Beneath the jutting rock, the downpour roared all around them. Wild winds swept through the branches, making them shriek and moan. Every sound was terrifying.
Yet somehow, Nan Qing still heard a heartbeat.
It thudded against him, accompanied by a tangible, dry warmth. Someone seemed to have wrapped their arms around him.
Was this a hallucination before death?
He struggled to stretch his unresponsive fingers. The fingertips resting on his face slowly slid down, and he saw Huo Yuzhou's sharp features, as calm as ever.
Only those phoenix eyes were far too red, frighteningly red.
Ever since Huo Yuzhou had grown up, Nan Qing had been afraid of him.
Perhaps it was because he knew how things would end, or perhaps it was because Huo Yuzhou was too cold, while he had too guilty a conscience.
Just like now, Nan Qing heard alarms going off inside his head. Countless nerves tore at him, urging him to leave the dangerous man before him, warning him to break free of the hallucination in front of him.
But Huo Yuzhou's embrace was simply too warm.
He had descended from the heavens like an all-powerful god, coming to this place ravaged by torrential rain and collapsing mountains, and firmly gathered him into his arms.
He could even hear the rolls of thunder on the horizon and feel Mount Pingqiao shaking beneath his feet.
Rumble after rumble proclaimed the danger, as though it would swallow all of Mount Pingqiao and carry him to his doom.
Slowly, inch by inch, Nan Qing squeezed himself into Huo Yuzhou's arms.
Like a lost fledgling clinging to the last trace of warmth in its nest, he tried to bury his head beneath nonexistent wings, imagining he could find one last bit of shelter before winter came.
His cheeks grew cold, while his eyes burned.
Nan Qing sniffled and silently swore to himself-
I'm never coming to this world again.
This horrible, godforsaken place.
The man's long, strong arms encircled him. After a rustling sound, something was pressed against his lips and slipped into his mouth.
The taste of chocolate spread across his tongue. Nan Qing's mind went blank for a moment, and he looked up at Huo Yuzhou in confusion.
This wasn't a hallucination?
Huo Yuzhou pulled an emergency blanket from his backpack and wrapped him tightly from head to toe.
After putting his backpack on, Huo Yuzhou tucked in the corners of the emergency blanket. He lowered his head and gently kissed Nan Qing's cheek, speaking to him very softly.
"It's not safe here. There's a cave nearby. We'll take shelter there first. The rescuers will be here soon."
The slender, beautiful youth looked at him in bewilderment, his palm-sized face as white as paper. He looked a little dazed.
Huo Yuzhou picked him up with the utmost care, as though handling fragile porcelain, supporting the back of his head and pressing it into his chest.
"Don't be scared anymore. Your husband is here."
"Nothing will go wrong."
His body suddenly felt weightless, and everything went dark. Only the scent of rain-soaked ebony and agarwood lingered around his nose, invading his every breath and seeping down his windpipe into his lungs.
It was like so many nights years ago, when Huo Yuzhou, who was sponsored by the Bai Family, had slept beside his bed. On countless nights when he had startled awake, Huo Yuzhou had gently gathered him into his arms.
His palm had softly patted his back as his low voice murmured,
"Young master, I'm here."
"Don't be afraid. Nothing will go wrong."
The wind howled, and the downpour battered the ground. Nan Qing heard the man's steady footsteps, accompanied by increasingly heavy breathing.
The world remained dark.
In the endless darkness, amid the storm and the trembling earth, Nan Qing slowly reached out through the edge of the emergency blanket and caught the hem of the man's clothes.
His fingertips tightened little by little.
He was still very afraid.
But his breathing gradually steadied.
Like those countless nights when they had nestled close together, he clutched that scrap of fabric tightly, like a drowning man clinging to everything he could rely on in this world.
Huo Yuzhou had that kind of magic.
Wherever he appeared, Nan Qing could always calm down quickly.
When he said not to be afraid, nothing would go wrong.
When he was set down again, they had indeed reached a cave.
The emergency blanket was opened. Fortunately, its outer layer kept out the rain, so he had not gotten any wetter.
Huo Yuzhou moved quickly but methodically as he stripped off Nan Qing's wet clothes.
From the inner layers to the outer ones, everything came off.
Nan Qing's face flushed bright red, shame washing through his muddled mind.
But he had yet to recover from the stiffness in his limbs, and Huo Yuzhou moved so quickly that he could not struggle at all.
He told himself this was no time to flatter himself. Besides, there was nothing improper about the way Huo Yuzhou looked at him.
It was as though Huo Yuzhou was a doctor and he was a patient lying on the operating table, or as though Huo Yuzhou was a butcher and he was a little pig on the chopping block.
In no time, Huo Yuzhou had stripped him completely naked, quickly wiped him down, and dressed him in clean, neat clothes.
Huo Yuzhou even thoughtfully placed heat patches between his layers of clothing, then stuffed him into a sleeping bag.
The soft fabric rested against his clean skin. Nan Qing felt rather comfortable, and even his eyelids grew heavy.
He had only just blinked when a large hand gripped his cheeks, and an open thermos was brought to his lips.
"It's a little hot. Drink slowly."
Nan Qing opened his mouth around the straw and drank in small sips.
He raised his eyes, intending to sneak a glance at Huo Yuzhou, only to meet the man's gaze head-on.
Deep, pained, dangerous, tender.
Nan Qing's lashes trembled, and he swiftly lowered his eyes.
At that moment, he suddenly did not know how to face Huo Yuzhou.
Why was Huo Yuzhou here?
Even if he had come to save someone, it should have been his white moonlight, the protagonist shou Bai Ruanruan, not a vicious cannon fodder like me who had bullied him for years.
But his eyes were wide open. There was no way he could have been so blind as to mistake me for someone else. He had even taken off my filthy, soaked clothes and changed me into clean ones.
Even if his brain had turned to mush, he should have realized by now that I wasn't Bai Ruanruan.
Besides, he had always been so smart.
Wrapped up like a silkworm, Nan Qing drank in small sips and stole another glance at Huo Yuzhou, thinking he was being discreet.
But he looked twice in a row, and Huo Yuzhou caught him both times.
His stomach was full of water, and just as Nan Qing could not drink any more, Huo Yuzhou moved the thermos away from his lips and swiftly popped a piece of candy into his mouth.
Nan Qing chewed the candy as he watched Huo Yuzhou take a lighter from an inner pocket of his backpack and deftly light a fire.
The dancing flames burned orange-red, illuminating Huo Yuzhou's sharply defined profile.
Huo Yuzhou took off his jacket and draped it over a rock, then strode back. With exceptionally gentle movements, he gathered Nan Qing into his arms and moved him to a spot neither too close to nor too far from the fire.
Huo Yuzhou stirred the fire with a branch, and the flames burned brighter.
Only after finishing all this did those long, narrow eyes turn toward him, settling steadily on his face.
"You've been looking at me for so long. What exactly do you want to ask-"
Huo Yuzhou paused, even the end of his words steeped in lingering tenderness.
"Baby?"