Ceo And His Empress.. - Volume 2 Chapter 238 235. Legend..5

Meilin thought about using the secret passage, but they still had to cross the open path to reach the king’s quarters to get there… it didn’t seem feasible, but then she saw her team running towards her…

She almost breathed a sigh of relief when she instinctively brought the frail Xuan to the front and–

SWOOOSH

PAK

An arrow was shot at them and if not for her reaction, Xuan would have been directly killed!

Meilin spat a mouthful of blood from the impact and it was just then that Xuan finally opened his eyes with difficulty, “Mei—“, his breathing almost stopped when he saw the arrow that had pierced harshly into her.

Meilin couldn’t speak and could only caress his back to tell him that she was fine.

The royal couple saw this and wanted to run up to them, but just then, a wall that had stood strong for years now dramatically fell in between them… it was as if, the whole world was against them living!

The queen wanted to shout out loud, but Jasmine who had finally reached them held her back… the fire had spread to this side of the palace and the queen couldn’t inhale that toxic smoke!

Jasmine had seen Meilin’s condition and wanted to rush up to her… she didn’t want this to be their end, but as shadow guards, she had her priority… she will have to leave the prince to Meilin even though she was injured.

The queen went thorough a huge shock and fainted on spot… if not for the king and Amethyst, another shadow guard, by her side things could have gotten even more problematic.

Jasmine ordered half of her team to end this fight as the rest half were asked to escort the royal couple to safety.

In the end, this was their final parting… in the future when they remembered this scene, they always felt immense guilt and regret… they should have come faster.

All they could do for now was to pray for the two to be safe and together.

….

Meilin had instinctively protected Xuan once again when the wall fell over and in the process, her leg was crushed under the debris.

Xuan was too shocked and too weak to do something… he had fallen off her embrace a while ago and when he saw her like that, with red eyes, he crawled to her side and with his feeble hands, he tried to get the rubble off her in the process he inhaled a huge amount of the smoke and became a coughing mess.

Meilin had fainted for a second from the sheer pain as she was drenched in her cold sweat, she didn’t move in fear that she will let out a cry if she let her guard down… she didn’t want her prince to worry… her eyes became hot when she saw him crawl up to him and try to get the rubble off her… but she knew… she couldn’t feel any sensation from her right leg anymore plus there was that arrow in her back…

she gritted her teeth and tried to get up… her face was facing the ground as she tried to push herself up…

She knew she will live a little longer and so, she will protect her prince with that little life.

Meilin tried to get up a few times, but when she heard him cough violently, she felt that sudden surge of adrenaline and directly pushed herself up… swear rolling down from every inch of her body.

She tried to turn herself before she carefully brought her injured leg out of that rubble, the only saving grace was that she didn’t have to push a wall to get her leg out.

Meilin couldn’t run…

But she should first take prince out of this place and it was just then that her eyes fell on the old wisteria tree…

She would have to drag her body if she wanted to walk, that was the only way.

She took her prince into her arms and put all her weight on her safe leg as her other leg that was smashed left a trail of blood on its path.

Xuan felt her embrace and forced himself to stop coughing for a bit, “..Mei…lin… I..can.. walk…”, everything for the two was painful… at this moment, even breathing felt hard…. he didn’t want to her go through this pain… he was already useless and was adding up to her responsibilities.

Meilin couldn’t speak, it would waste her energy… she just kept patting on his back to relax him…

During normal time, it would have taken her less than a minute to walk up to that wisteria tree from her position, but they had taken a full ten minutes to get there and by then their breathing had thinned… the smoke didn’t let them go…

Meilin had come out of the palace to this side because of two reasons,

A. with her team there, those people couldn’t reach them, and

B. with the fire, walking indoors was dangerous.

This wisteria tree held many of their memories together and was their solace; it had a mysterious charm to it as even in the dark of the night, the flowers were glowing a light lilac.

But they couldn’t enjoy its beauty now…

She had just put Xuan on the lap when she heard a small whisper reach her ears; but if possible, she didn’t want to hear this…

“Mei…lin… flute… can…you play… it…for me..?”, he knew it was his end and at this point, even knowing that it was a huge burden, he couldn’t help but put this selfish request…

‘I don’t want to die like this….’

She felt like her heart was crying out in pain for him…

‘Why can’t he live?’

But she wanted to fulfil his request, no matter what it was.

Back when he could still walk around, they had gone to the bamboo forest at the end of the kingdom and her little master had broken a young bamboo sine to make her a flute; he had wanted to do everything on his own and had even injured himself in the process only to produce a crude flute… but Meilin treasured it more than any precious treasure.

It was painful for her to even breathe but she put all her emotions into her play…

A piece of clear and soothing music flowed out of her flute which she had always kept by her waist…

The sound was her heart, the notes their story…

She remembered the day she first saw him.

The child was four years younger than her and she had taken a glimpse of the child when the chubby child was born… she saw those two black orbs crinkling up rather than crying…

‘This is my master….’

That day, she had sworn to get stronger and protect him…

Since then, she had made it a point to swing her sword a thousand times and punched the bark of the tree that supported the wisteria another thousand… she wanted to become stronger, as fast as possible.

Her hard work paid off and before long, she became stronger than anyone else even at her very young age.

She was seven and he was three…

It was another case of an assassination attempt…

She had been keeping watch on him, but she had let her guard down because the imperial guards were present.

But the next second she had rushed out.