CHAPTER 77: CHAPTER 77; CHEN WAN’S HUSBAND ATTACKS

That was an understatement. Lu Yuze had watched Shuyin heal his daughter from an impossible illness, had seen her manipulate water with her mind, and had witnessed her face down corrupted creatures without fear. Whatever his wife was, fragile wasn’t the word.

"All right..." Yuyan relaxed slightly, then her young mind circled back to what she’d witnessed in the hospital room. "Daddy, what happened back in the wardroom? All that water and those animals and....."

"Honey," Lu Yuze interrupted gently but firmly, "whatever you see, let it be for your eyes only and assume it never occurred. Not everything has answers. Not everything can make sense. Do you understand?"

He himself didn’t understand most of what had happened back in the wardroom. The impossible water that appeared from nowhere. The animals with glowing eyes. Shuyin’s supernatural abilities. It was easier to simply... not question it. To accept the impossible and move forward.

"Okay, Daddy," Yuyan agreed, though her curious mind was already filing away questions for later. She was twelve, not stupid. She knew something profound and strange had happened. But if her father said not to talk about it, she would obey.

For now.

Far behind them, still within the hospital grounds, a phone call was being made in secret.

A figure stood in a supply closet on the third floor, phone pressed to their ear, voice low and urgent as the call connected.

After several rings, it was finally picked up. "Hello... You better have good news for me..." The voice on the other end was cold, commanding, accustomed to being obeyed without question.

"We failed to admit her," the caller reported nervously, knowing this would not be well received. "She ran and held another woman hostage. Lu Yuze’s wife. We couldn’t do anything in his presence. Security backed down, and they all left together. She escaped with them."

There was a long, dangerous silence on the other end of the line.

"Idiot! You are very stupid! How can you fail to do such a small task?" The voice exploded with fury. "One woman! One unstable, drugged woman, and you couldn’t contain her? What am I paying you for?"

"Sir, Lu Yuze was there. He threatened the entire staff. He....."

The call was hung up abruptly, the dial tone echoing mockingly in the caller’s ear.

Across the city, in a penthouse office with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the financial district, Chen Ting stood behind his massive mahogany desk, his face twisted with rage.

"They are idiots! Idiots!" He swept his arm across the desk, sending files and expensive pens flying across the room. Papers scattered like wounded birds, fluttering to the plush carpet.

His secretary, a nervous man in his thirties who’d learned to anticipate his employer’s moods, stood carefully out of arm’s reach near the door.

"Master..." he ventured carefully, "what should we do now? With Lu Yuze involved, the situation is more complicated....."

"Complicated?" Chen Ting’s laugh was harsh and slightly mocking. "My wife escapes from the psychiatric ward I had her committed to, takes Lu Yuze’s new wife hostage, and leaves with them. And you call it complicated? It’s a disaster! Total disaster..."

He began pacing, his mind racing through implications and contingencies. If Chen Wan talked to Lu Yuze, if she told him everything, if she exposed the truth about the family’s business dealings and the reasons she’d been institutionalized...

No. He couldn’t allow that. He couldn’t afford that at this moment, he was also making plans to run for Mayor.

"Let’s go find Lu Yuze," Chen Ting decided abruptly, grabbing his suit jacket from the back of his chair. "Before this gets completely out of hand. I’ll explain that my wife is mentally ill, that she’s dangerous, that she needs to be returned to proper care for her own safety."

"And if Lu Yuze refuses?" the secretary asked quietly, knowing there was a possibility and they needed to have plan B.

"Then I’ll make him an offer he can’t refuse." Chen Ting’s smile was cold, and calculating. "Everyone has a price. Even the great Sixth Master Lu. I just need to find his. Find what he can’t reject!"

"All right..." The secretary quickly gathered his own things, following his employer toward the door. "Should I call ahead? Arrange a meeting?"

"No. We’ll show up unannounced. Catch him off guard. He won’t refuse to see me, we’re business associates, after all. Old friends, even." The word "friends" dripped with irony.

They left the office, Chen Ting’s mind already spinning the narrative he would present. His poor, sick wife. Her delusions. She needs professional help. The tragic situation of a loving husband trying to save his mentally ill spouse from herself.

It was a story he’d told too many times before. To doctors. To the police. To family court judges.

And it had always worked.

Because he was powerful. Connected. Wealthy.

And Chen Wan was just a crazy woman whose word meant nothing.

Except now she had Lu Yuze’s protection.

That changed things.

But Chen Ting wasn’t worried. He’d dealt with powerful men before. They all responded to the same things: money, leverage, and mutually beneficial arrangements.

He would get his wife back.

And when he did, she would never escape again.

He would make absolutely certain of that.

The elevator doors closed on Chen Ting’s cold smile, carrying him down toward his destiny, a confrontation he thought he could win... Not actually thinking, he knew he was the winner already.

He had no idea what he was actually walking into.

Had no idea that the woman his wife had taken hostage wasn’t human.

Had no idea that Lu Yuze’s new wife was something ancient and dangerous and utterly without mercy for men who hurt women.

Had no idea that his carefully constructed world of power and abuse was about to come crashing down around him.

But he would learn.

Very soon.

He would learn exactly what happened when predators mistook a monster for prey.

They soon arrived.....