CHAPTER 97: CHAPTER 97; HE STEPPED BACK

Her hands trembled and her throat burned.

She reached into her coat, pulling out Shen Xiao’s phone.

But there was no signal.

And even if there was... Who would she call? The people after him were the kind who made you disappear without a sound. Hospitals were not an option at that moment.

A low voice called from the shadow of the stairwell. "You are heavily bleeding."

Bai Zhi jerked up, grabbing a broken glass shard from the floor. But the figure that stepped into the flickering light wasn’t a cop or a killer.

It was a woman. Older, draped in layers of faded scarves, jewelry made of wire and bones clinking against her wrists. Her skin was weathered, her eyes sharp and strangely knowing.

"I saw what happened," the woman said, her voice low and hoarse. "That man is cursed, and the bullet he got hit with has a venom worm that would eat him up... That blood isn’t just human anymore."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Bai Zhi growled, still shielding Shen Xiao with her body. This wasn’t the time to crack jokes! They were in such a serious situation.

The woman ignored her. She knelt, reaching out a finger to trail through the blood smeared across the cement. Her eyes narrowed. "It’s an old wicked method. Something that would be rooted forever. Something that has to be fed."

"Can you help him or not?"

The woman looked up. "There’s a way to draw it out. The toxin and the death were creeping through him. But you will have to take it. All of it. The tether, his pain, and his burden."

Bai Zhi’s heartbeat roared in her ears. Shen Xiao groaned, his body twitching violently. Time was slipping. What else could she do apart from believing this woman in front of her?

"What do I have to do?"

The woman reached into her bag and pulled out a small vial, black liquid inside, thick like ink. "Drink this. It will open for you. Then let me mark you. But once it’s done, it’s permanent. Your lives will never be separate again."

Without hesitation, Bai Zhi took the vial and drank.

It tasted like burnt metal and ash.

And suddenly the world spun around.

The woman used a rusted needle and a pocket knife to etch shallow lines down Bai Zhi’s forearm, symbols she couldn’t understand.

Her blood mixed with the wet on the floor, steaming slightly in the cold air. Then the woman pressed her palm against Shen Xiao’s chest and whispered something under her breath.

Bai Zhi felt it before she saw it, an explosion of pain behind her ribs, like hot glass filling her lungs. Shen Xiao gasped sharply as the tremors in his body stilled.

Her vision immediately blurred.

Her scream echoed through the empty station as something black and vile transferred from him into her.

She collapsed.

He breathed. The woman addressed his wound, too.

And from that night on, he was never fully free of her suffering again.

Bai Zhi awoke hours later, her head cradled in Shen Xiao’s lap.

The air was cold and metallic. She tasted blood.

He was alive, barely. And she was different. Everything inside her felt... like it had shifted.

As if something dark had taken root beneath her skin.

She tried to sit up, but Shen Xiao’s hand gripped her wrist, tighter than necessary.

"Don’t move. Not yet."

His voice was hoarse, his pupils dilated. He looked at her as if he were both terrified and furious.

"You should have let me die."

She swallowed hard at his reproach. "Then I would be free. Is that what you want? A life without you is meaningless."

He didn’t answer. But his hand didn’t let go, holding her closely.

Just then, the creaking of steps echoed through the station.

A man descended from the shadows above. He wore a faded cassock, urban, dusty, with red paint smeared along the hem like dried blood.

A priest, or maybe something older. Not of a church, but of an order long forgotten. His face was lined with cracks, his eyes sharp and sunken.

The woman with the scarves trailed behind him, head bowed low.

"You have just defied the pact’s purpose," the priest said, his voice gravelly. "It was meant to bind loyalty, but you have twisted it."

Bai Zhi stood shakily, "But she said it was the only way that would save him."

"She didn’t tell you the cost."

The priest approached, drawing a circle of ashes around them with slow, precise movements. As he walked, he murmured ancient words. Then, stopping just beyond the ring, he raised a hand in warning.

"You have taken from death what was already claimed. Now you both walk cursed."

The light above them flickered violently.

Shen Xiao stood, swaying. "What does that mean?"

The priest pointed between them.

"Your pain will echo in each other’s bones."

"Her tears will bleed in your throat."

"Your rage will scorch her veins.

And should either one of you die, the other will be unmade."

A chill gripped Bai Zhi’s spine. What was the meaning of this? She all thought of saving Shen Xiao but what do they mean by saying this?

They were really stupid and naive teenagers.

"You mean we will feel everything the other feels?" she asked slowly, her voice rasping.

The priest tilted his head. "Not just feel, you will become."

"You can undo it," Shen Xiao said darkly.

But the priest only looked at him with weary pity. "This isn’t a thing to undo. You begged the old gods with blood and desperation. They answered your prayers."

He stepped back.

"And now you will learn that mercy has a price."

Then, with a final hissed incantation, he scattered the rest of the ashes into the wind. The lights burst above them, plunging the station into darkness.

When they emerged the next morning, both limping and soaked, neither said a word. But from that day forward:

When Bai Zhi bled, Shen Xiao ached.