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CHAPTER 21: Heart Ailment
When Chu Li opened her eyes on the bed, Elder Yu sat beside her, her expression grave, a thread of spiritual energy held between her fingertips, the other end wound around Chu Li's wrist.
Outside the window, the sky had gone dark, candlelight flickering, clearly well into the night.
"It's so late. Why did you... come all the way to this disciple's quarters?" The moment Chu Li spoke, her own voice sounded strangely distant, almost unrecognizable.
"Don't talk. Your body's still very weak right now." Elder Yu withdrew the thread, flexing her fingers one by one. "Do you remember the last thing you were doing, before you lost consciousness?"
"This disciple lost consciousness?" Chu Li pressed a hand to her forehead, trying to recall, but the memory seemed to have wandered off somewhere entirely. "I remember getting back to my quarters, and thinking about what soup to make..."
"Fresh bamboo shoot and old duck soup?" Elder Yu blinked. "That's all you remember?"
Chu Li made a small sound of confirmation. "Has Little Lian had any of the soup yet?"
Elder Yu sighed. "He said he wouldn't drink any of it himself until you woke up."
Chu Li grabbed at Elder Yu's sleeve. "Now that I'm awake, he should go ahead and drink some, shouldn't he? That soup needs exactly three hours to stew properly. Any longer and it won't taste as good..."
"It's been far longer than three hours." Elder Yu cut her off. "You've been unconscious for three full days."
"Three days?" Chu Li stared blankly. "If it's already been three days, the bamboo shoots would have completely dissolved by now. That soup can't possibly be any good anymore!"
"Xiao Li," Elder Yu said, her tone solemn, "you should be worrying about your own condition right now, not a pot of soup from three days ago."
Chu Li's mind swam with confusion, a headache beginning to build. "What happened three days ago? Why was I unconscious for so long?"
Elder Yu folded her fingers together. "Before you lost consciousness, you were running the first tier of the Bliss Sect's cultivation method. But the spiritual energy failed to properly channel into your heart's pathway, and in the process, it triggered a heart ailment that's been lying dormant in your body for twenty years."
Learning the full story left Chu Li utterly stunned.
At this point in the story, the original body would already have stolen the male lead's yang essence, taking the shortcut to Foundation Establishment, naturally avoiding any risk of the heart ailment ever surfacing at all. Which was exactly why the novel had never once mentioned any of this.
But by choosing to avoid the original body's tragic, violent death, Chu Li had, through some cruel twist of fate, brought the heart ailment on early instead.
"To be honest with you, if this disciple had never taken up cultivation at all, I would only have had twenty-three years to live in the first place." Chu Li's feelings were a complicated tangle. "I simply never expected this congenital weakness to surface this early, and I certainly never imagined it had been hiding in my heart's meridians this whole time."
"This ailment had lain dormant for a long time, but its sudden eruption was likely triggered by the abrupt drop in your spiritual energy, followed that same night by forcing your cultivation method to run regardless." Elder Yu grew increasingly self-reproachful as she spoke. "If I'd only managed to diagnose the early signs of this condition three days ago, I never would have let you run your cultivation method on your own, no matter what. As a healer, I genuinely don't know how to face you after this."
Chu Li offered a helpless smile. "At least this disciple is still alive, isn't that something?"
Elder Yu closed her eyes briefly. "After everything I've just told you, so earnestly, and you're still able to laugh, as the patient in question."
Chu Li pressed a hand to her temple. "Elder Yu, please, don't tell Little Lian the truth about this. He's already blamed himself once over drawing my spiritual energy. I don't want him carrying that guilt over this as well..."
Before she could finish, the boy's cool voice cut in from nearby.
"I already know." Little Lian paused for a second at the doorway, then stepped forward slowly. "Elder Yu already told me everything."
Chu Li pushed herself upright, glancing at him in alarm before turning to Elder Yu. "You told him something this important, while this disciple was unconscious?"
"He went without sleep for three full days, taking care of you the entire time." Elder Yu's tone deepened. "If he hadn't stayed by your bedside the whole time, you might not have woken up at all."
Chu Li found herself utterly at a loss for words.
Only then did Little Lian approach the bed, his voice carrying a faint chill, as though reproaching her. "Why would you keep something this important from me, Sister? Do you really think of me as nothing more than a child, someone you can simply deceive as you please?"
The words caught in Chu Li's throat, neither rising nor falling, and it was a long while before she managed to force out a few guilty syllables. "I wasn't trying to..."
As she spoke, she felt a tightness building in her chest, and couldn't help pressing a hand to her heart, coughing.
Elder Yu gathered a thread of spiritual energy at her fingertips, steadying the coughing fit. "It's nothing serious, just residual blood irritating your throat."
She turned and instructed Little Lian, "Xiao Li's regained consciousness now, but her condition is still far from stable. The first three days were the most dangerous stretch, but tonight matters greatly as well. If she can make it through to sunrise without another episode, she should be safe for the next two to three years. If not, this month may well be her last."
The inner chamber fell into complete silence.
After a long moment, Chu Li finally broke it. "This disciple understands."
Compared to being struck down without warning by a bolt of lightning, this quieter, foreseeable kind of ending somehow felt less unbearable than she'd expected.
Still, having been fortunate enough to stumble onto a treasure like Little Lian, only to potentially not live long enough to enjoy that good fortune...
That would be a genuine, painful waste.
Not long after Elder Yu left, Qi Ying arrived with Dandan, knocking at the door.
"I've spent three whole days going through books in the library, trying to find you a solution, and Elder Yu actually said something like that?" Qi Ying grabbed Chu Li's hand. "Don't listen to her. Listen to me instead. My wishes have always come true. You're absolutely going to make it through tonight just fine, and live a long, happy life alongside Little Lian!"
Beside her, Dandan lowered his head and nudged Chu Li's shoulder gently with his long beak, letting out a soft, soothing "honk honk," as though echoing Qi Ying's sentiment.
"I actually feel fine right now. There's no need for either of you to be this worried." Chu Li glanced at Qi Ying's tightly furrowed brow, then at Little Lian's silent, downcast expression, and made a point of emphasizing, "I really do feel fine right now. I'm not just saying that to put you two at ease!"
Qi Ying looked on the verge of tears. "Xiao Li, you... this isn't some final burst of energy before the end, is it?"
A moment later, Qi Ying clapped a hand over her own mouth in horror. "Bah, bah, bah, forget I said that! You're going to be fine! I'm having Dandan keep watch here tonight, to fill this whole room with his auspicious energy. And I'm warning you, don't say anything unlucky in front of him, or he'll peck you!"
"If you leave a crane this size in my room, I doubt I'll get any sleep at all." Chu Li shot the boy a pleading look. "Having Little Lian here with me is more than enough."
But Little Lian had kept his gaze lowered this entire time, apparently lost in thought, and gave no response.
"Little Lian understands perfectly well that Dandan's an auspicious spirit beast. He'd want nothing more than for you to recover quickly, so the two of you can get back to cultivating and eventually ascend together. He'd never chase Dandan out." Qi Ying winked at Chu Li, then turned to the boy. "Right?"
Little Lian spoke up abruptly. "If Sister could establish her foundation tonight, would this heart ailment no longer pose any threat to her?"
Qi Ying blinked, caught off guard, then answered seriously, "In principle, if Little Li established her foundation, an ordinary ailment like this would naturally resolve itself without any need for medicine. But—"
Little Lian cut in again, unexpectedly. "Doesn't the Bliss Sect possess a treasure called the Soul-Waking Jade, capable of boosting a cultivator's power, even achieving the Spirit Transformation stage overnight?"
"Achieving Spirit Transformation overnight is a wild exaggeration. That's just a rumor." Qi Ying looked confused. "Wait, you've only been in this sect a few days. How do you even know about the Soul-Waking Jade? Barely any disciples in the sect today even know it exists."
Little Lian paused for a moment, then explained quickly, "It was mentioned in the medical text Sister brought back."
Chu Li looked at him, puzzled. "When did you even read the book Ah Ying lent me?"
Little Lian's gaze flickered. "...While you were sleeping, Sister."
Chu Li grew even more surprised. "You were secretly reading in the middle of the night instead of sleeping properly?"
"All right, all right, does any of this really matter right now?" Qi Ying stepped in to cut the interrogation short at the right moment. "What matters is that while the Soul-Waking Jade can transfer a massive amount of its own spiritual energy directly into a cultivator's body, the process is extremely dangerous. At best, it throws the meridians into chaos. At worst, it causes the spirit root to rupture entirely."
Just hearing that was enough to unsettle Chu Li. "That sounds genuinely sinister..."
"Why else do you think the sect master had the Soul-Waking Jade sealed away in the sect's hidden realm? Partly to keep the ignorant from quenching their thirst with poison, and partly to keep anyone with bad intentions from using it to harm others." Qi Ying held up a finger, waving it at Little Lian. "No matter how anxious you are, you can't rely on some forbidden shortcut to help Little Li establish her foundation."
That night, Qi Ying headed home to rest first.
Only Chu Li remained in the room, along with Little Lian and Dandan, keeping watch at her bedside.
Dandan behaved remarkably well, neither crying out nor pacing about, eventually settling into a one-legged stance in the corner, standing perfectly still like a carved statue.
Little Lian sat at the edge of the bed the entire time, saying nothing at all.
After a long while, Chu Li couldn't help tugging at his sleeve. "Has Dandan fallen asleep?"
Little Lian nodded. "He spent three days keeping his owner company at the library. It's only natural he couldn't hold out any longer."
Chu Li teased him. "You spent three full days and nights by my side too. How did you manage to hold out?"
"That's different." Little Lian paused slightly. "Besides, you're not my owner, Sister."
"Then what exactly am I to you?" While he wasn't paying attention, Chu Li quietly slipped her hand into his sleeve and caught hold of his.
"Sister is simply Sister." Little Lian's fingers curled instantly. "Besides, I've been well-nourished these past few days. Staying up all night isn't much of a burden for me."
Even so, his hand remained ice-cold to the touch. Clearly, three sleepless nights in a row had taken more of a toll on him than he was letting on.
Chu Li couldn't resist rubbing her thumb gently over the back of his hand. "Why don't you lie down too, then?"
Little Lian shook his head. "Elder Yu said tonight matters a great deal for you, Sister. I don't dare rest."
As though meaning to punish him for it, Chu Li gave the soft web of skin between his thumb and forefinger a light pinch. "You can just lie down. You're welcome to keep your eyes open the whole time."
She worked her way from the base of his thumb to its tip, then from his thumb to his index finger, then his middle finger, then his ring finger...
Before she could reach his pinky, Little Lian abruptly stood up and walked toward the bamboo cot across the room.
"Where are you going?" Chu Li asked, faintly displeased.
Little Lian paused mid-step. "Didn't you just tell me to lie down, Sister?"
"I never told you to lie down over there." Chu Li frowned. "I meant lying down here, on the bed."
Little Lian turned back around, his expression caught off guard.
"It's not as though this bed can't fit two people." Chu Li muttered under her breath. "Haven't you shared it before?"
Little Lian let out a quiet sigh.
Chu Li shifted further toward the inner side of the bed, making room for him, then lifted a corner of the blanket and patted the mattress. "Though this time, you'll have to stay on the outside."
Little Lian returned to the bedside, sat there quietly for a moment, then finally climbed under the covers and settled in obediently.
Tonight, Chu Li thought, he seemed more mature, more sensible than she'd ever seen him. It was almost as though he'd grown up all at once.
He made no attempt at his usual clinginess, offered no resistance either. It gave her the strange, fleeting illusion that perhaps all of this had simply been some dream from her days unconscious, a dream in which the two of them had already spent a long, quiet stretch of time together like this.
"Turn this way," she said, rolling onto her side and nudging his shoulder. "Otherwise I can't see your face."
The boy's lashes fluttered faintly.
He said nothing, and after only a few breaths' worth of hesitation, tucked one arm beneath his cheek and turned to face her as well.
This close, Chu Li could make out the fine, downy hair along his face, could see each individual lash, dark and slender, standing out distinctly.
She couldn't resist reaching out to poke playfully at his thick lashes, only for Little Lian to stop her with a quiet warning. "Sister, Elder Yu said you need to stay calm and even-tempered..."
"Spoilsport." Chu Li pressed a finger against his lips instead, clearly feeling the boy's breath catch for an instant. "What, are you afraid I'll kiss you?"
He couldn't answer, his doe-like eyes flickering faintly, his throat bobbing in an almost imperceptible swallow.
"I already learned my lesson once. You think I don't remember?" Chu Li withdrew her finger, tucking both hands back beneath her own cheek. "Kissing you is far too dangerous. I'll pass, thanks."
The two of them lay there in bed, saying nothing further for a long while.
The candles at the bedside burned lower and lower, one of them finally guttering out entirely.
Chu Li noticed the room's light dim by another degree, Little Lian's face growing a touch darker in the shadows, though his eyes remained just as bright and clear, achingly endearing.
Without quite meaning to, she found herself thinking back to the day they'd first met. "I'm the one who gave you your name. Do you know why I chose it?"
Little Lian pressed his lips together. "Sister has a clever mind. I couldn't say."
"Because the very first time I saw you, I thought you looked utterly pitiful." Chu Li couldn't help laughing at the memory. "And do you know how I got my own name?"
Little Lian thought it over for a moment, still looking entirely at a loss.
Chu Li fell into her own memories. "Back home, there was a flower that was something of a local symbol, called the muli flower. It bloomed a brilliant gold, as radiant as sunlight, growing as large as the palm of a hand, with petals that were remarkably tough and resilient, and a fierce will to survive. That's why my family gave me the character 'Li,' and named me Chu Li."
She let out an unconscious sigh. "But once I arrived in this cultivation world, I learned the muli flower here is an entirely different species, and an extraordinarily rare one at that. Forget picking one for myself, I haven't even had the chance to lay eyes on one."
Little Lian asked, curious, "Is the muli flower in this world as beautiful as you are, Sister?"
"Now you're just flattering me." Chu Li reached over and flicked his nose, though the thought stirred a genuine longing in her, remembering how extravagantly the novel had described the flower. "Apparently, the muli flower here is so beautiful it defies belief. Petals like flowing gold, a center like a silver moon, wrapped in a faint, ethereal mist, hazy and utterly captivating. Anyone who's ever seen one carries the memory with them for the rest of their life."
"For the rest of their life..." the boy murmured, his gaze drifting distant, the candlelight reflected in his eyes flickering like some small lantern adrift in the night.
He seemed to catch the quiet longing in her voice. "If I could pick you a muli flower, Sister, would that make you happy?"
【Author's Note】
【Bonus scene 1】
Ji Wuyan: Wishing me a long, hundred-year life is honestly quite the bold ask, considering I'm a full...
Chu Li: Seventeen years old?
Ji Wuyan: ?
【Bonus scene 2】
Chu Li: You spent three full days and nights by my side. How did you manage to hold out?
Ji Wuyan: Don't even worry about three days and nights, I could hold out for seven days and seven nights easily.
Chu Li: ...Is something wrong with me, or is something wrong with you?
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