The medical kit was opened, bloodstained gauze and instruments scattered on the floor.
“Lady Ye Lan!”
“Hold on!”
“Hemostatic forceps! Hurry!”
Suppressed shouts and the clatter of instruments intertwined, chaotic and desperate.
Mu Xi stood dazed at the top of the stairs, staring at the person who had held her not long ago, saying she would make her fall in love, now lying there, her life hanging in the balance.
‘How could this happen?’
The strong heartbeat, feeling the warmth of her embrace.
Last night, she had leaned against Ye Lan’s arms, feeling that powerful heartbeat. Ye Lan was so strong, so arrogant, as if she would never fall.
‘How could Ye Lan… how could she be hurt like this?’
“Wha… what happened?” Mu Xi’s voice was dry and trembling, almost inaudible.
Her voice startled one of the escort team members who was pressing on Ye Lan’s wound.
The member jerked her head up, saw Mu Xi, and her eyes instantly turned wary and icy, with undisguised hostility.
“Stop! Don’t come any closer!” another escort team member, closer by, barked fiercely.
Her face was smeared with blood, her eyes savage.
Mu Xi’s steps faltered as she watched them, poised as if facing a great enemy.
Her heart felt as if it were being squeezed by a cold hand.
‘Were they guarding against her? Afraid she would do something to the dying Ye Lan at this moment?’
In their eyes, Mu Xi was an enemy forcibly captured and imprisoned by Ye Lan, a potential threat that could turn at any moment.
Who would believe her anxiety and worry at this moment?
Mu Xi did not retreat; instead, she took another step forward, her gaze locked tightly on Ye Lan’s pale face.
Her voice carried an urgency she herself did not notice: “What happened to her? Tell me!”
“Someone attacked Lady Ye Lan!” the first escort team member who had seen her answered through gritted teeth, not stopping her work.
Her voice trembled with anger and fear, “Those bastards who don’t accept her taking over Stone City! They gathered their people and launched a surprise attack! Lady Ye Lan covered our retreat… she was severely injured!”
“That’s not all!” another member added, her voice choked with tears.
“They’re also besieging the Silent Language Building! Outside… outside, the situation is tense, murderous traps everywhere.”
Ye Lan was gravely wounded… about to die?
Those words struck Mu Xi’s heart like a heavy hammer.
She subconsciously wanted to rush over, to see Ye Lan’s injury, to confirm whether she was really…
“Stop!”
The escort team member closest to her suddenly stood up, drew the gun from her waist, and aimed it at Mu Xi, her eyes cold and resolute.
“Don’t come any closer! Or don’t blame me for being rude!”
The cold muzzle, the familiar threatening posture.
Mu Xi stopped, looking at the dark gun barrel, then at Ye Lan lying lifeless on the floor.
An indescribable emotion surged in her heart.
Panic.
Confusion.
And a pain she could not identify even to herself.
She did not want Ye Lan to die.
That awareness surfaced clearly in her mind.
She had just decided to try to respond to Ye Lan’s feelings.
She had just felt a glimmer of illusory peace.
Was all this about to vanish into thin air with Ye Lan’s death?
She did not want to go back to those days filled only with hatred.
“Let me see her.” Mu Xi’s voice was very soft, but it carried a strange penetrating force.
“Lady Ye Lan’s safety is the top priority! You cannot approach until you are cleared of suspicion!” the escort team member refused without hesitation, her tone harsh.
The hall was thick with the heavy smell of blood.
The escort team members frantically treated Ye Lan’s wound, suppressed breaths and low commands interwoven.
And she could only stand there, like an outsider, watching the person who had said she would make her fall in love drift so close to death.
The escort team members swiftly and carefully lifted the severely injured Ye Lan.
Their faces were a mix of grief and forced calm.
Blood dripped from beneath Ye Lan, leaving broken traces on the cold metal floor, stretching all the way upward.
Mu Xi followed behind them, her steps unsteady on the metal stairs.
Each step made a hollow sound, striking her equally hollow heart.
The stair railing was bitterly cold.
She subconsciously gripped it tighter, trying to draw some strength from it, or just to steady her nearly trembling body.
The smell of blood in the air grew thicker, almost suffocating.
She watched the body being carried so carefully ahead—the person who, not long ago, had said to her in a low, gentle voice, “I will make you fall in love with me.”
Now she was like a fragile item, so vulnerable that she could disappear completely at any second.
‘How could this happen…’
Ye Lan’s overwhelming presence that controlled everything still seemed to linger in her memory.
But now, only this thick, unshakable blood and the silence of the dying remained.
They carried Ye Lan into a secondary bedroom on the second floor.
This room was smaller than the main bedroom Mu Xi occupied, with simpler furnishings—just a bed and a metal cabinet, carrying a killing atmosphere like a military camp.
Ye Lan was gently placed on the bed.
Her pale face sank into the soft pillow.
Her long black hair was messily spread, a few strands wet with blood, sticking to her completely bloodless cheeks.
The escort team members gathered around the bed, continuing the first aid they had started downstairs.
“The wound is too deep. The bleeding won’t stop…” a member’s voice trembled, filled with tears.
“A penetrating wound from an energy weapon! Severe internal tissue damage!” another member examined and looked even worse.
“Medical equipment… the equipment here isn’t enough!”
Their voices were full of anxiety and despair.
Though they tried to keep steady, their movements betrayed panic.
Various medical instruments were scattered by the bed, piles of bloody gauze stacked up.
The air, besides the smell of blood, also carried the stinging odor of disinfectant.
Mu Xi stood at the door, watching all this.
Watching them desperately try to save Ye Lan’s life, but with little apparent effect.
Ye Lan’s breathing was so weak it was barely noticeable.
Only a very slight rise and fall of her chest.
‘She cannot die.’
That thought suddenly surged, clear and strong.
‘She cannot die.’
She had just decided to try to respond, try to… love.
She did not want to go back to days filled only with hatred.
Those days were too bitter.
Ye Lan had given her a shred of hope—perhaps false—but she had grasped it.
If Ye Lan died, that faint light would be extinguished forever.
Mu Xi took a deep breath, suppressed the turmoil in her heart, and walked in.
“I… might be able to save her.” As soon as she spoke, the escort team member nearest to her, who was holding a gun, immediately turned around warily.
The gun muzzle did not rise again, but the caution and hostility in her eyes did not diminish at all.
A few escort team members paused their actions and all looked at her.
“What do you want?” The other’s voice was cold, scrutinizing.
“I might be able to save her.” Mu Xi’s voice was very soft, but in this oppressive room, it was unusually clear.
“You?” the member who had shouted at her earlier laughed, her tone full of mockery.
“A defenseless princess like you? What can you save? Don’t cause more trouble here!”
“Exactly! Who knows what your intentions are!” another member chimed in, her gaze at Mu Xi like ice.
“Lady Ye Lan treated you well, but you…”
Their words stabbed into Mu Xi’s heart like needles.
Treated well?
Imprisonment, torture—had they forgotten all those past events?
Even though she had decided not to hate anymore, it didn’t mean those injuries had never happened.
But now was not the time to dwell on that.
“My… breast milk.” Mu Xi lowered her eyes, her cheeks slightly hot, her voice even softer.
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