The man readily admitted it.
He looked at Qin Chu, his lips twitching into a self-deprecating smile: "So, you want him to die again?"
Qin Chu suddenly loosened his grip.
Without shock or rebuttal, he simply looked away angrily.
Some things are not unpredictable, nor are they without trace; it's just that the people most deeply involved may be unwilling to believe them.
The man covered his neck and coughed lightly twice.
He coughed for a moment, then chuckled softly. He said, "Tell me, if he had a choice, would he choose death, or continue to stay by your side as Qin Rui?"
Qin Chu turned away indifferently, clearly not wanting to hear anything about Qin Rui.
However, his wrist was gripped by the man with tremendous force.
"let go."
Qin Chu suddenly shook his hand, but the man didn't let go at all. The next moment, he stood up and moved closer to Qin Chu.
"He wants to be Qin Rui, but he doesn't just want to be Qin Rui. Qin Rui is just your brother, but I am not."
The man gave his answer, and as if to confirm his words, a cool touch touched Qin Chu's lips.
With a "bang".
The emperor was forcefully pressed back onto the dragon throne.
Qin Chu grabbed his neck again, gritting his teeth and sternly saying, "Don't mention him!"
The man, however, had already regained his composure.
He looked at the enraged Qin Chu and reached out to stroke his long, loose hair. The gesture was no longer frivolous; it didn't seem like a provocation, but rather a reassurance.
After a long silence, he finally spoke: "Killing me will cause you a lot of trouble. The First Prince is already dead. If you still can't return to the border, is this acceptable?"
This statement reveals a great deal, but Qin Chu did not investigate it at all.
He coldly withdrew, ignoring the long sword embedded in the dragon throne, and instead bent down to pick up Qin Rui, who was lying on the ground, and walked step by step down the high platform towards the outside of the hall.
"Wait for me to come and kill you." The icy voice rang out, like a one-sided agreement.
The newly appointed general did not stay in the capital for long before leading his troops to the northwest.
On this expedition, the emperor, despite his illness, personally saw him off, but the general showed no appreciation whatsoever, leading the army directly from the camp, leaving the emperor and his officials to stand on the city wall for a whole day.
The next day at court, several officials impeached Qin Chu for this matter, accusing him of disobeying the proper etiquette between ruler and subject, of being too powerful and overshadowing the emperor, and of being aggressive and militaristic.
However, the ailing emperor suppressed the accusations one by one. Some persisted and submitted further impeachments, but he had them dragged out of the palace and executed.
The stench of blood filled the air, and no one dared to mention Qin Chu's faults.
No one knows when this military general, who spent most of his life on the frontier, gained the emperor's favor.
Rumors circulated that Qin Chu was summoned to the palace before leaving the city, but when he came out, he was carrying a corpse and exuding a murderous aura.
What General Qin and the emperor talked about and did that day remains a mystery to the court officials and palace servants.
In the following years, the emperor, who had been bedridden, seemed to suddenly recover and began to take charge of state affairs. He was not a wise ruler and did not care much about other state affairs, but he was extremely concerned about the border wars, and he wanted to personally supervise the monthly military pay and provisions.
Once, an official in charge of transporting grain was found to be corrupt. The emperor was furious and ordered the official to be arrested and executed by slow slicing in the marketplace, along with his entire family.
As the emperor's deeds spread, Qin Chu, though not in the capital, became famous and was known among the nobles of the capital as someone "unspeakable."
-
Qin Chu continued his second mission at the border.
Qin Rui is dead; the first mission has failed completely. The only piece of good news is that Noah has returned.
When Qin Chu carried Qin Rui away from the palace, Noah returned, but the system was under repair and he did not appear.
A long time passed before Noah spoke in Qin Chu's mind as usual.
"Sir... I was wrong," Noah said timidly, uttering his first words.
"Um."
During the truce, Qin Chu lay down to rest in his military tent.
He did not reprimand Noah, nor did he say anything else.
During this time, although life was no different from usual, Qin Chu felt very lonely.
Noah wasn't there to occasionally utter random thoughts in his mind, and no one was around to call him "brother" all the time.
Qin Chu never imagined that Qin Rui's departure would have such a big impact on him.
At first, he almost forgot about mealtimes every day, and it was only when the people around him reminded him that he noticed the kitchen staff had already delivered the food.
Tying his hair up became a terrible thing for him. Every time he tied his hair up, in addition to feeling irritable, he also felt an indescribable sense of loss.
The boy who so confidently declared that Qin Chu's hair belonged to him is no longer here.
After much hesitation, Qin Chu cut his hair short, not to an absurd degree, just enough to make him less disheveled when tying it up.
And then there's the night.
Qin Chu wasn't sleeping soundly. In his hazy state, he kept feeling a child creep up to him in the middle of the night and quietly snuggle into his arms. He instinctively reached out his arm, but found nothing.
“Sir, the Emperor… is actually a player.” Even though he noticed Qin Chu’s mood plummet when he heard the title, Noah still reported the situation as usual, “He should be the last fragment of consciousness of the mission target, and also the main body.”
"You mentioned before that you felt like you were being watched like a shadow. Your intuition was right. At first, I thought you were talking about Qin Rui, but I only realized it wasn't him after he was arrested."
Noah was also surprised when he said this, "The reason we exposed a lot of information without noticing him is because he is in another world and is the owner and main designer of this game."
This surprised Qin Chu somewhat.
He said, “Our mission in this world has been exposed. He knows I have two missions to complete.”
So even after killing Qin Rui, he reminded him to leave.
"Yes, I was forcibly analyzed." Noah wanted to burst into tears.
He was having a great time in the emperor's mind when he was suddenly locked on and attacked by various programs. At first, he thought he had been discovered by the mainframe, but after checking the level of the attack, he breathed a sigh of relief.
He quickly added, "They couldn't break through my firewall. The information about the mission wasn't actually extracted by the program. It was tricked out of me when our consciousnesses coexisted."
Qin Chu didn't seem to care much: "It's nothing, I know you're trash."
In fact, Noah was always trapped in the Emperor's mind, in the same space as their mysterious mission subject.
She only returned later through that kiss between the emperor and Qin Chu.
When they were in the same space, it was somewhat similar to his relationship with Qin Chu.
He could sense everything through the emperor's five senses, but he couldn't control his own body. Therefore, he witnessed Qin Chu's pain when Qin Rui died and could also feel the complex emotions of the emperor at that time.
Knowing that Qin Chu was still deeply troubled by Qin Rui's death, Noah couldn't help but comfort him, "Sir... actually, when Qin Rui died, I sensed that his consciousness had returned to his body. And... if I'm not mistaken, his body has always been able to unilaterally read Qin Rui's emotions and memories. So..."
Therefore, no one can say for sure whether the current emperor is actually Qin Rui.
"I know."
As dawn broke, Qin Chu sat up in bed and tidied himself up briefly.
He opened the window and looked out at the faint light of dawn and the unique scenery of the northwestern desert.
"I just feel sorry for him," Qin Chu said.
Noah couldn't help but prick up his ears to listen.
Although he had been working on his recovery during this time, he was still able to perceive various things happening around Qin Chu and Qin Chu's emotions.
Since returning from the capital, Qin Chu had hardly mentioned Qin Rui, and rarely even thought about him. This was the first time he had heard Qin Chu truly talk about his feelings.
"He promised me when he was ten that he would live a good life." Qin Chu picked up his sword and got up to go to the training ground. Before leaving the tent, he turned around and subconsciously wanted to call someone, but then suddenly stopped.
On the way, he said to Noah in a calm voice, "When we returned to the capital from the border, he said he was thinking about the future. He also said... he wanted to be a general."
At this point, Qin Chu paused before continuing forward: "It's a pity he was only fifteen. He could have had a bright life, no different from any other normal person."
Noah listened quietly, offering no further words of comfort.
He knew that Qin Chu understood everything and would prioritize the overall situation.
Qin Rui entered his life in a way that caught him off guard and made it impossible for him to refuse. He stayed for several years and filled the void in Qin Chu's life, which is why Qin Chu really took him to heart.
However... if Qin Rui hadn't died suddenly in this way, if Qin Rui had just been a simple data entity, Qin Chu wouldn't have felt much attachment even if he left the world normally.
But it's not that simple.
Qin Rui is not just a data entity that exists only in the virtual world; he is a part of a person's consciousness, a living, breathing human being.
Therefore, what Qin Rui left in Qin Chu's heart was no longer just an experience limited to the virtual world.
Noah coexisted with the consciousness of that prince for a period of time, and he understood very well the prince's complex feelings towards Qin Chu.
Paranoia, possessiveness, destruction, intimacy, affection, appeasement...
The coexistence of several distinct, even extremely opposite, emotions almost left Noah, a simple artificial intelligence, dumbfounded.
That was the most complex and intense emotion Noah had ever encountered.
Thinking about all this, Noah even felt that the Crown Prince was doing it on purpose.
He had planned everything out. Unwilling to let the memories left by Qin Rui disappear with Qin Chu as he left this world, he simply killed the man right in front of Qin Chu.
Whether it's hatred or heartbreak, he wants Qin Chu to remember him forever.
After some time, Noah sent Qin Chu another message.
In another world, this once-popular holographic game was suddenly taken down at the height of its popularity, and the game's official website shut down all player access.
This move of ignoring profits is incomprehensible and has sparked a wave of criticism.
In just one hospital room, there was a machine that could connect to the game.
Several monitors were placed on the wall of the ward, but they all displayed the same scene: the Northwest War Zone. Some showed a kitchen, some a drill ground, and some a tent that was rarely used.
These scenes played in turn, as if someone was using them to participate in their past life.
At the bedside, a middle-aged doctor in a white coat was earnestly advising, "Sir, your current physical and mental condition can no longer withstand prolonged use of the holographic game pod."
The man on the hospital bed curled the corners of his lips, completely unconcerned. He said, "Anyway, I won't live for many more years if I don't play around."
After the doctor left, the man climbed off the hospital bed into the wheelchair, then pushed the wheelchair to the game pod and sat down again.