Chapter 369 - Dead

Finally she heard a noise from upstairs and she quickly swivelled by the stairs. Most of the steps were already broken but she just needed a look… just a look and then she would be gone.

She knew that Qing Wei made it out of the bas.e.m.e.nt because he had left the door to it open. He must've come for Lok. As expected of him. He had always been one to look out for his brothers.

There was more shuffling around until she heard him screaming that he was going to get his brother out. She heard the door break and she hid in the shadows. She saw them pass to the other hall, their forms like fast cars speeding down the highway.

Qing Wei must've caught site of her as he bent down the railing to check. She sped away from his view and in the next few seconds, she heard the breaking of the glass and she knew that they were out.

Okay, nobody else is in the house, she thought. Now it was time for her to die.

She left one room unburnt at the end of the hallway. She closed the door behind her and got the supplies from a drawer. There was a silver syringe inside with clear fluid. She was not even sure if it would really work, or if she would wake up after this.

But this was the only way that she could go.

She plunged the needle onto her skin and she cried out in pain, quickly applying pressure on the spot. Almost instantly, she felt that her heart was slowing down and she lay down on the floor. The only she could have was for this room to stay out of the fire until they could get to her.

My boys… that was her last thought before her heart stopped beating.

**

The plan was to get her to 'die' without actually dying. They were going to fake her death and they would revive by the time that she would get into the cremating oven. Her sons would see that she was dead, they would load her in the car, then when she was finally in one of those metal tables, someone would shot her with another syringe and wake her up.

Qing Zihao had been there the whole time. It was like his own heart had stopped beating when he saw her laying on that gurney, she really looked dead. She was pale and so still, like someone was going to paint her picture and she should not move. It scared him.

He knew her death was not permanent but it scared the living hells out of him. When the new syringe was empty, they were waiting for her to wake up. Someone was pumping her heart back to life.

Those minutes were the hardest in Qing Zihao's life. What if something had gone wrong? What if she died before she got to the syringe? What if everything was too late?

It was like the earth was folding itself unto him. He felt like he had a migraine that was seeping off his pores. He felt out-worldly. Like this body did not belong to him. Like the dead woman was not his wife. 

The minutes felt like it had been stretched on forever. It felt like it had been hours before Hao Suyin took her first lungful of breath again.

Qing Zihao felt like he was going to cry when he saw her coughing and gasping for breath. She's alive, his mind said.

He rushed and gave her a hug. When she calmed down, she started crying. He did too. This was going to be the last day that they would see each other for a while. They would have to separate for this. 

They hugged for a long time while people inside thought that her body was already burning. Hao Suyin was saying everything that was on the top of her head. Mostly, it was things about her children—like Qing Zihao had not been there every step of the way and knew their children the way that she did.

She could not help but talk about them. It was going to be awhile before she would be able to talk to someone who knew her sons. She cried the whole remaining minutes then Zihao had to leave.

He didn't even kiss her fiercely. She knew it was because he didn't want to say good bye to her. His kiss was light, accompanied by the tightening of his arms on her small waist.

When he let her go, it was like he took the remaining happiness that was left in her. Qing Zihao left the car without a look back and she stayed on that gurney until they reached their first destination and got into another car.

As they drove farther and farther away, Hao Suyin felt that her heart was tugging for her to come back. To see her sons one last time. But no… she had to leave. It was for her sons.

She wiped her tears, took hold of the gun beside her, and loaded it.

"Are you ready, Mrs. Qing?" the person beside her asked. She was also a woman who had dark red hair, holding a pile of clean clothes for her.

"I died today," she said officially. "It's Christina."

The woman nodded. "Well, then… Ms. Christina, here are your new items. We are going to drive up north and get on the plane. We would fly…" the list went on and on about the plans that they already have.

The woman didn't even stop even when she was already getting ready. She smiled whens she saw the table of weapons. A lot of them were unfamiliar to her now but she greeted them like old friends.

Checks… she thought in her mind, in whatever nook of the earth you are, I'm going to find you then I'm going to come back to my family.