Lu Zihao watched as Jin Liwei froze into a horrified statue. A wave of dizziness overcame him as his body protested against hurting its Third Brother like this.
'Stop it. Lu Zihao is gone. You're my body now,' he mentally hissed.
The original Lu Zihao was already dead and gone, but the body still retained strong remnants of its original owner like muscle memory. After all, they had been together since conception in the womb up until the original Lu Zihao died and was replaced by the soul of Nikolai Vetrov. Suddenly finding itself housing a strange soul, of course there would be some form of rejection in the body one way or another.
To reduce rejection and increase compatibility, he did his best to match the original Lu Zihao's personality and habits. It proved to be an effective method, except at times like this when he reverted back to Nikolai's strong and intense personality.
The brotherhood between Jin Liwei and the original Lu Zihao was so deep that the body instinctively fought against him. He gritted his teeth and fought off the dizziness, feeling a little nauseous doing so.
"How do you know all of these?" the pale Jin Liwei asked in a whisper.
"I have my ways, Third Brother," he spoke in a cold tone.
Lu Zihao knew because once he recognized Iris as his beloved little sister Evelinka, he gathered all available information about Iris Long but it wasn't enough. Navigating through the familiar underworld channels, he hired a black hat hacker to dig more information about Iris Long and all the people around her. The hacker was above Hou Liang's level but nowhere near Iris' superior level.
When the hacker sent him the information, Lu Zihao was surprised to discover Jin Liwei's involvement in the original Iris Long's accident. The hacker even asked for extra payment for this information because it was harder to dig out.
"I almost missed it. Someone did a great job of erasing all the evidence. It's just that my skills are at a higher level so I was able to spot the small remaining trace. Only those at my level or higher will be able to pick up the trail," the hacker told him.
In all honestly, Lu Zihao didn't give a f*ck about the accident. After all, the original Iris was a stranger to him. He didn't give a f*ck that the girl died. In fact, he felt glad that she died in order for his precious little sister Evelinka to have a second chance in life like him.
"Are you going to tell Xiulan?" Jin Liwei asked.
"Are YOU going to tell her?" Lu Zihao threw the question right back at him.
"I…yes. I plan to. I love her so much." Sighing heavily, Jin Liwei rubbed his hands over his face. His expression looked extremely pained. "You're right. I'm a coward. I'm so afraid that she'll leave me once I tell her the truth."
'She probably won't care,' Lu Zihao thought but didn't say out loud. 'But the remnants of the original Iris in her body will.'
Thinking like this, he suddenly felt worried for his little sister. Unlike him, it was obvious that his sister didn't even bother matching the original Iris' personality or habits. She just did her own thing, not caring if others thought that her personality change was too drastic.
It was no wonder that her body was so fragile and would collapse whenever she experienced anything overly emotional. Despite this, he wasn't going to complain because he heard that the original Iris Long was a total b*tch and a spoiled brat.
Lu Zihao could see that his sister liked Jin Liwei very much. Perhaps she already fell in love with him but just didn't realize it yet. Since the original Iris' accident had no direct connection to Evelina, learning about Jin Liwei's involvement most likely wouldn't affect how she felt about him.
However, the same couldn't be said about her body. After all, its original owner was the one who was killed in the car accident. Lu Zihao feared that such a shocking revelation would increase the rejection between Iris' body and soul. It might even come to a point where her soul might be completely kicked out of the body.
Although he belittled Jin Liwei earlier, he knew that the man had the wealth, status, power and influence to safeguard Iris. Jin Liwei was in a much better position than Lu Zihao to protect her from any danger.
And he knew that there would be danger. Immense danger. A fire burned within Lu Zihao.
He tried asking the black hat hacker to investigate what happened to the Vetrov family but the hacker panicked and ended all communications with him. He wasn't surprised at all. So he planned on asking his little sister to help him avenge their Vetrov family and their organization with her godly hacking skills.
But when he finally met her as Iris, he could sense that she was already happy with her new life. In their past lives, their family couldn't afford to give her the freedom that she desired. It was too dangerous. It was different now, though. For the sake of her happiness, he decided not to involve her in his dark and bloody path of revenge.
Of course without her, revenge would be harder to achieve especially since he currently had no power of his own. It would take time for him to gain power but he would do it, no matter how long it took. He swore that he would get revenge in this lifetime.
And if his sister were to learn of his goal, she might even volunteer to help him. If that happened, he wouldn't reject her help but that would endanger her.
That was why he needed to mould Jin Liwei to become Iris' ultimate protector. When Lu Zihao became too preoccupied with revenge, Jin Liwei would be able to keep Iris safe from any danger.
Using the original Lu Zihao's memories and knowledge about Jin Liwei's character, he guilt-tripped his sister's lover and steered him to the direction he wanted.
He cruelly mocked Jin Liwei and criticized the man's cowardly behaviour to force him to grow a stronger backbone and unwavering loyalty to his sister. He must make it so that Jin Liwei's number one priority would always be Iris and Iris only, not even his family or company.