“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.