Chapter 52 Terminal Illness

Chapter 52: Terminal Illness

Go to war, get injured, recuperate, then return to war.

For a soldier, this is almost a routine cycle.

Zhu Shinian's injuries healed quickly, but this time, Tao Juan did not allow him to immediately return to the battlefield, nor even permit him to participate in the successive battles erupting on the Eastern Front.

Tao Juan personally commanded this campaign, saying that Zhu Shinian had been treating himself like a war machine for too long and that besides fighting, he should also learn other things.

Zhu Shinian was naturally somewhat reluctant. Even though he knew Tao Juan wanted him to fully recover his health, he was not adept at politics. Preventing him from going to the battlefield and instead making him learn to manage the entire Resistance Zone was no different from ordering the civilian staff of the provisional government to fight on the frontline.

But as a member of the Resistance Army, no matter how unwilling he was, he could only accept and comply with Tao Juan's arrangements.

"Nie Hang, were you looking for me? I actually have a question for you."

The door to Nie Hang's office was half-open. Familiar with him, Zhu Shinian pushed it open without any formality and walked straight in.

"I'm not gay." Nie Hang blurted out.

Zhu Shinian was busy with work and had long forgotten what Jiang Huaiyan had said at his home a few days ago. "Of course I know you're not gay. Is that some new code word from your intelligence department?"

"I wasn't going to ask anything top secret. I just wanted to confirm if the commander on the Eastern Front is indeed Yu Chengji. If it's inconvenient for you to tell me, just say so."

"...There's nothing inconvenient. It really is Yu Chengji," Nie Hang replied with an embarrassed smile. "The Southern Front is Li Xuan, and the overall commander is Gu Liancheng. Why do you ask?"

"Nothing," Zhu Shinian shook his head. "It's a personal matter..."

"What's wrong?" Seeing his furrowed brow, Nie Hang couldn't help but ask with concern. "Tell me about it. We've been friends for so many years. If you don't tell me, who will you tell?"

As soon as the words left his mouth, Nie Hang couldn't help but feel relieved that Director Jiang wasn't there. Otherwise, seeing him so concerned about Zhu Shinian would probably make him suspect Nie Hang was gay again.

Zhu Shinian was undeniably handsome, but as an Alpha, his facial features were relatively soft, lacking strong aggressiveness.

Nie Hang had always known that his looks attracted both omegas and alphas, but heaven knows, Nie Hang himself was not gay.

Waking up in the middle of the night, he would slap his thigh in frustration, wondering why Jiang Huaiyan would think he was gay.

For a straight alpha, such words were no less damaging than accusing him of impotence.

After thinking for several days, he finally figured out why Jiang Huaiyan thought he was gay and why he had been so cold to him from the start.

He had wondered for so long without understanding, only to realize he had been trapped by a heterosexual mindset.

Jiang Huaiyan must like Zhu Shinian, which explains his initial hostility towards him. No wonder he left his position as Council President to come here.

That's how it is when you're in love—if there's a rival, you compete; if there isn't, you imagine one and compete anyway. Poor him was cast as an imaginary rival, utterly helpless.

"It's nothing..." Zhu Shinian hesitated before speaking. "I just haven't heard any news about Gu Zhen for a while. I thought he might be preparing for the Eastern Front campaign."

"Are you worried he's being punished, so there's no news?" Nie Hang was taken aback, not expecting Zhu Shinian to be concerned about that.

"Don't worry about it," Nie Hang blurted out almost immediately. "I don't think that's likely. Although he was the one who promoted you before you joined the Resistance, I came to the Resistance Zone quite early. I also served in his Guard Unit back then, and I never heard of him being affected by anything. Even if you worked under him longer, it shouldn't be a problem."

"Besides, even if the former empire wasn't the Gu family's empire, during wartime, the Gu family holds military power. No one would dare to make things difficult for Gu Zhen now."

"Zhu Shinian, relax. No one in the empire would dare to trouble him. Besides, look at Crown Prince Xiao Jin and then look at him. If the empire punished Gu Zhen, who else would fight for them? A waste like Xiao Jin?"

The first battle against Xiao Jin had been an easy victory, which greatly boosted the Resistance Army's morale, proving that despite the empire's numerical and equipment superiority, they were just paper tigers bluffing.

Zhu Shinian had spent a long time in the empire and knew well that there were many people like Xiao Jin in the military and high-level government circles. Gu Zhen, despite his noble birth, was truly capable and relied upon by the empire.

As Nie Hang said, at this critical juncture, it was indeed unlikely that the empire would hold Gu Zhen accountable.

"Gu Zhen is probably involved in some secret operation right now. We should worry about ourselves first," Nie Hang said with a smile.

Zhu Shinian thought he was right and couldn't help but smile as well.

"By the way, Nie Hang, was there something you wanted to see me about?"

"It's Xiao Jin. He wants to see you." When it came to business, Nie Hang's expression immediately turned serious. "He originally wanted to see the Governor, but the Governor went to fight on the Eastern Front, so then he asked to see you."

"Do you want to see him?" Nie Hang asked. "When others asked him what it was about, he kept insisting on telling you first. I don't think he has any important intel left to spill. When he first arrived in the Resistance Zone, he saw how poor the conditions were and thought we were interrogating him. He cried so hard that snot and tears were streaming down his face, and he confessed everything."

"The empire also knew his situation and didn't tell him anything. Originally, they probably just wanted him to come here to gain some glory, appear in the news, and boast. The actual command was entirely with his adjutant. That adjutant said that as soon as Xiao Jin got to the front line, he went wild and snatched command, and the adjutant couldn't stop him."

"I'll see him." Zhu Shinian made the decision after only a few seconds of hesitation.

Better safe than sorry. It was ninety-nine percent certain that Xiao Jin, being a useless fool, was just making a fuss, throwing tantrums, and threatening suicide to get better accommodations. But if there was even a one percent chance he had important intelligence, Zhu Shinian couldn't afford the responsibility.

Nie Hang immediately stood up from his chair. "Alright, I'll take you there."

Crown Prince Xiao Jin, born in the year 753 of the New Calendar, was 31 years old, but his words and actions were nothing like those of a 31-year-old imperial heir.

He was dissolute, stupid, and at the age of nine, he still couldn't tell the difference between his omega father and his father's omega mistress, calling his father's mistress "mother," which enraged the Empress and nearly led to the removal of his crown prince status.

Even though the imperial family was declining and each generation was worse than the last, with imperial power gradually falling into the hands of the Prime Minister, the Council President, and the Chief Justice—positions that were rotated among other nobles—Xiao Jin frequently brought even more shame to the already dwindling dignity of the royal family.

The empire's original plan was probably to give him a nominal role, hype up the news to glorify the royal family and boost public morale by claiming that the Resistance Army was just a rabble that even Xiao Jin could defeat, and thus nothing to fear.

The Resistance Army's prison for Xiao Jin was hardly harsh treatment. Not only did he have a private cell, but it also had a window and heating.

In Zhu Shinian's view, being able to eat and drink for free every day, have a room of his own, and be safe from attacks was a life at least half the people in the former 26th District couldn't enjoy.

When Zhu Shinian and Nie Hang arrived at the prison, Xiao Jin had already been waiting for a long time. Upon seeing Zhu Shinian, Xiao Jin's eyes almost immediately lit up.

Although it was Zhu Shinian who had captured him alive, the emaciated, haggard Crown Prince in front of him—who looked like a drug addict—made it hard for Zhu Shinian to recognize him at first.

"Your Highness, may I ask what you wish to see me about?"

Although Zhu Shinian still used the honorific "Your Highness," their positions were now vastly different from before, making it hard to tell whether the tone was more sarcastic or polite.

"General Zhu," Xiao Jin seemed to believe in the saying that a wise man submits to circumstances. Even though Zhu Shinian was once what he called a "pariah," he now smiled obsequiously and greeted him. "I knew someone from the capital would be different, much smarter than those fierce-looking guards. You must know I have important intelligence to tell you."

"Your Highness, I am here. Please speak frankly."

"Heh heh," Xiao Jin chuckled and rubbed his hands together. "It's about medicine, definitely true. Jiang Huaiyan is also here, right? He knows a bit about it too. If I tell you, he can confirm it. But I need you to fulfill one request. Don't worry, it won't be too hard for you."

Zhu Shinian knew him well. This Crown Prince couldn't bear any hardship. Whenever the conditions were slightly less comfortable, he would threaten suicide. This time, he probably wanted Zhu Shinian to arrange better living conditions or food.

When he first arrived, since there was no heating in his room, he developed frostbite. The pain drove him to attempt suicide daily—seriously, literally banging his head against the wall. Since they still needed to exchange prisoners with the empire later, Tao Juan couldn't let him die like that and had to provide heating for him.

"Your Highness had better tell me the value of this information within a single sentence," Zhu Shinian gave him a cold glance. "My time is valuable; I don't have time to waste."

Despite Zhu Shinian's soft, gentle facial features, when he looked down at someone with a cold face, he could truly make Xiao Jin realize that underestimating him would have serious consequences.

"The empire has developed a new drug that can cure a terminal illness."

"What terminal illness?"

"General Zhu, you know my level. I really can't remember the name... Please don't go! They call it the 'poor man's disease', I don't know what you normally call it. It's the slums, ah no, it's in District 26, where some low-level alphas can't afford good suppressants and can't afford to pay for omegas either, and they end up getting this from using too many cheap suppressants..."

Premature gland aging.

Zhu Shinian, who had been pretending to leave, stopped in his tracks.

The Resistance Zone has always been poor and backward. Many low-level alphas and omegas can't afford expensive suppressants, nor can they afford to skip work for six or seven days during their cycles, so they have to buy the cheapest suppressants and keep working.

Their glands age, wither, and decline earlier than others, affecting their entire body's functions.

Eventually, they die with regrets in their twenties or thirties.

Just like... Zhu Shinian's mother.

Author's note: