The reek of blood grew thicker and thicker. Jiang Wangyue clenched her teeth, curled motionless against Ji Li’s chest, not daring to make a sound.
She was afraid her words or movements might break his concentration.
Just as they were about to reach the spot where the aircraft was parked, an unprecedented sense of danger suddenly made Jiang Wangyue’s heart shudder.
Heedless of everything else now, she shouted out at the top of her voice, “Wrong! Don’t go over there!”
Before Jiang Wangyue’s words had even fallen, Ji Li flapped his wings and threw himself into a sharp midair flip, and a particle beam glowing with blue light grazed the edge of his wings and vanished into the far end of the sky.
Ji Li’s brows knit tight. Why was there an ambush here too?
How on earth had their movements been exposed?
Seeing the sneak attack had failed, the enemy stopped hiding, the weapon in their hands once again leveled at Ji Li and Jiang Wangyue in the air.
“Hold on to me tight!”
Hearing Ji Li’s words, the hands Jiang Wangyue had wrapped around his waist instinctively tightened.
“What are you doi— aaaaaahhh!”
Ji Li suddenly plunged into a dive, like a black blade of light, hurtling straight at the enemy beside the aircraft.
The other side hurriedly stowed their weapon and leapt back, seemingly very wary of close-quarters combat with Ji Li.
But they hadn’t reckoned on Ji Li’s move being a mere feint, he slammed into an emergency brake midair, then wrenched his body around by force and stuffed Jiang Wangyue straight into the aircraft.
By the time the enemy raised their weapon again, Ji Li had already piloted the aircraft up into the high sky, well out of the particle beam’s range.
Clutching her wildly thumping heart, Jiang Wangyue hadn’t even had time to catch her breath before she saw, through the window, four or five aircraft come charging toward them.
You’ve got to be kidding! Just who had she offended?!
Ji Li calmly pushed the aircraft’s speed to its limit, and after briefly shaking off the enemy, he called out to Jiang Wangyue in a low voice.
“Female master, contact Su Hui.”
Jiang Wangyue reacted fast. Fighting down the dizziness and nausea brought on by the aircraft’s excessive speed, she swiftly tapped open her terminal and dialed Su Hui’s comm number.
After a brief ringtone, Su Hui’s somewhat puzzled voice came through.
“What made you think to call me?”
“We’re being hunted down!” Jiang Wangyue said loudly, plain and to the point.
“Hunted down? Quit joking, I don’t have time for your—”
The aircraft suddenly lurched, and Jiang Wangyue couldn’t make out the second half of what Su Hui said at all, she nearly slammed headfirst into the windshield in front of her.
Fortunately Ji Li reached out in time and caught her around the waist, or that jolt really would’ve given her a concussion.
Piloting the aircraft, Ji Li rattled off their current location and the situation they’d run into to Su Hui as fast as he could.
Su Hui’s brows knit at once, he realized this really wasn’t another one of Jiang Wangyue’s “wolf” cries [1] from “the boy who cried wolf”, raising a false alarm so often that no one believes you when it’s real jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2723737_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2723737_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });.
“I’m on my way!”
“Beep, beep, beep—”
The aircraft suddenly let out a warning.
Ji Li’s expression changed. “The thrusters are badly damaged! They’ve caught up! Su Hui, hurry!”
“Quit nagging! By his beast-father, when I get there I’m gonna blast that pack of trash to bits!”
The aircraft couldn’t hold its altitude, and it began plummeting at terrifying speed.
Without hesitation Ji Li chose to abandon the aircraft. He spread his wings once more and, holding Jiang Wangyue, leapt down.
The howling cold wind sliced across her cheeks. Jiang Wangyue squinted, taking in their surroundings.
At some point the aircraft had careened into an abandoned residential district in District 12, the area all around them nothing but derelict high-rises riddled with drafts on every side.
The high-rises here were packed densely together, and fearing the aircraft might crash into a building, the enemy didn’t dare close in at high speed anymore, which instantly bought Jiang Wangyue and Ji Li a chance to breathe.
Ji Li’s eyes swept rapidly left and right, and at last he picked a relatively concealed spot to set down.
Feeling them descending, Jiang Wangyue loosened her arms a little from around Ji Li’s waist, ready to land at any moment.
But, whether it was running out of strength from carrying her in flight or from too much blood loss, as Ji Li hopped through the window his footing stumbled, and he toppled to the floor, dragging her down with him.
Jiang Wangyue was even forced to serve as his cushion, the weight of him bearing down on her until her vision went black.
“Ji Li?”
Jiang Wangyue called out, then couldn’t help reaching up to give him a push. When she got no response at all, she finally realized the man had already passed out, he couldn’t even withdraw the wings on his back into his body, they drooped limply at his sides.
Letting out a long sigh, Jiang Wangyue resigned herself to fate and, with all her might, heaved the Ji Li pinning her down off to the side, then strained to drag him farther in.
She found a sheltered spot out of the wind and laid him face-down, then peeled off her own coat, turned back, and cleaned up the bloodstains on the floor.
Only once she’d confirmed there’d be no stray traces of blood left to give away their whereabouts did Jiang Wangyue hurry back to Ji Li’s side.
Dropping to one knee, she reached out and undid the black shirt that had long since been soaked through with blood. With no time to admire the ridge of muscle rising across his shoulders and back, Jiang Wangyue snatched up a sharp stone from the floor, slit open the hem of her own top, tore off strips of cloth, and managed a rough dressing for the wound on Ji Li’s back.
With all that done, Jiang Wangyue finally slumped down beside him, gulping in great mouthfuls of air.
A long while later she let out a bitter laugh. She raised her hand again and brushed the sweat-dampened strands of hair from Ji Li’s forehead off to the side, baring his tightly shut eyes.
His earlier wounds had only just healed, and now he’d gone and gotten himself hurt all over again, all because of her.
She really could just die of guilt.
Cold wind came whistling in through the wide-open window. Jiang Wangyue shivered from the chill and couldn’t help shuffling a little closer to Ji Li.
She looked at the still-unconscious Ji Li, then carefully drew up one of his broad wings to shield the front of her body.
The feathers beneath her fingertips really were rather smooth and silky, and Jiang Wangyue couldn’t resist stroking them again and again.
“Boom—”
A huge explosion suddenly rang out, and even the walls of the derelict building shook violently, as if they might collapse the very next second.
Jiang Wangyue instinctively let go of Ji Li’s wing and threw her arms wide to shield the still-unconscious Ji Li, only, in the instant she lowered her head, she found herself caught off guard, meeting the latter’s dark golden eyes.
Ji Li was awake.
Looking at his calm expression, Jiang Wangyue couldn’t suppress a stab of guilt.
It couldn’t be…
He hadn’t felt every bit of it just now, had he? Her tugging his wing over to block the wind, then stroking his feathers?
“I…” Jiang Wangyue couldn’t help curling her toes against the floor. She was just about to open her mouth and apologize when he abruptly clapped a hand over it.
The roar of an approaching aircraft snapped both of them taut in an instant.
Jiang Wangyue even held her breath.
Who had come?
“Oi! You two in there! Dead yet?”
The tone was plainly thick with impatience, but to Jiang Wangyue’s ears it was like the music of the heavens.
It was Su Hui!
Jiang Wangyue hurriedly pulled Ji Li’s hand away and called back loudly, “Not dead! But Ji Li’s hurt!”
Footsteps quickly sounded, and Su Hui, clad head to toe in a skintight combat suit, appeared before the two of them.
Ji Li braced himself against the wall and slowly rose to his feet. Catching sight of Jiang Wangyue’s “crop top,” he couldn’t help his breath hitching for a moment.
References[+]