"You still frown a lot," Yanyue whispered nostalgically, tracing Beichen's eyebrows with her fingers.
He was sleeping next to her. These days tired him out a lot as he dealt with the relief incident while searching for her. Not to mention, the pneumonia cases that were still rising gave him a headache.
But due to his hard work and the soldiers' help, the villagers were slowly returning to their daily lives. They had restored the majority of the land and crops destroyed by the earthquake. The road was not easy to reconstruct because of limited supply. Thankfully, the mountains offered various alternatives, so the soldiers and abled villagers quickly worked together and rebuilt the road, making a wood and stone bridge over the cracked earth.
"Beichen..."
The name rolled strangely on the tip of her tongue. He had many aliases; Jun was one of them. But Beichen was his real name.
She questioned if everything she knew about this man was false. Would that include his love? She reckoned it was why he refused to recognize her.
She had considered the possibility of memory loss. It wasn't odd if with amnesia. But how had Beichen come to lose his memory? She didn't understand this part. However, this was excellent. She could use this fact to her advantage.
Yanyue got up to change her dress to more comfortable clothing. She didn't remember how she came back to the tent yesterday, let alone who had dressed her up. But it was probably Beichen. Even though he didn't love her, he was possessive and disliked it when people touched his "thing". So, he would disregard his status and do these things himself.
He was so odd and bipolar, Yanyue thought. One moment, he would stab her with cruel words, and then the next, he would gently take care of her. He even went as far as bringing her to his tent. No matter how possessive, this was a little out of character for Beichen.
She did not know what was going on in his head and grew concerned. It seemed that she had to be extra careful moving forward. He wasn't the same loving Jun as he used to be. Making mistakes would cost her life as he couldn't possibly spoil her anymore.
The orange sun was low on the foggy horizon, projecting a beacon of light through the clouds. The dawn in the mountains was as tranquil as the twilight. But, Yanyue preferred the dawn. To her, dawn signified a new awakening. She didn't love the idea of moving forward because she had lost many loved ones. But, a new day meant that she was becoming, giving her hope to avenge those dear to her.
As Yanyue walked to the canteen to get some breakfast, she heard a call for help coming from the gate. The voice was so helpless that she skipped right by the canteen to the main entrance. When she got there, she saw a distressed mother carrying a toddler. They were waiting outside of the closed gate. There was no one guarding the entrance because it was still early in the morning.
"Please, help my child! She has a fever and is coughing out a lot of blood!" the woman cried.
The child had blood dripping down her mouth. Her eyes were tightly shut, but Yanyue could tell that the child was in pain from the wrinkles of her tiny brows.
Yanyue opened the gate. Her palm calmly brushed the child's forehead. Although there was no more high fever, the child was still a little hot. The child began coughing heavily again, causing more blood to come out.
"We must take her to the infirmary," Yanyue quickly suggested. "Follow me!"
The tent was almost full, but that didn't stop Yanyue from helping in any way that she could. She quickly had the mother place the child on the bed while she grabbed a towel to wipe away the blood on the child's mouth accumulating from the continuous coughs. She was in a hurry that she didn't take any precautions before dealing with the sick child.
"Wait here. I will go find a doctor!"
Yanyue hastened out of the tent. She didn't go far when she bumped into a doctor who was heading to the infirmary for the day.
"The doctor is here!" announced Yanyue.
The mother was instantly relieved when there was a doctor following in behind Yanyue.
"Doctor, please save my child!" the mother begged.
The doctor put on a face mask and gloves. Then, he started to work on the child. Yanyue was on the side. She observed every move without blinking for a second until she was sure that the child was out of harm's way for now.
In the end, the doctor had to isolate the child in the isolation tent. The child had caught a severe case of pneumonia and would need careful treatments and observation.
The tent had two rows of beds that were now almost filled. The situation was grim no matter how much effort the doctors, nurses, and everyone contributed in the past few days in treating the patients.
Just as Yanyue thought that everything was settling down, a patient was gasping for air from one of the beds. A nurse hustled over to check on the patient. The aging man was struggling for his life as the virus took control of his lungs.
It wasn't the first time Yanyue had witnessed death, but it had been a long time. She was physically shaken as she locked eyes with the struggling patient. The patient's mouth gaped open, seeking every opportunity that he could to breathe in air. In the process, he had a series of frantic seizures. His hands stretched in every unimaginable posture.
Yanyue's heart was beating fast. She wasn't the nurse who was directly dealing with the patient. However, the patient's begrudging eyes reminded her of Leela in her last moments before death. The memory rushed back to her like a still life. The violence was so vivid that Yanyue was struggling to breathe like the patient.
"Ah!" the nurse shrieked, flinching away from the patient. She covered her mouth while her eyes stretched big in fear. Her face was notably pale. She was bewildered by the patient's sudden appearance. "What is wrong with this patient?!"
The doctor rushed over to see what was going on, leaving the little girl to another nurse. As the doctor reached the patient, the patient had already passed away. However, what was stunning wasn't the cruel way the sickness had taken the patient. It was the indigo veins that gradually protruded on the man's face. And the most horrid part was his eyes; they had turned an indigo color.
The doctor frowned deeply, as he did not know what had happened to the patient. It wasn't how a pneumonia death looked.
"What is going on?" asked Captain Sean. Beside him was Beichen. They had masks covering their noses and mouths. They were coming to make rounds on the pneumonia patients and gather data from the doctors and nurses when they heard the commotion inside.
Upon closer inspection, they realized that the patient had the same indigo markings as the two dead soldiers. And the most noticeable trait was the indigo eyes.
"The same symptoms..." Captain Sean looked at Beichen warily.
Beichen studied the body before ordering, "Take a sample of his blood."
The doctor nodded. Shortly, he handed Captain Sean a red vial. His hands were shaking uncontrollably. It seemed that he wasn't afraid of the dead patient, but he was scared that he might make a mistake in front of Beichen.
"Ah!" the same nurse screamed again. "The princess consort fainted!"
When Beichen saw Yanyue's lifeless body on the ground, his heart thudded painfully. He sped over immediately to pick her up and set her on the remaining bed. He was shocked when he felt a trace of blood along the backside of her pants.
"Doctor!" Beichen roared.
The doctor hustled over. He checked Yanyue's pulse. The sweat on his forehead doubled as he felt an abnormal pulse.
The doctor quickly explained, "The princess consort's pulse is running everywhere. She might have been in a big shock."
Then, the doctor gently checked Yanyue's stomach with his stethoscope, sighing in relief when he sensed a tiny but steady heartbeat. "The baby seems to be doing fine."
"Are you sure?" His voice was cold and menacing.
The doctor quivered with fear as he confirmed his diagnosis, "Your Highness, I will never gamble with the princess consort's life or the unborn prince's life."
"Then, why was she bleeding?" Beichen questioned.
The doctor gulped as anxiety scrambled all over his face.
"The bleeding happened from the impact of when the princess consort fainted and hit the ground. Luckily, the bleeding has stopped as the fall wasn't serious. Don't worry, Your Highness, I will have the nurse observe the princess consort for further development."
Beichen nodded in agreement. His heart quieted down tremendously. "Will seeing someone's death affect her that much?" Beichen asked. He was a little skeptical.
The doctor continued, "For normal people, they might be okay. But for some people who had witnessed a traumatic death in the past, seeing another similar death might trigger that memory to come back. It was too much to handle, so her body shut down as a defense mechanism."
Beichen frowned.
Traumatic death? Who could it have been? Was it the person named Jun?
His heartbeat stifled, speculating that that might be the case. The woman who said she loved him had another person buried deep in her heart that she couldn't forget. He suddenly wanted to strangle her. In his opinion, the contract did not end with her physical valuables; her heart also belonged to him. He would not tolerate her thinking of another man, dead or alive, while he was still here. Nothing between them would be over until he said so.
"Take her to her quarter and have the nurse replace her clothes," he exploded out of the tent.
*
Yanyue did not know why making eye contact with that patient would stir up her memories of Leela. And the most complicated part was that that memory belonged to Shen Yanyue, not her. She wondered if the girl was trying to tell her something.
Yanyue sighed deeply. She just wanted to escape her tragic life, but who would have thought that she met him again even after becoming Shen Yanyue. Furthermore, it appeared that she had gotten herself into some familial tragedy that she would need to take care of as well.
However, the original owner of her memory and identity did not live a good life. Her mother was murdered in front of her. Then, her father married a stepmother who abused her mentally and physically. It also appeared that she had a crush on Beichen ever since they were kids. However, she was too shy, and she would only spy on him from afar, so he never noticed her.
As far as Yanyue could tell from the girl's memory, the girl had only met Beichen once or twice when they were kids. As they grew older, Beichen gave all his attention to Wanyue, so he never paid attention to the girl.
Looking back, Beichen had never really loved anyone except Wanyue. Then, why did he lie about his identity and marry her back then? If he hadn't done that, then she wouldn't have had to abandon everything about herself. She wouldn't have left her family, her brother, and her nation. She also wouldn't have had to live the rest of her life regretting that baby's life.
Yanyue condemned him along with herself while her beady eyes glistened with hatred.
Beichen, you will not live well. Watch me destroy everything you love.
Yanyue whispered her thoughts out loud as if she were chanting a mission.