ISMW Chapter 116

“Whether it’s me, Papa, Father, or your Imperial Brother—no matter who you ask to be your advocate, we will never agree.”

Yun Xunguang’s fingers lightly tapped the table as she stated a hard condition that Yun Xunlan had no way to change: “You’re not even an adult yet.”

—Let a minor go to the battlefield?

Who could agree to such a request?

Yun Xunguang used an excuse to try to placate Yun Xunlan first: “At least wait until you come of age.”

“But it will be too late when I come of age.” Yun Xunlan said. “Papa can’t wait that long.”

Since the two entered this rest area, Yun Xunlan’s gaze had been fixed on Yun Xunguang. Hearing this sentence, Yun Xunguang’s breathing hitched. She blinked, trying to relieve the stinging sensation in her eyes, but that bitter feeling leaked out through her voice: “That won’t happen. Don’t overthink it. Lanlan, you just had surgery. Rest well during this time…”

“Imperial Sister, I want to tell you a secret.”

The silver-haired youth suddenly smiled. Both his hands were under the table, and he only leaned forward slightly, using an intimate and soothing tone to tell Yun Xunguang: “Actually, I won’t die.”

This statement was too absurd.

Yun Xunguang didn’t know how to react for a moment, so she turned her head to exchange glances with Mu Xingyu.

Mu Xingyu frowned deeply, his expression no better than Yun Xunguang’s.

“I know this sounds ridiculous to you, but it’s true.”

“Please believe me, okay?” Yun Xunlan extended his left hand, wanting to grab Yun Xunguang’s sleeve. “Let me go to the border battlefield, participate in the third forced landing plan. I won’t die. As long as I go, I can definitely save…”

“Lanlan, have you been under too much stress lately?”

Yun Xunguang withdrew her hand from the table before Yun Xunlan could touch her. She pressed both palms against her eyes, then lowered them, forcing a strained smile: “Sister will have a doctor come see you tomorrow, okay?”

Yun Xunlan slowly withdrew his left hand. He hung his head and asked: “Don’t you believe me?”

“It’s not that I don’t believe you… Lanlan, Seweier insect venom has certain effects on the human brain and nervous system.” Yun Xunguang seriously explained to Yun Xunlan, wanting the youth to understand that there was a reason he was having these outrageous thoughts. “You’re just sick.”

But Mu Xingyu felt that Yun Xunlan’s development of such thoughts might have a lot to do with himself as well.

He took a deep breath and spoke with difficulty: “…No one is immortal, Lanlan…”

Mu Xingyu wanted to say sorry.

These three words didn’t seem so difficult to say.

Why had he never been able to say them all these years? He had clearly had many opportunities and moments to apologize, and the atmosphere around those times wasn’t as oppressive and stifling as now.

Mu Xingyu’s heartbeat began to quicken again. He tensed his body and slowly tried to complete that apology: “Lanlan, I shouldn’t have said those things to you during the day. I didn’t really want you to…”

Yun Xunlan wasn’t looking at him.

Instead, Yun Xunguang immediately frowned and looked at him questioningly: “What did you say to Lanlan during the day?”

“I…”

Mu Xingyu’s expression was hesitant. While he was wavering, very soft, fragmented murmurs came from Yun Xunlan’s direction: “Yes, I should prove it to them…”

Alphas all had good hearing. Neither Yun Xunguang nor Mu Xingyu missed this sentence.

Yun Xunguang turned her face back to Yun Xunlan, confusion written all over her brow: “What?”

“I will prove it to you.”

The silver-haired youth raised his face. This time, his gaze fell directly on Mu Xingyu: “Imperial Brother, I won’t die.”

“Even if this disappoints you, I don’t owe you anything, so not only will I not die, I will live very well.”

At this point, Yun Xunlan finally raised his right hand that had been hidden under the table. Mu Xingyu saw a small black pistol gripped in his palm, and at the same time, a massive and terrifying alpha pheromone pressure suddenly descended in the rest area.

This pheromone was not unfamiliar to Mu Xingyu.

It was Yun Xunlan’s.

Yun Xunlan could never control his pheromones well. His body was riddled with holes from insect venom erosion, and pheromone overflow often occurred. So to hide this secret, the royal family planted the palace where he lived full of lychee roses.

Therefore, when Mu Xingyu intruded into Yun Xunlan’s private space, he was often angered by the pheromones of a fellow alpha and could never calm down to speak properly with Yun Xunlan.

And Yun Xunguang was a very good sister who never guarded against Yun Xunlan.

Therefore, when this pheromone pressure with extremely strong attack and suppression intent descended, only Mu Xingyu followed alpha nature and instinctively fought against it, rushing forward to seize the gun without thinking.

—He thought Yun Xunlan’s gun muzzle should be aimed at himself. This was too normal.

He had done so many bad things and said so many excessive words to Yun Xunlan. Yun Xunlan should point the gun at him.

But the youth pointed the gun at himself instead.

Not at his temple, because if his hand shook and caused deviation, it wouldn’t be fatal.

Yun Xunlan opened his mouth and aimed the gun at the most professional and precise angle—at the medulla oblongata that controls breathing and heartbeat.

“Bang—!”

After the gunshot stopped, an even more intense lychee rose scent erupted in the rest area.

But they could no longer feel that fruity freshness. The room also had another more vivid color, like a bouquet of roses in full bloom, blooming on the walls, floor, and on Yun Xunguang and Mu Xingyu.

“The doctor said there’s little hope of successful treatment for medulla oblongata injuries.”

“Fortunately, I can thank you, Mu Xingyu.”

Yun Xunguang rarely called Mu Xingyu by his full name, but tonight she maintained a stiff smile while wiping blood from her face with trembling hands and thanked Mu Xingyu: “Thanks to you, that shot went off target and didn’t hit the medulla oblongata.”

After saying this, she threw away the handkerchief in her hand, swung her arm and gave Mu Xingyu a heavy slap, saying with a trembling voice: “How wonderful. Our family owes you more and more.”

Mu Xingyu knelt outside the emergency room without saying a word.

“You get out tomorrow.”

“You’d better pray you never meet me again in this lifetime.” Yun Xunguang looked at the slap mark on Mu Xingyu’s face, tears streaming down her own face, yet she still smiled. “Because I won’t miss.”

Mu Xingyu raised his hand to wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth: “…I’m sorry, I can’t leave.”

Yun Xunguang immediately snatched a police gun from a nearby guard, loaded it and aimed it at Mu Xingyu’s forehead: “Then you can leave your last words now.”

This police gun wasn’t the kind of “toy” firearm Yun Xunlan had used. One shot would make Mu Xingyu’s entire head disappear, without even a chance for rescue.

Mu Xingyu looked up at the gun muzzle, his voice hoarse: “Uncle Bai is leaving. After he’s gone, we can’t predict what Uncle He will do. If he also… according to the constitution, you must go to the border battlefield. What about Lanlan then?”

“Only me going to the front lines is most appropriate.” Every sentence Mu Xingyu spoke was irrefutable to Yun Xunguang. “When Lanlan wakes up, I’ll apologize to him, then I’ll go to the front lines.”

“…So you know Papa is dying too.”

Yun Xunguang staggered back a few steps, the police gun falling to the ground. She asked Mu Xingyu: “Still waiting for Lanlan to wake up? Do you think the brain is like other organs with clones that can be replaced?”

“I don’t even know, if Papa says at this time that he wants to see us one last time, how I should bring Lanlan to see him.”

“I’m really so tired…” Yun Xunguang held her head and slowly sat on the ground, looking toward the emergency room door. “When he wakes up, if he still says that nonsense, I’ll slap him just like I hit you.”

But He Chubai didn’t see them one last time.

In his final moments, he only saw Yun Qihe, because in the final stage after insect venom infection, the entire human body would melt. Under the skin there would be no flesh and blood left, only silver-white liquid, like metallic mercury existing in liquid form at normal temperature and pressure.

He Chubai didn’t want to leave such a terrifying final image for his children.

So Yun Xunguang and Mu Xingyu could only stand outside the ward, listening to Yun Qihe’s suppressed crying slowly rise.

It was also on that day, when Yun Xunguang and Mu Xingyu placed the small recording box containing He Chubai’s last words for Yun Xunlan by his bedside, that he woke up, as if the person who had once given him life had given him life a second time before leaving.

Mu Xingyu knelt by the bed to admit his mistakes, and Jian Wenxi also came to visit him. But no matter what they said or did, Yun Xunlan had no reaction. He just lay there quietly. Whether his eyes were closed or open made no difference, because he seemed to hear nothing and would say nothing.

The doctors thought this might be a sequela of brainstem injury.

Until the day before the royal family was to hold a state funeral for He Chubai, Yun Xunguang finally gathered enough courage to see Yun Xunlan again. She walked into his ward and gently held her brother’s hand: “Are you feeling better today?”

Yun Xunlan still didn’t move or speak.

“Papa is leaving tomorrow. I don’t know if Yun Qihe will follow him. Whatever, that psycho would be better off dead. I’m really sick of him.” Yun Xunguang didn’t even want to call him father anymore. She tightened her fingers slightly. “…But if they’re all gone, you’ll be my only family left.”

“I’m not angry with you anymore, and I won’t scold you anymore.”

“…Can you get better?” Yun Xunguang placed her brother’s hand on her forehead and closed her eyes. “I don’t want to be alone…”

“Imperial Sister…”

The youth’s weak voice was too faint. When Yun Xunguang first heard it, she thought it was her imagination.

But when she looked up at Yun Xunlan, she really saw that in the youth’s vacant golden eyes, his gaze finally focused and looked back at her.

He asked: “…Have you scolded me?”

“Yes.” Yun Xunguang said. “Many times.”

—But all in her heart.

After hearing this, the youth smiled. His lips curved up, but his eyes were filled with sorrow. He clearly looked like he wanted to say “I’m sorry” to Yun Xunguang, but what came out was contradictory gratitude: “Thank you…”

Yun Xunguang thought her brother loved to say strange things, but it didn’t matter. He was just sick.

The next day, Yun Xunguang pushed him in a wheelchair to see He Chubai off on his final journey.

There weren’t many people at the funeral. Besides Yun Qihe, no one else cried.

On the way back, Yun Xunguang was still thinking about how to tactfully persuade Yun Xunlan to see a psychologist when Yun Xunlan asked her first: “Did something go wrong with my last surgery? Why did I sleep for so long?”

**

 (advanced chapters available on kofi)