Yu Lingxi was awakened by the damp, cold wind.

Her entire body ached. She unconsciously shifted her position, immediately hearing the sound of pebbles tumbling down into the ravine.

Yu Lingxi became fully alert, holding her breath and remaining completely still.

This was a ledge on the middle section of a cliff, no more than four feet wide and half a zhang long, forming a small protruding platform. Above, a half-arch-shaped old pine tree extended outward, its dense foliage blocking the view upward. She couldn’t tell how far they were from the forest at the top of the cliff…

Below was a foggy abyss with no visible bottom. One misstep would certainly result in being smashed to pieces.

Turning her head, she saw Ning Yin lying unconscious beside her, his eyes tightly shut.

Yu Lingxi remembered now. When she fell from the cliff, Ning Yin pursued her, diving to grab her as she tumbled from horseback over the precipice.

He hadn’t uttered a word, just firmly gripped her wrist while his other hand continuously grasped at the jagged rocks protruding from the cliff face, leaving a trail of blood.

Finally, he had climbed onto that twisted mountain pine, slowing their descent.

Before his strength was completely exhausted, he had forcefully thrown both himself and Yu Lingxi onto this platform that barely had room for them.

He was still unconscious, lying face down, with half his legs dangling off the edge of the stone platform. His disheveled cloak fluttered loudly in the mountain wind, in constant danger of falling off.

Without hesitation, Yu Lingxi quickly knelt, leaned forward, and used all her strength to drag the lean but heavy young man up, moving him closer to the cliff wall.

After turning Ning Yin’s body over, Yu Lingxi discovered small wounds on his brow and that his left hand’s five fingers were a bloody mess, presumably scraped while seeking handholds during their fall.

Ever since meeting Ning Yin, he had been getting injured.

Even with her intervention in this life, he was still constantly getting hurt. In her previous life when no one looked after him, who knew what kind of existence he had endured?

Yu Lingxi felt the hardest part of her heart softening, melting, and ultimately flooding over.

Her eyes slightly reddened as she used her cold fingertips to gently pat Ning Yin’s cheeks, calling hoarsely, “Hey, wake up…”

As soon as her fingertips touched his cheek, Ning Yin’s eyes shot open. His eyes were like those of a wild beast, wintry and desolate, pitch-black and reflecting no light.

In just an instant, those emotionless, apathetic eyes gradually focused, settling on Yu Lingxi’s frost-pale face.

“Young Miss,” he called, then sat up.

Yu Lingxi saw that his left arm was twisted backward in an unnatural position, while his palm was covered with countless abrasions, bleeding profusely.

Her eyes darkened as she murmured, “Your hand…”

Ning Yin’s gaze followed Yu Lingxi’s to his limply hanging left arm, then he flashed a carefree smile: “It’s nothing, just a broken arm.”

Just a broken arm?

Yu Lingxi felt a lump in her throat and said with a trembling voice, “You little madman, do you even understand what situation you’re in?”

Expressionless, Ning Yin placed his hand on his left shoulder joint and forcefully pushed.

With a chilling crack, the dislocated joint was set back in place, as if his body were a disassemblable wooden doll.

“You…”

Yu Lingxi was momentarily speechless. The cold, expressionless eyes of the young man before her, seemingly without pain sensation, resembled his appearance in his previous life.

But Yu Lingxi felt no fear; rather, she experienced an indescribable sense of sorrow.

Ning Yin tried moving his left arm and, seeing it was barely functional, looked around and said, “Young Miss, we’re stranded in the middle of a cliff, about twenty zhang from the ground, with no shelter from wind or cold, no water, and no food…”

He looked at Yu Lingxi. “An ordinary person would die in three days.”

When he spoke of “death,” his tone was without the slightest ripple or fear, almost numb.

Yu Lingxi felt another pang in her heart as she curled up against the rugged stone wall, softly responding with an “Mm.”

Ning Yin glanced at her.

The delicate girl’s body trembled constantly from the cold wind, but her eyes remained calm—fragile and beautiful, yet resilient.

A flicker of interest appeared in his eyes as he sat beside her against the rock wall, bending one leg to ask, “Isn’t the Young Miss afraid?”

Yu Lingxi thought to herself that thanks to him, she had experienced far worse scenarios in her previous life. The current danger truly wasn’t much in comparison.

“Don’t be afraid.”

Burying her pale lips in the crook of her arm, she still had the presence of mind to comfort Ning Yin: “Elder Sister and Brother Cen will come to rescue us.”

Upon hearing Xue Cen’s name, the shadows in Ning Yin’s eyes spread like ink.

That man was truly troublesome and superfluous.

“You shouldn’t be trapped here with me.”

As he was thinking this, the girl’s soft, husky voice came again: “While the cliff face is still dry before it rains, if you can climb up, you should go. After finding help, come back for me.”

Although his arm was injured, she knew Ning Yin’s arm strength had always been astonishing. If he took the gamble, he might survive.

Hearing this, Ning Yin’s finger-rubbing motion paused.

This stone platform was only about ten zhangs from the top of the cliff. With his abilities, he could indeed climb up and escape danger. But if he did that, everything he had done would lose its meaning.

Since he had abandoned Ning Ziluo as a target and chosen her, he wanted to maximize the benefits of his decision. An exceptional predator would never release prey already in its jaws.

When he looked up again, Ning Yin had replaced his expression with a clean smile.

He unfastened the red cotton cloak from his body, raised his uninjured right hand to dust it off, and then gently wrapped the cloak around Yu Lingxi.

“I am injured, so I’ll stay by Young Miss’s side and go nowhere.”

He leaned closer, his black pupils reflecting Yu Lingxi’s surprised expression. “As long as I can be by Young Miss’s side, there is nothing to fear.”

The biting wind rolled past, blowing away the dust of memories.

In her previous life, when Ning Yin’s leg condition acted up, he would hold her tightly like this, almost suffocating her.

When it became truly unbearable, she would make small movements to adjust her breathing.

But no matter how slow and gentle she made her movements, Ning Yin would awaken with a pale face and coldly say, “Choose one: broken limbs or staying still.”

So Yu Lingxi would not dare move.

Ning Yin would suddenly burst into laughter, his arm nearly breaking her waist, saying with morbid madness: “Stay by this Prince’s side, you may go nowhere.”

The cold, dark eyes from her memory seemed to overlap with the present, gradually becoming clearer.

Regardless of whether his words were true or false, Yu Lingxi surrendered.

She carried too many flaws and too much history and no longer had the strength to argue or calculate. She silently divided the large cloak in half and covered Ning Yin’s shoulders.

They huddled in that tiny space in the middle of the cliff, like two separated birds in distress, trembling and clinging to each other for warmth before the storm arrived.

Night descended like a beast, and Yu Lingxi waited not for rescuers but for a downpour that made their bad situation worse.

The cliff was pitch-black and deathly quiet, with cold raindrops densely hammering down on them. A single-soaked, sticky cloak could hardly keep them warm.

Yu Lingxi felt wetness and cold permeating her bones and deliriously developed a high fever.

Her breath was scalding, but her body grew increasingly heavy and cold.

She no longer had the strength to distinguish whether the person beside her was Ning Yin or someone else. Instinctively seeking warmth, she burrowed into his embrace.

Yu Lingxi didn’t know when the night rain stopped. She was cold, hungry, and feverish; she quickly lost consciousness.

She felt as if her body had fallen into an ice cellar, then like it was being fried in oil. Her throat was dry and painful.

As a thin line of dawn appeared on the horizon, Ning Yin, with one hand cushioning his head, was calculating his next move with closed eyes when he heard the feverish girl in his arms open her cherry lips and mutter something with a sobbing tone.

Bringing his ear closer, he heard her repeatedly murmuring: “Wang Ye, I’m thirsty…”

Ning Yin’s eyelashes twitched slightly, his pupils instantly flashing with the piercing coldness of the night, as he asked hoarsely, “Which Wang Ye?”

Bringing his ear even closer, Yu Lingxi had clenched her teeth tightly and could no longer utter a sound.

That “Wang Ye” seemed to be merely an illusion brought by the whimpering wind.

Ning Yin pondered. Currently, there weren’t many imperial relatives in court with titles of Qin Wang or Jun Wang. The only one connected to Yu Lingxi was Ning Ziluo, the young Jun Wang of Nanyang, whom she had met at the hunting grounds these past days.

As he was leisurely speculating, he felt a weight on his shoulder. Yu Lingxi’s head drooped, and she lost consciousness completely.

With her inherent illness, no water or food, and exposure to wind and rain, she might not survive.

After a moment’s thought, Ning Yin’s fingers moved, sliding out a short blade hidden in his wristguard.

The light reflecting off the blade into his smiling eyes was terrifyingly cold.

…

In the dense forest at the base of the cliff, dozens of people carried torches, searching along muddy mountain paths.

Yu Xinyi’s face was covered in mud stains, her voice hoarse from shouting, but she still couldn’t find her sister.

Their horses had stopped at the edge of the cliff, but the people had vanished as if into thin air. They had searched everywhere, above and below the cliff, but couldn’t find anyone.

Her sister was frail, and with the heavy rain, how could she endure this day and night?

At this thought, Yu Xinyi clenched her fist and struck a nearby tree, shaking the trunk until it trembled, her eyes full of self-blame.

Xue Cen’s eyes were also bloodshot, his clear voice turned hoarse from the night’s labor: “Miss Yu, don’t be anxious. No news is the best news right now.”

A Xue household servant approached with a torch, lowering his voice: “Young Master, we’ve searched this entire valley. The cliff is dozens of zhang high; could the Second Young Miss have already…”

Before he could finish, Xue Cen interrupted sternly: “She will be fine! If anyone else speaks nonsense, they’ll be dealt with on the spot!”

Normally gentle, this was the first time he had shown such anger. The Xue household servants were all frightened into kneeling, hurriedly acknowledging his orders.

A faint white line appeared on the horizon. The wind had stopped, and accumulated rain dripped from the leaves in the forest, falling onto Xue Cen’s forehead.

He raised his hand to catch that coolness, his gaze following the direction of the rainwater upward, further upward, finally fixing on the misty cliff face above.

Yu Xinyi followed his gaze and immediately understood, a flash of brightness crossing her eyes: “There’s one place we haven’t searched.”

Up on the cliff, the stone platform.

Yu Lingxi was thirsty and hungry, feverish to the point her mouth and tongue were dry. In her hazy state, she sensed something warm gradually moistening her lips.

She wanted to open her mouth to receive this “sweet dew,” but her trembling jaws were tightly closed like a clamshell, with no strength to open.

The person beside her seemed to recognize this problem, and the warm nectar temporarily withdrew.

After a moment, the shadow leaned down again, and something soft and cool pressed against her dry, trembling lips. Then a warm, slippery thing pried open her teeth, feeding a warm liquid with a strong metallic taste into her mouth.

The liquid tasted terrible. Yu Lingxi instinctively frowned and wanted to struggle, but couldn’t even raise a finger.

Her eyelashes trembled, opening a slit. The dawn was dim, and in her blurry vision, she saw only Ning Yin’s handsome face extremely close to hers.

His lips were stained with a red more vibrant than his cloak, as he fed something to her mouthful by mouthful, filling her burning stomach.

The last thing Yu Lingxi remembered was his pair of emotionless, pitch-black eyes, without a trace of desire.

…

When she awoke again, Yu Lingxi was lying on a soft bed.

Opening her eyes, she saw the familiar canopy of her bedroom. The candlelight on the table was dim, and outside the window was deep night.

As soon as she sat up, she saw Hutao excitedly break the cup in her hand and run out the door joyfully announcing: “General, Madam! Young General, Young Miss! The Young Miss is awake!”

Yu Lingxi pressed her dizzy head as she rose, then licked her lips, immediately tasting a lingering indefinable sweetness and metallic tang.

It tasted like… blood.

“Suisui!”

Yu Lingxi had never seen her mother so anxious, almost stumbling as she rushed to her bedside and grabbed her hand: “My child, you’re finally awake!”

“Mother, I’m fine.”

Yu Lingxi’s mind wasn’t very clear yet, and she instinctively showed an obedient smile to reassure her: “It was just a small accident, don’t cry.”

“You still dare call it a ‘small accident’? You’ve been unconscious for a day and a night!”

Yu Xinyi’s eyes were as red as if she hadn’t slept for three days. She sat on the edge of the bed and hugged her sister tightly: “Silly girl, do you know how scared I was!”

“I’m fine, thanks to…”

Looking around, Yu Lingxi asked, “Where is the young man who saved me?”

Yu Xinyi’s expression subtly changed.

She released Yu Lingxi and cleared her throat awkwardly, “It was Xue Cen who first found you stranded in the middle of the cliff; he didn’t discover any young man.”

“How is that possible?”

Yu Lingxi clearly remembered how Ning Yin had leaped down the cliff to grab her, how he had shielded her from wind and rain on the cliff face, and even…

She pressed her lips together, looking suspiciously at Yu Xinyi: “Elder Sister, tell me the truth. What exactly happened?”

Yu Xinyi was straightforward by nature and not skilled at lying. Seeing her sister’s suspicious questioning, she stamped her foot: “Ah! Yu Huanchen, you explain!”

Since his sister had come of age, Yu Huanchen couldn’t enter the inner chambers, so he stood behind the screen.

After a long silence, he answered: “Suisui, you’re a girl, and you stayed alone with a slave for a day and a night. If word got out, it would be detrimental to you.”

“So, you chose someone with a good reputation and high family status, Xue Er-lang, to cover up this matter?”

Yu Lingxi’s breath caught as she threw off the covers and got out of bed: “Where is he?”

“Suisui, you’re still ill…”

“Where is the young man who saved me?”

A moment of silence.

Madam Yu felt sympathy and gave her son a look.

Yu Huanchen finally sighed: “By reason, if a servant ruins his master’s reputation, only his complete disappearance from this world can stop the damage. But he did save you after all, so I generously rewarded him and politely sent him away from our household…”

Before he could finish speaking, Yu Lingxi rushed out of the room.