Her eyes snapped open, and she gasped, a horrible, choking sound as air rushed back into lungs that had forgotten how to breathe.
"Shuyin!" Lu Yuze’s face swam into view above her, tears tracking down his cheeks. "Thank god. Thank god."
But Shuyin couldn’t speak. Couldn’t move. The cost of what she’d done was catching up to her all at once.
She turned her head weakly toward her mother and saw the lady’s chest rising and falling, slowly, but steadily. The color was returning to her face. Her breathing was no longer labored.
Alive.
Her mother was alive.
Relief crashed over Shuyin like a wave, and with it ca the final breaking point. Her body, pushed far beyond its limits, finally gave out.
She lurched forward in Lu Yuze’s arms and blood erupted from her mouth, not a trickle, but a violent expulsion, dark and thick. It splattered across the floor, across her clothes, seeming endless.
"Shuyin!" Lu Yuze’s voice was frantic.
She coughed again, and more blood ca, her body convulsing with each spasm. The spiritual poison she’d taken into herself, the massive expenditure of life force, the sheer trauma of splitting her consciousness, it was all manifesting now, violently, destructively.
Her vision blurred. The room spun.
She heard Lu Yuze shouting for help, felt him holding her as her body shook with another violent cough that brought up more blood than seed possible.
The last thing she saw before darkness claid her was her mother’s face, peaceful in sleep, breathing steadily.
Worth it, she thought again as consciousness slipped away. Always worth it.
Then there was nothing but black.
Chaos erupted in the sitting room.
Lu Yuze caught Shuyin as she collapsed completely, her body limp and lifeless in his arms, blood still trickling from the corners of her mouth. Her face was ashen, her lips tinged blue, and when he pressed his fingers to her throat, her pulse was so faint he could barely detect it.
"Ah Ling! Ah Ying!" His voice thundered through the mansion, raw with command and barely controlled panic. "Get the doctor! Now! And bring dical supplies, everything we have!"
The n, who had been waiting anxiously outside, burst through the doors. Both froze at the scene before them, blood pooled on the floor, the mistress unconscious and covered in it, the lady lying peacefully on the sofa as if rely sleeping, and i still slumped against the wall, battered and broken.
"Don’t just stand there!" Lu Yuze’s sharp tone snapped them out of their shock. "Move!"
Ah Ling bolted from the room, already pulling out his phone to call the family’s private physician. Ah Ying rushed to gather supplies, his hands trembling as he moved.
i struggled to her feet, pain etched across her features, but her concern was singular. "The princess.... is she...."
"She’s alive," Lu Yuze said tersely, carefully laying Shuyin down on the adjacent sofa, positioning her on her side in case she vomited more blood. "Barely."
He grabbed cushions, elevating her legs to help with circulation, then pressed clean cloths against her face, trying to stem the bleeding. His hands were steady despite the terror clawing at his insides. He’d been trained for crisis managent in the business world, but nothing had prepared him for this, for watching the woman he loved nearly die trying to save her mother.
This was the second ti he would be watching and having blood all over him. Fate was really cruel to him.
i limped closer, her eyes widening as she took in Shuyin’s condition. "She took the poison into herself," she whispered, horrified understanding dawning. "The Soul-Severing Poison, she absorbed it to save her mistress."
"What does that an?" Lu Yuze’s eyes snapped to her. "Will she survive?"
i’s silence was answer enough.
"Tell ," he demanded, his voice dropping to sothing dangerous.
"The Soul-Severing Poison is... It’s designed to kill celestial beings. Mortals die instantly upon contact, but for our kind, it’s a slower death. It severs the connection between soul and body, piece by piece." i’s voice shook. "The princess is powerful, more powerful than anyone I’ve ever known, but she’s taken a lethal dose into herself. And she’s already depleted from healing her mother. Her body, her spirit... they’re both failing."
Lu Yuze’s jaw clenched so hard his teeth ached. "How do we stop it?"
"I don’t know if we can." i’s eyes glistened with tears. "This poison was created by the celestial court’s greatest alchemists as a weapon. There is no known antidote."
"Then we find one." Lu Yuze’s tone brooked no argunt. "We don’t give up. She didn’t give up on her mother, and I won’t give up on her. I won’t give up on her, we have to find a way..."
He turned his attention back to Shuyin, brushing blood-matted hair away from her face with infinite gentleness. Her skin was cold, too cold, as if the life was already draining from her.
"Stay with ," he murmured, his voice soft now, ant only for her. "You’re the strongest person I know. You’ve survived everything, survived centuries of whatever hell you’ve endured. You can survive this. You will survive this."
No response. Not even a flutter of her eyelids.
Behind them, unnoticed in the crisis, the lady’s eyes slowly opened.
THE MOTHER’S AWAKENING
The first thing the lady beca aware of was the absence of pain.
For months, no, for years, perhaps, she had existed in a state of constant agony. Every breath had been torture, every heartbeat a struggle against thorns that squeezed and constricted. Her bones had felt like they were shattering from the inside, and there had been this terrible sensation of being pulled apart, of her very essence trying to separate from her flesh.
But now... nothing.
Just blessed, miraculous silence where the pain had been.
The second thing she beca aware of was the sound of crying.
Her eyes fluttered open slowly, vision blurry at first, then gradually focusing. The ornate ceiling above her was unfamiliar, high, decorated with intricate molding, lit by a magnificent chandelier. This wasn’t her chambers in the celestial realm.
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