The night outside was peaceful. The steady creak-splash of the water wheel from the mountain stream was the only sound cutting through the quiet dark. Thanks to the wooden trenches, the rows of dirt were perfectly hydrated, holding the seeds wrapped in the white powder.
Inside the shack, the small stove hummed with a low orange glow.
Chu Ning’er was sleeping soundly under the thin sheet, her body warm from the porridge. Gu Qinghan sat cross-legged near her, her cloudy eyes closed as she gently guided the residual starlight fluid through her waking optic nerves. Ye Xinyang sat on the floorboards, her eyes fixed on her own arms, silently guiding the heat of her food into her skeleton using the new path I had shown her.
Mo Ran sat alone in her wheelchair near the cold fireplace. Her fingers were lightly tracing the smooth wood of the armrests I had carved for her. She was staring down at her legs, her expression full of a quiet, longing grief.
I walked over to her, keeping my movements slow and deliberate. I reached into my sleeve and pulled out the single white petal of the Thousand-Year Ice-Core Lotus. The petal didn’t give off any smoke, but it had a faint, clean scent like high-mountain snow.
I knelt down in front of her wheelchair, sitting back on my heels. Mo Ran flinched slightly when she saw me approach, her hands tightening on the wheels. She looked at the white petal in my hand, her voice dropping to a very small, hesitant whisper. "W-What is that, Lu Chen?"
"It’s an ice lotus petal," I said, keeping my tone smooth and gentle. "Your spine meridians were cleanly severed by a poison needle from the rival clan. The paths are dead because the poison froze the energy lines. This petal carries a pure, natural frost energy that can numb the dead area, allowing me to manually massage and re-stitch the severed paths without causing your body to reject the change."
Mo Ran stared at the petal, her breath stopping entirely. The stubborn, defensive wall in her eyes crumbled away, leaving her looking incredibly young and vulnerable. She bit her lower lip, her voice trembling. "Lu Chen... don’t do this if it’s going to fail. Please. My legs haven’t felt a single thing in a month. If you give me hope and I still can’t stand... I don’t think I will have the strength to look at these wheels anymore."
"I am not giving you hope out of cruelty, Mo Ran," I said softly, looking up into her tearful eyes with an intense, honest devotion. "I am your husband. If your legs are broken, I will use my hands to help you rebuild them, day by day, until you can walk beside me. I promise you. Trust me."
From the floor, Ye Xinyang stopped her breathing practice. She looked over at us, her eyes glistening with deep emotion as she watched me comfort the assassin girl. The absolute care I was showing them was completely reshaping how they viewed the world.
Mo Ran let out a shaky, emotional sob, her head bowing down out of sheer vulnerability. She let her hands drop away from the wheels, placing them flat on her lap. "Okay... do it. I trust you."
I gently reached out and lifted the hem of her red wedding skirt, exposing her ankles and lower calves. Her skin was pale and completely cold to the touch. I placed the white lotus petal between my palms, rubbing it until it melted into a clear, soothing oil, and then gently placed my hands on her lower spine and calves.
"Ahh!" The moment my hands touched her skin, Mo Ran let out a sharp gasp. Her fingers flew forward, grabbing the fabric of my shoulders, her nails pressing into my robe as she trembled.
"It’s... it’s not cold," she panted, her face turning a deep, blushing pink as she felt the skin-to-skin contact. "It feels like a cool, tingling current is moving straight through the small of my back... Lu Chen, I... I can feel your fingers. I can actually feel the warmth of your hands."
"Don’t try to move yet," I murmured, my voice smooth and reassuring as I slowly used my thumbs to apply pressure along her lower back, manually smoothing out the twisted, blackened meridian paths that the poison needle had damaged. "The frost oil is just waking up the nerves. Let the current flow through the dead weight. I’m right here. Hold onto me."
Mo Ran wept quietly, her forehead dropping against my shoulder out of absolute relief as she felt the tiny, buzzing sensations returning to her thighs. For the past month, she had felt like a ghost cut in half. Now, my hands were bringing the blood and life straight back into her bones.
[ding! investment verified.]
[you provided: thousand-year ice-core lotus petal and medical massage to a high-potential target (mo ran).]
[triggering 10,000x multiplier...]
[reward received: shadow-weaver’s divine daggerx1 and asura meridian-knitting pill x1.]
[note: the pill can be given to her next week to permanently lock the healed meridians in place, restoring her elite assassin agility!]
I absorbed the reward into my mental inventory, keeping my hands steady as I wrapped a clean cloth around her legs to keep the moisture in.
Mo Ran lifted her head from my shoulder, her cheeks completely red from the closeness, looking incredibly embarrassed but looking very cute she look me with a profound, beautiful gaze of pure love and respect. She didn’t say a single mean word this time. She just held my hand tightly, her voice sweet and soft.
"Thank you, Lu Chen... I will never call you trash again."
I help her adjust her clothes. "Rest now. You need sleep and don’t worry about anything while i am here"