718: Why?

Why?

One month later…2

In the military hospital hallway, Dr. Xiao was walking along with her assistant clad in scrub. Both of them were wearing masks as they conversed quietly to each other. Everyone who passed by thought that Dr. Xiao was imparting some important knowledge to the assistant. As such, they merely greeted her with quiet greetings of 'good morning, doctor' before continuing on their way. Dr. Xiao was a renowned figure in the medical field and everyone had gotten used to people trailing after her, wishing that she could be interested in taking them under her tutelage. 

That was how Zachary – aka the little assistant – was able to evade suspicion up until they arrived at the former Crown Prince's medical room.

Coincidentally, it was the period for shift change. There was no one guarding in front, enabling Zeke to enter smoothly with the help of Dr. Xiao's permission card. 

"Go," the middle-aged woman patted his shoulder as she winked conspiratorially. "I should be able to delay them by fifteen minutes at most. Will that be enough?"

"Of course," Zeke replied with a helpless chuckle. To be honest, fifteen minutes were already too much. Even though he had told Lu Yizhou that he needed this final closure, he actually did not know what he should say to the Crown Prince. They had spent their whole lives scheming against each other and it was already good that they did not immediately tear upon each other once they met. What words could Zeke possibly say to him? He even doubted whether that guy was willing to listen to him.

Only after he received Dr. Xiao's reassurance that the former Crown Prince was immobilized and thus unable to climb out of the medical cabin to fight him did Zeke finally put his heart to rest.

He entered the medical room that was awfully similar to the one in the research institute. His gaze swept across the surveillance cameras which had stopped working – bravo, Dr. Feng! – before it zeroed in on the medical cabin. The silhouette of a thin and slender man could be seen lying amidst the nutrient solution. The wounds on his body were both shocking and terrifying. It might sound cruel, but Zeke was a tad relieved that the explosion had turned the former Crown Prince's face nearly unrecognizable. Otherwise, it would feel so awkward to see his own face in such an ugly and severe state…

He knew that the former Crown Prince was fully sober and he only needed to move his wrist to press the emergency button in the medical cabin to summon a horde of armed soldiers here. That's why as soon as he came in, he took the initiative by saying, "Hey, don't be mistaken. I know it's hard to believe, but I didn't come with bad intentions today. And I am definitely not here to kill you quietly. So you can be rest assured." 

He dragged a chair to the corner of the room where he could see the man's movement in a glance but not his facial expression. Only then did he settle down and start to think of where to start. Oh geez, this was so goddamn awkward! Why the hell did he agree to come here again?! He had not even started yet but he already felt the urge to flee the room. That's right… he should have just treated it as if he was conversing with a block of wall! 

With that mentality, Zeke calmed down and waved his hand casually. "You can just ignore me, and of course feel free not to reply as well. Just take it as my brain is momentarily filled with water and it turns me into a fucking idiot."

"Come to think of it, this should be the first time we are able to converse so peacefully like this…"

Zeke ignored the fact that it was wholly because this good brother of his was severely injured that he could not exert his vocal cord, otherwise there was no way he would remain silent and allow Zeke to run his mouth. 

As long as he could remember, the former Crown Prince had always been the one who hurled insults and curses as soon as they saw each other. And whenever Zeke wanted to retort, he would put on a haughty and disdainful look as if it was entirely beneath him to even breathe in the same space as Zeke. "Who gives you the right to speak in front of me? You're nothing but a replacement!" He had spat out that sentence so many times that Zeke could recite it backwards.

Of course, Zeke had never taken it to heart. Those words would not harm him anyway, so why should he bother to care? But now that his illness had been cured and he was able to comprehend real emotions, there was one thing he still could not figure out no matter what.

"I don't understand," Zeke wondered in bewilderment. "The Imperial Father is already dead, the monarchy has ceased to exist, and there's no need for us to fight for the throne any longer, so why do you still hate me so much?"

Before the former Crown Prince could crawl out due to sheer anger, he hastily added, "Alright, I know you hate me because I took your healthy genes, your name, your position – everything. You don't need to repeat it to my face again and again, I know it very well," he nodded sagely. "But now that there's no Imperial Father to monitor us and no throne for us to fight over, why do you continue to hate me so much… brother?"

Even though Zeke had begun to feel, he still could not comprehend this one point.

"I could understand it when you tried to trap me inside the simulator. At that time, you have no idea that someone would come and assassinate the entire royal family. It's perfectly reasonable for you to try to kill me back then. But now… three years have already passed. You should have guessed that the military would be hot on your trail once you brought out the exploding crystal balls. Not only that, you are also putting many people's lives – including yours and your people – in danger. So why did you still charge ahead recklessly?"

Why? Three years had already passed so why did this person still continue to harbor such intense hatred? 

It took him quite a long time, but Zeke had finally found out the real mastermind behind the bug he had experienced three years ago. As soon as he discovered how Lu Yizhou had not found the former Crown Prince in the Imperial Palace that night, Zeke already had his own suspicions. He knew this guy's temperament quite well. Due to his extremely fragile health, he would not go out unless necessary. Furthermore, it was the night of a violent blizzard as well. For what reason would he be absent from the Imperial Palace?

—What other reason would there be other than trying to kill him?

Back then, Zeke did not have the slightest idea how such a huge error could happen when he had always finished each simulation smoothly despite how difficult it was. But now, he realized that it should have been another scheme to kill him. The Crown Prince had failed using assassins and it was not like he could do it himself either. It would be scandalous for a royalty to be murdered, as such he could only make use of the system malfunction… to force Zeke to sleep forever. 

He would be able to get rid of Zeke, and the Imperial Father would not be able to trail it back to him either as he would be sure to lay the blame on the research institute.

It was killing two birds with one stone.

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