“Jian!! I’m so glad you’re okay!”

“Hsss! Mei, that kinda hurts…”

“Oh! You’re injured! I’m so sorry!”

It was a rare sight to see Wu Meiying so frazzled like this. Not only was she still wearing the black nightgown she had gone to bed in, but her hair stuck up in all directions, her eyes had bags under them, and her lips were a little bruised. She must have been biting them.

“It’s okay. Just… be a bit more gentle, yeah?” Wu Jian said with a smile.

Wu Meiying nodded several times. She wasn’t the only one present, however, as Hou Jingshu stood just a little behind her. Her appearance wasn’t quite as discomfited as the other girl’s. But it was also clear that she had just woken up and wasn’t entirely sure what was going on. Wu Jian concluded that Wu Meiying must have woken her up.

Did she have a vision about what was going to happen? Maybe that’s how Wu Taohua managed to find me…

“Come on. Let’s hurry to the hospital wing,” Wu Taohua said. “We need to heal your injuries, and you need some medicine to expel the foreign chi in your body. It could cause permanent damage to your meridians and dantian if you let it remain too long. The last thing we need is for our promising clan heir to become a cripple.”

Wu Jian gulped and followed Wu Taohua as she hurried him into the hospital. Wu Meiying and Hou Jingshu followed slightly behind her. Wu Shaolin and Mother were already inside. The moment he appeared within the doorway, his mother stood up and began fretting over him.

“Are you okay, Little Jian? You’re not hurt anywhere, are you? Quickly! Strip down and let me take a look at you. I may not look it, but your mother is quite adept at fixing injuries. Your father gets injured a lot when he trains and goes on expeditions, so I know all about dressing wounds and—”

“Wu Jian has several injuries and minor chi poisoning,” Wu Taohua interrupted. If she hadn’t, there was no telling when his mom would have stopped talking. “We first need to deal with the poisoning. Then we can dress his wounds.”

“Mmm. I didn’t realize that. You’re right. Okay. I think we have some medicine for that. Just let me search for it…”

“Come sit over here, Wu Jian.” Wu Shaolin directed him to a bed.

Wu Jian did as he was told. His feet didn’t quite reach the floor as he sat with his legs over the side of the bed. Wu Meiying sat down beside him and grabbed his hand. It was like she needed to touch him to physically reassure herself that he was okay. Hou Jingshu did not sit down with them but stood off to the side. She still looked confused.

“I have no idea what’s going on. Can someone tell me what exactly happened?” she finally asked.

“I would also like to know what happened,” said a voice from the door.

Everyone turned to find Father standing in the doorway. Wu Shaolin immediately bowed to the man, but Father waved the courtesy away and asked him to get started on treating Wu Jian. Most of his attention was focused on Wu Jian, however, making it clear that he had come here to get some answers about what happened tonight.

“I came here because Wu Meiying arrived before us in a panic. Wu Jian, explain the situation to me,” Father commanded.

“It’s a bit of a long story, but here goes,” Wu Jian said, taking a deep breath as he launched into his tale of what happened. He explained how, after the celebration, Wu Fei had asked to speak with him, how he was led to the forested area, and how he had been attacked by Wu Fei, Wu Ming, and Wu Lan. Throughout the telling, Wu Meiying gripped his hand tightly and Hou Jingshu’s face became increasingly pale as the blood drained from it.

Mother and Wu Shaolin worked on the medicine he needed to take, grinding away several herbs and blending them into some water. They had him drink the foul concoction, which tasted like smelly socks that hadn’t been washed in months. It did make him feel better, though. It caused his body to feel warm and flushed.

“What the heck?!” Wu Jian shouted when black mist suddenly erupted from his body.

“Do not worry. That is just the foreign chi being expelled from your body through your pores. The black mist will disappear once all the chi has been expelled,” Mother explained.

Just like Mother said, the black mist soon disappeared, and Wu Jian realized he felt much better. He finished telling his story to everyone in the room.

“Damn that boy,” Father growled after Wu Jian finished talking. He slammed his right fist into the palm of his left hand and ground his knuckles into his skin. “I decided not to punish him because I don’t believe it’s right to blame the son for the father’s sins, but it seems I was too lenient. It is a good thing you were able to remain alive long enough for Taohua to find you.”

Mother had begun wrapping bandages covered in healing paste across his torso, which was where he had taken the most damage. There was a large burn mark spreading from the left side of his obliques and encroaching upon his chest and back. The paste caused an itchy feeling to spread across his skin before the soothing coolness of the paste numbed him.

“I believe we should create a search party for Wu Ming,” Wu Taohua said.

Father nodded. “You’re right. We can’t let one of Wu Fei’s cohorts go. We must find him and punish him.”

“I’ll head the search,” Wu Taohua said. She bowed to Father, nodded at Mother and Wu Jian, then left the room. The sound of her booted feet thumping against wooden tiles grew softer and softer until it disappeared.

“We should also do an investigation into the patrols,” Mother said after a moment. “It is odd that there was no one patrolling that area of the compound for so long.”

“I suspect Wu Fei bribed the guards who were supposed to travel that way.” Father grunted in anger. “I will have Elder Jinsu look into this matter for me. If it turns out the guards were just negligent, they will get lashings… but if it turns out they were complicit in this affair, not even death will be good enough for them.”

His father was serious. Wu Jian had never seen such an expression on the man’s face. It looked like what happened had really shaken him up.

“Jian, you should remain here in the hospital for the night. I will post guards by the door to make sure no one will disturb you,” Father said.

“I understand, Father. I’ll spend the night here,” Wu Jian said.

“And I’m staying with him,” Wu Meiying declared.

“Meiying…” Father spoke in a warning tone.

Wu Meiying was having none of it. “I’m staying with him. I don’t want to leave his side.”

“I… I would also… like to stay with Wu Jian,” confessed a blushing Hou Jingshu.

An aggrieved look crossed Father’s face like he wasn’t sure what to do. Mother giggled as she stood up and made her way over to Father.

“Dear, I know you are all about propriety, but why not let those two stay with him for tonight? It’s clear they were frightened by what happened. Let them reassure themselves by remaining by his side,” she said, gently touching his arm. Her actions seemed to soothe the man, making him unconsciously relax his shoulders.

“Haaah. Very well. You two can remain in the hospital with Jian.” Before either Wu Meiying or Hou Jingshu could celebrate, Father gave them a stern glare. “But no funny business. I know you kids are at that age where you begin to have… feelings towards members of the opposite sex, but that doesn’t give you the excuse to do anything before you’re married.”

Father had always been a man of tradition. He was a follower of the old customs like the exchange of betrothal gifts (from the groom’s family to the bride’s family) and dowry (from the bride’s family), which were some of the most important marriage customs. Similarly, he did not believe in sex before marriage. That was one of the reasons he forbade Wu Meiying from sleeping with Wu Jian.

That he would forgo betrothal gifts and a dowry for Wu Jian’s marriage with Hou Jingshu showed just how important the Emperor was to Father.

Marriage and matchmaking was a grand affair in the Shang Kingdom—and probably everywhere else too—one that could not be left to chance or fate. It was well-known that a marriage between two strong cultivators would result in a child with even more potential than the ones who sired them.

The customs birthed from the concept of marriage had been created because the more powerful cultivators enjoyed a posh lifestyle and lorded their wealth over everyone else. The result was that every family wanted to create a more powerful cultivator and would do their best to arrange suitable marriage partners so their children could birth even more powerful children—or so Wu Meiying had once told him. It had been a very rare moment where he had seen distress and anger clear on her face.

“We won’t do anything that would dishonor you, Father. I promise,” Wu Jian said.

“Hmph. See to it that you do not,” Father said with a huff.

Since there wasn’t much need for them anymore, the three adults left the hospital wing. Wu Jian could hear his father commanding the guards to not let anyone who wasn’t him enter the room.

“Also, make sure those three do not get up to anything inappropriate.”

“Yes, My Lord.”

“Ugh… why is Father like this?” Wu Jian mumbled as Hou Jingshu blushed beet red.

Wu Meiying giggled. “That’s just how he is. Uncle Youshi has always been straightlaced like that.”

“Yeah, I guess. Anyway, what should we do now?” asked Wu Jian.

“We should probably get some sleep,” Hou Jingshu said. Her ears turned red as she looked away. “You are… still injured, so you need your rest.”

“You are right about that. I’m exhausted,” Wu Jian admitted. While his wounds had been dressed and the chi poisoning expelled, he was now very tired. All of the adrenaline had dissipated from his system. It left him drained.

“I know the situation is serious, but I’m almost glad for what Wu Fei did.” When Wu Jian and Hou Jingshu looked at her, Wu Meiying grinned. “It’s been months since I was able to sleep with you, after all. You can’t expect me not to be excited.”

Wu Jian laughed while Hou Jingshu scowled, but neither of them said anything more. He crawled under the covers and laid his head on the pillow. Wu Meiying crawled in seconds later and used his shoulder as her pillow. The last member of their troupe did not move from where she had been standing, and Wu Jian turned his head to look at her.

“Are you not gonna get in?” he asked.

“I, uh, I think I’ll take one of the other beds. Th-there are three, after all,” she said in a shy voice.

“What are you saying?” Wu Meiying asked like she had just said something stupid. “There’s no point in spending the night with Jian if you’re just gonna sleep in another bed.”

“B-but it’s really not appropriate for an unmarried man and woman—”

“You two are getting married, so it’s fine. Now, come on. Join us.”

“Well…”

Wu Jian could see that Hou Jingshu was very close to capitulating, so he pulled the covers back and patted the spot beside him.

“Come on in,” he said.

“I-if you insist…”

Hou Jingshu crawled onto the bed and laid down on Wu Jian’s other side. Unlike Wu Meiying, who snuggled herself against him like he was a teddy bear, Hou Jingshu made sure there was some space between them. He wasn’t bothered. This was just how she was. She got easily embarrassed over matters of propriety kinda like his father.

The quiet of the room was broken by the sounds of night life. An owl hooted right outside the hospital. He could hear the crickets chirping. Something cawed somewhere in the distance.

“You know… I really was worried this time,” Wu Meiying said into the silence.

“Were you?” Wu Jian asked.

“I was. Very worried.” Wu Meiying rubbed her face against his bare skin and placed her hand on his chest. “I woke up tonight in a cold sweat. The vision I saw was of you lying dead on the ground, blood pouring from a hole in your chest. I can’t remember a time where I had been so afraid of a vision I’d seen.”

Given that he had literally been seconds away from dying when Wu Taohua appeared and saved him, he couldn’t blame Wu Meiying for feeling this way. He would have felt the same if their roles were reversed.

Wu Jian reached up and began running his hand through Wu Meiying’s hair. It was messy, but it was still the softest thing he had ever felt in his entire life.

“I don’t know how you can deal with those visions,” Hou Jingshu said. “I think I’d go insane if it were me.”

“I’ve always had them ever since I was born,” Wu Meiying confessed. “When I was just a baby, they would cause me nightmares and I suffered a lot… but Wu Jian was always there for me. Whenever I began crying because of something I’d see, he would climb into bed and hug me. It always helped settle me down. I guess that’s why I like sleeping with him so much.”

“I did not know that,” Wu Jian said in surprise.

“That’s because I never told you, silly. It doesn’t matter anyway. All that is in the past.”

“Hmmm.”

Wu Jian thought about his past with Wu Meiying. She did get night terrors a lot when they were younger. They seemed to have stopped eventually, but perhaps that was because she would always sleep with him. It was probably conceited of him to think this way, but he liked to think that the reason Wu Meiying stopped having nightmares was because he was there.

“We should get some sleep,” Hou Jingshu said after a moment.

“You’re right,” Wu Jian agreed.

Wu Jian closed his eyes as Wu Meiying pulled herself even closer to him. It felt like she was so close even a sheet of parchment couldn’t pass between them, but he didn’t mind. Her warm presence was comforting.

“Jian?” Wu Meiying said in a soft whisper.

“Yeah?” he asked back, just as softly.

“I love you so very much. I hope we can always stay together.”

He smiled. “Me too.”