Transmigration; Married to My Ex-Fiancé's Uncle-Chapter 337; Hidden chambers 1

Not Kailani’s tears.

Shuyin’s tears.

The original Shuyin’s grief poured through the body they now shared.

The mother’s face crumpled completely. Her whole body began to shake, the chains rattling against the wall.

"Shuyin. My Shuyin. My baby...." Her voice broke into sobs. Deep, wrenching sobs that sounded like they were tearing her apart from the inside. "I thought... I thought I’d never see you again. I thought....."

She couldn’t finish. The sobs consumed her completely.

Fifteen years.

Fifteen years of being chained in the dark. Of hearing life happening beyond the walls. Of wondering if her daughter was okay, if she was safe, if she even remembered her mother’s face.

And now here she was.

Grown. Beautiful. Alive.

But her eyes...

"Your eyes," the mother gasped again, reaching out with shaking hands that could only extend so far before the chains pulled taut. "Shuyin, what happened to your eyes? They were brown. Your eyes were brown like mine. How are they...."

"I don’t know, Mother" Shuyin lied, the words tumbling out through her tears. "I don’t know, Mother. I woke up one day and they were like this. I don’t...."

She couldn’t hold it together anymore.

Shuyin dropped to her knees in the doorway of the hidden room, her hands pressed to her face, and she wept.

Great, heaving sobs that shook her whole body.

The original Shuyin’s grief. Her rage. Her desperate love for a mother she’d mourned for fifteen years.

All of it pouring out at once.

Lu Yuze stood frozen behind her, his hand half-raised as if to touch her shoulder but not knowing if he should, not knowing if it would help or make it worse.

"Miss Lin?"

The second voice, Qiao’s, cut through the crying.

Shuyin’s head snapped up, tears still streaming down her face, and she looked at the secretary.

Qiao was staring at her with an expression of complete shock.

"Miss Lin," Qiao repeated, her voice stronger now despite the damage. "How are you, you were in prison. You were..." Her eyes traveled over Shuyin’s face, taking in the jade eyes, the healthy complexion, the expensive clothes. "How are you out? How are you here?"

She leaned forward as far as her chains would allow, her gaze sharp and searching.

"I was with you," Qiao said slowly. "The night before your wedding. You were crying. Lu Zeyan had just, he’d just called off the engagement. And I stayed with you. I held you while you cried. I... I... Failed you... I failed you miss."

Her voice dropped.

"I couldn’t do anything."

Qiao’s eyes were wet now too.

"I tried to visit you in prison," she continued. "But they wouldn’t let me. Said you weren’t accepting visitors. And then I started looking into the company records. The transfer documents. I found, I found evidence that they’d forged your signature. That they’d been stealing from you for years."

She swallowed hard.

"I was going to take it to the police. I had copies. I had proof. But before I could...." She gestured at the chains. "Lin Feng found out. He came to my apartment. Drugged me. And when I woke up, I was here."

She looked at Shuyin desperately.

"That was two weeks ago. Maybe three. I’ve lost track of time. But Miss Lin, you were in prison. How did you get out? Why do you look..." She trailed off, struggling for words. "Why do you look so different? Your eyes. Your bearing. Even your voice sounds different. What happened to you?"

Shuyin wiped at her tears with trembling hands.

What could she say?

" I died in prison. And someone else’s soul took over my body. Someone stronger. Someone who can fight back."

She couldn’t say that.

So instead, she said: "I changed."

Her voice was rough from crying, but steady. Certain.

"Prison changed me. Losing everything changed me. And when I got out...." She met Qiao’s eyes. "I decided I wasn’t going to be weak anymore. I wasn’t going to let them destroy me."

She stood slowly, her legs shaky beneath her.

"And now I’m going to destroy them instead."

Qiao stared at her for a long moment. Then, slowly, something like respect flickered in her eyes.

"Good," she said simply.

Shuyin’s mother was still crying, her whole body shaking with sobs. She reached out again, her chained hands trembling.

"Please," she gasped. "Please, Shuyin. Get us out of here. Please. I can’t... I can’t stay here anymore. I can’t..,"

Her voice broke completely.

Shuyin looked at her mother, at the woman who’d been strong and brilliant and unstoppable, now reduced to this. Broken. Begging.

And something inside her, something that was both Kailani and the original Shuyin, hardened into diamond-sharp resolve.

"I’m getting you out," Shuyin said, her voice cold and certain. "Both of you. Right now."

She turned to Lu Yuze.

"Call Ting Fei. Tell him to bring Ah Ying and Ah Ling. We’re moving them tonight."

"Shuyin...." Lu Yuze started, his tone cautious. "If we take them now, Lin Feng will know. He’ll destroy evidence. He’ll...."

"I don’t care," Shuyin interrupted, her voice sharp. "I don’t care about strategy. I don’t care about evidence. My mother has been chained in the dark for fifteen years, and I am ’not’ asking her to stay here one more second."

She looked back at her mother, at Qiao, at the two women who’d been erased from existence.

"I’ll deal with Lin Feng," she said quietly. "But they’re leaving. Now."

Lu Yuze studied her face for a moment. Then he nodded and pulled out his phone.

"Ting Fei," he said quietly into the phone. "I need you in the study. Bring Ah Ying and Ah Ling. We have a situation."

While he spoke, Shuyin knelt in front of her mother again.

The older woman reached out with shaking hands, and Shuyin took them carefully, mindful of the raw skin around the manacles.

"It’s going to be okay," Shuyin whispered. "I promise, Mother. You’re going to be okay."