Jiang Wan’s eyes snapped open.
The fire was nearly out. More than half the firewood in the cave had burned away, leaving only a few dark-red embers barely clinging to life beneath the ashes, casting flickering shadows across the walls.
The rain outside was heavy, but beneath the sound of the rain, another noise slipped in.
Footsteps.
More than one person.
And they were already very close to the cave entrance.
The person beside her moved as well.
He made no sound. His entire body instantly tensed, like a wild cat that had sensed danger.
In the dying glow of the fire, Jiang Wan saw his hand reach for the broken blade at his waist. Several chips marred its edge, yet the way he held it gave off an inexplicable sense of certainty.
He turned to look at her and silently mouthed:
Someone’s here.
Jiang Wan already knew.
Even in her light sleep, her mind-reading ability had sensed the killing intent. The intruders were less than a hundred paces from the cave entrance, and the same thought kept repeating over and over in their minds.
“Alive or dead, we must find him.”
She cursed inwardly and rolled to her feet, her knee striking the ground and sending a dull pain through her.
“Run.”
He shouted in a low voice, grabbed her wrist, and pulled her toward the exit.
The two of them burst out through the other side of the cave entrance. Rain immediately came crashing down on them, soaking them to the bone in an instant.
Jiang Wan had no time to adjust to the darkness before her foot slipped on a wet rock.
Her whole body pitched forward.
The young man reacted quickly. He grabbed her arm and pulled her back, but her knee still struck the ground.
Her face turned pale from the pain.
An old injury on top of a new one.
She could feel her knee swelling, and every movement felt like needles stabbing into it.
She bit her lip and made no sound. The metallic taste of blood mixed with the cold rain in her mouth.
The young man did not look back. Instead, his grip on her arm tightened as he dragged her onward.
The pursuers had already noticed the commotion.
“Over there! They’re over there!”
Torchlight pierced through the curtain of rain and flashed briefly.
“Chase them! Don’t let them get away!”
The young man did not turn around. He dragged her down the slope at full speed.
Jiang Wan staggered after him. Muddy water poured into her shoes, and every step felt as though she were sinking into rotten sludge.
Branches whipped against her face, but she did not have time to block them.
Her eyes remained fixed on the dark figure in front of her.
The bandages on his shoulder were already soaked through with rainwater and blood. The white cloth had turned dark red, and blood ran down his arm.
She could even see droplets of blood dispersing into the rain.
How much longer could this man keep going?
She opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but rainwater poured into it.
Before she could shout, he suddenly stopped and stretched out an arm to block her.
A fork in the road lay ahead.
One path led uphill, covered in jagged rocks, with a slope as steep as a blade.
The other led down toward the valley, pitch-black and bottomless to the eye.
The pursuers’ torches flickered behind them, growing closer and closer. Their shouting was now perfectly clear.
“They’re over there!”
“Chase!”
“Don’t let him get away!”
“There’s a heavy reward for whoever catches him!”
“Split up?” he asked quietly.
His voice was low, but his breathing was unsteady.
“Splitting up will get us killed faster.”
Jiang Wan quickly surveyed their surroundings and estimated the number of pursuers.
Torchlight flickered in four or five different directions. They were hidden in the darkness and could not see exactly how many people were after them.
But one thing was certain.
Those people were focused entirely on the two of them.
As long as Jiang Wan and the young man stayed together, their pursuers would not divide their forces.
“Take off your outer robe.”
“What?”
The young man looked confused.
Why was he supposed to take off his clothes?
“Take it off.”
Jiang Wan did not waste time explaining. She simply repeated herself.
He stared at her for two seconds but did not ask another question.
Using one hand, he pulled open his clothes and stripped off his outer robe. The hurried movement tugged at his wound, and he let out a muffled groan.
Jiang Wan took off her own outer garment as well.
Then she took his robe, wrapped it around a stone the size of her palm, and threw it as hard as she could toward the mountain path.
The robe and stone cut through the air.
Smack!
They crashed into the bushes.
The sound of snapping branches was especially clear in the rainy night, and the dark robe shifted briefly in the darkness.
It was enough to create an illusion.
“Someone’s over there!”
The torchlight immediately turned toward the mountain path.
One of the pursuers shouted:
“Chase them!”
Footsteps rushed from the fork and surged uphill.
Jiang Wan grabbed the young man by the wrist and pulled him downward.
They rolled down the side of the road and slid into a drainage ditch.
Mud, dead leaves, and the rotten smell of something unknown instantly covered them from head to toe.
Jiang Wan lay completely still.
Even her breathing became soft and cautious.
Torchlight swept over their heads.
Footsteps passed only a few feet away.
Someone stopped directly above her.
Jiang Wan carefully held her breath.
Her heartbeat pounded against her chest like a drum.
She turned her head to look at the young man. In the darkness, she could not see his expression, but she could feel his hand gripping the hilt of his broken blade, ready to strike at any moment.
Blood dripped from his shoulder into the muddy water, spreading into a small dark-red stain.
“There’s no one here!” someone shouted from above.
The footsteps moved away.
The torchlight disappeared with them.
Jiang Wan did not move immediately.
She silently counted to thirty in her mind. Only after confirming that all sounds had completely vanished did she push herself out of the mud.
She wiped the mud from her face.
Rotten leaves clung to her hair.
She seemed to have gotten mud in her mouth too.
Her knee hurt even more than before.
She carefully moved it.
Fortunately, it was not broken.
The young man climbed out of the ditch and looked at her.
He was soaked from head to toe, and his complexion was terrible—pale as a ghost.
But his mouth was still as stubborn as ever.
“Have you done this before?” he asked.
“I’ve played laser tag,” Jiang Wan answered casually.
“What is laser tag?”
Jiang Wan looked at his shoulder instead of answering.
The bandages had turned completely red.
Blood ran down his arm, mixed with rainwater, and dripped onto the ground.
His wound had reopened while they were lying in the mud.
“The wound split open. It needs to be bandaged again.”
“Can we find somewhere out of the rain before you bandage it?”
His voice was slightly weak, but his sharp tongue remained intact.
“I’d rather not bleed to death first and then freeze to death in the rain.”
Jiang Wan ignored him.
She turned and walked forward along the mountain wall.
He followed behind her without another word.
The rain had weakened, but it was still falling, rustling against the leaves.
As she walked, Jiang Wan kept a careful eye on the terrain.
They searched for more than half an hour.
Fortunately, their luck was not terrible.
Halfway up the mountain, they found an abandoned hunting shelter.
It was made of wood. The walls let in the wind from every direction, and the gaps were large enough to stick a hand through.
Fortunately, there was at least a roof overhead to keep out most of the rain.
Jiang Wan pushed him into a corner and made him sit down.
He leaned against the wooden wall.
His face had already turned pale, and there was little color left in his lips.
Jiang Wan knew that he was stubborn. If she asked him whether he was alright, she would probably only get a reply of “I won’t die.”
So she did not bother asking.
She crouched down and began removing the strips of cloth.
The bandages were soaked with blood and stuck to the wound. When she peeled them away, they pulled at the torn flesh.
The veins on his forehead throbbed twice.
Yet he forced himself not to make a sound.
Yesterday’s bandaging had been poorly done. Her technique had been far too rough. Combined with their violent escape just now, the wound that had begun to scab over had split wide open again, and blood continued to seep out.
Jiang Wan frowned.
This time, she had to secure it properly.
She had never studied medicine, but her university club had once taught a first-aid course.
Cleaning.
Stopping the bleeding.
Bandaging.
She still remembered the basic steps.
“Bear with it,” she said.
“I never said it hurt! Hiss—”
The young man had not even managed to finish his sentence.
Before his words had even finished, she made her move.
There was no antiseptic, so she could only use rainwater collected in a broken bowl outside to rinse the wound. The water was cold, and when it hit the injury, it hurt worse than being cut by a blade.
The young man hissed and clenched his back teeth, his entire body tightening like a drawn bow.
“You did that on purpose?”
“Stop talking.”
Jiang Wan’s words were not polite, but her hands became gentler.
She threw away the dirty strips of cloth and wrapped the wound with clean ones. One turn, pulled tight, then another.
This time, she was much more careful than before, trying her best to make the bandage fit snugly over the wound.
After several turns, she tied a knot.
“Done.”
She released him and was about to stand when someone grabbed her wrist.
His hand was cold.
His fingers wrapped around her wrist bone. He was not using much force, but he did not let go.
“At that fork in the road,” he said.
His voice was lower than usual as he stared at her.
“You could have pushed me up the mountain and run downhill by yourself. The pursuers would only have followed the direction of the torchlight. Your chances of escaping alone would have been much higher.”
Jiang Wan did not speak.
“But you chose for both of us to go together.”
He looked at her.
His expression was not questioning her.
He was confirming something.
The hunting shelter fell silent for a moment, with only the sound of rain filling the quiet.
“You’re overthinking it.”
Jiang Wan pulled her hand back.
“I don’t know the roads around here. With you around, I can use you as a compass.”
“What’s a compass?”
“It’s something you wouldn’t understand even if I explained it.”
She leaned against the opposite corner of the wall, deliberately putting some distance between them.
Cold wind blew through the gaps in the wooden boards.
Her wet clothes clung to her body, and she shivered.
Hugging her arms tightly around herself, she stared blankly at the places where the roof was leaking.
The young man said nothing more.
He picked up his soaked outer robe from the ground, wrung out the water, and draped it over a wooden post beside her.
The robe happened to block the opening where the wind was coming through.
He did not say anything about it.
They remained silent for about half the time it took to burn an incense stick.
“About your sister.”
He suddenly spoke.
Without opening his eyes, he said, “I’ll help you look for her.”
Jiang Wan turned her head to look at him.
He was not looking at her. His gaze was fixed on the leaking roof overhead, where rainwater dripped through the gaps in the wooden boards and fell beside his feet.
“What I said before still stands.”
His tone was calm, as if he were merely stating something ordinary.
“Once I figure out who I am, I’ll help you find her. I always keep my word.”
Jiang Wan lowered her head and looked at her empty hands.
She had no photograph.
No keepsake.
There was only mud beneath her fingernails, the red marks left on her wrist where he had grabbed her, the bruises on her knee, and her fingers, stiff with cold.
She thought of Jiang Nian.
That little girl used to call her “Sis.”
She used to fight with her over the last bag of potato chips.
Before Jiang Wan’s exams, Jiang Nian would secretly slip a note into her backpack with the words “Good luck!” written on it.
There would always be a crooked little smiley face drawn beside the words.
Jiang Wan remembered it even now.
Then, one day three years ago, the little girl disappeared on her way home from school.
The surveillance footage captured only a blurry figure.
No face could be seen clearly.
Jiang Wan remembered that day. She had been waiting in her dormitory for Jiang Nian to message her and say, “I’m home.”
She waited for two hours.
No message came.
She called.
The phone was switched off.
She called again.
Still switched off.
Everything that followed was like a nightmare she could never wake up from.
Their parents quit their jobs and went searching for her.
They put up missing-person notices.
Jiang Wan stayed in school, updating missing-person posts online every day and handing out flyers on weekends.
Then that phone call came.
Her mother’s voice.
She was crying so hard that her voice had become distorted.
“Jiang Nian… we might not be able to find her…”
Jiang Wan thought she was talking about her sister.
But her mother was actually talking about herself and Jiang Wan’s father.
There had been a car accident.
After receiving the call, Jiang Wan immediately booked a ticket and rushed home overnight.
Two bodies.
Covered in white cloth.
Only a thin layer of fabric separating her from them.
She did not cry.
She put on her backpack and continued walking alone.
Every city.
Every utility pole.
Every missing-person notice.
All carried the same photograph.
The same smile.
The same round face.
The same small beauty mark beneath her right eye.
She had posted those flyers for three years.
She had received countless scam calls.
Transferred money countless times.
Blocked countless numbers.
But what if?
She no longer believed in miracles.
But she could not stop.
“Fine.”
That was her answer.
Just one word.
The young man nodded and did not say anything else.
The rain gradually weakened.
Far away in the mountains, the pursuers who had been thrown off their trail were gathering again.
The leader lowered his head and looked at the compass in his hand.
Strange symbols were carved into the copper base.
The needle was trembling.
“We lost them,” someone beside him said.
“We didn’t.”
The leader raised his eyes.
“The compass Lord Guixu gave us can track her. She can’t have gone far. We have to capture them before dawn.”
He put away the compass and rested his hand on the hilt of his blade.
“You lot, surround this entire area. Don’t let even a bird fly out.”
“What about the woman?”
“Don’t kill her. My lord wants her alive.”
The dark figures scattered, silently disappearing into the curtain of rain.
Inside the hunting shelter, Jiang Wan closed her eyes and pretended to sleep.
The voice of the Mirror System sounded in her mind, calm and clear as plain water.
“The pursuers are closing in. Your probability of survival is decreasing.”
“I know.”
“Do you need me to do anything?”
“Shut up.”
The system obediently fell silent.
Jiang Wan opened her eyes and glanced at the young man opposite her.
He was leaning crookedly against the wall. His breathing was very steady, but he did not seem to be truly asleep.
She did not expose him.
Instead, she closed her eyes again.
In the distance, the compass needle came to a stop.
The leader raised his hand, signaling his group to halt.
He glanced toward the hunting shelter.
The corner of his mouth lifted slightly.
“Found them.”
Amid the sound of rain, dark figures silently surrounded the hunting shelter.
Inside, the fire had completely gone out.
Dawn was approaching.
Or perhaps—
it would never come.