CHAPTER 58: CHAPTER 58; BUYING FREEDOM 5

After gathering the documents and making final notes, Lu Yuze exited the private conference room and returned to his sedan. The vehicle pulled away from the Prison, its headlights cutting through the darkness as they headed back toward the city.

Inside the car, Lu Yuze stared out the window, his reflection ghostly in the tinted glass. That laughter still echoed in his mind, cold, ancient, utterly inhuman.

What had he just made a deal with? He couldn’t fathom how a human could be like this!

And did it even matter, if it could save Yuyan?

In the car, he leaned back on his seat and calmly closed his eyes.

— — — — — — —

Back in the cell, Shuyin was escorted through the quiet corridors and returned to where her three companions waited eagerly for her. The door locked behind her with its familiar clang.

The three inmates hadn’t gone to sleep. They sat huddled together on the bunks, faces tense with worry, waiting eagerly for her return.

"Princess!" Tank was the first to jump up, her large hands immediately checking Shuyin over, looking for any signs of harm. "Did they do anything to you? Are you hurt?"

"Where did they take you?" Razor added, her young face creased with concern. "What did they want?"

Blade remained seated but watched intently, her medical training cataloging Shuyin’s condition, posture, breathing, and any signs of trauma or distress.

Shuyin looked at them, these three women who had protected her, who had stood by Lin Shuyin when everyone else had abandoned her. The original soul’s request echoed in her mind: Take care of those three... Don’t hurt them please...

"You don’t have to worry about anything," she said, her voice carrying that same detached calmness. "Tomorrow, we will be out of this place. I’m getting freedom for all three of us."

She moved past their stunned faces and climbed onto her bunk, settling in as if she’d just announced something as mundane as the weather.

"Wait, what?" Tank’s voice rose with disbelief. "Princess, what do you mean by ’out of this place’? We’re inmates. We have been sentenced. You can’t just....."

But Shuyin had already closed her eyes, her breathing evening out as she drifted toward sleep, leaving them staring at her in complete bafflement.

"Did she just say..." Razor whispered.

"Freedom," Blade finished quietly. "She said we’re getting out of here tomorrow. How possible is this?"

Who did she meet or what was she going to do?

" Princess...." Tank called her over once again but they couldn’t hear any response.

The three women exchanged glances in the dim cell, hope and disbelief warring on their faces. They wanted to believe it. God, they wanted to believe it so badly but this sounded like a miracle, a dream come true in such scenarios.

But freedom didn’t just happen in places like this.

Unless you had made a deal with someone powerful enough to break all the rules. Someone who could destroy everything...

And judging by the private meeting in the middle of the night, by the way the guards had treated Shuyin with unusual deference when returning her to the cell...

Maybe, just maybe, she’d actually done it.

They settled back onto their bunks, but none of them could sleep. They lay awake in the darkness, listening to Shuyin’s steady breathing, wondering what tomorrow would bring.

Wondering what price had been paid for their freedom.

— — — —

Meanwhile, miles away, Sixth Master Lu’s sedan pulled through the gates of his private estate, a sprawling property on the outskirts of the city, surrounded by high walls and even higher security.

But he didn’t go to the main house.

Instead, he walked through the manicured gardens, past carefully tended flowers and ornamental trees, to a smaller building set apart from everything else.

A private mausoleum.

He’d built it himself twelve years ago, sparing no expense.

White marble and jade, traditional architecture mixed with modern craftsmanship, surrounded by cherry trees that bloom every spring.

It was where his wife rested. It was love at first sight, and the moment they had turned legal, they had gotten married, but before they could even enjoy their love, she died giving birth.

Lu Yuze pushed open the heavy doors and entered the quiet space. Incense from earlier visits still lingered in the air. In the center, on a raised platform, sat a memorial tablet carved from the finest jade, inscribed with his wife’s name in gold characters.

Her portrait hung above it, a beautiful woman with kind eyes and a gentle smile, her black hair cascading over her shoulders.

Yuyan looked so much like her across her facial features and partly her father.

Lu Yuze knelt before the memorial, pulling out fresh incense sticks. His hands trembled slightly as he lit them, the small flames casting dancing shadows across his face.

"Wifie," he whispered, his voice breaking in the empty space. "I failed to keep my promise to you. I failed to let your place stay..."

The incense smoke curled upward, carrying his words to wherever she might be and probably listening to his predicaments.

"I promised I would protect her. That I would keep her safe and happy. That I would give her the life you wanted for her." His throat tightened. "But I can’t watch our daughter die like this. I can’t stand by and do nothing when there might be a chance, no matter how small. I could only do this for her, I don’t want to replace you, but I don’t have a choice..."

He bowed his head, forehead nearly touching the cold marble floor.

"I know I’ve failed you. I know I made a deal tonight that you might not approve of. With someone whom I don’t understand. But tell me..." His voice cracked completely feeling helpless. "What else can I do?"

The mausoleum remained silent except for the faint crackle of incense burning and his heartbeat.

"I raised her by myself for twelve years," he continued, tears now falling freely onto the marble. "Never remarried. Never looked at another woman. Because you were my only love, and Yuyan was our only child. I tried to be both parents to her. Tried to give her everything she needed."