Chapter 114

Chapter 114

Old Man Shen and Shen Ao were moving a cabinet in the main house's side room, trying to stash Shen Lian's chest of silver somewhere safe so Third Uncle couldn't stir up trouble on some made-up excuse.

But suddenly, screams from the clan members rang out across the yard.

The father and son shoved the cabinet into place and rushed outside.

That fox-spirit bastard Dian Xia had their Lian'er slung over one shoulder, while using his other hand to pin Third Uncle against the doorframe of the western wing.

But Third Uncle's yelps were muffled, not sharp.

The one screaming his head off was the Shen family cousin, who Dian Xia had pinned down with a foot on his shoulder.

"Nobody move." That fox-spirit bastard said in a low, slow voice: "Until my man wakes up, no one leaves this courtyard. Take one more step toward that gate, and I'll take it as you running from guilt and put you down right here."

That guy had always come off as a pretty cheerful kid, just a little strange.

Every time he ran into Old Man Shen, he'd squint and smile a greeting, but when he talked to folks, he sounded like he was barking orders—polite and rude at the same time.

Now, from twenty feet away, Dian Xia's murderous aura was practically thick enough to touch, freezing Old Man Shen and Shen Ao in place at the main door, too stunned to move.

Even with his back to them, Dian Xia seemed to know exactly what they were doing, when he suddenly turned his head and said: "Old Man Shen, go outside and bring my driver in. Shen Ao, go to the nearest clinic and fetch a doctor."

Was there a better doctor anywhere nearby than Shen Lian?

Old Man Shen and Shen Ao shook off their shock and hurried over to ask, only to find out Shen Lian had suddenly passed out and wouldn't wake up no matter what.

Dian Xia figured someone in this house had slipped him something.

The driver untied a horse and took off at a gallop.

Within half an hour, the Shen family's run-down yard was surrounded by the Xuanlin Guard, and the clinic doctor had been swapped out for the Crown Prince's military medics.

Shen Lian still showed no sign of waking up, and every doctor said the same thing: his pulse was normal.

The military medic guessed it might be the tail end of last night's knockout drug.

Shen Lian's pulse only showed signs of "being worn out," and the military medic told His Highness not to worry—once he woke up, as long as he didn't "overdo it" too often, he'd be fine.

But Xie Yuan couldn't relax at all.

He figured if it was just exhaustion, Shen Lian would've just passed out—not suddenly lunged at him before going down.

And after all this time together, he'd picked up on the subtle emotions behind the tone and pitch of Shen Lian's voice.

That shout of "Dian Xia" before he collapsed had held way too much fear and reluctance.

And reluctance, no doubt.

Every time Shen Lian didn't want to drop a request, or when he was being clingy, the "Xia" in Dian Xia would have that same lilting twist, and then he'd widen his eyes and watch eagerly to see if Xie Yuan would give in.

He'd never just call out once and then let go completely.

So even though five different doctors all said there was nothing wrong with him, Xie Yuan still didn't take Shen Lian back to the manor.

All the Shen clan members involved were hauled off to the Northern Bureau for questioning.

As Third Uncle was being dragged out, his face ghost-white, he looked back over his shoulder at that fake Master Wangchuan.

The scattered clues were starting to line up.

Why had the Marquis personally come to the clan head to admit the one at the spring sacrifice was his son Han Wangchuan, but told the Shen family to keep it quiet?

Why did the Crown Prince specifically call Shen Lian to the palace during the investiture ceremony?

What kind of mill work got Shen Lian such a big pile of silver from the Crown Prince?

This fake Master Wangchuan wasn't really the young lord—but could he be...

Third Uncle's legs buckled, and he dropped to his knees, only to be yanked up by a Xuanlin Guard and hauled off toward the sunless depths.

All the clan members who'd stirred up trouble were gone.

Only Old Master He, out cold from a heart attack, was still lying on Shen Lian's bed.

The yard was thick with a deadly silence.

Old Man Shen and Shen Ao weren't even allowed near Shen Lian.

Xuanlin Guards were everywhere, inside and out.

Everyone watched as His Highness the Crown Prince scaled walls and jumped from rooftop to rooftop, checking every corner, practically ripping up every tile on the west wing's roof looking for any sign of an assassin.

The oppressive atmosphere put immense pressure on the military medics, who whispered among themselves about whether to stimulate acupuncture points to wake Master Shen and calm His Highness down.

But no one dared take the risk.

After circling around, Xie Yuan leaped down from the roof, returned to the western wing, leaned close to Old Master He's face, reached out to pry open his eyelids, and carefully examined whether he was truly unconscious.

Before Shen Lian collapsed, this unfamiliar old man was the only one in the room.

The old man's coma didn't seem faked.

Xie Yuan straightened up, stared down at him for a moment, then suddenly clenched his fist and struck the old man's pain point with his knuckles.

No reaction.

-

Like Shen Lian, Huo Jin'an—employee number 0281 of the Bureau—had also severed the connection between consciousness and body.

Xie Yuan, the dragon-pride protagonist of this timeline, was a tough and formidable character. With even the slightest slip, Huo Jin'an might not be able to keep operating in this timeline.

He had to wait until suspicion was completely cleared before leaving this old man's body.

As an experienced veteran employee, Huo Jin'an knew how to stay alert after severing conscious perception.

His true body lay safely in the underground base, connected to various instruments maintaining his life.

Meanwhile, Shen Lian, completely unprepared, had his consciousness trapped in a still-functioning portion of his brain.

In a dreamless slumber, he waited for his physical body to naturally wither away.

The process would involve no pain.

The high-end euthanasia chip purchased with a fortune in points could guide Shen Lian back to any carefree memory from his childhood or youth, until his consciousness was completely stripped from this timeline.

Huo Jin'an had risked approaching Shen Lian personally because implanting the microchip required brief physical contact.

Shen Lian wasn't a natural human of this timeline—after death, his consciousness wouldn't vanish immediately, but would need to wait for the system to process the extraction.

The process lasts about seventy-two hours, during which the host will consciously perceive the pain of the flesh, even its decay.

Therefore, the Administration provides humanitarian medication specifically for recalled employees.

Surprisingly, Shen Lian didn't redeem or take it.

That is the host's own responsibility.

But Shen Lian is not an ordinary colleague to Huo Jinan—he is the person on a distant timeline who silently funded his journey out of the mountains.

In his sophomore year, he saw Professor Shen's obituary on the news trending.

Among the belongings, the list of those he had funded included Huo Jinan's name.

He finally found his benefactor, but the benefactor never had the chance to hear him say thank you.

Now, learning that the Administration host being forcibly recalled is none other than Shen Lian from the home planet timeline, Huo Jinan, risking a direct confrontation with Xie Yuan, only wants Professor Shen to leave comfortably.

Unfortunately, he does not understand Shen Lian's past.

The smart chip activates memory regions, guiding Shen Lian's consciousness back to age five.

Five is the most carefree stage of life for most humans, but Shen Lian's parents had already been divorced for two years, and his father hadn't had another child yet.

His father sent his stepmother to attend Shen Lian's kindergarten event.

Around other kids, Shen Lian always seemed dull and slow, bad at communicating.

But little Shen Lian could vaguely feel fear and sense he wasn't liked, and he disliked being alone with his stepmother.

After the activity ended, Shen Lian clung to the kindergarten teacher's arm, wanting to wait for his grandfather to pick him up, refusing to leave with his stepmother—one of the things that made her feel humiliated and angry.

He was forcibly carried out of the kindergarten and thrown into the car, and his stepmother slammed the car door shut, turning her head to coldly look at Shen Lian, a small bundle in the passenger seat.

"Your mother took you for a check-up before the divorce—you have a brain problem, so she wanted to divorce your father and dump you, the burden, on him, and he dumped you on me." She said this in a calm, serious tone.

But Shen Lian was only five then, barely understanding, his small hands nervously gripping the seatbelt as he explained, at a loss: "Mom got transferred to the company headquarters, Dad couldn't go there."

"No, your mother doesn't want you because you have a brain problem." His stepmother's voice turned shrill, poking his forehead with her finger: "Just now, when that kid answered the teacher's question, the teacher didn't say anything, but you kept butting in to correct them—what was that about? Don't you get that it's a game? If someone gets it wrong, the teacher calls on other kids, but you keep interrupting without raising your hand—are you mentally ill? You stupid pig, you've embarrassed me. Look at how the other parents and kids were staring at you—everyone's annoyed by you because you have a brain problem called autism spectrum disorder. In the future, even regular elementary schools might not take you. Once I have my own kid, your dad won't want you anymore. Nobody's gonna like a kid like you."

Young Shen Lian slumped in his seat, looking up at his stepmother, barely understanding but with tears welling up anyway.

But he didn't dare do anything—if correcting wrong answers made him a hated kid, then what was the right thing to do?

Were the other kids and parents mad?

He looked at his stepmother with teary eyes, waiting for her to give him the right answer so he could stop messing up.

But his stepmother just kept going on about how annoying he was, then ignored him.

The smart chip detects the host's consciousness fluctuating violently, as if it doesn't want to stay in the childhood memory.

This level of discharge could activate other brain regions and cause the chip to fail, so it must guide the host to a more comfortable memory zone.

Shen Lian's consciousness drifts through childhood memories.

Meanwhile, his physical body has been unconscious for three days.

His pulse, which had felt relatively normal at first, starts turning abnormal.

In ancient times, there are no life support systems.

The military doctors and imperial physicians are at a loss.

The already restless Xie Yuan gradually turns into a silent statue, sitting by the bed, staring blankly at Shen Lian's increasingly pale sleeping face.

In just three days, the Director and Deputy Director of the Imperial Medical Academy have come to the Prince's residence multiple times for consultations, and physicians from all over the capital have taken turns showing up.

With all this commotion, Prince Xi and Song Jin are also drawn to the Prince's residence.

Song Jin wonders if Shen Lian might have caught some epidemic during his three months away, and since the capital's doctors haven't seen it, he suggests bringing in doctors from elsewhere to examine him.

Prince Xi, on the other hand, wonders if Shen Lian had enemies that drove him out of the capital for so long, or if he was given a slow-acting poison.

"No enemies. Shen Lian fled the capital to avoid me."

Xie Yuan's tone is dark, as if he's talking about something unrelated to himself: "Three months ago, when he found out I was Prince Qi, Shen Lian worried I couldn't beat my eldest brother and would drag him down, so he fled the capital with his whole family."

Prince Xi and Song Jin both hold their breath.

"How is that possible?" Song Jin says in a trembling voice: "Three months ago, Prince Duan didn't even openly take you seriously—it wouldn't have come to a life-or-death fight. Why would Shen Lian worry about that?"

"I don't know. That's what he wrote in his farewell letter to me—afraid I'd keep bothering him." Xie Yuan looks coldly at Song Jin: "I caught him and brought him back just a few days ago, and he already wants to leave me again."

"Impossible!" Song Jin consoles him: "Imperial Physician Shen couldn't stand being apart from you for even a moment. During the two months you were on campaign, he'd come to my door shyly every day after work, asking to take my pulse, and subtly fishing for news about the northern front. The moment you were mentioned, his eyes would light up—I even worried back then that he was pining for you unrequitedly!"

"Just playing a part." Xie Yuan seems unwilling to picture the scene Song Jin describes.

He doesn't want to fantasize, at a time like this, that Shen Lian might have actually loved him.

Even after reclaiming power and status, heaven can still snatch away what he needs most.

It feels like being eleven again, out of control.

He has to act like he doesn't care about anything, so no one can mock him or kick him while he's down.

Deep in his soul, walls rise to block the surging terror, to keep the beast of despair from completely devouring the world.

Suddenly, the connection between his emotions and his soul is severed.

Why care about a liar who wants to shake him off no matter what?

When pain hits a breaking point, a person suddenly calms down. Stripped of emotion, looking back at everything, there's an absurd, comical feel to it.

Xie Yuan leans against the bed frame: "Want to see the farewell letter Lord Shen wrote me? It's pretty interesting."

Song Jin feels a chill run down his spine, instinctively sensing that Xie Yuan is more off than ever.

"Farewell letter?" Xie Hang seems to recall something: "A couple days ago, I was getting a book from the study, and a farewell letter fell off the bookshelf. I asked around, and the eunuch said it was a letter Imperial Physician Shen left when he came to the residence for help months ago, but it was addressed 'For Dian Xia's eyes only.' I haven't read it yet—did you get one too?"