CH 14

“I saved your life, and that’s the first thing you said out of danger?” Alfred said in disbelief.

“This is a serious question.” Xiu said, “You represent the face of the royal family and cannot behave like this in front of commoners—”

“They don’t know who I am, okay?” Alfred couldn’t help but raise his voice. “And if you hadn’t passed out like a dying patient, you would have heard me calling for help to clean up the mess! After all, this trouble is your fault, isn’t it? Do you think this is the Holy Golden Palace, and you can just come out and stroll around the back garden when the banquet is boring?”

Xiu paused and whispered: “I took the wrong path…”

As he spoke, a faint breath escaped from Xiu’s lips and hit Alfred’s chest, causing him to tremble undetectably.

Alfred had never trembled in battle, or even when personally involved in cleaning up dirty bombs. However, the weak breath Xiu inadvertently spewed onto his bare chest made him shudder.

This trembling was not fear; it was more of a kind of… unreasonable excitement.

He could barely hear what Xiu was saying, but fortunately, Xiu stopped suddenly for some reason.

A touch of red appeared on Xiu’s originally fair and flawless face. He was completely awake, and finally realized what a state they were in. 

A loud bang echoed in his head, and he almost shouted sharply: “Get down!”

“What?”

Before Alfred could react, he was pushed violently by Xiu without any warning, almost falling off the bed.

“What are you doing?” He said angrily, gripping the slender waist of the person in his arms and tightly restraining Xiu.

In terms of strength, although Xiu was an adult man, no matter how hard he struggled against the top-level genetic heir, it would be of no avail.

“Still moving around?” Alfred pinched his neck, forcing him to raise his head and meet his gaze. “Do you know how much trouble you have caused me? So many people saw you going out with me. If after tonight I’m live and you’re dead, everyone will think I killed the crown prince. Even if I had a hundred mouths, I couldn’t explain.”

Under the fierce glare of the burning golden pupils, Xiu involuntarily felt fear and coldness. This had nothing to do with his own courage; it was natural suppression at the genetic level.

Under the gaze of the high-level genetic person, it seemed like his thoughts had slowed down because of fear. He asked dizzily: “Is it because of this that you saved me?”

“Of course,” said Alfred, “why else?”

To his surprise, Xiu reached out and gently stroked the side of his face—— After he was ten years old, he seldom did such a thing to establish his manly image.

The surrounding temperature suddenly dropped, and the golden pupils slowly dimmed.

Alfred had never used his genetic ability deliberately against an individual like this before. He couldn’t help but wonder if Xiu was frightened and acted chaotically. “What’s wrong with you? Are you crazy? The golden pupils don’t have this effect…”

He said so with his mouth, but for some reason, he didn’t reach out to remove Xiu’s hand.

Xiu blinked, calmly put down his hands, and said: “For a moment, I feel like you have really grown up. Now that I’m out of danger, you should go down. It’s not decent like this.”

“Decent , face,” Alfred sneered, “I’ve wanted to ask you since I was a child. Do you ever get tired of living with all these things stuffed in your head every day?”

He mocked at first, but he didn’t expect Xiu to answer: “Of course I do get tired.”

Alfred was momentarily speechless.

As his physical condition improved, Xiu regained his calming mask. Even though he was forced to lean against his opponent’s embrace, he forced himself to calm down. Taking a deep breath, he asked slowly: “Who took off my clothes, and has a doctor been here?”

“I took it off. The Crown Prince begged me not to call the doctor, so I dare not disobey his orders.” Alfred smirked, “I’m just curious, who helped you conceal the genetic test results when you were born twenty-eight years ago?”

Xiu’s eyes flickered for a moment, and he didn’t argue. He simply asked, “How did you know about this?”

“Of course someone told me.” Alfred looked down at him and smiled, “Your Highness, are the people around you really loyal to you?”

Xiu didn’t fall for his trick, and said, “Was it about that bag of blood two years ago?”

Most soldiers who went to the front line would be required to prepare some of their own blood in advance, in case of emergency requiring urgent transfusions.

Alfred was transferred from the school to the front line two years ago during the eradication of the rebels. After boarding the ship, he went to the medical room to prepare blood. At that time, Xiu happened to be visiting his younger brother and requested to take bag of Alfred’s blood.

“Don’t keep spare blood in the same place. Leave a bag with me. If something unexpected happens, I am your second insurance.” That’s what Xiu said at that time.

At that time, Alfred was naturally moved by his genuine concern. So he immediately asked to save a bag of Xiu’s spare blood as his “second insurance”.

They exchanged a bag of spare blood. Alfred never expected that that blood bag would eventually be used, but not on Xiu. It was secretly sent for genetic testing.

That test report became his biggest trump card.

“Your Highness reacted so quickly. I guess you haven’t been unable to sleep well these past two years because of that bag of blood, right?” Alfred said.

Xiu glanced at him and said, “At that time, I really didn’t expect you to propose a blood exchange.”

“I said, no wonder Your Highness is so eager to kill me. I thought, wouldn’t it be better to kill our dear brother first? But it turns out you suspected I knew a secret I shouldn’t know, and was anxious to kill me.”

Xiu didn’t say a word about it, and Alfred wanted to stab him a few more times when suddenly the handheld communicator rang.

He glanced at the message sender. Although he could turn on the bone conduction mode for sound transmission, he decided to leave Xiu’s side cautiously before answering.”

“I’m going out to answer a communication.”

Alfred grumbled as he got out of bed. Most of the quilt’s warmth was generated by him. As soon as he left, the bed instantly became cold. Xiu wrapped himself in the quilt tightly and lowered his gaze, saying: “Hmm.”

The person who called was Alfred’s former exclusive medical officer. The reason for using the term “former” was because three years ago, his genetic defect medical experiment was discovered by the Crown Prince. As a result, he was reprimanded by the Crown Prince and expelled from the royal medical team.

Two years ago, when Alfred left the main star to check his belongings, he found a bag of blood. He wanted to secretly have it tested, but he had no power in his hands. So he remembered the medical officer who had served him for many years and had an old grudge against the Crown Prince.

“Dites.” Alfred answered the communication. “Do you have the results?”

A tiny conduction device implanted in his ear bone transmitted the sound directly into his ear: “Yes, Your Highness. In the paternity test, the specific sequence of this sample’s owner has a genetic match with you that approaches zero, leading to the conclusion that they have no blood relationship with you.”

Alfred exhaled and pinched his eyebrows.

Dites waited for a few seconds, but did not hear a response, and asked cautiously, “Your Highness? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine… as expected.” Alfred stared blankly and muttered to himself, “So, it’s not him.”

“What do you mean, it’s not him?”

Alfred said, “Stop talking. Let me think for a while.”

Dites immediately closed his mouth.

Alfred had a little doubt before that there might be a bloody plot twist like “the Grand Marshal being his biological father and secretly orchestrating things for himself.” But now it seemed that this speculation was absurd.

Since Marshal Stone had no blood relation with him, everything the Marshal did for him would not be hidden from him. On the contrary, just like Austin’s joking claim that day, they wished to remind Alfred of what the Stone family had paid for him, so as to gain more benefits in return after the event was completed.

But he didn’t think he was “overthinking” this matter, as Austin described it.

There was no evidence, but he had a vague intuition that someone in a higher position was quietly controlling the entire situation for him.

Alfred slowly went through everything again, and his personal physician remained silent on the other side without saying a word.

Finally, Alfred said: “Dites, are you still on the neighboring star of XueLi?”

“Yes, Your Highness.” Dites replied.

Alfred said: “Go back to the central planet. Set off in two days. I’ve got someone to prepare a house and a medical laboratory for you.”

“Your Highness?” Dites yelled in surprise, and then realized, “Are you going back to the main star?”

“That’s right,” Alfred said, “it’s happening soon.”

Alfred returned to the room, and Xiu had already dressed—— His imperial prince’s ceremonial robe was torn apart, and now he was wearing the prince’s ceremonial robe that Alfred took off in the room.

“My people have arrived nearby to pick me up.” Xiu said. 

On the main planet, his height and build were actually very standard. But compared to someone like Alfred, who was tall and robust, he was obviously smaller. Alfred looked at the ill-fitting attire wrapping around Xiu and despite not exerting any power, he still felt a little hot.

“…You wear this, what am I going to wear when I go out later?” He said, grasping at straws for conversation. 

Xiu adjusted his appearance in the mirror, and said lightly, “You can ask Austin to bring you some clothes.”

The charm in Alfred’s mind dissipated all of a sudden, he turned his gaze to Xiu, and said with a faint smile: “What did Your Highness say? He is your entourage this time. How can I summon the Crown Prince’s entourage?”

Xiu stared at his reflection in the mirror, and continued: “I had someone find the injured person in a nearby hospital and give him some money to reveal the appearance of the person who dealt with this matter—Alfred, you are still too careless.”