I hadn't expected him to make such a request.
His request was actually very simple: to live, and to coexist with the Doctor.
I wanted to tell him that the Doctor had never intended to take his life. Otherwise, he wouldn't have survived until today.
The Doctor had said that he couldn't bring himself to act against himself. To put it plainly, he couldn't kill himself.
But I didn't state my position, because I couldn't be sure what he was really thinking. Who knew whether he was playing some kind of game?
In any case, the Doctor was no pushover.
"Mr. Jiang, I know you don't trust me, but I'm telling the truth. I can do everything the Doctor can do for you. Of course, I don't mean to replace him. I know the two of you are very close; calling you kindred spirits wouldn't be an exaggeration. But wouldn't it be better to have one more person like the Doctor?"
"If you'd told me your true identity the first time we met, perhaps I would have sensed your sincerity," I said blandly.
He narrowed his eyes, and I had no idea what he was thinking.
If he had confessed the first time I met him that he was merely the Doctor's clone and shown enough sincerity, perhaps I really would have regarded him as an ally. I might even have considered him a friend. Though I couldn't say he would have stood on equal footing with the Doctor in my heart, the difference wouldn't have been great.
But that time, he had used me.
Although he had given me plenty of information about the Void Realm and parallel spacetime, all of it had been driven by his own selfish motives.
He sighed deeply. "I had my own difficulties at