It was nearly 9 pm as Merlin returned home in exhaustion.

He knocks on the door, and when the door is opened, a worried May appears behind it. The sensible cousin saw Merlin unharmed and was relieved.

She pulled Merlin's hand and said while inspecting him:

"Are you alright, brother? We were shocked when you called and told us you were at the hospital."

Merlin shakes his head and tells his cousin:

"I met a child on the way here, he got into an accident to help an elderly man."

He tells May:

"His eyes were infected by spilled chemical liquid, thus..."

"God..."

May was quite the faithful believer, she drew a cross on her chest and prayed for the child she had never seen before after hearing about the terrifying incident.

"How terrifying."

On the sofa in the living room a few minutes later, Ben also hears of this and says with pity:

"That child's life has yet to begin and his light is already taken away from him. This is terrible, his parents are so irresponsible."

"I heard of Jack in Hell's Kitchen before."

Erik sits next to Charlie and says to the others:

"They say that jack's not exactly a good person, he even had connections with the gangs a few years back. But Jack loves his child, his wife abandoned him and their child after he was born, but Jack became a dutiful person afterward. He fought in the underground boxing ring in  Hell's Kitchen to support his child."

"You're well-informed."

Merlin opens the fridge and hands Erik and Charlie two canned drinks, he then takes off his jacket and was surprised when he saw the clean dining table, asking:

"Have you not had dinner?"

"Not yet."

While Charlie had only stayed here for half a day, she seemed to have already become familiar with this family.

She said to Merlin with a dissatisfied face:

"Everyone's waiting for you! May doted on you too much, she said, if you don't come back, we can't start eating first. I'm very hungry now, Merlin, I've had an unhealthy airplane meal all day!"

"Oh?"

Eric, who was sitting beside Charlie, rolled his eyes and said to Charlie:

"Then maybe, tonight I can take you to Mick's, where the pizza is delicious, and it's a quiet place, just for us to get to know each other. You see, Merlin is my guardian, and so is he your temporary guardian, in theory, you should still call me brother."

"You?"

The pretty girl Charlie contemplated Erik and deliberately put on a look of disgust, saying:

"Forget it, you're not my type."

"Erik!"

Merlin glared at his unreliable "adopted son", the latter shrugged, not feeling sad because of Charlie's words.

He's a very smart and emotionally intelligent child. After spending most of the day with Charlie, he knows that Charlie doesn't hate him.

This means that he still has a chance to catch up with this beautiful and generous girl.

"Are you still chatting?"

May stuck her head out of the kitchen and called to the men in the living room:

"If you have time, which gentleman can come and cut the vegetables for me?"

"I'll go."

Merlin stands up and says to Ben:

"Brother-in-law, you've been working all day, so you can rest well. I've been on vacation for the past few days, and I'm very free."

He walks into the kitchen, moves his fingers, picks up the knife, and with a dazzling and skillful movement, he quickly cuts a large basket of vegetables into strips of almost the same thickness.

Beside him, Mei, who was wearing an apron, looked curiously at her younger brother's skilled knife skills. She couldn't help but ask:

"You're quite skillful at using knives, Merlin...are you really a bridge and tunnel designer?"

"I am."

Merlin replied as usual:

"Would you like to take another look at my engineer credentials? As for the use of knives, I've been learning to cook by myself since I was a kid... By the way, sis, I've always heard that Ben has a younger brother. Why have we known each other for almost 6 years, but I still haven't seen him?"

"Oh, you mean Richard."

May replies as she takes out the baked pizza from the oven:

"Richard doesn't contact Ben all that much. I've been married to Ben for almost 11 years, we've seen each other for no more than 20 times over that period, and normally around Christmas every year, but they still have a good relationship as brothers..."

May says:

"Oh, by the way, Richard's child was born just three months ago, and Ben and I went to the baptism of that child."

Hearing May mention this question, Merlin finally asked the question buried deep in his heart; he puts down the knife, looked back at his cousin, and lowered his voice.

"Speaking of which, May, you and Ben have been married for so long, when do you plan to..."

"Having a baby?"

May seemed to have guessed what her younger brother was going to ask. The busy movements in her hands stopped, and then she said with a normal expression:

"Actually, I don't plan to have children."

"Um?"

Merlin frowned, and he said:

"But the two of us are the only ones left in the Riley Family..."

"Passing the bloodline is your business, Merlin."

Mei glared at her brother and said:

"Ben and I used to be unmarried, because my mother, who is your aunt, had a failed relationship, and I still haven't recovered from the shadow of my childhood. Ben is a kind person, he's been chasing me for four years in college and waited for me eagerly after graduation. I was moved by him, but that doesn't mean that I have to have a child to inherit what I have."

She shook her hair and said freely:

"Ben and I just have to live our lives well, or do you have any opinion on my decision?"

"Uh, okay."

Facing the suddenly strong sister, Merlin shrugged and said:

"Of course, I respect your decision, sister, I'm just a little regretful, since it's obvious that you like children."

"It's different, Merlin."

May sprinkled yogurt on the vegetable salad and said to her brother:

"I like children, I like to take care of other people, but just because I like to help other people, doesn't mean that I need a child myself. You see, you're 27 years old, you're not very young anymore, but you've been living alone, and I'm actually quite worried about you. When are you going to find a good girl to marry and have a few children, I'll definitely take care of them for you."

"Damn it."

Merlin patted his face lightly:

"What's wrong with me, I brought this topic up on my own initiative. Forget about it, May, it's time to eat."

Charlie lets out a cheer as Merlin brought the steaming pizza to the table, she then rushed to the table and prepared to eat. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.

Ben was surprised for a moment before running to open the door. After a while, Merlin heard Ben talking to other people. Then, a man with a handbag and a woman carrying a baby walks into the living room while following behind Ben.

"Richard?"

Mau, who was walking out of the kitchen with a vegetable salad, glanced at the guests behind her and said in surprise:

"It's a coincidence that I was talking about you to my brother just now. Come, wash your hands with Mary, put little Peter in the bedroom, and come and eat."

Seeing May chatting with the visitor, Merlin, who was sitting in the chair, looked curiously at the couple who were walking towards the bedroom.

Richard Parker, and Mary Parker.

These are two people who Merlin has only heard of but never actually met.

Merlin met his sister six years ago. During this period, he and his cousin-in-law met frequently, basically once a week.

From his cousin May, he knew that Ben also had a younger brother, and compared to Ben Parker, who was just an ordinary engineer at present, his slightly mysterious younger brother Richard was much more glamorous.

According to Ben, Richard Parker was a biologist, and his wife Mary Parker was his assistant in the lab.

The couple worked for the government and have supposedly hosted a large-scale project since a few years ago, so they rarely go home and rarely contact Ben. At least, Merlin had never seen this family member in the past 6 years.

But tonight, they suddenly appeared.

Merlin instinctively felt that there may be some unfamiliar yet present factors at play here.

He raised his head and looked at the ceiling, or rather, at the end of the sky.

He was thinking about something.

A few minutes later, Richard and his wife were also sitting at the dinner table, both wearing glasses, looking a little bit silent with the bookish air of a researcher. Merlin looked at Richard as he ate.

This is a man with a 6-point resemblance to Ben, sitting in a chair with a humble smile while talking to Ben and May. His smile was very shallow, and his eyes are always bent when he smiles, which gave people a very gentle first impression.

But Merlin noticed that while he was looking at Richard, Richard was also examining the people around him secretly.

Merlin was very familiar with that kind of look since every SHIELD agent had such a look.

It was the same look.

This... made Merlin interested.

"Richard, this is Merlin, May's younger brother, I told you about him."

Ben picked up a piece of pizza and introduced it to his brother with a smile. With a smile on his face, Richard nodded to Merlin.

"Hello Merlin, I'm Richard, Ben's brother."

Merlin also responded with a fake but sufficient smile:

"Hello, Richard."

He responded appropriately, then raised his glass to Richard, who also responded with his glass of apple juice. The two people who met for the first time seemed to communicate very friendily.

But there was a less friendly light in their eyes.

Merlin pushed his glasses, and he instinctively spread his dark senses outwards, but this time, he discovered something incredible.

In the living room behind them, Richard had put his handbag on the sofa. It was an ordinary briefcase, but in that handbag, in addition to some paper documents, Merlin also sensed a cold gadget.

If his perception is correct, it should be...

A gun.

And from the outline, it is the kind of firearm that Merlin is very familiar with because he himself has an identical one.

It was the standard firearm issued to agents, and most importantly, in the magazines of the guns, several bullets exuded the unique cold feeling of Holy Silver.

This is interesting.

Merlin raised his eyebrows slightly. As far as he knew, the only department equipped with Holy Silver Bullets seemed to be S.H.I.E.L.D.

He looked at Richard who was chatting with Ben, and a thought came to his mind.

Is Richard Parker his colleague? And probably from the same organization too?

"Richard, I heard from Ben that you work for the government?"

Merlin picked up the glass, took a sip, and asked casually:

"How coincidental that I'm also a public servant."

"Oh?"

Richard looked back at Merlin, with a disguised smile on his face, and said:

"Where do you work, Merlin?"

"The New York Bridge and Tunnel Authority."

Merlin whispered the name of the disguised institution and stared into Richard's eyes. The latter's expression changed slightly.

He knows!

He sure knows!

This slight change in expression was not enough for Merlin.

Richard is indeed a SHIELD agent!

There is no doubt about this, but Merlin was still clueless as to which department he belonged to, and how high his agent level was?

After a while, facing Merlin's gaze, Richard showed a slightly puzzled expression and said:

"I've never heard of this institution."

"How about you?"

Merlin asked back:

"Where do you work?"

"This is confidential. I can't reveal it."

Richard said something embarrassed. He raised his head, looked at Merlin, and shook his head slightly:

"I can only tell you that the nature of my work is slightly different from yours. I do research work."

"Oh, I see."

Merlin nodded, he understood what Richard meant.

Obviously, Richard didn't want to let his brother Ben know his identity. He was telling Merlin in this way that he was a scientific research agent, which should be in the logistics department.

No wonder Merlin hadn't seen him.

"So in a sense, we're on the same line of work. I also work on some...weird stuff sometimes."

Merlin smiles and says so, to which Richard also smiles, saying while nodding his head:

"Indeed."

"Oh, by the way, I forgot to introduce myself."

Richard put his hand on his wife's shoulder and said to Merlin:

"This is my wife, Mary."

Richard introduced:

"She works with me in the lab."

Mary Parker's face seemed a little sad, she reluctantly smiled at Merlin, nodded to him, and then lowered her voice and said something to Richard.

Richard's expression also became a little sad at this moment.

The words Mary said were so slight that normal people couldn't hear them at all, but they couldn't hide from Merlin, who spread his senses throughout the room, so he heard them clearly.

Mary says to Richard:

"It's time to go. We have an early flight tomorrow so I'll have to go back and pack up."

Merlin squints his eyes upon hearing this.

What kind of riddle are these two colleagues of his playing?