"And I'm going to repeat how I responded to you back then, too," Jin Liwei said. "I'm only saying what's in my heart. I'm glad that my words make you feel better."
Iris pressed their foreheads together. Their hot breaths intermingled but they didn't kiss. They stayed in this position, soothing each other and basking in the gravity of their love.
After they left the music room, Iris busied herself with taking care of the twins. Jin Liwei continued to worry about her emotional state especially after what happened earlier but felt relieved upon seeing that she seemed to have returned to normal.
But later that night, Iris suddenly fell sick and burned with high fever. She became disoriented and unable to respond to him properly.
Jin Liwei panicked and carried his wife from their bedroom to the hospital wing in a rush. The nannies were called to watch over the twins.
This commotion couldn't be hidden.
The others were already sleeping but Lu Zihao quickly learned about what happened from Bacon. He left his sleeping wife in bed and rushed to the hospital wing.
"What the hell happened?" he demanded as soon as he entered the room where his sister was staying.
Jin Liwei gestured for him to be quiet.
Lu Zihao stood by his sister's bedside and studied her.
She was flushed from the fever. Sweat beaded on her forehead and neck. Her breathing was shallow and faster than normal. There was also a furrow between her brows, an obvious indication of her discomfort even when she was already asleep. One of her pale, delicate arms was hooked to an IV bag.
Jin Liwei updated his brother-in-law about his wife's condition. "Evelina already received a shot to reduce her fever. She'll get another injection in a few hours if her condition doesn't improve."
Lu Zihao stroked his sister's burning forehead. His big, rough and scarred hand was very gentle. He frowned. "She's still so hot."
"I know but her temperature is already going down. She was burning hotter before I brought her here."
Lu Zihao stared at Jin Liwei with a hard expression. "I heard that you managed to buy Evelinka's piano back and surprised her with it earlier today. Tell me what happened."
"Alright. Let's talk outside."
The two men left the room but stayed in the hallway outside so that they could still rush inside if Iris woke up.
"Now speak," Lu Zihao said as leaned against the wall and rubbed the Smoking Devil between his fingers.
Jin Liwei watched the sparkling Smoking Devil. Like his wife's grand piano, the bejeweled devil-shaped smoking pipe was also an important item that connected both Iris and Lu Zihao to their past lives as Vetrovs.
Sighing, he finally told Lu Zihao about everything that happened earlier when he surprised his wife with the grand piano. He also told his brother-in-law about how Evelina died while playing Beethoven's "Für Elise" as enemies gunned her to death. Of course, he could only repeat what his wife told him since he didn't witness the horrifying scene with his own eyes.
A heavy and terrifying malevolent aura burst from Lu Zihao.
Jin Liwei's breath caught in his throat. He felt like he was going to suffocate. His physical body's reaction wanted him to run away but his logical mind knew that his brother-in-law's bloodlust wasn't aimed at him. This reassurance was enough to make Jin Liwei calm down in spite of his brother-in-law's scary aura.
Then Lu Zihao whispered, "I know."
His voice was so low that Jin Liwei thought he had misheard his brother-in-law. "Huh? What did you say?"
Lu Zihao squeezed the Smoking Devil in his hand. "You don't have to tell me how my own sister died. Because I know. Dammit, I fucking know it all too well!"
"You know?" Jin Liwei asked in shock. "You saw it?"
Lu Zihao stared into the empty air as if seeing something that wasn't there.
Indeed, what he was seeing was the memory of how his sister continued playing the piano even as her bodyguards were killed one by one around her, how the motherfucking bastards wearing police and military uniforms shot a defenseless young woman on the back like a bunch of cowards, how her blood sprayed up like a scarlet geyser, quickly turning her pure white dress into a bright, red nightmare, and finally, how she crashed against the piano and then fell down the floor as life drained from her body.
Jin Liwei crashed into him, interrupting the bloody memory playing inside his mind. Lu Zihao watched as his sister's husband grabbed him by the collar and tried shaking him. Since he was many times bulkier than the man, he didn't budge at all.
"What did you say?!" Jin Liwei's eyes was flashing with crazed fury. "Tell me! Did you really see it?! How?!!!!"
Lu Zihao allowed the man to make a mess of his shirt. He didn't stop Jin Liwei in any way. He just stood there and took the man's fury.
Why? Because if he were in Jin Liwei's shoes, he would also do the same thing. Or most likely something worse.
"Were you there when it happened?!" Jin Liwei continued shouting. "If you were there, why didn't you do anything?!! Why didn't you save my wife?! Tell me, Nikolai!!!!!"
Hearing his real name, Lu Zihao—no, Nikolai grabbed the man's hands holding his collar and gave a cold look. "You think that I'd fucking do nothing while some motherfuckers murder my own sister?!"
Some semblance of sense gradually returned to Jin Liwei but he still felt furious. "Then…why do you say that you know exactly what happened?!"
Nikolai plucked Jin Liwei's hands from his shirt and threw them away. There was now long, gaping rip on his front but he didn't give a damn about it.
He stared at his brother-in-law straight in the eyes. Nikolai's eyes were cold while Jin Liwei's were furious and pained for his wife at the same time.
Jin Liwei forced himself to take a few deep breaths and said in a much calmer tone, "Explain, Nikolai. What exactly happened to my wife and you back then?"
