Her vision grew darker and darker. Xie Yu's head drooped, and she slipped into unconsciousness.
Then pain woke her again.
She thought she had only passed out for a minute or two. She moved her face slightly, felt how dry the blood on her skin had become, and realized she must have been unconscious for a long time.
The pain in her leg hadn't lessened in the slightest. From the moment she woke, it consumed all her awareness.
The thought of "it hurts so much, I might as well die" screamed inside her head.
She moved her finger.
"I have to live."
Enduring the pain tearing at her wound, she used her hands to dig away the mud covering her body, clawing herself free.
After pulling herself out, her fingernails were packed with blood and sludge. Her entire body was drenched in sweat. She lay on the mud for a while longer to rest.
She tried to brace herself with her hands and stand—but fell face-first back down, her mouth filling with muddy water, the stench bitter and sharp.
It hurt.
She wiped her face with her hand and began crawling toward the cave entrance.
Flattened against the mud, she dragged herself forward inch by inch until she reached the outside. The bleeding had nearly stopped, but still left behind a faint reddish trail.
At the cave entrance, she found two branches and finally managed to prop herself up. She tested the ground lightly with her injured leg.
A cry of agony tore from her throat.
She sucked in breath over and over, abandoning the idea of walking on both legs. Using the branches and one leg, she dragged herself forward, the injured leg trailing uselessly behind.
She headed toward where she remembered the camp to be.
After the flood, the mountain paths were slick. She moved with extreme caution, one branch in each hand, probing the ground before every step.
Even so, she stepped onto a wet leaf. Her balance vanished, and she tumbled down the slope along the mountain wall, rolling until a thicket caught her.
Branches scraped several gashes across her face. She opened her eyes, which had squeezed shut instinctively, and stared at the gloomy sky above while pain continued to spread through her body.
She let out a bitter laugh.
The movement tugged at her wounds again. She hissed through her teeth, forced herself up, found two more branches, and kept going.
She estimated that the distance between the cave where she woke and the camp was several kilometers. Even someone uninjured would take a long time. In her current wrecked state, she might die falling down the mountain first.
At least she was crippled but determined.
Xie Yu mocked herself internally as she continued forward. Sweat dripped from her forehead, stinging her eyes painfully.
She had expected the road ahead to be endless—but suddenly she heard voices in the forest. Many footsteps. Chaotic.
She stopped, tilted her head to listen, confirmed they were gathering in one direction, and followed the sound.
—
Shen Changyin gathered the nearby soldiers.
"We've received news from below the mountain. There are enough people there. We don't need to rush down—but we do need precise searches. Not a single inch of ground is to be missed."
"All caves and rock shelters must be searched. If a cave is too deep, call nearby people and enter in teams. You all have charcoal pencils—mark the entrance of every cave that's been checked."
It was nearly noon.
On the mountain and below it, nearly a thousand people were searching for Xie Yu—yet there was still no news.
From the moment she learned something had happened, Shen Changyin's heart had not stopped hurting.
Now her abdomen began to spasm as well, affecting her speech.
She closed her eyes briefly, enduring the involuntary trembling of her body, forcibly suppressing her emotions, and added weight to her orders.
"Find her. Each of you will receive an additional three years' pay."
She waved her hand.
"Go."
But the soldiers didn't turn around.
They stared at something behind her, expressions strange.
Shen Changyin's head throbbed dully. She darkened her expression and asked, "What are you looking at? Why aren't you moving?"
Before she could turn, she heard an extremely weak voice.
"You're really rich."
The familiar voice was unbearably hoarse.
Shen Changyin's body froze. She stood still for two seconds before slowly turning around.
Xie Yu couldn't possibly look more wretched—she looked no different from a wild woman from the mountains. Her clothes were in tatters, she leaned on two branches, her face devoid of color except for the dark red-brown blood crusted onto her skin.
When she saw Shen Changyin turn around, even though pain twisted her face again, she still forced herself to speak.
"That's a bit too extravagant, isn't it, fiancée? Could you just give the money directly to me?"
Shen Changyin stood several meters away, staring at her, confirming this wasn't a hallucination—then she ran forward.
Wind roared past her ears as she pulled the woman into her arms. The sense of relief nearly burst out of her chest.
She held her tightly, as if trying to fuse this lost-and-found presence back into her bones and blood.
"It hurts, it hurts, it hurts, Minister Shen," Xie Yu said weakly, resting her chin on Shen Changyin's shoulder, letting the weight of her head sink onto her, murmuring by her ear.
Shen Changyin immediately loosened her grip, supporting her carefully so she wouldn't fall, guiding her forward.
A soldier stepped up to help, but Shen Changyin waved her off. Supporting Xie Yu alone, she ordered:
"You four—go down the mountain and bring a stretcher up. The rest of you descend immediately and inform the military doctor and Jiang Fang. Tell them to stop searching. Have the military doctor return to the spring hunt camp and wait."
Her words allowed no defiance. The soldiers obeyed at once.
She gently helped Xie Yu sit against a tree.
During the movement, Xie Yu tugged at her wound and trembled violently with pain, biting down hard to keep from crying out—only thin gasps escaped her.
Shen Changyin became even more careful. She settled her against the tree and sat beside her.
She reached out and gently pressed Xie Yu's face toward herself.
Xie Yu complied, leaning against her shoulder, their body heat slowly exchanging through damp fabric.
The forest was quiet. The air after the storm was extraordinarily fresh. Water still dripped occasionally from the leaves above.
They sat like that.
Shen Changyin felt like someone who had been suspended in terror at great heights, finally returned safely to the ground. Beyond the panic of survival, a burning ache crept into her eyes.
She gazed at the distant forest, hiding the thickness in her voice, and asked softly:
"Where did the flood carry you? You were hurt this badly—and you still walked back. How much did it hurt?"
Xie Yu rested her cheek against Shen Changyin's shoulder, feeling the soft flesh of her face slightly squashed against the other woman's thin, bony frame. She blinked and spoke slowly.
"I'm… okay."
In the mountains, ferns with curling, tangled leaves had been bent low by the rain. Once the rain passed, they slowly straightened again.
Occasionally, a crisp birdcall pierced the silence. With her head resting on Shen Changyin's shoulder, Xie Yu found herself cherishing this moment.
"This time I really injured muscles and bones. I wonder what kind of medicine Physician Zhang will prescribe later. What do you think it'll taste like?"
"Probably similar to the medicine she prescribed for me."
"Then it'll be very bitter."
"How do you know?"
"You always leave medicine at the bottom of the bowl. I secretly dipped a chopstick in and tasted it."
Time seemed to stretch like a taut string, slowly drawn longer in that moment.
After an unknown amount of time, Shen Changyin finally said, "I hope you know that I would have found you."
Xie Yu had lost far too much blood. She had no strength left, and even her speech was slow and weak.
"I know."
"So if there's a next time, you don't need to push yourself so hard."
"I owed you an answer. I promised I would come back."
The conversation inevitably arrived at this point. Xie Yu lifted her head and looked straight at Shen Changyin, her expression serious.
"I used to get angry because you never confessed, but I never truly thought about how I should respond once you did."
"I hope you understand—this has nothing to do with you. You are incredibly, incredibly good. Almost perfect."
"This is my problem…"
Shen Changyin suddenly reached out and covered her mouth.
"Don't say that answer. Keep it in your heart, until the day it changes."
"Shen Changyin, you don't understand—" Xie Yu pulled her hand away.
"I do." Shen Changyin's expression was gentle and calm.
"I know your answer. And I will change that answer."
"There will only ever be one ending for us. So no matter what the situation is right now, it doesn't matter."
Xie Yu didn't know what to say anymore. She shook her head.
"You don't understand. The problem isn't you, it's me. If your feelings for me are eight parts, I can't respond with only six."
"Ten." Shen Changyin said.
"What?"
"My feelings for you are ten out of ten. And I will make your feelings for me become ten as well."
A trace of pride and unwavering resolve surfaced between her gentle brows.
"I can do it."
Xie Yu's heart pounded wildly. She couldn't tell whether it was because of her injuries, her anger, or something else entirely. She only knew that the sound of her heartbeat was deafening, filling her entire mind.
She wanted to say something more, but Shen Changyin tugged her sleeve again and made her rest her head back on her shoulder.
Shen Changyin cut off the conversation decisively.
"Rest first."
Xie Yu let out a sigh.
Thankfully, the pain all over her body distracted her from the panic of being confessed to.
Thankfully, her injuries were so severe that leaning against Shen Changyin's shoulder felt completely justified.
The stretcher arrived quickly. She was carried down the mountain and sent into a tent at the spring hunt encampment.
They had left in the dead of night, during a torrential downpour, quietly and without a sound. But now they returned in full view of everyone—countless people saw her half-dead body, covered in mud, lying on the stretcher.
The group of soldiers who had gone with her to rescue people the night before had also returned. They refused to go back to their own tents. They had been resting in the open ground, but the moment they saw her come back, they all stood up and followed behind the stretcher, step by step, not daring to get too close.
The Empress heard the commotion outside. She lifted the tent flap and saw Xie Yu in this condition. She was first shocked, then her expression darkened immediately, and she flew into a rage, scolding one person after another.
But Xie Yu and Shen Changyin paid no attention. The soldiers were only focused on urgently sending Xie Yu into the tent.
The military physician had already boiled water and prepared clean towels and various tools, waiting for her.
Jiang Fang, Old Jin, and Zhu Ting were all there as well.
Physician Zhang moved Xie Yu onto a bed covered with a layer of white cloth and first used a damp towel to wipe the mud and blood from her face.
Only after her face was cleaned did everyone truly see how pale she was—her face ashen like gold paper—and the wound on her right forehead, still seeping blood.
The physician reached out to feel it, then raised one finger and moved it in front of Xie Yu's eyes.
"Follow my finger with your eyes."
This was a quick method used at accident scenes to check for concussion, by observing whether the pupils could move normally.
But Physician Zhang was clearly someone from an ancient era.
Xie Yu was speechless.
"How do you know how to check for a concussion?"
"Oh, so it's called a concussion. The name is quite fitting."
She pointed back at Shen Changyin.
"Lady Shen taught me. She told me to do this whenever a patient suffers a head injury."
Again—Shen Changyin.
Was she really not someone who had crossed over from another world like herself?
Xie Yu had tested her once before, asking what came after a famous coded phrase.
All she got in return was a look that clearly said, "Have you been overstimulated?"
If Shen Changyin wasn't someone who had crossed over, then she could master classics and history, compose poetry, lead rebellions, force palace coups, was beautiful, and now had apparently invented an ancient concussion check?
What window had heaven closed for her?
Xie Yu sighed helplessly.
"My head is fine. Check my leg first."
She was covered in mud and couldn't see the condition of her leg clearly.
Physician Zhang only knew her leg had been cut, but didn't know how severe it was. As she cut open the fabric on Xie Yu's thigh with scissors, she said,
"It shouldn't be too serious. If it were, you'd already be in unbearable pain—"
She pulled aside the cloth covering the wound. When she saw the deep, torn flesh, her voice disappeared entirely.
Jiang Fang, Old Jin, and Zhu Ting couldn't help closing their eyes and turning their heads away.
Only Shen Changyin stared unblinking at the mangled flesh.
Physician Zhang grimaced for a long while before finding her voice again.
"How are you not already dead from the pain?"
Sweat had already formed again on Xie Yu's freshly cleaned face. She said weakly,
"If you don't treat it soon, I really will die from the pain."
Physician Zhang immediately ordered her assistant to bring over the anesthetic powder.
"You're far too good at enduring pain. Even if you want to be a fierce woman, this isn't how you do it. Any soldier I've seen with an injury like this would have been screaming loud enough for the whole world to hear."
Xie Yu quickly glanced at Shen Changyin, then looked away again.
She thought, It's not like I've never screamed before.
But now was a time that required dignity.
She drank the anesthetic. Her mind grew hazy. As she stared at the tent ceiling, she could still feel the physician working on her wound.
Compared to modern anesthesia, the effect was still insufficient. The pain was still there. At first, she could endure it, but halfway through the stitching, she reached out to the side.
The physician's assistants froze, not knowing what she intended to do.
Shen Changyin looked at her sweat-soaked face, folded a clean towel, and gently placed it into her mouth.
Xie Yu bit down on the towel and withdrew her hand.
She clenched her teeth around the towel. By the time the stitching was finished, her teeth had nearly worn holes through it.
Physician Zhang finished treating the wound, straightened up, and let out a long breath.
"That's about it."
She called out to the assistants.
"Change her clothes and wipe her clean."
"No need for them. I'll do it." Shen Changyin said. "All of you can leave."
Physician Zhang exchanged a glance with Jiang Fang and quickly led everyone out.
Only Xie Yu was left lying helplessly on the bed, a towel still stuffed in her mouth, staring wide-eyed at Shen Changyin washing towels in hot water.
Seeing Shen Changyin approach, even though her limbs felt weak from the anesthetic, Xie Yu still struggled to prop herself up, spat out the towel, and shook her head repeatedly.
"I'll do it myself. I can do it myself."
A person—even in front of her own fiancée—should still try her best to preserve her modesty.
Shen Changyin stood in place, looking at her.
"May I ask how the Third Highness plans to wipe her back in this condition?"
Xie Yu was covered in mud—her back included.
With her injuries, attempting to wipe her own back would inevitably pull at the wound.
Xie Yu knew there was no solution. She was also truly fed up with the sticky, filthy feeling on her body and wanted to change clothes.
After much deliberation, she said,
"Then you only wipe my back. I'll do everything else myself. I'll do it."
Shen Changyin looked at her for a long moment, then brought the hot water and several clean towels to a stool beside the bed, tossing a clean set of underclothes onto the bed as well.
She stood by the bedside, watching Xie Yu.
Xie Yu picked up a towel, awkwardly.
"Could you… turn around?"
Shen Changyin slowly turned her back.
Xie Yu struggled out of her clothes and wiped herself down. Several towels were quickly dirtied, but she was mostly clean now.
She pulled the blanket over herself from the waist down, slipped the underclothes on backward over her front, then lay face-down on the bed, exposing her back. Her face was buried in the pillow, her voice muffled.
"Okay."
The pillow pressed gently against her face. She couldn't see anything—only heard Shen Changyin turning back, heard her rinsing the dirty towels and water, heard her approaching with a clean towel.
Her back was completely exposed to the air. She couldn't help shivering. The closer Shen Changyin came, the more a tingling sensation spread across her back.
It didn't feel like someone was about to wipe her back.
It felt like she was about to be executed—waiting for a blade to fall at an unknown moment.
The faint fragrance from Shen Changyin reached her first. Soon, a hot towel was placed against her back, warm and soothing.
The heat itself was comfortable, but every movement Shen Changyin made filled her with tension.
She had no idea whether this was enjoyment—
—or punishment.
"You have a lot of wounds on your back too," Shen Changyin said softly.
"Oh, maybe they're from rolling down the mountain and getting scratched by little stones. It's nothing. Just cleaning them is fine. They don't even need treatment," Xie Yu replied casually.
Shen Changyin fell into a long silence because of that.
Finally, after Shen Changyin finished wiping her back, Xie Yu propped herself up with her hands. Her underclothes were still on the front of her body.
Shen Changyin had already turned her back.
Xie Yu readjusted her underclothes. "I'm done."
Shen Changyin turned to face her. Her eyes were red and glistening, as if a small lake had formed in the corners, reflecting light like rippling water.
Xie Yu panicked.
"W-what's… wrong?"
Since last night until now, she had endured countless injuries and suffered greatly, but she had never felt hopeless because she felt she had an invisible, hard layer of armor. Even when injured, she could rely on this layer to hold herself together, to prevent collapse or falling apart.
She was familiar with this state. She called it her "iron skin." Before crossing over, she often used it to face grueling training that pushed her to her limits.
But now, that iron layer was no longer hard. It had softened, grown tender, almost sour.
Shen Changyin's tears could rust the iron skin.
"Don't cry. I'm fine, really," Xie Yu said hurriedly, raising one arm and flexing slightly to show her strength.
But nothing could stop it.
Shen Changyin stared at her, unblinking, and a tear fell.
The tear ran down her stunning face, soaked her almost-translucent skin, paused at the edge of her cheek, and then rolled off.
It felt like that single tear landed directly on Xie Yu's heart.
Thump, thump. Thump, thump.
Xie Yu pressed a hand over her heart, feeling it swell and leap with excitement.
—
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