*Credits and acknowledgement are given at the end of the story description. Thank you."
The Prince- on the outside has everything, known by everyone, leading life predictable as one of the elite- high and mighty prince, but inside, lonely and search...
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"What's this, Jia Xue ah..?" Mr Wang recognised the file, and he didn't know why Jia Xue brought it to meet him today.
"I was hoping you would tell me, baba.." Jia Xue looked at Caleb's father quietly.
"You've been to the old storage room..?"
Jia Xue nodded.
"Why?" The old storage room was put in one of the most secluded part of the facility. In almost one year, Jia Xue had never been there. Why suddenly he went there now?
Jia Xue sighed, "if I tell you everything, baba..you must tell me everything too. This is important to me..."
Caleb's father could see how serious Jia Xue was, "alright. I promise I'll tell you everything.." actually Caleb's father already had an inclination about why Jia Xue went to the old storage room.
"We put some of the earlier research documentation in the storage room. This is the first research, and the one that I would never want people to remember." He sighed deeply, "we were trying to understand the human mind..And we started finding extra talented kids from all over China. It was supposed to be a harmless experiment. All our subjects came willingly, and took place in series of interviews and some clinical experiments which were administered with their guardians' consent and presence. Nothing too invasive though."
Caleb's father stopped and opened the file on his table, "but our lead researcher at that time, didn't report to us on this one particular test subject..."
"Patient X." Jia Xue said.
"Yes.." Caleb's father nodded, and sighed deeply, his face contorting with pain as he remembered that time, "he kept this test subject in the facility; locked up and began experimenting on her and taking cell samples from her, without following the procedure. She was sold by her family to him. So, there's no guardian who would watch over her. There's basically nobody protecting her at all.."
Jia Xue saw Caleb's father, grimacing in pain, "and we were responsible for everything. Because we didn't check this facility thoroughly. We didn't check the documentation thoroughly. We trusted the lead researcher blindly. We should have known about it sooner and put a stop to it. And maybe save her..."
"It's the one regret that I will have and I will take to my grave for the rest of my life. Not being able to protect that girl..The day we caught up to the lead researcher, she got away, and fell into the river at the back of the facility. It had been raining for days, and we did try to search for her..We carried out search and rescue for two weeks. We found nothing."
"We laid off the lead researcher and completely reshuffled the facility. We upgraded our security. And I became involved closely with every research conducted here after that. I continued to do so, until I passed this facility to Caleb.."
"But, this will always be, at the back of my mind." Caleb's father gripped the file, "this was written by one of the researchers who was with the lead researcher at that time..this is the only documentation that we had on her..The lead researcher destroyed everything before the raid. We didn't even have a picture of her..we only knew that she's a girl in her teen..and that she has very striking features and even more fascinating brain."
"We had reported this to the health and medical tribunal. We were investigated for two years. We were prepared to be punished. But instead, we were exonerated because there wasn't enough proof. So, the lead researcher walked free too..."
"It was one of the darkest history of our facility. Although people thought that we were innocent; that we didn't do anything wrong...I knew, we did. I knew that we had destroyed one girl's life. And we might even be responsible for her death...it took me years to forget about it. And I still do think about her from time to time though...it still tortured me, occasionally..even now.."
"Baba..." Jia Xue, called gently, patting Caleb's father's hand to calm him down, "Baba...Listen to me.." Jia Xue said.
"I did not kept this case away, because I didn't want you to know that we have a skeleton in our cupboard, Jia Xue ah..." Caleb's father looked at Jia Xue, pleading for Jia Xue's understanding, "It wasn't even a secret to begin with. This was a big case back in the late eighties, though after we were exonerated, the news seemed to have died out almost immediately almost as if it had never happened..I didn't want Caleb to know about this..Like you, he wasn't aware that our facility had ever been implicated like this before..He's so proud of the facility's achievements that I didn't have the heart to tell him of our dark beginning.."
"How did you know about this, his Xue ah? Did someone contacted you?" Caleb's father was very concerned because apart from him, his wife and his mother, there's only one other person in the family who knew about the incident.
Guan Fen. His estranged cousin. She had been coming to the facility often back then. She's only fifteen and they all thought that she came because she's interested in researching.
Little did they knew that she had been coming over for a whole different reason.
They only knew of it, when prospects off their lead researcher; that's when she lashed out uncontrollably, demanding they reinstate him back.
"No..Baba...Nobody contacted me...I just had that feeling..." Jia Xue breathed in deeply.
"You thought that Guan Fen told me about this, right?" Jia Xue asked. Caleb's father nodded, "and the lead researcher. It was Guan ChenJi, right?" And again, Caleb's father nodded.
"Baba...I stumbled upon on this file on my own." Jia Xue looked at Caleb's father intently, "I was actually, searching for some connection between my abduction and the facility... Because I felt as if there's something here that I need to understand. There must be a connection between me and the facility."
Caleb's father stared at Jia Xue, in confusion, "connection? Connection between you and the facility?. You're targeted because of that? I think you're mistaken though, Jia Xue ah. You're targeted because you're the Wang's beloved soon to be son in law!"
"I was targeted because somebody wanted to see how easily I could be influenced into following their instructions."
Caleb paused letting the information sank in. But Caleb's father was still confused. He couldn't understand how everything was interconnected.
"Patient X lived." He said, finally letting Caleb's father into the information he had been having in his hands for two days.
Caleb's father froze, then he hissed under his breath in disbelief, "what?"
"Baba.. You don't have to feel guilty. Patient X didn't die in the river. She survived by using her brain. She knew that the only way out of here without being detected, was to follow the river, she slept under the bridges and in the woods..."
"It was like that until the weather changed again, and suddenly she was caught off guard; while she's fishing, there's a sudden big rush of water and she's toppled over."
"Jia Xue ah.. how come you know about this!?" Caleb's father asked, his face was in total shock.
"Because, patient X is my mother." Jia Xue answered calmly, " She told me everything that had happened."
"What!?" And once again, the blood dried from Caleb's father's face.
"And this is the the connection that I was talking about." Jia Xue said quietly, "this is the reason, that somebody was interested in me. Guan Feng knew my mother, because she was here often, when my mother was held captive here. And I think she recognised me... though, not immediately. "
Caleb's father stared at Jia Xue, his breathing shallow and jelly and painful.
