Volume 11: The Lingering Warmth of Melting Snow
Chapter 6: The Butterfly and the Moth (Part 3)
If they were to die for love, he wouldn’t choose Zhu Xi. He wouldn’t choose Baili either, because Baili deserved to live in a brilliant and bright world; she hadn’t experienced nearly enough of the world’s beauty. He wouldn’t choose his sister; his sister had her own dreams and could continue forward without him, Lu Li. Perhaps he would only choose Hupo, to start another adventure with her. But if he could really choose, he would hope that no one would die. Zhu Xi shouldn’t die either; she had such a beautiful face, it would be a pity for her to die.
Lu Li’s thoughts ran wild. The back of his hand was dug into by Zhu Xi’s fingernails, and it seemed to have broken the skin and started bleeding, but his hand was already so frozen that he couldn’t feel anything. Who knew how bad the injury was?
“Hold on tight! We’re going back inside!” At this point, there was nowhere else to go. Perhaps shrinking back into that room that was about to collapse and waiting for fate’s judgment was the only choice.
Zhu Xi gritted her teeth and shouted, “We can’t go back! This place is going to collapse! Go that way!”
“Which way?”
Creak, creak. The sound of metal twisting was so piercing that it briefly drowned out the howling of the wind and snow. Zhu Xi was finally able to get her footing again, because this rest station was following the same disastrous path as the warehouse.
“Jump with me!” Zhu Xi shouted.
She’s mad! Jump where?!
Zhu Xi pulled his hand, her throat a little hoarse. “You, with the surname Lu, if you want to live, listen to me! Rolling down from that slope has a much greater chance of survival than falling straight down!”
Perhaps Lu Li’s unwavering attitude had moved her, and she was willing to say a few more words to him. Zhu Xi grabbed Lu Li by the collar and said quite fiercely, “At a time like this, you can’t give up even a sliver of a chance to live!”
Lu Li nodded, no more nonsense, and went with Zhu Xi to the edge of the railing, which was now almost perpendicular to the ground. There was no time to count down from three. The two of them just met each other’s eyes, then took a leap of faith, entrusting their lives to fate. Lu Li felt his body float in mid-air, with no support. An inexplicable panic filled his heart. Zhu Xi’s figure was swallowed by the wind and snow, and he couldn’t see where she was falling at all.
A pain shot through his waist. It turned out he had hit the side of the mountain. He gritted his teeth, trying to grab onto a protruding rock, but all he got was a handful of icy, slippery snow. His whole body slid uncontrollably down the slope toward the dense forest in the valley. Pain, cold, numbness—all sorts of terrible feelings attacked him. Lu Li curled up his body, using his last bit of strength to protect his head. As long as my head is fine, the worst that can happen is just being a vegetable… he thought.
…
The violent storm came suddenly and left just as suddenly. For the people of Beijiang, a blizzard of this intensity was also considered rare. The sky was still gloomy, but the howling wind and snow gradually subsided. Lu Li lay in the thick snow, having slept in a human-shaped nest. He stared blankly at the gradually setting sun on the horizon. He wondered what An Baili was doing at this moment. She was probably about to cry from anxiety. He hoped she wouldn’t call home; it wouldn’t be good if his sister found out. He didn’t want to make the girls sad; after all, he wasn’t dead yet.
His whole body was sore, his limbs as stiff as a robot that hadn’t been oiled in hundreds of years. He struggled to get up from the snow, his bones creaking. He leaned against a fir tree as thick as a thigh and shakily fumbled for his phone. His fingers were red and frozen, already a little clumsy. Even unbuttoning was not easy.
His phone…
His phone was gone. Perhaps it was lost during the fall. He let out a breath and looked at a pile of ruins not far away. That was the collapsed rest area building. He was lucky, in a way. He hadn’t hit any sharp rocks or debris from the ruins during the fall. Besides being sore all over, he was generally fine.
If it had been his old man’s body from his past life, it would have probably fallen apart by now.
“Zhu Xi, are you there?” He couldn’t be bothered to call her Your Royal Highness anymore. “Your Royal Highness” had four syllables, and it was a strain to shout.
Before he fell, he had seen Zhu Xi slide off in another direction. He wondered if that woman was still alive.
“…Surname Lu…” He unexpectedly got a response. Lu Li followed the faint voice forward and indeed saw Zhu Xi among a pile of broken wood. She was lying on the ground, her left leg pinned by a broken tree of no particular thickness. Fortunately, there was no bleeding. Or perhaps there was, and the wound had just been frozen in the cold wind.
“Good luck,” Lu Li forced a smile. “At least we’re not dead yet.”
“I think my leg is broken.” Zhu Xi was panting as she spoke, and the down from her jacket was leaking out everywhere.
Lu Li pushed away the broken wood with difficulty and extended a hand to this infamous poison princess. “Can you still walk? The sun is about to set. If the temperature drops any further, we’ll freeze to death. We need to go to the ruins of the rest station to get through the night.”
Zhu Xi hesitated for a moment, then took Lu Li’s hand and, with his help, struggled to her feet.
Lu Li supported Zhu Xi, pressing closely against the princess’s body. He didn’t feel anything romantic, only that Zhu Xi’s chest was a bit hard. He looked down at Zhu Xi’s left leg. Her cotton pants were torn with a large hole. The wound seemed to be frozen. They needed to find a warm place as soon as possible, or the muscles would die and Zhu Xi would have to be a cripple.
Zhu Xi didn’t seem to care about her own left leg at all. “Is your phone still there?”
“It’s gone.”
“Mine too.”
The tragic situation made the two of them speak much less. They supported each other to the ruins and rested for the time being in a “house” that was leaking wind from all sides. Lu Li rummaged through the ruins and only found two frozen bottles of water and a bag of crushed chocolate. When he returned to the small, broken house, he saw that Zhu Xi had already started a fire with some broken wooden boards. The firelight reflected on Zhu Xi’s face, making her look particularly pale.
Lu Li sat by the fire. He was a little worried that this flickering fire would be blown out by the cold wind. “How did you start the fire? By drilling wood?”
“I smoke,” Zhu Xi said flatly. “Can you please not use your sense of humor at an inappropriate time? I can’t laugh at all in this situation.”
“The more this is the case, the more positive your mindset needs to be.” Lu Li placed the ice water by the fire, watching the fine droplets of water appear on the plastic bottle. “Besides, you are a princess. If you have an accident, someone will surely be searching for you day and night.”
“Starting tomorrow, it will be a super blizzard for the next week. That is to say, if we don’t get out of trouble today, we probably won’t see a rescue team for the next week.” Zhu Xi’s tone sounded a little annoyed. “This has nothing to do with whether I’m a princess or not. The blizzard doesn’t have to bow to the emperor.”
Lu Li stood up and walked outside.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m going to find my phone,” Lu Li said. “I want to talk to An Baili.”
Zhu Xi gave a cold laugh. “In this place, besides me, you won’t find anyone else to talk to.”
Lu Li regretted not telling An Baili “I love you” one more time before he left today.
