"I love you." - Lin Si, 18/14/1586
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The result finally took shape.
She quit the flames, taking the pills into hand.
She ran over to his side, just as the rain finally halted overhead. The one good thing with the rain, is that it had washed most of the blood from her garments, and only her currently open wounds bled still, slowing as her first realm of grandmaster settled, and she sent qi to block the open abrasions.
Fifteen pills. It was a fifteen-pill dosage. One every hour. The first 5 pills would fight against the mal effects of the poison and cure it, it would bring back oxygen to the blood, wiping the poison from it. The next 5 would combat the condition in his body since birth, reawaken his nerves to their best state, the next 5 completely eliminated the 'toxin' she had found inside him that interfered with his nerves, an ….would even reforge the broken nerves of his torso and legs which would finally be rejoined and remade. She knew his greatest wish was to walk by himself. These last three were the most specially made by her, using every last pit of lihuo essence, and a ton of her life force. She figured with how much she'd burned today, chances were, she'd only live ten more years at most. Maybe not even that long.
But did that matter? No for Li Junli, and for her future husband, Li Junlong, everything would be worth it. Why? Do you love him? She thought. She must love him. Did she love him so much, would she do this much for his brother? Well, maybe. She had done drastic things before for others she loved. She rubbed the scar on her wrist.
She entered the bedroom, coming over. "You did so well," her tears finally came, perhaps late for the moment they should have fallen, running in torrents down her cheek and then chin. "Thank you for living this long, Xiao Li." Xiao Li, a name given when she didn't know his. She leaned forward, letting the droplets from her face bleed over his. "Lili, please, take this pill." She knew he could hear her, since his eyelashes trembled, but he couldn't move. She lifted his head, forcing the pill down, along with some water, to make sure it went. It was dangerous, she didn't want him to choke, hoping against hope his body would swallow it. It did.
It did.
He was alive.
He would live.
He began to choke and cough, she lifted him up. There was one side effect of the pills she'd made, the patient would undergo a wave of pain, and would cough dead blood, tissue and energy up each time after taking one.
She couldn't believe it. She didn't leave his side for the entire hour, tears bleeding slowly from her eyes, as the second pill went down, when the third hour came, she fed him the third pill, he threw up more blood, and finally spoke, as red and black droplets dripped from his mouth, "Stop…stop crying." And when the fourth hour came, and then the fifth and when his hands moved to stop her tears, and only then did they finally stop as she lay over his bed in relief, her head leaning onto his stomach, his hands sifting through her hair.
She then brought him some porridge she somehow managed to make without burning. And after he ate a little, she cleaned his dish and put it back, she hadn't tended to her wounds well yet, she didn't dare, each movement of him, catching her eye, but after the 5th pill, and feeding him, the sixth pill came and he forced her join him to sit in bed with him, who was now sitting up right.
He himself was shocked. He'd never felt so good before, and as she dozed off, telling him to wake her in an hour, he just admired what he could see. He never could see much before. Everything was always blurry. Well, sometimes it cleared, like that time she fought at the arena, but most of the time it was blurring and clearing erratically. He had thought it was normal, but now, sure, nothing was all that clear, but every pill he took made it clearer, and it had stopped shaking and shifting.
In fact, his entire body had stopped shaking, as if filled with a new strength.
His hand only trembled a little when he wrapped it around hers. Yes, here he was, she was leaning against him, asleep, so beautiful, he realized. Comparing his own blotchy skin to hers, and pulling over a mirror, he noticed his baldness, his eyes, his lack of proper eyelashes. I'm ugly. He'd never really thought of it much. He just knew he wasn't as good as looking, but the better his eyes got, the more he realized that he wished it were as blurry as before, that he thought his hair was even, that he thought his skin was one color. The 8th pill had been taken, and he was already hyper, she'd already treated her wounds, she had no more pills to take but bandaged the wounds up enough to stop the bleeding. Her qi wasn't recovering quickly after being completely exhausted, and her grandmaster realm was still unstable, but her heart was recovering, and the smile didn't leave her face.
"You did what?" Li Junli exclaimed. He had asked how she'd gotten so many wounds.
Lin Si smirked proudly. "I broke through the entire demonic cult's defenses, I took their entire army on, including both the demon lord and white hare, to get that flower of yours, Xiaoli, so please, thank me, thank me, praise me forever! aren't I just so impressive, the best sister-in-law in the world, yes?"
"Yes, yes!" He agreed, tears came from his eyes. "Why did you do that? What…how did you survive?" he had helped her bandage up, he knew the extent of them.
"Let me tell you," Lin Si was excited to share her adventure. "The demon lord cut straight into me, and the white hare even held my heart with his bare hands for a moment!"
"No way!" Li Junli was terrified.
"Hahah, and you should've seen his face, holding my heart, thinking he won, triumph in his eyes, and then, suddenly. his hand was gone from his body, hahaha, his shocked face was so good there."
Li Junli was just laughing along in relief. Finally he grew silent. "Why, why did you do that?" He finally asked.
"You." she spoke, changing the subject. "Don't you want to walk?"
He nodded, but was confused.
"I made it, after the thirteenth pill, you should regain feeling in your legs, you'll be able to walk, relieve yourself, like any other man."
Li Junli was struck dumb. He'd known the lihuo flower could heal his nerves, and he could already feel the affects, it was wonderful, he could move his arms and mouth and everything on command now! His emotions had never been more steady. He figured he'd never have an episode again. But, this, walking? His legs would get healed? Weren't they dead forever after that incident?
"Trust me," Lin Si assured. "You just need to take the last couple, you will walk like normal!"
Li Junli grinned, excitedly, before lifting up her hand. "Actually, Lin Si, I was wondering, why are your hands different sizes?"
Lin Si quickly pulled them back, hiding them. "Ahah, that's a long story, better left for another time." she smiled, "Rather than that, I'll tell you some other ones of stories little know about, both tragedy and joy, about the hidden Lord Grave's market, the blood feud of the White Hare and his sister, Lone Snow Sword deity, Crow Master, the great commander Liao, and many more!" They continued to talk, until finally came time for the ninth pill, but Li Junli was getting tired after having recovered so much, and finally laid down to rest, Lin Si quickly cleaned up the room inside, she kept on her rags, but put the cloak of Li Junli's over them, the white one with red embroidery that Li Junlong had given her. She figured he would return soon. She wanted him to see it when he came back, then she would boast about what she had done, she would show off his brother to him, and they could live together here, from then on. She gazed around the courtyard. Yes, it would be nice, wouldn't it? She quite liked it here, she liked this courtyard, even with the mess that was still from her cauldron work, and she liked that smile…the most.
She noticed Ru Tuo, crumpled on the ground, still somehow not stiff in the least, despite not breathing, but decided to clean up her papers and the cauldron first, picking them up and returning them, and when moving his corpse out of the way, she only went a little bit, before Li Junli called her in to talk again.
"Yo? Is all good?" She came in peering around worriedly.
He just smiled, "No, I just felt like calling you back. Don't worry about cleaning, make my brother do that when he returns."
She smirked back, striding over, "you're right," she sighed dramatically, "I've had to put in so much work babysitting you! While he's off just relaxing in Rufeng, time for him to pull some weight around here."
She knelt before his bed, but he called her back onto it.
"Say, Lin Si," He finally asked, "Why do you think our father never brought up the familys' engagement to my brother before? And why is it you, not your elder sister?"
Lin Si shrugged, "Don't know, maybe he wanted to wait till he was older and met the girl. As for why it is me," she leaned over, to talk with a lippy voice, "My sister is much too talented and busy to be tromping around the country marrying temperamental martial artists."
"True," he shrugged, reaching out his hand to try to grab hers again, she let him. "Then, another thing, your name…isn't it a bit ominous?"
Lin Si considered for a moment. It was true it could be mispronounced into something ominous if you really tried. "Well…actually, funny thing, it used to not just be Lin Si."
"?"
She smirked, "I was given the name 'Siran' originally, by my mom, and then, when I was very, very little, but then, some man came to me and called me 'Lin Si' out of nowhere, and I kinda just started calling myself that since it seemed to fit, everyone else followed, except my dad, the stiff neck." She picked his hand up. "So? Do you think it fits?"
"Yes," he smiled back, "It fits quite well, I think."
The tenth hour was approaching.
***
He arrived at the town, his horse, which he had grabbed from a hunter heading out of town, tossing several gold at him, was overdone from his weight, and not being of great breed, stumbled to the ground, foam at the mouth, completely lateral, at the base of the mountain, he paid it no heed, leaving it to race upwards. He entered the yard, to find Sun'er huddled over a corpse nearby, he strode over. "What's going on?" He asked briskly, worry clouding his words.
Sun'er looked up at him, his eyes had fearful tears in them, he shivered. "Lord, lord, I don't know, madam Lin Si sent me to my grandparents for the weekend, I came back and madam wang is like this!"
Li Junlong's eyes narrowed, his heart hammered into his chest. Was he too late? Was all gone? No… no… no. He wanted to tear himself to pieces. This couldn't happen again! His last person, vengeful energy surrounded him, if he was dead…this world could rest with him!
"And Lin Si, know anything of her?" he demanded, "Is she here?"
Sun'er shook his head. "I'm not sure, I did hear movement in the back courtyard, a moment before you entered though."
Li Junlong flew past him, entering into the back courtyard, first sight that greeted him was the limp form of Ru Tuo, prostrate on the ground, then, rushing past him to li Junli's room, he rushed forward,
Slamming open the door, his eyes landed on Lin Si, rocking a pill down his brother's throat, as he fell forward coughing blood. Four more pills sat on the desk nearby.
Li Junlong didn't hesitate.