As promised the next chapter. I don't feel well since Friday and only slowly getting better so if there are any major spelling issues, I hope you will forgive me. 

Please enjoy <3 <3

Xiao Zhan's POV

Haoxuan could say what he wanted, but I was still furious about what happened. Ji Yang should have kicked Haoxuan out and locked the door if he had to. As if a simple go-out would work on Haoxuan. And that woman, why did she leave!? She came to do one job but she left and let Haoxuan go through all that. I didn't fucking care that he claimed to have enjoyed it. I didn't believe him. He was straight, for god's sake!

"Why did it have to go this far? Hell will break lose once his memories come back." I mumbled worried. I stared at Haoxuan's door and then at Ji Yang's.

'I sure as hell won't let him kill my best friend!' I thought firmly before turning around to go back to my room. I had to go back but... this was the chance to take a closer look at the palace. I didn't want to stay in that room all day to wait for who knew how long.

"Don't even think about it," Yibo said and leaned against the door frame leading into his room- no, apartment.

"Why is it so bad to get on a sightseeing tour?" I groaned.

"I already told you we will keep your identity hidden for the time being. If you would have been a vampire, it wouldn't be a big problem letting you wander around but a human will only attract attention. They will know who you are once Her Majesty told them that the crown prince is half-human."

"They? You mean those ministers?" I asked and he nodded.

"For example, yes."

"Where are they right now?" I asked curiously.

"Probably in the throne room holding a meeting. They have been quite impatient ever since the rumor about the existence of a crown prince went around. I am sure Her Majesty will get interrogated for as long as these people have all the information they want. But don't worry. Her Majesty won't reveal too much about you."

"And I can't take part in that meeting?" Yibo looked at me as if I had asked him the stupidest question.

"If I hide in the tunnel, they won't see me, right? Can't we listen to that meeting? I am bored and don't want to be locked up in your apartment the whole freaking day. Won't I learn more about all this by witnessing directly?"

"Xiao Zhan-"

"I know! I know, okay? But come on! They won't even know I am there. Those walls have this stuff in the walls too, right? And I will be quiet. And the Queen won't find out either. I won't tell her."

Yibo looked like he was about to argue so I interrupted him before he could.

"Aren't I the crown prince? Don't you have to listen to me?" I challenged him feeling embarrassed and he chuckled.

"Are you seriously using the I am the crown prince so do as I say-card?" I bit my lips but I already said what I said.

"Y-yeah! Why not? If I am the crown prince I have the right to order people around, don't I? And I wouldn't order you if you would just loosen up a bit."

"For someone who doesn't accept who and what he is, you keep acting like you finally started to believe."

"As if."

"First of all, yes, you are the crown prince but behaving like a spoiled brat won't bring you far in this world. Secondly, just because you are the crown prince doesn't mean you are allowed to do what you want. My job is to protect you and if that means going against your orders, then so be it."

"I am not a spoiled brat!" I frowned and saw a soft smile on his face.

"I know. I know that you are bored and are trying your best in negotiating with me so I would give you some freedom."

"So? Did it work?" I asked hopefully but when I saw his face I raised my hand. "Fine, I got it! Let's go back." I gave up and walked back to his apartment. I felt upset but what could I do? I understood that he was there to protect me but being restricted to just one room was depressing.

I heard him sighing. "Why do I have the feeling I will regret giving you permission..."

"That is a yes, isn't it?" I turned around and grinned. "Great! Then let's go or we will be too late!"

"Stop right there!" He said when I was ready to run off. "Listen here. You will be quiet and do as I say. Just because they won't see nor hear us, doesn't mean you are allowed to do what you want. We will listen for a bit and then leave again."

"But-"

"Tonight, when everyone is gone, I will give you a tour through the palace. But only if you behave now." Yibo said and shook his head. "I feel like talking to a toddler."

I looked at him offended.

"Are you going to listen to what I say or not?" He asked with a raised brow.

As I was eager to be anyway else but trapped in that one room, I nodded obediently and soon followed Yibo into the secret tunnel. Yibo said that it went through the whole palace and knowing that this building wasn't a random villa, I couldn't believe that, except for very few people, no one knew about it. If this palace exists for who knew how long, shouldn't someone accidentally have found it?

Because of the darkness, I didn't see a thing and therefore had to cling to Yibo which was quite embarrassing.

"How can you even see something?" It wasn't a question I wanted an answer to but Yibo answered anyway.

"Our eyesight is 5x better than that of the birds of prey. If you are not able to see as good yet means that you still have time until your transformation."

"Or it means I am not a vampire and you guys are all crazy."

I heard Yibo letting out a sigh but did not react any further. We walked a little more until Yibo suddenly stopped and opened a door. Light shone into the tunnel. Yibo stepped to the side.

"Get in." I looked at him suspiciously but entered anyway. Yibo followed me right away.

"What is this?" I asked as I stood in the middle of an empty room. There was nothing in it. No furniture, no paintings, no decoration at all. All I could see was another door and a huge window. The latter was the highlight because I could see into the throne room where a bunch of men of different ages were standing in front of the Queen who sat on her throne.

"How come here is a window? I am pretty sure I didn't see one when I was in the throne room yesterday." I asked confused and looked at Yibo. "What is this?

"It's a two-sided mirror. One side is a mirror, the other side a window." Yibo answered. "That is one of the few things we copied from your kind 'cause it was a pretty good and useful invention."

"For what exactly?"

"In the past, we royal guards were stationed in the throne room to ensure the safety of the King and Queen. Once we found out about this mirror we decided to use it here as well, thus installing two of them in the throne room." He pointed at another mirror on the opposite wall.

"Are there people in the other room?"

"Yes, the royal guards." He answered and I nodded.

Although I have never seen a two-sided mirror anywhere else than in movies and it therefore made me quite curious, what was more interesting to me now was the fact that it was awfully quiet in the throne room. Those people Yibo called ministers seemed to be in shock or something. They stared at the Queen who smiled, but other than that, looked pretty much unbothered.

Soon the silence was disturbed by whispers which then turned into loud murmurs. It was so chaotic that I couldn't understand a word until one minister, who looked older than the others, raised his voice to be heard by everyone.

"Your Majesty, may you repeat that? I fear we must have misunderstood you."

"Oh my. Don't tell my our dear prime minister is getting older?" The Queen asked worriedly but in my eyes, it looked like she was playing him.

"I said that the rumors are true. The King has a son who will inherit the throne in the distant future."

"Not that part, your Majesty."

"Not that? Oh, you mean the part when I said that the crown prince is half-human? You understood it right. I did say that. The crown prince is indeed half-human." The Queen smiled brightly when another wave of murmurs filled the room.

I looked at Yibo in shock. "Didn't you say you want to keep me hidden? Why is she so open about it?"

Yibo shook his head. "I don't know. Her Majesty must have a plan."

"Or she is trying to kill me after all."

"She is not. Stop overthinking." Yibo said. I turned back to the happenings in the throne room.

"Your Majesty! A half-human?" The older man looked visibly shocked. "As a crown prince? I don't think that is appropriate."

"And why not?" The Queen raised her browns. "I don't think the law states that a crown prince or a king can't be a half-human."

"That is because our kind doesn't mix with the humans. Especially not the royal family. The royal family was ever since a family consisting of pure blood vampires."

"That's boring, isn't it?" The Queen said. "I understand that it is always difficult to accept changes in traditions but didn't it work out pretty well until now?"

"What does Her Majesty mean?"

"Oh, come on. Don't be so shy all of a sudden." The Queen smiled. "I know that it was difficult to accept a Queen like me. It was shocking when the King chose me over the actual chosen one but was it a bad decision? Have I done anything that would make me a bad Queen? Except for the fact that I did not give birth to a boy, of course."

The Ministers looked at each other and I saw a few shaking their heads.

"You are a wonderful Queen, Your Majesty. Although it's a pity that you weren't able to give life to a boy, that is nothing that couldn't be handled by someone else."

I saw the Queen's brows twitch but she was still smiling.

"But we are not talking about whether Her Majesty is a good Queen or not but about the fact that the crown prince is half-human. Half breeds are dangerous, Your Majesty. Only a few existed so far but all of them were difficult to control. I doubt the crown prince is different. We can't let a half-breed rule the kingdom."

"You have never met him before, so how can you doubt him already? And you must forget that royal blood is running in his veins, Prime Minister. The crown prince might be half-human but once he went through his transformation and with our help, he won't be different than a pure-blood vampire."

"Will he go through the transformation? Will he survive?" The Prime Minister asked. "We all know there is no 100% assurance that our kind will survive the transformation. I lost a few of my children because of that. Although the crown prince must have an 80% chance to survive, we can't trust that he will."

"Your logic has quite some holes, Prime Minister. According to it, no one is ever able to be the heir because, as you already said, there is not 100% assurance."

"That is not what I-"

"I know. I know you are worried about the future of the royal family. I appreciate that. I didn't say the crown prince will inherit the throne tomorrow. He will in the far future. Until then he will have gone through his transformation and, with him being a royal, will surely have survived it. He will have gone through training and will learn everything he has to become an excellent King. Don't you think so too, dear Ministers?"

The Ministers were talking wildly at each other, some approving, some others unsure.

"If that is what Her Majesty believes in, then I shall believe in it too." The Prime Minister spoke up again making the other minister quiet. "When may we be gifted with the crown prince's presence? We would love to meet him."

Although the Queen smiled, it didn't reach her eyes which I could understand.

"I don't like this guy. He feels so fake." I shook my head. "He looks like those villains from the dramas I watched. Pretending to be nice and such but secretly only thinking about themselves and how to gain more power."

I flinched when I heard Yibo laugh. It was the first time hearing him do that and somehow it was a nice sound. So much different from the grumpy short answers he usually gave me.

"What are you laughing at? You think bad of me again, don't you?" I frowned.

"I don't and never did," Yibo answered. "I am just thinking with your open mind you would make an excellent king."

"So, that Prime Minister is a villain?"

"I wouldn't say that but ... you do good to not trust him," Yibo answered and turned back to the window.

"I am sure you will understand that right now it's a lot of information to digest for the crown prince, who lived in the human world until now. I want him to slowly get used to everything here, the people, the rules, and the laws. It will take a little time but I am sure to introduce him to you once he is ready. Right now he likes to be alone in his room."

"May I ask how old he is?"

The Queen chuckled. "Age is just a number for us, isn't it, Prime Minister? But to answer your questions, he is in his twenties and after a few years he will go through his transformation."

"That is wonderful news. Our Kingdom has finally a crown prince. It's a pity that he lived in the human world and had no idea of his origin. Why did your Majesties choose to hide his existence?"

"He is after all half-human and we thought until the first signs hit him, it is best to let him remain in the human world. That way he will witness the beauty of both worlds."

I raised my brows hearing that answer. It was a perfect answer, even though it was far from the truth.

"This was a wise decision." The Prime Minister nodded. "I am just a little surprised Your Majesties chose a human to carry out the heir to the throne rather than to chose a young maiden from our kind."

"Woah...This guy is really...." I shivered and looked at Yibo.

"Let me guess. He used someone from his family to seduce the King for her to give birth to a child and become a concubine?" I asked Yibo and he looked at me surprised. "Damn! What kind of drama is this?"

"Who said only the human world knows what drama is?"

"Obviously..." I looked at the Queen who let out a sigh.

"It wasn't planned. It was quite a shock to find out that the King has a child with someone else. But it was something I had to go through in the future anyway, aren't I right? And she gave birth to a boy which was something everyone hoped for."

"I heard that His Majesty didn't let you in on the fact that he had laid with a human." The Prime Minister said.

"I seriously hate that man. He is adding fuel to the fire. It's obvious what he thinks and what he is trying to do. How come he is still the Prime Minister? I would have kicked him out long ago."

"It's not as easy as you think. You will figure that out in the future."

"He did not let me in on that little secret." The Queen answered and I watched the faces of the ministers who all looked like it was a normal thing. Maybe it was in this world. But not everyone had a straight face. One person who stood far behind looked kind of pleased

"Yibo, who is that?" I pointed at that person.

"That is Cheng Yi, the Prime Minister's oldest illegitimate child."

"How many children does he have?"

"I don't know the exact number but he has a lot. He uses them to get more power and therefore has quite a few."

"But don't worry about it." I heard the Queen say. "Actually, it's a good thing that the woman he laid with was a human. That way I won't need to share my husband with someone for longer than approximately 80 years. But even that won't happen because it was only one time and the King has no feelings for her. And because she gave birth to the crown prince, he won't need to ever go to bed with another woman again and I can have him all by myself. Aren't that great news?"

I frowned hearing her say that. I knew that my mother was just an affair. No, not even that. She was a simple one-night stand that was enough to get her pregnant with me. It might have been just one night but I knew for sure that my mother loved my father. Hearing that the King has no feelings for her and only used her as an incubator made me angry.

I massaged my head. 'This stupid headache is annoying!'

"That is indeed great news for Your Majesty." The Prime Minister said with a smile. "I am sure now all Her and His Majesty need to trouble yourselves with is to look for a perfect spouse for your crown prince."

Suddenly it was quiet in the room and I saw a shadow glide over the Queen's face before it disappears just as fast and was replaced with a rather forced smile.

The Prime Minister shook his head with an amused look. "But as he is not yet close to his transformation, I am sure that looking for a spouse can wait some more. Unless the crown prince comes after his father and falls in love before the perfect bride was chosen." He let out a soft laugh as if to make sure everyone knew it was a joke.

I had the feeling it wasn't.

The Queen let out a chuckle as well. "I don't think he is as much of a troublemaker as the King. I doubt anyone can beat my husband in that."

Now everyone laughed and the Queen got up. "If there is nothing else, this meeting is over."

"Your Majesty!" It was The Prime Minister's son who spoke up. "I would like to have an audience with you."

"Speak."

"In private, if possible?" The Queen frowned.

"I don't think there is anything that needs you to speak to me in private."

"You can't know un-"

"I know for sure." The Queen turned around. "We will meet another time, my dear Ministers. And I would appreciate it if you won't bring random people with you. That includes your family. Bowen, escort the gentlemen to the door, please."

"Right away, Your Majesty." Bowen, who I didn't see until he spoke up, bowed and followed the Queen's orders.

'Where did he come from?' I thought and watched how all these people left the room.

"That Prime Minister is scary." I shook my head. "I hope I won't meet him anytime soon."

"Sooner or later you will have to. But not now." Yibo opened the door leading into the tunnel.

"Come now. Let's go back."

We just left the tunnel and stood in the hall when the door to Ji Yang's room opened and Ji Yang came out. I was reminded of Haoxuan's confession and glared at Ji Yang who seemed to be oblivious of that.

"You look a lot better than the day before. Mr. Song." Yibo greeted him.

"I feel much better." He smiled brightly. "But no need to be so formal. You can call me Ji Yang."

"Will do."

"May I ask where the young lady is?"

"Who?"

"The one who donated her blood to me. I have to apologize to her."

"Did something happen?" Yibo asked worriedly.

"I am not sure. I can't recollect much of what happened the last night. I seemed to have lost control and feared I might have hurt her in the process. I need to apologize for that."

"I don't think you hurt her or else she would have made it clear. As far as I know, she left the palace early this morning. I didn't see her but if something was wrong, Leo would have noticed. So fear not."

"How can you be so sure if it was her if you can't remember what happened? Here I thought only weaklings would lose themselves."

"Your Highness?" Ji Yang looked confused.

"Xiao Zhan!" Yibo shook his head. "Losing control after hungering for a long time is normal."

"If it's like that, who would want to volunteer to donate their blood if there is a chance to get hurt!?" I growled.

"It shouldn't happen and that is why I need to apologize if I hurt her."

I snorted and looked away. If not for protecting Haoxuan, I would surely have made a scene right then and there.

I felt Yibo's eyes on me but didn't meet his gaze.

"If you want to find her, find Leo. I am sure he can help you."

"I shall do that. Thank you." Ji Yang smiled before he left.

"Did he just smile?!" I asked shocked and was about to follow him when Yibo held me back.

"What is wrong with you?" He asked confused.

"He did-!" I pressed my lips together. "Whatever! Let go!" I struggled until he let go of my shirt and stomped back into his apartment and then into my room.

I felt irritated and angry, not specifically towards Ji Yang alone, but rather at the whole situation and that only encouraged my headache. What the Queen said earlier about being relieved that my mother was just a human, made me upset too. I did cut off my relationship with her after what he has done but she was still my mother.

But why was I angry because of that? It's not like the Queen was wrong. Also, if my wife would have cheated on me and had a child with someone else I would surely throw a fit before divorcing her. The Queen being calm about it is very suspicious.

And then I have Haoxuan who suddenly thinks it's fun to get involved with someone who wants to kill him. No, involved sounds wrong. But still. How could he just ....

"All of this is so annoying!" I cursed and threw myself on my bed. I had the urge to punch something and then cry. And if the headache doesn't disappear soon, I might do more than just punch something!

I closed my eyes and tried to calm down.

It was dark outside when I opened my eyes again. I sat up and looked towards the window in confusion. 'Don't tell me I slept for more than 10 hours!?'

I got up and growled in frustration. 'And the headache is still not gone! Damn, it!'

I turned away to walk to the door when my eyes fell on the closet where I saw the door was open. I frowned. I was pretty sure it was closed earlier. I had no reason to touch that after all.

I looked around but couldn't find something to use as a weapon. So I carefully approached the closet with empty hands. I counted to three before yanking the door open, ready to fight anyone who would attack me. Not that I would have succeeded if that happened. I doubt I was as strong as these people.

But luckily no one attacked me. Instead, I saw that the closet was filled to the brink with branded clothes which was the perfect size for me. I didn't even hear anyone coming in....

"Regular clothes would have been fine too..." I murmured, still quite happy to be able to wear them in the future. Out of curiosity I rummaged through the whole closet and found so many things I won't be able to wear in a year. Most were casual wear, but there were a few formal wear items as well.

I smiled when I closed the closet again. Then I decided to go out and find Yibo who promised me a tour through the palace. It should be late enough.

I left my room, walked towards Yibo's, and entered it. "Yibo, can we go now?"

I froze on the spot when I found Yibo in front of me wearing absolutely nothing but a towel around his hips.

"Oh...."

to be continued...

Oops... Never learned to knock before? Xiao Zhan, really now... 

I am getting worried about him... this constant headache... what do they mean...?

Let's hope he gets more information while getting a tour through the palace. :) 

I hope you liked this chapter. Feel free to leave a vote and a comment or two... or three <3