“Caroline, are you in there?” Jianmen ruffled and straightened his clothes a little with one hand while carrying a tray on which a teapot, a bottle of wine and a cup, and knocked on the door to the underground room: “May I come in?”
“Yes … yes please!” Caroline was lying in the bathtub filled with warm water fully clothed and almost fell asleep, and she rubbed her face with her left hand before replying to Jianmen.
“Hey, welcome back.” Jianmen walked over and placed the tray on the side of the bathtub: “I brought you tea, and wine, whichever you like. Have some and you should feel better soon.”
“Will I - will this heal?” Caroline looked at her right shoulder.
“Short answer, yes, and fully without a scar. That is, if you prefer to not have a scar.” Jianmen smiled: “And first, let me apologize for not being there - I got caught in an unfortunate situation, where any outside communication would put me and everyone around me in severe danger. We actually arranged backups for you - but they had to leave their post because of some emergencies with the Division.”
“It’s - it’s okay.” Caroline picked up the wine and took a huge gulp from it: “I - I felt like I learned a lot in the battle. And I’m just super glad that this nasty wound won’t last. I mean, I -”
“You charred your own wound to prevent bleeding out.” Jianmen nodded with the same smile on his face: “It’s a wise and daring choice to make. And turned out to be probably the only right one.”
“Where’s Jason? Did he come back yet?”
“He should be back soon.” Jianmen adjusted his back on the wall and said: “How are you feeling? Does your arm still hurt?”
“A little, yet, but it’s much better now.” Caroline sighed: “But also - somehow I felt - more powerful. The lycan I brought back with me, I was having a really hard time following her movements initially. But after losing my arm, somehow I felt like I’ve become a lot faster, and stronger as well. At first I thought it was adrenaline and losing one arm made me lighter, but my Xuanli also felt different somehow.”
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“It’s because, well - ” Jianmen took out his own flask and made a toast: “Congratulations on passing your third tribulation. You’re now officially a cultivator of the fourth layer.”
“What? Why?” Caroline’s eyes opened wide in surprise and awe: “I thought tribulations will require - I don’t know, some kind of thunder, earthquake and - and maybe lightning.”
“Yes, that’s the standard tribulation.” Jianmen laughed gently: “But there’s other kinds of tribulations - especially for those of you with the kind of gifts granted to you by the Will. If you think about it, what even is a tribulation? What is it other than a set of trials through which you have to push yourself using all your might and will power? And the fight you just went through definitely qualified for that, just a little atypical. For example, I know someone who was in your similar situation, and one of their tribulations was literally playing music to a giant lake for nine days nonstop to enchant and bless the water without using any Xuanli. Their arms were all swollen and their fingers were bleeding after the fact. Till this day I still don’t know how they even got the idea that this was their tribulation, and how the hell that was even an option for tribulations.”
“Okay - I think that kinda makes sense.” Caroline nodded and finished the entire bottle of wine in one chug: “And I can kinda see it now - even if I got a hold of you, you wouldn’t be able to help me - it’s my tribulation, my fight, and my obstacles to deal with.”
“Get some rest, Caroline.” Jianmen flicked the empty wine bottle with his finger, and it was just fully refilled, then he waved his hand at one of the cupboards, a thick light yellow candle floated out of it with a gentle flame and landed on the table beside the bathtub: “We’ll keep your prisoner in a room and keep her alive. We’ll leave the questioning to you when you’re ready.”
“Thank you, Boss.”
“Is she gonna be okay?” when Jianmen came out of the room, Thomas had woken up and came back into the lounge, and Detective Kuhn had already come to the inn after escorting the civilians to safety and helping them settle down for the moment.
“She’s gonna be fine.” Jianmen nodded and pulled out a wooden wheelchair from behind the reception’s desk and sat on it: “What about you? Thomas, you look exhausted. And Detective Kuhn, we meet again. How do you feel about the supernatural now?”
“Huh, what?”
“You probably don’t remember me, but you handled my arrest several years back.” Jianmen chuckled as he looked to the entrance of the inn, where he saw that Jason was about to come in with Aimee and Detective Lee.