Chapter 118

Chapter 118

Xie Hang hurried forward to pull his younger brother back.

What was all this about drawing his sword and slitting his own throat? What poisoned wine?

Didn't this kid swear up and down he wouldn't off himself?!

"Ah Yuan! Calm down—ask him first how to wake Imperial Physician Shen!"

Xie Yuan got a grip on himself and released the old man.

Huo Jinan stumbled back, coughing dryly, and urgently said this was critical—he needed to talk to the Crown Prince alone, hinting that Prince Xi should step out for a bit.

The method to save Shen Lian wasn't a secret, but it was utterly incomprehensible to people of this era. Explaining it to one person was better than trying to convince two.

But how could Xie Hang possibly leave his brother's side at a time like this?

To avoid wasting time, Xie Hang only agreed to wait outside the door, demanding that the windows be left open so he could keep watch from a distance, so his brother wouldn't buy every crazy claim out of desperation to save Imperial Physician Shen. Before leaving, he warned the old man.

If his fourth brother made any move that put his life at risk, he'd step in right away and kill the old man.

Huo Jinan nodded like his life depended on it.

The moment Prince Xi left, Huo Jinan stepped forward and bowed to the dragon-pride lead: "Your Highness, what I'm about to say might sound like total nonsense to you. I just ask that you take it at face value for now, until we've saved—"

"No need to explain." Xie Yuan urged. "I'll decide for myself. Just talk."

Huo Jinan quickly summed up why the system had pulled Shen Lian back. Just as he was about to go into detail, Xie Yuan already got the gist.

"So you're saying these gods think that having Shen Lian around will cost me my heirs? But I've got plenty of younger brothers—how could Great Wei ever run out of heirs?"

Huo Jinan explained: "Because in most of the possible futures, your original descendants turned out to be some real standouts who could generate massive energy for the 'immortals.' Shen Lian's existence would wipe out those natural backups.

Honestly, Lord Shen could use special rewards to get a cultivation vessel—reproduction is no big deal for that era's civilization. But since Lord Shen isn't a natural part of this timeline, replacing the original heirs with his descendants would make predictions way harder, with losses no one could calculate. And what the system fears most is chaos and things spiraling out of control."

Xie Yuan frowned, struggling to wrap his head around it, and pressed on: "So what do we have to do to get them to let Shen Lian go?"

"Honestly, since Shen Lian's got you by his side 24/7, I'm the only agent in this timeline who can pull off the recall mission."

Huo Jinan confessed: "If I bail on the mission, the system has no choice but to give up too, because time moves differently on their planet—it'd take centuries before they could send another senior agent to stop the losses."

Xie Yuan was shocked: "Then what the hell are you waiting for? How do we wake him up?"

"There's a snag with the recall procedure..." Huo Jinan didn't dare admit he'd screwed up with good intentions, scared the dragon-pride lead would tear him limb from limb. He just explained how to save Shen Lian.

After listening, Xie Yuan mulled it over and asked: "What do you mean by consciousness projection? Can you make my soul pop out of my body? But even if that works, Shen Lian's already twenty-one—how am I supposed to find him as a kid?"

Huo Jinan explained: "No need to leave your body. Lord Shen's soul is still in his body too. We can project our consciousness together into his memories to wake up the right parts of his brain. I can guarantee you won't be in any danger, but whether we can save Lord Shen depends on whether you can calm his mind down when it goes haywire from the trauma trigger."

Xie Yuan laced his fingers together and frowned, deep in thought. "Can you talk like a normal person? What the hell is 'trauma activation'? How am I supposed to know what to do when you're talking like that?"

Huo Jinan was just as miserable: "Your Highness, people from different timelines have different knowledge and ways of talking. I'm definitely not trying to mess with your head. This requires us to work together. Once we're inside Shen Lian's memories, you've gotta be patient—even if you don't get it, stay calm and let me explain. Because once our consciousness is inside his memory brain regions, your emotions will mess with what he's feeling. If you get anxious, desperate, or helpless, then Lord Shen is really done for."

Xie Yuan forced himself to chill out: "First, tell me in plain English—once we find Shen Lian, what do we do? What shouldn't we do? What's the goal? Any tricks? What could go wrong? How do we deal with it?"

Huo Jinan: "..."

No wonder he was the top-rated dragon-pride lead. He'd expected to get tortured first, and only after the Crown Prince decided to try anything as a last resort would he agree to help.

But instead, the Crown Prince was already breaking down the steps before he'd even fully understood the explanation.

Huo Jinan thought carefully along the lines the dragon-pride lead had laid out, then answered: "Our goal is to make Lord Shen feel safe again, because once his mind gets dragged into traumatic terror, it gets stuck in place. Other memories can't be awakened, and we can't guide his consciousness to activate other brain regions.

What we must not do is startle Lord Shen or force him to wake up.

As for tricks—you'll need to figure out how to make Shen Lian feel safe while keeping your own emotions in check.

The problem we might run into is that Shen Lian won't recognize you, definitely won't know me, and might even resist or push you away.

As for how to handle that... I honestly have no idea. I only know that you're the person he trusts and depends on most in his whole life—even more than his dad and older brother. So I could only come to you and roll the dice."

Once the plan was clear, Xie Yuan immediately ordered the bedchamber locked down and told his third brother never to interrupt the "soul-summoning ritual."

According to Huo Jinan, the summoning could last up to three days.

If the rescue failed within that window, Professor Shen's mind wouldn't have the strength to break through the memory brain regions anymore.

During the projection, their bodies would go into a dormant state.

Xie Yuan climbed onto the bed, got comfortable, and held the young imperial physician close.

He just had a eunuch grab a cushion for the reclining chair so Huo Jinan could make do nearby.

Then something that really blew Xie Yuan's mind happened.

He'd imagined "entering the brain" would mean seeing the young imperial physician's gray matter and all that.

To not waste any of the three-day window, he'd planned to deal with that later.

The moment he fell asleep, Xie Yuan found himself in a strange place, surrounded by people with bizarre clothes and hairstyles.

He'd seen foreign envoys wearing similar clothes before, but never with this much variety in style and color.

Was this the young imperial physician's real hometown?

Xie Yuan looked at Huo Jinan beside him—the only one dressed like him—and whispered: "Shouldn't we have brought a set of clothes like theirs before coming in? You said Shen Lian might not recognize me—wouldn't dressing different make him even more uncomfortable? What if it scares him?"

Huo Jinan: "..."

You know what? You really do have a point.

This dragon-pride lead's adaptability and attention to detail were absolutely maxed out.

No wonder Professor Shen's safety rating for this guy was so high. He'd assumed it was just infatuation—turns out this dragon-pride lead was genuinely reliable!

"Your Highness, no need to worry—we haven't shown up yet. With a model like you, walking around here in Hanfu, these students would lose their minds. They'd think some cosplay celebrity was strutting through—kids from nearby schools would come running to stare."

Xie Yuan shot him a glare: "Talk like a normal person. Don't waste time. I can't touch you here, but once we're out in three days, I'll still take care of you."

"Your servant deserves to die! Your Highness, forgive me!" Huo Jinan had forgotten himself—the moment he saw a school building from his own timeline, he'd let his guard down and slipped into his native language with the dragon-pride lead.

Xie Yuan urged: "So where exactly is Shen Lian?"

Huo Jinan immediately led the way, following the device's guidance to Shen Lian's school building.

His mind had already sunk into a traumatic frequency—Shen Lian was stuck in a loop of painful memories from his youth.

The soothing device projected Huo Jinan and Xie Yuan's consciousness into Shen Lian's second semester of freshman year of high school.

Xie Yuan stood on the corridor outside the classroom window.

Even in those strange clothes and with that buzz cut, Xie Yuan recognized the young imperial physician at a glance.

Shen Lian sat in the front row of the classroom.

His frame was much thinner, his jawline lean and sharp, and his pale skin made the dark circles under his pretty, upturned eyes even more pronounced. His hair looked softer and finer.

Shen Lian wore the same blue-and-white uniform as everyone else, but it looked two sizes too big on him. His sleeves swallowed his writing hand, and he had to shove them up every few strokes.

Just like in middle school, his good grades and blunt personality got Shen Lian picked by the teacher to be a "spy" who recorded classroom discipline, which made him the type to rub classmates the wrong way.

But by now, Shen Lian had already survived three years of social hell in middle school.

He'd stopped trying to find his people, decided everyone would hate him anyway, and pushed them all away first.

This was the most "cold and sharp-tongued" phase of his life, and it was uniquely his.

During self-study, he silently worked through practice papers while chatter hummed around him.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw four boys at the neighboring desk grinning and stealing glances at him, then covering their mouths to laugh, sneaking another look, whispering, and cracking up until they were pounding the table.

By now, Shen Lian had stopped groveling and asking what he'd done wrong, or what ridiculous behavior had invited others' mockery.

He figured out that being feared beat being pitied or hated.

Without even asking why, he fired straight at the four boys at the next desk: "Your exam scores can't drop much lower—how are you still laughing?"

The mocking smiles on the boys' faces froze for a moment.

After a brief silence, one of them chuckled: "Mind your own business, why don't you? Not everyone's a latchkey kid whose whole family is counting on him to save them. Our families have our backs. Even if we scored zero, we'd still be better off than a latchkey kid like you."

Shen Lian's face remained expressionless: "Latchkey kid? What new nickname is that? Do you even try to find any evidence before spreading rumors?"

The boys exchanged knowing glances and burst into laughter again. "Plenty of people have seen your grandpa picking you up after evening study sessions. If your parents were still around, wouldn't they be so dutiful? Hahaha, leaving the kid with the old man?"

"Or is that old man actually your dad? He looks pretty haggard for his age, hahahahaha!"

Shen Lian was speechless, scared stiff these people would discover he had truly been abandoned by his parents long ago.

A latchkey kid could still wait for their parents to come home. Shen Lian couldn't.

Xie Yuan braced his left hand on the windowsill, ready to vault into the classroom.

The nineteen-year-old war-god upperclassman was about to beat the crap out of four freshmen.

"Calm down! Calm down, Your Highness!" Huo Jinan hastily grabbed the cocky dragon-protagonist's robe. "Didn't you promise to keep your emotions in check before we came in? If your first appearance in front of Lord Shen is a brawl, how can he ever feel safe around you? Besides, we can't reveal ourselves yet—we need to wait until Lord Shen is in a calmer headspace!"

Shen Lian propped his cheek on one hand, continuing to grind through practice problems with a blank expression, occasionally rubbing his face into his left palm, half-hidden by his sleeve, tears staining the light blue fabric a deep blue.

Xie Yuan silently walked to the desk, swept aside his robe, and knelt on one knee beside the little Lord Shen, looking up at his face as he fought back tears. After a long moment, he said hoarsely, "I've found you, Shen Lian. From now on, your husband will pick you up from school instead of your grandpa, alright?"

But before Shen Lian could respond, the scene around them shifted rapidly, transforming into Shen Lian's bedroom.

After evening study, Shen Lian pulled the second volume of *Contending for the Realm* off the shelf, climbed into bed, flipped to the page marked with a green tab, and began "reviewing" the cocky protagonist's famous verbal smackdowns. After only a few pages, he started giggling.

Xie Yuan had no idea what had happened in between—one moment he was watching the young physician fight back tears, the next he was watching him laugh until he doubled over.

Puzzled, Xie Yuan walked over and sat on the edge of the bed, craning his neck to read along with the young physician.

The text ran horizontally, the print was tiny, and it wasn't about medicine or prescriptions—it read like a storybook.

Catching a glimpse of his own name, Xie Yuan stared in shock and read more closely—

The pages described events during the autumn hunt, when Xie Yuan's mother, along with the other imperial consorts, accompanied the Empress Dowager to watch a play.

To give his mother, who rarely left the palace, more freedom, Xie Yuan had volunteered to serve as the head of the guard, only to be dragged into the theater by the Empress Dowager to watch the performance with her.

Midway through, the consorts tried to amuse the old lady by acting out the script and putting on a show with her.

As the only guy there, Xie Yuan got dragged into the play to fill a role—playing both a fallen general and a traitorous enemy. He got defeated by the consorts, who were playing wives defending their city gates, and they tore into him for his crimes.

When it ended, his mother, still wanting more, pulled him aside and asked if he could do another performance with the Empress Dowager that afternoon.

Xie Yuan thought seriously for a moment and said, "Today? I'm afraid I won't have time. I need to jump into a river to wash off this disgrace this afternoon. Have Guard Commander Liu play with you instead."

"Hahahahahaha!"

Xie Yuan was startled by the young physician's sudden burst of laughter.

He turned to see Shen Lian—who'd seemed so numb a moment ago—suddenly alive again, back to the young physician he knew. He was clutching the book, laughing so hard he'd collapsed sideways on the bed, gasping for air.

Xie Yuan turned to Huo Jinan. "How does this book contain stories about me? Who spread this?"

"It's hard to explain," Huo Jinan said. "All you need to know is that this is how Lord Shen first came to know you. It seems he was already using books to ease his pain before he traveled through time. No wonder he's so attached to you. This is a good opportunity, Your Highness—shall I reveal you now?"

Xie Yuan was stunned, but it all clicked.

No wonder Shen Lian said he had liked him since he was young.

Young Shen Lian had actually seen him in a book.

Unbelievable.

By the numbers, Shen Lian was fifteen and Xie Yuan should've been thirteen, but the stuff in the book had happened just last year.

This sent a little thrill through Xie Yuan.

He had always assumed he would marry someone a few years younger, someone he could take care of and handle everything for, so he had secretly been reluctant to accept that Shen Lian was slightly older than him.

But right now, the real age gap at their meeting was that he was three years older—and young Shen Lian had been crushing on the older Prince Qi in that book.

This gave Xie Yuan a weird, indescribable sense of satisfaction that he couldn't stop savoring.

"Your Highness?" Huo Jinan pressed. "Shall we reveal ourselves now?"

"Alright, yes." Xie Yuan quickly got off the bed and walked over to him. "Let's go out first, change clothes, and then knock on the door. Shen Lian is very timid and startles easily."

Last time, in the kid's bedroom, he'd waited in the dark for him to get back from his date with Master Wangchuan. When he spoke, he scared him so bad he jumped. If he appeared out of thin air in broad daylight, wouldn't it scare Shen Lian to death?

Huo Jinan followed Xie Yuan out of the bedroom, opened the system's instrument panel, and pulled up a disguise for Xie Yuan.

After changing, Xie Yuan looked down at his clothes, then abruptly reached out to examine his hands and touched his face. "What is this you've changed me into?"

"Don't worry, Your Highness," Huo Jinan explained. "This look is generated by the system based on how Shen Lian pictures Prince Qi—same as the cover art on that book series. It's a comic-book style. You might not recognize yourself, but Shen Lian's already super used to this illustrated version."

"Who could possibly get used to this? Change it back. Wait." Xie Yuan frowned.

If he messed with his memory so the fifteen-year-old physician saw his real face, would the twenty-one-year-old version recognize him at Xi Manor?

Thus, he no longer dared to act so casually and thoughtlessly, without a care, in front of him.

He would only respectfully perform the formalities of a subject.

No Young Male Concubine, no Dian Xia, no Cabbage Bodhisattva, the Just and Great Imperial Physician.

Everything that came afterward would disappear completely.

His malicious ex-wife would forever stay only in his memories.