Near the coast of Chang'an, the Place of Chang'an was located.
If Lin Ye were to see the palace, he would say that it resembled a Chinese Palace.
The palace was composed of many buildings. It had enormous areas surrounded by walls and moats. It contained large halls for ceremonies and official business, as well as smaller buildings, temples, towers, residences, galleries, courtyards, gardens, and outbuildings.
The biggest building in the area was the main palace, where royalty would usually stay. The building was about 30 stories high with many floors in it.
At the highest level of the palace, on a balcony, a figure could be seen sitting and reading a book there.
Ying Jie had nothing better to do now, so at least he should read something to pass the time. He was reading a biography of the first emperor of Yan. The book retold the life of that legendary man. The man that made Yan. Even the Gods lowered their heads in front of him.
Just when he was enjoying the book, Ying Jie heard someone knocking on his door. He irritably slapped the book on the table. He glared at the door.
"Who is it?" In an annoyed tone, he asked.
"Your Royal Highness," His assistant voice echoed behind the door, "I have important news."
"Come in." He looked away from the door and glanced at the sea.
Hearing this order, the butler opened the door and walked toward the prince. When he was behind the prince, he did a slight bow.
Ying Jie didn't turn his head back and asked, "What's the matter? Talk."
"As you wish. The Prince Prince asked if the engagement ceremony was properly prepared or not?" The man said, "Although His Royal Highness would not be attending this, he still want-."
"It's none of his business." Ying Jie interrupted him and said, "This is something that Father gave me."
"... I am afraid you cannot do that," The man lowered his head, "The First Prince got permission from His Majesty to ask you this. It also acts as a report for His Majesty."
"..." Ying Jie narrowed his eyes at this. After much time, he growled a reply, "I see what I can do."
Ying Jie really did not like his situation now. With the news of the Third Prince being alive and now The First Prince being noisy, he was struggling now.
He was more annoyed at the idea of the former than the latter. Ying Jie hired a group of mercenaries of Kylins to kill Ying Zhen. They were all able to use Lei Fa. Against the group of people that were with Ying Zhen, the mercenaries would kill all of them.
However, the monster survived.
This can only mean that either he overestimated the Kylins, or he underestimated the group that follows Ying Zhen.
"Your Royal Highness?" The assistant called, "I have another thing to tell you. Wei Yanwu from Lungmen has news."
"Oh?" Yingjie finally listened. He snorted coldly, "Tell me."
"It is about the person who resembled Ying Zhen," The man reported, "He has amnesia."
"Amnesia? Who would believe such a stupid thing?" Ying Jie glanced at the housekeeper and said, "Ying Zhen must be lying to Wei Yanwu."
The assistant's eyes widened, "You mean."
"My moronic brother, he was afraid of me since he was a child. Every time I see him, he would hide from me like an ostrich," Ying Jie said lightly, "When he was a child, he would tremble with fright just by hearing my name. Now he knew I was going to kill him if I know he survive. So he left the country. In order to survive, he should keep away from anything related to the country of Yan, so he pretended to have amnesia in front of Wei Yanwu."
"I see," The man nodded understandably at this. He complimented the prince, "As expected of Your Highness."
"I just know my two foolish brothers too well." Ying Jie asked, "Did Wei Yanwu tell him his whereabouts? Which city is he now? Let Wei Yanwu investigate clearly. After the fourth sister gets married to Higashi, I will try to deal with him."
"Yes," The housekeeper hesitated, "Wei Yanwu said that His Highness Yingzhen is probably not in Ursus at this time."
"Where he then?"
The assistant simply answered, "In Yan."
The prince's body froze.
"... What did you say?" Ying Jie spun around abruptly, staring at the housekeeper, "Where is he?"
"Wei Yanwu said that His Highness Ying Zhen is likely to return to Yan," The housekeeper repeated again.
A memory flash into his mind.
The sound of a wooden sword falling echoed beside him.
A young Ying Jie fell onto the floor. He looked up and saw a young black hair boy standing in front of him.
No way his brother was a person. He was a monster. A monster of a brother.
No matter what Ying Jie did, no matter how strong he threw lightning bolts toward him, Zhen would always swat his attacks like they were flies. Every strike he used on Zhen, he would deflect his sword with ease.
A sword was still in his hand. The boy then slowly raised his sword above his head.
"Wait!" Ying Jie raised his hand to surrender, "You won!"
The boy did not seem to hear him nor did he care. He brought his sword down on him and smack Ying Jie's face, making him crash to the floor face first. Ying Jie held his head as screamed in pain. He then felt something wet on his hands. Looking down at his hand he saw they were covered with blood. His blood.
Before he could register what just happened a voice snapped him out of his shock.
"I won?" The boy said behind his back, "Oh, I am not done."
A hand grabbed his head. Ying Jie's face was shoved to the floor. Then he felt his hand being gripped behind him.
"You made Lily, my sister, cry," This monster, Ying Zhen, said blandly. Although his tone sounded harmless, for him, this made him even more terrifying, "These hands did that."
Ying Jie then felt his arms being twisted.
"Let me break them."
What followed that was the sound of bones breaking and his muffled screams.
"Why didn't you say this earlier?!" Ying Jie shouted at the assistant.
"We just got that news today," The housekeeper explained, "And there is no evidence to prove that His Royal Highness Ying Zhen has returned, so I can't tell whether it is true or not."
"Of course it is true!" Ying Jie slammed his hands on the table. He then took a deep breath to calm his nerve. When he was calm enough, he said in a low voice to the man, "Wei Yanwu has no reason to lie to me. He doesn't dare to lie to me. If he said that my stupid younger brother had returned, it should be true."
"I just thought it was unusual for the Ying Zhen to do," The man lowered his head and explained himself.
"True. How dare he go back to Yan." Ying Jie straightened up, put his hands behind his back, closed his eyes and thought, "That bastard. Why did he dare to come back? Why?"
A sudden realization hit him. His eyes widened at this.
"Ying Li's engagement ceremony," Ying Jie whispered, "That should be it."
"The engagement ceremony?" The housekeeper was very surprised.
"That bastard," He growled, "He chose to come back at this time. That monster always had a soft spot for that child."
"Indeed," The housekeeper thought about it and said, "The relationship between His Highness Ying Zhen and His Highness Ying Li has been very good since childhood. But what does he want to do now? What can he do?"
"Who knows?" Ying Jie's eyes narrowed, "'That brainless bastard. Who knows what he wants to do at this time? But it doesn't matter what he wants to do, what matters is what I want to do. Ying Li's engagement ceremony was given to me by the royal father, and I must not let that monster mess this up for me."
"Since that bastard does not want to die outside of the country, inside of it then," He then looked at the ocean, "I will bury him here."
"Are you going to use the Imperial Guards of Yan?" The butler said.
"Who said I'm going to use them?" Ying Jie said, "I have the Yan's Central Judicial Office, no? Father gave me permission in using them."
"You are going to use them to kill him?" The assistant asked, "Won't His Majesty be against this idea?"
"Who said I will tell him?" Glancing at the housekeeper, the prince said softly, "And if he did hear what I am doing, we won't care. Ying Zhen, the third prince is already dead."
"Father would not care about a stranger's life."
{Rhodes Island's Psychologist}
Draft: Jaq
Proofread: Jaq
Edit: Jaq