains from beautiful young women?"

Only then did Olivia consider it and look at Lake. "Really? When?"

Lake shrugged. "As soon as I get news, I’ll bring the body back. I promise."

New York had a large population, and also many deaths. The probability of beautiful women dying was also quite high, after all, New York nights were extremely unsafe.

Olivia lowered her head and thought.

After a while.

Olivia walked over, picked up the glass jar Lake had placed nearby, and headed towards her isolated resting room. "No one is allowed in."

Lake raised his hand. "I respect your privacy, Liv."

Just as Lake hadn’t pried into Olivia’s need to eat brains to maintain her humanity after finding out she was a zombie, Lake was even less interested in how Olivia ate them.

Perhaps…

When Hannibal eventually commits crimes in New York, and is caught, Olivia and Hannibal might find common ground.

Lake stood there and looked around. He decided to leave the place and return to his office.

It was noon.

Lake received a call from Olivia.

He went downstairs.

Olivia looked at Lake as he entered, her expression quite unpleasant. "Whose brain did you give me?"

Lake frowned. "It’s from this corpse, what’s wrong?"

"It’s not."

"What?"

Olivia made a gagging motion. "This is a homeless person’s brain. God, damn it, the memories. I can clearly remember this guy eating rotten food from the garbage. Oh my god, I’m going to vomit."

As she spoke, Olivia stood up and ran into her lounge, clutching her trash can and retching.

Lake looked at Bucky Barnes’ corpse on the autopsy table with a subtle expression.

The brain didn’t match the body?

It had been swapped?

Who did it?

Lake stroked his chin and immediately took out his phone, dialing Tony Stark.

"Hello."

"What’s up?"

"Were you present during the autopsy?"

"…No, why?"

"The brain isn’t the original."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, the brain was swapped."

"…"

Tony Stark, in his top-floor office at Stark Industries, put down his wine glass and walked to the floor-to-ceiling window. "Are you sure?"

Hearing Olivia still retching from the lounge, Lake grunted, "Who was present during the body examination, or rather, who removed the brain?"

Tony Stark: "…"