Monster Cub Live Stream – CH59

Chapter 59

Supported by someone at his side, Xia Changluo walked with great difficulty. A stretch of road that should have taken only moments took him a very long time, and in the end he stopped in front of Bai Cenrou’s grave.

Feng Wu and Lin An’an were standing not far behind Bai Cenrou’s headstone. The invisibility bracelets concealed them perfectly, and neither Xia Changluo nor the other four people with him noticed their presence.

Only then did Lin An’an get a clear look at Xia Changluo.

Xia Changluo was very thin and very pale, but it was the kind of thinness and pallor that carried a sickly cast. Even his lips lacked any healthy color, tinged instead with a faint bluish purple.

He looked a lot like the Xia Changluo in Lin An’an’s memory—and yet not quite the same.

In his memory, his elder brother had been born with a congenital heart condition, and his health had never been particularly good.

But with the royal healers and all kinds of medicine keeping him going, his elder brother’s daily life had not been greatly affected. At most, he had simply been somewhat frail and often ill, but he had definitely never been so weak that he needed help even to walk.

It had been less than half a year since they had last met. What on earth had his brother gone through in just these few months?

Lin An’an frowned, unable to know the truth, but instinctively feeling that this, too, was connected to his “good second brother.”

Standing before Bai Cenrou’s grave, Xia Changluo’s expression had not changed much from before, but his eyes were full of deep, almost overwhelming sorrow.

He waved his hand, signaling the person supporting him to step back, and wobbled as he tried to crouch down. But he nearly tilted to one side and fell to the ground.

Fortunately, the person beside him reacted quickly and caught him before he could collapse.

“It’s only been less than three days, yet my body already seems so much worse,” Xia Changluo said in a faint voice, his breathing slightly ragged, almost as though he were talking to himself. “Now I can’t even squat down anymore. Aunt Bai, am I really that useless?”

Naturally, the gravestone gave him no answer. Only the woman’s photograph looked quietly back at him, still wearing that same gentle smile.

Xia Changluo beckoned to someone behind him and took from another person’s hand a beautifully wrapped bouquet of white lilies, which he gently set down in front of the grave.

“My birthday is tomorrow. Father and Yuanhan are holding a birthday banquet for me,” Xia Changluo said softly. “Tomorrow is bound to be very busy, and I definitely won’t have time to come see you, so I could only squeeze in a visit tonight.”

As he spoke, a shadow of pain flashed across his eyes. “A-Lin, he…”

Hearing Xia Changluo suddenly mention him, Lin An’an could not help stepping forward, wanting to hear what his brother intended to say about him.

But Xia Changluo did not continue.

He pressed his lips together and stared fixedly at Bai Cenrou’s photo for a long time. In the end, he let out a sigh and, with help from the person beside him, struggled back to his feet, nearly swaying and falling again.

Lin An’an and Feng Wu followed behind them, watching Xia Changluo stagger out of the mausoleum and climb into an imperial hover car.

Only after the hover car had disappeared into the distant darkness did Lin An’an let out a quiet sigh and say softly, “Wolf bro, let’s head back too. If we stay out too long, Yu Jin and the others might notice something’s off.”

Feng Wu nodded and tightened his grip on Lin An’an’s hand.

It was only after the two of them returned to their room that Lin An’an took a deep breath and said, “In my memory, my eldest brother and second brother were both always very good to me.”

“Because I was the publicly acknowledged ‘useless third prince,’ Father never liked me. He wouldn’t allow me to leave the palace, and he wouldn’t allow me to appear in public. Most of my time was spent in the palace. When I was little, Mother took care of me. Later on, only the servants remained around me, but both my elder brother and second brother often came to see me.”

Feng Wu poured him a cup of warm water and handed it to him as Lin An’an continued speaking.

Lin An’an took a sip. “After I realized my second brother wasn’t actually sincere to me, I also suspected my eldest brother. I wondered whether he too… But after seeing him tonight, I feel that he’s different from Xia Yuanhan. He was sincere.”

Feng Wu gave a low hum and reached out to wrap an arm around his shoulders, drawing him into his embrace.

“I heard from Mom that when my eldest brother was young, he was weak and often sick. Before he awakened his ability, Father didn’t really like him either. He thought that as a prince, having such a useless body meant he’d never amount to much.”

“But my eldest brother was very capable. His ability is cognitive enhancement, and he’s incredibly gifted in mechanical design. You should know that too, wolf bro. In recent years, several S-class mecha design blueprints were produced by him.”

Feng Wu nodded. “I know. When Mo Dexin’s Black Crow was being designed, the First Prince gave some assistance.”

“Right, so in my impression, eldest brother was always actually more capable than second brother. But because his health wasn’t good, he couldn’t visit me as often as Xia Yuanhan did, so in the end I wasn’t as close to him as I was to Xia Yuanhan.”

Lin An’an frowned. “Thinking back now, I was really too stupid then.”

“You weren’t stupid,” Feng Wu corrected, disapproving. “You just didn’t have much contact with outsiders and didn’t know how complicated people’s hearts could be. So you were a bit… innocent.”

Lin An’an accepted the correction readily. “All right then, a bit innocent.”

Feng Wu curved his lips and pulled him a little closer.

“Wolf bro, did you notice those people who were always following eldest brother around?” Lin An’an suddenly asked.

“I did.”

Lin An’an drained the rest of the water in his cup. “Among the four of them, I only recognized the one who was supporting eldest brother the whole time. He’s Uncle Lu. Because my eldest brother has always been in poor health and needed care, he’s been by his side since my brother was very young.”

“But the other few…” Lin An’an frowned. “I don’t recognize any of them. Every single one was unfamiliar. I’ve never seen them in my brother’s personal guard before.”

Feng Wu thought for a moment. “The feeling they gave me wasn’t that they were protecting the First Prince. It was more like—”

He paused, and almost in unison he and Lin An’an said, “They were monitoring him.”

Lin An’an arched a brow. “As expected. If you feel the same way too, then my instincts weren’t wrong.”

Those men were clearly wearing the uniforms of the royal guard, but the way they stayed glued to Xia Changluo’s side did not feel like protection at all.

Lin An’an complained, “Who brings three guards with them when visiting a grave late at night? And even if the mausoleum is in a relatively remote location, it’s still inside palace grounds. There’s no way there could be any major danger there. Uncle Lu’s abilities are pretty decent too. With him there, that should’ve been enough. But bringing three more guards…”

“No matter how you look at it, it’s abnormal,” he concluded. “And my eldest brother probably had a lot he wanted to say to my mother, but because those people were present, he couldn’t say any of it.”

Feng Wu agreed. “Yes. For the past six months, the First Prince has been keeping a very low profile. The official explanation has been poor health, and that his mechanical design work had hit a bottleneck, so he was resting in the palace.”

Lin An’an let out a light scoff. “Poor health, bottleneck… My second brother really found himself a good excuse. With a reason like that, who would suspect anything?”

At this point, he was already basically certain that Xia Yuanhan was behind his eldest brother’s current condition too.

Lin An’an tugged at the corner of his mouth, feeling that the younger him must really have been blind to an astonishing degree, to have believed Xia Yuanhan had ever been sincerely good to him.

Feng Wu gently patted his shoulder. “Tomorrow is the birthday banquet. Get some rest early tonight.”

“Mm.” Lin An’an did not refuse, but suddenly thought of something. “My eldest brother isn’t in good health, so tomorrow he definitely won’t appear at the banquet for long. With so many people guarding him now, trying to see him… is going to be much harder than we expected.”

“All the more reason to rest,” Feng Wu said. “Don’t overthink the First Prince for now. We don’t know what tomorrow will bring, so we’ll adapt when the time comes. As long as I’m here, you don’t need to worry about not being able to see him.”

As he spoke, he pulled Lin An’an up from the sofa and lightly pushed at his back, trying to urge him off to rest.

Lin An’an turned around in one swift motion and grabbed Feng Wu’s hand, his tone slightly aggrieved. “No way, wolf bro. Are you really planning to sleep in separate rooms tonight?”

“Se-separate rooms?” Feng Wu froze, the rims of his ears starting to redden again. “How is this sleeping in separate rooms…”

“If it isn’t, then can’t I just sleep here tonight? The bed here is huge anyway.” Lin An’an looked up at him, sounding utterly justified.

“This is the palace guest residence. No one’s doing room inspections. And even if someone does come, it’s fine—the balconies at the back are connected. I can just slip back to my own room from there.”

The reasoning was airtight. Feng Wu could not find a reason to refuse. More importantly, he did not want to refuse, so he coughed lightly and said, “All right.”

Xia Changluo’s birthday banquet was being held in the main palace hall. The hall opened to guests at seven in the morning, though the banquet itself would not officially begin until ten.

Mo Dexin had been dragged to the hall by Yu Jin first thing in the morning, and as Mo Dexin’s current “followers,” Feng Wu and Lin An’an naturally and dutifully followed behind.

An extremely lavish breakfast had been prepared in the main hall. Mo Dexin had told them in advance about Fang Liang and He Wen’s preferences, so Feng Wu and Lin An’an selected food based on those tastes.

“Fang Liang actually doesn’t like sweets. What a waste. The imperial chefs are really good…” Lin An’an muttered softly.

Mo Dexin and Yu Jin were sitting some distance away from them, and no one else was nearby, so there was no need to worry about being overheard.

Feng Wu looked at the pile of pastries and sweets on his plate and felt helpless.

The person he was impersonating, He Wen, apparently had a sweet tooth. Feng Wu himself was not picky with food, but just looking at that pile of desserts was enough to make him feel overly sweetened already.

Lin An’an, meanwhile, was openly envious. “If only we could switch.”

Feng Wu comforted him. “Soon enough. Once you go back, you can have the imperial chefs make as many as you like.”

After breakfast, there was still some time before the banquet officially began. Yu Jin invited Mo Dexin for a walk in the gardens.

Lin An’an and Feng Wu had intended to follow along, but Yu Jin cast them a look and said with a smile, “Vice Commander Mo and I have something to discuss.”

The implication was clear—they were not wanted there.

Naturally, Feng Wu and Lin An’an understood what he meant, but they still turned to look at Mo Dexin. Only after Mo Dexin gave them a slight nod did the two of them turn and leave.

After walking some distance, Lin An’an glanced back in Mo Dexin’s direction, only to realize that the two of them were already nowhere in sight.

“So Yu Jin is starting the next step of his plan, huh,” Lin An’an said. “He’s being pretty cautious.”

Feng Wu gave an unreadable hum and fastened an invisible micro-earpiece onto Lin An’an’s ear.

Yu Jin’s voice immediately came through the earpiece.

“Vice Commander Mo, have you given any thought to what I brought up earlier?”

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