The once magnificent steel jungle had fallen into ruin. The glittering lights were nowhere to be seen, and the white walls had been blackened by smoke and gunpowder. Even the rats in the sewers had turned into man-eating monsters.
A dozen or so people hurried into a relatively intact house. As soon as the last person entered, a lynx suddenly spat out a golden light and conjured several thick, sturdy golden pillars, sealing off the only entrance.
Nan Xueshan crouched in a corner, tears welling in her eyes. “It’s all my fault. If I hadn’t tried to save you, Hanzhu wouldn’t have been injured.”
The woman had skin as white as snow and long, ink black hair. Her snow white dress was immaculate, without a speck of dust on it. Her waist was so slender that it seemed a single hand could encircle it. An ordinary belt cinched tightly around her waist, accentuating her full bust and rounded hips.
Any man would be moved by the sight of such a beautiful woman shedding tears, let alone Mu Honglang, who had always cherished Nan Xueshan as the woman of his dreams and loved her with all his heart.
He had completely forgotten that he had nearly lost his life moments earlier.
The mere thought of Nan Xueshan almost getting hurt filled him with distress. Disregarding any boundaries between men and women, he pulled her into his arms and comforted her. “This isn’t your fault. You were only trying to save me. Hanzhu got hurt because her abilities are too weak and her Ring Spirit is too feeble, so you don’t need to blame yourself.”
A trace of smugness flashed across Nan Xueshan’s lowered face. When she looked up again, she appeared as though she had finally been absolved of her guilt. Her pale little face and tear filled eyes gazed at Mu Honglang with a fragile expression as she repeatedly asked, “Really?”
With his heart entirely occupied by the beauty in his arms, Mu Honglang felt an overwhelming tenderness toward her. He wrapped both arms around her and comforted her again and again.
Unable to stomach the nauseating sight of the shameless couple acting all lovey dovey, Yuan Youqiao, who had always been straightforward, sneered impatiently. “This is ridiculous! You’re acting as though you’re the ones about to die!”
As she spoke, she pointed at a lump of something that had been carelessly tossed into a corner. “If this idiot hadn’t risked her life to save her sister and the man she loves just now, who knows where the two of you would be right now?”
Before Nan Xueshan could react, Mu Honglang stepped in front of her protectively and said impatiently, “I never asked her to save me.”
“Besides, I’ve always found her annoying. If it weren’t for her, Shanshan and I would have been together long ago.”
Yuan Youqiao was so furious that she actually laughed. “Right. The word shameless isn’t written on your face, after all.”
“Yuan Youqiao, don’t push it!” Nan Xueshan snapped, while crystal clear tears rolled down her cheeks at the same time.
Her tears immediately changed the atmosphere. Some people looked at her with contempt, while others felt sorry for her.
“Don’t cry, Shanshan.” Heartbroken at the sight, Mu Honglang gently cupped her face with his left hand and tenderly wiped the dirty blood from her cheek with his right. “That was all her own wishful thinking. No one can stand in the way of my feelings for you.”
Nan Xueshan was deeply moved. “Honglang…”
In an instant, the two began fawning over each other as though nobody else existed. Their nauseating display of affection left Yuan Youqiao so furious that she nearly choked on her own breath. She almost summoned her Ring Spirit right then and there to smear the pair’s faces with it.
“If you have enough energy to fight over a man, why don’t you use it to figure out how to deal with the Golden Ring Snake horde outside?” Zhang Ying, the leader of the group, barked coldly.
Zhang Ying was the group’s nominal leader. The moment he spoke, several people immediately fell silent.
Completely unaware that her predicament had nearly sparked a fight, Nan Hanzhu was currently being tormented by wave after wave of excruciating pain, suffering as though she were caught between life and death.
She could clearly hear people talking beside her, yet she simply could not wake up, as though she were trapped in an endless dream. In a daze, she felt as if she had been born in a land of snow, where the cold was so bitter that her blood froze solid and even the sensation of pain was almost frozen away. Yet whenever the heat surged, she felt as though she had fallen into the depths of hell, where tongues of flame devoured her flesh and scorched her soul.
The alternating waves of cold and heat continued to cycle endlessly. Nan Hanzhu’s consciousness gradually faded, and the last traces of life within her nearly vanished. Yet she had not quite reached the end!
Just as she could no longer endure the agony and desperately wanted to die to escape it, a refreshing stream of energy descended like sweet dew. It extinguished the raging flames and melted the bitter ice, bringing her such overwhelming relief that she could not help letting out a soft moan.
To everyone else, however, the moan sounded like an expression of Nan Hanzhu’s unbearable pain.
She was lying there in torn, bloodstained clothes, with hardly an uninjured spot on her entire body. Her left hand had suffered the worst damage. Four of her five fingers were gone, leaving only her thumb, and half her palm had been severed by a sharp blade. Even after she had been treated with the best medicine available, the bleeding had not completely stopped. The bandages wrapped around her hand had long since been soaked through with red.
No one knew how much time had passed before the waves of cold and heat finally subsided and the refreshing energy gained the upper hand. At last, Nan Hanzhu regained consciousness.
Yuan Youqiao, the person most concerned about her, was the first to notice the change. Overjoyed, she hurriedly helped Nan Hanzhu sit up and asked, “Xiaozhu, how are you feeling? Does it hurt?”
Nan Hanzhu looked around in confusion. “Where… am I?”
Seeing that her mind was still unclear, Yuan Youqiao immediately urged her with concern, “Don’t talk just yet.”
When Zhang Ying saw that she had finally awakened, he too breathed a sigh of relief. “We’ve found a temporary place to rest. Your injuries are severe, so recovering should be your priority. Leave everything else to us.”
With Zhang Ying taking the lead, everyone except Mu Honglang’s subordinates began urging her to rest and recover without worrying about anything else. After all, they knew perfectly well that if Nan Hanzhu had not risked her life and used her Ring Spirit’s power to kill the Golden Ring Snake King, every one of them would have ended up as food for the snake horde.
At the thought of this, several people simultaneously remembered the real culprits behind their predicament, and resentment began quietly growing in their hearts.
If Nan Xueshan had not egged Mu Honglang on and he had not been so blindly arrogant, how would they have lost so many comrades and ended up in such a miserable state?
People always found excuses to justify themselves. At that moment, they had completely forgotten that it was their own greed that had led them into this mess in the first place.
On the surface, Nan Hanzhu looked so weak that she barely had the strength to open her mouth. In reality, her mind was frantically flooding with thoughts.
Damn it, damn it, damn it! What the hell? How did I suddenly transmigrate into a book?!
Fine, so what if I’ve transmigrated? Who hasn’t done it once or twice these days? But why, oh why, did I have to end up in Sharing a Boat Through Wind and Snow?!
The title sounds so literary and refined, but the actual content is filthy beyond belief, full of all kinds of explicit and censored nonsense. Countless readers have long suspected that the author accidentally typed the word “boat” instead of “bed” in the title!
But I never cursed the shameless female lead in the comments or told the author to get lost. I didn’t even read a pirated copy, and I’m certainly not one of those weirdos who drool over the story while posting all sorts of detailed analyses of its endless sex scenes. What kind of terrible luck have I accumulated over several lifetimes to end up in a story with no morals, no decency, and absolutely no serious plot?!
Complaining aside, after figuring out her current situation, Nan Hanzhu forced herself to endure her disgust and maintain the original character’s personality. She obediently called out to Nan Xueshan, “Sister…”
One embarrassing moment was not enough. She continued, turning her gaze in another direction. With affectionate eyes full of tenderness and a shy, delighted expression, she called out, “Brother Honglang…”
Between her childish voice and her weakened state from the severe injuries, Nan Hanzhu could no longer bear it. The moment she finished speaking, she secretly shuddered with goosebumps.
To everyone watching, however, her behavior appeared to be a touching display of deep affection, mixed with the fear of being rejected. Combined with Mu Honglang’s shameless declaration of ingratitude earlier, it made everyone look at him and Nan Xueshan as though they were a pair of despicable scumbags.
Nan Hanzhu’s face was as pale as snow, and her entire body was covered in blood. Half her palm had been severed, and she had exhausted all her Ring Spirit’s power trying to save others. Despite having only just escaped death herself, she was still thinking about her beloved sister and the man her sister had stolen from her.
She was practically a pitiful little white rabbit. How could anyone begin to describe just how miserable she was?