What If...I Remember?

Chapter 37

"Xiao Jiu," Zhe Yan sighed, shaking his head as he applied the herbal paste on Feng Jiu's arms while she whimpered away, "Why did you get into a fight you couldn't manage again?" "I forgot that their swords were covered with a harmful substance..." Feng Jiu whimpered as Zhe Yan touched her wound again, before she muttered under her breath, "You're doing it on purpose, Zhe Yan, pressing so hard just to apply the herbal paste!"

"Pardon?" Zhe Yan paused, looking innocently at Feng Jiu as if he hadn't heard her, and Feng Jiu put on a smile at once, "Nothing!" "Let me do it, old Phoenix, your talons are hurting her." Bai Qian snorted from a tree branch as she laid on her stomach, biting a peach while she watched the drama below, and Zhe Yan set the pot of paste down, "Fine, fine, you do it, Xiao Wu. I have better things to do than spend my time on unappreciative people."

"Xiao Wu!" Bai Zhen came hurriedly, however, as Bai Qian applied the paste gently to Feng Jiu's wounds, and Bai Qian looked up curiously, "What is it, Si Ge?" "Ye Hua is here." Bai Zhen was tapping his fan against her shoulders, and Bai Qian whipped around anxiously, only to see her husband walking over slowly. There was a sense of dread in the way he hung his head, and how his eyes didn't search for hers as he neared, and Bai Qian felt like backing away, knowing that he bore bad news and nothing else.

But she forced herself to remain strong, to take that step forward as she moved towards him, closing the distance between them. Reaching for his arms, Bai Qian gripped his arms tightly in her hands as she forced him to look her in her hopeful eyes, but the first words that came out already shattered her heart.

"I'm sorry, Qian Qian."

"W-why?" Bai Qian fought to keep her hopeful gaze there, but Ye Hua knew she was breaking down, and that the question was her only way to express her refusal to the fact. "Mother said that A-Li will be in Su Jin's care for two weeks, then she'll decide for A-Li on who the better mother is." Ye Hua watched as she lowered her gaze to the ground, her eyes darting as she blinked away tears, and he flinched slightly when she flung his hands away, sitting back on the marble stone as she fiddled with her skirts, her lip trembling as she tried to speak, but failed.

"Two weeks?" Her voice wavered as she spoke, her eyes shining with the pearls of tears that gathered, on the verge of overflowing her rims and spilling down her cheeks, and Ye Hua bowed his head, "I tried to dissuade her, Qian Qian...but..." "Two weeks. With that monster." Bai Qian's voice was suddenly unnaturally steady, and Bai Zhen yanked Feng Jiu away, leaving the couple alone, and Ye Hua kept quiet, knowing Bai Qian was about to rage at him.

"Ye Hua...have you forgotten? She tried to kill me. She tried to kill us! Me, and your son! And you say she has his custody for two weeks!" Bai Qian threw herself at him, screaming into his chest, and Ye Hua stood silently, watching as she cried soundlessly, her sounds of heartbreak muffled by his robes, and Bai Qian took a full hour to finally calm down from her crying, but not before Ye Hua's robes were soaked from her tears.

"I'm sorry. It's not your fault. You probably tried your best to plead with her already." Bai Qian wiped her tears, and Ye Hua looked down at her red and puffy eyes, "Qian Qian..." "It's just two weeks, right?" Bai Qian brushed him off, trying to be optimistic for a change, "Then two weeks I'll wait. Nothing can go wrong, right?"

Wrong.

So terribly wrong, she was.

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"Mother!" Bai Qian heard a vague scream in her mind, and her eyes flew open as she was out of bed in a flash, "Nai Nai!" "Madam, what is it?" Nai Nai was alert at once, pushing the doors open only to see Bai Qian running in a nightgown towards her, "Did you hear a scream?" "Madam, no screams were heard...?" Nai Nai answered, a confused expression rising onto her face, and Bai Qian contemplated Nai Nai's words. Yes, perhaps there was no scream. Mayhaps it was just a figure of her imaginat-