Transmigration; Married to My Ex-Fiancé's Uncle-Chapter 237; Kidnapping 10

"I’ll work on my impulse control," she managed, her voice still shaky but carrying a thread of something that might have been relief or might have been gratitude or might have been both tangled together.

"Please do," Lu Yuze said with that same deadpan delivery. Then, more seriously, his expression shifting to something more concerned and calculating, "Are there others? Other people from this facility who might recognize you despite the body change, who might trigger this same violent response? People I should be aware of so I can arrange for you to avoid them, or at least so I can make sure we’re not in enclosed spaces with unconscious children when you encounter them?"

Shuyin thought about it, trying to sort through memories that were fragmented and painful, images of faces that had looked down at her with clinical detachment while inflicting systematic torture disguised as research. "Possibly. Probably, actually. I don’t know all their names or remember all their faces clearly because they kept me sedated so much of the time. The memories are fragmented, like trying to remember a nightmare after waking up. But if I see them, if I’m confronted with someone else who was there..."

She trailed off, not wanting to make promises she couldn’t keep about controlling reactions that had proven to be completely beyond her conscious control.

"Try to give me a warning before you snap their necks," Lu Yuze said, and his tone made it clear he wasn’t joking despite the absurdity of the request. "A few seconds’ notice so I can at least clear the room of witnesses and vulnerable unconscious teenagers. That’s all I’m asking. You can kill whoever you need to kill from your past, but let’s try to minimize the collateral complications."

He wasn’t joking about that either. Or if he was, it was that particular brand of gallows humor that came from someone genuinely accepting an impossible situation and immediately moving to practical damage control rather than getting lost in the impossibility of it all.

"Thank you," Shuyin said quietly, the words carrying weight beyond their simple syllables, encompassing gratitude for his acceptance and his help and his willingness to be complicit in covering up murder because he understood, or was at least willing to try to understand, why it had been necessary. Then, more hesitantly, "Don’t worry. I’ll be leaving soon anyway. Going back to where I came from. So this won’t be your problem for much longer."

"Leave?" Lu Yuze’s expression shifted immediately, something that might have been alarm or might have been displeasure crossing his features. "Go where, exactly?"

"Just... back," Shuyin said vaguely, not wanting to explain about underwater kingdoms and mermaid royalty and the family that was waiting for her return. "I told you this was temporary. The contract has terms."

"The contract," Lu Yuze said slowly, his eyes narrowing slightly, "says nothing about you leaving. And you’re not going anywhere. You’re stuck with me, Shuyin. Contract and all. Whatever you are, wherever you came from originally, right now you’re here. You’re my wife. And I’m not letting you disappear after everything we’ve started building."

His grip on her hand tightened, not painful but firm, possessive in a way that sent warmth flooding through Shuyin’s chest despite her attempts to maintain emotional distance.

He glanced at Yuyan, still unconscious on the exam table, her vitals continuing their steady beeping pattern that indicated everything was stable, that she was safe and healing and would wake up soon without any memory of the violence that had occurred while she slept.

"For what it’s worth," Lu Yuze said, his voice softening slightly, "I meant what I said earlier. You’re good for her. For both children. Whatever else you are, wherever else you might belong, you’re exactly the kind of fierce, protective presence they need in their lives. Yuyan has never had that before. Someone willing to kill to keep her safe. Someone who reacts with violence when she’s threatened instead of calculating political consequences."

His eyes met Shuyin’s again, holding her gaze with uncomfortable intensity. "And apparently, you’re the kind of wife who kills doctors who tortured her, who commits murder to protect herself and eliminate threats. Which is not traditional by any standard, definitely not something covered in normal marriage counseling, but I can work with it. I can adapt to having a supernatural wife with homicidal tendencies and a mysterious past."

Shuyin felt tears prick her eyes, hot and unexpected, not from sadness but from overwhelming relief that he wasn’t rejecting her, wasn’t afraid despite having every reason to be, wasn’t calling security or demanding explanations she couldn’t give or treating her like a monster that needed to be contained.

"Thank you," she whispered, the words barely making it past the tightness in her throat.

"Don’t thank me yet," Lu Yuze said with that same pragmatic tone. "We still have to explain the missing doctor to hospital administration, get Yuyan cleared by someone else who doesn’t know our family’s complicated history, and get out of this building before any more of your former researchers show up and you lose control again. And we need to do all of that before Chen Xiao arrives and asks uncomfortable questions about why there’s a cleanup crew removing a body."

But despite his words about complications and logistics and problems still to be solved, his hand stayed warm around hers, steady and solid and accepting in a way that made Shuyin feel like maybe, just maybe, she hadn’t completely destroyed everything with her loss of control.

Maybe Lu Yuze’s pragmatic acceptance was enough to build something real on.

Maybe she could still have this strange family she’d been constructing over the past impossible days.

Maybe it would all be okay, as long as she could manage to avoid killing anyone else in front of witnesses in the immediate future. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

That seemed like a reasonable goal to aim for, all things considered.

As they stood there with Shuyin’s hand still clasped in Lu Yuze’s steady grip, the door suddenly swung open without any warning knock or announcement, the handle turning with decisive purpose that suggested whoever was entering didn’t think they needed permission.