CHAPTER 71: CHAPTER 71; ESCAPE

But Shuyin apparently did.

She pushed weakly against his chest, and he immediately set her down, though his hands remained hovering near her shoulders, ready to catch her if she collapsed.

"We need to move," she said, her voice tight. "Before anyone comes to this floor."

As much as she hated using her manipulation abilities so openly, she had no choice this time, she hadn’t expected that such a scene would occur. The energy trail she’d left needed to be erased. Completely, before more corrupted creatures followed it, before investigators started asking questions she couldn’t answer.

Her jade eye blazed brighter for just a moment as she reached out with her mind, touching the electronic systems woven throughout the building.

The Security cameras, digital recording devices, and all storage servers.

She found the footage of the past hour, their frantic escape, the creatures emerging from pipes and vents, her obvious use of supernatural power, and simply... deleted it. Not just erased, but unmade, as if those recordings had never existed in the first place.

The effort cost her. She swayed slightly, and Lu Yuze’s hands immediately steadied her.

"Are you okay?" His voice was sharp with concern.

"Fine," she lied through her gritting teeth. "Just tired."

Lu Yuze looked back toward the ward room they’d just fled from. Now, with the water gone and the immediate danger passed, it would look like... what? A burst pipe? Some kind of plumbing failure that had somehow attracted animals?

The bodies of the corrupted creatures remained on the wardroom floor, rats and birds, their glowing eyes now dark and dead. But without the context of the flooding and Shuyin’s obvious power, they were just... animals. Strange animals with unusual characteristics, certainly. But animals nonetheless.

Someone would have to clean up. Would have to explain the damage. But at least there wouldn’t be video evidence of the impossible. Of what she had done, the last thing she needed was getting exposed to these humans.

Lu Yuze didn’t know what to say. Everything was so bizarre, so completely outside the realm of his understanding. Whatever was happening, whatever Shuyin truly was, he couldn’t comprehend it. Not yet.

But he also couldn’t deny what he’d seen. There was no miracle, and he had to wait until she decided to speak up by herself.

They had just reached the elevator bank when Lu Yuze felt Shuyin’s body temperature suddenly drop. Not gradually, but precipitously, as if all the warmth had been sucked out of her in an instant.

She went rigid in his arms, her skin turning pale, not the gentle pallor of someone tired, but the waxy, translucent quality of someone in shock. Her lips took on a faint blue tinge.

"Shuyin?" His voice rose with alarm. "What’s happening? What’s wrong with you?"

"Cold," she managed to mutter through chattering teeth. "So... cold..."

Ice crystals were beginning to form along her hairline, and her eyelashes. The frost was spreading across her skin like a disease.

Lu Yuze’s heart seized with terror. This was exactly what had happened to Yuyan. The same unnatural cold that had put his daughter in a coma for six months.

"Did you transfer the poison to yourself?" The words came out half-panicked, half-accusatory, even though he didn’t believe such a thing was possible, but who was gonna explain to him that her condition wasn’t the same as Yuyan’s?

He pressed the elevator call button frantically, but the indicator showed both the 38th and 39th floor elevators were non-operational. Probably damaged in the chaos.

"Do you think I’m that stupid?" Shuyin’s voice was weak but carried a hint of her usual acerbic tone. "I didn’t... transfer anything. This is... different."

But as her body temperature continued to plummet, Lu Yuze wasn’t so sure about what she was talking about. The symptoms looked identical. The cold was spreading through her system like ice in her veins, her skin going pale and clammy, her breathing becoming shallow.

"The stairs," he decided, already moving, carrying her despite her weight. "We’ll take the stairs."

"Mmnh..." She made a soft sound of protest but lacked the strength to argue.

They reached the emergency stairwell just as firefighters began rushing past them, heading upward toward the 40th floor where alarms were still blaring. The men barely glanced at them, just another hospital visitor carrying someone who’d fainted or gotten sick, nothing unusual in a medical facility.

"What happened up there?" one of them called out as they passed.

"Burst pipes," Lu Yuze replied without breaking stride. "Flooding. Animals somehow got into the ductwork."

"Jesus," the firefighter muttered, continuing upward with his team.

Lu Yuze descended as quickly as he dared while carrying Shuyin, whose body was now shivering violently despite the warmth of his arms around her. The cold radiating from her was so intense that he could feel it through his clothes, chilling him to the bone.

"Put me down," Shuyin said weakly as they reached the 38th floor. "I can walk. Just put me down.." she didn’t want him to get affected with this cold.

"Like you can." Lu Yuze’s grip tightened on her body not understanding what was happening to her. "You’re freezing. Your skin is literally developing frost. You’re not walking anywhere."

Despite her protests, she didn’t have the strength to fight him. Her head lolled against his shoulder, dark hair plastered to her face with a mixture of water and ice crystals.

They reached the 37th floor and found the elevators operational again. Lu Yuze hit the call button, and mercifully, the doors opened immediately.

He stepped inside, Shuyin still cradled in his arms, and jabbed the ground floor button with his elbow. The doors slid closed, and the elevator began its descent.

In the enclosed space, Lu Yuze could finally see the full extent of Shuyin’s condition. Her lips were blue, her skin pale as paper, frost visibly spreading across her cheeks and neck. But even more alarming, wounds were appearing on her body. Not fresh injuries, but old ones that seemed to be manifesting out of nowhere. Bruises blooming on her arms. A cut along her temple that definitely hadn’t been there moments ago.