The mountain forest was silent, but it felt like crows had just flown overhead.
Zhang Xiyue retracted her powers in an instant: "I'm sorry."
Only after she spoke did Cheng Mingjiao remember to lodge his complaint: "Zhang Xiyue, you're very childish."
Zhang Xiyue: "I was wrong."
"If you ever do that again, I will definitely fire you." Cheng Mingjiao emphasized the severity of the matter.
Zhang Xiyue said with utmost respect: "Okay."
Cheng Mingjiao wasn't a fool—he could tell her apology wasn't sincere.
But his heart was pounding too fast, his mind too chaotic, his breathing too ragged… He could barely save himself.
He couldn't deal with her right now.
They'd settle this later.
Cheng Mingjiao silently added another mark to her ledger, then reached out his hand toward her.
Zhang Xiyue immediately said: "The bear is too dirty. I'll hold it."
"Give it to me." Cheng Mingjiao insisted.
Zhang Xiyue had no choice but to hand him the little bear wrapped in a thick layer of mud.
Cheng Mingjiao took the bear, and his beautiful fingers with clearly defined bones were instantly stained with filth.
But he didn't mind at all. He wiped the mud off the bear, then lifted his raincoat to reveal the white short-sleeved shirt underneath.
Zhang Xiyue realized what he intended to do and quickly stopped him: "We can wash it when we get back. There's no need…"
It was too late—he had already lifted the hem of his shirt and was carefully wiping the bear clean.
She was reminded once again of how he had abandoned her in the parking lot at Yunxi Temple.
Comparing people to bears—it was infuriating.
Zhang Xiyue nursed her resentment while simultaneously feeling something new toward Cheng Mingjiao, who was treating the little bear with such care.
Cheng Mingjiao paid no attention to his employee's inner turmoil. He kept wiping with his shirt, his toned, firm abs faintly visible beneath the fabric, blatantly beckoning to Zhang Xiyue.
Indecent.
She took a few more glances.
Cheng Mingjiao didn't stop until the bear had been wiped back to its original appearance. When he looked up, he caught Zhang Xiyue staring at him.
As a benevolent boss, he proactively answered his employee's question: "It's made of a special material—durable, but it absorbs stains easily. The sooner you clean it, the better."
Zhang Xiyue, who hadn't had that question at all: "…Oh."
"It was soaked in muddy water for too long." Cheng Mingjiao shook the bear and used his phone's flashlight to examine it closely. "It'll probably still absorb some staining. We'll have the R&D base figure something out when we get back—see if they can clean it thoroughly."
Zhang Xiyue: "It's getting late. Let's head back first."
Cheng Mingjiao nodded and lifted his feet with difficulty through the mud.
To maintain his balance, he spread his arms as he walked, and inadvertently extended one arm right in front of Zhang Xiyue.
Without overthinking it, Zhang Xiyue grabbed his forearm with both hands for support.
Cheng Mingjiao froze for a moment and looked at her.
"What's wrong?" In the moonlight, Zhang Xiyue asked him with that dirt-smudged face.
Cheng Mingjiao said nothing, his gaze slowly shifting back to the path ahead.
Zhang Xiyue held onto his arm and walked slowly, only letting go when her feet finally touched grass.
The patch of skin on Cheng Mingjiao's arm had grown warm from her grip, and when she suddenly released it, there was an unexpected emptiness. He scratched at it absently a couple of times and continued walking.
The night was too deep. In places where the foliage was thick, even moonlight couldn't penetrate.
Zhang Xiyue's phone battery was critically low—it flickered twice and shut off on its own. She had to share Cheng Mingjiao's phone instead.
The mountain forest was quiet, not even a kitten in sight. The two of them walked slowly along the slippery mud, following the route they remembered.
Ten minutes later, their pace had slowed considerably.
Fifteen minutes later, they both stopped.
"We…" Zhang Xiyue hesitated before speaking.
Cheng Mingjiao: "We took the wrong path. These blue basin flowers weren't here when we came."
Zhang Xiyue followed his pointing finger and saw a small cluster of blue-purple flowers.
She had no memory at all of whether such a cluster had been there on the way in, but if His Majesty said it wasn't, then it wasn't.
"What do we do now?" She looked worried.
Getting lost in the mountains was extremely dangerous, especially on a night like this after heavy rain.
Cheng Mingjiao sensed her anxiety and, as a boss, showed his reliable side: "When I was twelve, I won first place in the junior division of a wilderness survival competition. I have extensive experience in the wild. This little situation is nothing."
…He really had won a lot of championships.
Zhang Xiyue felt a bit reassured: "So what do we do now?"
Under her expectant gaze, Cheng Mingjiao began calling Liang Xiao.
No signal.
Cheng Mingjiao calmly turned off his phone and asked: "Do you have your ID on you?"
Zhang Xiyue: "No."
Cheng Mingjiao: "Then when the wild animals come, remember to cover your head and protect your face, so the police can identify you more easily later."
Zhang Xiyue: "…"
Cheng Mingjiao: "Just kidding. Ha."
Zhang Xiyue: "…Not funny."
Cheng Mingjiao was quite pleased with his own humor and didn't mind being dismissed by his employee. After looking around, he said, "We have two options now. One, we follow our tracks back the way we came and find the path from the mud pit. Two, we stay put and wait until dawn to either repeat option one or wait for rescue. The advantage of option one is that it takes the least time—if we're lucky, we'll be back at camp directly. The downside is that it's too dark and easy to go the wrong way. Option two is safer, but the downside is we'd have to stay here until morning."
Zhang Xiyue thought seriously. "You explained it so thoroughly—are you trying to get me to make the decision?"
"Of course not," Cheng Mingjiao denied with a composed expression. "It just rained in the mountains, and the temperature will definitely drop further in the second half of the night. Staying overnight risks hypothermia. We can only choose option one."
Zhang Xiyue: "…"
Then why say all that?
The autocratic emperor didn't care about his employee's feelings. After analyzing the situation, he turned and walked back with his flashlight, and Zhang Xiyue silently followed.
The excitement of finding the little bear had already been replaced by the anxiety of being lost. Zhang Xiyue walked shoulder to shoulder with Cheng Mingjiao, occasionally chiming in with her own analysis of the direction.
Twenty minutes later, the two arrived at an entirely new environment.
Cheng Mingjiao fell silent.
Zhang Xiyue: "…You really won a championship in wilderness survival?"
Cheng Mingjiao: "Of course."
Zhang Xiyue thought for a moment, then asked a key question: "Did the competition have sponsors?"
Cheng Mingjiao: "Obviously."
Zhang Xiyue: "The sponsors weren't your relatives, were they?"
Cheng Mingjiao: "…"
Zhang Xiyue: Got it.
After getting lost repeatedly, they had now completely lost their bearings. Option one was no longer viable, and option two was reduced to just waiting in place.
The two stopped wandering and found a large tree to sit under for shelter from the wind, waiting for rescue the next day.
From the moment he sat down, Cheng Mingjiao kept his eyes lowered and said nothing, radiating a heavy, gloomy aura.
He was looking a bit yandere.
But the reason they'd ended up like this was to help a kid find a stuffed toy.
After walking through the forest for so long, his raincoat had dried, covered in mud stains of varying shades. The short-sleeved shirt underneath was wet and dirty, clinging limply to his stomach, where the outline of his abs was faintly visible.
In all the time she'd known him, this was the first time Zhang Xiyue had seen him so disheveled. Truly… a fallen emperor is worse off than a chicken.
She sighed inwardly and proactively scooted closer to Cheng Mingjiao. "President Cheng."
Cheng Mingjiao kept his eyes lowered, leaning against the tree without speaking.
"President Cheng, I was wrong. I shouldn't have doubted the credibility of your wilderness survival championship. Don't be mad." Zhang Xiyue spoke softly and slowly, offering what was probably her umpteenth apology of the day.
Cheng Mingjiao lazily lifted his eyelids and glanced at her.
"I really know I was wrong." Zhang Xiyue touched her nose, making her already dirty face even less clean.
Cheng Mingjiao stared at her for a few more seconds before speaking casually: "I'm not mad."
Zhang Xiyue: "…Huh?"
Cheng Mingjiao: "Your boring doubts aren't worth my anger."
Zhang Xiyue: "…Then why haven't you been talking?"
"I was just thinking," Cheng Mingjiao looked at the sky, pensive, "about how to get through this night."
Reminded by him, Zhang Xiyue also became worried.
They'd trudged through mud for over an hour and been rained on. Everything below their ankles was wet, and their clothes were damp with moisture. It hadn't been noticeable while they were walking, but now that they were sitting down and their body heat had dissipated, she inexplicably felt a chill.
She looked at Cheng Mingjiao… Cheng Mingjiao had fallen asleep.
How could he be so carefree?
Zhang Xiyue was speechless and gave him a push.
Cheng Mingjiao woke with a start: "What?"
Zhang Xiyue: "Weren't you thinking? Why did you suddenly fall asleep?"
Cheng Mingjiao: "I wasn't asleep."
Zhang Xiyue: "?"
Cheng Mingjiao said with complete composure: "Why are you looking at me?"
"Nothing, just reminded me of my grandpa," Zhang Xiyue smiled. "When my grandpa was still alive, he liked to sleep on the sofa. Whenever I called him to go to bed, he'd say he wasn't asleep."
Perhaps because they were in the wilderness, or because the survival instinct had overshadowed her professional wariness, her attitude toward Cheng Mingjiao had clearly relaxed considerably.
Cheng Mingjiao didn't seem to mind, but he did deliberate for a moment before responding: "I understand your longing for family, but can you also consider me?"
Zhang Xiyue: "?"
Cheng Mingjiao: "Although I'm a firm materialist, you suddenly bringing up a deceased person in this kind of environment still caused me some emotional distress."
Zhang Xiyue: "…"
Cheng Mingjiao considered himself a considerate boss: "You know, he's your grandpa, not mine, so my reaction is only natural."
Zhang Xiyue: "…Oh."
The air fell silent again.
After a brief nap, Cheng Mingjiao's spirits were noticeably better. He sat on the ground, thought for a moment, then took off his long raincoat and looked up at Zhang Xiyue. "Come here."
"Huh?" Zhang Xiyue didn't move right away.
Cheng Mingjiao was sensitive: "What's that look for? Suspecting I have ulterior motives?"
"…I didn't say anything."
Zhang Xiyue felt a bit wronged as she slowly approached him under his scrutinizing gaze.
Cheng Mingjiao waited for her to sit down, then shook out the raincoat and draped it over both of them. "The raincoat material blocks wind but lets air through, and if we huddle together, we can transfer body heat to each other. That way, we can maximize our chances of avoiding hypothermia."
Zhang Xiyue leaned against him, already starting to feel drowsy. "Does this actually work?"
Cheng Mingjiao: "Of course. When I was twelve, I used this exact method to take Guo Fengnian and win first and second place in the junior division of the wilderness survival competition. When my aunt presented us with the awards, she was so moved her eyes nearly welled up with tears."
…So the sponsor really was his relative.
Zhang Xiyue closed her eyes, and her upper body uncontrollably slid down onto his chest.
Hey, Mercedes logo.
She was too sleepy to keep her eyes open, and her cheek instinctively rubbed against him twice before going still.
Cheng Mingjiao, who had been recounting his glorious past, suddenly fell silent.
The wind picked up, and the air grew colder, but the temperature under the raincoat was very high.
Zhang Xiyue kept her eyes closed and spoke as if sleepwalking: "President Cheng."
Cheng Mingjiao: "…What."
Zhang Xiyue: "Your heartbeat is really loud."
Cheng Mingjiao: "…"