The rain poured down in torrents, blanketing the sky and earth without mercy, striking the ground relentlessly.
The research team members searched the mountain with flashlights, looking everywhere for Ruan Yi. The rain was too heavy, and the mountain paths were difficult to traverse.
Meng Qitang lifted the brim of her rain hood. The mist on the mountain road blurred the path ahead.
If Ruan Yi was smart enough, she should have found a cave to take shelter in.
Meng Qitang glanced at the map on her phone, calmly analyzing the terrain, heading as much as possible toward areas where caves were likely to be.
Lin Linlin had twisted her ankle during the search. To avoid holding everyone back, she returned to camp on her own.
Meng Qitang originally wanted to escort her back, but Lin Linlin stopped her.
“The rain is getting heavier. If we don’t find Ruan Yi soon, something might really happen to her. Don’t worry, I can manage on my own.”
“Alright, send me a message once you arrive.”
Meng Qitang walked further ahead, following the river as much as possible, heading toward areas where vegetation grew densely.
Along the way, she kept an eye out for small hills and whether the mountain slopes faced north.
Generally, these were the places where caves were more likely to form.
Her phone buzzed—a message from Lin Linlin saying she had arrived safely at camp.
Meng Qitang glanced down at it, but in that moment, her foot slipped, and she tumbled down the muddy mountain path.
…
He Muchen had been following far behind Meng Qitang the whole time. The rain and fog in the mountains were thick, and in a moment of inattention, he lost sight of the woman.
Panic seized him, and he sprinted forward.
He saw Meng Qitang lying in the bushes at the bottom of the slope, unconscious.
“Tangtang—”
The man shouted out loud, dropping his umbrella as he hurried down to check on her condition.
But just a few steps down, he heard Ruan Yi’s voice faintly in the distance ahead.
He Muchen stopped abruptly. All sounds around him seemed to fall silent.
Only Ruan Yi’s cries for help remained.
The rain fell on him, soaking his hair, tracing down his face, and finally seeping into his clothes with an icy chill.
He Muchen moved his neck, his gaze turning cold.
He stared at the unconscious Meng Qitang at the bottom of the slope for two seconds, then, as if weighing the pros and cons in his mind, he resolutely turned and ran up the mountain.
The moment He Muchen turned away, a figure descended from the sky.
Yun Xubai was still wearing casual loungewear. His heart had been stirred by the Peacock Plume, and he had traveled from a thousand miles away.
The man’s expression was cold and composed. He watched He Muchen’s retreating figure quietly, a trace of disdain curling at the corners of his lips.
His fingertips moved slightly, and the raindrops around him froze mid-air, then shimmered with silver light before evaporating completely.
The man bent down and lifted the fallen woman into his arms.
Meng Qitang’s body was covered in mud and dead leaves, yet Yun Xubai showed not the slightest trace of disgust.
Meng Qitang drifted in a hazy dream. In it, she had become a brilliant red butterfly, fluttering joyfully around a white peacock.
That white peacock was impossibly beautiful, its entire body wrapped in a snowy radiance, so stunning one couldn’t look away.
The scene shifted, and the white peacock transformed into a living, breathing man.
His upper body was bare, wearing only a pair of white trousers. Broad shoulders, narrow waist, smooth muscle lines, and a tantalizing V-line.
He looked like an ice lotus living atop a snowy peak—breathtaking, sacred, untouchable.
The man lazily lifted his eyes to look at her. A peacock mark adorned the center of his brow, the tail of his brow slightly raised, and his gaze was filled with gentle, shimmering light.
His voice was always particularly seductive, coaxing as he spoke, “Tangtang, come here… defile me…”
Meng Qitang suddenly woke with a start, feeling her entire body burning hot.
She gasped for breath a few times, raising a hand to touch her forehead.
Damn, she really was burning up.
“Awake?”
In the quiet room, a magnetic male voice sounded.
That voice—it was the same as the man in her dream.
Meng Qitang mechanically lifted her head, meeting Yun Xubai’s alluring phoenix eyes.
The air fell silent for three seconds.
She pulled the blanket over herself and lay back down. “I’d rather keep dreaming.”
Yun Xubai was amused by her baffling behavior. He walked over and scooped the woman up from under the blanket. “Captain Meng, we meet again so soon.”
Meng Qitang clutched the blanket tightly, catching the faint scent of plum blossoms on it. “I already saw you in my dream long before this.”
“Is that so?” Yun Xubai pressed a fever patch onto her forehead, smiling in a way that invited further thought. “Tell me, what did you dream about me?”
“Is that something I can say?” Meng Qitang smiled politely, then boldly declared, “I dreamed you were naked.”
Yun Xubai: …
The man was taken aback for a moment, then grew even more languid, lowering his gaze to stare straight at her.
He licked his lips, his fingertips circling Meng Qitang’s wrist, his thumb pad occasionally brushing over the ring of the Peacock Mark as he spoke slowly, “In your dream, was I real?”
Meng Qitang’s amber eyes trembled slightly, the cold fragrance of the man filling her nose.
She felt a wave of heat rush from her head to her toes. She was the first to look away from his scorching gaze, brushing it off with, “Pretty real.”
But Yun Xubai had no intention of letting her off so easily. His long fingers hooked the hem of his shirt, making as if to lift it.
“Captain Meng, back at the research institute, how exactly did you touch me?”
His tone drew out, his words leaving much to the imagination.
The hem of his shirt was lifted inch by inch, revealing the man’s waist.
Meng Qitang pressed her hand down on it, stopping him from continuing, her composure almost frighteningly calm. “What exactly are you trying to do to me, friend?”
Yun Xubai let out a light laugh, finally regaining a bit of seriousness. “How do you feel now? Does anything still hurt?”
“I… did I fall in a way that was a terrible mess?” Meng Qitang knew she had tumbled down the hillside, and before losing consciousness, she had heard He Muchen’s voice.
“Mhm, you were scratched in many places by tree branches.”
Hearing this, she lowered her head to glance at the nightgown she was wearing, then accepted the fact that someone had changed her clothes with unusual calmness.
“Thank you,” Meng Qitang said, seeing no wounds on herself. Remembering the man’s special identity, she figured he must have healed her.
Yun Xubai couldn’t help but speak up. “I’ve thought more than once—is your ability to accept things just a little too good?”
“From witnessing me transform from a White Peacock into human form, to that special scene at the tattoo shop, to waking up here beside me now—you’ve been unnaturally calm through it all.”
Meng Qitang blinked, then spoke slowly, “So I should let out a piercing shriek for it to be considered normal?”
Then she feigned shock, covering her mouth with a scream, “Ah! The Peacock Deity!”
Yun Xubai: … There was really no need for that.
“Honestly, I still feel like I’m dreaming,” Meng Qitang said, reaching out to pinch the man’s face nearby. “Does it hurt?”
Yun Xubai held his face, looking at her with helpless exasperation, laughing despite himself as he said, “Right, so my life doesn’t count as a life then?”
“Sorry,” Meng Qitang smiled, the butterfly mark at the corner of his eye clearly visible. “You’re a deity—is saving people your duty?”
That was why he had rescued her in time when she was in danger.
Yun Xubai lifted his gaze to look at the woman before him, his eyes seeming half-drunk, carrying a soft, gentle glow. “Meng Qitang, guiding souls is a deity’s duty, but saving you… is mine.”