"It was all my uncle's doing, he funded the whole thing and dragged General Li into re-opening The Mill."
 
"General Li." The man who killed his father. "Why?"
 
"You still don't know why?" He laughed hysterically. "After I kidnapped your kids? General Li said it's easier to mold babies rather than a teenager." He was coughing blood now. "Oh, by the way, your dad said hi."
 
Xiao Zhan slammed Jin Zixun's head on the dirt. 
 
"You don't talk about my father like that."
 
Jin Xizun laughed. 
 
"Sometimes I wonder, how are you so naive, Xiao Zhan. You think General Li was able to restart the program without your father? Hell, your father was the one who suggested kidnapping the kids in the first place!"
 
What.
 
"The fuck are you talking about?"
 
"... you really don't know?"
 
Xiao Zhan's not bothering to answer. Only glared.
 
"He was the one who told me about your kids, about how I should kill your boy toy, and to inject him with his pure blood, not yours by the way. And he was ranting about how his blood is the key. We were in the middle of injecting your kids with your dad's blood when y'all came barging in. Uninvited." 
 
Xiao Zhan was a very nice man with a great manner, or at least he tried to be. Because he knew how dangerous it would be if he lost control of himself. 
 
Like right now.
 
Yibo was the first to sense his distress, and by the time he came closer, his hair had already turned silver and reached Jin Zixun.
 
He reached for Xiao Zhan's hand but immediately felt that he was being sucked by some fierce power and he retracted his hand in surprise.
 
"Zhan-ge! I don't think you want to absorb him...he'll taste like shit and you'll get nothing! Please stop!"
 
Xiao Zhan didn't seem to hear him, instead he focused on the whimpering man on the floor. But he didn't move further.
 
The hair did.
 
Two tendrils of the silver hair were getting longer and shot through Jin Zixun's ears, making him scream very loud. A few minutes later, it went out and Jin Zixun's body went limp.
 
"Let's go, just leave him there." Xiao Zhan's hair was back to normal, but his expression was icy. He turned around to find Yibo, then offered his hand.
 
"Baobei."
 
Yibo gripped the offered hand tight, sending them his love, and trust.
 
"Thank you."
 
"Did you just lobotomize this bastard?" Xue Yang asked him, while poking the now unresponsive Jin Xizun.
 
"I just want to read his mind. Anything else happened accidentally." He shrugged while hugging Yibo. "Let's go home, baobei."
 
"Now that's the savage beast I know." Xue Yang smirked and gave the walking dead a kick.

What did it mean, his father's blood was the key?
 
That thought was bouncing on Xiao Zhan's mind all the way to their home.
 
"We should know that Jin Guangshan was not above this shit at all. This had his paw prints all over, that greedy bastard, what was he thinking? World domination?"
 
Well, that's exactly what he was thinking, but Yibo just sounded it all out loud.
 
"We all knew the Jins had that world domination ambition since your brother got that exclusive contract with the government. I just don't realize that it has reached this extent." Xiao Zhan rubbed his chin in frustration. "I wonder what's the connection between the blood of my father and the key. What key? To open what?"
 
Yibo was twirling around in the chair, squeaking, and twirling, and thinking.
 
Then it hit him.
 
"Ge… the book."
 
It took Xiao Zhan another minute to realize what book, when it hit him.
 
Of course.
 
His paranoid father would not leave an important book lying around without some kind of password. Unfortunately the password was his own blood.
 
Which was inside Yibo.
 
"This is so fucked up." Xiao Zhan stood up and half running to get the book.
 
"This is so exciting." Yibo, ever the thrill-chaser, looked so excited about finding the clue to the puzzle.
 
They got the book in a short time and opened it. Xiao Zhan  gave Yibo a look, and Yibo nodded, understood what he asked.
 
He took a small knife and punctured his finger, and let the blood drop on the book.
 
The effect was immediate.
 
The blood seemed to spread from one tiny point, to the whole book, and the writing came out.
 
"The book was written in blood …"
 
"But, ge, isn't it strange? I mean, you're his son, so you must have his blood inside you, right? Why does it have to be his? And it was in my blood, so it's not pure anyway."
 
"I think we're about to find out, baobei."

-----

The very first entry was the day his father met his mother.

15th Feb 1990,
 
Today I met a wonderful woman, who will soon be my wife, and the mother of my child. I can feel it, she has the right genes and blood for my son to be born out of her.

18th June 1990
 
I finally convinced her to marry me, and I'm so excited. 

5th October 1991
 
Xiao Zhan was born. He is a very beautiful child, and I can feel his power surged through every veins. I have to hide him very carefully. No one can know about his existence.

Xiao Zhan skipped the next few entries after that because it felt too intimate and he didn't have time. Maybe later. And by the squeaky voice Yibo made beside him, he must have wanted to read the entries too.
 
"Later, baobei. First thing first." He kissed Yibo's temple.

20th November 2009
 
I saved General Li's life today. I know I shouldn't, but as a doctor, what am I supposed to do? Let him die? 

5th August 2010
 
General Li knew. He forced me to work for him. God save my family.

That was the last entry of the diary.
 
Xiao Zhan closed the diary and sighed. 
 
The diary entries seemed innocent enough, he wondered why his father had to hide it like that. 
 
He put his head down and thought about all of this.
 
"Ge, there's some scribbling on the last pages. It's nothing like I've ever seen before." Yibo showed the book to Xiao Zhan. "Can you read it?"
 
Xiao Zhan took the book and frowned.
 
"I haven't a slightest idea. But I know who can."

"This is a Nullan language." 
 
They all went to find Ning, who was playing with the children when they found him.
 
"We figured. What did it say?"
 
"Hmm… it's just an old proverb of our race, which more or less means be careful of the double… face?" Ning was obviously confused.
 
"Double face? Traitor?" Xiao Zhan frowned. Was there really a traitor amidst his friends? 
 
They were all quiet, thinking of the meaning of the scribbles. It must have meant something, otherwise his father would not just write it down, in his native language nonetheless.
 
"Ge… are you okay?" Yibo touched Xiao Zhan's back, and the warmth of it made Xiao Zhan feel that he was not alone. He had his soulmate and his friends.

Suddenly Song Lan stood up and brandished his weapon, then threw it to the corner of the room.
 
Everybody was surprised, but Xue Yang moved fast and followed Song Lan's movement by throwing a few knives to the same corner himself.
 
There were a few moments of silence, then a sinister laugh from the empty space, followed by slow claps.
 
"Bravo, bravo, you guys are as good as they said. Better, even."
 
Then, out of the corners of their eyes, a figure in all black appeared.
 
"General Li." Xiao Zhan said his name with such coldness that Yibo had never heard. "So you have acquired a new power."
 
"Xiao Zhan, it's been a long time. You look well."
 
"What do you want? I'm sure you're not coming in here alone without wanting something."
 
"Xiao Zhan, Xiao Zhan, always the brightest of them all." The imposing man chuckled, and walked closer to Xiao Zhan.
 
Song Lan, still on high alert mode, growled.
 
"It's okay, Song Lan, can you tell Xingchen to protect the kids? I will handle him."
 
Song Lan was quiet for a while, but he went off to find Xingchen and the kids.
 
"Now, General, time's ticking."
 
"Xiao Zhan, I was thinking, back then when you were still in The Mill, your father let you go because I wanted to breed you with your female doppelganger when she came of age, right?"
 
Yibo gasped hearing those words, Xiao Zhan and… Fei? That was sick!
 
But Xiao Zhan did not give any response to the statement.
 
"Now I was thinking, hey, you got twins ! Imagine what kind of creatures I could produce from that alone. And wouldn't it be great if I could breed them with your doppelganger? So, yeah, I don't need you anymore, Xiao Zhan."
 
The smile on General Li's face was so contorted it gave a glimpse of someone else's face just for a nanosecond, but Yibo caught it, and he grabbed Xiao Zhan's hand.
 
"Ge… did you see that?"
 
Xiao Zhan did see that flash of another face, and it stunned him so much, he couldn't answer Yibo.
 
Could it be…?
 
He turned to Ning, and asked him in a low voice, not wanting to be heard by General Li.
 
"Ning, was there ever any case that when the host absorbed the victim, the host would adapt to the victim's personality? Like, the victim's personality was too strong, and the host was defeated?"
 
Ning paled.
 
"That… that was actually the case with the previous dynasty, Your Highness. Your grandfather, King Xiao Fei, absorbed his archnemesis, the traitor of the kingdom, and he was losing his mind afterwards, and showing the traitor's traits. Finally he destroyed the kingdom and it caused your father to run to this earth."
 
"Thanks Ning, you should go and find the kids to protect them. I can handle it here."
 
Xiao Zhan's face was now a mask of emotionless expression, only his tight grip on Yibo's hand that betrayed what he actually felt inside.
 
Ning bowed to him and went out to find the kids, although he knew that Song Lan and Xiao Xingchen were more than capable of handling anything that came their way. But an order was an order, and he wasn't going to defy his King's order.
 
After Ning left, Xiao Zhan faced Yibo.
 
"I'm sorry, but I have to do this." 
 
Yibo nodded in understanding.
 
"Xue Yang, protect him."
 
Then Xiao Zhan moved closer to General Li, unsheathing his curved knife in a faster than lightning movement, and put it in the General's jugular.
 
"Xiao Zhan, I never knew that you were this stupid. You won't be able to meet your father if you kill me."
 
"What…" Xiao Zhan pressed the knife harder, "do you want from me?"
 
"Nothing, I want nothing from you, Xiao Zhan," the General chuckled, "I just want to give you the courtesy call, before I took away your children. Yours too, Wang Yibo. Nice catch by the way, heir of the Wang company? And you can make another baby, just give me these ones, and I'll give you your father back."
 
"What makes you think that my father would want that? Me giving you his grandchildren?"
 
"But Xiao Zhan, I am your father, don't you see?" 
 
The smile on General Li's face was very disconcerting, and it put Xiao Zhan, Yibo, and Xue Yang into high alert defensive mode. They stared at the only other person in the room closely.
 
General Li's face contorted into another familiar face, the one that had been haunting Xiao Zhan all those years. 
 
Just as he expected from the cunning General Li.
 
The new face began to talk with the familiar voice, that he still remembered very clearly.
 
"Zhanzhan, it's me, your father… I-I'm so sorry, I-"
 
Although he knew that this was his father's body, seeing him after so many years brought back some memories, and not all of them were nice.
 
Xiao Zhan tried to hold back his overflowing emotions, and braced himself for what he's about to do.
 
"Father, if you really are you, I just want to tell you that it's okay, I understand." Xiao Zhan squeezed his arms, but did not let go of his knife at all. "And I'm sorry too."
 
Xiao Zhan tried to push the knife into his father's neck, but he knew that he still had doubts, and when his father saw what he was about to do, the understanding dawned on him.
 
"Zhanzhan, ah, it's okay, I love you, and I hope we can meet again in the afterlife. From now on, take care of yourself, and my grandchildren, yeah? I will take care of everything else." He gave Xiao Zhan the most beautiful, and saddest smile and he plunged the knife on Xiao Zhan's hand into his jugular, spurting blood everywhere.

The next second, Yibo and Xue Yang were there beside him, while he threw the knife and held his father in his hand. They didn't say a word at all nor did Xiao Zhan shed any tears.

---

The funeral was held the next day, with only the two of them who attended. Xiao Zhan didn't want to tell anyone about this. He told Xingchen, Song Lan and Xue Yang to look after the kids, while he and Yibo went to the funeral.
 
When the cremating process started, Yibo squeezed Xiao Zhan's hand, to give him some kind of strength, and Xiao Zhan squeezed back, acknowledging it.
 
So this was it, this was the end. Or was it?
 
"Do you ever think that your father came to us because he wanted it all to… end ?"
 
Xiao Zhan had thought about it himself, but he wasn't sure of anything.
 
"I don't know, baobei, I really don't know."
 
Xiao Zhan felt Yibo gave him a squeeze, to reassure him that everything would be fine, and he was grateful that Yibo was there for him.
 
They were on their way back, bringing the ashes, when the familiar figure approached them from inside of the dark limo that had obviously waited for some time.
 
The man turned out to be Xichen, and he hugged them both tight, before he said anything.
 
"Ge, what are you doing here?" Yibo asked Xichen, because they didn't tell him about the funeral, nor anything associated with the whole shenanigans.
 
"Yibo, Zhanzhan, I need to talk to you." Xichen ushered both of them into the limo, where he locked the door and put the security screen up.
 
"First of all, I'm sorry about what happened to your father, Xiao Zhan, if I knew beforehand that this was going to happen, I would take some… measurement."
 
"What are you talking about, Xichen? How would you know about all of this… stuff, beforehand? You don't even know my father."
 
"Well, here's the thing, Xiao Zhan, I knew all along that your father was also General Li. I was the one who… detained him all this time."
 
Xiao Zhan's brain was short-circuited by the piece of information that he never expected, from Xichen of all people.
 
"You see, you know that me and Jin Guangshan had always been vying about the… government projects, right? I have a good source that the bastard was going to start the super soldier project again, after the supposed death of your father. So I sent a few spies in their ranks, and I got the info that your father merged with General Li, and the result was horrendous. That's why the day after you escaped, we snatched them and put them in a secure location with every security measure that I could think of." Xichen put his hand through his hair in some kind of exasperated gesture. "That's why, when my men told me that they escaped, I didn't believe it at first. And that was the day that you came back to town."
 
Yibo, who was just listening to the whole conversation, grabbed Xichen's arm right at that time.
 
"So you're saying that you knew the whole time? About all this… mess?"
 
Xichen nodded, his eyes downcasted.
 
"I can't believe you, ge! Why would you involve yourself in this kind of… shady business? To conquer the world? But you already did! Who in the world did not know about you?"
 
"It's not about that, Yibo, believe me, I don't need to conquer the world, all I did was just to protect my family, can't you see?" Xichen threw his hands up in exasperation. "I threatened Jin Guangshan just now, and I buried all of his super soldier projects. I was just about to find your father when this… stormshit happened." He then looked at Xiao Zhan, who didn't utter a word since he first explained. "I'm sorry Xiao Zhan, I don't want to burden you with the fight between me and Jin Guangshan, but in the end, you're the one to bear all of it."
 
Xiao Zhan was still looking like he was in some kind of a daze. But then he looked at the man, who had been his best friend for almost all his life. His soulmate's brother. 
 
And he understood.
 
"Xichen." Xiao Zhan touched Xichen's hand. "I understand." He patted Xichen's hand. "I know that you thought you did what's best for all of us, and I understand, and I thank you for that. But next time, not that I want it to be a next time, will you just please talk to me? Before you decided to take over the world?"
 
"I guarantee you that there will not be a next time. Not as long as I'm alive." Yibo glared at Xichen, who laughed at him.
 
"I promise." Xichen squeezed Xiao Zhan's hand and ruffled Yibo's hair.
 
"Hey! I'm not a kid anymore!"
 
Xichen just laughed, his heart was a whole lot lighter now than before he told them about the truth.
 
"Now, I reserved a spot at Han-ge's, would you like to join me?"
 
"Hell, yeah!"