Once the male wolf was dead, the remaining few snow wolves were no longer a threat. Before long, they were wiped out by Sahechena’s pack.
Bodies lay scattered across the snowy ground. Sahechena dropped the male wolf and scoffed at the defeated enemy:
Revenge is natural and righteous.
However, one who schemes so calculatedly and stops at nothing not only biting its own blind mate to death but also poisoning the snow mountain valley is truly rare.
Sahechena looked at its carcass and shook his head: You deserved it.
Looking around, he saw Black-Back and the others cleaning up the battlefield, so he walked toward the wooden hut without a care, revealing a brilliant smile at Gu Chengyan as he came out to meet him—
“Wuwu!”
Gu Chengyan held his bow, his arm trembling slightly from firing several arrows in quick succession. Seeing Sahechena smile, his tensed body gradually relaxed.
“Is everything settled?”
“Mm!” Sahechena’s eyes sparkled.
That’s good, Gu Chengyan breathed a sigh of relief, hoping that the incident at the Snow Mountain Villa wouldn’t bring trouble upon the youth and his wolf pack.
Noticing his expression, Sahechena guessed his thoughts and shook his head. “Bu… Wuwu, no, no.”
“Hm?”
Sahechena did not know many words in the Rongdi language. He scratched his head, then suddenly stepped forward and scooped Gu Chengyan up.
Gu Chengyan was a man in his twenties, yet the youth lifted him as easily as one would a kitten. If he hadn’t struggled, Sahechena might even have wanted him to sit in the crook of his arm.
What is he going crazy about now?
Gu Chengyan realized after one attempt that he was no match for this savage, brute-strength youth, so he decided not to waste the effort.
He gave a helpless smile and reached out to wrap his arms around Sahechena’s neck. “…Where are you trying to take me now?”
Sahechena tilted his head, smiled, and picked up his pace, bringing Gu Chengyan to the Holy Mountain Legacy the cave containing the hot spring.
Only when he reached the steaming hot water did he put him down. He wiped the snow from his face, pointed at the hot spring, and smiled at Gu Chengyan.
“Water nest!”
“Water… pfft,” Gu Chengyan was amused by his phrasing. “This is a ‘hot spring,’ not a ‘water nest’.”
Sahechena shook his head, took Gu Chengyan’s hand, and shook it twice, guiding him to look at the hole in the dome above.
His conflicts with the snow mountain wolves had not been going on for just one or two days. In fact, some purebred snow wolves did not accept prairie wolves operating near the snow mountain.
Those like the male wolf would not even allow prairie wolves to forage on the mountain, and would not even permit them to drink the water originating from the snow mountain.
Once discovered, the entire pack would move out to drive them away, sometimes even surrounding them to kill the prairie wolves.
The day he fell, it was because he had clashed with the snow wolf pack. Come to think of it, the wolf king on the other side also had some history with him.
Sahechena used the hot spring water to draw, though it was unclear whether he had explained it clearly. In any case the matter of the male wolf was not Gu Chengyan’s fault.
“…I see.”
In reality, Gu Chengyan only understood that he was depicting a fight between two wolf packs; one group included the youth, and the other… did that mean the male wolf?
He thought for a while and decided not to waste his energy guessing. He would ask in detail once the little one learned to speak and could communicate properly.
Many things had happened today, and Gu Chengyan was tired. He leaned against the cave wall and yawned. “It’s getting late. Shall we… go down the mountain?”
“Oh.” Sahechena obediently agreed, then turned to call Ota from outside the cave to come and carry Gu Chengyan.
As it turned out, the moment Gu Chengyan took a step behind him, he couldn’t help but hiss, awkwardly steadying himself against the cave wall.
Sahechena was startled and rushed back to support him, his eyes scanning him up and down no snow wolf should have injured Gu Chengyan just moments ago.
How could he be hurt? Where is he hurt?
Gu Chengyan felt awkward under his scorching gaze and waved a hand. “It’s nothing, just a minor mishap…”
The more vaguely he spoke, the more worried Sahechena became.
After circling Gu Chengyan twice without finding any wounds, he couldn’t help but reach out to peel back Gu Chengyan’s clothes.
“It’s not an injury… Hey, don’t—” Gu Chengyan tried to scramble away, but how could he be a match for Sahechena, who had been fighting wolves since childhood?
Just as he tightened his collar, his belt was brutally ripped away; then, grabbing the hem of his robe, his outer garment was stripped entirely off his shoulders…
Sahechena possessed raw strength and moved quickly. In no time, he had stripped Gu Chengyan’s clothing, inside and out.
If it weren’t for the anxious and worried look in his eyes, as clear and serene as a quiet sea, Gu Chengyan would have truly thought this youth was…
“Stop looking…” He was truly powerless and could only lean weakly against the cave wall, sitting amidst the pile of clothes, raising a hand to cover his burning face:
“It’s just… chafed. It’s nothing; I’ll be fine after a couple of days of rest.”
“Chafed… chafed?”
Gu Chengyan turned his head away and helplessly pointed at his legs. Rongdi men had been riding horses since they were three years old; they were not like him, a Han man.
Even though he had ridden horses since he was young and had campaigned for over a decade, he had… rarely been without a saddle and stirrups.
Just now, in order to avoid being attacked by the snow wolves, Gu Chengyan had been gripping the wolf’s body tightly. After such intense jostling, it was natural that the inner thighs had been chafed raw.
Sahechena lowered his head and finally saw the two patches of deep red hidden beneath the snow-white skin—like red rhododendrons suddenly blooming beneath the ice.
He pursed his lips, his brows locking together, and his blue eyes deepened in color, looking exactly like the dark night on the northernmost prairie.
“It’s fine, I’ll just apply some medicine when I get back ugh!!”
Before Gu Chengyan could finish his sentence, Sahechena suddenly leaned down, pinned his knees, and leaned in to carefully lick his wounds.
This sent a wave of electric, tingling sensations through his waist and tightened his entire body. If he hadn’t bitten his lip in time, he would have lost his composure in front of this cub.
Wolves licking each other’s wounds could stop bleeding and disinfect them, but who does that kind of thing?! And in such a… sensitive position.
Gu Chengyan only glanced at it once before his neck, shoulders, and chest began to flush bright red:
The youth was hunched before him, his curly black hair draping down to cover his thighs, and Sahechena’s head was nudging forward—it was just, it was simply…
The scene was too much to even contemplate.
Gu Chengyan could only press his back tightly against the cold cave wall, close his eyes, and use his arms to cover his face, trying his best to force himself to think of divination and omens.
After finally catching his breath and confirming that his voice wouldn’t tremble, Gu Chengyan pushed against Sahechena’s shoulder:
“…That’s enough.”
Truly afraid that this wolf cub would lose his mind again, he could only choose this ambiguous term.
When Sahechena climbed back up, unsurprisingly the wounds between his legs looked even worse:
The red areas had turned deep purple, and the originally bruised areas had become dark red, as if rubbed by an unskilled gua sha practitioner, leaving many dark marks.
“…” Gu Chengyan let out a long sigh, feeling that dealing with this wolf cub was a long and arduous journey.
Sahechena was also confused after rising:
Why was it that when he followed the methods of Mother Ake and the others like Ota, Wuwu ended up more severely injured?
Clearly, when he was injured in the past, other members of the pack helped him like this. Why… was it not effective?
Sahechena paced twice in frustration, turning around to call Ota and the others inside—perhaps he couldn’t do it alone?
Seeing the youth looking fierce and ready to walk out of the cave to do heaven-knows-what, Gu Chengyan was truly afraid of him and hurriedly grabbed a piece of his fox fur:
“Don’t go through the trouble… There is medicine at home. If you really have that much spare time—”
Gu Chengyan curled up his legs and leaned powerlessly against the cave wall, “Just stay here and soak with me for a while…”
Anyway, since he was already here and had been stripped like this by the youth, having hiked up the mountain, the cold air from his legs risked invading his body.
Gu Chengyan didn’t want the poison in his system to flare up, so he simply reached out to Sahechena, asking him to carry him into the hot spring.
Sahechena complied, but curiously squatted to the side, piecing together a sentence: “Hot soup, is… medicine?”
Gu Chengyan: “…”
He looked at the youth’s serious, thirsty-for-knowledge face, endured for a long time, and ultimately refrained from explaining that a hot spring is not a medicinal spring.
Whatever the little cub says, let it be.
He really couldn’t take being stimulated by him again and again like this.
Seeing him nod, the expression on Sahechena’s face became solemn again: So, this soup can cure injuries and illness. Then he would bring Wuwu here more often.
Gu Chengyan half-closed his eyes, glanced at him through the rising mist, sighed softly in his heart, and before long, leaned against the pool wall and fell asleep.
As for how he and his clothes returned to the Snow Mountain Villa, Gu Chengyan didn’t remember. He only knew that when he woke up the next day, he was nestled in Sahechena’s arms again.
Facing this situation, Gu Chengyan only paused for a moment before quickly relaxing himself, Forget it, the little wolf cub is warm, it’s quite cozy.
The two lay on the bed for a while longer. Once Gu Chengyan was fully awake, Sahechena led him to the kitchen stove and showed him—
“I, Gulu-Gulu pot, can!”
Gu Chengyan blinked, realizing he had boiled hot water for him, and the fire in the stove was blazing brightly, not using coal, but many dry branches.
Looking at Sahechena’s shining eyes, Gu Chengyan found it funny, raised his hand, and patted his head as if coaxing a puppy.
“So, you did this fire too…?”
Sahechena grabbed a handful of hair and pointed at the pile of clothes that were almost rubbed into rags, where a flint lay.
—So that was it.
Gu Chengyan eyed him: Quite smart.
After a simple wash and changing his clothes, Sahechena led Gu Chengyan to the doorway and pointed to a tall stack of dry branches in the courtyard.
Seeing Gu Chengyan collecting them yesterday, he had instructed the wolf pack to gather some; besides, they liked carrying branches around to play with anyway.
Dry branches and leaves could start a fire, and fire could turn into shooting stars, tied to arrows to help him repel enemies. His Wuwu is really amazing.
Looking at that mountain of firewood, Gu Chengyan blinked and revealed a faint smile. “Very good, thank you.”
Seeing him satisfied, Sahechena grabbed him and returned to the room, and while taking out a water bowl to learn to speak, he gestured to him from now on, just leave things to the wolf pack.
“That… works?” Gu Chengyan thought about it. Having wolves help him hunt for food and gather firewood actually didn’t seem too bad.
And so, from that day on, Sahechena moved into the Snow Mountain Villa in a grand manner, following Gu Chengyan everywhere each day.
Even though Gu Chengyan had made his bed at night, he would stubbornly squeeze onto the kang with his pillow and quilt. After a few times, Gu Chengyan let him be.
Thus, time flew by like an arrow, and days passed like a flowing stream. The winter on the northernmost prairie soon passed, and in the blink of an eye, it was spring again.
Gu Chengyan was wondering why the youth liked to touch his stomach after the beginning of spring. That night, after they had soaked in the hot spring, they unexpectedly saved a merchant who had been attacked by snow wolves.
The merchant had thick brows and almond-shaped eyes, wore a Rongdi robe slit on both sides, and had short fur draped over his shoulders. Upon seeing Sahechena, his eyes suddenly turned red, and he knelt on one knee:
“Yaruo Eche, I have finally seen you again!”
“It has been many years, and you are still as beautiful as ever!”