The car hummed onward through the darkness, the sealed mansion long since disappeared behind them. Lu Yuze tucked the pearls carefully into an inner pocket of his jacket, close to his chest where they continued to pulse their gentle warmth.
He looked at Shuyin. Her eyes were drifting, the exhaustion finally pulling her under. The fight was gone from her body, replaced by the bone-deep weariness of someone who had given far more than she had left to give.
Her eyelids fluttered, once, twice, fighting it.
Then, from somewhere behind them, from the third car in the convoy, a small voice crackled through the security team's open radio channel.
"Is Mama Shuyin okay?"
Chen Xiao. Quiet and earnest, the way only a small child could be.
A pause. Then Yuyan's voice, steady despite the tiredness in it:
"She will be. She always is."
Shuyin's lips curved, barely, just the ghost of a smile, and then her eyes closed.
This time, she didn't fight it.
Sleep took her gently, and she let it.
