THE SYZYGY

Shen YongZheng's eyes scrutinied the empty abandoned ships. 'But, how can they all disappear without a trace?' He furrowed.

'They brought something fishy with them...I think these special belts were used to secure something...' Lin Jing fell on his knee, lifting the wide rubber ropes that messed around.

'What kind of thing?' Zhu Hong arched her eyebrows.

'From its size, it seems like a small tank.' Chu ShuZhi stood near Lin Jing, calculating the "thing's" dimension.

'So many of them for sure.' Chu NianZhi added.

'No data left behind.' Chong Bo popped up from the ship's entrance, 'they took everything with them.'

'Or, they brought no data...' Shen YongZheng sighed, 'they combining technology and strategy. We underestimate him once again.'

'Our mistake was to let Ma TiHua leave us to prepare himself. We never know what he planned was.' Zhao XinChi spoke like he used to be.

'Lord Black Cloak hedged the entire abyss with his power. Even though the man tries to run away it's not likely he could escape.' Zhang Shi responded, his golden eyes flashing.

'With his thousands of years of experience, I don't know what he hides under his sleeves.' Shen YongZheng rued.

'We don't need to worry about him anymore...' An eminent voice heeded. Carried his weak younger brother, Shen Wei's figure emerged through the rain of snowflakes. Zhao YunLan followed him, supporting his younger brother. 'With six soul gun bullets inside his torso, I don't think he able to do something.'

'With that evil brain, how can I expect that he will not plan something evil?' Shen YongZheng stared at his eldest son. Nothing changed from the physique but the air around Shen Wei was altered. His charm overwhelmed the atmosphere.

'Soul gun indeed attacked his soul that's why the pain is indescribable. But when someone can control their mind, the pain could be subdued though it unannihilated.' Zhao XinChi talked in.

Shen Wei lowered his gaze. 'Understood.' He put YeZun down and lifted his hand. 'Blanket.'

Shen YongZheng peered at his men and one of the soldiers quickly delivered him a thick blanket. Shen Wei shrouded the blanket on his younger brother's shoulders, 'stay here...'

YeZun nodded assent. Shen YongZheng wrapped his second son with his arm to support the weak man.

Shen Wei glanced at Zhao YunLan who nodded at him before he strode to the ravine, releasing his power once again.

'What is he going to do?' The soldiers murmured to one another. The other shrugged as the responded. Unknowingly, they all flocked around out of curiosity.

Shen Wei moved his hand and the earth quaked heavily as the layers below folded up. Everyone hugged each other unconsciously, looking around as the tremor was escalating.

The tectonic plate jiggled as the lithosphere layer hoisted, tempering the vehicles that dug the ground desperately.

'What's happening?!' Zhang Tian turned around to the guards who operated the vehicle.

'There is an earthquake!'

'Earthquake?!' Ouyang Zhen frowned, 'is the crust faulted?!'

'Who's care?' Zhang Tian had no time to argue, 'go to the surface!' He commanded.

The vehicles ran at their highest velocity, avoiding the catastrophe that chased them like the muzzle of a giant dragon.

On the surface, everyone was stunned when the ravine was swathed layer by layer. No eye blinked when the jade layers were recreated on the top of the closed canyon.

At the same time, horror wasn't close to describing what happened beneath. The vehicles dug up just to find a void, as the opening was blocked by solid stones and ground. The confusion was not settled yet when Shen Wei, with his power, lead the freezing ocean water to enter the chasm from two opposite directions. The flows created a vortex, swirling the vehicles at a high rotation speed.

The fulmination of lachrymals was silenced by the ground above, nobody could hear their desperation. Shen Wei moved his hands once again and the water vortex solidified, sealing the fate of numerous artificial creations along with their creators below.

When his tasks were finished, Shen Wei opened his eyes. The snow brume faded and the dim light of the sun shone in the empyrean. 'Today, this place is their cemetery.' Shen Wei spoke calmly.

'Do you think so?' The old general barely could talk.

'Yes.' Curt replied sliding from Shen Wei's mouth. Glanced at his brother who clutched onto their father, 'YeZun, you save now.'

Shen YeZun nodded.

'Anybody care to help me?' Zhao YunLan's clownery voice split the stiffness, 'he is very heavy.'

'Ge, my size is not bigger than you yet you complain? Besides, I'm your younger brother.' The weak young man, who draped around Zhao YunLan's shoulders like a wet towel, complained.

'Oh, you just remember that you are my younger brother now? Are you remember that yesterday, when you and Lin Jing planned something behind me?' Zhao YunLan sneered.

'...'

'Why? Now cat steal your tongue?' Zhao YunLan glared at the meek young man.

'I...'

'You dare to answer back?!' Zhao YunLan shouted though their face was no further than an inch.

'It's not like that.' Zhao MingAn lowered his gaze, trying to avoid his brother's glare.

'YunLan...'

'Pa, don't tell me that I shouldn't angry about it!' Zhao YunLan's torso shook in anger.

'I don't say you shouldn't be angry, but at least, let your brother be treated first.' Zhao XinChi leaned on his walking stick, striding toward his second son. 'MingAn, you too, shouldn't make your brother that angry. How many times should I tell you to not keep a secret from your brother?'

'I don't care about a damn secret!' Zhao YunLan lost his temper. 'How many times have I told you? Don't make me worried! Could you at least do it once?'

Zhao MingAn didn't need a coat to keep his body warm. Zhao YunLan's anger was hot enough to melt the whole north pole.

Zhu Hong sprinted to secure Zhao MingAn before Zhao YunLan strangled his younger brother out of anger. Soon after the lady took Zhao MingAn's hand, Zhao YunLan tossed the young man into the lady's care.

Guo ChangCheng and Chu ShuZhi try to help the shocked Zhu Hong. But instead of holding Zhao MingAn, they accidentally hold each other and stepped aside from one another in a hasty. If only Zhu Jiu wasn't there, Zhao MingAn would be thrown into the thick ice.

'Lao Zhao!' Zhu Hong roared, her eyes about to burst out from their socket.

'Zhao YunLan!' Shen Wei sighed, tightening his grip on his brother. YeZun almost fell because he wanted to help his lover despite his condition.

'What? Now everyone scolded me? I don't believe you, guys!' Zhao YunLan returned their glare.

'Ge, I didn't mean to make you worry.' Zhao MingAn fidgeting his hands.

'You didn't?!' Zhao YunLan lifted his forehead in amazement, 'so you want to say that I will not worry if my younger brother enters the tiger's den on purpose?!' He pointed at the enemy ship.

'I was well prepared...'

'Well prepared?!' Zhao YunLan refused to listen. 'So if I was deliberately let myself caught by a psycho who could control my mind and kept my lover hostage, you will not worry about me?!' He walked back and forth, glaring at the fidgeting young man.

'Ge, don't say that unlucky thing...'

'Why?! You shouldn't worry, I will be well prepared.' Zhao YunLan asked in a wavy sarcastic tone.

'If I'm in the danger, I know you will come to save me. But if you are in the danger, who will come to save you? I'm incapable.' Zhao MingAn kept lowering his gaze. 'I have to depend on someone else to do that for me.'

Zhu Hong glared at Zhao YunLan, patting the young man's back to comfort him.

'Zhao YunLan...' A golden shade flashed in Zhao XinChi's eyes, 'you know how your brother is afraid to lose his elder brother. Don't say such a thing.'

'Well, that's too rich coming from someone who makes him this way.' Zhao YunLan glared back at the epiphyte DiXing.

'Alright, alright. We can't argue in this cold place.' Shen YongZheng was back to his normal appearance, standing in front of Zhao YunLan to calm him down. 'Let's go back to Dragon City...' He patted the upset man.

Zhao YunLan nodded assent.

**********THIS STORY IS STOLEN BY NOVELHD, PLEASE JUST READ THE ORIGINAL IN WATTPAD OR AO3 **************

Inside the Shen Mansion, Shen MeiHua couldn't stop crying when she took care of YeZun.

'Mother...' YeZun wiped his mother's tears many times.

'That monster! To think how well I treated him...' Shen MeiHua sniffled, 'how could he treat my son this way?!' She wrung the towel rudely.

'Mother...' Shen Wei caressed the lady's shoulders.

'Look at these bruises!' Shen MeiHua wiped the bluish marks on YeZun's chest. 'I treated him like my own brother. I opened my house for him. He was welcomed as part of our family. How could he? How could he?' Shen MeiHua ranted profusely.

Threw the towel into the water, smacking it, and poured her bitterness on the poor towel. If only the scratch of cloth could cry, it would sob heavily.

'Mother...Da Ge and Zhao YunLan had already punished him.' Shen YeZun took her mother's hands, patting them. 'Please, don't be angry.'

'That precisely why I'm mad!' Shen MeiHua screamed, 'Wei-er and Zhao YunLan gave me no chance to plummet that monster myself!' The lady gasped in resentment. 'If only I have him in my hands, I will pluck out his eyeballs, cut his ears, stab him hundreds of times, and drown him in acid liquid. He can suffer for eternity for all I care!' Shen MeiHua clenched her fists with fiery eyes to her family's cringe.

Indeed, nothing could be compared to the wrath of a lady.

**********THIS STORY IS STOLEN BY NOVELHD, PLEASE JUST READ THE ORIGINAL IN WATTPAD OR AO3 **************

Sat in the bed in one of the guest rooms at Shen Mansion, Zhao MingAn let his brother tend his wounds. Crouched at a wooden chair afore his younger brother, Zhao YunLan did not speak even a word. Ungently rubbed the scratches with alcohol, caring less about the burning sensation effect.

The SID staff couldn't bear the sight, they waited outside the room along with Shen Xi. They weren't agreed to the torture but Zhao YunLan's upset wasn't unreasonable.

Zhao MingAn flinched constantly every time the alcohol-drenched cotton ran through his skin but Zhao YunLan's menacing expression pushed him to swallow his complaint.

'Ge...' Zhao MingAn tried to break the ice. 'I know you are upset with me. But please, listen to me first.' He lifted his eyes, welcomed by two sharp dagger eyes.

Zhao MingAn gulped, gathering his scrambled courage before he spoke. 'When you asked me to put the tracker on AnHe, I thought so many things. I wasn't sure if she was a bad person. What if we put a tracker on her and nothing happens?'

'In short, you didn't trust your elder brother?'

'Please, let me finish...' Zhao MingAn begged in glittering puppy eyes.

Zhao YunLan didn't reply, lowering his face. Pressed the alcohol on the wound. Zhao MingAn flinched, biting his lower lips to muffle his voice.

'That was the first thinking...' Zhao MingAn squeezed the satin bed cloth to reduce the pain. 'The second was, where should we put it without she realizing the tracker. I asked Hong Jie and she said that AnHe has no particular thing that she is fond of. That means that she could throw away every stuff she doesn't like anymore including the tracker...'

Zhao YunLan's pressure on the wound was diminished, though he didn't lift his head.

'Besides, this Ma TiHua, nobody knows what kind of person he is. They just know him superficially. And why and how he was never found. What kind of protection does he use? What if he notices the tracker? Professor Shen could be in great danger...' Zhao MingAn took a deep breath, trying to hide his face though he couldn't.

'That's why I thought, it will be more effective if I were the one with the tracker...Of course, I know that he can control my mind. That was why Lin Ge made a device customized to jolt my mind back every time I'm entering a hypnotic state...I also learned their shields...They use the color wavelength and frequency. So, I sneaked at night and create a tool to dissolve the wave...' Zhao MingAn struggled to lift his brother's sub-zero aura through his comical smile but Zhao YunLan was far from amused.

'Ah Ming...' Zhao YunLan looked at his younger brother properly, 'I know that you are not a kid. I know that you've been through so much before we met. But...' Zhao YunLan growled as he lost the wording to express his upset.

'You told me that you don't want to lose your elder brother once again. Don't you ever think that I also think the same?!

'We practically just know each other these few years but...God! Only God knows how delighted I am to know that I have a younger brother! And I don't plan to lose him, not for any reason! But this stupid younger brother of mine is somehow...Deliberately run towards the danger willingly, even though I strive to protect him at all cost!

'Do you know what my life was before? I live alone, and do what I like without considering anyone else. Because I had nobody! Now, I have a family and you! I try my best to amend our lost childhood time together, I want you to live like other young people. Is that too much?'

Zhao YunLan poured his innermost emotions incessantly but Zhao MingAn kept lowering his head, fidgeting his fingers on the satin sheet.

'But Ge...Do you think I can live normally like other young people if that Ma TiHua is still around?' Zhao MingAn's voice was as low as a dove but Zhao YunLan was smacked by the truth.

'Next time, no matter what, I want to be the first person who knows about your plan.' Zhao YunLan softened, 'do you understand?'

'Mhm.' Zhao MingAn's smile crescented.

**********THIS STORY IS STOLEN BY NOVELHD, PLEASE JUST READ THE ORIGINAL IN WATTPAD OR AO3 **************

'How's he?' Shen Wei asked soon after he noticed Zhao YunLan's presence.

'He is fine.' Zhao YunLan stood beside his lover, peering at the valley next to the Shen Manor. 'The view is gorgeous.' He gestured at the sunset that altered the emerald color of the bosky dell before them into yellowish scarlet.

'Are you alright?'

'Why should I'm not alright?' Zhao YunLan returned the question only to find his lover's meaningful stare. 'I'm alright,' he snorted. 'I reloading soul gun for so many times already. Tiring, but I recover fast enough.' He patted Shen Wei's shoulder.

'What happened?' Zhao YunLan asked back at his lover's silence.

'When I searched YeZun's energy at Ma TiHua's base, I felt something odd...'

'What is it?'

'I felt YeZun's energy from two different places...'

'Could it possibly be residual energy?'

'Possibly.'

'Then, what's wrong about it?'

'I hope nothing...' Shen Wei darted his eyes to the sunset.

At the same time, a wrecked vehicle drilled up through the thick ice. Its dent wheels lurched amongst the ice, driven painfully towards a secret cave behind a fake iceberg...

The syzygy is the nearly straight-line configuration of three celestial bodies when the moon and the sun stand opposite of each other with the earth in the middle, where there is a blind spot for one another...

**********THIS STORY IS STOLEN BY NOVELHD, PLEASE JUST READ THE ORIGINAL IN WATTPAD OR AO3 **************