The Alchemists

Finland was not one to give up easily.

"At least come with us and eat, then rest. Tomorrow morning, we will return here." She kept trying to persuade him. "Believe me, I'm a mother."

"Big brother..." suddenly Aleksis could no longer hold back and called Terry her brother. "Come with us. If you don't eat, we won't eat either. Don't you feel sorry to see that these small children will starve because of you?"

She stood up and pulled Rune in front of her, thrusting the boy's pleading face towards Terry who looked surprised. Rune's face was frowning pitifully. The child was constantly hungry and he had been very patient not to complain about food for hours.

"I'm not asking you to stay here," Terry grumbled. He had never seen the family before, so why would he be responsible if the child was starving?

"Ugh!" Aleksis was not a girl with patience. She immediately pulled Terry's hand to force him to stand up, and dragged him toward the door. "Jeez...  you are so annoying!"

"Hey... let me go!" Terry wanted to hit Aleksis to let him go but he was raised to be a real man by his parents, and a real man didn't hit a girl.

Finally, he could only jerk his hand tightly so Aleksis would let go.

Eh... he couldn't let go.

Terry looked at the messy-haired girl and his jaw dropped.

This girl was very strong, he thought.

"You must come with us and have dinner! Mummy didn't give her bone marrow to you ten years ago so that you could starve to death here now," Aleksis said.

She continued to pull Terry's hand firmly out of the building and to their parked car. Finally, Terry relented and got into the car even though his face seemed unwilling.

Finland and Caspar exchanged glances and shrugged with a smile. Aleksis did not like to small talk and they were not surprised that she would force Terry to follow her wishes.

They then walked out of the funeral home too and got into the other car which was parked behind the first car. London and Rune followed their sister into the first car.

The two luxury vehicles immediately drove back to the Continental Hotel. On the way to the hotel, the three children of the Schneider family stared closely at Terry, and that made him feel rather uncomfortable.

Rune even narrowed his eyes to see Terry better.

"Stop staring at me like that. It's rude, you know," Terry said, looking away.

"Hmmm... he looks so much like Uncle Jean..." Rune said to London, as if Terry wasn't there, and that made the teenager even more upset. "But Uncle Jean is very sweet and friendly, this boy is aloof and stoic."

"Maybe he got his personality from Mum. You know, when mum is upset with Dad, she also looks annoyingly aloof..." replied London.

They both looked at Terry again and nodded.

"Gosh... you guys stop treating me as if I'm not here!" said Terry impatiently. The two boys just ignored him and talked in front of him like he wasn't there. He then turned to Aleksis, who was sitting beside him. "As soon as this car stops I will go. DON'T CHASE ME. I don't want to hit a girl!"

"I dare you to hit me!" challenged Aleksis. "I can easily beat ten boys like you."

"..." Terry thought it would be useless to argue with this weird looking girl with her blue-green eyes. He gritted his teeth and tried to argue again, "This is a kidnapping! I will report you to the police...!"

"You want to tell the police that a 12-year-old girl kidnapped you by force?" Aleksis looked very amused, she covered her mouth with the back of her hand and burst out laughing to tears. "All I did was invite you to dinner..."

Terry could only snort. He knew Aleksis was right. Instead, he would be embarrassed if he reported to the police that he had been kidnapped by a girl younger than him.

He finally stopped talking and began to observe the three children sitting in the car. The girl was 12 years old and had a very beautiful face, even though her hair was messy. Her two younger siblings looked very handsome with their brilliant blue eyes. It seemed that these three kids were very close.

Instantly he thought about his own situation; he was the only child in his family. He always longed to have siblings, but when he learned that both his parents could not have children of their own, he realized that his hopes would never be realized.

His mind wandered to the beautiful half-Asian woman who patiently sat beside him for hours and treated him very gently in the funeral home. The woman was his biological mother.

Terry bit his lip sadly. Five years ago, when he learned that he was not the biological child of the Chan family, he tried to find out who his biological parents were.

He found information about Jean Pierre Wang, but of course, he could not reach such a well-known actor. On the other hand, his biological mother disappeared and could not be traced.

Today, suddenly the woman appeared, and she brought her whole family with her. She already had other children who were very sweet, and it seemed that they were a very happy and loving family. Unconsciously, Terry rubbed his eyes that were almost wet with tears.

It was very painful for him to see his biological mother showing off her happy little family after he just lost his parents. He felt like he was being slapped in the face.

The car stopped in front of the Continental Hotel and the four children immediately got out. Terry looked at the hotel and Aleksis, and within seconds made his decision.

"I know your intentions are good, but sorry, I am in mourning and unable to make small talk with others. Don't chase me." He patted Aleksis' shoulder slowly, and in an instant ran with all his strength and disappeared behind the trees.

He suspected that these people did not live in Singapore, so of course, they wouldn't know the inside and outside of Singapore like him. It would be very easy for him to leave and disappear. He didn't want to see this family again.

"Hey! Heyyy... don't go!!" Aleksis swiftly ran fast and chased after Terry. She also immediately disappeared.

The second car just arrived and both Caspar dan Finland were surprised to see Aleksis running away.

"What is wrong?" Finland asked worriedly. "Where are they going?"

Jadeith, who was driving Caspar and Finland, wasted no time in getting out of the car and ran toward the disappearance of the two children. A bodyguard followed him ran after Terry and Aleksis.

"Terry and Aleksis were still arguing in the car. Terry said he wanted to go and forbade Aleksis from chasing him..." London said.

"As usual, Aleksis won't listen so she chased after Terry." Rune continued his brother's words.

Caspar massaged his temple. Finland took a deep breath. Both could only hope that the children would be found immediately before something bad happened.