The next moment, I suddenly raised the horse whip I’d been hiding behind my back. Like a divine weapon, it instantly lashed him to the ground.

He let out a scream and rolled on the ground, his body covered in gasoline.

I backhanded another lash, then two more… Taking advantage of his inability to resist, I grabbed the water and food.

“Bitch!” He grabbed my ankle and let out a terrifying roar. “What’s the point of you leaving? Huh!”

I backhanded another lash.

This was a real Mongolian horse whip, probably made for him by his family and treasured here. I had found it while he was away.

He was already weak, and this beating left him with torn skin and flesh. He covered his eyes, screaming continuously.

I looked at this demon who had once seemed so powerful and invincible to me, and finally laughed out loud. “Sorry to disappoint you. I never drank that cola at all.”

Years of reading people’s expressions meant I could catch every fleeting detail.

That look full of malice and excitement didn’t seem like someone anticipating Yu Shixuan’s arrival.

Besides, someone like him would never specially buy cola for me.

Unless he wanted to use cola and beer to make a distinction.

So I only pretended to drink it. In reality, I poured it all to the side—a skill practiced over years of drinking at business dinners, with sleight of hand rivaling magic tricks.

“You can die here by yourself. I’m leaving.”

I kicked him away and climbed out of the mine tunnel alone.

That Cullinan sat alone in the night.

It didn’t have a drop of gasoline left. The spare gasoline had probably been poured out by Chi Na in his madness.

So how would I get out? I didn’t know the way at all. In this no-man’s-land wilderness, it was truly pitch black where you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face.

Despair overwhelmed me. I pounded the steering wheel with my hands and feet, crying out in anguish.

Why! Why did I have to be the one to encounter this lunatic! Why, why!

Just then, I heard movement from the trunk, like some large beast.

I stopped crying and shouted sternly, “Who’s there!”

A person emerged from the back seat.

“Dongxue—” he called my name.

Someone I hadn’t seen in two years.

The person I’d liked for fourteen years.

Cheng Xia.

He lay there, disheveled, but smiling like an angel.

I was dumbfounded, not knowing for a moment what action or expression I should have.

“How are you here?”

“After I heard the news of your disappearance, I rushed over. I happened to run into his car, and before I could tell anyone, I secretly got into the trunk.”

A thousand words stuck in my throat. I wanted to say, are you stupid? You should have just called the police. What was the point of getting in yourself!

I also wanted to say, where the hell have you been these two years? Why didn’t you come see me? Just because you’re not dating means you don’t need friends anymore?

I fucking missed you so much!

But I said nothing. I threw myself into his arms and cried uncontrollably.

“It’s okay, Dongxue.” He stroked my head, comforting me again and again. “At daybreak, we need to leave here quickly.”

“Do you remember which way to go?” I asked.

“I don’t remember, but this kind of sandy ground will leave tire tracks. We’ll follow the tracks.”

“Can we make it just by walking?” I wiped away my tears.

“Let’s try. I don’t think we drove for very long. And once we reach a place with signal, we can call the police.”

He had brought his phone. I felt much more reassured.

“Right, exactly. The lamb leg he gave had a bit of warmth still, which means the nearby villages and towns aren’t as far as I thought.” I got excited, pulling at Cheng Xia. “Let’s go!”

The moon hid behind the mountains. Brilliant rays of light illuminated this desolate land.

This kind of semi-desertified land did indeed preserve some wheel ruts, though they were intermittent. We followed the tracks in a winding path away from the mining area.

However, the further down we went, the more severe the land desertification became. The tracks disappeared.

“It’s okay. We’ll go north.” Cheng Xia said, “I looked at a map. Xuelin Village is north of this mining area.”

The grassland had mostly northwestern winds. We used the places where sand accumulated to vaguely determine north, though we didn’t know if we were right.

But no matter how long we walked, the scenery before us was exactly the same—wilderness, yellow sand, scorching sun, and not a soul in sight.

Occasionally we’d encounter some dried short-flowered stipa, an extremely drought-resistant grass. Ha Rina had told me that after turning yellow in autumn, cattle and sheep loved to eat it.

We circled the area for a long time, hoping to see herders.

But there were none.

“We can’t wait any longer,” Cheng Xia said. “It will be very dangerous after nightfall. We must find a village or town during the day.”

He was still so gentle and considerate, just like before. As long as I was beside him, all my anxiety and pain would subside.

I walked step by step.

My feet burned with pain. My throat was dry and hoarse. My eyes were chased by sudden sandstorms until I couldn’t open them at all.

“What if we can’t get out?” I asked Cheng Xia.

“We will,” he said.

“But what if?”

His gaze was clear. He gripped my hand tightly. “Don’t be afraid. We’re together.”

Countless reserves of courage sprouted in my heart. I felt like I was eighteen again, that girl who ran toward him regardless of everything.

I wasn’t afraid of anything.

The sun set westward. The temperature was dropping. The most dangerous darkness was slowly approaching.

We had already drunk one bottle of water and eaten one bag of chips.

But we were still hungry and thirsty. My throat hurt so much I could barely speak. The road ahead had fallen into pitch darkness.

At this moment, Cheng Xia raised his head and said to me, “Dongxue, look.”

I looked up. Without the interference of artificial light, the starry sky was magnificently vast and beautiful.

“Like the first night I came to the grassland, I had a fever and saw the stars all turning into bicycles flying toward me…” I murmured. “I stayed up all night writing proposals, but my heart was at peace because you were beside me.”

“I’m beside you now too.”

He held me and said, “Dongxue, do you see the North Star? The direction we’re walking is correct.”

“Yeah.”

We continued walking in the darkness. Two people holding hands—the dark wilderness didn’t seem so terrifying anymore.

I don’t know how long we walked before I suddenly felt breathing behind me, along with the light, light footsteps of a wild beast…

“What’s wrong?” Cheng Xia asked.

I gripped his hand tightly. “Don’t look back.”

Ha Rina had told me that wolves would follow night travelers and, at the moment they turned their heads, bite through their throats.

I gripped the horse whip in my hand. This was my only weapon for self-defense.

“Cheng Xia.” I had to say something with my hoarse throat to divert my attention.

“Hmm?”

“You must really hate me,” I said. “I always treated you as a tool, a tool I could look at to keep moving forward. You were right—I don’t actually love you. I love my own obsession.”

Cheng Xia made an “mm” sound and moved behind me.

I forced myself to walk alongside him again. “If only you weren’t sick. Then I could pester you without any burden. But you got sick, and I can’t give you what you want.”

He said softly, “I understand. You left me for my own good.”

“You don’t understand,” I said. “Someone like me doesn’t know how to love people. I only care about survival… but sometimes that alone isn’t enough…”

Like right now—my feet had long since swollen beyond recognition. Exhaustion, breakdown, despair—the will to survive was crumbling bit by bit.

Cheng Xia held me in his arms and said, “I understand. It’s like that line from Wang Xiaobo: ‘This life and this world alone are not enough for a person. They should also possess a poetic world.'”

“Yes.”

“Don’t think about what’s behind you. Don’t think about how long the road ahead is.

Think about the sea in S City, how beautiful the waves are under the sunlight.

Think about your Wuleji Village, the round-roofed white walls, the rosy smiles on the old people’s faces.

Think about our wedding. We’ll go to Japan for our honeymoon, watch the fireworks festival. Our children will learn English from a young age. Wait, why should they learn English from a young age?”

I laughed. “Because I think that sounds sophisticated.”

There were still so many, so many more days to come.

I had to keep walking until I couldn’t walk anymore.

Walk and walk, until the night was exhausted, the wolves hidden, and the sun illuminated the earth once more.

The scorching midday sun baked every inch of skin. I fell to the ground, then struggled to get up again.

“Dongxue!”

A voice like a tolling bell, accompanied by the sound of police sirens.

I raised my eyes and saw Ba Te running toward me like a madman, police officers following behind.

“Patient’s breathing is rapid, blood oxygen concentration too low. Resuscitate immediately.”

I lay face-up on the stretcher, gasping for breath. Countless hands were busy working on my body.

I pointed behind me. “Cheng Xia…”

“It’s just you alone!” Ba Te said.

On the desolate grassland, there was no one—only the howling wind.

That’s right. He was studying abroad. How could he have run to the grassland, and how could he have, so coincidentally, gotten into Chi Na’s car?

The one who accompanied me through the darkness had always only been myself.