The Immortal Emperor Returns novel · Chapter 8 of 24
Chapter 8: The Cracked Jar
By the time Chu reached Pine Court he could not feel his fingers.
Su Mian walked him through the garden gate with an arm under his shoulder, and Shuang's two guards looked at the blood on his coat and found the snow very interesting.
"Boss, you are the color of a candle," Su Mian whispered.
"Go and sleep, Mian."
"I will sleep on your doorstep."
"Then sleep quietly."
Shuang was waiting in the warm room with the screens drawn and a pot of something bitter steaming on the brazier.
She had taken off her court robe.
She wore a plain white inner gown with a gray quilted jacket over it, and her hair was loose to her waist, and he had never seen it down before.
It was long, and black, and smelled of plum blossom.
Su Mian looked from her to Chu, turned the color of a boiled prawn and fled.
The door slid shut.
Chu sat on the cushion because his legs had decided for him.
His hands lay palm up on his knees, and both were open to the bone along the old lines.
The pain was a long, dull roar.
"Show me," said Shuang.
She knelt.
She took his hands and looked at them for a long time with her lips pressed tight.
"It is worse," she said. "In the Hall you drew four threads."
"Three."
"You drew four. I saw it. Your jar is full of cracks." Her voice did not change, but her fingers did, smoothing over his wrist as if she could press it whole. "If you do this again without help you will tear. You will die in the street, Chu Xun, and the first person to find you will be a cabbage seller."
"I have a certain pride in being found by someone."
"Be serious."
He was. That was the trouble.
He felt the crack inside him.
"There is a cure," he said slowly. "I know the name of it."
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