Chapter 23 - Chapter 23: The Silence of the Sterile Cage

​The hospital room was a white, clinical void that felt more restrictive than the velvet vault of Xuan's villa. Ning lay in the bed, her wrist hooked to an IV, her eyes fixed on the ceiling with a hollow, haunted stare. Every time the door opened, she flinched, hoping for a shadow that belonged to the man she worshipped, but it was always the same faces: her parents, weeping with "relief," and Wei Chen, standing in the corner like a silent sentinel of debt. "He's gone, Ning. The police have him under psychiatric evaluation," her father whispered, his voice trembling with a misplaced gratitude toward the rivals. Ning's heart didn't beat; it hammered against her ribs in a frantic, jealous rhythm. "He's not gone! He's in my blood!" she shrieked, her voice cracking after days of extreme crying. She sat up, ripping the tape from her arm, the small bead of blood a crimson reminder of the violence of their separation. "You called him a monster, but you brought me to the lair of a snake!" She pointed a shaking finger at Wei Chen, whose expression remained a mask of pitying concern. The misunderstanding was a mountain of salt between her and her family; they saw her as a victim of Stockholm Syndrome, while she saw them as the executioners of her soul. "Ning, you're not yourself," Wei Chen said, stepping closer. The moment his hand reached for the edge of her bed, Ning let out a primal scream of extreme possessiveness. "Don't you dare! If you touch me, I'll tell the world you caused that accident!" The room went deathly silent. Her parents gasped, but Wei Chen's eyes narrowed into cold, calculating slits. The jealousy on Ning's side was so extreme she couldn't stand the thought of anyone's presence but Xuan's. She felt filthy, draped in their "care," and her misery reached a level where she began to claw at her own skin, trying to rub away the memory of the jacket Wei Chen had forced upon her. "I belong to Xuan! I am his wife, his shadow, his ghost! If you don't bring him to me, I will stop breathing!" She collapsed back onto the pillows, her breath coming in ragged, hysterical gasps, the extreme level of her lovingness for a man labeled a criminal turning her into a stranger to her own flesh and blood.