— BOOM! —

With a thunderous crash, Su Man and Lu Yuwen were hurled together into the landscaping strip. The branches and leaves of the shrubbery slashed at their skin, but also cushioned their bodies!

If they had struck a wall or a utility pole at that moment, a couple of broken ribs would have counted as a minor injury!

Even so, the force of the impact left Lu Yuwen dazed and spinning, head reeling!

Su Man’s constitution was far stronger than Lu Yuwen’s. She recovered almost immediately, pulled him upright, and half-dragged, half-hauled him away from the landscaping strip.

A floor-to-ceiling glass window from a building along the road was teetering — and after they cleared the area, it came crashing down! Shattered to pieces!

Su Man carried Lu Yuwen and kept running, until she reached an open stretch of grassland, and only when she was certain there were no dangerous falling objects nearby did she set him down.

“Hey! Hey?!…” Su Man patted his cheek. “Lu Yuwen! Are you all right?!”

Lu Yuwen’s head was foggy. He heard Su Man’s voice, forced his eyes open with effort, and asked: “…How do you know my name?”

“I heard them call you that.” Su Man explained, and reached out to press on his chest and arms.

Lu Yuwen asked weakly: “What are you doing touching me like that…”

Su Man’s tone was matter-of-fact: “I’m checking whether anything is broken.”

“…” Lu Yuwen lay on the ground barely breathing, “Nothing’s broken, but you’re about to break something yourself with all that pressing.”

Su Man quickly withdrew her hands, and asked with concern: “Does it hurt badly? Where does it hurt? I have wound medicine with me — I can put some on you.”

Lu Yuwen waved her off. “Let’s get away from here first.”

Su Man looked around, nodded firmly: “You’re right — this place is strange. Let’s go.”

And she moved to scoop Lu Yuwen up again.

Lu Yuwen, seeing her coming, hurriedly grabbed her arm: “Wait — wait a moment! I’m too heavy for this — it’s not appropriate…”

“There’s nothing inappropriate about it.” Su Man said flatly. “I have plenty of strength — you don’t need to worry about being dropped!”

Lu Yuwen thought to himself: I’ve witnessed your strength already, but that’s not the point!

He fell back to a compromise: “Could you carry me on your back instead?”

“Fine, I suppose.” Su Man frowned, positioned his arm over her shoulder, and said with mild displeasure: “I’m not even embarrassed, and you’re the one acting like some delicate thing that can’t be touched — right now the most important thing is getting out of here. What’s the difference between being carried and being on my back? You’re being ridiculous for whose benefit, exactly?”

Lu Yuwen’s mouth twitched. He had no desire to argue with her. “…Mm, you’re right.”

Su Man hoisted him onto her back and walked forward.

After a while, something felt off — she couldn’t quite put her finger on what.

Then it came to her. Whenever she talked with Li Li, out of every ten things she said, eight would be thrown back in her face. Over time she’d grown accustomed to speaking in a blunt, direct fashion with her edges showing.

To suddenly be agreed with felt strangely unfamiliar.

In all honesty, she understood — men did need to protect their dignity, and being carried by a woman really didn’t look good on them no matter how you looked at it.

Su Man was thinking about how to say something to soften the awkwardness — after all, she’d still need this man’s help to get out of the labyrinth…

“What’s your name?” the man on her back spoke first.

“Su Man.” She answered. “Su as in Suzhou, Man as in mancao — creeping grass.”

“A good name.” Lu Yuwen said. “It makes me think of the Book of Songs — In the wild, the creeping grass grows, the dew pearls gleam in the morning; there is one of surpassing beauty, with clear bright eyes and gentle grace.”

There were a few more lines, but saying them out loud would be too suggestive, so Lu Yuwen left them unspoken.

The two of them had just met, after all — better to open a topic of conversation first, and let things develop from there.

Su Man appeared not to have caught the reference. She replied plainly: “Is that so? I’ve always thought my name was rather plain — growing up I was always running into other girls with the same name. Zhang Man, Li Man, He Man… so eventually I added the grass radical on top.”

Lu Yuwen: “…I see.”

He felt, suddenly, as though the conversation had been completely buried alive.

—