Su Wantang closed her eyes, and silent tears slid down her cheeks.
It was done.
She had survived—at least for now. But why did her chest feel as though it had been hollowed out, leaving behind only a cold, heavy ache?
“Cold…” she murmured, her teeth chattering.
The autumn night dew had already soaked through the haystack. After lying in the cold wind for so long, and after everything that had just happened, her entire body was freezing. Only the places where Lu Zhanye’s body pressed against hers still retained a trace of warmth.
Lu Zhanye’s arms tightened around her.
He was awake—or rather, he had never completely lost consciousness. As the effects of the drug faded, a soldier’s instinctive vigilance reclaimed control.
He could feel the body trembling in his arms. He could smell the salty scent of sweat and tears lingering in her hair. He could recall every detail of what had happened when he lost control.
Including her tearful “Wait…”
Including the way she had tilted her head up to him…
And also… the tiny red mole at her waist, exactly the same as the one he had seen in his dreams.
“You…” Lu Zhanye began, his voice hoarse.
What had he wanted to ask?
Who are you?
Why have I been having those dreams?
What exactly happened tonight?
But when the words reached his lips, they became:
“Are you hurt?”
His rough fingertips gently brushed over a bruise on her shoulder.
Su Wantang stiffened all over and instinctively tried to pull away, only to be held even tighter in his embrace.
“Don’t move,” Lu Zhanye said in a low, husky voice carrying an undeniable note of command.
Propping himself up, he examined the injuries scattered across her body in the moonlight—her shoulders, back, waist…
Bruises and scratches were everywhere. Some were caused by the straw, while others had been left by him when he lost control.
Curled up beneath the moonlight, she looked like an injured little animal. Her almond-shaped eyes brimmed with tears, and her lips were bitten raw, streaked with blood.
Lu Zhanye’s brow furrowed deeper and deeper.
Taking a deep breath, he tried to sort through the chaos in his mind.
He remembered being injured and falling unconscious in the clinic.
He remembered someone changing his bandages.
He remembered a gentle female voice.
And then…
A wave of unbearable heat had surged up from his abdomen, and his consciousness had begun to blur.
Someone had drugged him.
The conclusion came almost instantly.
Years of special operations experience had made him extremely sensitive to abnormalities in his body. That uncontrollable, burning desire had definitely not been a normal reaction to injury.
Who was it?
That girl from the clinic, Su Wanrou?
Or…
He lowered his gaze to Su Wantang in his arms.
She was looking at him timidly, tears still clinging to her lashes. Moonlight shattered into rippling reflections within her bright eyes.
“Comrade Lu…” she said softly, her voice trembling. “Your… your wound…”
Only then did Lu Zhanye remember his injury.
The knife wound on his lower abdomen had completely split open. Blood had soaked through the loosened bandages, sticking wetly to his skin.
The violent movements earlier had torn the wound even further apart, and now sharp waves of pain pulsed through it.
Yet strangely, besides the pain, there was also an itching sensation.
Like the feeling of new flesh growing.
Frowning, he reached down to touch the edge of the wound.
Instead of the expected sticky blood and damaged tissue, his fingertips encountered something cool and moist.
Under the moonlight, he saw the liquid coating his fingers.
It wasn’t blood.
It was water.
Clear water that emitted a faint glow was slowly seeping from the wound at his waist, mingling with the blood as it flowed downward.
“What is this…” Lu Zhanye’s pupils contracted.
Su Wantang saw it too.
Her mind buzzed.
Instantly, she understood.
The spiritual spring!
When the system had announced that the Beginner Spiritual Spring Space had been unlocked, she had been too overwhelmed by shame and panic to pay attention.
But now, seeing the obviously unnatural water seeping from Lu Zhanye’s wound, a thought surged through her mind:
Had the spiritual spring water automatically healed him?
[System Notification: Detected strong intent from the host. The Beginner Spiritual Spring Space has been bound to the host’s consciousness. The spiritual spring water possesses basic healing properties. Because the host is currently in physical contact with the mission target, the healing effects have automatically been applied to the target’s wound.]
As expected!
Su Wantang’s heart pounded like a drum.
Forcing herself to stay calm, she stammered,
“M-Maybe it’s just dew… or… maybe you’re sweating…”
Even she didn’t believe her own explanation.
Lu Zhanye looked deeply into her eyes but asked no further questions.
Lying back down, he pulled her into his arms again and wrapped his still-warm body around her freezing one.
“Warm up first,” he said simply.
He grabbed his wrinkled military jacket lying nearby and draped it over both of them.
The jacket still carried traces of his body heat and the strong scent of blood, mixed with the dry fragrance of straw, creating a strangely distinctive smell.
Stiffly, Su Wantang allowed herself to be held, not daring to move.
She could feel Lu Zhanye’s temperature rising.
A wound infection, the cold night air, and everything that had happened earlier—even a man of iron couldn’t endure all that without consequence.
“Comrade Lu, you’re running a fever…” she said softly.
“Mm.”
His eyes remained closed, and his voice was already growing faint.
“I won’t die.”
He said it lightly, but Su Wantang could feel his body trembling.
His breathing was becoming heavier.
Cold sweat beaded on his forehead, mixing with the dampness of the night dew and sticking against her cheek.
This couldn’t continue.
Gritting her teeth, Su Wantang tried communicating with the system in her mind.
“How do I use the Spiritual Spring Space?”
[Focus your consciousness and you may enter. Time flows at a ratio of 10:1 inside the space. (Ten minutes inside the space equals one minute in reality.)]
A time difference!
Su Wantang’s eyes lit up.
Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and focused all her consciousness on that void-like space.
Darkness engulfed her vision.
Then light returned.
She found herself standing on an unfamiliar piece of land.
About one mu (roughly one-sixth of an acre) of rich black soil stretched before her. The earth was moist and soft, releasing a fresh, earthy fragrance.
At the center stood a well.
Its rim was built from blue-gray stone, and a thin layer of moss covered the edges.
The water inside was crystal clear, glowing faintly as though sprinkled with fragments of moonlight.
So this was the Spiritual Spring Space?
Su Wantang hurried to the well and peered inside.
The water reflected her face—
Pale.
Disheveled.
Hair tangled.
Eyes bloodshot.
Yet the cool, refreshing aura emanating from the well instantly revitalized her.
Squatting beside it, she scooped up a handful of water.
The touch was icy cool.
The water was impossibly pure.
After a moment’s hesitation, she brought it to her lips and took a small sip.
Sweet.
A cool sweetness flowed down her throat, instantly dispelling the exhaustion and chill throughout her body.
The small wounds on her back, where the straw had pierced her skin, began tingling faintly.
They were healing.
It really worked!
Su Wantang’s heart raced wildly.
She looked around, searching for some kind of container to carry water.
But aside from the black soil and the well, the space contained nothing else.
What should she do?