Yuyan gasped, pain and fear shooting through her as she felt herself pressed against the hard wood of the doorframe. The boy’s face was inches from hers, twisted with anguish and rage and terror all mixed together. His hands were shaking but his grip was iron, and she couldn’t get free.

"Let me go," she managed to say, trying to keep her voice calm despite the panic rising in her chest. "Please, you’re hurting me. I’m trying to help."

But the boy wasn’t hearing her anymore. He was lost in his own trauma, seeing threats where there was only a twelve-year-old girl trying to be kind. His hands moved from her shoulders toward her throat, and that’s when Yuyan truly began to be afraid.

"Help!" she cried out, her voice breaking. "Someone help!"

And that’s when the door down the corridor opened and Lu Yuze and Shuyin stepped into the hallway, returning from the penthouse at exactly the wrong, or perhaps exactly the right, moment to witness their daughter being attacked by the very child she’d been trying to comfort.

When they pulled through the mansion gates at half past nine, everything appeared deceptively calm from the outside. The morning sun cast warm light over the grounds, birds sang in the garden, and the mansion itself stood peaceful and stately as always.

But the moment they stepped through the front doors, a scream shattered the tranquility.

"Help! Someone help!" The voice was Yuyan’s, high-pitched with terror, coming from the direction of the guest wing where the rescued children had been housed.

Lu Yuze and Shuyin moved instantly, though Shuyin’s soreness made her movements slower than she wanted. Lu Yuze reached the corridor first, Shuyin close behind, and what they saw made Lu Yuze’s entire body go rigid with protective fury.

Yuyan was pressed against the doorframe of one of the guest rooms, a teenage boy, maybe thirteen or fourteen, standing over her with his hands on her shoulders. His grip was tight enough that Yuyan’s face was twisted in pain and fear, tears streaming down her cheeks as she tried desperately to push him away. The boy’s eyes were wild and unfocused, lost in some trauma-induced flashback that made him see threat where there was only a twelve-year-old girl trying to help.

"Let her go!" Lu Yuze’s voice cracked like a whip through the corridor as he surged forward, but Shuyin was faster.

Rage exploded through her like nothing she’d felt before, not even when confronting Lin Feng or watching her father in the ring. This was her daughter, her child, being hurt in what was supposed to be a safe space. The jasmine scent erupted from her involuntarily, thick and potent with supernatural fury, and her scales manifested visibly along her arms and collarbone, shimmering with iridescent anger.

Shuyin grabbed the boy by his shirt and literally threw him across the corridor with mermaid strength he had no hope of matching. He hit the opposite wall hard enough to crack the plaster, then slid down to crumple on the floor, dazed and gasping.

"Don’t you DARE touch my daughter!" The words came out as a roar, Shuyin’s eyes blazing with jade fire as she positioned herself between the boy and Yuyan. Every protective instinct she possessed, both human and mermaid, screamed at the violation of having her child threatened in her own home.

Yuyan slid down the doorframe, trembling violently, her silver hair disheveled and her shoulders already showing the beginnings of bruises where the boy’s fingers had dug in. Lu Yuze immediately went to his daughter, gathering her into his arms and checking her for injuries with hands that shook with barely controlled rage.

Yu Shou came running from another wing of the mansion, his young face stricken with guilt and horror. "I’m sorry! I was checking on the children in the west wing when I heard her scream.... I should have been faster...." 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

"Where are the rest of them?" Shuyin demanded, her voice still carrying that dangerous edge, scales still shimmering with fury. "Where are all two hundred children?"

"Throughout the guest wings," Yu Shou answered quickly. "I’ve been trying to manage them all, but there are so many, and some of them are having episodes....."

"No more," Shuyin cut him off, her decision made in an instant of protective fury. She turned to find Ting Fei standing in the corridor entrance, having followed them in. "Ting Fei, call every psychiatric facility, every children’s home, every care center in the city. I want every single one of these children out of this mansion by noon. Every. Single. One."

"Shuyin...." Lu Yuze was startled, still holding his shaking daughter.

"No!" She whirled to face him, her eyes blazing. "I will not have my children at risk in their own home! I will not have Yuyan afraid to walk through her own corridors! These children need professional help that we cannot provide, and they need it in facilities designed to keep both them and others safe!"

She looked down at the boy who’d attacked Yuyan, still dazed on the floor. Her rage wanted to hurt him, to make him pay for putting his hands on her daughter, but the rational part of her brain recognized he was as much a victim as anyone, traumatized, broken, lashing out from pain and fear.

"Get him medical attention," she said more quietly, though her voice still shook with anger. "Then make sure he’s the first one transferred. To a facility with secure rooms and trained staff who can handle violent episodes."

She moved to where Lu Yuze held Yuyan, kneeling down despite the pain it sent through her sore body. "Let me see," she said gently, her fury banking to concern as she examined Yuyan’s shoulders. The bruises were already darkening, finger-shaped marks that made Shuyin’s jaw clench.

"I just wanted to help," Yuyan whispered, her voice breaking. "He was crying and I thought... I thought I could comfort him. I didn’t know he would....."