Every night at Yushan’s peak, a wisp of blue smoke would rise. At daybreak, it would punctually extinguish. A small, thin figure raced across the snow, moving very fast, but his short body had now become his greatest burden. As long as he ran slightly slower, his two short legs would sink into the thick snow, becoming clumsy and awkward. Opening his mouth to howl, no one would imagine such a loud sound could come from such a small body.

Another breakout attempt failed. Jiang Li could only lie in the snow and roll back. He had dug a hole in the snow pile—only here could he feel a little bit of warmth. If Lü Zhu’s leg hadn’t been broken, the two of them cooperating could have gotten down the mountain somehow. Now Lü Zhu was running a high fever, her legs swollen purple and black, three ribs also broken. She couldn’t even move—how could they escape with their lives?

Previously he thought he had victory in his grasp. Who could have anticipated that in an instant the roles of host and guest would reverse, and he would walk into a dead end in confusion? His stomach felt like it was on fire. Jiang Li grabbed a handful of snow and stuffed it in his mouth, wanting to extinguish the hunger fire. After the snow water entered his stomach, the feeling of hunger became even stronger.

Scraping away ice and snow, he finally found a few pine nuts. The last meal was when he caught a squirrel hibernating in a tree hollow for winter. Two people relying on one squirrel’s stored food was insufficient no matter what.

Drilling into the hole, Jiang Li cracked open the pine nuts, extracted the kernels, and fed them to Lü Zhu’s mouth. The taste of food made Lü Zhu automatically open her mouth. Only six pine nuts—what good was opening her mouth wide?

Lü Zhu woke up, looking viciously at Jiang Li and saying: “I’m still very hungry. Feed me a little more.” Jiang Li shook his head: “There isn’t any more. Not a bit left.”

Lü Zhu with difficulty turned her head away, facing the snow wall without speaking. At this time, where was there half a trace of beauty’s bearing in Lü Zhu? Her tender cheeks were covered in frostbite. The toes exposed outside her skirt had already turned black. If Yun Ye were here, he would immediately suggest Lü Zhu cut off her feet. Otherwise, after the cold qi invaded her blood vessels, there would definitely be mortal danger.

“Ah Zhu, you lie down. I’ll go find food right now. The weather has cleared now. Outside, eagles might fly by. I’ll use stones to hit them. I’ll hit eagles and bring them back for you to eat—roasted.”

Jiang Li gently comforted Lü Zhu, covered her with the tattered felt, thought about it, then took off his own fur coat to cover her with it, and tiptoed out of the hole.

Now even wanting a drink of hot water was an extravagant hope. Jiang Li, having exited the hole, curled his entire body into a ball, raised his head to watch eagles continuously circling in the sky, and flung out a stone. As a result, the stone dropped halfway. The eagles flew too high. The dazzling white snow hurt his eyes. Jiang Li, who had always lived in Jiangnan, had never encountered such a situation before. Sometimes his two eyes couldn’t see anything at all.

Helplessly lying in the snow, he prepared to rest a bit. Raising his eyes to look at the blue sky, his eyes felt more comfortable. The eagle’s circling shrunk, and its body seemed to grow larger. Jiang Li squinted—this wasn’t an illusion. The eagle was flying lower. Perhaps it had discovered prey?

Jiang Li looked left and right. Except for himself, he discovered no living creatures. Could it be that I’m the prey?

He simply relaxed his body. Black clothing in the snow appeared so clear. The eagle flew over Jiang Li’s body—once, then again. The cold wind on the mountaintop was about to freeze Jiang Li stiff. He didn’t care about his left hand, only tucking his right hand in his bosom, pressing it against his chest to warm it. In a moment, this hand would need to give the eagle a fatal strike.

The eagle finally landed, but very cautiously. It approached a few steps, then retreated. Yellow-brown eyeballs were full of doubt. Seeing other eagles in the sky about to land, in order to eat an extra bite of food, the eagle suddenly jumped onto Jiang Li’s body. Thick, powerful claws embedded deeply into his shoulder. The long beak struck lightning-fast toward his eyes. Jiang Li’s head turned aside, and the knife in his right hand thrust deeply into the eagle’s belly.

The eagle shrieked miserably and spread its wings, planning to escape. Huge wings stirred up a gale. Snow particles struck Jiang Li’s face painfully. That pair of claws embedded in his body nearly lifted him off the ground in flight. Jiang Li closed his eyes and viciously twisted the knife in the eagle’s belly. The sharp knife immediately cut down the eagle’s internal organs, dropping all over Jiang Li’s face. The eagle feebly flapped its wings twice, then didn’t move. Jiang Li was very happy. He removed the eagle’s claws from his shoulder. Too busy to bandage himself—with this eagle, Lü Zhu wouldn’t need to worry about food for four or five days. Endure a few more days. When that snow hardened, he could take Lü Zhu and leave, go directly back to Jiangnan. He wouldn’t stay in this ghost place even one extra day.

The divine beings were originally a muddled account. No need to stake his old life on winning an argument. Yun Ye wasn’t an easy person to deal with—these past days he’d seen it clearly. That old man who looked like an old woman was extremely terrifying. The thunder in Yun Ye’s palm that he flung out on the mountain was also very frightening. It wasn’t something he and his wife could handle. Going home early was proper. If luck was good and Lü Zhu could become pregnant, who would still care about entering the world or leaving it?

Drilling into the hole, Jiang Li dragged the eagle to Lü Zhu’s side. Taking advantage of the eagle’s body still being warm, he cut open the throat and squeezed the warm eagle blood bit by bit into Lü Zhu’s mouth. Watching Lü Zhu’s greedy swallowing, Jiang Li was extremely happy. As long as she could swallow, that was good. Endure another four or five days and they could escape with their lives.

Jiang Li cheerfully plucked the eagle’s feathers. In this busy interval, he even wove a crown of eagle feathers for Lü Zhu. After plucking all the feathers clean, he carefully lit a fire. Today clouds and mist shrouded the area—people at the mountain base couldn’t see the mountaintop activity, so lighting a fire in broad daylight also didn’t matter.

Watching the flames lick the chunks of meat, Jiang Li’s Adam’s apple moved up and down rapidly. After all, they hadn’t eaten for four days—no one could stand it. Lü Zhu also didn’t speak. Her eyes stared blankly at the eagle meat, saliva continuously flowing. Jiang Li lovingly helped her wipe her mouth, but was batted away by her arm. She stared fixedly at the meat chunks.

Afraid Lü Zhu would burn herself, Jiang Li tore off a small piece of meat, blew it cool, and fed it to Lü Zhu. Lü Zhu ate very quickly. Before long, she had eaten down a small half of the eagle. Jiang Li then put the eagle away, hanging it on the snow wall. The rest had to be eaten over four days—they couldn’t finish it in one meal.

Watching Jiang Li pick up eagle bones from the ground and chew them with effort, Lü Zhu said loudly: “I still want to eat! I’m hungry!”

Jiang Li with difficulty chewed and swallowed a small piece of bone: “Ah Zhu, you can’t eat more. We still have to stay here four days. The eagles outside are staying far away. I can’t catch any more. Bear with it. After we go down the mountain, I’ll buy you your favorite jujube cake. Be good and sleep. I’ll stay here with you.”

Lü Zhu turned her head away again, facing the snow wall in a daze. Jiang Li, afraid she’d freeze, added a bit of firewood to the fire pile. These days, every day running around looking for a bit of food, he’d never rested properly. Now warming by the warm fire pile, holding his knees, he fell into a deep sleep.

A drilling pain came from under his ribs. Jiang Li looked down at his ribs in shock. He only saw a knife deeply thrust into his body. The method was very familiar—stabbing upward from below the third rib would reach the heart. This was a one-strike kill technique. Those who knew how to kill this way seemed to be only himself and Lü Zhu.

“Hehehehe,” Lü Zhu laughed very happily. This damned dwarf had controlled her for ten years. Now he wouldn’t even give her a bit of eagle meat. Now she was already seriously injured—perhaps this fellow would throw her away and escape. Why didn’t cursed heaven make his leg break instead of mine? Perhaps this fellow was just waiting for her to die so he could eat her flesh. Now it’s good—I have nothing to eat, so I’ll eat you!

Jiang Li couldn’t say a word. His vision darkened in waves. Finally, he fell headfirst into the fire pile. On his face, not knowing whether it was snow water or tears, in the fire pile they made a sizzling sound and became a wisp of green smoke curling upward.

On New Year’s Eve, Wu She brought Gou Zi and Old Jiang once again to the snow pile. This time they could cross the snow pile, because that accumulated snow had become very solid, almost large chunks of ice. They estimated that Dongyang River would flood in spring—so much ice and snow was enough to melt until late spring.

The three people crossed the avalanche site with difficulty. On the mountaintop they searched for a long time before finding that snow cave. Wu She looked inside once, then pulled his head back and said to Old Jiang: “Pour some kerosene inside. Burn all this. Don’t let heaven see it, lest it add to the Marquis’s sins.”

Curious Gou Zi stuck his head in, then quickly pulled it back, lying on the snow vomiting until his gall bladder came out. Old Jiang smiled bitterly. He didn’t need to look to imagine what was inside—nothing more than cannibalism. In earlier years, if he hadn’t joined the Tang army but had joined Zhu Jue’s army instead, perhaps he too would have eaten human flesh. In the deep cold, with nothing to eat, if you don’t eat people, what do you eat? It seemed like reasonable words, but people aren’t wild beasts—it’s not calculated that way.

“Damn, that woman is really vicious. She actually ate a person until only the torso remained. Both legs are covered with teeth marks. Oh heaven, she ate it raw. Why didn’t she light a fire when there was firewood?”

“You talk too much.” Wu She heavily knocked Gou Zi’s head once. Old Jiang crawled into the cave, evenly splashed the kerosene they’d brought for warmth onto the two corpses, lit the fire, and came out.

The snow on the snow cave quickly melted, flowing away on both sides. The accumulated snow on top slowly melted, dropping onto the fire pile and raising bursts of water vapor. Thick smoke rose straight into the clouds from the ventilation opening.

Before long, the snow water finished melting, converging into a small stream carrying quite a few black chunks of flesh down toward the low point and off the cliff. Several eagles seemed to smell the scent and shot arrow-like toward the cliff bottom.

Wu She, Old Jiang, and Gou Zi had no interest in looking at that snow cave again. Without waiting for the flames to extinguish, they hurriedly went down the mountain. Tonight at home there was still a sumptuous wine feast waiting for everyone. No time to bother with those cannibalism matters.