Transmigration; Married to My Ex-Fiancé's Uncle-Chapter 282; Arrival of the Celestial Mother
His first wife had died despite his best efforts. Despite the best doctors’ money could buy. Despite everything.
What if Shuyin.....
No.
Lu Yuze cut that thought off savagely, but his hands were shaking again. He pressed them together, still wrapped around Shuyin’s hand, trying to steady himself.
He’d built an empire after his first wife’s death. Built walls of wealth and power and influence, telling himself that if he was strong enough, rich enough, powerful enough, he could protect what mattered. He could keep Yuyan safe. Could control his environment enough that tragedy wouldn’t touch his family again.
But this morning had shattered that illusion completely.
All his money, all his resources, all his carefully constructed control, none of it had mattered. He’d stood there in his own sitting room, watching his wife die, and the only thing that had saved her was her mother’s celestial power and her own inhuman strength.
He’d been useless. Again.
The old wound, never properly healed, ripped open fresh.
Lu Yuze looked down at their joined hands, his large and scarred from years of building his business empire, hers small and elegant and marked with fading bruises from this morning’s trauma.
"I couldn’t save her," he whispered into the quiet room, his voice breaking. "I couldn’t save Yuyan’s mother. Couldn’t do anything but watch her die. And this morning... this morning I almost lost you the same way. Watching. Helpless. Useless."
His vision blurred and he realized with distant surprise that he was crying. Lu Yuze, who hadn’t cried since his first wife’s funeral, who’d trained himself to be stone and steel, was crying.
"I can’t lose you," he said, the words ragged. "I can’t watch someone I love die again. I can’t. I can’t relive that once again... It will destroy me. And Yuyan..... Yuyan already lost one mother. I can’t let her lose another. I can’t."
But even as he said it, he knew the truth: he had no control over this. Shuyin lived in a world of celestial politics and supernatural dangers that his mortal power couldn’t touch. This morning proved that. Her mother’s condition, the poison, the curse, all of it was beyond him.
He could give Shuyin a home, could offer her his protection such as it was, could love her with everything he had. But when it came to the real threats she faced, the ones from her own realm, her own past.....
He was just a man.
Mortal. Limited. Powerless.
The realization was crushing.
Lu Yuze pressed Shuyin’s hand to his forehead, his shoulders shaking with silent sobs. All his carefully maintained control, all his composure, shattered in the aftermath of terror and the weight of old grief resurging.
"Please don’t leave me," he whispered. "Please. I know I can’t keep you safe from everything. I know I’m just... human. But please don’t leave. Don’t make me bury another wife. Don’t make Yuyan lose another mother. Don’t....."
His voice broke completely and he couldn’t continue.
He stayed like that for long minutes, bent over their joined hands, crying silently for the wife he’d lost, for the terror of almost losing another, for his own inadequacy in the face of forces beyond mortal comprehension.
Eventually, the tears slowed. The shaking eased. But the fear remained, coiled in his chest like a living thing.
Lu Yuze lifted his head, wiped his eyes roughly with his free hand, and looked at Shuyin again. She was still breathing steadily, her face peaceful in sleep. Alive. Here.
For now. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖
"I’ll do better," he said quietly, his voice hoarse. "I don’t know how yet, but I’ll find a way. I’ll learn about your world, understand the threats you face. I’ll make myself useful somehow, even if it’s just... just being here. Being someone you can come home to. Someone who loves you regardless of what you are or where you’re from."
He settled back against the pillows, exhaustion finally overwhelming him. But he didn’t let go of her hand. Couldn’t let go.
"I’m not letting you go," he murmured as his eyes drifted closed despite his best efforts to stay awake. "Not to death, not to your celestial realm, not to anything. You’re mine now. My wife. My family. And I protect what’s mine, even if I have to learn magic or fight gods or cross realms to do it."
It was a promise. A vow. Perhaps a foolish one, made by a mortal man to an unconscious celestial princess.
But it was his, and he meant every word.
His last conscious thought before sleep finally claimed him was a memory, not of his first wife’s death, but of the moment Shuyin had opened her eyes after expelling the poison. That flicker of life, of recognition, of her fighting her way back from the edge.
She was a fighter. A survivor. Stronger than anyone he’d ever known.
And maybe, just maybe, together they could face whatever came next.
Even if he was terrified.
Even if he felt helpless.
Even if the scars of old loss would never fully heal.
He would stay. He would fight in whatever way he could.
Because the alternative, losing her, was unthinkable.
Lu Yuze’s breathing finally evened out into sleep, his hand still clasped around Shuyin’s, two people from different worlds bound together by choice and love and the stubborn refusal to let tragedy win again.
Outside, the sun climbed higher, and the new day continued its march forward.
Whatever storms were still to come, they would face them.
Together.
The Celestial Realm - Dawn
In the Celestial Palace, deep beneath the ocean where coral spires rose like towers and bioluminescent gardens illuminated marble corridors, the Celestial Lord Long Tian woke to an empty bed.
This, in itself, was highly unusual. His wife had been bedridden for months now, too weak to leave their chambers, barely able to lift her head from the pillow most days. After so many centuries of marriage, he’d grown accustomed to waking beside her frail form, monitoring her breathing, ensuring she was still with him.
