DYING

Li Anya looked pale she reclined against the sterile white pillow, thick beads of sweat across her forehead. Her voice was low, raspy — not faked this time.

"I don't have much time left." She winced.

Lu Quing stood at the foot of the bed, arms crossed, eyes narrowed. "You faked your death. You lied."

Anya's lips curled faintly. "And you're here anyway."

"I want answers, I'm not here for any other thing" he said coldly.

"I'll give you one answer, I'm dying." She lifted her wrist — the veins beneath the skin had turned a faint bluish hue. "The parasite they used to bring me back is feeding on my life force. It needs a special kind of blood to stabilize."

He didn't move.

She looked directly into his eyes.

"I need her, Lu Quing. Just a drop. One strand of that sacred blood. Or I die. For real this time." She kept a fixed gaze at him.

Silence stretched.

He swallowed hard.

"Would it hurt her?"

"No," she said softly. "Not unless… not unless she hates me more than she loves life." She said in a lowered voice.

---

LU VILLA

The fire had dimmed in the hearth.

Yueying sat on the couch, legs curled beneath her, touching her ruby pendant absentmindedly as Lu Quing entered.

She looked up immediately, sensing something off in the atmosphere. He sat down beside her — closely but carefully.

"I need a favor from you " he said as he fixed his eyes on hers .

Yueying blinked. "A favor?"

He nodded. "Someone is sick. Dying, actually."

She straightened. She didn't know what this has to do with her but she was willing to do anything in her power to help.

"Your blood… it can help. Just a little. A drop."

Yueying frowned. "My blood?"

"I wouldn't ask if it wasn't important," he said softly.

She searched his face. "Will it hurt me?"

"No."

"Will it hurt them?"

"No," he said again — eyes too calm, unpredictable as it has always been.

She hesitated only a moment more.

"Then… okay. If I can help someone live, why wouldn't I?"

He gave a faint nod. But she noticed—He never told her who.

*******************

PRIVATE MEDICAL CENTER —— TWO DAYS LATER

Yueying sat in a private recovery room after the blood extraction. It hadn't taken long. Just a vial. No one explained much.

She glanced out the window, a little pale but fine. Then the door creaked open.

It was Gu Ni, she entered quietly, holding a file and a coffee.

"I brought you—" She stopped shortly. Noticing Yueying's expression.

"You okay?"

Yueying smiled faintly. "Tired, but fine. Who… who was the person?"

Gu Ni froze.

"You mean… Lu Quing didn't tell you?"

Yueying's smile faltered. "No. He just said someone was dying and needed my help."

Gu Ni was silent for a long.

Yueying became confused, she slowly stood up.

Her voice wavered. "Who was it?"

Gu Ni looked away. It...It was Li Anya." She didn't want to tell her. She knew yueying had a soft heart, she would feel betrayed.

Everything inside Yueying went still.

Her knees weakened. She grabbed the chair for support.

"No," she whispered. "No. He wouldn't do that to me."

Gu Ni stepped forward quickly. "Yueying, wait—he didn't do it out of love. He just—"

Before she could finish her words Yueying was longer in the ward.

Yueying entered the Lu Villa later that night. She slammed the front door shut as she walked in.

Lu Quing stepped out of his study, eyes sharp.

"Yueying?"

She stood in the center of the foyer, her eyes shining with betrayal.

"Li Anya?" she said, voice cracking.

He paused. "Where's Gu Ni?" He asked immediately.

Her breath hitched.

"I bled for her, Lu Quing. You asked me to do that, without telling me who I was saving." Her voice quivered.

He moved toward her. "She's dying Yueying."

"You should have let her die!" She spat angrily.

His expression darkened. "I don't decide who deserves to die."

"But you do decide who deserves my trust! And Lu Quing I know you've killed so many. That word doesn't count"

Silence.

Her voice broke, softer now. "Do you still love her?"

"No," he said quickly. Too quickly. "I wanted to help her because she was once someone I trusted. That's all."

"You didn't trust me enough to tell me."

"I didn't want you to be hurt."

"But you did hurt me."

He reached for her — but she stepped back.

"I thought what we had… last night… was real."

His face twisted slightly. "It was real."

"Then why does it feel like I was just another girl you used to forget her?"

That made him flinch.

"Yueying—" he reached to her again.

"I need time" she said.

And she walked out hurriedly.

---

Lu Quing was in his study alone. He didn't move for a long time. Just stood at the window, watching the night swallow the road where she had disappeared.

Lu Wulin entered, quietly.

"She's gone."

"I know," Lu Quing said, voice low. He didn't mean to hurt her. He really cared a lot about Yueying.

"Did you mean to push her away?"

"No." His voice broke. "But I did."

"She'll come back."

"I'm not so sure," he whispered. "I failed her. Not by loving someone else. But by not protecting her heart when she gave it to me."

He clenched his fist.

Yueying stood on a rooftop of a building late at night.

The wind howled.

She stood alone in a long coat, looking over the city.

The pendant around her neck glowed faintly — no longer warm.

She touched it softly.

"You told me to be careful," she whispered as she touched the pendant.

********************

Li Anya stood before a wide mirror, her hands bare, her breath visible in the cold air around her.

She touched her wrist where Yueying's blood had been injected. Then she smiled.

The parasite in her veins moved.

It liked the taste of the blood.

Behind her, the silver-eyed man stood silent.

"She left him," Anya said calmly, adjusting her collar. "I told you. Love only last as long as there is trust."

The man tilted his head. "Do you really believe you've won?"

She turned to face him, eyes glowing faint blue. "No," she said. "But I know how to destroy her." She smiled sweetly.

...

Yueying walked aimlessly, now she was at an abandoned train station.

The wind screamed through rusted beams.

Yueying walked the old tracks, hands in her coat pockets, heart feeling heavier than her sword ever had.

Gu Ni's words repeated in her mind like a rhyme.

"It was Li Anya."

Yueying clenched her jaw.

She had bled for the woman who once tried to end her who smiled beside Lu Quing like she belonged there.

Her pendant glowed faintly — sensing the turmoil inside.

And then— she felt a presence.

She turned but it was too late .

The air behind her ripped open.

Black vines surged forward — not real vines, but shadow-forged binds of spirit magic. They wrapped around her arms and legs, dragging her toward the dark wall of the platform.

"YUEYING!" a familiar voice shouted from the corner.

It was Gu Ni.

She lunged forward — but something invisible slammed into her, throwing her against a rusted beam.

Yueying fought back.

The pendant burned against her skin.

A flicker of flame rose from her wrist.

But her emotions were scattered. Unfocused. It made her power erratic.

A whisper rang out.

"You're weaker when your heart is broken."

Li Anya stepped from the shadows.

Clad in a dark coat, her blue eyes shimmering like poisoned water.

"You tricked me," Yueying hissed, her voice shaking. "You made me help you."

"I didn't lie," Anya said sweetly. "I am dying. And you saved me. Isn't that what good people do?" She smirked.

Yueying tried to use her power again, but the chains tightened — feeding off her magic.

"You're not just dying," Yueying spat. "You're becoming something else— a monster ."

She yelled.

Anya smiled.

"Something better sweetheart."

---

LU QUING'S OFFICE

Wulin burst into the room a second later.

"She's in danger," she said quickly. "A trap. Old station district."

He was already grabbing his coat, rage flickering in his eyes.

"I never should have let her walk out of that door."

*******

Yueying hung mid-air now — suspended in a magical cocoon of pain and draining power.

Anya approached slowly, every step she took was like she was walking on an ice steep.

"Your blood feels… royal," she whispered. "Even just a drop made me feel like I could rewrite time."

Yueying's pendant suddenly flared.

A pulse of memory ( not her own flooded her.)

Han Liuhua. Her mother.

A vision of her standing in this exact place, fire roaring from her hands, cutting down the same vines now holding Yueying.

The past repeated itself — but not tonight. At least not everything

The pendant shattered its outer crystal, revealing the ancient core.

Her powers went haywire, not from rage or from pain.

But from her mother's strength.

" FWOOSH" — the entire platform lit up in crimson gold.

The chains burned away.

Yueying dropped to her knees — panting heavily— but free.

And when she stood, her red hair lifted slightly in the heat swirling around her.

Li Anya stumbled back.

"What did you— How?"

"You wanted fire?" Yueying whispered, stepping forward. "Then burn with me."

A thunderclap of wind knocked the rusted doors open.

Lu Quing strode in —his coat billowing, eyes glowing silver, power emanating like a storm wrapped in skin.

He saw her.

His Yueying — glowing with wild, broken light, blood on her face, standing like a fallen goddess.

And Li Anya — cornered, panicking. The blue hue on her hands now very visible. But something was different, her hands seemed to have little creatures moving in it. It was just one or two, they seem to be about 10 in total causing her to wince in pain.

"Yueying—" he stepped forward as he looked at Yueying again.

But she raised her hand.

He froze. Not because she stopped him.

But because he saw it in her eyes.

Distance.

Pain.

And distrust.

_____________

Later that night.

Yueying stood at the balcony again.

Lu Quing found her there.

He didn't say anything at first.

Just stood beside her.

"I didn't know she would do that," he said finally.

"But you still gave her my blood."

He nodded. Slowly. "I thought… just for old times' sake. Just enough to stop her death. I didn't know she'd turn it into a weapon."

Silence.

She whispered, "She didn't turn it to her weapon. It would end up becoming the cause of her death" she paused " you don't trust me. Seems like I'm untrustworthy " she chuckled painfully.

His voice cracked. "I love you, Yueying."

She looked at him and walked away.

Again.

Leaving Lu Quing behind with only the weight of his choices.