Chapter 535: The Witch Trials

Her father had a rare moment of speechlessness.

It's true, Phoebe was not only the first child on the field to finish, she was also the fastest, the youngest and the one who didn't show any emotional reactions from start to finish.

It took ten minutes before another child appeared who had completed the task - Daniel.

Unfortunately, Daniel's maid ran away, crying and wailing, as soon as Daniel had finished shooting, and Daniel stayed where he was, his hand shaking as he dropped his gun, his head bowed and his emotional reaction heavy.

So her father spoke coldly and resentfully, " Daniel is a boy, but no more so than you, and he reacts too heavily to the shooting of those close to him."

Phoebe gave a noncommittal shrug, and she turned around to unwittingly lock eyes with her mother, who had been helped off the field.

Her mother, whose feet had gone limp with fear, saw her look over, but winked playfully, gave a veiled thumbs up and said with a muzzle - [That's amazing!

Phoebe lifted the corners of her lips very slightly.

Phoebe was one of the few kids who was in the mood for a trip to the range's washroom when she came out of the washroom and heard a subtle cry.

The two looked at each other wordlessly, their understanding developed over years of rivalry allowing them to understand almost quickly what the other was up to.

Daniel quickly looked away and his tone was extremely harsh, "Warning Hinchmani - Phoebe, you better not come and watch me laugh at this time, I'm in a bad mood and I'll kill you."

But as there was still a certain amount of crying in his voice, it made the threat seem weak.

Phoebe leaned neatly against the wall with her chest clasped, her tone even: "You don't have the courage to shoot a servant, do you have the courage to shoot me?"

Daniel gazed at her almost bloodily, his tone self-deprecating and sarcastic: "I certainly don't possess the courage to shoot at my own mother, unlike you, you and my father are practically identical."

Phoebe looked at Daniel, who still had tears in her eyes, thought for a moment and said seriously, "I didn't really have the courage to point the gun at her either."

Daniel "Ha?!" He gave a weird and subtle stare at Phoebe who didn't look like she was lying: "You just shot your mother ten times."

"All I have is the ability to never hit her." Phoebe shrugged indifferently, "I'm not incompetent and weak like you, it's just a ten metre target, I have that confidence."

Daniel: "......"

The man really owes it to himself.

But even with Phoebe's indebtedness, Daniel is still unable to say a word in rebuttal - and in this respect, the guy is a genius.

In almost all of her father's tests, she comes first by a wide margin, and sometimes Daniel feels that she is not competing with a human being, but a machine made to rule the Hinchmani family.

"So?" Daniel disliked it back with no good grace, "Did you come to me and say that just to show off your excellent heir qualities?"

"No." Phoebe's tone and look went cold for a moment as she jerked closer to Daniel, the resemblance bringing a sense of oppression he couldn't have imagined, he took a step back as Phoebe's green eyes, darker than his, stared straight at him, "I'm telling you this because I hope you'd better run fast enough to catch up with me. "

"The sole heir will have my father's eyes all over my head, and that can't be good for me, or my mother."

"A piece of affectionate advice for you - give up those childish weaknesses of yours, Daniel, when you have the ability to shoot someone who won't kill the person you care about across the street, you won't be hiding in tears like a puppy who's been kicked by its owner."

After saying this, Phoebe instantly regained her indifferent expression as she naturally pushed Daniel away and washed her hands, waving her hand and turning away, "By the way, I hate it when people say I look like my father, next time I say that I'll smack you."

Daniel was stunned for a moment before he slowly looked up and then he broke down in a second: " Hinchmani - Phoebe!!!"

"This is the gents!!!"

The days went on smoothly amidst all the bickering until the year Daniel turned sixteen and Phoebe thirteen, when they were officially put on the Hinchmani stage for the last time.

The theme of the competition was [Cowboy] and they had to walk ten paces back to back like two western cowboys, then turn around and draw their guns to face each other and hit a blood bag tied to the four joints of the other's hands and feet as well as the neck and abdomen, and they won.

But with a real gun.

So this competition has two results, the first one of which breaks the blood pack with precision but does not kill the other.

The other was one of them killed the other outright.

Her father, sitting leisurely on the viewing platform, explained to Phoebe: "If one of you beats the other to death, it means that you have a hard-on for the other, that the other is not available to you, and I don't like to see a bruising power struggle after ascending to the top, so it's only fitting to let the strongest man settle his heart before he gets to the top. "

In short, it means that if one of them has doubts about the other, then they will simply kill each other in this match and sit firmly in the first seat of the heir from then on.

"But if the strong man is merciful at heart, cherishes and uses the other side, controls his guns, and not only is not killed by the other side in the struggle, but instead simply disperses six blood packs on the other side with precision - this is proof enough that whichever side is victorious has the ability to control the other side, then naturally can stay and be used for you."

Her father looked at Phoebe and smiled lovingly, "But the Hinchmani family has had only one heir from this pedestal for generations, Phoebe, do you understand what I mean?"

" Daniel is not a suitable brother for your use."

Phoebe was just silent and didn't answer, it wasn't that she didn't mean to answer, but a sudden cramping in the small of her back and she got up to go to the bathroom about an hour before the game started.

A sharp pain that ripped through her abdomen came in a steady stream. She was alone in the bathroom, and she slumped over the toilet, gasping for breath, her fists clenched, cold sweat seeping from her pale face.

The constant, vague pain was almost like the ache from an unhealed wound after being punched hard in the abdomen; she had never been so weak.

What's wrong with her ......?

Soon, after seeing the blood on her trousers, she reacted - she should have gone into some kind of physical reaction, something her mother had been readily reminding her to carry.

There would be no such thing as sanitary towels in the Hinchmani family bathroom, so her mother would have placed them in her clothes from the time she turned twelve, but the Hinchmani family bathroom had all kinds of clothes that could be changed at any time - after all, all kinds of juvenile episodes happened here all the time.

Phoebe quickly changed out of her clothes and, staring at the countdown on her watch, she sat on the toilet and leaned back, closing her eyes and adjusting her breathing to the bizarre abdominal bouts of pain.

"Hello." Daniel's voice came hesitantly, "It's about to start, what are you doing?"

Phoebe's eyes opened and she saw Daniel standing outside the ladies room, looking suspiciously at a clearly pale Phoebe: "You're hurt?!"

"No." Phoebe flatly retorted, and after a moment added, "Well, it amounts to an injury, after all, it's bleeding."

Daniel hesitated for a long time: "So you're on ......"

Was it the one he was thinking of?

Phoebe gave him a cold look, "My womb is bleeding, the lining of my uterus is peeling off, I'm getting used to the sensation, nothing else you can go away."

Daniel: "......"

Would it kill the man to be polite?

Daniel wanted to ask if it would affect the game, but looking at Phoebe's rapid breathing and pale face covered in cold sweat, he withdrew his question in good faith - well, the little devil did look pretty affected by the situation.

"Shall we put the match on hold then?" Daniel asked politely.

"No need." Phoebe raised her eyes, her demeanour still calm and arrogant, "I'll beat you just the same, you just might have to bleed a little, don't worry, it won't be much more than me."

Daniel: "......"

"Father wouldn't agree to a reprieve either." Phoebe spoke calmly, "Come on."

"Wait." Daniel paused for a moment as he glanced at Phoebe, looked away, pulled out a tablet of painkillers and handed it over, his voice slurred, "Do you want ...... to take a few before you go up?"

He's used to taking two painkillers before going into the ring because he's been bloodily abused by Phoebe for years.

Phoebe looked at Daniel with a strange expression, "Why are you helping me?"

"Not helping you." Daniel looked equally cold, "Just giving you a pro-tip, take it or leave it."

With that, Daniel dropped the painkillers and was just about to turn and leave when Phoebe called out to him, her tone subtle, "You're thanking me for not listening to your father and plundering what your mother left you all those years ago, and for forcing you to grow up chasing me all the time, aren't you?"

Daniel's back was turned, then he left.

"I'm in for a real treat." Phoebe muttered to herself as she simply broke open the painkillers and took two, her face quickly returning to normal.

"The game is officially on."

Daniel and Phoebe stood back to back on the dais, their movements identical as they quickly stepped forward and held their guns flat against the sky, their equally green eyes focused on the gun in front of them.

"Ten, nine ...... three, two, one."

"Duel!"

Phoebe took a deep breath and turned diagonally across the room, dodging the first shot from above, then quickly rolled closer to Daniel who was ten paces away, cocked the gun with a stern gaze and pulled the trigger.

"Bang-!"

"Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!"

Almost in the blink of an eye, Daniel was on the ground, Phoebe pale and breathing heavily as she held the gun up to Daniel, who was bleeding from the side of his neck.

Daniel opened his eyes.

Phoebe withdrew her eyes expressionlessly as she turned without looking back and walked off the stage, stumbling a little on her way down the steps and quickly steadied herself.

All six of Daniel's blood bags were broken with precision, and only his leg bled a little from a graze - exactly as Phoebe had said earlier.

Looking at the side of Phoebe's face as she calmly talks to her admiring father, Daniel's eyes wavered for a moment -

--This guy is, no matter what the situation, incredibly steady with his hands on the weapon.

It was ...... pure power, so powerful that he couldn't even afford to resist.

What kind of faith is harboured to maintain such stability in this sinful family?