They remained like that for several minutes. Not speaking, not moving, just existing in each other's presence. The silence was profound and necessary.
Finally, Luo He spoke, his voice softer than she had ever heard it before. "How are you feeling, honey?" Jin Mulan didn't respond immediately.
She simply clung to him more tightly, her face buried against his chest. Her entire body was shaking slightly, though whether from cold or trauma, she couldn't say.
After a long moment, she managed to whisper, "I'm... I'm okay. I think." She stuttered. "You're safe now." He said, and there was such absolute certainty in his voice that it seemed to penetrate the fog of fear that surrounded her.
"I'm here. I'm still with you, and I will be from now on. Nothing like this will happen again. I promise you that." He held her for several more minutes, allowing her to gradually calm down.
Her breathing slowly became less frantic, though her grip on him never loosened. It was as if she was afraid that if she let go, something terrible would happen again.
"Did you... did you need to use the washroom?" He asked gently after a while. "If you do, I can take you. I'll hold your hand the entire time. You won't be alone."
She shook her head firmly against his chest, indicating a silent no. Luo He understood immediately. He had noticed during those initial moments that she hadn't lost control of her bladder during the encounter.
Which meant she had already taken care of that need before Prince Lian Luo had found her. But he asked anyway, wanting to ensure she had no unmet needs.
Wanting to be certain she was as comfortable as possible given the circumstances. He simply held her close and remained seated on the bench, his embrace steady and protective.
The dressing room seemed to shrink around them until there was nothing in the world but the two of them. Husband and wife, bound together by something far deeper than marriage vows.
The corridor outside the dressing room was eerily quiet. The celebration still echoed faintly from the distant wedding hall.
Distant laughter, the sound of musicians playing, the murmur of hundreds of guests enjoying themselves. But here, in this small room, the silence felt almost unnatural.
It was the silence of the world holding its breath, waiting for something to happen.
For several minutes, neither of them spoke.
Words seemed inadequate to the gravity of what had just transpired. Language felt like a poor tool for expressing the depth of what Jin Mulan had experienced, and what Luo He felt in response to that experience.
Outside the window, evening had begun to rise as the sun faded. It was a beautiful evening, completely at odds with the ugliness that had transpired. Finally, Luo He broke the suffocating silence.
"Honey." She looked up absentmindedly, her eyes still distant, as if part of her consciousness remained back in that washroom corridor, trapped in those terrible moments.
"How do you feel now?" Jin Mulan lowered her eyes again, her gaze falling to her own hands as if they belonged to someone else.
"I don't know." She whispered, and her voice was so small, so unlike the confident, powerful woman he knew. "I've never... felt like that before."
Luo He waited patiently, understanding that she needed to process this experience, to articulate it, to try to make sense of something that defied sense.
"I've fought stronger opponents," she continued. Her voice growing slightly stronger as she spoke. "I've been wounded in battle."
"I've stood on battlefields completely surrounded by enemies, facing death from every direction." She clenched her hands together so tightly that her knuckles turned white.
"But this..." She stopped abruptly, unable to continue. "I couldn't even move." The words came out almost as a whisper, but they seemed to echo through the room with terrible clarity.
"My body simply... stopped listening to me. My cultivation, everything I've spent my entire life developing, it suddenly disappeared. Or it was there, but I couldn't access it. It was like being paralyzed."
"Like my mind and body had been severed from each other." Luo He's expression softened as he watched his wife struggle with the trauma of her experience.
"You don't have to force yourself to talk," he said gently. "We can simply sit here in silence if that's what you need." He said.
"I want to." She replied, and there was a desperate quality to her words.
As if by speaking about it, she could somehow process it and make it less real. "I need to. If I don't... if I don't talk about it, I think I'll go mad."
She drew a slow, shaky breath. "I've always believed that if someone threatened my family, my child, my parents, anyone I love. I could protect them."
"I've built my entire identity around the concept of strength. On the fact of being someone who can stand between danger and those I care about."
A bitter, humorless smile appeared on her lips. "I couldn't even protect myself."
The words hung in the air between them like poison. Silence settled over them once more.
But it was a different kind of silence now, one filled with contemplation and the weight of harsh truths. After what seemed like an eternity, she spoke again, and this time her voice was trembling.
"He said..." She paused, as if the memory itself was difficult to vocalize.
"He said there were people already inside our mansion. People he had positioned there..."
"He said if I told anyone, if I resisted him, he would have them burn everything down. He threatened..." She couldn't continue for a moment.
"He threatened Ling specifically. He described what it would be like, a child being burned alive, roasting in the flames, the pain, the terror."
"He painted these vivid, horrible pictures just to make sure I understood he was serious." Her eyes were now wet with tears that had begun to fall silently.
"What if he wasn't lying?" She whispered. "What if there really are people inside our mansion right now? What if he has the power to do what he threatened? What if..." She cried.
She couldn't finish the sentence. The implications were too horrifying to voice.
Luo He reached out and gently took both of her hands in his, his grip firm but tender.
"There aren't any." He said, and his answer came without the slightest hesitation or doubt. "I can promise you that with absolute certainty." He said.
"If I were in his position, if I were a predator trying to manipulate a woman into compliance, I would say exactly the same thing. It's a classic tactic." He reassured with absolute confidence.
How he knew that however was a little suspicious. Maybe Luo He had done so as well ?
"Create the illusion of power, make threats that sound credible, paint terrible scenarios to ensure obedience." His calm confidence seemed to flow into her through the contact of their joined hands.
It was slowing her racing thoughts, though not enough to erase them completely. "But what if he actually meant it?"
She asked, searching his face utterly desperate. "What if this is one of the few times someone actually has backup to their threats?"
Luo He smiled gently, and there was something in that smile that spoke of absolute knowledge.
"I know exactly who enters and leaves our residence. Every single person. Every single moment. No one could position themselves anywhere near our mansion without my knowledge."
"It's simply not possible given my level of strength and awareness." He paused, still considering her fears with the seriousness they deserved.
"But I understand your anxiety, and I won't dismiss it. So listen to me carefully. I'm going to ensure that a message reaches Xu Mun immediately."
"He and Fei will personally oversee the protection of Bing and little Lin. Long will personally guard your parents. Both Fei and Long are cultivators at a level close to Divine Realm themselves."
"Not even Divine Realm cultivators would be able to harm our family while under Fei's and Long's protection." He squeezed her hands gently. "I promise you that."