But at this moment she finally knew that the two of them were nothing more than a double-edged sword—while he held one end stabbing her, he too was bleeding!
She always blamed him for his contempt toward her, his coldness toward her, his distrust of her. But Yima’er, have you ever had even the slightest bit of trust in him? From beginning to end, have you ever believed in this man who tore away his dignity and pride for you, who lived and died for you?
The pain was spreading madly, but Qing Xia knew that even if she died from the pain, that man would never stand up again, never open his eyes again, never argue with her, fight with her, or curse at her again.
He was already dead, lying in the cold snow, torn to shreds, devoured by beasts, not even leaving a whole corpse!
I hate you so much—hate your arrogance and dominance, hate your selfishness and indifference, hate your suspicion, your cruelty, hate that you never told me your thoughts. But I never wanted you to die. I don’t want to see you lying there lifeless, even if you got up to scold me, even if you got up to continue fighting with me, even if you looked at me with that mocking, cold gaze. From now on, in this world, there will never again be someone willing to curse and fight with me, wrestling until our faces are red and necks are thick.
Chu Li, you said that from now on, whether in heaven or hell, I should never think of escaping from your side. But now I’m sitting right beside you—why are you lying there motionless? I thought you were strong enough, I thought you would keep your promise, I thought this evil man would shamelessly pester me for a lifetime. But now you’re lying before me like this, and I can’t even gather your remains together. I can’t even find your other hand. Chu Li, this place is so cold, everywhere is cold snow, everywhere is raging wind. How should I live on? In the days to come, carrying guilt toward you and debt to you, how should I live on?
You bastard! You madman! Why did you follow me and jump down? Why did you trap me in this desperate situation?
Piercing screams poured madly from the woman’s mouth. She held the young beast whose entire family she had just exterminated, sitting among the chaotic corpses, crying frantically.
Wild wind roared outside the cave. As if hearing things, a distant voice suddenly rang in her ears. Qing Xia suddenly raised her head. Chu Li, have you come back?
She immediately rushed to that broken corpse, at a loss about where to touch, finally embracing that long-shattered body. Tears rolled down in large drops onto the corpse as she screamed like a madwoman.
“Chu Li, have you come back? Get up! Get up!”
The snow-white young beast behind her kept biting at her clothes, whimpering in terror as if sensing some danger. But Qing Xia could no longer hear anything around her. The tremendous blow had already blurred her consciousness. She seemed to hear someone calling her name in the distant wind. Her eyes lit up as she shook that corpse desperately, shouting loudly: “Chu Li, get up!”
The dim cave entrance instantly became pitch black, as if something had blocked the weak light from outside.
“Qing Xia?” A deep voice sounded behind her in disbelief. The weeping woman was struck as if by lightning, freezing in place in disbelief.
“Qing Xia?” The voice grew louder, carrying a trace of barely concealed joy.
Like a wooden puppet, Qing Xia slowly, mechanically, with her entire body trembling, turned around.
Chu Li stood at the cave entrance in black armor, with sword-like eyebrows and starry eyes, face like polished jade, backlit like a radiant deity.
Qing Xia was almost stupefied. She looked like a nightmare at the bloody, mangled corpse in her arms, then raised her head to look at the man standing at the cave entrance, stunned speechless.
“Qing Xia!” A deep, suppressed voice immediately rang out. A fierce cold wind swept through her body as Chu Li’s arms, strong and hard, suddenly rushed forward and held Qing Xia tightly in his embrace!
“Chu Li?”
Qing Xia’s voice was so small. Her head hurt so much, as if something inside was constantly exploding. She rested her head on Chu Li’s shoulder and asked him softly, as if also asking herself.
“Am I dreaming?”
Strong winds howled, white snow flew, and heaven and earth were shrouded in darkness.
This day and night, Qing Xia was too exhausted. Like experiencing many life-and-death struggles, her heart had been worn down until it lost its vibrant beating strength. Combined with not eating for a long time and being half-frozen to death in the heavy snow, after seeing Chu Li, she cried herself unconscious.
In the spacious cave, a fire was lit. Chu Li skinned and took meat from those white young beasts outside, slowly roasting them over the fire. The aroma gradually dispersed, golden oil dripping into the fire pile drop by drop, making sizzling sounds. The cave gradually became warm. The fierce cold wind howled outside, but it couldn’t affect the two people inside at all. Chu Li turned his head to look at Qing Xia lying beside him. His cold, hard features softened slightly with emotion. Perhaps only in such a desolate, dark place with no other people could the two of them get along so peacefully.
Qing Xia had never lain so quietly by his side before. Looking at her, Chu Li felt a moment of confusion, as if the two were still in Lanting Hall, as if nothing had changed, as if she were still his consort, now taking an afternoon nap, and would accompany him for meals and chess after waking.
If only it could really be like that.
The aloof king suddenly curved the corners of his mouth in a slight smile. Such a smile hadn’t appeared on his face for a long time—it was impossible to calculate how long.
The place where he was buried by heavy snow was actually not far from Qing Xia. Qing Xia had even found his vicinity several times, ultimately missing by mere inches before leaving. In her panic, she had gone in the wrong direction and arrived here. Such massive ground collapse hadn’t buried only the two of them. Several Yan Battalion soldiers near the chasm, as well as several soldiers who had come to pull him, had all fallen together—it was just unknown where they were now. Perhaps they had already frozen to death. The corpse Qing Xia had seen in the cave was one of Chu Li’s guards. In her shock, combined with thinking only the two of them had fallen, she naturally mistook that bloody, mangled, unrecognizable broken corpse for him. For this, she had exterminated the entire family of these strange little white beasts—quite unlucky for them.
But precisely because of this, both had let down their guard. Otherwise, with the kind of hostility they’d shown above, even meeting down here, with her temperament, she would probably have started fighting immediately.
Chu Li’s mouth twitched in an understanding smile. After two years apart, her temper didn’t seem much better.
Actually, what he didn’t know was that Qing Xia only became so irritable when facing him. Like destined nemeses, she seemed to want to get angry just from seeing him.
The torch crackled and burned, suddenly sparking a flame that nearly fell on Qing Xia’s hair. Chu Li was startled and quickly tried to move Qing Xia’s long hair to another position. But his hand suddenly hurt—that white young beast suddenly jumped up from beside Qing Xia and bit down hard on his wrist.
This palm-sized young beast was smaller than an unweaned puppy, its teeth seemingly not fully grown. Biting Chu Li’s hand didn’t even cause pain. He impatiently shook his hand, flinging the young beast far away. The small white thing, plump and round, rolled several circles on the ground, dizzy and staggering. After a while, it finally steadied itself, stared with green gleaming little eyes for a moment, then ran back to Qing Xia’s front, baring its teeth and glaring at Chu Li like a guardian, trying to look fierce—it really did look like a loyal little dog.
Who would have thought that being held and cried over by Qing Xia had actually won this little thing over? Chu Li looked at it with disdain, thinking to himself: your parents, uncles, aunts, brothers, and sisters were all killed by her, yet seeing her power, you grovel and wag your tail like a lapdog—truly contemptible.
What intelligence could an animal have? But it still sensed Chu Li’s unfriendly attitude. The little white beast suddenly raised its neck and howled twice at Chu Li. Chu Li impatiently turned around abruptly and glared at it fiercely. As expected, this fellow was indeed one who bullied the weak and feared the strong. Chu Li’s glare was indeed intimidating—the little white beast immediately whimpered, quickly retracted its head, ran to Qing Xia’s side, nuzzling and burrowing into Qing Xia’s embrace. Through the gaps, it blinked cautiously at Chu Li but no longer dared make a sound.
Disturbed by the little beast’s movements, Qing Xia groggily awakened. This sleep had been very restless, with chaotic nightmares one after another, so that when she opened her eyes, she didn’t know where she was. The little white beast was the first to discover Qing Xia had awakened. It excitedly howled once and jumped to Qing Xia’s front, wagging its head and tail. Qing Xia was momentarily confused. Seeing it, her memory slowly returned. The scene before she fainted suddenly echoed in her mind. She immediately turned pale with shock and frantically looked to the side, but her gaze directly met Chu Li’s bright eyes.
So it wasn’t a dream after all.
Finally able to breathe a sigh of relief, Qing Xia slowly lowered her head, covering her chest with her hand, breathing deeply.
Just one action was enough to express a thousand words. Watching Qing Xia’s expression, for the first time in over two years, Chu Li felt a trace of warmth in his heart. His expression unchanged, he turned his head and continued roasting the prey on the rack, not knowing what to say to her for a moment. After thinking, he suddenly remembered she had injuries on her feet. Taking a deep breath, he secretly encouraged himself twice in his heart before suddenly turning his head.
“How are your injuries?”
“How are your injuries?”
Two voices rang out simultaneously, with identical words. As soon as they finished speaking, both people stared at each other somewhat foolishly, awkwardly exchanging glances before turning their heads away.