Song Jin felt a bit fatigued. Leaning against Li Xiao, he wanted to close his eyes and rest for a moment, but unexpectedly ended up falling fast asleep.

By the time the car landed at the side hall, Li Xiao discovered that Song Jin was sound asleep. Truly reluctant to wake him, he spoke softly to the butler, Lin Hai, who was standing nearby: “Bring me a blanket.”

The butler nimbly retrieved a blanket and handed it over.

Li Xiao took it and draped it over Song Jin, carefully scooping him into his arms before ducking out of the car.

During this season on the Capital Planet, nighttime temperatures dropped to only four or five degrees Celsius, with heavy winds swirling with yellow sand. Carrying a sleeping kitten out like this would surely cause him to catch a cold.

Noticing Li Xiao’s intent, the butler asked respectfully, “Should I call the indoor shuttle over?”

“No need.” Carrying the soft, warm kitten, Li Xiao strode inside the hall.

The indoor climate control system was on. The butler, Lin Hai, took the blanket and stepped aside: “Meals have already been prepared for you.”

Li Xiao walked straight toward his bedroom: “I’ll call you if needed. Dismissed.”

Lin Hai: “Yes, Your Highness.”

Only a single dim nightlight was lit in the bedroom.

Li Xiao placed Song Jin on the bed, took off his shoes, pulled up the quilt to cover him, and gazed at his sleeping face under the faint light.

When asleep, Song Jin’s sharp edges softened, making his exquisite facial features and bone structure stand out even more. Every single pore was crafted precisely to Li Xiao’s aesthetic tastes.

Li Xiao felt he could sit and watch him all day.

“You said you were going to mark me.”

Leaning over Song Jin, Li Xiao asked in a low voice, “Since you’ve fallen asleep, should we forget it then? I’ll count to three. If you don’t wake up, I’ll take it as your tacit agreement.”

Song Jin’s breathing was long and steady, showing no signs of waking at all. He truly seemed exhausted.

“One… two…”

Unable to resist the temptation, Li Xiao lowered his head and kissed him gently.

A subtle rustle came from the outer hall. Li Xiao raised his head alertly, tucked the quilt around Song Jin, turned, and walked out of the bedroom.

On the balcony, Wei Feng was just about to knock twice more when he saw no movement, but the door was suddenly opened from the inside, revealing Li Xiao.

“I thought you two hadn’t come back yet.”

Blowing in with the cold wind, Wei Feng sneezed. “The Capital Planet is actually such a godforsaken place filled with swirling sand? Can’t you switch to an environment with better air?”

Li Xiao took off his formal suit jacket and hooked a finger around his tie to loosen it: “This is the Royal Family’s home planet.”

This was Wei Feng’s first time in the side hall, and he looked around at his surroundings.

Compared to the main hall, the decor here was far less ostentatious and wouldn’t blind anyone’s eyes.

Wei Feng hung his military coat over the sofa’s armrest, turned to Li Xiao, and asked point-blank: “I’ve already obtained the confession. When are you going to help overturn the case for the Bique Tribe?”

Li Xiao: “I haven’t finished watching it yet.”

Wei Feng looked on in disbelief: “What the hell were you doing all night, boss?”

“Keep it down, Xiaojin is asleep.”

Li Xiao raised his hand, projecting a virtual screen from his palm, and sat down to watch it again.

Noticing the wine cabinet nearby, Wei Feng took it upon himself to go look for some good liquor to drink.

“Are you an old alcoholic? Collecting so much liquor when you’ve just reached adulthood.”

A bottle of unlabelled white liquor stood out prominently among the top-tier red wines. Curious, Wei Feng picked it up to take a look; a handwritten sticky note was attached near the neck of the bottle.

“Plum blossom wine?”

“It’s not mine.”

Looking at the screen, Li Xiao said, “This used to be Li Xun’s bedchamber.”

“Li Xun? My unseen wife?”

As Wei Feng spoke, he poured a glass and took a sip. “His taste was really not bad.”

Ignoring him, Li Xiao concentrated on watching the surveillance video to extract key information from Meng Shan’s statements.

This video revealed at least five crucial points:

1. The Meng family’s large-scale genocidal campaign was carried out to nip superior genes in the bud and solidify the Meng family’s status.
2. Zhang Qiming’s death was directly linked to Meng Shan; the personal grudge between the two was also a major reason the Gaofeng Tribe was targeted.
3. Seventy-six years ago, the first batch of Z152 fighters bombing Sector 68 was a trap set to lure the Golden Peafowl Legion into the fold. Even if the Golden Peafowl Legion hadn’t gone, the Meng family would still have launched a biological war against the Gaofeng Tribe.
4. The Golden Peafowl Legion very likely had a secret agreement with Grandfather Li Ye.
5. A mole had emerged during that war back then, but Meng Shan did not confess who it was.

Li Xiao thought back to the whistleblower list Wei Feng had given him.

He had spent half a month organizing thousands of involved personnel, all belonging to the Meng, Zheng, and Qi families.

Deduled from the timeline, the Meng and Qi families had banded together even earlier.

Could the mole be from the Qi family?

As soon as the thought flashed across his mind, Li Xiao quickly dismissed it.

Seventy-six years ago, Qi Shoude had not yet risen to the position of Lieutenant General in charge.

Compared to the Meng and Zheng families, the Qi family had the weakest foundation. Qi Shoude’s abilities among contemporary military commanders were not particularly outstanding either; his rise to power was entirely backed by the Meng family.

If the Qi family wanted to gain a firm foothold at the center of the power struggle, they had no choice but to attach themselves to the Meng family.

It could be said that the Qi family was merely a lackey promoted by the Meng family after eliminating their rivals.

Did such a Qi family have the capability to obtain intelligence earlier than the Meng family? The probability was extremely low.

“Who do you think this mole is?”

Seeing Li Xiao deep in thought, Wei Feng walked over.

Li Xiao shook his head: “The Zheng family, the inner palace attendants at the time, or mid-to-high-ranking officers in the Golden Peafowl Legion—all are possibilities.”

Wei Feng clicked his tongue in annoyance: “With so many suspects, isn’t that as good as having none at all?”

Seventy-six years had passed. Almost everyone from the Golden Peafowl Legion was dead, and those who served in the palace back then, even if still alive, were all centenarians now. They might very well have senile dementia and be unable to care for themselves; how could they investigate?

Li Xiao: “Tomorrow I’ll talk to my brother. You go back first.”

Wei Feng: “What about the news on the internet?”

Li Xiao: “There’s no rush. What’s the fun in minor squabbles? Sometimes, endurance is just waiting for the best moment to deal the enemy a fatal blow.”

Hearing the implication in his words, Wei Feng asked, confused, “You want to blow this up? How big?”

Li Xiao stood up, looking at Meng Shan’s crazed, distorted face on the screen: “If we can’t destroy the Meng family all at once, then we’ll wipe them out on a societal level first.”

Weren’t these the exact words Old Man Meng had spoken?

Wei Feng: “An eye for an eye? The Meng family isn’t as easy to pick on as us.”

Li Xiao: “Enemies you can see are never frightening.”

Before leaving, Wei Feng snatched a bottle of fine wine from the cabinet, only to be called out by Li Xiao just as he reached the door: “It’s just a bottle of wine, you can’t be that stingy, right?”

Li Xiao: “You didn’t leave any traces behind at Lisha Castle, did you?”

“Of course not.”

Carrying the wine bottle on his shoulder, Wei Feng said with complete confidence, “Your dad is a T0-tier professional killer. How could I make such an amateur mistake?”

Li Xiao asked no further, turning to head back to the room: “That bottle of wine offsets one year of your service fee.”

Wei Feng: “…”

Is it too late to put it back now?

Stepping out of the inner hall, brushed by the cold wind outside, Wei Feng belatedly remembered something and stroked his chin thoughtfully.

“A single cigarette butt… shouldn’t be that big of a deal, right?”

While Li Xiao and Song Jin slept soundly head-to-head in the soft, plush bed, the internet was once again submerged in a new wave of public opinion.

Less than two hours after the birthday banquet at Lisha Castle was forced to an early end, Meng Zai instructed people to post photos taken at the venue online, fabricating various melodramatic articles in an attempt to steer public opinion toward claims that Li Xiao and Song Jin had chaotic private lives.

The photos showed Li Xiao socializing in the main hall and Song Jin chatting with Omegas in the greenhouse lounge. Taken from sneaky angles, they created the illusion that both men were acting intimate with these Omegas.

Once the photos were posted, the entire internet exploded.

Guided by the paid internet trolls, the comment sections under related topics were horrifying to read.

The harder fans shipped the CP, the more heartbroken they felt seeing such tabloid news, with massive numbers of netizens declaring they would never believe in love again.

However, before the public opinion could linger for long, video clips of Li Xiao dragging Meng Fei through the banquet hall in a rage surfaced under the topic #LiXiaoAndSongJinPlayTheField#.

Meng Fei’s face was blurred, but the original audio was intact, which was quickly decoded by all-powerful netizens.

In an instant, the Meng family was flamed onto the trending topics list once again.

“According to my calculations, as expected, another villain is trying to harm our Second Prince.”

“I told you those photos were fake! They’re obviously taken using forced perspective angles.”

“Great. Drugging someone with passion-arousing incense fits my exact stereotype of nobles.”

“Help, does anyone know how Song Jin is doing? Mommy is so worried he got bullied by bad Omegas, sob sob!”

“I checked Song Jin’s Shengya Empire account, no new updates yet, I’m dying of anxiety!”

“How could Li Xiao not be angry? I’m about to explode with rage myself!”

“Damn it! Who dares to break up my CP? You just wait!”

#MengFamilyOmegasDruggingSomeone# dominated the trending list with overwhelming heat. Before long, many media accounts came out to clout-chase.

[Cold knowledge: The Royal Family practices polygamy. The Second Prince can still marry again after marrying Song Jin.]

[No way, no way? Am I the only one who thinks the Second Prince will definitely marry again? No matter how good Song Jin is, he’s still an Alpha. He can’t bear children, nor can he accompany the Second Prince through his susceptibility period.]

[Everyone, please stay rational. Although drugging someone is wrong, Omegas have the right to pursue the Second Prince.]

[What kind of bots are coming out to whitewash the Meng family? I don’t need to spell it out, right?]

By midnight, public opinion had completely shifted toward condemning the Omegas who drugged the prince. Yet regarding whether Li Xiao would take a second wife, netizens were surprisingly tolerant.

Though no one said it out loud, everyone understood in their hearts that as a member of the Royal Family, it was impossible for Li Xiao to truly spend his whole life with an Alpha.

Even knowing this, however, it couldn’t stop them from shipping the CP. What if a miracle happened?

The next morning, Meng Zai sat in his study until dawn, unshaven and with a ash-pale face. In front of him was an ashtray overflowing with cigarette butts.

His son, Meng Tao, had been taken away by the Royal Guard. In the past, a single word could have gotten him released, but this time, he couldn’t even dig up any news.

He had only just been released from the Security Bureau for a short while, and now he was back in custody again!

Early in the morning, Adjutant Lin Xu arrived at Meng Zai’s home, entering the smoke-filled study to report the news.

“The Shengya Empire’s military began withdrawing their troops from the border today. It is expected that they will all be evacuated within three days.”

Meng Zai stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray.

“Have them calculate the losses as quickly as possible.”

Lin Xu: “Yes, the orders have already been given.”

Regarding Shengya Empire’s bizarre anti-crime crackdown this time, whether the Shengya military gained any advantage was unknown, but the Meng family was definitely the biggest victim.

Their secret outposts on the border were blasted to pieces, many of their stored weapon caches were discovered and confiscated, and even their feed base was blown up with only a third remaining.

Most infuriating of all was that they couldn’t find a single justification to strike back.

Even if they manufactured an unrelated excuse to deal with Shengya Empire, it would only invite an even larger-scale retaliation, making the losses outweigh the gains.

Just as they were speaking, the assistant knocked and stepped inside.

“Sir, the public opinion online is heading in the wrong direction. Do we need to suppress it?”

With a dark expression, Meng Zai said in an extremely impatient tone, “Do you even need to ask?! Suppress it!”

Terrified, the assistant hastily complied.

“I’ll notify the technical department immediately.”

Before he could step out the door, his terminal vibrated again. The assistant tapped it open to take a look, his face abruptly changing color.

“Sir… someone posted photos of the Old Master online!”

“What?”

In shock, Meng Zai opened the network platform. The number one trending topic was—Meng Shan Mentally Deranged.

Lisha Castle, Meng Shan’s bedroom.

Meng Shan had slept soundly all night, waking up past nine in the morning only to find one of his legs fixed in place by medical equipment and bandages wrapped around his face. Remembering what happened last night, he sat up abruptly and shouted toward the doorway: “Someone come here!”

The old butler rushed in quickly: “Master, you’re awake!”

Meng Shan: “Was the person from last night caught?!”

The old butler asked, puzzled: “Who?”

Meng Shan: “The person who entered my room!”

Feeling a chill run through his heart, the old butler said with difficulty, “Last night you were resting in the room all by yourself; no one went in.”

“Impossible!”

Meng Shan roared furiously, “That person looked exactly like Wei Feng! I saw it with my own eyes!”

“Please don’t get too excited.” The old butler handed him a glass of water. “I was guarding the door all night yesterday. There really was no one. But later, you had me go fetch clothes, and by the time I came back, you had somehow fallen down the stairs. The whole process took less than two minutes.”

Meng Shan was shocked.

“I walked out of the room?!”

The old butler nodded: “Yes, that’s how you got injured from the fall. The doctor said it might be somnambulism. Do you have no recollection of it?”

Meng Shan recalled repeatedly, but he still couldn’t remember how he had walked out of the room. On the contrary, Wei Feng’s face appeared with utmost clarity before his eyes. A deep sense of fear made him tremble uncontrollably all over.

Wei Feng had been dead for decades; could it really be his hallucination?

“You must be hungry, right? I’ll go fetch breakfast right now.” Saying this, the old butler turned and left the room.

Meng Shan was in utter confusion, leaning against the headboard as he began to doubt himself.

Just as he was preparing to make a video call to his son, Meng Jian, to ask about last night’s situation, he caught sight of his own name in a push notification at a single glance, instantly flying into a rage.

Under the related topics, the very first post contained a photo of him lying stark naked on the stairs. Blood rushed to Meng Shan’s head: “Who took this picture and posted it online?! I’ll kill him!”

Having lived for over a hundred years, he had never been humiliated like this!

Meng Shan grabbed the water glass and slammed it out. Inadvertently, he saw a flattened cigarette butt lying on the nightstand, making his heart shrink violently.

“Impossible… impossible!”

Meng Shan reached out to grab that cigarette butt, wanting to confirm whether it actually existed or was just his imagination.

In his agitation, he used too much force and fell directly off the bed.

The steel plate on his left leg slammed right onto his healthy right leg, snapping the right leg as well.

“AH!” Holding his leg, Meng Shan squirmed violently on the floor in unbearable pain.

When the old butler returned, he saw that Meng Shan was having another episode. Fearing his blood vessels might burst, he hurriedly notified the medical staff to come over and administer a sedative. While cleaning up the glass fragments, he casually threw the cigarette butt into the trash.

Royal Palace, Side Hall.

Song Jin slept straight through until the next morning, feeling warm and completely refreshed all over.

“Awake?”

Li Xiao emerged from the dressing room and sat down by the bed, pressing his palm against Song Jin’s forehead to check his temperature.

Song Jin let him check.

Compared to yesterday, Li Xiao’s gaze was much calmer and less aggressive, looking almost the same as usual.

“Is your susceptibility period over?” Song Jin asked.

Li Xiao: “Probably close enough.”

Song Jin: “Probably? You didn’t test it?”

Li Xiao: “Too troublesome.”

Song Jin: “…”

This guy didn’t care about himself at all.

“I’ll test it for you.”

Song Jin sat up, but his movements pulled on the wound over his gland, causing him to pause. Suddenly remembering something, he pounced over and yanked open Li Xiao’s collar.

Li Xiao wrapped an arm around his waist, afraid he might fall.

“So passionate early in the morning?”

Seeing that there was nothing on Li Xiao’s gland, Song Jin hugged his neck to bite down, but was blocked by an outstretched hand.

“You promised. Move your hand.”

Li Xiao pressed against his forehead to push him back: “You said you didn’t want to anymore.”

Song Jin pulled his hand away: “When did I say that?”

Taking advantage of the moment, Li Xiao pulled Song Jin onto his lap and played the video recorded last night: “Evidence.”

After watching it with confusion, Song Jin smiled coldly: “Do you know how to spell shameless, Li Coal-ball?”

Li Xiao felt no guilt whatsoever: “Who told you to fall asleep? Offer expired.”

“Expired or not, do I need your permission to bite you when I want to?”

Song Jin forcibly tackled him down.

Ten minutes later, Song Jin failed to bite anyone, but his lips ended up kissed swollen instead.

An Alpha in their susceptibility period was indeed unreasonable.

After breakfast, Li Xiao intended to head to the main hall to discuss matters with Li Ji. Walking out of the inner hall, he saw Jiang Chi in the garden pulling weeds alongside other attendants, completely treating himself as a servant.

Noticing Li Xiao and Song Jin under the long corridor, Jiang Chi walked over, Vaulting over the railing using his hands to jump into the corridor: “Any assignments for me?”

Li Xiao: “No. Your only job right now is to recover your memories.”

“…” Jiang Chi felt a bitter taste in his mouth. “Memories aren’t something I can just recover whenever I want. I have no leads at all.”

Song Jin complained: “You pull weeds here every day; what could you possibly remember?”

Jiang Chi: “I don’t have anywhere else to go either.”

“Go to the Military District,” Li Xiao chimed in. “Later, I’ll arrange identity credentials for you. Go walk around the Military District for an hour every day.”

“The Military District?!”

With a face full of shock, Jiang Chi said, “Aren’t I tired of living?”

Li Xiao: “I’ll have Dashi disguise you.”

Jiang Chi: “…”

King’s Office.

When Li Xiao and Song Jin arrived, Li Ji had just finished a meeting.

After watching this piece of surveillance footage of Meng Shan, Li Ji felt both enraged and deeply helpless, falling silent for a long moment.

“Regarding the mole he mentioned, I have no leads either.”

“Grant me access permissions to the database; I want to go through the records from back then again.”

After saying that, Li Xiao added another sentence, “Additionally, I also want to see the DNA test report from when I was born.”

Li Ji was stunned, knitting his brows in displeasure.

“Why do you want to see that? Didn’t I already say that you’re my brother?”

“I’m not doubting that point,” Li Xiao spoke calmly. “I just want to know what happened back then.”

If he were merely born to a climbing-into-bed attendant, that would be one thing; but he happened to carry Wei Feng’s genes.

When he was born, Wei Feng had already been dead for decades. This was clearly not the result of natural conception, and might even carry a clear, specific purpose.

Seeing Li Ji hesitating and refusing to nod, Song Jin rested his chin on his hand and asked with an amused smile: “You’re not afraid your brother won’t acknowledge you, are you?”

Li Ji’s brows remained tightly furrowed.

“He wouldn’t do that.”

Song Jin: “Then what are you worried about?”

Li Ji kept his face taut and remained silent.

Wei Feng stood behind Li Ji with folded arms: “You don’t get it, do you? If it turns out the Second Prince has no blood relation to him, it would be the death of him.”

Li Ji slammed his teacup down heavily: “First rule of basic guard protocol: Do not speak out of turn!”

Wei Feng: “…”

Did I hit a sore spot? What a damn brother-con.

A moment later, the four of them went to the Royal Confidential Database together. Li Ji personally accessed the DNA report from when Li Xiao was born.

“This is the first time I’m seeing this as well.”

Li Xiao looked at the window enlarged in midair.

The DNA report showed that he had blood relations with both former King and his spouse, which was blatantly fake; the handler was Jin Heng.

The DNA report at birth was not made public; only a very select few could access it, and the testing process was strictly supervised, making falsification almost impossible.

Under such a premise, for a fake report to be produced, the most likely explanation Li Xiao could think of was—this was authorized by his father to conceal his true life origin.

Even if born to an attendant, it could be truthfully recorded; yet his was not allowed to be.

Could it really be that his father created him solely to improve genetic traits?

“The DNA report is fake, but the DNA data shouldn’t be fake,” Song Jin looked at Li Ji. “There should be Li Xun’s DNA in the database, right?”

Knowing what he wanted to ask, Li Ji operated the system directly.

Li Xun’s and Li Xiao’s DNA data were placed together for comparison.

【Comparing, please wait— 52% — 93% — 100% Comparison Complete!】

Li Xiao unconsciously began to feel nervous.

Subtly sensing the shift in Li Xiao’s emotions, Song Jin quietly took his hand.

【Prompt: Supports a parent-child relationship between the two.】