CHAPTER 73: CHAPTER 73; MRS LU TAKEN HOSTAGE

"If anything happens to my wife," Lu Yuze continued, his voice dropping to something lethal, "every single one of you will be buried with her. Do you understand me?"

The head doctor went pale. "Sixth Master Lu, we’re just trying to....."

"You’re trying to recapture a patient without any regard for the hostage’s safety," Lu Yuze cut him off. "I suggest you stop advancing and start thinking very carefully about your next move."

The doctors halted, uncertainty written across their faces. This was supposed to be a simple psychiatric retrieval. A patient having a psychotic break. They’d dealt with situations like this before.

But they’d never had the hospital’s majority shareholder’s wife taken hostage before.

"Woman," Shuyin’s hoarse voice broke through the tense standoff. Despite the blade at her throat, despite her weakened state, her tone was surprisingly calm. "If you don’t have a better plan, you’re wasting your time. They can always find you. Always track you down. Unless you have somewhere to go, someone to help you, this ends with you back in whatever hell you’re running from."

The woman’s body visibly trembled violently, and for a moment, the blade pressed harder before she regained control. She understood exactly what Shuyin was saying. It was true. She had no plan beyond this desperate moment. No escape route. No allies. No resources.

She was trapped, and taking a hostage had only delayed the inevitable.

Her eyes filled with tears that spilled down her hollow cheeks. The knife remained pressed against Shuyin’s neck, but her grip was loosening, despair overcoming desperation.

"I don’t want to go back there," she whispered, her voice breaking. "I can’t... I really can’t..."

The desperation in those words was visceral. You could hear years of suffering compressed into a single plea. And now that people were looking closer, they could see the evidence, bruises in various stages of healing visible on her arms and legs. Circular burn marks on her wrists that looked suspiciously like cigarette burns. A healing split lip. The hollow look of someone who’d been systematically broken.

"Madam, you are sick," the head doctor tried again, his tone that particular brand of patronizing that medical professionals often used with psychiatric patients. "You’re experiencing delusions. Paranoia. We have medication that can help you...."

"If you don’t let me out of here, I will kill her." The woman’s voice steadied with grim resolve. "I mean it. I have nothing left to lose. Nothing."

It was the tone of someone who’d reached the absolute end. Who would absolutely follow through on the threat because the alternative, going back, was worse than death.

"I’m really feeling terrible," Shuyin muttered, her voice growing weaker. The cold was spreading, her vision starting to blur at the edges. She didn’t have time for this standoff. She didn’t have the energy to waste on human drama.

"All right," she said, her voice cutting through the tension with surprising authority despite its weakness. "Let her go."

"Mrs. Lu, you can’t...." one of the guards started.

"I said let her go." Shuyin’s jade eye opened fractionally, glowing with that unnatural light. "Stand down. All of you."

Lu Yuze stared at her like she’d lost her mind. "Shuyin, she has a knife to your throat...."

"And she’s more terrified than dangerous," Shuyin replied calmly. "I can handle this. But I need you to call off your guards and tell these doctors to back the hell away before they get me killed through sheer incompetence."

It was the most words she’d strung together since the cold had started affecting her, and the effort cost her. She swayed slightly, and the woman holding her tightened her grip instinctively.

Lu Yuze’s jaw clenched. Every instinct screamed at him to order his guards to take the shot, to end this threat immediately. But something in Shuyin’s tone, in the certainty of her voice despite her obvious weakness, made him hesitate.

"I can go with you," Shuyin said to the woman, her voice hoarse but steady. "Wherever you need to go. I’ll help you. But you need to trust me."

"No!" The head doctor stepped forward, his professional concern overriding his fear of Lu Yuze’s wrath. "She’s a patient! She’s under our care! We have a legal and ethical obligation....."

"I think it’s time I audited this hospital," Lu Yuze interrupted, his voice dropping to something dangerous and cold. "A full audit. Financial records, patient treatment protocols, and staff conduct reviews. Everything. The sooner the better."

The threat hung in the air like a guillotine blade. An audit by the majority shareholder would expose everything, the shortcuts, the liability issues, the cases of negligence or malpractice that every large hospital kept quietly buried.

The head doctor’s face went white. "Sixth Master Lu, that’s not necessary. We’re just trying to....."

"Back away," Lu Yuze ordered. "All of you. Now. Or I start making phone calls to the medical board."

The doctors retreated, still protesting but no longer advancing.

Shuyin took a careful step forward, and the woman holding her moved with her, the blade never leaving her throat. They made their way slowly across the reception area toward the exit, a bizarre procession watched by dozens of shocked witnesses.

Guards lined their path, weapons drawn but not firing, clearly torn between protecting their employer’s wife and following orders to stand down.

They reached the glass doors leading to the parking area. The afternoon sunlight streamed through, almost blinding after the controlled lighting of the hospital interior.

Outside, in the parking lot, Ah-Ling stood beside the black sedan where Yuyan rested in the back seat. He looked up as the doors opened, his expression shifting from professional calm to shock as he saw Shuyin being held hostage.

He immediately drew his gun, pointing at the woman, while Lu Yuze took careful steps just behind them.

"Don’t shoot!"

"Don’t shoot!" She cautioned them. Even though the woman had taken her hostage, he wasn’t threatening and violent.

"Ah-Ling," Shuyin called out, her voice....