CHAPTER 68: CHAPTER 68; UNDER ATTACK

"Normal is overrated," Shuyin said, still not turning from the window, though a faint hint of amusement colored her usually flat tone. "Besides, normal women wouldn’t have been able to wake you up. You should be grateful your father has an unconventional taste. It’s in your luck..."

"Oh, I’m grateful," Yuyan agreed quickly. "Very grateful. Just also... confused. And a little scared. Your eyes are really creepy, you know. No offense."

"None taken. They are supposed to be creepy. It keeps people from asking stupid questions, you know..."

Yuyan blinked, then giggled again despite herself. "Did... did you just make a joke?"

"Did I?" Shuyin’s voice remained emotionless. "I wasn’t aware I possessed that capability actually."

This time, even Lu Yuze cracked a small smile. His daughter was alive, conscious, and teasing his strange new wife. For a moment, despite the impossibility of the situation, it almost felt like... family.

"See, Father? I told you long ago I could handle having a stepmother," Yuyan said triumphantly. "Even a creepy one with glowing eyes who talks like a robot. We’re going to get along just fine, aren’t we, Shuyin?"

"That remains to be determined," Shuyin replied, but there was the faintest softening in her tone. "You’re less irritating than most humans. That’s... acceptable."

"High praise from you, I’m sure," Yuyan teased, then her expression grew more serious. "But really... thank you. For saving me. You are a great woman."

Shuyin finally turned from the window to look at the child in the hospital bed, this small, fragile human who’d been poisoned by something from Shuyin’s world, who had nearly died because of forces beyond her control, who was now trying so hard to be brave and cheerful despite everything.

"You’re welcome," Shuyin said simply. "Your father paid a high price for your life. Try to make it worth his sacrifice."

"I will," Yuyan promised solemnly. "I’ll be the best daughter and make him proud every day. And... and maybe the best stepdaughter too? If you’ll let me?"

Before Shuyin could formulate a response to that unexpectedly earnest request, the droplets on her forehead multiplied rapidly.

But the droplets were coming faster now, becoming a steady drip that was quickly transforming into something else entirely, a flow, thin streams running down the walls like arterial bleeding, spreading in patterns that defied gravity and physics.

Her enhanced senses suddenly kicked into overdrive. She could hear it now, the sound of rushing water, distant but approaching fast, echoing through pipes and ventilation systems. And there was something else, something that made her blood run cold despite the warmth of the hospital room.

The sound of wings. Many wings. Wet, beating against confining spaces. And underneath it, the skittering of claws on metal, the splash of bodies moving through water that shouldn’t exist inside a building’s infrastructure.

Shuyin’s jade eye snapped open fully, her pupils dilating as she activated her supernatural senses to their maximum capacity. At the far end of the corridor, visible through the small window in the ward door, water was surging toward them like a tidal wave compressed into a hallway, unnatural, purposeful, and carrying things within it that had no business existing in a hospital.

She could see the burst pipes, but not just pipes, like water was getting redirected in one direction.

"Lu Yuze, pick her up and get out. Now!" Shuyin’s voice cracked like a whip as she spun toward the door at full speed.

"What?" Lu Yuze looked up, confusion clouding his features. He didn’t know why there was a sudden change in actions. What was the problem? If it were security concerns, he had his men stationed all over the entire VIP floor.

"I said pick her up and leave now... NOW! Don’t make me say another word!" Her aura had changed even hwe eyes. Something was definitely wrong.

Before he could process her warning, the open window darkened all at once.

A violent rush of wind blasted into the room, cold and wet despite the warm afternoon, swirling papers and snapping curtains like whips. The temperature plummeted in seconds, condensation forming on every surface as if winter had suddenly invaded the hospital suite.

Then the shadows descended, not shadows at all, but a living mass of corruption.

Dozens of birds poured through the open window frame, their entrance defying natural flight patterns. They didn’t fly so much as surge, propelled by something beyond instinct, beyond natural behavior. Crows, pigeons, sparrows, even a pair of hawks that should have been enemies, all moving together with horrifying coordination.

Their feathers were matted and wrong, slick with something dark that wasn’t water. Their movements were too precise, too deliberate, animated by a purpose that had nothing to do with survival and everything to do with hunger for the supernatural energy saturating this room.

But it was their eyes that confirmed Shuyin’s worst fears.

Yellow. All of them, glowing with that same sickly, phosphorescent light she’d seen in the corrupted creatures before. Not reflected light, but bioluminescence burning from within, driven by the cold poison that had infected them, transformed them into something other than what nature intended.

Their talons were elongated beyond normal proportions, blackened and sharp as surgical steel. Their beaks had curved into cruel hooks, edges serrated like saw blades, perfect for tearing through flesh and bone.

And they were all focused on one target.

Shuyin.

The energy signature radiating from her, the residual power from healing Yuyan, called for them like a beacon, irresistible and maddening. They descended as one, a living storm of corrupted feathers and burning eyes, filling the room with the sound of beating wings and inhuman screeching.

"Get her out NOW!" Shuyin screamed, already moving.

Lu Yuze’s training kicked in with wondering what was happening here. He scooped Yuyan from the bed in one fluid motion, the girl’s cry of confusion lost in the chaos. The ward door burst open as the water reached it, flooding into the room with tremendous force, already knee-high and rising in an impossibly fast.