The huge dormitory suddenly became quiet.
In a flash, Alfred looked at Xiu’s confused face and suddenly realised a cruel fact – he didn’t knew.
Xiu, he didn’t even know that he wasn’t a member of the royal family…
“No, I mean…”
Alfred reflexively wanted to remedy the situation immediately, but before he could figure out how to do it, Xiu had already reacted.
“What paternity test?” Xiu asked anxiously, “To test who is related to whom?”
A great fear suddenly seized him, as if his subconscious already knew what was happening, but his brain refused to acknowledge it.
Alfred stammered, “No, no, I was just talking nonsense…”
“At that time, you couldn’t get anyone else’s blood, only your own blood.” Xiu murmured, “It was your and my identification, right?”
Unable to hide it any longer, Alfred could only admit, “…Yes.”
Xiu said absentmindedly, “Aren’t we… brothers? From the same father and mother?”
There was no need for Alfred to answer, Xiu knew that it was definitely not the case. If it was, Alfred would not have thought that he had learned some incredible secret.
“So we are… half-siblings?”
“Yes.” Alfred nodded immediately.
“You’re lying.” Xiu stared at Alfred and said palely, “You always look like this when you lie. Are we cousins?”
Alfred didn’t dare to avoid his gaze, fearing that his answer would be seen through at a glance. He almost forced himself to look at Xiu, but he looked like he was about to cry. He reached out and grabbed Xiu’s arm and said, “Brother…”
“Not even cousins.” Xiu nodded, “Not even cousins… There is no blood relationship at all.”
Alfred had never seen Xiu so distracted before. He forced himself to remain calm and said, “Don’t be in a hurry to make a judgement. The test results only show that you and I are not related by blood. Maybe I am not the prince? Look, you have the same hair colour as the emperor–“
This was pure nonsense. After all, Alfred has golden eyes, and if one of them is a fake prince, it can only be Xiu.
Even Alfred couldn’t continue speaking.. When he was thinking of excuses, Xiu asked, “Where is the real eldest prince?”
Alfred was stunned for a moment and asked, “What? The real eldest prince?”
“The baby whose identity I took was the first child of the late Queen Mother and His Majesty.” Xiu said, “Did he die young?”
“No…” Alfred hesitated, but now that he had said this, there was no point in hiding it anymore. If Xiu wanted to know, he would find out sooner or later, so it would be better for him to tell him.
Alfred pursed his lips and said truthfully, “There is no eldest prince. The queen mother…” At this moment, this title suddenly became ridiculous for him. Alfred paused, “…her old servant told me that she was only pregnant once.”
“…Once?”
“It was the time when she gave birth to me twenty-two years ago. Twenty-eight years ago, she wasn’t pregnant at all. At that time, she announced that she was not feeling well and needed to stay away from visitors to rest in order to cover up the false pregnancy… But in fact, her health was really not good at that time and she was not suitable for childbirth at all, so she died after giving birth.”
Xiu just thought it was ridiculous.
As long as he could remember, Xiu knew that he had a genetic defect, which made him inferior to ordinary people. He had the part of the gene that was eliminated by nature in the process of evolution. For the early empire, leaving it to nature was not safe enough, after all, the entire civilization had survived by sheer force against natural selection. So they made laws and carried out artificial intervention.
Most people with genetic defects are caused by failed genetic experiments. For human civilization, they have made no contributions but have worked hard. However, for the sake of the overall situation, they still need to be abandoned.
Although the law prohibiting people with genetic defects from reproducing was abolished decades ago, the reason for the abolition was that after so many generations, the number of people with genetic defects had become extremely small, and the total number was far from enough to have an impact on human civilization as a whole.
In other words, although it is no longer illegal for people with genetic defects to reproduce, the official attitude is still ‘not to encourage it.’
The upper class follows the lower class, and even in folk marriages, genetic defects are a taboo.
Someone once wrote a novel based on this theme, in which the hero and heroine fall in love, but because the hero has a genetic defect, they encounter all kinds of worldly obstacles. This novel was a banned book in the last era. Although now with the distance of the survival crisis, related concepts have been opened up a lot, but no one dares to openly sell this famous banned book in the market.
Even choosing a partner among ordinary people is a taboo, not to mention the royal family choosing a crown prince with genetic defects.
Xiu knew from a young age that he was not worthy of the throne because he had a genetic defect. The fact that he could sit on the throne of the crown prince and not be discriminated against was all because the late queen loved her child and tried her best to cover up for him.
The late queen told him many times that her prenatal checkup results were not good and her physical condition did not allow it. Many people advised her to abort the child and wait until she recovered before having another healthy one. But she was reluctant to give up the child in her belly and forced the birth, which also hurt her foundation.
For more than 20 years, Xiu had been blaming himself for the late queen’s death in childbirth, believing that it was because she had injured her body when giving birth to him – the late queen herself had told him this until her death.
For this reason, he dedicated his entire flawed life to the late queen.
But now he was told that the late queen had not ever been pregnant twenty-eight years ago.
The deep maternal love that made her risk her life to give a child life, the love that made her do everything she could to protect him from discrimination, were all lies.
He was just a tool used by the late queen to pave the way for her child.
Now, the beneficiary of this huge lie was right in front of him, having just finished enjoying his deformed body.
“I thought you knew.” Alfred tried to explain, looking very pale, “You told me on Xueli Star that you knew it since childhood, I thought…”
“I see.”
Xiu laughed miserably at himself.
“No wonder you were so fierce that day. So you thought I was an outsider who was trying to steal the throne… No, that’s not wrong. It’s true. I am an outsider.”
“Brother——”
“I’m not your elder brother.” Xiu said, vaguely remembering the first words Alfred said when he saw him at the starship port on Xueli Star.
‘You can say whatever you want, but don’t recognize anyone as your brother.’
‘So that’s what he meant at that time. It’s ridiculous that I didn’t know anything and thought it was just a simple provocation.’
“I am not your eldest brother.” Xiu said again in a trance, “Your only brother has been killed by me.”
“It’s a good thing he died! I hired someone to shoot him, but I never found the chance – you are my only brother!”
Alfred held his hand and said fiercely, “So what if you are an outsider! I will marry you and make you my queen, and you will still be a legitimate member of the royal family!”
Alfred had never had such a thought before, but the words just came out of his mouth. He said it without thinking, as if he had actually had such a thought a long time ago, but he didn’t even realise it.
Xiu obviously didn’t expect Alfred to say this. His eyes widened and he looked much more lively than the usually steady and self-possessed crown prince.
“…Men cannot marry other men.”
“When I become emperor, I will amend the law,” Alfred said, sounding strangely calm and reliable.
Xiu added: “I am a person with a genetic defect.”
“So what?”
Xiu was stunned for a moment and realised that Alfred was not just talking. No matter whether he could do it or not, at this moment, his feelings were sincere.
Xiu gently rebuked: “Fool, even the emperor cannot change the law at will.”
As he spoke, he pulled his hand out of Alfred’s hand. Alfred felt a chill in his heart. However, the next second, Xiu raised his hand, and his cold fingers gently stroked the place where Alfred had been slapped by him just now, and his expression changed slightly.
“It’s okay, it doesn’t hurt.” Alfred said quickly.
Alfred has always been very vengeful. Second prince tried to harm him several times, but he almost never succeeded. Once Alfred got the upper hand, he tried to kill him without hesitation. Xiu slapped him, but he hurriedly comforted Xiu.
He held Xiu’s hand again to prevent him from paying attention to the red marks on his face.
“Brother.” Alfred asked as carefully as possible, “What genetic defect do you have?”
