Transmigrated as My Best Friend's Ex

103. Please Liberate Leiluo Kingdom from Feudalism

Translator: Guy Gone Bad

“Qinghao, I’ve been waiting for you to call me. But today I couldn’t resist the impulse to call you,” Keqi said in an ambiguous tone. It seemed that he was flirting with Li Qinghao, but in fact, there was a kind of bitterness in his voice.

Li Qinghao remained silent for a while. The street was bustling, with many people coming and going. No one noticed that this handsome young man frowned helplessly. He broke into a soft laughter and asked, “Do you want more evidence of our ‘romance’?”

Li Qinghao’s teasing tone gave Keqi a feeling of familiarity. However, Keqi knew that only on the phone would Li Qinghao talk to him like that. “Yes, of course.  I want to spend the rest of my life with you.” Keqi was different from Nancheng Lie. He always treated Li Qinghao rationally. Although he gradually developed an affection for Li Qinghao, he was able to keep his thoughts calm and rational. But Nancheng Lie had never been rational in front of Han Mingxu. Many years ago he found himself in love with Han Mingxu, and soon after, he was determined to love Han Mingxu and only Han Mingxu forever. Everything about Han Mingxu could easily make him lose his senses.

If he were rational, he would know that he shouldn’t love a man.

So, Keqi was bound to lose. Even if he hadn’t killed Han Mingxu with his own hands, he wouldn’t be loved by Li Qinghao, because he was too rational. Li Qinghao was a very rational man, so he needed an enthusiastic, irrational person, like Nancheng Lie, to warm his heart.

A soft laughter came through the line and rang in Keqi’s ear. Keqi’s heart was filled with warmth.

“How are you these days?” It was true that Keqi had been waiting for Li Qinghao to call him, and dared not to phone Li on his own initiative. He even didn’t know whether Li Qinghao wanted to receive a call from him.

After thinking for a while, Li Qinghao decided to reply honestly, “Not bad. My friends are working with the antidote of TRKS.”

“The antidote given by Frise is fake, isn’t it? I knew she wouldn’t let you go so easily. Qinghao, I…”

“Don’t say any more, Keqi.” Li Qinghao closed his eyes and continued, “Keqi, don’t say any more about it. I can pretend that nothing ever happened.”

Keqi bit his tongue as he was on the point of saying ‘Qinghao, I want to go to China to visit you’. He wanted to confess his love for Li Qinghao, but he was cut off in midstream.

‘Pretending that nothing ever happened? I know he has been injected with TRKS because of me, but there must be something else that I don’t know yet,’ Keqi thought to himself. However he racked his brain, he couldn’t find an answer. It was inconceivable to him that Han Mingxu was reborn as another man.

After all, he was very sure that Han Mingxu was dead, because he had killed Han with his own hands.

Falling in love with someone you killed was the cruellest punishment from God.

Keqi lapsed into silence. Li Qinghao knew that Keqi was strong-minded, but sometimes he tended to go to extremes. “Stay out of my business, Keqi. All you have to do is try your best to be a good king. You want to be free, right? You should know, only when you become the real power-holder of Leiluo Kingdom can you be free. Keqi… Please liberate Leiluo Kingdom from feudalism and make it a democratic country.” Only in this way could the tragedy between Han Mingxu and Keqi not happened again. Only in this way could Keqi be freed from darkness and sorrow.

“Qinghao, your humanity surprises me. I didn’t expect you to be such a great man.” Liberate Leiluo Kingdom from feudalism? Keqi scoffed at Li Qinghao’s words. His dislike of Leiluo Kingdom was as strong as his hatred of his parents. He didn’t want to work hard to liberate Leiluo Kingdom from feudalism at all.

“Keqi, have you ever thought that maybe…” Li Qinghao checked himself suddenly. He had an impulse to tell Keqi that maybe the story he heard from Frise was probably not true, but he fought it down, because it suddenly occurred to him that he didn’t tell Keqi yet that he already knew Keqi’s origins. So, his secret would come to light if he said that.

“That’s all for today’s conversation, Qinghao. I have other fish to fry.” Keqi hung up the phone without saying goodbye to Li Qinghao. His behavior was a bit strange. Li Qinghao felt puzzled, but he was in no mood to get to the bottom of it, because he had no time to think about other people’s business.

A sharp pain ripped through his whole body. He almost lost all sensation and began to tremble violently.

Damn it! He staggered and leaned against a nearby wall. He was now in a very quiet alley between two houses. The alley was two meters wide and extremely long.

Li Qinghao slowly squatted on his heels and curled up in a tight ball, with his knees tucked up at his chin.

The pain was so bad… He had never been in such pain before. Death usually occurs within a short time, and the pain was transitory. But now Li Qinghao felt he was caught in a whirlpool of pain that he couldn’t shake off. His ties with Leiluo Kingdom caused him a lot of trouble. He was not angry, but he hated to be involved in trouble.

If he had a healthy body, he would readily accept the fact that he was reborn as Li Qinghao. After all, it was a truly amazing experience that few people had. Li Qinghao was honoured to be chosen by God.

Gradually, he lost his unconsciousness. He saw a man approaching him before he slipped into a coma.

The reason Keqi hung up the phone without saying goodbye to Li Qinghao was because Frise suddenly broke into his study. “Auntie, I thought that as a princess of Leiluo Kingdom you must be a model of good manners. But it seems that I was wrong.”

Keqi’s sarcasm did nothing to shame Frise. In her view, Keqi didn’t deserve the throne of Leiluo Kingdom, so she didn’t think it necessary to treat Keqi politely. “You’ve changed after you took the throne. You never took this tone of voice with me before.” Frise sat down on a sofa and stopped frowning.

Keqi was not interested in arguing with her, because they two had quarrelled so many times since he became king. “What’s your excuse for breaking into my study this time?” Keqi asked in a sharp tone, emphasizing the word ‘my’. He was reminding Frise not to forget the deal between them two. If she provoked him, he might go back on his word.

There was a flash of resentment in Frise’s eyes, but it soon disappeared. “I’m here to ask you about the Nancheng family.”

“The Nancheng family?” Keqi was a little surprised. To be honest, he almost forgot Nancheng Lie. When Frise mentioned Nancheng Lie, Keqi immediately thought of Li Qinghao. They were in the same city now. It was dangerous to be with Nancheng Lie.

Frise came straight to the point, “Have you got in touch with Nancheng Lie recently?”

“No.” Keqi answered. After a pause, he continued, “Auntie, you told me to stay away from him so as not to give away my true identity, didn’t you?”

“Yes, but it didn’t mean…” Frise paused and changed the subject, “Do you know that Nancheng Group has stopped investing in the theme park of our country? ”

What? Keqi was surprised. “I don’t know! You are fully in charge of the theme park, and you forbid me from interfering.” To be honest, he was not interested in interfering.

“In view of the relationship between Han Mingxu and Nancheng Lie, Nancheng Group has no reason to stop investing.” Frise was puzzled. “That’s queer indeed! Call Nancheng Lie and figure out his intention.”

“Perhaps you’ve got it wrong, Auntie. If Nancheng Group really stops investing our theme park, they will have to pay breach of contract damages. That will be a great deal of money. I don’t think Nancheng Lie would do that.” Besides, the theme park would bring great profits to Nancheng Group because it was the first theme park in Leiluo Kingdom. Nancheng Group had no reason to stop investing.

“They don’t have to pay breach of contract damages, because they don’t formally withdraw investment from Leiluo Kingdom. They refuse to remit us any more money on the pretext of Nancheng Group being short of funds and in a financial strait. You know, the theme park is half-built. If the project is abandoned halfway, we will lose out heavily.”

“It’s just a temporary shortage of funds, maybe…”

“A temporary shortage of funds?” Frise sneered. “Nancheng Group always remains the unchallenged leader by a huge margin in the world. Do you think Nancheng Group would be in financial difficulty?”

Keqi asked directly, “What does you mean?”

“We both know that Nancheng Lie has been in love with Han Mingxu secretly. Maybe it’s because you haven’t contacted him recently that he stopped investing in our theme park in a fit of pique. It’s the only explanation I can think of.”

“You mean Nancheng Lie did all this?”

“Yes. At first, I thought Nancheng Yunyu was the decision maker. But the representative of Nancheng Group told me that Nancheng Lie made this decision. So, the only possibility is that Nancheng Lie is trying to force you to contact him by doing that.”

Hearing what Frise said, Keqi couldn’t help laughing loudly. “Auntie, as a mature woman, do you believe that Nancheng Lie would be so childish?”

Frise turned a deaf ear to Keqi’s sarcasm. “Then what do you think is his reason for doing that?” she asked.

“Er…” Keqi sank into silence. He was sure that Frise was wrong, but he had no idea why Nancheng Lie did that. In fact, Keqi didn’t know Nancheng Lie as well as he thought. People in love always behaved childishly. But Nancheng Lie didn’t think it necessary to do that for Keqi, because he knew Keqi was not Han Mingxu.

“Okay, I see. I’ll call him.” Keqi fiddled with his cell phone thoughtfully.