Chapter 165: I cannot lose you

"Qingyue—"

Ru Yi did not remember crossing the distance. One moment she was standing still, the next she was on her knees, hands catching Qingyue before she hit the ground fully.

The impact still jerked through both of them as Qingyue’s weight collapsed against her.

"She’s not responding," Yexue said sharply from somewhere behind her.

Han Shuying was already beside them. "Qingyue is still breathing, but it’s shallow." She tapped Ru Yi on the shoulder. "Move aside."

Ru Yi didn’t...couldn’t.

Her grip tightened instead, one hand braced against Qingyue’s shoulder. The other hand hovered uncertainly near her side where the blood had soaked through.

There was too much blood, it made Ru Yi nauseous knowing that it all belonged to Qingyue. Had they come too late?

"Ru Yi," Han Shuying said, more firmly this time. "I need to see the wound."

Ru Yi’s fingers curled slightly, as if resisting the word before she even processed them. "She was–"

"If you don’t want her to end up dead in your hands then you need to move." Han Shuying’s voice was firm, communicating the urgency of the matter.

Ru Yi was divided.

They’d been ready to turn in for the night when the ring around her finger had glowed a deep red before a sudden pain shot through her. It was at the exact spot Qingyue had been stabbed.

All she remembered was waking everyone else and all of them having to race down the rest of the way hoping they’d reach Qingyue on time.

"What happened?" Yexue demanded, her gaze snapping towards Kael.

"We were ambused." Kael’s expression was tight, still scanning their surroundings out of instinct. "Two times. And I think they came specifically for Qingyue, they kept attacking her."

Ru Yi’s gaze dropped back to Qingyue’s face. It was pale, free of the color she’d last on it a day before.

"She’s losing too much blood," Han Shuyin said. "We need to stop it now."

Yexue stood there, unsure of what to do. "Usually she heals herself." She turned to Kael. "Were the weapons poisoned?"

He couldn’t answer, because he’d never thought of that possibility. "It didn’t seem like it to me."

Han Shuying mumbled something under her breath that none of them could catch. "Hold her still," she told Ru Yi before tearing into the fabric that was dark with blood. She brought out a cloth and held it over the wound.

"You’re not allowed to die," Ru Yi whispered, tears making her sight blur. She watched Han Shuying clean the wound with practiced hands. "I won’t forg—"

The words barely left her lips before something shifted. Qingyue’s breathing faltered, her body slackening further into Ru Yi’s hold.

"Hey—" Ru Yi’s voice tightened. "Stay with me."

One hand moved from Qingyue’s shoulder down to her arm, trying to steady her. That was when it happened...

Warmth.

A slow, slipping heat across her fingers. It was Qingyue’s blood.

It had already soaked through the thorn fabric, but it now spread further, seeping over Ru Yi’s hand as her hold shifted. The blood coated her skin in a thin, trembling sheen of red.

She didn’t pull away. Could bring herself to.

"More pressure," Han Shuying said quickly. "I need it to stop bleeding long enough to give her some of my energy."

Yexue and Lieyin stood at the side, watching them. They were finding it hard to process everything that had happened from the moment Ru Yi woke them up till now.

Ru Yi’s hand pressed more firmly against Qingyue’s side and the blood slid further. It spread across her palm, over her fingers, down to the base of her hand and then to the ring.

It was subtle...

So subtle it might have been nothing.

A smear of red brushing over the metal as her hand moved again, catching briefly along its surface before settling.

For a moment nothing changed, the world remained exactly as it was. Wind moving softly through the trees, Yexue pacing somewhere behind them filled with guilt.

Everything was the same. And yet...

Ru Yi frowned faintly. "What..."

She didn’t finish the thought, because there was nothing visible to explain. It was a strange feeling. Not pain or warmth. She couldn’t name it.

Just a flicker of something unfamiliar brushing past her senses and disappearing as quickly as it came. Gone before she could grasp it.

"Focus,: Han Shuying reminded her,

"I am." Ru Yi didn’t look away from Qingyue. She didn’t notice the faint dulling of red along the edge of the ring where blood had touched, like the ring had absorbed it.

None of them noticed the way Qingyue’s breathing, though still weak, did not slip further into collapse.

"Qingyue..." Her name on Ru Yi’s lips was a prayer. "You can’t die. Please, don’t die."

Qingyue heard Ru Yi but her voice was faint, buried beneath the pain and the cold that had begun creeping into her limbs. But then it grew, steady and undeniable...like a pulse returning after being lost for too long.

Qingyue’s spiritual energy, which had been scattered and unresponsive, suddenly gathered. It flowed through her meridians with a quiet urgency, following that soft voice that remained in the distance.

The ache in her side dulled. The bleeding slowed down, the warmth no longer spilling freely. Torn flesh knitted together in a way that felt both natural and impossible, a dark shadow gradually slipping between the cracks.

Her breath hitched, brows drawing together as sensation returned to her body in waves.

Then— her eyes opened.

The world around her came back in fragments. Light. Shadows. The shape of someone above her.

Ru Yi.

Her vision blurred for a moment before sharpening enough to catch the unmistakable sight of tears sliding down Ru Yi’s expression.

She looked completely undone and griefed in a way Qingyue had never seen before. For a second, she just stared. Her heart twisted with something close to heartbreak at seeing her cry.

Then, her voice...rough and barely there, broke through the silence. "Ru Yi...no woman is worth your tears."