Savage Wolf, Lotus Heart [Never Let You Go, Again: Book 4]

1: The Red Death

Coff! Coff! Hack!

"A-Yang..."

"I'm fine, dear, trust me."

"I've informed the main sect, we'll get a remedy from them as soon as we can, you'll hold on till then, yes?"

Luo Qingyang looked up at her husband. "LanlingJin sect?"

"Yes, couldn't help it."

"It's fine, Jin Rulan might help. Oof!" She clutched her chest and slumped to the wooden bed.

"Mummy?" Little Mianmian, her daughter, watched her anxiously, horrified at the sight of the blood sprayed across the floor by her mother's coughs. Qingyang was pale and trembling, the agony of her affliction racking her whole frame. Little Mianmian, now a fourteen-year-old elegant young lass, reached out her hand and placed it on her mother's drenched forehead. "Mummy's fever keeps going higher, Daddy..."

Qingyang's husband nodded. "If the sect's people don't come in–"

"Young Mistress Luo?" A man knocked on the door. The husband walked over and opened the door, gladly letting the Jin disciple in. "I got a remedy from Doctor Lan, please try it."

"Doctor Lan?" Luo Qingyang croaked.

"Yes, Sect Leader Jin instructed me to get the medicine from Doctor Lan. As per Second Doctor Lan's instructions." 

Luo Qingyang frowned in thought. Second Doctor Lan? Who's that? Dear Lord, I haven't been out much, recently...

"A-Yang, here," her husband held out the jar of medicine. He swirled the potion for a few seconds before trickling it down her throat.

"Relieved to see Young Mistress Luo hasn't reached the paralysis stage, yet," the Jin disciple nodded with relief. "That potion, Doctor Lan suggested taking a spoonful every eight hours. Here's a sandglass to help. It's Head Disciple Xiyi's, she's arranged it for four hours' training periods, every two turns, feed the medicine," the disciple handed a sandglass with its top and bottom gilded with the white peony emblem.

"Thank you, thank you very much," the husband bowed low in gratitude and kept the sandglass on the table.

"I shall take my leave then, but if things get any worse, don't fail to contact the nearest watchtower."

"Thank you," little Mianmian bowed to him.

The disciple, only a few years older than Jin Ling himself, smiled, tousled the girl's hair and walked away.

Both husband and daughter turned to Qingyang to see how she was doing. "Mummy, any better after the potion?"

"Sweetie, Mummy only had it just now, give her some time, yeah?" Her father patted her shoulder.

Luo Qingyang forced a smile to reassure her daughter before turning around and coughing out more blood.

"Mummy... What's with your eyes?" 

**********

"Mianmian! Mianmian! Open the door!"

The husband looked up from the bed, his wife jerking awake from her troublesome slumber. Little Mianmian ran to the door and checked. "Who is it?"

"Mianmian– Oh, if it isn't little Mianmian! Hello, Little Mianmian!"

"Hey, you're the guy who saved Mummy once, right?"

"She told you?"

"Mianmian, who is it?" Her mother called from inside, voice croaking.

The father walked to the door and bowed. "Xingguang Xian!"