Chapter 184
Chapter 184
Through the driving snow, two figures-one large, one small-slowly pressed forward.
Wu Wujie carried Qingshui on his back, trudging ahead one step at a time.
Dizziness and pain crashed over him in wave after wave. Every breath brought a tearing agony, and blood trickled down his neck.
Qingshui wasn’t especially heavy, but with every step, her weight felt like a massive boulder crushing his spine. A dull ache shot from his skull all the way down his back.
The blizzard before him began to blur. His feet felt unsteady, as though he were walking on cotton. Wu Wujie gritted his teeth so hard he tasted blood, clutching the legs of the person on his back without daring to loosen his grip in the slightest.
He had forced himself onward for far too long. He had reached his limit ages ago. Only his conviction to protect everyone remained, a thin string suspending his final breath.
But every string eventually snapped.
His foot suddenly slipped, and that taut string finally broke.
Wu Wujie could no longer hold on. His body pitched forward beyond his control, and he crashed heavily into the snow with Qingshui still on his back.
“Wu Wujie!”
Ye Que’s pupils contracted as she screamed. She hurriedly lowered An Xiaolin from her back, then half crawled, half stumbled toward the fallen pair.
She reached Qingshui first, carefully turning her into a proper position. The instant her fingertips touched Qingshui’s carotid artery, her entire body went rigid.
Huh…?
She could barely feel a pulse beneath her fingertips. It was like a pool of stagnant water, with only the occasional ripple-the heart’s final struggle.
Cold sweat instantly broke out across Ye Que’s skin and ran down her temples, making her shiver from the chill.
Impossible… That soldier had clearly said they could hold out until rescue arrived! How could this…
She threw herself toward Wu Wujie as if possessed, seized his shoulders with both hands, and desperately tried to roll the six-foot-three giant over. But even after using every last ounce of strength, she only managed to shift him slightly. She couldn’t turn him over at all.
“Hey! Hey, Wu Wujie!”
“Qingshui! An Xiaolin!”
Ye Que’s strength gradually drained away. Despair engulfed her as swiftly and completely as the blizzard raging around her.
She rose to her feet and stared blankly around. Everywhere she looked, there was nothing but snow and mountains-empty, desolate, and deathly still.
She stumbled forward, crying out as she walked, her voice broken beyond recognition.
“Please… Please, someone help me. Help us…”
The wind seized her voice, tore it to pieces, and scattered it into the distance.
She had no idea how long she walked.
Ten minutes? Twenty?
She could barely see Qingshui and the others anymore, yet there was still no response. No sound but her own voice.
Ye Que’s voice trembled uncontrollably. Her tears mingled with the snow and fell to the ground.
They couldn’t die.
Not one of them could die.
They had fought with everything they had to stay alive. They had crawled out from mountains of corpses and seas of blood. They had escaped the barrels of their betrayers’ guns. They had endured for so long, held on for so long…
Were they really going to die here?
No!
Ye Que clenched her teeth, turned around, and walked back to them one step at a time.
This time, she didn’t try to roll Wu Wujie over.
She knelt and desperately stretched a hand toward his face. A faint but warm breath brushed across her fingertips-real and unmistakable–and gave her courage.
Ye Que stood in the snow, with no idea how far away the shelter was. It might be a few miles. It might be dozens. Or perhaps… they would never reach it at all.
But she couldn’t stop here. If she stopped, they would die.
She grabbed Qingshui by the fabric at her shoulder and began walking forward one step at a time, dragging her more than thirty feet before laying her down in the snow. Then she turned back for An Xiaolin.
By the time she had dragged An Xiaolin over to Qingshui, Ye Que’s arms were already trembling.
She went back for Wu Wujie. He was too heavy for her to drag normally, so she could only seize his collar and pull backward with every ounce of strength she had.
A deep trail formed in the snow behind him. By the time Ye Que finally dragged Wu Wujie to the two girls, she collapsed to her knees, gasping for breath.
She had no idea how long she kept dragging them back and forth like that. Half an hour, perhaps. Maybe longer. Her strength was being chipped away bit by bit.
Ye Que dragged Wu Wujie forward once more, inching ahead one step at a time. Her legs shook, her waist ached, and her entire body was beginning to go numb. In a daze, she raised her head to check where Qingshui and An Xiaolin were–
She couldn’t see them.
Her heart seemed to stop for an instant. She stared harder. Qingshui and An Xiaolin were still lying in the snow ahead, but the gray-white sky and endless white ground had swallowed them from view.
Ye Que’s vision suddenly blurred. She didn’t know why she was crying. All she knew was that every time she left one of them behind, it felt as though that person might never come back.
She knew they wouldn’t disappear, but the instant she couldn’t see them, it felt as though a hand had clenched around her heart.
She was afraid.
Afraid they would die.
Ye Que closed her eyes and drew a deep breath. Frigid air flooded her lungs, bringing with it a trace of clarity.
Then she opened her eyes.
She threw away all their bags, keeping only a few ropes that had been used to secure their supplies.
She tied one rope around each of their chests-Qingshui, An Xiaolin, and Wu Wujie.
Then she tied all three other ends… around her own waist.
Three ropes. The weight of three people. Like three sets of shackles, they bound her fate to theirs, inseparably and utterly.
She began to walk.
The ropes cinched tight around her waist, the pain turning her vision black. Every step felt as though she were dragging three mountains behind her.
Ye Que, move… Move, move, move!
“Aaaaaaaargh!”
Tears streamed down Ye Que’s filthy face. A series of heartrending screams erupted from her throat.
The blizzard howled, drowning out her cries.
And yet…
She really did take a step forward.