Chapter 664 - The shocking truth

Guan Gu Ri's heart clenched. He put his hand on his brother's shoulder.

"Xixin, don't think about the succession for now. With me as the head of the family, Gao Huan will not cross the line and use his authority to suppress you. Right now, what is important is to nurse you back to health. Grandpa will not like to see you like this--"

"Don't mention that name for that fraud, brother!" Guan Xixin pushed him away.

Guan Gu Ri was stunned by his brother's hostile expression. "Xixin?"

"How could you, brother? I can't believe that you allowed that fake bastard to inherit the Guan Empire! Why can't you open your eyes? You're losing everything the family had worked hard for to a fraudster!"

Guan Gu Ri opened his mouth to reason with him, but Guan Xixin was full of emotion. 

Like a dam that broke, he poured out his frustrated emotions. 

"You and Grandpa didn't believe me at all. Until the end, he died… He died not knowing the truth!" 

Guan Xixin's soulless eyes moistened. Tears welled up and threatened to come down.

Guan Gu Ri halted.

The truth...?

The matter of the scandal crossed his mind.

A chill rose in Guan Gu Ri's back. "W-what are you saying Xixin? Are you still in that delusion about third brother? The news are just nonsensical. Haven't we done tests before?"

"Eldest brother!" Guan Xixin yelled. His eyes became colder as he looked down on the files that Guan Xixin was still holding. 

It was the doc.u.ment containing the details of the news. The evidence that proved that the man everyone thought as their third brother was nothing but a fake.

This was no longer reasonable, this was plain in denial!

Guan Xixin clenched his fists and laughed exasperatedly. 

"You already have those evidences in your hands yet you still want to play blind? Brother, how great is your guilt towards Gao Huan that you don't want to admit the truth to yourself?"

Guan Gu Ri's eyes turned wide. 

His hand shook.

Guan Xixin: "Brother, wake up. No matter how much you want to deny the truth, all evidences are here. You can check it all you want, and the truth will still remain. Our real third brother is already gone. Our little Huan is gone! He died alone! He died without waking up!"

A big thunder clapped in Guan Gu Ri's mind. 

The blurred thought that he was trying to deny until the very end, the instinct that he was trying to push down, and the suspicions and doubts he locked away… 

They all poured out from his mind again.

The time that Guan Gao Huan first appeared was five years ago.

Those unfamiliar eyes and the unreal smile. 

….None of it was their brother's.

No matter how much Guan Gu Ri made excuses that his brother had just changed over the years, that uncanny feeling in his heart never went away.

However, his grandfather had made many tests and they all came out to prove that the young man indeed was their grandfather's grandson, their brother.

And in recent days, the unsettling feelings just grew stronger and stronger, that it almost ate his heart away.

Guan Gu Ri still tried to explain with a pale face. "Second brother, this is just the news. We haven't even verified them yet. If this was false… Xixin, we-- we already wronged our third brother too much…" 

Despite saying that, his voice was lacking confidence.

"I've already checked, and they are real. What? You still don't trust me? Then investigate them yourself! They're all true, brother. I will never joke about this."

Guan Xixin's red eyes told him that he wasn't lying. The painful look and rage on his second brother's face was all real...

Guan Gu Ri felt like his world was turned upside down. His c.h.e.s.t seemed to be pierced with a large knife, pushing deeper with each second.

Painful, breathless.

Although he had his doubts before and his second brother kept saying so, Guan Gu Ri dared not believe such an outrageous thing. 

Because he did not dare to lose the crumbling family he had.

When Guan Gu Ri received the results of the DNA tests from his Grandpa long ago, he had sighed in relief before.

He was the eldest. He had to look over his two brothers… He had always told himself that it was their fault that Gao Huan's personality and aura had changed a lot. He convinced himself that Gao Huan must have wanted their love and goodwill so much that he constantly put on a mask of obedience and sensibility, to the point that he felt superficial.

He ignored all the unusual signals. Until now, he still did not dare...

If his third brother Gao Huan was truly gone like his second brother had said since many, many years ago…

It must not be true…

Rather, he hoped that it was not true, because if it was...

His face deathly pale, Guan Gu Ri could not speak. His hands were cold.

Guan Xixin numbly watched the look of struggle and in denial in his elder brother's eyes.

"Eldest brother… Don't deny it anymore. The people who really killed Gao Huan is not just anyone, it is us."

"No, Xixin…"

"It is us brother! Stop denying the truth! Can you imagine my pain when I found out about all these? I..." Hot tears poured down like a dam from Guan Xixin's eyes. "I… I feel so incompetent… He must have felt very terrible, our little brother! I do not deserve to be his brother at all… I just left him all alone..." Guan Xixin cried heart wrenchingly.

When he found out the truth from Zhou Linfeng and Xiong Zhi and saw the evidence for himself, although he had been expecting it, Guan Xixin was still filled with rage, guilt, and pain.

The reality was way, way worse.

He was furious at the people who stole his brother's identity and played with his brother's life as if he was a pawn. 

But he was mostly disgusted at himself, and at his own family who pushed a defenseless child, their beloved treasure, to that hopeless situation. 

They were all so useless, so….

Guan Xixin cried so hard that he became numb.