Chapter 27: His Majesty's Secret...
Lin Zhi fell asleep again in Lu Yuan's arms.
His body is too weak now, and he doesn't know when he can finish marking and end all this.
Lin Zhi dreamed of chaos.
"Don't kill me—"
Someone pulled at his trouser leg and begged for mercy.
"Please... spare us, spare us..."
“No, no…”
More and more people crawled towards him, but he couldn't see their faces clearly, perhaps because Lin Zhi never knew what they looked like.
But even though their faces couldn't be seen, their bodies were covered in horrific wounds and blood.
"No……"
Lin Zhi stepped back, wanting to escape, but found that his legs could not move.
Don’t come over here…!
Boom——!
A loud thunder broke through the sky.
“……!”
Lin Zhi woke up with a start, his eyes wide open and breathing slightly.
When I turned around, I saw the gray night outside the window, and a storm was brewing with lightning and thunder.
Fortunately, the rain in the downtown area came and went quickly.
When the agreed time came, Lu Yuan came to find Lin Zhi.
"I'm curious, where are you, a person from the upper city, going to take me to in the lower city?" Lu Yuan chuckled and left the bar with Lin Zhi, pointing to his... motorcycle?
Lin Zhi paused.
"You're going to the outskirts of the city, right? That would be convenient."
Obviously, small aircraft can also...
Lin Zhi was a little confused about Lu Yuan's motives.
"Come up."
Lu Yuan straddled the motorcycle, but patted the front of his head.
Lin Zhi originally thought that he would sit behind Lu Yuan, but he didn't expect Lu Yuan to hold him in front of him, with his arm across him and placed on the handle.
Lin Zhi pulled his cloak to cover his slightly red face and thought, forget it.
"Buzz—"
The motorcycle started and rushed through the streets that were still puddled after the rain.
…
Bar door.
Several mercenaries looked at Lu Yuan and Lin Zhi's departing backs, looking at each other, each more surprised than the other.
"That Alpha...could it be the leader, eh..."
I just can't say it.
After all, using words like "lover" and "boyfriend" to describe Lu Yuan is really inappropriate! !
Contrary to the stereotypes of outsiders, everyone in the downtown area knew that Lu Yuan had nothing to do with love affairs. If there really was a scandal, it must be about his engine.
How could the leader... possibly be in love?!
But they had never seen the leader treat someone like that.
"The leader actually smiled at someone like that... It's terrifying!"
"And the captain is like a peacock spreading its feathers, right? He's deliberately showing off his most prized motorcycle, right?"
"Ah!" Someone reacted, "Then I just told the captain that I wanted to kill someone, so I won't be killed, right?!"
"Yeah, yeah, no wonder she's so familiar with the dungeon. Turns out she's the leader's lover..."
The more they talked, the more frightened they became, and they quickly rushed in to grab the black shadow and get information.
…
Lin Zhi had no idea that he had caused a commotion in the mercenary group. At this moment, he was leading Lu Yuan.
They made their way to the outskirts of the western district, passing several small paths and a dense forest before Lin Zhi finally said, "We're here."
Lu Yuan was stunned.
——There is a small cemetery in front of me.
Lu Yuan roughly counted that there were about 38 cemeteries, but there were no names on the tombstones.
Lin Zhi seemed a little surprised. "I built these tombs fifteen years ago. I thought they would be covered by weeds and I would never find them. But it looks like someone is taking care of them."
Someone even laid cement steps around the tombstone.
Lu Yuan looked at Lin Zhi in surprise.
ah?
"You did...?"
"right."
"Fifteen years ago?"
Lin Zhi lowered his eyes, "Well, when I was 12 years old."
"You..." Lu Yuan looked at the Omega in front of him in surprise and doubt, and made a bold guess.
Lin Zhi chuckled, "I'm from the Lower Town."
“……?!”
Lin Zhi lowered his eyes, thinking that no one would believe that the high and mighty, honorable Majesty was from the Lower City District.
Even though he was disguised and dressed like a downtown dweller, his demeanor still made it clear at a glance that he was a noble and influential person.
How... is that possible?
Looking at Lu Yuan's incredulous face, Lin Zhi slowly said, "More than ten years ago, the nobles recruited a group of slaves from the lower city. My mother was one of them. It's better to say that it was not so much a recruitment as it is..."
The rest is known to everyone.
The rich and powerful sometimes choose some good-looking Omegas from the downtown area to play with, and there is no need to worry if they die.
"At the banquet, my mother caught my father's eye and, out of sheer folly, she gave birth to me, a bastard. However, my father ultimately could not tolerate such a lowly bloodline, so he banished my mother to the Lower City."
That "father" is naturally the deceased king of the alliance.
"But then, when I was twelve, two years after my mother died of illness, he took me back."
Lin Zhi lowered his eyes.
Because his father's two sons died of illness and there was no successor to the royal family, he took the youngest son back home.
He found it ridiculous that his father began to dislike his mother and his bloodline after a night of absurdity. He disliked her even more after taking her back home and didn't want to even look at her. But he was unwilling to let the throne be inherited by other members of the royal family.
Lin Zhi turned to look at Lu Yuan, "I've lived in the West District of Lower City for twelve years. How could I not know about the secret passage?"
Lu Yuan didn't know what to say for a moment.
After a long moment, he pointed at the graves around him and said, "Then these..."
Lin Zhi said word by word: "It was because of me that he died."
He took a deep breath, as if mentally preparing himself, and then continued, "My father took me in to inherit... the family, but he naturally couldn't let anyone know my origins. So, the noble who took me in killed everyone in the West District who lived with me or knew my origins, just to silence them."
He could do nothing but cry and beg the Duke who took him back to give him half a day to pack his bags so that he could bury these neighbors who had helped him.
Lu Yuan paused.
Lin Zhi closed his eyes and said, "I brought 38 lives from the Lower City to the Upper City."
In order to inherit the throne, he concealed his gender.
Gender is fake, identity is fake, everything is fake.
None of the glamorous majesties are real.
Oh, the blood debt and lost lives are real.
Lin Zhi recalled Lu Yuan's evaluation of him: fake and pretentious.
At this moment, after saying all this, Lin Zhi finally breathed a sigh of relief and closed his eyes, waiting for Lu Yuan's "judgment" again.
He even expected Lu Yuan to scold him. After all, this was probably what Lu Yuan hated the most.
"Luo Xing..."
But the next moment, what Lin Zhi waited for was a warm embrace.
Lin Zhi widened his eyes, his sight fixed on Lu Yuan's chest.
——Lu Yuan gently embraced him in his arms.
"It's not your fault."
Lu Yuan said this to him.
“……?”
Lin Zhi: "I..."
As soon as he opened his mouth, he found that his voice was trembling.
Lu Yuan lowered his eyes and looked at him. "You were only twelve years old at the time and couldn't do anything. How could it be your fault?"
Lu Yuan thought to himself, if Luo Xing's mother had died when he was ten, he would have had to struggle to survive alone in the underground city for the next two years. Perhaps he was able to survive with the help of his neighbors, but he didn't expect that these neighbors would also die because of him two years later.
The twelve-year-old child had to bury all these people by himself.
How much hardship is this for a child?
He couldn't imagine it, but he saw the Omega's expression.
It was a look that was almost broken, so his body reacted faster than his brain and he hugged the person in his arms.
"I..." Lin Zhi said in a daze: "Can I be forgiven?"
"I don't know, but they are already dead." Lu Yuan said gently: "You are still alive, you have to forgive yourself."
Lin Zhi turned his head away.
What’s the point of forgiving or not forgiving?
Lin Zhi thought to himself that his brain must have been affected by pheromones, which was why he said these things to an outsider.
He shouldn't...
Lin Zhi wanted to break free from this overly warm embrace, "Now you know, I didn't lie to you, we should go back..."
Wow——
Lu Yuan picked the person up and carried him sideways.
The rain had stopped, but at this moment the sky began to churn again, and there seemed to be drizzle all around, so Lu Yuan hugged Lin Zhi tighter, as if he didn't want him to get wet in the rain.
Lu Yuan held Lin Zhi in his arms and sat on the steps, letting Lin Zhi sit on his lap.
Lin Zhi seemed to be curled up in Lu Yuan's arms. He widened his eyes and said, "Don't..."
"Luo Xing."
Lu Yuan asked, "Is this the name you used when you were in the Lower Town? Did your mother give it to you?"
Lin Zhi paused.
"……Um."
Lin Zhi leaned against Lu Yuan, his thoughts becoming hazy again.
It was too cold all around, so Lin Zhi simply stopped struggling. He just nestled in Lu Yuan's arms and said, "My mother's surname is Luo, and the name Xing means...a star in the sky."
"She said she had been to Uptown and that it was different from Downtown. Everything there was beautiful. She hoped I could climb up like the stars in the sky and stay up there instead of rotting in the ground."
After Lin Zhi came to the upper city, he learned etiquette, social interaction, tea tasting, clothing... everything he had never encountered in the lower city. Everyone said that he was very outstanding and a natural royal.
But he was just imitating poorly.
After going to the military academy, Lin Zhi still remembered that when he was young, he would look out the window every night to watch other powerful people playing ball and feel envious.
If he and his mother had originally lived in the upper city, wouldn't their lives have been so difficult? Wouldn't his mother have died from lack of treatment, and those thirty-eight people wouldn't have died.
But later on, Lin Zhi no longer envied her.
On the contrary, he hates it.
I hate the heartless old king, the duke who kills people to silence them, and the powerful people who take human lives lightly.
As he looked out the window, he was replaced by the desire for revenge, the desire to... kill these people.
He wanted to hold great power, to be the boss, more powerful than these people, and then decide their life and death.
People who have nothing can do nothing.
So when he looked out the window, the object of his envy became Lu Yuan, who was indulging himself and playing and laughing with the cadets.
Free and passionate.
Lin Zhi laughed at himself, "In the end, I went from being a misfit to fitting in, and became a true dignitary."
Lu Yuan gently kneaded the Omega's palm.
He thought he understood where the wounds came from.
Lu Yuan said: "You just blend in, but you don't lose yourself."
Lin Zhi was lost in thought.
"Really?"
——But sometimes, he wished he was just Lin Zhi, not Luo Xing.
How much he wanted to abandon Luo Xing.
Lu Yuan said: "Yes, I saw it."
——He can see the young Lin Zhi in Luo Xing.
Lin Zhi lowered his head, resting it against Lu Yuan's chest, listening to his steady heartbeat, without noticing the complexity and...heartache in Lu Yuan's eyes.
So Lin Zhi chuckled, "Liar."
Lu Yuan also laughed: "I didn't lie to you. Besides, aren't you trying to save the tragedy now?"
No wonder Luo Xing wanted to save these people...
Lu Yuan thought to himself that he understood why Lin Zhi abandoned Luo Xing. Luo Xing was like him, but also not like him.
Luo Xing is like Lin Zhi’s kindness and background, but Lin Zhi has changed.
So Lin Zhi was attracted to Luo Xing, but couldn't accept Luo Xing.
Now Lin Zhi tacitly allows Luo Xing to rescue these people, but punishes him by having his mark removed and making him endure the pain of being marked by Enigma.
Lu Yuan gritted his teeth and kept worrying.
If Luo Xing does something that Lin Zhi doesn't like again in the future, it won't be as simple as just giving him the E mark in the lower city area.
Lu Yuan took a deep breath, "Luo Xing, I said I would protect you, and I meant it."
Sometimes Lu Yuan would wonder if he was too weak and incompetent back then, so he could only watch Lin Zhi change step by step.
Lin Zhi was stunned.
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