The cold wind was biting, and Xueya’s hands and feet were freezing. He had no idea where they were heading, and the pain in his arm combined with the sorrow in his heart made him too tired to speak.
After traveling for some time, Yi Yefeng finally stopped. He dismounted first, then helped Xueya down from the horse.
He had stopped here because he saw a wind-sheltered cave, which could serve both as a hiding place and protection from the cold.
Bringing Xueya into the cave, Yi Yefeng checked the wound that had been hastily bandaged earlier. The arrowhead was still lodged in his arm and needed to be removed.
Without much thought, Yi Yefeng started to untie Xueya’s outer robe. Startled, Xueya wanted to struggle, but stopped when the scene triggered a vague sense of familiarity.
Sure enough, Yi Yefeng was only removing his robe to tear off some of the inner clothing.
Yi Yefeng tore off a large strip of fabric, folded it into layers, and handed it to Xueya. “Bite on this.”
Xueya more or less understood what Yi Yefeng intended to do, and with trembling hands, he bit down on the cloth. When Yi Yefeng reached for the broken arrow, Xueya instinctively turned his face away.
He couldn’t bear to look.
The pain arrived as expected. In that instant, Xueya wanted to yank his arm away, but Yi Yefeng held him firmly.
“Mmm…” A muffled sound of pain escaped Xueya’s lips. In just a short time, his forehead was drenched in cold sweat. The process of treating the wound felt agonizingly prolonged, with the pain never relenting.
By the time it was over, Xueya’s lips had turned pale. He was so weak that he wanted to collapse on the ground, but Yi Yefeng pulled him up again. “Let’s go.”
“I’m not going!” Xueya knew he shouldn’t lose his temper at Yi Yefeng, but he couldn’t help it. He was in so much pain, a pain so intense it felt like it was spreading through his entire body. He didn’t know why he hurt so much.
But before long, Xueya fainted—knocked unconscious by Yi Yefeng.
When Xueya woke up again, he was on horseback, and the sky was already dark. Behind him was Yi Yefeng, who had tied the two of them together with cloth and was holding him with one arm.
“Are you hungry?” Yi Yefeng’s voice was deep.
After a moment of silence, Xueya replied, “Yes.”
Yi Yefeng said nothing more, urging the horse forward at a faster pace. After about the time it takes to burn a stick of incense, he finally stopped.
There was another cave here. Yi Yefeng had apparently stopped because he saw it. He took Xueya inside and then went out to gather a pile of dry grass.
He stacked the grass at the entrance of the cave for concealment and then started a fire.
“I’m going to see if there’s anything outside to eat. If you hear any strange noises, blow this whistle.” After starting the fire, Yi Yefeng took a small whistle from around his neck and handed it to Xueya.
Xueya silently accepted the whistle, and as soon as Yi Yefeng left, the tears he had been holding back began to fall. When Yi Yefeng returned, Xueya quickly wiped his eyes with his sleeve.
Yi Yefeng noticed the lingering tears in Xueya’s eyes but didn’t say anything. He simply started roasting a cleaned wild duck over the fire.
If it were any other day, Xueya would have been excited to have wild duck to eat, but today, he felt no appetite. His eyes were blank.
Yi Yefeng planned to rest here for about an hour before setting off again, but before long, Xueya developed a fever, making it impossible to continue the journey. If they pushed on, the cold wind might claim his life. They had to wait until his condition improved.
Knowing they didn’t have to keep moving, Xueya curled up on the dry grass. Gradually, his consciousness became hazy. It felt like he was dreaming of He Xulan—or perhaps not. It was so cold, so cold that he couldn’t stop shivering.
Suddenly, warmth enveloped him, slowly driving away the cold. In his feverish state, Xueya instinctively thought this warmth was from He Xulan.
“Brother…” Xueya murmured in his sleep.
He called out several times, but He Xulan didn’t respond. Growing anxious, he began to cry as he called out weakly, “Brother… sob… Brother…”
Finally, someone answered him, but it wasn’t He Xulan’s voice. Xueya abruptly woke up and struggled to open his eyes, only to find that the person holding him wasn’t He Xulan—it was Yi Yefeng.
In that moment, the light in Xueya’s eyes faded, like a precious jewel dulled by dust. He lowered his gaze, trying to pull away from Yi Yefeng’s embrace, but Yi Yefeng held him down.
“You have a fever. You can’t get cold.” Yi Yefeng paused for a moment. “Sleep for a while. You’ll feel better after resting.”
“I can’t sleep,” Xueya said, his heart and body both aching.
After a moment of silence, Yi Yefeng suddenly placed Xueya’s uninjured hand on his abdomen. Xueya was confused.
“You can touch it,” Yi Yefeng said stiffly.
Xueya was stunned at first, then realized Yi Yefeng was offering him the chance to feel his abdominal muscles.
“You…” Even though Xueya was usually thick-skinned, he couldn’t handle this. Flustered, he tried to pull his hand back. “Who wants to touch you? And who gave you permission to eavesdrop?”
Yi Yefeng grabbed Xueya’s hand before he could pull it away, his expression serious. “You did.”
“When did I…” Xueya’s words trailed off.
That day at the hunter’s house, he had said something to Yi Yefeng…
“…I knew you heard me. Hmph, I said it on purpose for you to hear…”
“I only meant for you to hear those words that day, not everything else!” Xueya felt Yi Yefeng could drive him crazy. He turned his face away, not wanting to deal with him anymore. But his hand was still being held. He tried to pull it back several times but couldn’t, growing even more frustrated. He turned his head to glare at Yi Yefeng.
However, his body was too weak. When he turned his head suddenly, his vision blurred, and the scolding words he had prepared lost all their force, his voice too feeble to be intimidating.
“Let go! You… you let go! Otherwise, when I see my brother, I’ll definitely have him punish you.”
Yi Yefeng looked at Xueya and slowly loosened his grip. Xueya quickly pulled his hand back, and fearing Yi Yefeng would grab it again, he deliberately tucked it under his outer robe.
After this small interruption, Xueya’s thoughts returned to He Xulan and the gold he hadn’t retrieved, and his heart began to ache once more.
As Xueya silently shed tears, Yi Yefeng suddenly spoke up.
“I once knew someone.”
Xueya ignored him.
Yi Yefeng continued, “That person was very homesick. After joining the military camp, he cried every day.”
Xueya: “?”
“Then he cried himself blind. Because he was blind, he couldn’t serve in the army anymore, so he was sent home.”
Xueya: “…”
He felt a tightness in his chest, a feeling of frustration that he couldn’t quite release. He wanted to get angry but lacked the energy to do so. Xueya began to suspect that Yi Yefeng wasn’t caring for him at all, but was trying to irritate him to death in order to seize control.
Thinking of this, Xueya closed his eyes, forcing himself to rest. He had to recover his strength so that when he met He Xulan, he could tell him all about Yi Yefeng’s behavior.
Time passed slowly. Yi Yefeng noticed that the person in his arms was breathing more steadily, and only then did his own tense body begin to relax.
The next day, Xueya still had a fever. Yi Yefeng examined Xueya’s wound and realized that his companion was too frail—completely different from himself. He decided to head into the city to find a doctor.
It was a bold decision, as one misstep could get them both captured.
Yi Yefeng watched the young man, who was using a waterskin to wash his face, for a moment before stepping forward and grabbing a handful of mud from the ground. Without warning, he smeared it across Xueya’s delicate, pale face.
As expected, Xueya immediately flared up, despite his fever making him dizzy. He tried to glare and scold Yi Yefeng, but before he could waste too much energy, Yi Yefeng interrupted.
“You need a doctor for your wound. We’re going into the city, and you can’t go in looking like this—you might be recognized.”
After saying this, Yi Yefeng’s gaze shifted to Xueya’s clothing.
The clothes were far too luxurious, not at all resembling those of a refugee.
Xueya seemed to realize what Yi Yefeng intended and tried to stand up and avoid him. However, in his feverish state, the sudden movement made him dizzy, and he collapsed back to the ground.
Before he could recover, Yi Yefeng’s hands were already on his clothing.
“Yi Yefeng, I’ll kill you!” Xueya was so furious that he nearly fainted, but that didn’t stop Yi Yefeng from smearing mud all over his body.
Xueya, who loved wealth, beauty, and cleanliness, found all of this destroyed by Yi Yefeng in less than two days.
“Everyone who’s wanted to kill me has ended up dead,” Yi Yefeng said, his expression unchanged. “If you want to try, I’ll even only use one hand.”
Xueya was brought to tears from anger, but when he met Yi Yefeng’s gaze, he suddenly remembered the story of the man who cried himself blind. The tears welled up in his eyes but didn’t fall.
Seeing Xueya’s tear-filled eyes, Yi Yefeng continued his task without pausing. “I knew another person.”
Xueya, hearing this familiar start, sniffled and wiped his tears roughly with the back of his hand. “I know, that person cried himself blind. You don’t need to say it.”
“This is someone else, not the one from last night.”
Xueya looked at Yi Yefeng with suspicion. Though he didn’t expect anything good, he couldn’t help but be curious.
“That person was always angry. Then one day, his chest exploded from rage.”
Xueya: “…”
