Yexue froze for half a second when Ru Yi’s hands wrapped around her waist. She’d seen Lieyin storm out first, before Ru Yi came running towards her.

Did they have a fight?

"Is everything alright?" Yexue asked, holding Ru Yi’s body against hers.

Instead of an answer, she felt something warm and wet drip onto her shoulders. Ru Yi’s tight hold on her also began to weaken.

"Ru Yi?"

Qingyue came out of the heart, chest heaving and eyes tired. "You should take her inside and tend to her wound. She was stabbed."

Yexue’s eyes widened as she pulled away to look at Ru Yi whose eyes were already half closed. "What the hell happened?"

"There was an intruder, I’ll explain later." Qingyue looked at Ru Yi whose body was beginning to go slack. "Make sure she’s okay. I’ll go find Lieyin before she does something she’ll reget even more."

Yexue didn’t need to be told twice. She carefully carried Ru Yi into the room, the sound of her whimpering from the pain almost made her lose her entire senses.

"Wait...take her to my room. She shouldn’t be on the bare floor." Madam Xiao led Yexue to the room she now shared with Xiao Yi.

There was a thin mattress on a small wooden frame. It wasn’t much but it was better than the bare floor Ru Yi and the others slept on.

Yexue laid Ru Yi carefully on the bed, watching the younger woman wince with her hand pressed to the side. Blood soaked through the fabric of her robe, dark and spreading, the metallic scent thick in the air.

"Stay still," Yexue muttered, trying not to let the rage in her explode in both their faces. "Why do you always get hurt?" she almost cried watching Ru Yi’s face twist in pain.

The first time Ru Yi had been stabbed, Yexue hadn’t cared much. To her Ru Yi was just another pawn in their game.

But now?

Yexue closed her eyes, willing her emotions to calm down. When she opened them again, she went straight to work.

"This is going to hurt," she muttered.

Ru Yi gave her a small nod, her body already heavy and numb in some place. While it burned in others.

Yexue’s hands were steady as she reached for the edge of Ru Yi’s robe. She looked over her shoulder at Madam Xiao who nodded in understanding before leaving the room.

Yexue pulled the fabric aside carefully, exposing the wound at Ru Yi’s side. The cut wasn’t deep enough to kill—but it was clean, deliberate, and bleeding more than it should.

Yexue’s eyes darkened. "A blade meant to weaken," she murmured.

Her fingers moved with practiced precision, tearing clean cloth, and pressing it firmly against the wound to stop the bleeding.

Ru Yi flinched, her hand instinctively reaching out to grip Yexue’s sleeve.

Yexue went still for a fraction of a second before she continued. "Stay still."

Ru Yi tried, but her breathing was uneven now, her thoughts unravelling. "It keeps happening..." she whispered.

Yexue glanced at her.

Ru Yi’s eyes were glassy, unfocused...and it wasn’t from the wound alone. She was sure of that.

"Everytime," she continued, her voice trembling, "everytime I think something will go right...it doesn’t."

Yexue said nothing. Her hands worked, cleaning the blood, steadying the flow and putting pressure where it was needed.

But she was listening.

How could she not? When Ru Yi was talking in that broken voice that let Yexue know her pain wasn’t from the wound alone.

"He was going to take Xiao Yi," her voice was starting to crack. "Right in front of me. I couldn’t let him get kidnapped..."

Ru Yi’s grip tightened on Yexue’s sleeve. "Maybe she is right...I should probably just die and save everyone the stress. I don’t think I’m meant for this." Tears rolled down the sides of her face. "I don’t even belong here."

Maybe she should’ve stuck to the original plot in the book.

The words settled around them...tense and heavy.

Ru Yi’s voice dropped to almost nothing. "Maybe I’m better off—"

"No."

The word came out sharp. Immediate.

Yexue’s gaze lifted, locking onto hers. "Do not finish that sentence."

Ru Yi blinked, startled.

Silence stretched between them, before Yexue asked in a softer voice. "Who made you feel that way? Did my sisters say anything to you?"

Ru Yi looked away without answering.

She didn’t need to, Yexue read the meaning in her silence.

Lieyin.

The way she had stormed out. The tension. The unspoken weight between them.

Yexue’s jaw tightened slightly. But she said nothing...not yet. She finished treating the wound, sighing in relief when it finally stopped bleeding.

The bed dipped slightly when Yexue sat beside Ru Yi, all her focus on the tear stained face in front of her.

She put her hands on both sides of Ru Yi’s face. "What will I do with you?" she asked, the question directed at herself.

Using her thumb, she wiped the dampness from Ru Yi’s cheek. She watched through heavy lidded eyes as Ru Yi blinked up at her with wet lashes.

"Have you always been this pretty?" Yexue mumbled, unaware that she had said her thoughts out loud.

Ru Yi froze. No one had ever called her pretty.

"Does it still hurt?" Yexue asked her, eyes glued to Ru Yi’s lips. She’d wanted to taste them again, ever since the first time she transferred energy to her.

Ru Yi bit her bottom lip without meaning to, her answer coming out damp and hoarse. "No." The pain at her side had reduced to a dull pain.

"I still need to give you some of my energy," Yexue whispered, convincing herself that it was all she was going to do. "To make you heal faster." As if she needed any explanation for what she was about to do.

Ru Yi gulped. "Okay."

Yexue bent down, watching the fast rise and fall of Ru Yi’s chest. "I always end up taking care of you," she whispered, her lips hovering over Ru Yi’s. "Does that mean you’re mine now?"