Chapter 24 - ​Chapter 24: The Howl in the Dark

​In the reinforced cell of the private medical wing, Xuan sat in total darkness. He hadn't touched the food they brought him; his only sustenance was the toxic jealousy that grew more potent with every hour of isolation. He could still smell her—the scent of vanilla and salt from her tears—lingering on his skin, and the thought that someone else might be smelling it now made him howl like a wounded animal. He threw himself against the padded door, his knuckles raw and bleeding. "Ning! I know you're crying! I can hear your heart breaking across the city!" he roared, his voice echoing through the sterile hallway. The guards outside whispered about his "insanity," but to Xuan, his madness was the only truth. He began to hallucinate: he saw Wei Chen leaning over her hospital bed, whispering lies into her ear, promising her a life of "safety" in exchange for her soul. The misunderstanding reached a peak where he believed Ning might actually succumb to the pressure of her "sick" mother. "She's soft! She's too good for this world! They'll use her kindness to bury me!" he hissed to the shadows, his eyes wide and glowing with a manic light. His extreme level of possessiveness wouldn't allow him to sit still; he began to pick at the mortar of the wall with his bare fingers, his mind calculating the exact distance between his cell and her room. He didn't want freedom for himself; he wanted to reclaim the territory of her heart that was being besieged by the rival family. Every second she was away was a second she was being "contaminated" by the gratitude she felt for her parents' "saviors." The misery of the separation was a physical weight, crushing his chest until he could barely draw breath. "I will find you," he whispered, his voice dropping to a lethal, jagged promise. "And when I do, I will make sure the debt is paid in the only currency the Wei family understands: total annihilation." He slid to the floor, his face wet with tears of pure, jealous rage, his love for her a burning brand that kept him from falling into the abyss of true silence.