Chen Nian only found out about this when he was eleven or twelve years old.

Like all children, he took it for granted that the heart was located in the middle of the chest, just below the hard, upright breastbone.

It was not until he was in biology class and saw the human anatomy diagram on the screen that all the children in the class followed the teacher and placed their hands on their left chests to feel their heartbeats.

Chen Nian did as he was told, but he didn't touch anything.

He moved around curiously and felt a beating on the right side of his palm. Just as he was about to raise his hand to tell the teacher that there was a mistake in the book, a mouse walking on the windowsill caught his attention.

Chen Nian chose to compete with the mouse in a battle of wits and courage, and put everything about the heartbeat behind her.

I just mentioned it casually to Jiang Dai after I got home from school. Uncle Jiang was stunned at the time, but didn't say much.

After that, Chen Nian regarded this as normal. However, as he grew older, he realized that it was not the book that was wrong, but that he was different from others.

But who cares? His life wasn't affected at all.

"I thought you had noticed it a long time ago." Chen Nian said softly.

Yes, Shaflay should have noticed that.

Chen Nian once held his wrist and felt the boy's heartbeat. When he subconsciously moved to the left, Chen Nian put his hand on the right.

While swimming, he felt Chen Nian's heartbeat on his right side and was amazed at how powerful the boy's heartbeat was and how clear it was even from such a distance.

But Shafley never thought about it that way. After all, Chen Ci and Chen Nian were almost identical twins. Chen Ci's heart was on the left, so Chen Nian should also be -

Shaflay was suddenly stunned.

He thought of the moon on Chen Nian's left shoulder. If he remembered correctly, Chen Ci's birthmark was on the right.

The former twins stood before him, as if separated by a mirror.

"I'm a little thirsty."

Chen Nian's voice brought Shafulai back to his senses. He quickly got up and poured water for Chen Nian. The electric bed automatically lifted up a little. Chen Nian held the straw and took two sips.

Perhaps due to the effect of the painkillers, he feels quite well now, but the main reason is definitely that the injury is not serious.

Chen Nian spit out the straw and couldn't help but think of the dream he had when he was unconscious.

Was the monster taking care of him and Chen Ci when they were still babies? It should be Chen Ci. After all, apart from his brother, there was no one else in the world who had the exact same moon birthmark on his shoulder.

Combined with what Uncle Jiang said, that he and Chen Ci were born in an incubator, everything started to make sense.

But why would the monster that had always taken care of them now want to kill him? Could it be related to the sudden change of color of his eyes?

Chen Ci wanted to tell Shaflay all of this. He had just woken up and didn't have much strength yet. He should have just been quiet and done nothing, because the breathing while talking would inevitably cause damage to his lungs.

But Chen Nian couldn't wait any longer. He was eager to let Shafla know this.

Chen Nian spoke intermittently, describing the contents of his dream in the most concise and clear language.

In fact, he felt that maybe it was not a dream, but a memory that existed before he was born.

In fact, Chen Nian has always been curious about whether baby memories exist, and if so, where they go.

Even people with the best memory can only remember things from when they were two or three years old. What about before that? Is it because the days when infants only had survival instincts were too meaningless that they were selectively forgotten by the brain?

Shafla listened attentively, his brows furrowed and the corners of his eyes still had red from crying.

When Chen Nian finished speaking, Shafulai immediately said, "Okay, stop talking. You must rest well. If your lungs are not well nourished, everything you do will be affected."

Chen Nian nodded and said no more. Even with the painkiller, he still felt a little uncomfortable at this moment.

The news that the princess had woken up soon spread, and doctors came to check on her and confirmed that she was no longer in danger.

Next came the Emperor.

Neither Chen Nian nor Shafley were ready to face him.

The news that Chen Nian is a mirror man will definitely spread to the White Tower, and then they will find that the prince's wife's body is completely different from before.

Chen Nian's identity can no longer be kept secret.

The time has come when I have to confess.

At first, Chen Nian was quite afraid of the emperor. His violet eyes, the same as Shafla's, were always filled with seriousness, and his brows were habitually wrinkled. But after meeting him a few times, Chen Nian gradually relaxed and realized that there was nothing to be afraid of.

Especially now that he and Shaflay have established the final mark, Alpha is his strongest support.

Upon hearing that Chen Nian had woken up, the emperor, who had rushed over, looked extremely solemn. He stood in the ward, looking at the weak young man on the bed, and said nothing else, but only told Chen Nian to have a good rest.

But from the look in his eyes, both Chen Nian and Shaflay understood that he had known it for a long time.

Perhaps it started not long after the two exchanged positions. Chen Nian met the emperor on the day she moved into the palace. Later, when she visited Shafley, the emperor discovered two neural adapters.

But the emperor never exposed it.

Faced with the current situation, Shafley was not as calm as his father. When the emperor left the ward, he followed him out.

Shafley controlled his tone so as not to sound too aggressive: "You knew it from the beginning, right?"

Emperor: "Do you mean that they were swapped, or that the younger brother is alive?"

Schaffray: "Will they have different answers?"

The emperor shook his head and said, "I know everything."

The moment he heard this answer, Shaflay felt an irrepressible rage rising in his heart. He clenched his hands at his sides into fists:

"Since you know that Chen Nian has been living in the underground city, why don't you provide financial support? Don't you know how he has survived all these years?"

Facing his eldest son's obvious anger, the emperor remained calm: "I am not sure about the specific situation. After sending him and Jiang Dai away, I never took the initiative to obtain information again, because I found that the enemy is among us."

Shafulai was slightly startled.

The emperor asked, "Only a few people knew that you and Chen Nian were going to Huanhai Platform. So why did Chen Nian meet with the enemy by such a coincidence?"

Shafulai was also thinking about this problem. At first, he thought that Chen Nian accidentally relaxed the shielding of his mental power, but he was by his side from beginning to end, using his mental power to help Chen Nian, so this situation should not have happened at all.

In other words, the monster was not lured by Chen Nian at all, but had received the news in advance and was lying in ambush nearby?

The fire in the Chen family mansion that year was also extremely strange. It happened to happen the day after the marshal died. If there was only one thing, it could be said to be a coincidence, but the monster appeared twice at the right time and place, which was really suspicious.

Shafulai thought about the dream that Chen Nian had just told him. It was very similar to the monster, but the creature was not covered with metal thorns and was taking care of the fetus in the incubator. Was it really a dream?

The royal family rescued Chen Nian and Jiang Dai in a critical moment, and sent them to the underground city urgently. They had no contact with them after that, thus ensuring their safety in the underground city for the past eighteen years.

Complex clues entangled in their minds, everything was extremely strange. They had been working hard to investigate, but the progress seemed to be minimal, and Chen Nian had been seriously hurt.

If his heart had not happened to be on the right side, the consequences would have been disastrous.

Perhaps the time has come when we can no longer rely on the strength of just the four of them.

Shaflay said, "Can I trust you, Father?"

"Yes, because from the beginning to the end, you and I are on the same front."

The emperor stretched out his hand and pressed it on Shaflay's shoulder. "Now that our news has been known to the enemy, there is no need to act according to the original plan. You can place more trust in me or seek help."

Shafulai looked at him steadily, and the father and son looked at each other. At this moment, Shafulai still chose to believe his father, not only because of the family affection and trust that could not be erased over the years, but also because of what Jiang Dai said.

As the Chen family's housekeeper who knows many details, Jiang Dai still trusts his father.

Shafley: "Chen Nian doesn't need any help for now, but Chen Ci has a problem. He is in Sanshui and said that there was an Ashes leak somewhere, and I haven't had time to ask anyone to seal it."

The emperor nodded and said, "Send me the address and leave this matter to me. How is Chen Ci doing now?"

"He didn't mention it, but it should be okay." Shafley thought that the message Chen Ci sent him also said that he killed Donald.

Not long ago, Donald was tracking down Fu Tianhe. He helped Fu Tianhe find an absolutely safe place to hide. He didn't expect that Donald could actually track him directly to Sanshui.

It was not appropriate to discuss the matter in detail in the hospital corridor, so the Emperor sent someone to deal with the issue of Ashes' leak first, giving Shafla some time to go back and discuss the matter in detail.

Before leaving, he handed Shafulai a memory device and said, "You and Chen Nian will take a look at this later. Remember to shut down all the intelligent control systems."

Shafley agreed, put the memory stick in his pocket, and watched his father turn around and leave the corridor. His slightly hurried figure disappeared into the elevator shaft.

Shafley took a long, deep breath, pushed the door and entered the ward, where Chen Nian was lying obediently.

Chen Nian talked a lot with Shaflai right after waking up, and he is very tired now.

Chen Nian forced himself to stay awake and not fall asleep. He was very curious about what Shafulai and the emperor would say outside. If he were not so weak now, he would have wanted to use his mental power to take a look.

The main reason was that Chen Nian really wanted to know what the emperor's attitude was towards the exchange between him and Chen Ci.

Shafley first shut down all the intelligent control systems in the room, leaving only Chen Nian's life monitor, and whispered: "My father basically knows everything, and he said he will help us next.

"While you were still rescuing him, Chen Ci sent a message saying that he suddenly felt severe chest pain and fainted, and asked if it was caused by electrocardiogram.

"He ran into some trouble in Sanshui. I've asked my father to take care of it."

"A little trouble?" Chen Nian immediately became nervous and asked, "What happened to my brother?"

"Donald chased them to Sanshui, and Chen Ci killed him." Shafley did not mention the problem of Ashes leaking the information. Although he felt that Chen Nian would know it soon, Alpha still kept his promise to Chen Ci.

Chen Nian was stunned for a moment, then heaved a sigh of relief with obvious relief.

Fortunately, although murder does sound horrible, as long as my brother is safe, it's enough. But what did Donald do to anger Chen Ci to this extent?

Shaflay took out a memory stick and said, "Are you feeling okay now? Are you tired? Father, let us take a look at this."

Chen Nian: "I feel fine, but my chest hurts a bit. It may be that the painkilling injection has worn off. Come, let's take a look first."

Shafulai inserted the memory stick into his terminal and unfolded the virtual screen.

There was only one video in the storage bar. Shafley clicked it and after a brief darkness, the video began to play.

They saw the sea, a very familiar sea, with the shimmering waves of the early morning. Chen Nian recognized at a glance that this was the area of ​​the Ring Ocean Platform where they had visited yesterday morning.

The waves were surging violently, and a dark submarine emerged from the water. There was a hole in the transparent cover, and sea water was rushing in, and it was instantly dyed red with blood.

That's when he got into trouble!

But the submarine is not the star of the picture.

A transparent barrier unfolded from the air and cut fiercely into the sea surface, and the net bag that had been hidden on the seabed for a long time rose suddenly. The sudden flow of high-voltage electricity made the entire sea surface emit a crackling sound!

Suddenly, the waves surged, threatening to cause a tsunami several meters high. Something was struggling desperately in the shrinking encirclement, trying to escape.

But both the barrier and the net were very strong and shrank irresistibly step by step until the monster with two oval heads was trapped inside!

Its arms and torso were covered in a mechanical shell, with dense thorn-like spikes sticking out from the holes in the net, but no matter how hard it struggled, it could not break the special net.

The blue eyes on its two heads shrank wildly, and its pupils became as thin as snakes. It howled, causing the primitive creatures in the sea to fight back wildly, but they were directly pierced by the high-energy electric current.

Countless corpses of primitive creatures were floating on the sea with their bellies facing up, densely packed together, charred black by high-voltage electric shocks. One could almost smell the burnt smell in the picture.

,

This, this...? !

Chen Nian was shocked beyond words. After he was attacked, the culprit was actually arrested!

He turned his head to look at Shaflay, and found that even Alpha's eyes were wide open in shock.

At that time, Shafulai's mind and eyes were filled with Chen Nian whose chest was pierced. He yelled and screamed like a madman, and felt as if the sky was falling. As for what was happening around him, Shafulai had no idea.

The video ends and the screen goes dark.

"That is to say..." Chen Nian swallowed his saliva and said in disbelief, "In fact, the Huanhai Platform knew in advance that the monster would come and had already made preparations to capture it?"

"So... am I the bait?"

Shafla was unable to give an answer at all. Chen Nian's weak question was like a heavy hammer hitting his heart.

His father said that there was a spy among them who betrayed his and Chen Nian's whereabouts, and the successful capture of the monster showed that someone had known that this trip would go wrong.

Shafley took a deep breath, exhaled, and took another deep breath.

He stood up and said, "I'm going to ask them."

Chen Nian: “Who should I ask?”

"My father or cinnabar."

"Don't go yet." Chen Nian gently tugged at his sleeve with her fingertips. It was more like a light touch than a tug, as he couldn't exert any strength.

"It's a good thing that I caught that thing, and I wasn't really hurt too badly—"

Finally, Shafley almost shouted: "If your heart wasn't on the right side, you would be dead now!"

Chen Nian blinked and tried to comfort Alpha: "But everything is fine now, right? There is no if in this world."

"Okay, sit down. Stop looking at me like that. It's scary. Let's discuss this first. You calm down and go through it from beginning to end for me."

Shaflay took a few sharp breaths and sat back down in his chair.

This crisis tore his usual calmness and composure to pieces. When he thought of his beloved boy being pierced right in front of him and the blood soaking both of their bodies, Shaflay simply could not remain calm.

He raised his hand and rubbed his forehead vigorously, forcing himself not to be overwhelmed by anger and anxiety, and began to sort out the clues they knew so far.

"So this is a story of a mantis stalking a cicada, unaware of the oriole behind," Chen Nian concluded. "The Beacon side successfully captured the culprit of the Chen family arson case at the cost of my injury, and if nothing unexpected happens, Chen Nian and I should not have any problems because of this anymore."

"It's actually a good thing to think carefully, which is much better than having your heart hanging in your throat all the time, not knowing when you will be attacked by surprise."

"I can't accept you as the price for this."

"But it has already happened, what can we do?" Chen Nian said softly, "Maybe my heart is also part of this plan. What's wrong with you today? I thought you would have a better overall view than me."

"If it was me lying on the bed right now, I could certainly say that, but just thinking about how close I almost was to losing you, I'm..."

Shafley couldn't continue. He pursed his lips and silently grasped Chen Nian's hand. The boy still had the pulse oxygen clip from the monitoring device on his index finger.

...You're not going to cry again, are you?

At this moment, Chen Nian finally determined that all the entanglements he had experienced because of Shafla, the tears he had shed, and the changes he had worked hard to make were worth it.

"Shapley," he called softly, "kiss me."

In response to the boy's request, Shafla leaned over and gently touched his lips.

It was a very gentle kiss, like an Alpha facing a rare and fragile item. Chen Nian no longer led everything as forcefully as usual and took the initiative.

This time, he only needed to feel Shaflay's tenderness and care.

The kiss ended. Perhaps it was because of the pheromones absorbed by Shaflay that Chen Nian felt much calmer and the tension in his subconscious mind also subsided.

The bland mouth now contains a faint aroma of wine.

"After what happened just now, I know I have no right to say that I can protect you in the future, but Chen Nian, I will do my best to prevent you from getting hurt again, even if it means sacrificing my life."

Chen Nian hummed softly, and Shafulai gently brushed away the strands of hair on his forehead and whispered, "Go to sleep. I will stay here with you."

Chen Nian was really tired. He talked a lot when he first woke up after being seriously injured, and he also received too much earth-shattering news. Both his body and mind were extremely tired, and he fell into a deep sleep within a few seconds.

Shafley stared at his sleeping face. The dark hair at his temples made Chen Nian's face look even paler. His usually rosy lips had lost their color because of the kiss just now, which made them slightly wet. Perhaps because he felt pain, his brows were slightly wrinkled and his eyelashes trembled from time to time.

Shafley picked up the terminal and prepared to send a message to Chen Ci, but suddenly hesitated.

Since the enemy is inside, is it possible that his terminal is also being monitored?

Is there a risk of being exposed if I contact Chen Ci now?

The monster has been caught, so they should be able to have some peace for the time being. Besides, he has to report to Chen Ci that he is safe.

Shafley didn't think any more about it. He sent a message to tell Chen Ci about Chen Nian's current condition and what she had experienced yesterday, and asked Chen Ci not to worry too much.

[I'll go back and find out the details of that monster. Maybe after a while, I'll go to Sanshui to find you and go to Moonlight together.]