The Heart of a Smith

They lost their backpacks, the only thing they had now were a dagger and an air gun. They didn’t have a map nor a torch, so they could only try to find the way with the vague memory they had. It was still raining heavily; their clothes were so wet that they were dripping water. Even in such a poor state, they didn’t dare rest. They couldn’t reason with nature; danger could strike at any given moment.

“We should have kept the flare with us.” SiMa JingRong said with regret.

Li Sui looked up at the rainy sky and said, “In this weather, even if we used the smoke flares, they probably won’t see us.”

The roads were harsh, as a landslide just took place, the landscapes were very different from when they first arrived. The two of them discussed for a while but still couldn’t reach a consensus.

“I remember it’s this way, there’s a tree here.”

“There’s a tree in the next crossroad, not this one.”

“No, it is this one. This crooked tree, I remember this tree.” SiMa JingRong fought back.

Li Sui wasn’t sure either, so he held up his dagger and made a mark on the tree. He said, “Let’s follow your memory first, if it doesn’t feel right, we will immediately return here.”

That was what he said, but the woods all looked the same. It was extremely dark right now, they couldn’t get their bearings at all, so they were just walking around basing on pure instinct. After walking for a while, the rain began to recede. The wild grass became thicker and taller. At a point, they found even advancing impossible.

Li Sui stopped walking, “We haven’t been here before.”

SiMa JingRong turned back and asked, “Are you sure?”

Li Sui squatted down, he dug up some soil, then he frowned, “The soil feels different, we’ve must have taken a wrong turn somewhere.”

SiMa JingRong looked at the surroundings, he sniffed his nose in the cold, “We should go back when the sky lights up. There are quite a lot of trees here, so landslides probably won’t happen here, right?”

They had been walking for the whole day, they didn’t get much rest at night either. After going through that scary ordeal, both of them were exhausted. At least SiMa JingRong slept for a few hours, Li Sui didn’t get a wink of sleep, so he was so tired that he began seeing stars. Without much thought, he agreed to SiMa JingRong’s idea.

They didn’t have any tools to start a fire, their clothes were all wet and they couldn’t dry them. The humidity in the woods were high, plus they sweated, so everything was sticky and uncomfortable.

Not only that, there were insects everywhere. The heavy rain must have scared them out from the ground. Flies and mosquitoes were nothing, the problem was ticks and leeches. There were a lot of them, and their bites hurt a lot. They would crawl into their trousers once they weren’t alert, sucking on their skin and almost impossible to get rid of.

Li Sui cut off some relatively dry grass under the tree, then he used the pieces of grass to dry the air gun. Luckily, the gun had a waterproof coating. Wang Wei probably sprayed it on beforehand, worrying that it would get humid in the woods. Now being in the wild, he finally understood what Wang Wei meant when he said, “I didn’t feel safe without a gun.” When facing the unknown, there was nothing more comforting than a weapon in hand. After making sure the gun was still functional, Li Sui used the rest of the grass to knit a few pieces of ropes. He tied the ends of his trousers up tightly with the ropes, then he leaned on the trunk of the tree to rest. He was too tired. At first, he just planned on closing his eyes to meditate, but once he closed his eyes, he fell asleep.

It was an extremely uncomfortable nap, half of him was in dreams, but half of him was awake. He kept seeing Lu Shang coming to pick him up, he would prop himself up ecstatically, but once he moved, he’d notice that it was nothing more than a dream. This repeated a few times, making his head dizzy and disoriented.

The longer he slept, the more tired he became; Li Sui opened his eyes in pain. Originally, he thought he had been asleep for a long time already, but when he looked around, everything was still dark, only the rain had stopped.

The bushes from afar had some movements, Li Sui immediately got alerted. He held the small dagger tight in his hand, then tried waking SiMa JingRong up, “Wake up.”

The latter obviously didn’t sleep well either, he woke up the second Li Sui called him. Rubbing his eyes, he asked, “What’s wrong?” Before Li Sui replied, SiMa JingRong noticed the odd movements in the bushes himself. It was as if something was nearing them at high speed.

“What is that?” SiMa JingRong mouthed the words to Li Sui.

Li Sui stared at the bushes, not answering him.

The thing in the bushes suddenly stopped moving, almost like it had felt Li Sui’s gaze.

“Is it a snake?” SiMa JingRong asked anxiously.

“Most likely.” Li Sui took in a cold breath, his grip on the dagger tightened.

The sun was rising soon, and the forest was engulfed in the morning mist, making everything hazy. Li Sui fell back a few steps with his back up against the tree. Neither side moved, as if they were gauging each other’s ability.

A gust of wind picked up in the woods, the grass rattled under the wind as an eerie sound came from the bushes. Siiii… siiii… At roughly the same time, the upper part of the snake straightened up, popping out from the bushes and sticking out its tongue.

“God! It really is a snake!” SiMa JingRong basically screamed.

“Don’t scream.” Li Sui continued after some thought, “Don’t move around, either.”

The snake wasn’t big, it was small but long, with black and brown stripes on its scales. It didn’t look especially strong. Li Sui didn’t know much about snakes, he had no idea what species the snake was, but since it is a wild snake, he presumed that it would be quite vicious. If the snake wasn’t poisonous, then Li Sui had the confidence he could take it on, but if it was a poisonous snake, then it would be a big problem. Being bitten by a poisonous snake here would mean a lot of trouble.

Li Sui felt his palm sweating; he’d stayed in the city for his entire life, so this was the first time he had to face a situation like this. He wasn’t exactly frightened, but he was still anxious. His brain was in a state of confusion, he remembered hearing people saying when faced with danger, you would get hurt the more you ran.

“What are you doing?” SiMa JingRong’s face turned white as he saw Li Sui pulled out the gun. Instinctively, he moved to stop Li Sui.

“Striking first and gaining the upper hand.” Li Sui tightened his own coat, then turned to ask SiMa JingRong, “Do you know how to shoot a gun?”

“No, no I don’t.”

“Good.” Li Sui threw him the dagger, then said, “Climb up the tree.”

“You……” Before SiMa JingRong knew what to say, Li Sui had already picked up a wooden stick and ran towards the snake.

At the same time, the snake seemed to have sensed the hostility. The snake suddenly jumped out from the bushes completely, baring its fangs. Li Sui calmed himself down, after taking a big breath, he picked up the courage to whip the snake with the stick. The hit threw the snake out a few meters, it curled up on the ground in agony.

Their target was now as clear as day, seeing that they were at an advantage here, Li Sui clumsily raised the gun up. The snake just got whipped, so it was still cowering on the ground, Li Sui took the chance to shoot at the curled-up snake. The sound of the shot echoed through the forest, but the result of the shot wasn’t satisfactory, it didn’t hit any of the snake’s vitals. The snake jumped at the sudden attack; it began retreating.

Seeing that the snake was going to run away, Li Sui screamed at the person up on the tree in a rush, “Go for the kill! Don’t let it run away!”

T/N: No offense but why? Just let it run away…

Rich boy, SiMa JingRong had never seen snakes out of the zoo, his legs were numb, and he didn’t dare jump off the tree. Seeing that the snake was running away, he just threw the dagger out, the dagger shot straight into the snake’s tail. The snake struggled for a bit, then bringing the dagger with it, it sneaked back into the bushes and got away.

They didn’t catch the snake, worse still, they lost the only other weapon besides the gun they had. Li Sui couldn’t hold back, he scolded SiMa JingRong, “How does garbage like you survive for this long?”

SiMa JingRong sat on the tree branch; with an innocent face, he said, “I have money.”

Li Sui choked.

… He couldn’t refute.

“Will it come back again?” SiMa JingRong jumped down from the tree; dusting off, he said, “Will its family gang come back for revenge or something?”

“You watch too many movies.” Li Sui tied the gun back to his legs and said, “Snakes aren’t that united, even if they are, they wouldn’t be that quick…”

Before Li Sui finished speaking, the sounds of a few snakes reached their ears. The sound came from the bushes around them.

The two of them stared at each other, both with terrified expressions. They could barely handle one snake, but now with a bunch of snakes, there was only one option left.

“Run!”

They didn’t have the leisure to care about where they were going, they just ran like their lives depended on it. At the beginning, Li Sui still remembered to check the direction, but after a while he couldn’t. The horde of snakes behind them weren’t giving up, they were fast and agile. If they accidentally tripped, then the snakes would most likely immediately swarm them. The two of them only had one goal right now, which was to get them off their tails.

As Li Sui ran, he turned his head back and took a few shots, he wasn’t sure if the snakes were hit or not, but at least it could scare them a bit. The snakes seemed to be taken aback by the shots, but quickly they regained their formation and continued the pursuit.

“Were we in a snake’s den or something?!” SiMa JingRong screamed.

When Li Sui linked this back to the landslide before, he began to have an unsettling feeling, “I think we might have already gotten out of the protected zone.”

The landslide frightened them, they forgot about one thing. If the landslide could flatten an entire forest in an instant, washing away the protective barrier would be more than easy. Before they embarked on the test, the trainer reminded them again not to go out of the protective barriers, as outside was an area of untouched, primitive woodlands. Without the protection of the barriers, the chances of them running into wildlife animals would be high. Moreover, it would be very difficult to find them, if they ventured into the wild.

“I can’t run anymore…” SiMa JingRong complained.

“We can’t stop, it’d be troublesome if we get caught.”

“I can’t. I seriously can’t…” They walked for the whole day, then they ran for their lives at night. Even Li Sui was feeling exhausted, of course SiMa JingRong would be complaining.

Li Sui clicked his tongue and turned back, he grabbed SiMa JingRong’s arm, pulling him forward, “You can’t stop. I promised your father and Lu Shang that I’d get you through this.”

The snakes were getting closer, it was as if the cold-blooded animals wouldn’t tire at all. The two of them ran around the forest, but just couldn’t seem to get them off their tails. Just when the snakes almost caught up, the path in front of them ended. Neither of them noticed in time to hit the brakes, they screamed as they fell off along with the rocks and sand.

The drop was disorientating, it was as if they were thrown into a washing machine, they felt like their organs were getting washed out from their bodies. Amongst the chaos, Li Sui tried to grab hold of the grass on the side, but he only got a handful of sand. The loose sand and soil on the slope tumbled down with them. At that moment, they could hear nothing but the wind and their screams.

After the fall, they felt their bodies sank, the two of them fell into a ditch-like place. They fell so hard that they almost spewed blood. Before they could get up and react to where they were, a bunch of rocks and sand followed after them, falling onto their heads. Li Sui raised his arm, barely managing to cover his own head up. As he moved his shoulder blades, he felt a sharp pain in his back, soon losing his consciousness.

It rained and thundered for the entire night, Lu Shang didn’t sleep well, his complexion was abnormally bad. After changing, he walked downstairs to find Uncle Yuen standing there waiting for him, his usually calm face was now buried in worriedness.

“What’s wrong?”

“There was a huge rainstorm in the Protected Woodlands.” Uncle Yuen continued with a lower voice, “A landslide.”

In Tong Yan’s conference room, assistant Yang waited a long time but still saw no signs of Lu Shang. She secretly phoned Uncle Yuen, getting the direction to cancel the meeting. She was going to ask if the signing ceremony in the afternoon was going to continue or not, but before she could ask, Uncle Yuen had already hung the phone up.

“What’s happening, what’s so important anyways…” She mumbled at the now dark mobile phone screen.

On the way to the mountain, Lu Shang for once didn’t sit at the back, instead he sat in the co-driver’s seat.

“Director Yue already informed the rescue squads; they have been launching a rescue operation for the whole night. Currently, most of the attendees were accounted for and transported to a safe location. They have sniffer dogs, so finding people shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Where is Wang Wei?”

“He’s with the younger son of the SiMa family, they are already in the shelter right now.”

Lu Shang’s face was so grim that it was almost frightening, “Tell Zuo Chao that there’s no need to use him anymore.”

Uncle Yuen froze for a bit, “Yes.”

The car drove into the countryside roads, Lu Shang scrolled the window down a bit, habitually he pressed on his chest.

Uncle Yuen frowned, “Did you bring your medicine?”

Lu Shang closed his eyes, his head leaning to the side, as if he was praying, “Don’t look at me, look at the roads.”

Uncle Yuen slowed the car down, hoping it would make Lu Shang feel better. He sighed, “Yesterday, they got word from the observatory, they predicted that it was going to rain today. The trainer was planning on pushing the exam back, but director Yue was bent on training his sons. He said a bit of rain is even better, so they didn’t stop the exam. No one would have thought that the rain was going to be so heavy.”

Lu Shang only leaned on the window with his eyes closed, not saying a word.

They drove all the way to the foot of the mountain; the roads ahead were all ward off. Uncle Yuen got out of the car to negotiate with the worker there; the latter seemed to be unwilling to let them through, “It’s not that we want to stop you, but the roads are too dangerous, they might collapse. Look. Even the rescuers’ vehicles are on standby here. If you guys really want to go up, then it’s best if you walk.”

Uncle Yuen turned back to look at Lu Shang, the two of them stared at each other, then they decided to go up the mountain on foot. The two of them walked quite slowly. On the way, they could see the terrifying scenes as a result of the landslides. Sand and mud covered the grasslands, everything was chaotic, they couldn’t even begin to imagine what it was like being here at the time.

It would have taken a car around fifth-teen minutes to get up the mountain, but it took the two of them two hours on foot. The second they got into the temporary shelter on the mountain, they saw Yue PengFei walking in circles anxiously, in his hand was a radio transceiver.

“What did you say? You didn’t find them? Keep searching, keep searching. I don’t care what method you use, even if you have to flatten the whole mountain, find them!”

He turned back and saw Lu Shang, immediately his head slumped. He walked over in a hurry, “I’m so sorry…”

“Let’s not talk about this now.” Lu Shang held his palm up, stopping him, “What’s the situation?”

“All the people were already accounted for, except for my son and Xiao Li. It was raining heavily at the time, so most of the attendees gave up and returned to the campsite. They were the only team that went to the west side of the mountain, the landslides were especially serious there. A sniffer dog found their traces at a buried cave, I sent people to excavate the place, but they only dug out two bags.”

Lu Shang felt a chill in his heart, “Are the bags theirs?”

Yue PengFei didn’t get a wink of sleep that night, so his eye bags were showing, “From preliminary analysis, yes, the bags are theirs……”

They only found their bags but didn’t find them. With the evidence they have now, either their bodies were washed off somewhere or they somehow survived. The rescuers were still searching, so even Lu Shang couldn’t come to any definitive conclusion at this point. Lu Shang’s face was extremely pale, even a stranger like Yue PengFei noticed, he asked someone to get Lu Shang some glucose tablets. Giving him the tablets, he said, “Dear, don’t worry. They are together, so they will be fine.” This was to comfort Lu Shang but at the same time comfort himself.

Lu Shang’s eyes were bleak; after a long time, he just gave a faint “Hm” as reply.

In the afternoon, the bags arrived at the shelter. Lu Shang was the first to search the bags, his expression softened a bit after the search, “Everything is here but the weapons.”

At the very least, it meant that they were alerted before the landslide. Based on Li Sui’s observation skills and how they didn’t find their bodies for so long, the chances of them surviving was higher. However, they were in the forest, and the protective barriers had long collapsed. They didn’t have food or water with them, so the longer they stay out there, the more danger they would be in.

“Uncle Yuen,” Lu Shang turned around after some thought, “contact XinYou to dispatch helicopters.”

The sky began turning dark when Li Sui finally woke up in the darkness. When he opened his eyes, he immediately felt dizzy, it was as if he was buried in kilograms of rocks and sand. He shifted his legs, realizing that half of his body was buried in mud. He coughed on the ground, spitting out the sand that got into his mouth. After that, he slowly propped himself up from the ground.

Darkness was around him, with only a few strands of light seeping in through the gaps above. It was almost completely dark outside, so this little bit of light was severely insufficient. Li Sui took in his surroundings, he was in a ditch-like place, it was around five to six meters deep, the bottom of the ditch was rough and uneven. Some parts of the ground had caved in, forming a small puddle. SiMa JingRong was lying next to the collection of water, his body curled up.

Li Sui immediately went over to check SiMa JingRong’s vitals. Luckily, he was fine and breathing steadily. Though the rocks had cut his forehead, the injury had already formed a scab. When Li Sui checked his temperature, he found it a little higher than normal, he might have gotten a fever.

Li Sui called out to SiMa JingRong, who replied drowsily. Quickly after SiMa JingRong replied, he turned to his side and continued sleeping. Well, being able to sleep at such harsh times could be counted as a blessing. It worked out for Li Sui as well, if he woke up, he would most likely complain about being hungry. Li Sui stopped trying to wake him, turning his attention to finding an exit.

Only rocks and some twigs had fallen down with them; those snakes were truly cunning, once they caught wind of the danger, they immediately dispersed.

Li Sui circled the area; there were no exits in the ditch, it was a closed circular loop. Above them, there were the two holes through which they fell in, but they were too high, so without tools, it would be impossible to climb up.

Li Sui still tried climbing, but after a meter or so of climbing, he fell back down, injuring his fingers in the process. It seemed like the only way out was if someone came for them.

After raising his head up and climbing recklessly, Li Sui felt dizzy again. He leaned on the muddy wall and slid down to the ground. His back must have been hit by the rocks; whenever he tried moving, pain came from his back. He had been through a lot of beating when he was young, so his body was accustomed to injuries—this little bit of pain was nothing. From past experiences, he knew that at most he had some broken bones, but definitely not anything too serious.

The symptoms of hypoglycemia were evident, but Li Sui didn’t feel especially hungry, he was probably overly starving that he couldn’t even feel it anymore. When he tried counting, he found that he hadn’t eaten for a whole day and night. He would never had thought that the canned meat in the cave was going to be his final meal.

The humidity inside the ditch was too high, it was very uncomfortable. Around them where they couldn’t see, there were the sounds of frogs and insects. The noises were continuous and extremely annoying. Li Sui looked at SiMa JingRong, the latter was still sound asleep, Li Sui couldn’t help but envy him. This person was so carefree, he was born and raised in a wealthy family after all, being pampered for his entire life, he never had the need for alertness.

Soon, he didn’t even have the pleasure of considering these stupid thoughts, as he was extremely thirsty. There was a puddle in the ditch, but Li Sui had no idea if he could drink the water there. At first, Li Sui didn’t dare consume the water in the puddle, but later on, he was just too thirsty. He scooped up a handful of water, sticking his tongue out for a taste, except for mud and sand, he didn’t taste anything weird in the water, so he just arched down to drink his fill.

After drinking some water, Li Sui found himself with nothing to do, so he decided to lie down and sleep as well. Though they couldn’t get out of this ditch, the things outside wouldn’t enter either. It was like a natural protective barrier, making this place a lot safer than the forest. Perhaps because he had enough water in his system, his body was finally content, plus he was exhausted, so it didn’t take him long to fall into a deep sleep.

In the morning, both of them woke up due to hunger. SiMa JingRong still had a fever, he was feeling even more dizzy than Li Sui. Once he woke up, he almost wanted to grab a handful of mud to eat.

Li Sui began to realize how this couldn’t continue. If they were healthy and unharmed, then perhaps they could hold out longer in here. However, both of them were in such bad conditions, if they didn’t get out and call help, then sooner or later, they were going to die here.

“We’ve already passed the test time limit, yet we have not returned. People are bound to come looking for us.” SiMa JingRong lay on the ground, he was so hungry that he could feel his eyeballs rolling down along with gravity.

“Hard to say,” Li Sui said. “This place is too remote. If we are lucky and they find us soon, then maybe we would be saved. However, they might not be able to find us in time. We can’t just wait for them to dig out our corpses.”

“What do you want to do then?”

For the first time, Li Sui took the military badge on his neck off. The blade rotated out from the slit, “Dig our way out.”

“Using that thing?”

“Also using my hands.”

It was simple in words, but when he actually tried, it wasn’t as easy as he had imagined. In the mud and sand were loads of rocks, every so often, Li Sui would be confronted with obstacles that he couldn’t just dig through. Every time he came across rocks, he would use the blade to pry the rock out, his hands would assist by removing the mud and sand surrounding the rock. His progress was slow, but at least after a day, he was half a meter closer to the ground.

“With your speed, I estimate that we will be able to get out of here in two weeks.” SiMa JingRong said feeling forsaken.

Li Sui had been digging for the entire day, hungry and tired. His body had long reached its limit, he leaned back on the wall and panted. Both of his hands were covered in injuries, all of his fingernails were worn down by the sand and rocks. On his hands were bleeding wounds, almost every spot was covered in blood.

The military badge was truly a work of art, after a whole day of digging, the blade was still sparkling, not dented anywhere. Li Sui held onto the knife, he etched a one on the ground, then he turned back to sleep without saying a word.

SiMa JingRong was ignored, he thought maybe Li Sui was mad, so he knowingly stopped speaking. The next day, before the sun was even up, SiMa JingRong was woken up by movements in the ditch. SiMa JingRong opened his eyes to see Li Sui repeating what he was doing yesterday, as if he was hypnotized.

“Don’t you need to rest?” SiMa JingRong said worriedly, “You will use up all your strength like this, you won’t hold out if you continue.”

Li Sui ignored him again, he just buried his head into the task at hand.

SiMa JingRong’s fever was persisting, so he had basically zero strength. Even so, seeing Li Sui work so hard in digging, he didn’t feel right doing nothing, so he joined in.

The progress in the second day was slightly faster than the last, but they were still too far from getting out. SiMa JingRong collapsed, he was lazy to begin with, plus he was sick now and didn’t want to budge at all. He just lay on the ground, his consciousness fading in and out, finally he sank into a deep unconscious state.

In the beginning, Li Sui was still quite active, but even he couldn’t hold out anymore. He hadn’t had any food for a few days, he was so hungry that he began seeing double. Findig frogs and insects, he couldn’t help but grab them and stuff them into his mouth. He didn’t even care about hygiene and potential poisons anymore. Li Sui ate every insect he could find in the ditch, then finally when all the insects were gone, he began getting ideas about the cotton shirt he was wearing.

He wasn’t sure what day it was, but the carvings on the ground showed five. On that day’s morning, Li Sui heard some movements outside. It was as if his body was electrocuted, he immediately rolled up to wake SiMa JingRong, “Wake up! Look. Helicopters, it’s helicopters, your dad has come for you.”

SiMa JingRong wasn’t conscious, he had a high fever and he was starving. His face was swollen, and hearing Li Sui’s scream, he just murmured something, not waking up.

Li Sui clicked his tongue, he climbed onto the pile of rocks and mud he dug out, trying to scream for help up there. Without food for a few days, his throat was long rusty. The propellers were too loud, Li Sui’s cry for help couldn’t possibly be heard. Li Sui could only stare at the helicopters fly across them, circling the area a few times, then leaving.

This place was too secluded. This ditch was hidden in the trees and leaves, the rescuers couldn’t possibly spot them from the helicopters. So, Li Sui must come up with a way to get out of here.

Li Sui was exhausted and gloomy before, but all of a sudden, he felt strength surge through his veins. If helicopters were dispatched to search for them, that meant Lu Shang hadn’t given up on him yet. If so, no matter what, he had to get out of here alive.

He had no idea where his strength came from, but he just started digging again. Li Sui kneeled on the little mud slope, then he dug as if his life depended on it, he used his hands, his legs, the blade, everything he could use to dig. Perhaps his will had been acknowledged by the gods. Around the evening, Li Sui stabbed the blade hard into the sand, and the rubble beyond that was loose. With just a simple nudge, the rubble collapsed, forming a path that led outside.

At that moment, Li Sui felt he could cry. He turned back to call SiMa JingRong, “Wake up, we can go out now.”

SiMa JingRong didn’t respond, his fever was even worse than before. Li Sui stopped calling him, he propped SiMa JingRong up his shoulder, climbing up the little slope with difficulty. When he finally saw the setting sun again, Li Sui’s body trembled, almost losing his balance and falling to the ground.

Li Sui took in the forest again, as expected, they had gone out of the protected zone already. This was the natural forest, no wonder the rescuers had yet to come for them. They were surrounded by trees and thick grass; let’s not even begin with average citizens, even rescuers couldn’t get in here without knives to cut the long grass with.

Li Sui knew that there was a long way ahead, he didn’t have any time to rest. He took his coat off, tying SiMa JingRong to his back, then began walking up the mountain. As the protected zone should be above the primitive forest, ascending was his best bet.

On the way, he pushed his mind to the limit, eyeing his surroundings for traces of hints, like animal footprints. He needed to avoid running into wildlife animals, so if not needed, he would avoid the rivers where animals would frequent. He would pick fruits on the way to fill his stomach and to replenish liquids.

SiMa JingRong’s condition was really bad, his body temperature would fluctuate, sometimes too low and sometimes too high, he would also mumble some words in his sleep. Li Sui grabbed some dooryard weed (i) on the way, stuffing them into SiMa JingRong’s mouth. He also used water to lower SiMa JingRong’s temperature. Luckily, his condition didn’t worsen, but he didn’t wake up either.

T/N: (i) Dooryard weeds are basically grown everywhere, they are easy enough to find. It is a kind of well-known Chinese medicinal herb with pain killing effects.

When Li Sui finally saw the collapsed protective barrier, it was already the next day’s noon. Not very far from them, someone screamed, the sound of the transceiver, footsteps, and people talking soon followed… Li Sui couldn’t hear anymore, all of his senses seemed to have gone on strike at the same time. His eyes stared forward, looking at the person who got off the helicopter in a hurry.

SiMa JingRong was taken off Li Sui’s back while he stood still at the same spot. Li Sui saw Lu Shang closing in, and he wanted to walk towards him so much, but his body just wouldn’t budge. When he tried raising his foot, he felt nothing but dizziness.

The person closing in held onto Li Sui’s collapsing body. Smelling the familiar scent, Li Sui felt the warmth of tears filling his eyes. He held Lu Shang’s hands tightly, his voice so raspy that it was barely audible, “I… did it… right…?”

After saying that, all the strength he had left him. His head leaned to the side, lying on Lu Shang’s shoulder, completely unconscious.