Transmigration; Married to My Ex-Fiancé's Uncle-Chapter 220; Shopping 4

"I know," Shuyin said quietly, thinking of research facilities and needles and the slow drain of life force until nothing remained. "Believe me, I know."

"One month," her brother said again, making it sound like both a promise and a warning.

"One month," she confirmed. "I’ll see you then, brother."

She withdrew from the connection gently, severing the mental link before he could press further, before her carefully constructed composure could crack and the truth could spill out.

Shuyin opened her eyes.

The traffic was still gridlocked around them, cars barely inching forward. The van hadn’t moved more than a few meters during the entire mental conversation.

Yuyan was watching her with those perceptive silver eyes. "You okay? You looked really far away just then."

"Just thinking," Shuyin said, forcing a smile. "About family."

"The person you saw?" Yuyan asked quietly.

"Yes," Shuyin admitted. "It was... someone I haven’t seen in a long time."

"Are they following us?" Yuyan’s tone carried a hint of concern.

"No," Shuyin assured her. "They’re stuck in traffic going the opposite direction. And even if they weren’t, they don’t know where to find me."

Chen Xiao, who’d been watching the conversation with worried eyes, pressed closer to Shuyin’s side. "Is it bad people?"

"No, baby," Shuyin said, wrapping an arm around him. "Not bad people. Just... complicated people. Family can be complicated sometimes."

"Oh," Chen Xiao said, seeming to understand that in his own way. "The Chen family was complicated too. And bad."

"Well, this family isn’t bad," Shuyin clarified. "Just... from far away. And I’ll see them again soon, but not today."

The traffic finally began to inch forward more consistently, the jam starting to break up ahead.

"We’re moving again," Ting Fei announced from the front seat. "Should reach the Pearl District in about eighty minutes."

"Good," Shuyin said, pushing down the turmoil her brother’s contact had stirred up. She looked at both children, summoning genuine warmth. "Ready to go shopping?"

Both children nodded, Chen Xiao’s worry fading back into cautious excitement, Yuyan’s perceptiveness temporarily satisfied.

One month. She had one month before she’d have to face her family in person, before she’d have to explain the inexplicable.

One month to secure her position, protect her children, destroy her enemies, and figure out how to tell her beloved brothers that their precious Kailani had died and been reborn as something altogether different.

But that was a problem for future Shuyin.

Right now, present Shuyin had children to spoil and a normal afternoon to provide.

And she would not think about her brother’s worried voice, or the weight of truths she couldn’t yet bear to speak.

Not today.

Today was for building this new life, one careful step at a time.

— — — — —

Back at the building, Lu Zeyan remained seated in the boardroom, confusion still etched across his features. He hadn’t realized what he’d just signed. Hadn’t noticed the careful manipulation of clauses, the precise wording that had just transferred his shares into someone else’s control. Soon, he would lose everything.

His mobile phone vibrated against his thigh.

He pulled it from his trouser pocket, glancing at the screen. Lin Yueling. His hidden mistress, the woman he’d kept in the shadows while parading Lin Shuyin around as his perfect fiancée. The woman he’d chosen over Shuyin, not publicly, but in every way that mattered.

He answered immediately, already rising from his chair.

"What is it?" He strode toward his office, his free hand loosening his tie. Once inside, he moved to stand before the floor-to-ceiling windows. Below, he could see a line of black vehicles disappearing into traffic.

Probably it belonged to his former fiancée. The woman he’d destroyed.

"I’m not feeling well..." Yueling’s voice came through breathless, strained. "My mommy just rushed me to the hospital!"

In the background, he could hear crying, the distinct echo of hospital corridors, the beeping of medical equipment.

"Which hospital?" Lu Zeyan demanded, already grabbing his jacket. "I’m coming now."

"City General, please hurry, I’m so scared...."

"I’ll be there in fifteen minutes," he promised, already heading for the door. "Stay calm. I’m on my way."

He ended the call and moved quickly, barking orders at his assistant as he passed. His driver was already waiting when he reached the ground floor, and within moments they were pulling into traffic.

Lu Zeyan was using the other way, as where he was headed was different from Shuyin’s direction, so there was no jam.

Inside the van, Shuyin reclined in the plush leather seat, her eyes closed, her breathing slow and even.

To anyone watching, she appeared to be resting, recovering from the intensity of the family reunion.

Yuyan sat beside her, scrolling through her tablet. Chen Xiao was in the seat behind them, quietly playing with his stress ball. Ting Fei drove with his usual careful attention.

Everything looked perfectly normal.

Except for the slight smile playing at the corners of Shuyin’s lips. Except for the way her fingers curled against the leather armrest, like she was grasping something invisible. Except for the temperature in the van, which had dropped just enough to make Yuyan glance up, suddenly alert.

Shuyin’s consciousness had slipped away from her body, stretching out like invisible threads through the city. The mermaid magic flowed through her veins like a second heartbeat, cold and ancient and merciless.

She found Lu Zeyan’s car easily, his energy signature was loud, arrogant, familiar from years of torment. From years of humiliation. From the moment he’d chosen Yueling over her, from the moment he’d stood by while Shuyin was framed, from every casual cruelty he’d inflicted while wearing the mask of a devoted fiancé.

So focused on reaching the hospital. On comforting his precious Yueling. On being the hero for the woman he’d actually wanted while using Shuyin as his public facade.

How fitting that he’d suffer for it now.

Shuyin’s mental touch was delicate at first, just a whisper of pressure against his mind. A suggestion of distraction. A flicker at the edge of his vision that made him turn his head just slightly at the wrong moment.

The driver swerved to avoid a motorcycle that materialized out of nowhere, or perhaps had been there all along, merely unnoticed until that precise moment.

Not enough to cause serious damage. Just enough. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

The car clipped the median barrier, metal shrieking against concrete. The vehicle spun once, twice, before slamming against the guardrail with a sickening crunch. Airbags deployed with explosive force. Glass scattered across the asphalt like scattered stars.

Shuyin’s awareness followed Lu Zeyan as he slumped against the deflating airbag, dazed but conscious. Blood trickled from a cut above his eyebrow. His driver was already fumbling for his phone, voice shaking.

No major injuries. Not yet.

But that would change.

Shuyin’s consciousness coiled around Lu Zeyan’s mind like a serpent, slipping past his defenses while he was still disoriented from the impact. This was the part that required precision. The part that would require every ounce of her power, every drop of ancient magic running through her veins.

A simple curse would have been enough for most. A moment of humiliation, a spark of scandal.

But Lu Zeyan didn’t deserve to be simple.

He deserved to understand what it felt like to lose everything. To have your mind betray you. To become something pitiful, something broken, something people whispered about with pity and disgust.

She whispered the words in the ancient language of her people, syllables that predated human civilization, that carried the weight of ocean depths and drowned sailors and vengeance that waited centuries to be claimed. The magic responded eagerly, hungrily, wrapping around Lu Zeyan’s consciousness like chains.

First, the immediate curse: When he woke, the first words from his mouth would be "I love you, Shuyin." Not a choice. Not a decision. Just an irresistible compulsion that would override everything else. He would say it to the paramedics, to the police, to anyone who asked if he was all right. He would say it while his mistress waited for him at the hospital, while his family tried to understand, while the scandal spread like wildfire through every social circle that mattered.

But that was just the beginning.

The second layer was more insidious: a slow deterioration of cognitive function. Not immediate, that would be too obvious. But gradual. Over the coming hours, his thoughts would begin to scatter like leaves in the wind. Simple calculations would become difficult. Names would slip away. Conversations would trail off mid-sentence as he forgot what he’d been saying.