Chapter 12
Xue Jin'an is a spirit that was only a few days old. To be precise, before he entered this body, he had never been in contact with any real ordinary humans. All his knowledge of humans came from the data left by the otaku Long Aotian when he used his mobile phone, including his knowledge of the otaku Long Aotian himself.
Moreover, in Xue Jin'an's view, different worlds are different from one another, and different humans are different from one another. The world in the book has a clear main storyline, and fate will revolve around the main storyline, while those who are affected by fate will receive some attribute bonuses.
For example, the original owner was cannon fodder, so the body he inherited was also broken and tattered. It was extremely difficult to even replace a battery. Even if he carefully chose the place and time, someone would still happen to come and interfere.
"I Want to Become Emperor" is a novel about the struggle for the throne. The main theme of this world is the struggle for the throne, so the princes and princesses who qualify, whether they are supporting characters or villains, will be favored by fate.
Of course, nothing is absolute. As long as the main storyline doesn't fall apart, the protagonist can be replaced—this is Xue Jin'an's goal, which cannot be achieved overnight and requires a long period of planning.
Before he officially takes action, the world's story will unfold according to the original story.
In conclusion, Xue Jin'an truly believed that the Fourth Prince, protected by fate, could not possibly die from a mere heart-cutting wound.
"Impossible, absolutely impossible." Xue Jin'an gripped the knife expressionlessly, steadily applying downward force.
Xue Jin'an was proven wrong.
An alarm went off in his mind, and the health monitoring page running in the background popped up. All the data belonging to the Fourth Prince on it fluctuated violently: blood pressure soared, heart rate increased rapidly, breathing became difficult... and the battery health also quietly dropped by 1%.
Battery health declined by 1%.
Xue Jin'an's hand stopped, and he tilted his head, puzzled: "Why?"
He would rather suspect that the failure was caused by the original owner's cannon fodder fate than believe that the Fourth Prince couldn't withstand the blow.
Xue Jin'an frowned, wondering if he should postpone changing the battery until he could change his fate from cannon fodder to supporting character.
However, batteries also have a limited lifespan. The longer they are used, the greater the wear and tear, and their health will decline. Besides, as humans often say, "Since we're here now, we've already come."
Xue Jin'an was faced with a difficult choice for the first time, so he didn't immediately notice the subtle movements behind him.
"Don't kill on my turf, and don't implicate me." The Fifth Prince nimbly climbed down the wall, landing silently, and reached out to grasp Xue Jin'an's knife through a handkerchief.
The Fifth Prince didn't expect that Xiao Qi would actually make a move. He kicked the Fourth Brother down just to show his stance. He thought that Xiao Qi was just trying to scare people with a knife because he couldn't stand the Fourth Brother's bullying and had nowhere else to go. Even when the Fourth Brother's clothes were torn open and his chest was exposed, he still didn't think that Xiao Qi would actually stab him with the knife.
Upon seeing the blood, the Fifth Prince was momentarily stunned. After a brief blankness in his mind, his first thought was: No one can die here.
The Fifth Prince didn't care whether his Fourth Brother lived or died. After all, he didn't get along well with his own brother, let alone his Fourth Brother, who had a terrible temper. He just knew that if someone died here, he would definitely be implicated.
If the Emperor finds out, his punishment for meddling and failing to help will be no less severe than that for Xiao Qi's physical punishment, and may even be more severe.
Xiao Qi's actions were a desperate act of retaliation, while he was the one who maliciously pushed his brother into the lion's den—well, no matter how he looked at it, he felt that Xiao Qi had planned to kill him.
It doesn't matter what he thinks; what matters is what the Emperor thinks.
"I have a heart condition and cannot bear the sight of blood." The Fifth Prince's face was pale. He paused and then added, "I will not tell anyone about this."
"I...I don't know either, I promise, I swear!" The fourth prince, who was lying on the board, quickly chimed in.
Xue Jin'an remained silent.
The system firewall activated the moment the knife was gripped, and his grip strength immediately doubled, yet he still couldn't break free from the Fifth Prince's hand.
The Fifth Prince seemed to be grabbing the knife casually, but it remained completely still. The two men looked up at each other in silence.
"Fifth...fifth brother..." The fourth prince's trembling voice broke the silence between the two, "Could you please move the knife away? I...I'm so scared, sob sob—"
The fourth prince stared stiffly at the knife pressed against his chest, too afraid to move, and couldn't help but sob.
The voltage in the humanoid parts warehouse is unstable, and forcibly removing parts is very likely to damage them. The security personnel who accidentally entered are also eyeing the area with predatory intent... In fact, Xue Jin'an had already analyzed the best solution the moment the knife was grasped. However, he didn't know why, but he didn't let go immediately. Instead, he stared at the Fifth Prince in a stalemate.
Hmm, maybe the brain's memory is insufficient and it's stuck. Xue Jin'an launched a small rocket, releasing 998M of emotional garbage.
Xue Jin'an let go of her hand.
The Fifth Prince threw the knife directly towards the artificial hill. With a thud, he breathed a sigh of relief and crumpled the soiled handkerchief into a ball in his palm.
Fourth Brother's life is spared; he's out of the picture. Fifth Prince's domineering aura vanished, and he became languid. Looking at the scene, his mischievous impulse surged up, and he wanted to say something sarcastic and divisive.
However, before he could even utter the words, the fourth prince scrambled over and grabbed his leg, bursting into loud sobs.
The Fifth Prince swiftly grabbed the belt and looked at the Fourth Prince, who was covered in snot and tears. The Fifth Prince, who was a bit of a germaphobe, turned pale instantly, and his fingers almost dropped the ball of handkerchief in his hand.
The fifth prince struggled to straighten his legs: "Stop crying."
The fourth prince thought he had been comforted, but then a surge of grievance welled up inside him, and he cried even louder.
The Fifth Prince, who preferred quiet solitude and generally avoided people, experienced tinnitus in his fragile ears the first time he was attacked by such filthy noise at close range.
"Shut up!" the Fifth Prince raised his voice.
The fourth prince was so immersed in his grief that he was completely oblivious to the sounds outside.
The Fifth Prince, surrounded by black energy, couldn't help but clench his fists, wanting to have a passionate and intense encounter with the head in front of him, preferably one that would make the brains jump out happily.
Xue Jin'an also felt that noise reduction was necessary. His Bluetooth was still on, so he connected to the other party's device without thinking and planned to give him the full volume of sound.
"Fourth Brother, you're so noisy."
The Fourth Prince, who was crying so hard he was completely lost in his own world, suddenly heard Xue Jin'an's calm and indifferent voice in his mind. He trembled all over, as if his voice had been muted, and abruptly stopped crying.
Before he could even make a move, Xue Jin'an disconnected the Bluetooth connection after watching the volume buttons disappear with a "whoosh."
The world fell silent again, occasionally broken by the sobs of the Fourth Prince, a physiological reaction to his crying that was hard to control.
The fourth prince clung tightly to the fifth prince's leg, trying his best to curl up into a ball and hide himself.
"Fourth brother, you're so useless," the fifth prince said deliberately. He tried to free his leg, but his usual sarcastic remarks failed him, and the fourth prince hugged him even tighter.
Xue Jin'an wholeheartedly agreed with the Fifth Prince's words, nodding: "He's almost dead before the blade has even fully penetrated; he's so weak."
The fourth prince felt wronged, the fourth prince pouted, the fourth prince whimpered and dared not speak.
The Fifth Prince, whose every trigger point had been stepped on, was speechless with regret.
Why not just stay in the classroom and watch the boring spectacle that happens every day? Why pretend to be sick and come out? Now look what's happened, even someone who wasn't sick is almost sick from all the anger.
The Fifth Prince finally couldn't hold back and violently tore the man apart, leaving a mark on the back of his neck with no restraint.
"The wound needs medicine." The Fifth Prince tossed the person aside, turned around and strode towards the artificial hill. He fiddled with his hands for a bit and then produced two bottles of medicine.
The fourth prince walked over to let the fifth prince do it for him without hesitation. He curiously peeked at the place the other prince had been fiddling with, but couldn't figure out what it was.
Xue Jin'an could tell where the secret cave in the artificial mountain was just by listening to the sound of the air flowing. He knew its size perfectly and knew that it contained not only these medicines but also several strangely shaped, sharpened weapons.
With limited information heard by the ears, he was unable to build a corresponding model. The big data, eager to acquire information, immediately and unhappily sent a large amount of emotional data to the brain, which was called voyeurism.
Unfortunately, a mobile phone isn't a security scanner; it only uses infrared sensors and can't see through things, otherwise you could tell what's inside at a glance.
Xue Jin'an thought for a moment and then skillfully launched a small rocket.
The fourth prince wasn't interested in what was inside the artificial hill, but he was very interested in its mechanisms. He wanted to ask the fifth prince, but when he turned his gaze back to the medicine in the fifth prince's hand, the words he was about to say changed his mind.
"Don't you have a heart condition and never attend martial arts classes? Why do you always keep these medicines on hand?"
The Imperial Study was a comprehensive school that taught music, chess, calligraphy, painting, poetry, wine, flowers, tea, etiquette, archery, charioteering, calligraphy, and mathematics. It taught the seven arts and six disciplines of a gentleman. If the prince was the crown prince, he would also receive additional lessons on imperial power, taught by the emperor himself.
The Fifth Prince clearly didn't want to talk about it and was too lazy to explain, so he shut up with just two words: "Shut up."
The fourth prince, always the mischievous child who would do the opposite of what he was told, was about to press for an answer when he was choked by the strange smell of the medicine powder that suddenly fell out. "Cough cough spit spit, this hemostatic powder is so pungent—ouch! Why does it hurt so much when I sprinkle it on my wound?!"
"What on earth is in this stuff! Quack doctor! Quack doctor! Fifth brother, tell me who prescribed this medicine for you! This rubbish is definitely fake, it only makes my wound hurt more! That damned quack doctor, I'll kill him! Ouch, be gentle, be gentle, Fifth brother, this is my chest, not a plank..."
The fourth prince mumbled incoherently for a while, then paused and said, "Hu Yuanzheng is most skilled at treating external injuries, and his medicines in this area are top-notch. I'll ask you for a few bottles tomorrow."
Finally, she muttered, "You're so strong, can you be a little gentler?"
The Fifth Prince didn't even bother to say anything, and simply rolled his eyes.
"Hey, you—" The fourth prince raised his hand in a cheeky manner, wanting to retaliate, but was frozen in place by Xue Jin'an's sudden interruption. The chattering parrot almost froze into a dead quail.
"His lips, complexion, and finger color are all normal." This was the second time Xue Jin'an had heard the words "heart disease." The original novel did not explicitly mention that the Fifth Prince suffered from heart disease. Only during the Emperor's birthday banquet one year, the Emperor commented on his sons, saying that the Fifth Prince was born prematurely and was born with a weak constitution. He was often sick when he was young, which frightened the Emperor several times.
"Later, a Taoist priest said that your birth chart was too weak and that evil spirits had entered your body, so you needed a noble person to suppress it. The Emperor took pity on you and kept you in the Qian Yuan Palace for half a year. You never fell ill like that again." The Fifth Prince's birth mother, Consort Rong, covered her lips with a handkerchief and chuckled, looking at the Emperor with tender eyes, as if joking, "Our Jue'er was also raised on the dragon bed."
"Jue'er, Jue'er." The emperor paused for a moment upon hearing these names, momentarily mistaking the person before him for his empress, and the child before him for Xue Jue, his eldest son with the empress.
This plot point marks a turning point where the Fifth Prince officially becomes a favorite to seize the throne. However, not long after, Chu Wenjing joins the First Prince's camp to deal with him.
That said, Xue Jin'an opened the health monitoring software and scanned the Fifth Prince's body.
Xue Jin'an concluded: "You are very healthy."
They are even too healthy, with a high muscle density. Even without weighing themselves, their body fat percentage is very low, a state that only people who exercise at high intensity regularly can maintain.
The Fifth Prince paused, looked at him and slightly curved the corners of his lips, but the smile did not reach his eyes, and slowly said, "It seems that the medicine is working well."
Xue Jin'an tilted his head.
Humans are so strange; they pretend to be sick even when they're not, which is something mobile phones just can't understand.
But this seems to be a basic human skill... I'll make a note of it. Xue Jin'an opened the memo app.
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