Chapter 18 – Recognition (ii)
The birth of the Alpha Prince was not only celebrated by His Majesty and the Queen, but it was also good news for the entire empire.
That night, the headlines of major news outlets in the empire all covered the birth of the Fourth Prince. His Majesty Trent also held a banquet in the palace, inviting a number of military officials and friends of the royal family to celebrate this happy event.
General Byron and Mrs Grace were also among those invited, but they attended with their little omega son, without bringing Klaire.
As soon as Mrs Grace came to see Queen Anna in her palace, Xi Wei asked her questioningly, “Madame, where is Klaire?”
Grace answered with a smile, “He did so bad on the exam so he has to review his lessons at home and can't come tonight. ”
Xi Wei of course, did not believe that that lazy, sleeping-every-day boy could sit still obediently reading at home. Back to the palace, he directly asked the AI butler to contact Klaire, but strangely enough he did not answer.
***
At this moment, Klaire was sneaking out from the back door to find someone.
He found out that there was a beta boy who was born at June 21st with a record of psychology treatment in the hospital. The boy's experience was very similar with him, so Klaire naturally thought that this person might have Ji Ran's memory. Because the memory began to awaken, he was mistaken as having schizophrenia and had to go to the hospital.
As a result, when he ran to the boy’s home, he found out that the boy was totally different from what he had imagined.
The boy’s father, the battalion commander of the Stars Corps, was guarding Admiral Byron’s security in the vicinity of the palace tonight, and the little beta boy was at home with his mum. After Klaire knocked on the door,it was opened by the boy. As soon as Klaire saw the blonde haired boy who looked the same as in the database's photo, he asked, “Are you Jamie?”
The boy looked at him with suspicion and asked, “How do you know my name? What’s your name? Where did you come from? How did you find me? What did you find me for? What school did you study at? I have never seen you at my school.”
Klaire:”…”
This boy is actually a chatterbox. He had only asked one question, but was bombarded with a bunch of questions in return, completely unlike Ji Ran's character…
Klaire pressed down the uncomfortable feeling in his heart, then asked: “You have been to the psychologist ward in the hospital before, right? Did you cure it later?”
Jamie smiled, and whispered secretly, "I'll tell you, I was actually faking. The old man who teaches math in our school is very boring, and he also always asked me to answer questions every day, so I just pretended to be sick. I'm not really sick, you don't tell others ah!”
Klaire: “…..”
Chatterbox character would never be the nature of Ji Ran's reincarnation, and this guy actually only pretended to be sick.
Klaire did not want to bother himself with this little madman anymore and turned away.
Jamie chased after him, shouting, “Hey, what is your name? Why are you looking for me? Why don't you say it clearly ah?”
Klaire just walked faster and faster while rubbing his temple, feeling a headache coming - he finally found a probable target from hundreds of children with same birth as him, and as a result, this little guy was actually a mischievous fella pretending to be sick. Obviously the little boy's character was different from Ji Ran, so to say, all of his previous hard work was in vain.
Thinking of this, Klaire could not help but feel depressed.
In this case, I don't even know what year I can find him…
By the time he got home, Klaire finally saw that his communicator was lit up.
Klaire opened the communicator and the image of little Xi Wei immediately appeared in front of him. Xi Wei clearly had just come out of the shower, he was wearing pure white pyjamas and his black hair was dripping wet past his ears. He sat on one of the high sofas in the palace, his short legs couldn't even reach the ground, looking particularly lovely as they dangled slightly over the edge.
However this child, who looked so angelic, immediately exposed his true nature once he opened his mouth, “Klaire! Where have you been? You did not answer my calls, you didn't even come to the palace today to celebrate the birth of my brother. Your parents said you are reading at home, who are you lying to?”
” … “As an Omega, his voice was actually louder than an Alphas.
Klaire rubbed his ear and explained, “Tonight, there are surely many people at the palace for the Fourth Prince’s birth day banquet; I do not like noisy places, so I didn't go.”
Xi Wei said in agreement,"That's true, there are so many people in the place today, your parents included. Say, your mom came to see my mother with your omega brother today, it was my first time seeing your brother, he looks cute. What's his name again?”
"He is called Kevin, four years old this year."
“Oh.” Xi Wei nodded. “He seemed to be particularly interested in painting. I gave him the set of painting tools I used to use. He was hiding in the lounge silently drawing today, and really, his drawing is much more attractive than yours.”
Suddenly remembering that previously he had drawn a painting of the two of them holding hands and then gave it to this little sweetheart of his, Klaire felt extremely embarassed. He quickly changed the topic, “Why were you looking for me?”
Xi Wei said with a smile, “I just wanted to tell you that my brother was born. His name is Caesar, an alpha prince. When he grows up, if he needs help, you must help him for me."
Klaire did not expect Xi Wei to make this request, but he soon understood Xi Wei's intentions—Xi Wei is used to his role as a big brother in recent years. Since childhood he has always tried his best to look after his two little sisters, always giving them delicious foods, and leaving all his toys to Alicia and Xi Lin while he himself rarely ever touched those toys. The two princesses also loved to hang around him all day, calling him Wang Xiong[1]. And now that his younger brother was born, Xi Wei began to worry about what would happen to Caesar once he grew up. This showed just how responsible a big brother he was.
The sight of the little boy dangling his little short legs over the sofa while possesing a solemn and concerned look on his face regarding his brother's future made Klaire unable to hold back his smile. He said,”I know, I'll help him once he grows up. And how is your Royal Uncle anyway?”
“He did not come today." Xi Wei answered, “Wang Shu’s baby will be born in a few days, the doctor said it is a boy, and although they still don't whether he will be an alpha, beta, or omega, his name has been prepared in advance. He will be called Brian, a bit similar with your name[2], right?”
Klaire nodded and said, “Your uncle’s son will be the same age as your brother Caesar, they can be companions.”
Xi Wei laughed, “Yes ah, just like the two of us, it was nice to have a partner to play with when you were a kid.”
” … “Have you ever played with me? Didn't you always push my head away everytime I tried to take a look at those books you were reading?
Klaire held back the urge to curse at Xi Wei,and said instead, “I’m going to sleep first, good night.”
***
That night, Klaire once again had a nightmare, he dreamed of the car accident from his previous life, of him hurriedly moving to his side the moment he discovered the large truck, rushing over to protect Ji Ran with his body, but also ended up wittnessing Ji Ran's bloody look at the same time. That scene was too shocking, and Klaire was immediately awoke, soaked with sweats in the middle of the night.
After waking up, he could not sleep anymore. Klaire turned on his optical computer and looked over the information of the more than 100 children for the rest of the night.
His initial inference was that if Ji Ran was still alive, he was likely to have nightmares like him during his childhood, and should be diagnosed with schizophrenia by the hospital. Using this theory as a starting point, he found a child called Jamie. He thought that the child was probably Ji Ran, but after seeing Jamie today, he realized that perhaps he had made a mistake from the beginning.
Jamie’s chatterbox character did not fit with Ji Ran's nature, and besides, when he saw Jamie, he did not feel a shred of Ji Ran's aura from him.
From this point of view, his initial inference was wrong. It was more likely that as a child, Ji Ran never received his memories in parts like he did, so he was never diagnosed as having schizophrenia, and never received treatment either.
In other words, even if Ji Ran lost all his memories after he was reincarnated, he may not have recalled them, therefore he did not need to go to the hospital for treatment. Or, Ji Ran was reincarnated with all of his past memory intact, and in order to avoid being discovered, Ji Ran continued to disguise himself. With Ji Ran's cleverness and his genius-level acting, it would be very difficult for the people around him to find out that something was wrong.
Both of these possibilities added a great level of difficulty to Klaire’s intention of finding him.
In the case Ji Ran did not have his memory, Klaire could only use the man's character as his base for searching, but he himself wasn't familar with Ji Ran's character as a child, so it was simply a case of looking for a needle in the haystack.
On the other hand, if Ji Ran was reincarnated with his memory, the movie star's acting skill was superb; acting as a child would be so easy for him. For Klaire to find him among hundreds of children would certainly be no easy task. Moreover, many of the born-on-the-same-day children lived in distant galaxies, Klaire had no chance of reaching them.
It was not until dawn that Klaire turned off his optical computer and came to the dining room for breakfast with a splitting headache.
General Byron was drinking milk there when he saw his son coming downstairs, he asked blankly, “Klaire, what did you do at Sam’s house last night?”
Obviously, Jamie’s mom recognized Klaire and told her husband about the incident, and then Captain Sam informed General Byron about it.
Klaire had known his actions must be concealed from his father and immediately uttered a long-thought up excuse, “I heard that Captain Sam’s son is my age and has good grades. So, I wanted to meet him and see if he can help me review my lessons.”
Byron frowned and said: “Don't go visiting the members of Star Corps without permission.”
Klaire immediately agreed, “Yes, Father.”
Klaire had almost forgotten about his barely thought-out excuse when in the afternoon, Lord Byron unexpectadly invited Battalion Commander Sam and his son to his own home.
“Klaire and Jamie are exactly the same age, and since it's the school's holiday, let's just leave the two children to review their lessons together,” said General Byron.
Sam naturally could not defy an order from the general and immediately pulled his son over to salute the general.
The two children were then sent to study in the study room, and Jamie immediately bounced in front of Klaire, “You’re Klaire? Are you also born on June 21st, son of general? Too amazing! Don't worry, I'll protect you like my father protect yours. Is this study room yours? It’s so big! What book is in this row, have you read it?
Klaire: “…… ”
Help, I don't want to be stuck with this chatterbox, I much prefer staying with Xi Wei instead.
Klaire, who had been tortured for a day by Jamie's presence, suddenly missed the days he spent with Xi Wei—at least, Xi Wei would not be as annoying as this kid. Except for his habit of rubbing Klaire's head, he actually got along quite well with Xi Wei's character.
Proof read by: Kleepart
T/N:
[1] Wang Xiong = Royal (older) Brother
[2] Xi Wei was talking about the pinyin
Klaire's name is克莱尔 or Kè lái’ěr
Brian's name is 布莱恩 or Bù lái’ēn
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