Everyone started crowding around Iris. Jin Liwei cradled her in his arms, repeatedly calling her name. Although her eyes were closed, she still appeared conscious. They could hear her soft whimpers. However, she was totally unresponsive to them.
“Third Brother, calm down. Lay her down on the couch,” Wang Yingjie instructed.
Jin Liwei immediately obeyed.
“All of you, don’t crowd too close. Let her breathe.”
Wang Yingjie began instructing everyone on what to do.
Iris began mumbling something. They thought she was just speaking incoherently due to her condition. Nobody understood her except for Lu Zihao who was standing near. She was actually mumbling in Russian.
Lu Zihao’s eyes darkened hearing her words.
Yu Mo finally returned with the medical bag. Wang Yingjie immediately went to work, taking out his medical instruments to examine Iris. First, he took out scissors and moved to cut Iris’ shirt open.
Jin Liwei looked enraged and was about to snatch the scissors but Wang Yingjie calmly explained, “She needs to breathe.”
Iris was wearing a long-sleeved body-hugging turtleneck shirt. It wasn’t too tight but in her current condition, it was definitely restricting her breathing. Wang Yingjie cut the shirt open, including the bridge of her bra. It exposed her upper body, but the cups of her bra still covered her breasts.
Lin Yehan, Yu Mo and the servants quickly looked away. Lu Zihao, however, continued to look. His eyes looked unfathomable. Fortunately, Jin Liwei was too preoccupied with Iris to notice.
“Second Brother, will Xiulan be okay?” he asked. His distress was clear in his voice.
Wang Yingjie didn’t respond, concentrating on checking her blood pressure.
“She’ll be fine,” Lu Zihao suddenly said. “She needs to go through this. This is necessary or she won’t be able to move forward.”
Jin Liwei glared at him.
‘What’s he talking about?’ everyone thought. However, nobody asked Lu Zihao to clarify what he meant. They were all too concerned about Iris to bother with him. They waited anxiously for Wang Yingjie’s verdict.
“Her vitals are too low for my liking,” Wang Yingjie finally said. “I don’t think she’s in any danger but I want her in the hospital to find out what’s really happening to her. Let’s go to my hospital. It’s nearer here than the hospital Xiulan usually goes to. I’ll contact Dr. Ching to let him know what happened to his patient. We’re acquaintances.”
Yu Mo ran out to prepare the car. Wang Yingjie rearranged his instruments back into his medical bag, continuing to instruct everyone on what to do. Jin Liwei covered Iris with a thick blanket provided by a maid and then carried her out to the car. Lu Zihao moved to follow them.
“Stay here with me, Fifth Brother,” Lin Yehan stopped him. “Second Brother is with them. He’s a doctor. Xiulan is in good hands.”
“I’m going with them.”
“Fifth Brother, your health isn’t the best. You’ll just get tired and stress yourself out if you go with them. Just stay here and rest.”
“No, I’ll go.” Lu Zihao’s tone was final. His usual easygoing self was nowhere to be seen. There was intensity in his expression that silently dared anyone to go against him.
Lin Yehan felt intimidated. He could only watch as his Fifth Brother followed the others outside into the waiting car.
###
Within the world of endless white mist, she sat frozen on the ground. Her eyes were wide in fear staring at the huge mirror in front of her. Behind her was nothing but endless whiteness, yet the reflection on the mirror showed the Vetrov estate during its final moments before their annihilation.
She wanted to run away but it was as if she was rooted in place, forced to watch the nightmare all over again. She closed her eyes, refusing to look any further.
“Why are you closing your eyes?” a beautiful voice asked.
Her eyes snapped open. The reflection on the mirror showed a woman in a white dress standing behind her. The woman’s golden hair and emerald eyes were very familiar to her.
The image of past self, Evelina, gracefully knelt down and embraced her from behind. She rested her chin over her shoulder and pressed their cheeks together. Their reflections on the mirror showed two very different yet equally beautiful women.
There was actually nobody behind her. Everything was only in the reflection. However, she could feel the phantom embrace of her past self even if nobody was there.
“Even if you close your eyes, your past will still be there. It will never disappear. Our past will always exist,” Evelina whispered.
“I am…Long Xiulan now,” she managed to croak.
“Yes. But you are also Evelina.”
The mirror started to waver and tremble. The images on the reflection started to seep out of the mirror over to her side.
“No!”
She wanted to run away but Evelina held her tightly, locking her in place.
“You can’t run away from your past. And you definitely can’t run away from yourself. Aren’t you happy? Big Brother Nikolai is back.”
She sobbed. Of course she was happy. She loved her big brother very much. However, she was also afraid. She wanted to start a new life as Iris Long, and that was what she had been doing ever since waking up in her new body. But now her Big Brother Nikolai turned out to be Lu Zihao, a very close person to her lover Jin Liwei. His existence alone was a strong connection to her past life.
Best of both worlds? Past and present?
“No!” She didn’t want it. She wanted the past to stay in the past and not interfere with her present. She didn’t want to be caged again.
Evelina’s expression instantly turned cold. Her embrace also tightened until she gasped in pain.
“Just because you’re Long Xiulan now doesn’t mean that you were born as her. Don’t forget who you are. You’re Evelina Armanovna Vetrova living inside Long Xiulan’s body. You can try running away from your past, but you can never escape from who you are.”
“I…”
“Why are you still afraid? So what if your past is intersecting with your present? You are not what happened to you. You are what you choose to become. You can never be free if you keep running away and being afraid. You can only be free if you accept your past and use it to live your present and create the future that you always dreamed of.”
Iris conversed with her own phantom in this dream-like state. This place had no concept of time. She didn’t know how long she had been in this world of endless white mist. All she knew was that she needed to face the phantoms of her past before she could leave this place.
The fear within her didn’t disappear. It was still there, but she realized that as time passed, it didn’t overwhelm her as much as before. She began to accept that her past life would always be a part of her. It was futile trying to run away from it.
While all of these were happening within herself, she had no idea that everyone was in a panic because of her.
Later that night, Wang Yingjie pronounced Iris as comatose once again.
