Monster Cub Live Stream – CH61

Chapter 61

Mo Dexin was startled. “Are you sure?”

Lin An’an nodded without the slightest hesitation.

“The method used to control him is rather… vicious,” he said in a low voice, his gaze dark and unreadable. “The target’s consciousness has to be completely erased before they can be fully controlled.”

“In other words, my father no longer has any consciousness at all.”

Mo Dexin asked, “By no consciousness, do you mean he’s in a coma? Or—”

Lin An’an closed his eyes briefly. “Brain dead.”

Mo Dexin sucked in a breath, and Feng Wu also lifted his eyes and glanced toward Xia Jiyuan.

“With mild control, it’s enough for the person to be unconscious,” Lin An’an analyzed, lowering his gaze. “But judging from my father’s condition, he’s been under control for a very long time. If someone is kept in a fully controlled state for that long, simple unconsciousness isn’t enough. Their sense of self has to be completely wiped out.”

Using Mo Dexin as cover, Feng Wu caught Lin An’an’s hand at his side, gave it a gentle squeeze, then let go.

“Can he still be saved?” he asked.

Lin An’an shook his head. “Even if we break the control, brain death can’t be reversed. Physical death is only a matter of time.”

In other words, Xia Jiyuan was already no different from a dead man.

A hush fell over the hidden little corner.

Before coming here, none of them had imagined things would turn out like this.

In the end, Lin An’an was the one who broke the silence. “All right, let’s not talk about this for now.”

Their original plan had been to use the birthday banquet as a chance to speak to Xia Changluo and secretly pass him a message arranging a private meeting for another time.

But now that Xia Changluo had left early, they would have to find another way. At the very least, they had to make contact with him first before they could create any future opportunity to talk.

Lin An’an said, “At lunch, my brother will definitely appear and dine with everyone. Let’s wait and see if we can find a chance to approach him then.”

The banquet proceeded in an orderly fashion. The imperial chefs quickly replaced the wine and food on the tables with the noon meal.

At a banquet like this, everyone’s seating had already been arranged in advance.

As expected, Mo Dexin was seated at the same table as Yu Jin and Xia Yuanhan. Xia Jiyuan and Xia Changluo sat at another table, together with other members of the royal family.

Lin An’an and Feng Wu were assigned to a third table, not far from either Mo Dexin’s table or Xia Changluo’s. The three tables formed a rough triangle.

Lin An’an secretly observed the room and noticed that the guards who had been following Xia Changluo were nowhere inside the main hall. Only Uncle Lu was seated beside him.

That made sense. No matter how much Xia Yuanhan wanted to keep Xia Changluo under constant watch, he could hardly have several guards shadowing him step for step during his own birthday luncheon.

That would have looked too strange—far too likely to arouse suspicion.

Lin An’an’s heart stirred. This might actually be a good opportunity.

Perhaps because he was feeling unwell, Xia Changluo ate very little. Before long, he set down his chopsticks and slowly sipped a cup of tea.

Seeing this, Uncle Lu leaned over and asked him something.

Lin An’an happened to have a clear view of the two of them. He discreetly fixed his eyes on their lips and read their lip movements.

Uncle Lu: “Your Highness, would you like to go back and rest first?”

Xia Changluo shook his head lightly. “No. It’s rare for them not to be around. I just want to sit here a little longer.”

“All right.” Uncle Lu nodded. “If you feel unwell, tell me.”

“Don’t worry, Uncle Lu.” Xia Changluo smiled. “Eat a little more. With them not here today, your appetite should be much better than usual, right?”

Lin An’an kept watching their every move.

Uncle Lu soon finished his meal. After sitting with Xia Changluo for a while longer, he rose and prepared to help him back to rest.

When Xia Changluo left early, he always used the rear exit of the hall. To get from their table to the back door, he had to pass by Lin An’an and Feng Wu’s table—unless the two of them took a longer route.

But Xia Changluo was unwell. Given how much Uncle Lu cared for him, there was no way he would choose to make him walk farther, even if it was only by a few steps.

Three steps. Two steps. One step…

Feng Wu timed it perfectly. Just as the distance between himself and Xia Changluo shortened to the absolute minimum, a strand of nearly imperceptible mental energy slipped out and precisely drilled into Xia Changluo’s ear.

“If you want to know about Xia Lin, come to the second floor of the main hall after the evening banquet—to the balcony with the angel statue.”

The disguised voice sounded as if it were right beside his ear. Xia Changluo’s pupils contracted sharply, and his steps faltered on instinct.

Uncle Lu noticed something was off and asked with concern, “Your Highness, what’s wrong?”

His reaction made it obvious—he had not heard the voice.

“Nothing,” Xia Changluo replied, quickly steadying his emotions. He waved a hand and said, “I probably walked too fast and got a little dizzy.”

Uncle Lu’s concern did not lessen. “All right, then let’s go slower.”

Xia Changluo nodded. Using the gleaming surfaces of the decorations in the hall as mirrors, he observed the rows of tables behind him, trying to identify who had just spoken into his ear.

But everyone was focused on eating. Occasionally someone glanced his way, yet the emotions on their faces were the usual familiar ones—pity, sympathy, curiosity…

He found nothing. He could not identify the person who had spoken to him in secret.

Xia Changluo lowered his eyes. It seemed he would have to wait until after the evening banquet.

After lunch, the banquet offered an assortment of carefully prepared entertainment and leisure activities, though no one was forced to participate.

Yu Jin seemed determined to drag Mo Dexin into everything today, so Mo Dexin was once again forced to join the afternoon activities.

That gave Lin An’an and Feng Wu a certain degree of freedom within a limited range.

The two of them stayed in the hall for a while, exchanging a few words with people who came up to chat. Fortunately, the men they were impersonating were known for being taciturn and unenthusiastic, so once people sensed that they weren’t very interested in conversation, they quickly moved on.

There was also a separate training ground within the palace grounds. Yu Jin took Mo Dexin and several others there. After following along, Lin An’an and Feng Wu took advantage of everyone’s attention being on the field and quietly slipped away again.

At that point, most of the banquet guests were participating in one activity or another. A smaller number had returned to the guest residence to rest.

Using rest as their excuse, Lin An’an and Feng Wu returned to their rooms, then secretly activated invisibility and slipped out again.

Their target was the main palace where Xia Changluo lived.

The main palace stood just behind the main hall. Lin An’an knew the area well. He himself had once lived there too, though he had rarely been allowed to leave the palace building.

There was a rear garden between the hall and the main palace. Seeing the garden, Lin An’an suddenly hooked a finger around Feng Wu’s and said, “Wolf bro, the first time I ever saw you, you were in this garden.”

Feng Wu paused slightly. “This garden?” He frowned and thought for a long while. “Sorry, I… don’t remember.”

“Of course you don’t remember.” Lin An’an smiled. “Because I saw you—you didn’t see me. You were here in the garden, and I was looking at you through the window from my room.”

Lin An’an pointed to a room on the third floor. Through the window, a bare flowerpot with nothing in it could just be seen.

“That room,” Lin An’an said. “That’s where I lived.”

“…The third floor?”

“Mm. The third floor.” Lin An’an nodded, as though he had not heard the real implication in Feng Wu’s words.

The main palace was where members of the imperial family lived. The higher one’s status, the higher the floor one occupied. The top floor belonged to the ruler of the nation, Xia Jiyuan, and the empress. The floor just below that was for the princes.

Yet Lin An’an’s room had not been on that floor.

Feng Wu pressed his lips together but said nothing. He only tightened his grip on Lin An’an’s hand, as though trying to comfort him through that small gesture.

The two of them circled the area around the main palace once and quickly sensed that something was wrong.

“There are way too many guards here,” Lin An’an said with a faint frown. “Compared to when I used to live here, the number’s increased several times over.”

“And not just the guards,” Feng Wu said, his expression grave. “The palace defense system isn’t the same one I remember either.”

With that many guards stationed outside, plus the entire defense system specially replaced—was all this really just for keeping Xia Changluo under surveillance?

Inwardly, Lin An’an rejected that idea.

Xia Changluo’s health was poor. Even if it were only he and Uncle Lu, with several guards already shadowing them every step of the way, escaping from the palace would have been impossible to begin with. There was no need to add so many extra guards outside the main palace.

As for Xia Jiyuan, he was already completely under Xia Yuanhan’s control, so there was no concern about him doing anything out of line.

That only left the others living in the main palace…

By Lin An’an’s generation, the imperial family had become quite small. Other than Xia Jiyuan and his three sons, only one child under the age of ten lived in the entire palace.

That child was Xia Youyou, the orphaned daughter of Xia Jiyuan’s younger brother. Lin An’an had met her a few times before, though not often, and they had never been especially close.

Clearly, Xia Yuanhan would not go to such lengths for a young child.

As for Xia Lin—already discarded by Xia Yuanhan and sent to Sin Star, supposedly dead in the Poison Mist Forest—he was even less of a possibility.

If it wasn’t any of them, then who was Xia Yuanhan guarding against? Surely not himself?

At that thought, something stirred in Lin An’an’s heart.

…Guarding against himself?

No—that wasn’t it. Xia Yuanhan was not guarding against the people living in the main palace. He was protecting something inside it.

Or rather, protecting someone—or something.

What could it be that made him go to such trouble, even spending a fortune to replace the entire palace defense system?

Lin An’an’s brows twitched. He instinctively turned toward Feng Wu, only to meet the other man’s golden eyes directly.

Seeing the look on Feng Wu’s face, Lin An’an suddenly smiled. “Wolf bro, looks like we were thinking the same thing.”

Feng Wu nodded. “Mm.”

“It seems the thing we want is hidden by Xia Yuanhan inside the main palace.”

Lin An’an murmured this, his eyes brightening as he looked up toward the room on the floor below the topmost one—the room that belonged to Xia Yuanhan.

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