Xie Wei finally slowly released her.

Darkness was tranquil.

Only in such times when no one could see anyone clearly did someone dare peel open this normal, respectable shell to reveal the things inside that were darker than darkness itself, letting one glimpse what truly lay beneath the skin.

His hand was still clasped with hers, fingers interlaced.

Jiang Xuening said: “Go sleep for a while.”

Yet Xie Wei’s fingers moved bit by bit to her wrist, touching that shallow scar that no longer had much of a trace left, lowering his eyes to gently caress it.

He said: “I thought you didn’t care about it.”

Jiang Xuening stood up and added kindling to the nearly extinguished fire pile. She didn’t care whether there would be enough tomorrow, only watching as the slowly rising flames illuminated this dim, cold, and lonely cave. Only then did her heart gradually regain calm.

Without turning her head, she said: “Are you even worthy of dying?”

Xie Wei remained silent behind her for a long time before softly laughing: “You’re right. I’m not worthy.”

That night passed without incident.

Xie Wei truly fell asleep.

He had no dreams at all.

Yet Jiang Xuening sat by the fire pile, sitting withered through the entire night until dawn. The dry kindling burned out and slowly extinguished, leaving only some faintly red embers radiating warmth.

When she came back to her senses, Xie Wei had somehow already risen and sat across from her, calmly reminding: “It’s burned.”

Jiang Xuening looked down.

Indeed, the roebuck meat skewered on the bamboo pole had already charred in one spot, even emitting an unpleasant smell.

She said listlessly: “Eyes can’t see clearly, but the nose is quite sharp.”

Xie Wei didn’t ask how she knew, because it was truly too obvious. He only asked: “Last night, why didn’t you agree?”

Jiang Xuening sneered coldly: “Agree to die together with you?”

Xie Wei remained silent for a long while. Compared to last night, his expression seemed like a different person—high brows, straight nose, narrow eyes, thin lips—with a kind of distant openness. Without any intention of denying, he asked: “Why?”

Still asking why?

What normal person wants to die!

Jiang Xuening forcefully tore off the ruined portion, wanting to say some impolite words. But when they reached her lips, she ultimately compromised and softened.

Because she knew that last night, this person had been serious.

So she said: “I’m afraid of pain.”

Unexpectedly, Xie Wei followed up with another question: “What if it didn’t hurt?”

How could death possibly not hurt?

Jiang Xuening looked at that piece of charred meat, momentarily dazed, before looking back at Xie Wei. Rarely answering him seriously, she said: “Living, one can eat, can drink, enjoy all manner of things endlessly. Not only do I long to live, I long to live a bit longer, a bit more. Xie, sir, I’ve thought about that line you said for two years. ‘Life in this world is not free’—you were very right. I think of Her Highness, worry about Yan Lin, miss Fangying… So many people need me, like me. To make me die—I can’t bear to part with it. If I can live one day, I’ll live one day. Even without a whole day, just one hour would be joyful.”

In the past she thought Xie Wei was a saint, later she thought Xie Wei was a devil.

But actually, both were wrong.

Xie Wei was also merely flesh and blood. Just as Lu Xian had said, he was nothing more than an ordinary person struggling in this mortal purgatory, living even less well than she did.

When he said “only I can read you,” Jiang Xuening had also completely and thoroughly read him.

In her previous life, You Fangying hadn’t guessed wrong.

From beginning to end, Xie Wei, who had never acknowledged that identity, was truly the one bearing the bloodlines of both the Xiao and Yan families, blessed by heaven’s mercy, who had barely managed to survive—he was the Heir Dingfei.

No need to acknowledge ancestors and return to the clan.

No need for blood kinship and family affection.

From the moment the imperial clan and the Xiao family pushed him out as a substitute, he was Xie Wei—casting off his old name, abandoning his old surname. Never again would he have a day of peace, never sleep a good night, only bathing in the cold fire of hatred.

In a chaotic world, saints cannot survive.

Only devils can borrow the banner of ambitious heroes to wash away past grievances.

She had suffered her entire life from those two words “family affection”—how was Xie Wei any different?

So if he could understand her, she could also understand him.

Only she knew too late, while Xie Wei, perhaps many years ago when traveling to the capital with her in the same carriage and learning of her life experiences, had already seen through her completely.

Jiang Xuening felt that worldly affairs were truly somewhat wondrous. After speaking, she recalled those people who had passed through her life. Some had left her with scars, some had healed her suffering for her.

Such struggling ups and downs—this was living.

She suddenly became frank and calm, as if she had achieved complete enlightenment, and asked him: “Snow blindness? How much can you still see?”

Xie Wei didn’t speak for a long time, perhaps thinking about that phrase “can’t bear to part with it” in her words.

Jiang Xuening tore off a good piece of meat and handed it over.

Xie Wei didn’t take it. Instead, he raised his eyes and asked: “Last night when my consciousness was unclear, muddy and confused, I acted presumptuously and frivolously. You don’t seem frightened and don’t mind?”

Frightened?

A little bit.

But as for minding, she truly didn’t seem to take it so much to heart. Examining the causes, those two kisses seemed more like emotions intensified to the extreme, actually not carrying much desire or lust.

Now when she looked at him, it was as clear as looking at herself.

His form stood firm like a mountain.

Jiang Xuening gazed at him for a moment, took back the piece of meat he hadn’t accepted, bit a small piece herself, scoffed, yet rarely spoke solemnly: “Xie Ju’an, you’re not sick. You’re just mad.”

Hearing this, Xie Wei laughed.

Jiang Xuening couldn’t understand this laugh again and was too lazy to think further. She simply set the bamboo pole with the remaining bit of meat at his hand. With a small piece in her mouth, she rose and walked toward the cave entrance.

The snow had indeed stopped.

It had even melted a little.

But walking onto the snowy ground, stepping into depressions, half a calf could sink in.

Looking further toward the distant mountains, layer upon layer—even with little distance remaining, it would be very difficult for them to move forward in such conditions, crossing mountains to reach Jinan Prefecture.

However…

Jiang Xuening looked far into the distance, her gaze falling on that distant mountain.

Actually, she had been looking yesterday evening.

Only the light had been too dim then to see very clearly.

But now with daylight blazing bright, everything blurred last night became incomparably clear.

The southeast face of that mountain had hardly any snow!

At this moment it was visible to the naked eye—the dense forest on the mountainside, a swath of deep black and withered yellow…

Her heart thus beat violently once. Taking a deep breath, she didn’t even eat that piece of meat anymore. Striding back to the cave, she said decisively to Xie Wei: “We’re going back now, circling around to the back of this mountain!”

Xie Wei looked toward her following the sound.

But behind her was a vast expanse of white, making him close his eyes.

Without further explanation, Jiang Xuening had already begun gathering some things they’d left in the cave that could be taken, speaking rapidly: “I just looked—all the snow on that mountain ahead is on the northwest face. There’s no snow on the southeast! If the wind and snow came from the northwest, then the mountain slope behind our mountain also won’t have much snow! We may not necessarily escape our predicament, but at least you can see, and we won’t starve to death!”

Xie Wei sat without moving.

Jiang Xuening picked up his bow and arrows, took the water pouch. Finally looking at him, after a moment’s hesitation, she took the blade and slashed at her robe hem, tearing off a section of fine Hangzhou silk. One end she tied to Xie Wei’s wrist, the other end to her own wrist.

He found it familiar and smiled with pursed lips: “I thought you’d burned yourself silly, lost your wits, and forgotten.”

Jiang Xuening huffed softly: “Would rather not remember.”

Who would want to remember those unlucky, embarrassing, distressing affairs of the past day after day?

She said: “We’re already at the mountain’s foot. We just circle west around this mountain to the back. It shouldn’t take long. The path at the mountain’s foot is much flatter than the slope. I’ll walk in front, you walk behind.”

Xie Wei was pulled up by her.

The two had their wrists tied together, but the space between hung empty. Without making a sound, he reached forward and grasped Jiang Xuening’s hand.

Jiang Xuening: “…”

She turned to look at him, originally wanting to say a few words.

However, when her gaze shifted, she saw that as he rose, his sleeve robes fluttered and something fell from his sleeve to the ground.

So she said: “You dropped something.”

Xie Wei looked down.

Jiang Xuening thought at present he should be called “Xie Half-Blind.” Rarely showing great mercy, she bent down and picked it up for him. It was a paper packet about two inches square, with a stroke drawn in cinnabar on the outside. Inside seemed to be some powder. At first glance, it looked like medicine folded in paper packets from a medicine shop.

But the folding method didn’t quite resemble it.

The red mark drawn on it was even stranger, giving her a familiar feeling, as if she had seen it somewhere before.

Jiang Xuening frowned slightly, returned it to him, and said: “Preparing medicine even when not sick?”

Xie Wei’s fingers accepting that paper packet stiffened for an instant.

But he showed not the slightest flaw, nonchalantly tucking it back in his sleeve and saying: “Mental illness is also illness.”

Hearing this, Jiang Xuening didn’t think much of it. She wanted to break free of his hand, but feeling that their wrists were tied together and his eyes weren’t so good, in the end she didn’t let go. Instead, she openly grasped back and walked toward the cave entrance.

The position of this cave wasn’t very high to begin with.

After coming out, they walked westward, stepping deep and shallow on the piled snow. After walking only a short while, cold wind poured in through collar and sleeves, blowing until one shivered. Their shoes and boots sank deep into the snow, both feet aching terribly. Gradually, they even lost all sensation.

Jiang Xuening walked ahead with difficulty, inevitably bumping into stones and tree roots, stumbling and knocking about, at any moment taking a mouthful of snow after falling. Sometimes even Xie Wei would be pulled down by her.

Now she even hated her own name.

Shivering constantly, lips already blue, she still joked with Xie Wei: “I used to wonder—my name is Jiang Xuening. You must dislike this name, since meeting me brings nothing good.”

Xie Wei said: “I don’t dislike it.”

Jiang Xuening looked at him: “Not lying?”

Although Xie Wei was useless when it snowed, his physique was still much better than hers. Seeing she couldn’t stand steady, he could still support her with force, saying: “Your name isn’t Jiang Xue.”

Xuening.

The snow of late winter, meeting the wind of early spring—all stops, quiets, melts.

Why wouldn’t he like it?

Jiang Xuening thought about it and agreed. Catching her breath and standing steady, she continued forward, only saying: “Then by this reckoning, I should be your savior, right? Both times we met, I saved you. Without me, with your attitude…”

The Xie Wei from her previous life surfaced in her mind.

Her footsteps abruptly stopped. The scene from her previous life when she went through great trouble to find Xie Wei after the palace upheaval suddenly magnified to the extreme, freezing on the lacquered tray holding several exquisite small bowls at the corner of the imperial desk. At that time, in the tray lightly lay a paper with a stroke of red drawn on it…

She finally remembered where the familiarity came from.

The palace always had such things.

But she had never associated such things with Xie Wei.

Seeing she had stopped walking, Xie Wei also stopped: “I’m how?”

Jiang Xuening slowly turned around, looking at him with disappointed and sorrowful eyes, tightly clenching her teeth, only fearing that she herself would tremble from the cold at this moment.

She reached out her hand to him: “Give it to me.”

Xie Wei asked: “What?”

Jiang Xuening finally couldn’t hold back. Even the corners of her eyes faintly reddened as she loudly said to him: “Five-mineral powder—give it to me!”

Xie Wei truly didn’t know how she could guess.

He blinked lightly: “Ning’er, there’s something I’ve wanted to say to you for a long time.”

Jiang Xuening widened her eyes looking at him, still extending her hand.

Xie Wei helplessly sighed. In this moment, he raised his hand and struck with a palm at the space between her neck, knocking her unconscious. Only then did he say, distant as dust and smoke: “The things you roast are truly very bad.”

She almost couldn’t believe what he had done.

Her vision swayed a few times before she collapsed softly.

Xie Wei timely reached out to catch her, looking around at the vast expanse of white, only thinking: Last time she was an incompetent doctor, treating him until he couldn’t bear the smell of blood for half a year after returning to the capital. This time she was a terrible cook, making him doubt whether the meat she roasted and what he roasted were the same thing…

A delicate young lady really wasn’t much good.

He carried the five-mineral powder with him.

It was hard to say he didn’t have thoughts of trying it.

But until now he truly hadn’t tasted it.

With Ning’er’s worried appearance, it really seemed like she would immediately turn against him. Still traveling, was there no sense of priorities?

Xie Wei flipped his fingers and that paper packet containing powder spun a circle between them.

In the end, he still feared the cold.

Glancing once at Jiang Xuening in his arms, he lowered his eyelids. He didn’t seem to care about this thing as much as before. He only opened his mouth to bite a corner of the paper packet and ate it all together with the medicine powder and paper. After a while, some warmth, even heat, surged from his limbs and bones, making him feel as if the surrounding wind and snow had diminished.

So Xie Wei curved his lips in a smile, lowered his head to gently kiss her slightly furrowed brow, and only then carefully carried her on his back and walked forward.