Yu Lin tripped over herself as she leapt back to her room.

“Ah!” she yelped out as she landed in her backyard. Her illusion over herself wore off as she was back to looking like a Dark Elto. She clenched her teeth as she ripped off her clothing and pressed it against her wound. She fell to the ground as she felt a potent poison run through her body.

“N-n-no!” she stammered out through her heavy breathing. She moved her robes from her wound and placed her hand over it. She forced her chi to come out as she healed the flesh wound, however, that was only the easy part.

She felt her insides churning about as poison ran through her veins. She crossed her legs and placed her hands on her knees as she closed her eyes. Veins popped up on her neck as sweat trickled down her face. She wrinkled her brows as she stirred the Insuda poison within her chi center. The Insuda poison also started to flow through her veins as it started a battle against the potent poison.

She clenched her teeth as the area where she was stabbed started to feel numb and she started to lose feeling of that area. Her limbs trembled from concentration as she tried to get the upper hand on the poison. After a few moments, she felt blood rush to her throat and her mouth opened, before she could stop it, as blood splattered throughout her backyard.

She fell to her side as she hugged herself into a fetal position. ‘Stay awake! You need to fight this! You need to stay awake!’ she told herself, yet her conscious was losing grip as she started to slip away. ‘No… no… Jin… Long…’ her body relaxed as she laid there, resembling a dead body.

-

Hu Die stared at the two rings on the table.

“What is this?” she picked one up and started to examine it. She saw scratchings on the inside of the ring and thought it was a mistake, but as she squinted and concentrated, she realized that the scratchings were actually characters. “Hu Die and Qi Long?” she read aloud. She looked up at her husband’s shy smile as he rubbed his head.

“I… felt guilty that we couldn’t have a good wedding… so I bought these for us,” he confessed.

“What are they?” Hu Die cocked her head, still confused.

“They are rings… for marriages. It’s an elven tradition to show that there will never be an end to love and that’s why it’s in the shape of an circle.”

“Ahh…” Hu Die nodded her head understanding. She watched as her husband kept his gaze on the ground with a blush on his face. She smiled as she stood up from her seat. She walked around and bent down to meet his eye level. She leaned in and gave him a peck on the cheek. He moved back, shocked at the sudden intimacy that she rarely initiated first.

“Wh-what?” he stammered out as he touched his cheek.

“Thank you,” she smiled as she leaned in and pecked his lips this time. His whole face turned red and she let out a small chuckle. Ever since she’s been with him, she’s been a lot happier than she ever was. Before meeting him, she hadn’t known such happiness or feelings existed. She took the ring and was going to slip it through her pointer finger when he stopped her.

“Stop. According to Elven traditions, it doesn’t go there,” he took the ring out of her hand, “it goes here,” he slipped the ring down the finger next to her pinky on her left hand.

“This finger?” she frowned.

“Yes. They call this finger the ring finger,” he nodded, his complexion turning back to normal.

“Ohh…” she nodded back. She glanced back at the table and picked up the other ring. She grabbed it and held up his left hand. She slipped it down his ring finger.

“O-o-oi!” he let out as he started to turn red again. She smiled as the ring sat on the base of his finger and she laced her fingers through his.

“Thank you,” she said once more as she leaned in and placed her lips on his. This time he didn’t move back as she felt his hand on her neck as he pulled her closer to him.

-

Yu Lin opened her eyes. Her body ached as she pressed her hand where the wound once was. She felt her fingers on her stomach and she let out a sigh of relief that the area there was not numb but just felt sensitive to touch. She propped herself up on her elbow and then felt all the energy drain out of her as she fell back down on the ground. She gazed in front of her to see that plants in her backyard has rotted away due to the blood that she spat out.

She felt her conscious being pulled away again. She didn’t want to leave. She needed to clean up before anyone found out. She tried to prop herself up again, but she couldn’t even move a muscle this time. Her eyelids kept fluttering up and down as her body pushed them down and her will forced them up. Her stomach turned upside down and she felt like puking, but she didn’t have the energy to do so. ‘Stay awake… stay awake…’ she repeated to herself.

“Y-y-yu Lin?” she heard a voice call out to her. Her vision was blurry from the sudden fatigue as she felt a hand on her forehead.

“W...h...o?” she croaked out. The person didn’t answer and her will was no longer effective as her eyes just closed shut.

“His forehead is hot… but his hands and feet are cold,” she focused on the voice and realized who it was. ‘Tai Yang?’ she felt Tai Yang slip a hand under her knees and one her back. She felt herself being lifted off the ground. After a moment of swaying in his arms, she felt Tai Yang lay her on her bed.

“U..eu…” she tried to say something but only noises left her lips.

“Oh no… what did nanny do when I was sick?” she heard Tai Yang talking to herself. ‘Nanny?’ she thought to herself. Only nobles or really rich kids could afford nannies, so to have Tai Yang talking about one took her by surprise. However, the surprise didn’t last long as she felt herself slipping away. “Don’t worry, younger brother. Older brother will take care of you,” she heard his distant voice echo before her mind wander away.

-

“Ahh!” Yu Lin heard a male voice complain, “this girl! If we weren’t here then she would be dead already!” the voice sounded familiar, as if she had heard it once before… but in her state she couldn’t remember anything.

“Shut up! I’m trying to concentrate here!” a female yelled.

“And I’m trying to help, Insuda!” the male argued.

“Shh!” the female hushed him. ‘Wha… what?’ Yu Lin could only think before her mind slipped away.

-

Yu Lin opened her eyes. She was still slightly dizzy, yet she felt better than she had earlier that day. She glanced down the room to see Tai Yang sitting down reading a book. On the tea table beside him stood a small wooden bucket. She turned her head to feel something slip off her forehead. A cloth hit the bed and she saw Tai Yang peek up from behind his book. His blue eyes lit up when he saw her.

“Yu Lin!” she watched as he ran up to her. She felt the back of his cool hand touch her burning forehead as his other hand laid on his forehead too. “Hmm… your temperature lowered,” he let out a relieved sigh.

“You… what are you doing here?” she uttered. He brought his hand back.

“I came to check up on you this morning because I wanted to ask you something. I knocked on your door but you wouldn’t open so I just came through your backyard. I saw you lying on the floor so I brought you in here and been looking after you since then,” he pointed to her, “you owe me a meal. I did so much to care for you while you were out. Aren’t I a good older brother?”

“What about… class?”

“Class? Ah… I skipped, and I put a sign up on your door saying you weren’t well and didn’t want to be disturbed. No one knocked so I guess it was fine,” he answered as he went back to the table. He returned with a cup of water and took a seat on the bed. He helped prop Yu Lin up and Yu Lin felt like a doll as she rested on his shoulder.

“Drink,” he instructed. Yu Lin glanced at the cup before opening her mouth. She felt the cup touch her lips as Tai Yang tilted the cup up slowly so she could drink. She downed the whole thing as she felt the refreshing water on her dry tongue. After that, Tai Yang laid her back down on the bed. Yu Lin pressed her lips together.

“Uh… thank… you,” she mumbled.

“Hmm?” Tai Yang raised an eyebrow, “what did you say?”

“Thank… you…” she repeated.

“Huh? Say it again?” Tai Yang leaned in closer. Yu Lin wondered if Tai Yang couldn’t really hear what she said.

“Thank… you…” she said for the third time.

“Huh?” she saw one side of Tai Yang’s lip go up as he looked like he was enjoying himself way too much. She felt irritated.

“Go die,” she snarled. Tai Yang let out a laugh as he picked up the towel on Yu Lin’s bed.

“Oii… don’t you think you are being too harsh?” he walked back to the table and pushed the towel inside. Yu Lin didn’t reply as she watched him wring the towel and walk back to her. He placed the towel on forehead and her body relaxed from the coldness of it. Her eyelids started to feel heavy.

“You... don’t have to do all this…” she muttered. He looked at her with disapproval and then he felt his fingers pinch her cheeks. “Yah!”

“We are sworn brothers now! It’s only reasonable that I help you when you need it!” he stretched out her cheek and she glared at him. He smiled before gently tapping her cheek and moving his hand away. “Anyways, I’m going to leave now. I’ll come check on you tomorrow. Rest well,” he bid her farewell as he left her room.

Yu Lin laid awake for a while. Her hand grazed the area where the wound once was and she remembered Jin Long’s face. ‘He… grew up…’ she thought to herself. She knew that she was going to run into them one day, but she just didn’t think she was going to run into them now. She had thought that they stayed in Sky Continent for their academics. She wondered why Jin Long was here. She wanted to know, yet she was scared to know all at the same time.

“My… son…” she mumbled. After a moment, she could feel sleep tugging at her sleeve and she closed her eyes. ‘Mother… is… sorry…’

-

“Eughh… I’m exhausted…” Yu Lin heard a female voice say.

“Me too… that was tough…” a male voice agreed.

“This brat… that boy… was that really her child?” the female asked.

“That… I don’t know… but I’m guessing it probably is.”

“Hmm… I knew that she had a lot on her shoulders… but this is too messed up… how is she still living?”

“Through the will of a stubborn goddess… I have witness this brat committing suicide many times, but every time she did she would fail.”

“Commit suicide?”

“Yea. Did you think she just took you in for fun? She… didn’t want to live anymore, not after what happened at the academy where Wang Pei first took her.”

“Why? What happened?” the female questioned. The male let out a sigh.

“It’s a long story, and I know you don’t like long stories.”

“Then just make it short!”

“Short? Hmm… you could say that… she feels guilty because she killed a healer.”

“Huh? She killed a healer?”

“Well… that’s…”

Yu Lin couldn’t hear anymore as she felt herself getting pulled away from the two of them.

-

Yu Lin woke up the next morning and felt most of her strength had returned. She sat up in felt her head pounding. She laid back down and panted from the pain.

“Yu Lin,” she heard Tai Yang softly whisper. She looked down to see him standing over her as he put a hand on her forehead, “hmm… you’re burning up again. I will be right back,” he turned on his heels and left through the back door.

‘What’s that idiot going to do this time?’ she thought. Her lips felt dry and she regretted not asking for water first. Her exhaustion ate up all her energy though and she couldn’t have spoken even if she wanted to. She closed her eyes again.

-

“And that’s… what happened…” she heard the male voice again.

“Oooh… I see… that sounds… rough…” the female voice responded.

“Un. I… I first came here because I wanted to take over… but after seeing everything and knowing everything she’s gone through… I want to help her… it’s like she’s helped me gain my humanity which I’ve lost all those years ago…”

“Hmm… I see… I am going to work hard too… I was always scared by myself in that forest. When she picked me up I was angry that she was going to kill me… but knowing she was trying to use me to kill herself… I want to help her, not because I feel bad or anything, but because I failed at my job.”

“Haha! That… sounds like a good plan. Let’s do this together and when we’re done we can finally roam the world ourselves!” the man cheered.

“Yahoo! Sound like a great plan!” the woman agreed.

Yu Lin frowned as if she could almost remember those voices, yet something kept tugging her conscious away as she felt herself forgetting the conversations once more.

-

Yu Lin heard a someone humming as she opened her eyes. She saw a man with blue eyes and dark hair reading a book as he nodded his head and forth to a gentle tune. Her lips parted as a gasp escaped her.

“Q-q-qi… Long?” she breathed out, barely audible. The man looked up and noticed her as he ran over to her bed.

“You’re up,” his low voice brushed away all her pain as his cool hand touched her burning forehead.

“You’re… here?” she felt tears welling up. She promised herself she wouldn’t cry anymore, but seeing this man made all those promises fade away. The man frowned.

“Of course I’m here,” the man said with an obvious tone, “I have to look after you,” he poked her cheek before turning back. She grabbed onto his sleeve with all her strength, which wasn’t much.

“Don’t leave!” her hoarse voice called out to him, “please… don’t leave me… again…” he turned around and raised an eyebrow. She felt a tear trail down the side of her face. His eyebrow returned to its normal position as he took a seat on the bed. She reached her hand out and he took it in his.

“Alright, I won’t leave, but only if you go to sleep!” he negotiated. She shook her head.

“No… I’m scared…” she confessed, her voice sounded like a child’s.

“Scared? Scared of what?”

“I’m scared… that you might disappear when I wake up… like that time…”

“Haha… you’re scared of that?” his laughter warmed her heart as she felt him brush a tear away, “don’t be afraid. When you wake up, I will be right here!” he smiled.

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Promise?”

“I promise you,” he poked her cheek again. Her lips curled upwards as she felt a feeling she hasn’t felt in a long time. She felt safe and comfortable. She felt at home. She felt man movement’s stiffened as he looked at her but she didn’t have time to think about it as she felt herself slipping away.

“Alright… I believe you… I trust you,” her lips went back to a straight line as her heavy eyelids fell down.

-

“You know… I don’t have anyone else but you… please… don’t die… I’m working so hard to keep you alive! You can’t die! If you die… how can my people return to me? Don’t die!” she heard a familiar female voice call out, “you promised me you wouldn’t die of thinking! You promised me you would help me! Don’t die!” the voice cried.

‘Who… is this?’ she thought, her mind hazy from the injury.

“I promise you… if you survive… I will meet you in the future! I will answer all your questions! I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to ignore you all this time… please live! Please!” the woman begged.

‘Promise… Liang Guang Ming!’ Yu Lin recognized this voice.

“Please… don’t die… don’t die…” Liang Guang Ming’s voice started to fade away as Yu Lin tried to yell something back, but she couldn’t. ‘Tell me! Why would you do this to me?! I didn’t want this! Why?!’ she tried to say, yet no words would come out. She could only wonder in silence as she tried to make sense of everything she had gone through.

-

Yu Lin let out a groan as she opened her eyes. Her left hand felt sweaty and she looked down to see Tai Yang holding her hand, sleeping by her bedside. Her jaw dropped as her eyes grew. ‘What is he doing here?!’ she screamed in her head as she watched him sleep peacefully.