The Fake Son Wants to Live [BL]
Chapter 179 - Elder brother?

Chapter 179: Chapter 179 - Elder brother?

Jian stood still.

He had gotten all the answers he had longed for. Who he was. Where he came from. Why he had been left behind. All of it. Yet, despite the truth finally being laid out in front of him, it didn’t fill the void inside. It didn’t soften the jagged mistrust lodged in his chest.

This man—his real father—had spoken with tears, with grief, with longing. But Jian couldn’t feel the warmth of a father’s love. Not really. He couldn’t force the connection.

There was only a blankness where emotion should’ve bloomed.

Suddenly, the circle to his left pulsed with a soft hum, lighting up in slow waves. He flinched slightly, instinctively stepping back as light particles began swirling, forming shapes just like they had earlier.

The man beside him—his father—brightened immediately, quickly wiping away the remnants of tears from his cheeks. His grin widened with unrestrained joy.

"Your elder brother is here," he said, almost giddy.

Jian blinked, turning slightly to look at the forming figure.

The light solidified into a tall, poised young man. He wasn’t like the older man. He didn’t have that tired warmth or messy grief lingering around his features. No, this man looked refined, deliberate, and almost unreal in his beauty—like someone ripped straight out of a historical drama. His skin was flawless, his jawline sharp, and his posture stiff with restrained elegance.

In the center of his forehead was a blue crystal—not large and glowing like a raw gem, but small and shaped like a diamond, refined and gleaming even with the smallest movement. It caught the light like a mirror, reflecting everything and nothing at once.

The young man’s pale blue eyes locked onto Jian with an unreadable gaze. Cold. Measuring.

"Cealus," their father said, voice full of warmth, "look! This is your youngest brother. Isn’t he cute? He looks so cute—doesn’t he?"

Cealus barely glanced at their father before slowly scanning Jian up and down with an expression that didn’t change once.

"Why is he short and lanky?" he asked flatly.

Jian felt his brow twitch, his jaw tightening with every word his so-called brother spat out.

"Is he ten years old?" Cealus continued with a perfectly straight face, his voice void of emotion. "Why does he look so small and thin? Didn’t anyone feed him?"

The mocking tone didn’t even shift, but each word dug like a needle into Jian’s pride.

He tried to stay quiet. He really did. But the blood in his veins was boiling now. His hands curled into fists at his sides.

"I was starved," Jian snapped, his voice rising sharply. "I was beaten. Locked up. So what?! I’m thin because I barely got food. But I’m strong. Stronger than you!"

His voice echoed in the chamber, sharp and cutting, bouncing off the smooth walls of the glowing space.

Cealus froze. The easy detachment in his eyes cracked, the pale blue darkening, sharpening. His gaze narrowed like a blade drawn halfway from its sheath, and suddenly, that cold light wasn’t so harmless.

"Who hurt you?" he said, voice low and controlled. Danger pulsed beneath the surface. "Someone dared to hurt you?"

Jian’s chest stilled. He hadn’t expected that reaction. Not from someone who’d just called him small and looked at him like a discarded broomstick.

"I..." Jian started, but his voice faltered.

Then his father’s voice rang out, full of panic and outrage. "Humans bullied you?! How dare they! How dare they hurt my son!" His forehead crystal lit up in a fierce, blinding glow as raw fury poured from his expression.

"I’ll bring down heavenly wrath upon them!!" he growled, his entire body trembling with rage. "Let them face the storm of Farian vengeance—let them revert back to that stupid, hair-covered state they were thousands of years ago!"

"Let them crawl again," Cealus added, his cold grin now sharp as ice. "Back to their caves. I’ll flatten their cities myself—"

"No!" Jian shouted, his voice cracking from the force.

Both men turned to look at him, stunned.

"No one touches Earth!" Jian barked again, louder, fiercer. "No one!"

The glow from their crystals flickered, stunned by the weight of his outburst.

He stood there, breathing hard, chest heaving. His eyes were blazing. "I’m not some helpless thing you found in a field! I’m not some token you can avenge to make yourselves feel better. Earth... Earth is where I lived. Where I grew up. Where I survived! It’s not perfect—but it’s mine."

He glared at them both, eyes wide and furious. "If you think you can punish innocent lives to avenge the ones who hurt me, then you’re no better than the ones who did."

Silence fell.

Even the lights in the chamber seemed to dim slightly, as if the room itself were holding its breath.

Jian let out a deep breath, steadying the fury that still burned in his chest. There was no use arguing.

He couldn’t stay here.

He turned on his heel.

He needed to go.

Back to Earth.

Back to the place that needed him the most.

"Where are you going?" his father whispered from behind him, the voice suddenly soft, almost fragile.

Jian paused for just a moment. "Home," he said without looking back.

And then he left the room.

His steps were brisk, echoing on the polished floor. He didn’t turn around. Didn’t look at the men who claimed him but didn’t feel like family. He just walked, as light particles behind him started to fade.

Cealus remained, watching the door Jian had vanished through. His arms folded across his chest, but his brow was faintly scrunched in what looked like guilt—or maybe confusion.

"You made him angry," he said with a small pout, looking over at his father.

The emperor let out an exhausted sigh. "You brat, it’s your stupid words that enraged him," he muttered, rubbing his temples. "He was talking calmly when I was with him. You really need to learn how to have some empathy."

Cealus’s shoulders slouched slightly. "I wasn’t trying to upset him..."

The emperor gave him a long look, a bit more exasperated than angry. "I hope you change when you find your mate—if you ever do."

Cealus’s lips pressed into a thin line. "My mate’s taking time," he grumbled under his breath.

And with that, his body dissolved into small, floating specks of blue light, vanishing from the room without another word.

The emperor was left alone in the glowing chamber, the silence settling around him like a blanket. He looked up at the ornate ceiling, face creased with worry and something more—maybe regret.

"Boys..." he murmured under his breath, voice half amused, half defeated. "Why didn’t I have a single girl? They seem so lovely..."

Shaking his head, he chuckled to himself softly, then sighed again. Slowly, his form, too, began to fade. The lights that made up his body shimmered and lifted off him like fireflies until he disappeared completely, leaving the room still and empty once more.