Father.
Father!!!
Zhang Fengxi disregarded his own physical condition and jumped from the bed. After grabbing the frightened attendant by his lapels, Zhang Fengxi shook the poor man and asked, "Where is he? Tell me now!!!"
"I... I... This subject will bring you there..." he stuttered in fear.
Zhang Fengxi’s mind went blank as he ran out of the tent with the attendant leading the way.
Images from his past life flooded his mind.
It was from the time when Zhang Fengxi and Lady Song received the news of Zhang Zhiyuan’s demise.
The father who left for war three days ago perished due to a vicious attack by a Demon King on the battlefield, it said.
The entire Heavenly Realm was mourning the loss of a great man, but that did not help at all.
Zhang Fengxi recalled the time when Longjing Palace was covered in white clothes, white paper, and white flowers. It did not matter where the young alpha cast his glance at. The white color was everywhere.
The white paper cutouts to mourn the deceased were strewn throughout the entire palace, in the courtyard, and in the garden.
The mourning decoration made Zhang Fengxi sick with sorrow.
The constant crying sounds and endless laments were akin to blades that pierced through his heart mercilessly.
His mother, Lady Song cried hysterically for days. The loss of her dearest husband hit her hard. She only stopped crying when she fainted or fell asleep from exhaustion.
When everyone succumbed to the grieving process, Zhang Fengxi became the only pillar left at Longjing Palace.
Holding a memorial tablet with his father’s name engraved on it, young Zhang Fengxi had to steel his heart and accept the Longjing Palace Master title from the Golden Dragon Palace.
The inauguration of a new palace master was supposed to be a happy day, but no one was able to crack a smile that day.
Sadness and pity were the two main emotions that featured on the ceremony attendants’ faces.
Zhang Fengxi was not ready.
He had gone through the loss once, but he was not ready to go through it again.
Zhang Fengxi did not want to admit it, but he still needed his father around.
"Father, please don’t die... Father, please don’t leave..."
Zhang Fengxi said these two sentences over and over in his head, hoping that they served as chains to bind his father to the living world.
"Zhang Fengxi."
A pair of hands grabbed his arms and stopped him from tearing the tent flap open.
Zhang Fengxi stared at Xie Jianyu in confusion.
"I want to see my father," he demanded.
"Your father is still being treated by a medic. He is going to be fine," Xie Jianyu replied.
"No, you don’t get it," Zhang Fengxi struggled against Xie Jianyu’s grip. "I have to see him. I HAVE TO SEE HIM!"
In his previous life, he was unable to say goodbye to his father. Zhang Zhiyuan arrived back at Longjing Palace in an ice casket, his skin bluish-white and his lips purple.
Zhang Fengxi’s tears fell across his cheeks.
Dear gods, he thought.
He had done his best to protect his father.
He thought that he succeeded, but he failed to take into account one very important factor. Fate.
What if fate dictated his father’s death on this day?
Zhang Fengxi slid to the ground.
"Zhang Fengxi, pull yourself together!" Xie Jianyu gave him a crisp slap across the cheek. "You are the heir to the Longjing Palace, you must not act weak!"
"But I..."
He didn’t want to be the heir of the Longjing Palace, he wanted to say. He just wanted his father to be alive and well. Why was that so difficult to understand?
Zhang Fengxi knelt on the ground, bowing his head to heaven, begging for mercy. He must look like a pathetic fool, but Zhang Fengxi could not care less. He was willing to embarrass himself, enrage Zhang Zhiyuan enough to make him rise from the bed and beat him up.
Xie Jianyu sighed.
He knelt in front of Zhang Fengxi and shook the latter’s shoulders.
"Your father is going to be fine," he said.
Zhang Fengxi raised his head and looked at Xie Jianyu with eyes full of hope.
"Really?"
"Yes," Xie Jianyu said confidently. "Don’t lose heart. You can see him in a little while."
Xie Jianyu.
Zhang Fengxi remembered the most devastating deaths in his life.
Two years had passed since he returned to the past.
Today, if fate decided to take his father away, then Liu Wenyuan would die in a little over three years. Xie Jianyu was going to die in four years.
Zhang Fengxi stretched out his arms.
Xie Jianyu did not have enough time to react before he was pulled into a tight embrace.
Seeing the awed expression of the military personnel who stared at them, Xie Jianyu’s cheeks quickly turned red.
He was about to shove Zhang Fengxi away when he heard him whisper in the smallest voice possible, "I don’t want you to die..."
"..."
Xie Jianyu had half a mind to ask the medic to check Zhang Fengxi’s head next. Before he managed to disentangle himself from Zhang Fengxi’s embarrassing hug, several voices were heard coming from inside the medic’s tent.
And then, the tent flap was pulled aside. The three palace masters who were "heavily injured" appeared with thick bandages on various parts of their bodies.
Zhang Zhiyuan, who came out last, had to support himself with a cane.
Their reactions upon seeing two alleged alphas hug each other in public were rather amusing.
"Oho," Song Weiyang remarked.
"Interesting," Li Haoran commented.
"..."
Trembling from head to toe, Zhang Zhiyuan glared at his only son.
Steam practically rose from his head when he screamed at the top of his lungs, "ZHANG FENGXI...!!!"
No one was surprised when Zhang Fengxi, the hero who saved his father’s life by meeting the Demon King’s attack heads on, was punished with a week of house arrest as soon as he got home.