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Fire licked at their feet as they basically dragged Linglong’s body across the burning rooms, smoke filling their lungs and causing their eyes to water, making it even harder to see where they were going.
Bai Yutang tried to hold back his cough but it tore through his throat like a vicious punch in the face; a tight, painful itch gripping his chest every time he tried to breathe. His sleeves did almost nothing to help block off the suffocating air from entering his heaving lungs, and as he tried in vain to find a way out of these endless chambers, he heard Zhan Zhao’s coughs worsen, the man clearly having drained what little inner qi he had to break those dark iron bars.
Desperate, Bai Yutang willed his eyes to focus, searching amidst the still-burning fire for a way out, a small hidden door, anything—
There!
“The entrance is that way–” Another painful cough shook his frame. “Come on!”
The three of them walked a pace so slow he worried the fire would swallow them before long, but finally, they arrived at the only place that hadn't gone up in flames, the stone walls cool to the touch. A strange fuzziness filled his head the closer they got, his mind so slow it could only be due to the dwindling oxygen in the air, making it harder for him to breathe. They were running out of time—fast.
He looked over at Zhan Zhao and locked their eyes. They both nodded.
Carefully detangling his arm from Linglong’s back, he waited for Zhan Zhao to safely encase her in his hold before walking towards the thick stone door, his fists clenching and unclenching alongside the erratic thumping of his heart.
There was no time to think. He carefully gathered as much qi as he could muster and punched the door, feeling it barely budge under his fists. He clenched his jaw.
How. How how how—
“Zhan Zhao,” he cried out all of a sudden. “Give me your sword and Linglong’s!”
The man immediately did as he was told, pausing briefly from his futile attempt at covering Linglong’s face with his robes to throw him both swords.
Bai Yutang held the two blades in his hands, mustering all the qi in his body before aiming at the exact weak points he hopefully deduced correctly. He could not afford to be wrong.
The moment the swords’ edges dug into those points, he could feel the thick stone grow unstable under his palms.
There!
With a loud battle cry, he used up the last of his inner qi to precisely hit the weakest spot of the boulder. He felt the moment the wall started to crack under his fist, ignoring the sharp, agonizing pain shooting up his arm.
He glanced back behind him, seeing the two figures huddled near the entrance, desperately trying to stay as far away from the smoke as possible, and his mind instantly sharpened.
Pulling his fist back, he swallowed another roar as he hit that same spot again and again until the crack spread further and further, and finally…finally the stone crumbled.
He instinctively hopped back, waiting until the dust and debris cleared before returning to their side.
“Let’s go,” he said as he pulled Zhan Zhao up, voice thin and urgent.
The other man simply nodded and tucked Linglong closer against him as he stood up as though he could still shield her. Bai Yutang’s chest ached at the sight.
“Put her on my back, it’ll be faster that way.”
“…Alright.”
His brothers rose in alarm when he suddenly barged in, Linglong unconscious on his back.
“Wu-di!” Cried out his second brother. “What happened?!”
“No time to explain. Help me get her on the bed.”
His fourth brother hurried to carefully move Linglong from his back, her face scrunching up in discomfort when they got her to lie down.
Bai Yutang immediately took hold of her pulse even as he started listing off instructions, “Er-ge, get me a glass of fresh water, and the acupuncture set I left here. Si-ge, ask the kitchen if they have anything sweet and hard to eat, like candy or something.”
The moment they left, his eyes immediately searched the room for the person who had been quiet this whole time, his heart settling when he saw him just outside of his reach, leaning against the bedframe, his body tense.
“Zhan Zhao, come help me.”
The man obediently sat down on the bed, letting him lean Linglong against him. On another day, he could reminisce how this felt exactly like that first time the three of them were together in that wagon—yet now, all he could think of was the small wheeze in the woman’s lungs whenever she took a breath.
“Hold her steady.”
Zhan Zhao nodded, his grip on Linglong’s shoulders tightening.
With the medical knowledge he now had, Bai Yutang recalled which meridians correlate to the specific blood vessels carrying air into the lungs and hit those exact spots to help redirect the clean blood towards the heart and lungs.
When his brothers returned in record time with the items in hand, his shoulders had already lost their original tension. He murmured his thanks as he accepted each offering, bringing the cup of water to her lips with Zhan Zhao supporting her. Satisfied with the tiny sips she took, he then spread out his acupuncture needles and expertly pierced the veins that would help her blood flow circulate better, the gunk in her lungs hopefully flushed out by morning.
“How is she?” urged Zhan Zhao beside him.
His fingers gently probed the woman’s wrist before a soft sigh left his lips. He turned to smile weakly at Zhan Zhao.
“She’ll be alright now. Don’t worry.”
The ever-present crease on Zhan Zhao’s forehead finally smoothed out, his own body seemingly sagging against the bed post as he closed his eyes, letting his head thunk against the wood.
“Good. Good,” he muttered softly to himself.
They finally left after making sure Linglong was comfortable, Bai Yutang repeating the instructions to his brothers until Jiang Ping finally escorted him out with a promise to let them know if anything changed.
As they made their way back to their safe house under the soft moonlight, he felt his blood run cold when he was suddenly reminded that Zhan Zhao had used Soaring Crane tonight. He reached out to grab the other’s wrist but like the slippery cat he was, Zhan Zhao had twisted out of his grasp at the last second.
“You—!”
“I’m fine, Fifth Master Bai,” the man smiled at him, though it didn’t seem to reach his eyes. “Do you think I’d still be able to talk or walk if I wasn’t? You know my condition best, don’t you?”
For the first time in a long while, words failed him. Bai Yutang could smell the bullshit from miles away, yet he was also loath to argue with him on this already trying night. They had just escaped a certain doom, and with Zhan Zhao looking one step away from collapsing on his feet, his face as pale as the moon, he found himself unable to push the man further. Perhaps tonight…he would cut him some slack. He would just have to keep a closer eye on him.
“…Fine.”
He thought that would be the last they spoke that night, yet Zhan Zhao surprised him when he suddenly murmured:
“I have a feeling Ming Zhu’er won’t be happy when we return. Can I…ask you a favor, and buy me some more time?”
Bai Yutang turned to look at his friend—really look—and his heart ached something painful as he watched the fatigue clinging onto Zhan Zhao like a second skin, his footsteps lacking the certainty it would normally have, dragging behind him like there was a chain stuck to his feet.
He swallowed the bile rising in his throat.
“…Of course. Just leave it to me.”
The small grateful smile Zhan Zhao sent him both warmed and stabbed him right in his chest.