Her head felt heavier than a boulder pressed upon her shoulders—as if she had plunged into a bottomless sea, flailing in darkness, trying to open her eyes… yet unable.
Then she did open them.
What she saw brought no comfort: a sealed room where only a phantom gleam flickered. Shadows danced across the walls. A faint sound rose and swelled— not dripping, but rushing, as though water were filling the chamber inch by inch.
She tried to scream, to call out, but something clamped her throat. She struggled to move and found no body to command. Is this death? she wondered. A dream? Or something suspended between the two?
Suddenly, consciousness shattered the marble veil like a knife. She gasped and snapped fully awake.
Now she lay in a dimly lit room, wan light slipping through a high window. She could breathe. Her heart hammered. The world was real—yet she knew the nightmare was birthed by poison: the treacherous toxin of the Opas Tree, which does not slay the flesh at once, but wounds the soul in its depths.
She let her lids fall and whispered to herself:
"It's all right… only a dream."
When she looked again, Lady Ru Lan was at her side, clasping her hand, pressing it with a mother's tremulous tenderness.
In a voice roughened by two nights without sleep, the lady said,— "Shen Tao Hua… my child, at last. You have lain unconscious for more than two days. I was worried to the point of breaking."
Tao Hua managed a tired smile, her reply scarcely more than a breath:— "It is nothing… merely the poison's echo."
Then memory struck her like an iron lash. Her eyes widened.
— "Liang Sun Wu… what of him? Has he awakened?"
Grief dimmed the lady's face; her gaze drifted downward before she answered, weighed with sorrow:— "No… he has not. We have searched these two days for physicians, yet none knows a cure for so rare a venom. All we can do is repeat the draught you mixed for him that first night."
A heavy silence pressed upon them. Something tightened inside Tao Hua's chest. She had swallowed the poison after him—and recovered. Why had he not opened his eyes?
She whispered, almost to herself:
"I drank the poison after he did… why am I the one to rise first?"
Lifting her gaze, she spoke with quiet urgency:
— "Mother… may I see him? I think… I think I now understand how to craft the true antidote."
Hope broke through Lady Ru Lan's weariness like first light through storm clouds.
— "Yes—yes, of course! But you are exhausted; you only just awoke."
Tao Hua's smile was faint yet unyielding, the smile of a commander who stands after the ruin of battle:— "I am accustomed to spending my strength for those I love, Mother."
The lady brushed away a tear that had slipped unbidden, then her voice softened:— "Very well… ready yourself. I'll wait outside."
She left, and Tao Hua rose slowly—her spirit still bruised, yet walking… toward the life of the man who had chosen to bear the blade meant for her.
Somewhere, between the chasm of unconsciousness and the edges of the otherworld, shadows gathered around him.
A raven… two… ten… a whole flock of black wings circled above his body.The thick stench of blood mixed with unbearable heat choked the air around him.Trees, their trunks twisted and half-burnt, groaned like ancient spirits whispering his doom.
Liang Sun Wu was sinking into ink-black mud, trying to move, to escape, but his legs were pinned.Everything was against him. Flames surged around him. The ravens pecked at his limbs—he was their feast, helpless.He opened his mouth to scream… but the sound froze in his throat, paralyzed by terror.
Meanwhile, in the real world—inside Liang Manor—his body was drenched in cold sweat, his forehead burning, his lips trembling. He twisted in the feverish grip of poisonous hallucination.
Shen Tao Hua entered the room, as quietly as a shadow. No one else was there. She approached, saw the torment etched on his face, and understood—he was still trapped inside the nightmare.
She sat beside him, gently took his clenched hand, and began to whisper near his ear, her voice soft like spring wind:
"It's okay… it's just a dream. Breathe deeply… relax… it will pass..."
She repeated the words with steady patience, whisper after whisper, until his body began to calm.The torment eased from his features, his chest began to rise and fall in rhythm.Then—he opened his eyes.
His pupils widened in shock, like a man pulled back from death.He saw her… then the ceiling… then slowly realized he had survived.
At that moment, the door burst open and Ru Lan, his mother, rushed in and threw herself into his arms, sobbing:
— "My son! Thank the heavens! You're back… you're back!"
She clung to him, crying out the pain of two endless days—the grief that nearly consumed her, and the sudden joy that overwhelmed it.
But Tao Hua quietly stepped back. She said nothing. She didn't wait for gratitude. She exited the room, her footsteps light, as if she didn't belong in this scene.
She turned to a nearby guard and said calmly:
— "Summon Master Liang. Tell him… his son is awake."
Then she walked away, leaving behind a family reunited with life.
As she passed through the corridors, she saw maids running, whispering, smiling—the household was alight with the news. No one noticed her leaving.
She took a deep breath. Her part in this was done. Now, it was time for something else… something closer to her heart.
She whispered inwardly:
"I want to visit my mother… my brother… and my little sister."
And she vanished down the hallway, heading toward the wing everyone had forgotten—but which she still called home