Extortion

I remained silent as I grappled with the question. Should I tell him everything? Or not? Partially maybe?

"I would appreciate the truth." He added simply.

"Emma… She… didn't tell you?" I asked hesitantly.

"Emma was surprisingly tight-lipped about the entire incident. She refused to speak a single word about it. The only thing she cared about ever since she returned was for us to do our best to save your life. In fact…" The old man hesitated slightly for a moment, before continuing.

"In fact, by a strange stroke of fate, you have a very unique blood type that my doctors had never seen before. To ensure that no complications arise after, we had to take large amounts of blood from Emma and transfuse it into you." He grimaced slightly at that. "If I had my way, I would risk the complications instead of taking blood from her. But Emma, she insisted that we take as much as we needed to save your life, refusing to talk and eat until we did so."

I was touched.

Truly, I was. At that point, Emma was extremely malnourished. She was beyond thin. She was literally a walking bag of bones. She could have easily left me to the care of her family doctors the moment we got saved and went on to have her own treatment, yet she hovered around me long enough to find out that her blood was needed, and then she insisted on having her blood taken.

"But what's done is done." He sighed. "Your life is saved and Emma is recovering well. I am grateful for everything that has happened in the past twenty four hours. Still, there are many questions that need to be answered, and many lives to be held accountable for everything that my Emma had to go through."

His gaze hardened considerably and his fearsome bloodthirsty aura returned in full blast.

"And I intend to do a full accounting." He said softly.

I did not mistake his soft voice for aged fatigue. No, that was not the voice of an elderly grandfather.

It was the proclamation of a maddened killer, a promise to fully unleash bloody massacres on his enemies and their families.

I knew at that moment that the next few days would be a bloody one.

Creak!

The door to my room opened and Emma came in. There were a few people behind her who stood respectfully outside the room, probably her personal servants, but I ignored them all. I only had eyes for Emma.

"Grandfather, what are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be busy at work?" Emma asked with a slight tone of annoyance in her voice.

She was dressed casually in a cute pink dress and her hair was neatly tied up into a bun. Although she was still extremely thin, I could sense a vitality in her that I did not notice before. She was certainly recovering well. Extremely well, in fact.

To my surprise, the cold and bloodthirsty aura that the damned old man was radiating just seconds ago disappeared into thin air.

And to add to my surprise, instead of reprimanding Emma for speaking so rudely to him as my father would have done if a little girl dared to speak with such a tone to him, the damned old man actually laughed sheepishly!

What was going on!?

"Ah hahaha! Emma! My dearest. Come here, sit on grandfather's lap."

Emma blushed lightly when she heard him say that and coolly ignored him. Instead, she dragged another chair and sat down on it daintily. Still, the fact that she placed her chair right next to his told me that she was really close to her grandfather.

That damned old man ruffled Emma's head happily and literally oozed out adoration from his every pore.

What happened to the real grandfather? This must be a doppleganger! I cried out internally.

"So?" Emma demanded. "Why are you here instead of at work looking for… you know."

"Ah hahaha. I was just here to talk to our hero!" That damned old man beamed at me as I stared at his jovial and happy expression in shock. "And to express my gratitude to him, of course! He has rendered great merits to our family! Great merits indeed! He deserves to be rewarded!"

"I see." Emma's voice turned gentle and she smiled sweetly at her grandfather. "What sort of rewards are we talking about?"

"Well. Ehm. Of course I would be generous to the savior of my precious Emma! Let's see. Fifty thousand-"

Emma frowned deeply.

"Ah, I mean Five hundre-"

Emma blinked, but her frown was still there."

"Ah, five mil-"

Emma sighed impatiently and blinked again slowly.

"FIFTY MILLION!" The damned old man shouted. Little droplets of sweat started to form on his wrinkly forehead.

Emma nodded lightly in approval.

"Fifty million dollars for the savior of my dearest granddaughter." He repeated while wiping his forehead with a dark green military handkerchief. He was getting bullied and he knew it.

I fidgeted uncomfortably. Those two were talking about me as if I wasn't there! I mean, I was glad that the topic was about rewarding me and all, but damn it. They didn't even look at me as they haggled about the price!

"That's a good first reward, grandfather." Emma smiled sweetly as she reached out and took the green handkerchief from him and dabbed at his sweaty forehead.

"But we're not a low class merchant family who only knows how to reward our benefactors using money, right?" She asked innocently.

"Of course not!" The old man shouted grandly, diving straight into the trap as though it was the world's sweetest honey..

The maddened killer had totally transformed into a bully magnet in front of his granddaughter.

"We're a powerful military family, the pillar of the Chinese Federation and the example for all the other families to follow!"

"Exactly." Emma asked as she continued to dab at the sweat that continued to appear unabated on his forehead and his head. "After all, how you reward my savior will speak volumes about how much you love me. What would people say if you only give a pittance to my savior?"

"Ehm." The old man gulped.

This granddaughter of his had always been a vicious 'extorter'. She was absolutely merciless when 'extorting' money from her beyond-loaded grandfather!