At night that day...
She had just fallen asleep moments ago when her brows furrowed and she started mumbling incoherent things.
It wasn't hard to guess....she was having a dream, probably a bad one or maybe a nightmare.
In it she was always in the shadows as she gazed at the little prince, who loved to stroll in the gardens in his soft-golden palatial robes or just sit in a huge library reading...it was mesmerizing and she was always there, standing guard in the shadows.
The next second the beautiful scene changed into an inferno and the supposedly healthy and good-looking boy had now become emaciated and looked very unhealthy...he was lying in her embrace, unmoving.....his soul was no longer there.
He won't be opening his eyes ever again....he wasn't breathing...he was dead...
A sense of dread passed through her body, as she was drenched in cold sweat in an instant...
As if she was unable to save him, as if it was something under her control but before she knew it she had lost the helm... she couldn't protect the only being she dared attach to and loved in her lifetime.
She was too scared...it felt like it was her fault....everything felt surreal...she was trembling.
The feeling was heart-wrenching and felt like someone was using dozens of pins to poke at her unguarded heart, one prick at a time, all over her heart....it made her mind go numb as her eyes lost its lights.
No!!
She couldn't let that happen again!!...
Even she didn't know why she added an 'again'.
This time she'll protect him....definitely...till the world's end....nobody could harm him, he should always be that pure soul like in the dream, unblemished and white, never red.
She was awakened due to the increase in her temperature and heart rate, everything felt so real, as if, she was present there as if, she had suffered through that hell of losing her Xuan.
She hurriedly got out of her bed and with frantic steps, ran to his room which was just in front of her own.
Her heart-rate which had increased to an abnormal high finally calmed down when she finally saw her Xuanxuan quietly sleeping, his breathing calm.
'As surreal as it may seem, it was just a nightmare. Qin Meilin, something even close to that future should be deemed impossible, you'll make that what it all was, a nightmare! Calm down!', she disciplined her heart and set a goal where that sort of future should not be possible even in parallel worlds.
After this day, she became aware of a certain fact....and it was that, what Xuan meant to her could not be described by words. He was 'not a part' of her life but her lifeline itself.
Lossing him was not even an option, she became aware of the fact that the day he came, he poisoned her with himself, it was a poison which will definitely be life-threatening in the future but she also didn't need its cure.
He was the hope in her life that drives her will to live.....he can't leave her, ever!!
..............
She stayed there standing by his bed for the whole night. She stood there, watching her life, lying on the bed with a slightly pale face, breathing softly, sleeping soundly.
The figure of the boy she saw in her dreams overlapped with this image for a second, the image of him lying in her arms, lifeless and her aura became chilling, she went close to him, without making a noise and sat beside him.
She gave a small peck on his forehead, "Don't worry, Xuanxuan. I'll protect you...I'll never let anything of that sort happen to you", she made a promise.
............
The same morning...
Xuan's fever seemed to spike up for no reason.
Meilin who had sat beside him the whole night was the first to notice it, she saw that he was having a hard time breathing and didn't open his eyes no matter how many times she called for his name.
She felt her life was being drained out of her body, just that night she had promised him to not let anything happen to him and here she was, powerless..but she still had her brain online, she immediately called for the pack of doctors.
Once the call went through the landline her voice became cold and emotionless, nothing like her usual polite tone," You've got 5 minutes to come to Xuanxuan's room, or wait for the consequences", rather than the tone of a 9 year, it was more like the voice from the depths of hell, the middle-aged man on the other side, who will go on to become the family doctor, felt shivers down his spine.
"Y-Yes, young miss", even he wasn't aware that his voice became more respectful, even compared to when he talked with Qin Mo!
He with his team and a doctor who specialized in Chinese-medicine came to the room under 5 minutes.
After a drawn-out check-up of his body and pulse, the doctor gave the conclusion that his health was the same as yesterday, though he was weak it shouldn't be like this, it was probably something psychological...he said that it would be better for him to wake up soon because sometimes the mental stress can detoriate the body way more that physical stress.
Meilin was listening to his words and after he was done she said coldly, "Do something about it", it wasn't a request, it was an order.
"It's something I can't do anything about, if he wakes up I'll treat him to the best of my knowledge but I can't start anything with him like this", the doctor was helpless.
She almost shouted out loud, 'You're a doctor. Why do you think we're paying you?', but she stopped herself, no matter how panicked she was, she can't let her anger out on him, it's unreasonable.
Still, she couldn't keep away the coldness when she said, "I'll call you when he wakes up."
The doctor wanted to administer an IV but even in his unconscious state, Xuan had a severe reaction when the cold needle touched his skin, so he had to stop.
Meilin was helpless, she was just a child, she couldn't do anything. Her grandparents were not there, Feng Jiajie was busy too.
She just sat there, watching Xuan who was having REM sleep, he was drenched in sweat, the nightmare she had that day kept repeating in her head.
This was the first time in her life that she felt this hopeless and had an inferirority complex about herself, she couldn't do anything at all...she had to grow up faster, much faster!!