The fight came to an abrupt halt.

Fu Miaoxue pushed her disheveled hair out of her face, looked up at the sky, and gave a heavy snort.

“If not for you, the tent would’ve been finished already! We wouldn’t have to be standing here getting rained on!” She pinned all of the blame squarely on Du Lai.

Du Lai was too exhausted to squeeze out so much as a single syllable. If not for this sudden downpour, he would have simply closed his eyes right where he stood and gone to sleep.

He had no desire to fight with Fu Miaoxue right now. He just wanted to get the tent back up as quickly as possible.

The one small comfort was that this rain, in some ways, could briefly solve the problem of fresh water.

……

The rain grew heavier and heavier. They were both soaked through quickly, and would have gotten wet even faster if not for the trees overhead providing some cover.

In the howling wind and rain, the tent was being torn to pieces. Whether it was from exhausting themselves in the fight, their rebuilding efforts couldn’t keep up with the speed of everything being blown apart.

A bolt of lightning split the sky, as if cleaving the entire world in two. Fu Miaoxue felt a chill of fear and couldn’t suppress a shudder.

Du Lai made a weak attempt to mock her. “Fu Young Mistress, afraid of thunder? Done too many shady things, and now you’re worried about getting struck by lightning?”

Fu Miaoxue shot back, “Like you’re not scared?!”

“I am.” Du Lai said sarcastically. “I’m scared of being too close to you and getting struck by it too.”

The words had barely left his mouth when a bolt of lightning hit somewhere nearby — a thunderous bang!

“Ahhhhh!!!” Fu Miaoxue shrieked in terror!

The color drained from Du Lai’s face in an instant.

The ground here was lower-lying. He hadn’t expected lightning to strike so close.

He dropped his sarcasm, frowned, and said to Fu Miaoxue, “Stop working on the tent. I don’t think this spot is safe. When I was out picking berries earlier, I spotted a cave. Let’s go shelter there.”

Fu Miaoxue had been badly frightened, and tears were spilling down her face beyond her control. “Why didn’t you say so sooner!”

Du Lai snapped back, “Say what sooner?! That place faces straight into the wind — if not for this lightning and nowhere to hide, do you think I’d want to go there?!”

He turned and headed straight into the jungle. Fu Miaoxue rushed to keep up and asked, “What about Alice?”

“Metal cage, and whoever carries it is the fool who gets struck. Leave it here — whether the thing lives or dies is up to its own luck!”

“Her name is Alice! Not whatever-you-called-her!”

“Fine by me!”

BANG!!!

Another lightning bolt came down — this one striking directly onto the half-built tent they had just left.

Both of them stared, and the chill that ran through them had nothing to do with the cold.

Neither dared to imagine what would have happened if they had finished the tent and were sheltering inside it just now.

Du Lai pushed his exhausted body onward at a hard pace. Fu Miaoxue, tears blurring her vision, yanked open the cage and freed the little monkey, then ran to catch up with Du Lai, not daring to pause for even a moment.

Perhaps driven by sheer desperate survival instinct, they reached what Du Lai had called a “cave” in very little time.

Fu Miaoxue felt this could not really be called a “cave” at all.

Compared to a proper cave, it was far too shallow and too short — it was just a large boulder, with the top edge of the rock happening to overhang slightly, like a bit of extra eave, which had created the illusion of a cave opening.

“This is fine for sun or rain, but there’s no way we can actually live here!” Fu Miaoxue complained. “The wind is blowing straight into my face! If we stay like this all night, we’ll both end up with a stroke!”

There was no response from behind her.

Fu Miaoxue assumed he was still angry and turned to look — and then she saw that Du Lai had already lain down.

He was curled on his side, eyes tightly shut, face flushed with an unnatural red — he looked unbearably weak.

Fu Miaoxue’s heart lurched.

She crouched beside Du Lai and carefully pressed her hand to his forehead.

It seemed even hotter than before.

“You’d better not die on me……” she said, her voice trembling. “Don’t leave me alone in this terrible place. Hey, Du Lai, wake up……”

The man on the ground did not respond.

……

—