Chapter 156: Past Life Events, and Xie Yan (1)

These forgotten memories surged like a tide, carrying the mountain's chill and the scent of fireworks, overwhelming her before she could react.

The scene in the dream was terrifyingly clear.

It was nearly winter then, and the wind carried a bone-chilling chill.

She was in a carriage heading to Jiangxi to visit her maternal grandfather; halfway there, she stopped to rest, found the carriage stuffy, and got off with Aheng to walk along the stream.

The grass by the stream wasn't dense, but beneath the withered yellow blades lay a person.

Shen Shuangning didn't pay attention at first, until she saw a blue-black snake coiled around the man's neck, his eyes shut tight, his face ashen like cold stone, and she jumped in fright.

Aheng was bolder, stepped forward to look, and the snake, startled by the footsteps, shot "whoosh" into the grass and vanished.

Aheng checked the man's breath and pulse, then turned to her and said, "Miss, he still has breath! He's alive!"

Only then did Shen Shuangning dare to approach; she saw the man wearing a bluish-green long robe, his face pale and gaunt, half of it almost unseen, as if he had suffered grave injuries.

He looked miserable and disheveled. With the cold weather, if left unattended, he might truly freeze to death by the stream at night.

"Take him with us," she said, her heart softening, to Aheng, "Let's go to the town ahead and find a clinic, then just leave him there."

No sooner had she spoken than the man, who should have been unconscious from serious injury, snapped his eyes open with startling speed, produced a dagger from somewhere, and pressed it to her throat in an instant.

The blade was icy cold, his voice even colder, laced with wariness and cruelty: "Who are you? What do you want?"

Shen Shuangning froze with fright, yet she forced herself to stay calm and soothe: "I'm just a passerby; seeing you injured, I kindly wanted to help—don't misunderstand!"

The man's gaze swept over her face, then flicked to Aheng, who held a whip guardedly beside her.

After a moment of silence, he slowly withdrew the blade, his voice softening slightly: "Thank you for the trouble."

Having said that, he seemed to have exhausted his strength, flopped back heavily, closed his eyes, as if that fierce moment had been an illusion.

Having thanked her, Shen Shuangning naturally couldn't just leave him—but who knew that as the carriage reached the mountain pass, they ran into a band of armed mountain bandits, whose shouts of killing shook the heavens.

During the escape, the panicked driver took a wrong turn, and the carriage, people and all, rolled down a not-too-deep cliff.

When she awoke again, night had fallen completely. The cliff base was dead silent, save for distant, faint wolf howls, wailing and making one's hair stand on end.

Shen Shuangning felt herself over—only some scrapes, no serious injury—but Aheng and the driver had been thrown who-knows-where; all around was pitch black, with only her present.

Fear seized her instantly; tears spilled unbidden, and she cried harder and harder, desperate to the point of despair.

After who knows how long of crying, her voice went hoarse, when a voice from beside her—hoarse yet unusually calm—said: "Stop crying; if you keep it up, you'll really draw the wolves."

Shen Shuangning was startled by that voice, immediately stopped crying, and in the dark shuffled over to his side, curling up.

In the darkness, she could smell a faint scent of blood on him, mixed with the aroma of mountain grasses and trees, which oddly reassured her a little.

She had thought he was dead, but he turned out to be lucky.

"What should I call you, miss?" he said, breaking the silence.

With no allies around, Shen Shuangning, out of caution, lied and told him her surname was Ning.

The man then said, "Miss Ning, winter is almost here; these mountains aren't safe—bandits seek riches, and beasts abound. You must leave before dawn. My leg is injured; I can't walk. You should go on your own—climb up the cliff face; perhaps you'll find a way out."

Shen Shuangning clenched the corner of her garment; though she couldn't see his expression in the dark, she shook her head: "I won't go."

The man was about to say more, but Shen Shuangning added, voice trembling with tears yet stubborn: "I'm afraid of the dark and don't know the way. If we go, we go together."

The man remained silent for a while.

The cliff base fell into a long silence, only the wind's whimper against the cliff face.

Just as she thought he had passed out, maybe even stopped breathing, he slowly spoke, his voice devoid of emotion: "Then let's wait until dawn and go together."

"What's your name?" Shen Shuangning asked again.

"Xie Yan."

Only after daylight did they discover the cliff face was steeper than imagined; unless one could truly scale walls like a flying swallow, it was impossible to climb up.

And the man was indeed seriously injured and hard to move; Shen Shuangning could only grit her teeth, carefully support him, and seek another route.

"Will we die here?" Shen Shuangning asked anxiously.

"Follow me, and you won't die," he said.

Fortunately, the bandits didn't pursue, and no wild beasts were encountered along the way; the trouble was, the deeper they went, the fewer signs of habitation they saw.

Xie Yan's injury was worse than it looked; he would faint after walking less than half a li, and each time Shen Shuangning would fumble to check his breath, reassured only when she felt he still lived.

They went on, stopping and starting along the way.

She had to find edible wild fruit, gather dry wood for fire to keep warm, and, according to his description, search everywhere for medicinal herbs; at first Shen Shuangning nearly broke down and wanted to quit, but she kept pushing through.

"To survive" had, at some point, become her sole motivation to endure the dire straits—sustaining Xie Yan's life, and sustaining herself against being devoured by fear.

Thus, she not only didn't lose spirit, but grew more energetic each day, even holding up wild fruit she found excitedly before Xie Yan, as if offering a treasure.

Xie Yan would sometimes smile, but most of the time he remained indifferent.

After several days, they temporarily settled in a sheltered mountain hollow.

Shen Shuangning finally found, by the stream, the serrated-leaf herb Xie Yan had described, then crushed it and handed it to him.

Xie Yan looked at her reddened, frostbitten fingertips and said meaningfully, "Miss Ning, if I were you, I would have gone on my own."

Shen Shuangning heard this and instantly bristled, her eyes reddening: "Do you think I want to drag you along? If I hadn't met you, I wouldn't be this unlucky—had I known, I wouldn't have bothered with you!"

Xie Yan said nothing.

Already exhausted and sore all over, her resentment and fright surged forth at those words; she immediately flung the herb she held hard onto him and turned away, striding off.

Xie Yan slowly closed his eyes; he actually hoped she would just leave.

As the sun gradually set westward, Shen Shuangning not only returned, but also clutched a bundle of dry wood in her arms.

Her originally bright goose-yellow dress was now unrecognizable in color, the hem torn in several places, yet her small face remained pure and white, her exquisite beauty impossible to conceal.

She said nothing, simply sat down beside him, picking up the dry sticks one by one to feed the fire. The girl's stubbornness and softness were written on her face.

Xie Yan leaned against a rock, silently watching her for a long time.

That night no one spoke; the next day, Shen Shuangning again supported Xie Yan as they went on, as if the previous day's unpleasantness and harsh words had never happened.

Finally, before the wind and snow arrived, they spotted a household and found a place to settle.

The other party was a family of three: an elderly married couple and a son who was almost thirty and simple-minded.

When the old lady saw Shen Shuangning, her eyes lit up, and she warmly took them in.

The old man, meanwhile, was silent and taciturn, only splitting firewood in the courtyard, wearing animal skins.

Seeing his wife bring strangers, he didn't utter a word, his gaze lingering on Xie Yan for a moment.

The lady laughed and smoothed things over: "My husband is just like that—very dull, not fond of socializing; you two needn't take it to heart. Please, come in, please come in."

The lady lifted the curtain and entered the house; inside, the kang was heated, warm and cozy.

Xie Yan coughed lightly a few times, as if casually saying: "This place looks very remote; it seems you are the only household here?"

While the lady was busy adding firewood to the stove, she replied without turning her head: "Yes! Only our family lives on this mountain ridge—no village ahead, no shop behind. It's also your good luck that you happened to come this way; otherwise, once the wind and snow arrive, finding shelter would be hard."

Xie Yan said: "After winter sets in, there's hardly any living thing left in the mountains, the plants have withered; settling here must not be easy, right?"

The lady chuckled: "What else can we do? We live off the mountains and the water! My husband hunts, I gather some medicinal herbs to trade for grain, just scraping by."

Xie Yan then fell silent.

The lady then asked: "I don't know how you two came here; it looks like you've run into some trouble?"

Having finally gotten a chance to catch her breath, Shen Shuangning relaxed the nerves that had been taut for days; moreover, the lady's kind and honest demeanor left her completely unguarded, so she recounted the encounter with the mountain bandits.

Yet she failed to notice the fleeting malice that flashed in the other's eyes.

"So you ran into mountain bandits..." the lady brought over a bowl of hot water and placed it on the table before Shen Shuangning.

"This mountain region is indeed unsettled; that bandit gang has been rampant for years, not only looting wealth but specifically abducting young women. You are so beautiful; it's fortunate they didn't spot you, otherwise it would have been disastrous!"

Hearing this, Shen Shuangning felt a lingering fear, and also wondered, "I don't know how Ah Heng and the others are doing..."

Shen Shuangning, distracted, failed to notice the simpleton named Gou Sheng, perched on the edge of the kang, staring at her and drooling.

Only when Gou Sheng silently crept up behind her to sniff did Shen Shuangning realize someone was behind her, and she jumped in fright.

The lady quickly slapped him: "You idiot, get away! Don't scare the guests!"

She then explained to Shen Shuangning: "He fell and hurt his head as a child, and never grew up properly. Miss, please don't mind."

Shen Shuangning bore no grudge, thinking that this couple was truly kind-hearted; raising a child with intellectual disabilities to this age was no easy feat.

The lady sat beside her, her eyes darting between Shen Shuangning and Xie Yan, probing their relationship in conversation.

Just as Shen Shuangning was about to answer, Xie Yan spoke first: "We have only recently married; we are husband and wife. Returning to our hometown to visit relatives, we encountered bandits who robbed us of our travel funds. Please arrange a room for us so we can look after each other; we will surely repay your kindness in the future."