”Pull up your pants,” she told him.
He grunted but didn’t move.
”Do you want me to help you?” she asked.
He peeked at her through half-lidded eyes. Then she noticed that his manhood was starting to stir again.
The sight left her speechless. Man, he was just about to fall asleep. Why did he get in the mood again?
Even when she gestured for him to hurry up, he still refused to move.
”Let’s go, Nikolai. I don’t want you to miss your appointment later. The faster you complete all your medical exams, the sooner the doctor will discharge you from the hospital wing.”
Once again, he only grunted but didn’t move.
What was this? Was he acting like a spoiled child? Did he want her to coax him?
Her mouth twitched. But far from annoyed, she felt amused instead. It was very rare for her husband to act childish like this in front of her.
Was this the effect of his love confession?
After admitting that he loved her, he must have felt more comfortable in showing his authentic self to her. This was exactly what she wanted. Joy filled her.
She couldn’t help but giggle from delight.
”Laughing at me?” he asked.
”No.” She shook her head, still smiling. “Come on and get up now, Nikolai. I can’t carry you. If you fall asleep here, I would have to ask others for help in carrying you. I’m sure that you don’t want that.”
He scowled but eventually forced himself to stand up and pull his pants up.
”This damn body is so weak,” he muttered.
”Of course, your body is going to weaken. You were comatose for that long! Just focus on recovering. Knowing you, I’m sure that you’ll be back to your usual energetic self in no time.”
”Heh~” He smirked. “It seems that my wife can’t wait for me to regain my usual energy. I’ll have to work hard then. I can’t let my wife hold it in for too long or she might despise me, her husband, for not satisfying her.”
She flushed and glared at him. “W-what are you saying? You’re so bad!”
He flashed her with a devilish smile. Coupled with his drowsy appearance, it made him even more roguish. A hot and sinful rogue!
After teasing her, they left the indoor forest while holding hands. Lu Zihao attempted to return directly to their bedroom but Long Jinjing stood her ground and insisted on returning him to the hospital wing.
He watched as his woman dragged him back to his hospital room. Her strength was nothing to him. She was only able to drag him along like this because he let her.
The feeling was not bad. As a matter of fact, he felt like a soft cat’s paw was scratching his heart. It tickled and itched at the same time.
Was this love?
Even though he now admitted that he loved Long Jinjing, he still hadn’t fully comprehended yet what it meant to be in love. In a sense, he was a complete newbie in this realm of romantic love and how to keep it alive for a long time.
He still had a lot of things to learn when it came to romancing his woman. And he was willing to learn for the sake of his wife and the little family that they built together.
”Go take a nap,” she said while tucking him in his hospital bed. “I’ll wake you up later when it’s almost time for your medical exam.”
”Hm.”
She gave him a quick peck on the mouth and whispered, “I love you, Nikolai.”
”Love you, too,” he mumbled before falling asleep.
This time, she no longer doubted what she heard. It wasn’t a hallucination. Her husband really loved her!
She couldn’t stop smiling until the doctor arrived much later.
###
In the next few days, Lu Zihao was finally discharged from the hospital wing. The first thing that he did after his discharge was to have a proper talk with his sister.
He had wanted to speak with Iris much earlier but she had been extremely busy in the past few days. Knowing how absorbed his sister could get whenever she did something that she was passionate about, he didn’t want to disturb her. He delayed the talk and instead used the time to think about all the things that he wanted to tell her.
The day they made the appointment to talk, the siblings walked in the huge gardens of Dragon Palace Home #10. The weather was just perfect. It was sunny but the temperature felt cool.
Both of them wore autumn coats and walked side by side while admiring the remaining greenery in the gardens.
They stopped just outside the large hedge maze. Iris sat on a stone bench while Lu Zihao remained by the fountain.
”I won’t take back the things that I said during our fight that day,” Iris spoke in Russian, direct to the point.
Lu Zihao preferred this straightforward manner of talking. “Hm, I know.”
She studied her brother and noticed that he really felt a lot different from how she remembered him. “You’ve changed.”
”Hm.” He didn’t deny it.
Indeed, even he could feel the change in him. He still wasn’t sure if this change was good or bad. Only time would tell.
”Do you still resent me?” Iris asked.
He glanced at her. “At first, yes. But now…no. Not anymore.”
She sighed in relief. “I understand why you would resent me. But I stand by my position. You and I are different, Big Brother. I’m happier in this life.”
”I know.”
”What about you, Big Brother? Are you still intent on pursuing your revenge?”
Silence.
He glanced at the rippling water in the fountain’s pool. His hazy reflection showed Lu Zihao’s face, not Nikolai Vetrov.
Then he finally replied, “Yes.”
”Alright.” Iris accepted his answer.
”But I realized that you are also right,” he said. “It’s true that I now have my own family who would be heartbroken if they lose me. I…also don’t want to leave them.”
Iris smiled. “I’m glad.”
”Evelinka.”
”Yes?”
”I am still Nikolai Vetrov.”
”I know.”
”But you’re correct again. I am now Lu Zihao as well. I have been trying so hard to reject this identity even when I have no choice but to live with it. My children bear the surname Lu. My wife is referred to as Mrs. Lu. Even the old man…I respect him and also think of him as my real grandfather.”
Iris’ smile deepened.
”In so many ways, I have been trying to live as Nikolai Vetrov. Despite all the limitations that Lu Zihao’s identity have in the criminal underworld, I still push on acting like my old, original self. In hindsight, I now realize that doing this might be my attempt not to let Nikolai Vetrov be completely erased from history. I don’t want to be forgotten because I, Nikolai Vetrov, am still here despite living as Lu Zihao now.”
The smile disappeared from Iris’ face, replaced by solemn understanding. She knew what he meant. In a sense, what he had been doing was similar to what she had done.
In order to catch Cross Academy’s attention, she deliberately used the same style as Fantom. Once they reached out to her, she revealed that she was Evelina Vetrova’s sole disciple before passing away. She did this in order to give herself a legitimate reason to be admitted to the exclusive school and also to fast-track her enrollment.
However, this wasn’t her only motive. Truth be told, she did it so that Evelina Vetrova wouldn’t be forgotten. As the sole disciple of her past self, Long Xiulan (a.k.a. Drakon) would be able to continue her own legacy—the legacy of Evelina (a.k.a. Fantom).
She didn’t think that it was narcissistic to do this. Not at all.
It was just a matter of proving to others that she existed. Was it bad for her to do it?
If her existence was completely erased, then what was the point in living? Even though she felt miserable in her past life due to her inability to freely become the person that she always wanted to be, she still didn’t want to be completely forgotten and erased from history.
It turned out that her brother also thought the same way. Their methods might be different from each other but their goals were the same.
Lu Zihao looked at her straight in the eyes. She didn’t shy away either.
Their bond as siblings might not be telepathic but it was powerful enough to follow them after their deaths to this new chance in life that they received as completely different people.
”Thanks to you, I’m going to rethink my original plan of revenge,” he said. “I still can’t allow those motherfuckers who annihilated us to run freely in the world, but I also need to think about my family. You’re right, Evelinka. I love my wife and our children. I want to spend many years with my family.”
Iris stood up and walked towards him. She stopped and stood a few feet from him. “I’ll help you, Big Brother.”
He frowned.
”Don’t reject my offer,” she told him before he could reply. “Fantom might have disappeared but Drakon has risen in its place. When the right time comes, I’ll introduce to the world the fusion of these two hacker identities—Fantom Drakon.”
