Chapter 798 --798

Chapter 798: Chapter-798

"So here is my answer," Heena stated, stepping back and delivering the final, brutal truth. "No. If my mother could, she would rather tear me into pieces and feed me to the dogs than ever accept me back into that estate. My bridge to the upper rings is burned to ashes."

Heena turned away, walking into the shadows of the apothecary. "So don’t try to play the victim, old woman. Because befriending me will never mean befriending the Lu family. It only means you are standing in the blast zone."

The silence that followed Heena’s words was so absolute it felt like the air had been sucked out of the room.

Madam Lin stood frozen by the front counter, her face burning with a mixture of profound shame and stark terror. Heena had ruthlessly carved open her chest and laid her deepest, most selfish gamble bare on the floorboards. The old woman had indeed harbored a secret, desperate fantasy that nursing a Lu daughter would eventually earn her son a golden ticket into the upper rings—perhaps a place as a favored concubine, or at least a prestigious position as a manor physician.

But looking at the cold, dead eyes of the woman standing in the shadows of the apothecary, Madam Lin finally understood the brutal reality. There was no golden ticket. There was only a warpath.

"So make your choice, old woman," Heena’s voice drifted out from the dim corridor leading to the kitchen. "If you are leaving, pack your herbs and go before I sweep the floors. I won’t stop you. But if you walk out that broken door, do not ever come back expecting my silver or my roof again."

Madam Lin swallowed thickly, her eyes darting nervously around the spacious, two-story shop.

If they returned to the south-alley clinic, they would be going back to a leaking roof, damp floors, and the constant, grinding anxiety of starving to death in the winter. Heena was a walking target for the Lu family, yes. But she had also just casually crushed a massive enforcer with her bare hands, possessed a frightening amount of official silver, and had the backing of the local underworld.

Before Madam Lin could utter a single word to defend herself, the sound of hurried footsteps crunched against the dirt road outside.

Ren appeared in the broken doorway. He was out of breath, his pale cheeks flushed and his dark hair slightly disheveled beneath his hairpin. He carried a fresh bundle of wrapped medicinal bark, but the moment his boots hit the threshold, he stopped dead.

His dark, intelligent eyes rapidly took in the scene: the shattered remains of the heavy wooden lock scattered across the floorboards, the splintered wash-bucket, his mother’s pale, trembling form, and the overturned baskets of dried herbs.

The bundle of bark slipped from his hands, hitting the floor with a soft thud.

"Mother?" Ren rushed forward, his voice tight with panic as he gently grabbed her shoulders, inspecting her for injuries. "What happened? Are you hurt? Who did this?"

Madam Lin couldn’t speak. She just shook her head, her eyes darting nervously toward the back of the shop.

Ren followed her gaze.

Heena stepped out from the shadows of the kitchen corridor, holding a broom made of tied birch twigs. She looked completely unharmed, though her dark eyes were as cold and sharp as polished obsidian.

"The Lu family sent a cleaning crew to sweep me out of the market," Heena stated plainly, leaning the broom against the counter. She didn’t soften her tone for his benefit. "They broke the lock and started throwing your mother’s things into the street to make a point. I made a counter-point. They left."

Ren’s breath hitched. His mind immediately conjured the horrifying image of the violent thugs who usually did the noble families’ dirty work. He looked at Heena’s hands, half-expecting them to be bloodied or broken, but her pale fingers were steady.

"Because of the danger, your mother has decided to pack your bags," Heena continued, her raspy voice completely devoid of pity or warmth. "She wants to take you back to the slums. I told her the door is open."

Ren froze. He slowly turned his head to look at his mother. "Mother... is this true?"

Madam Lin grabbed his sleeve, her voice trembling. "Ren, we have to go! You don’t understand, they were Matriarch Lu’s personal enforcers! And she—she provoked them! She threatened the Matriarch! If we stay here, we are going to be dragged into a blood feud with the highest nobility in the capital! It is too dangerous for a man like you!"

Ren looked at his mother’s terrified face, then down at his own trembling hands. He had spent his entire life keeping his head down, avoiding the gaze of aggressive women, and surviving by being as quiet and useful as possible. Running away was the safest, most logical thing a man in this empire could do.

But then he looked up at Heena.

She wasn’t looking at him with the predatory hunger of the tavern women, nor the arrogant entitlement of the nobility. She was simply watching him with calm, absolute pragmatism. She wasn’t going to beg him to stay. She wasn’t going to offer him pretty promises of safety. She was offering him the harsh, unvarnished truth of survival.

Ren thought about the leaking roof in the slums. He thought about the men in the lower rings who sold themselves for a bowl of rice. And then he thought about the way Heena had cooked her own food, bought her own iron, and stood between his mother and the Lu thugs without a second thought.

Ren gently but firmly pulled his sleeve out of his mother’s grasp.

"Ren?" Madam Lin whispered, stunned.

Ren didn’t look at her. He walked over to the scattered pile of dried medicinal roots on the floor, knelt down, and began carefully gathering them back into the woven basket.

"We are not leaving," Ren said. His voice was soft, but it carried a quiet, undeniable steel that Heena had never heard from him before.

Madam Lin gasped. "Are you insane?! Did you not hear me? The Lu family—"

"The Lu family did not buy us this medicine," Ren interrupted, standing up with the full basket. He looked his mother in the eye, his delicate features set in stubborn resolution. "The Lu family did not pull us out of a freezing alley. Heena did. Yes, it is dangerous. But going back to the slums to starve to death is also dangerous. At least here, we have a roof, a fire, and someone who actually fights back."

Heena watched the sheltered physician stand his ground, a flicker of genuine surprise crossing her stoic features. She had expected the old woman to flee, and she had fully expected the timid, soft-spoken man to follow her.

Instead, Ren turned to face Heena. His heart was hammering against his ribs like a trapped bird, but he met her pitch-black gaze without flinching.

"I will brew your medicine. I will manage the dried goods when you open the storefront," Ren told her, his voice perfectly steady. "If the Lu family comes back, I cannot fight them. But I will not run."