As soon as Jiang Xi finished speaking, the man, unable to bear the pain, leaned against the tree beside him and slid to the ground.

He looked at the face he had dreamed of countless times, then laughed. His fine bangs were soaked with cold sweat. As he laughed, his eyes began to glaze over, and he murmured, "It's my fault. I ruined her."

Jiang Xi was taken aback by the answer. She turned to look at Yan Zheng, and the two exchanged a glance. Yan Zheng subconsciously pulled her back a little, frowned, and looked down at the man on the ground.

The weather is bad today; low, heavy clouds cover the sky, and an autumn wind is blowing through the woods.

"It's so cold," Jiang Xi thought to herself.

She felt a little suffocated. She had only guessed, but she never expected that her guess would come true. The atmosphere between the three of them suddenly became heavy.

Jiang Xi asked softly, "How did she die?"

Then, she suddenly realized something and said in a deep voice, "Never mind, you don't need to tell me."

She ripped the herb tied to her forehead, walked to Yan Zheng's side, took his hand, and looked up at him.

Suddenly I felt like laughing, and also like crying.

Yan Zheng's forehead and arms were covered in residual bloodstains and yellowish-green herbal sap, all mixed together. She wanted to hug him but didn't know where to start, afraid of touching his wounds. So she only gently squeezed his fingertips.

Then, dragging her sprained ankle, she limped into the cave to collect the pots and water bottles. She came out with her backpack and down jacket on her back. Yan Zheng saw her and reached out to take them, but Jiang Xi blocked him.

She grabbed Yan Zheng's uninjured arm and helped him leave.

After walking about ten meters, Jiang Xi stopped and returned to the man's side. Blood was constantly flowing from between his fingers as he clutched his arm with his right hand. Jiang Xi saw his face gradually turn pale, and she looked away, unable to bear to look any longer.

She said, "I don't want to know about your affairs."

After pausing for two seconds, he said, "I am not her, and you are not my Yan Zheng. Don't bother us anymore."

She laughed self-deprecatingly: "And you always say he will kill me, but have you ever thought that neither Jiang Xi in this world nor I seem to have a very good fate?"

She remembered that Yan Zheng once said that there are laws governing the universe. Perhaps he was right. If this was Jiang Xi's fate, then no matter which world Jiang Xi was in, her ending might have already been predetermined.

It was precisely because she left her original world and was no longer bound by the laws that she survived to this day. In other words, Yan Zheng snatched this remaining half of her life for her.

She looked into the man's eyes and warned him, "I don't need anyone to sacrifice for me, because I don't have the courage to take someone else's life on my own shoulders."

After saying that, she turned and left, leaving the man lying half-on the ground. He seemed to no longer feel the pain, a smile playing on his lips, his eyes looking into the distance as if piercing through the dense forest.

Jiang Xi pulled Yan Zheng away as they gradually disappeared into the jungle.

**

No one spoke; only the sound of footsteps echoed through the jungle. It should have been a sunny day, but a light drizzle began to fall.

Then the raindrops grew larger and larger, and as the sky brightened in the distance, thunder rumbled in, like a clock striking in the heavens, making people feel dizzy.

Yan Zheng suddenly stopped. He held Jiang Xi's left hand tightly and warmed her cold fingertips with his palm: "Jiang Xi, we can't travel on the rainy road. Let's go back to the cave the way we came."

Jiang Xi stopped in her tracks, standing still, looking down at her sneakers. Her feet were covered in grass juice and mud, making it impossible to tell that they were originally a pair of white sneakers.

She suddenly felt a stinging sensation in her nose, and then tears streamed down her face like beads from a broken string. Jiang Xi covered her face and cried uncontrollably.

Overwhelmed with grief, she choked back tears, saying, "It's all because of him. If it weren't for him, you wouldn't be like this today."

“From sixteen to now, a full eight years, he ruined eight years of your life.”

How many eight-year periods does a person have? Because of something that happened in another timeline, Yan Zheng's promising life was ruined. What did he do wrong?

Seeing her looking so aggrieved on his behalf, Yan Zheng tenderly wiped away her tears and pulled her into his arms.

He said, "Actually, if you think about it carefully, it's possible that he was the one who saved us."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Xi stopped sobbing in shock. She looked at Yan Zheng with a blank expression, as if he were a fool, waiting for him to continue.

Yan Zheng said, "How many people in this world believe in parallel worlds, let alone make these two worlds intersect? But look, all of this has happened to us, and I suspect that he is the key that triggered it all."

"Even if we can't explain the underlying principles, we have to admit that it was because of him that I was able to glimpse this world and bring you here when you were hurt."

Jiang Xi sniffed and asked, "But you shouldn't have had to endure all this. He almost killed you."

As she spoke, her eyes filled with tears again.

Yan Zheng stroked the top of her head and said, "There's no question of right or wrong. On the contrary, I'm very grateful to him. If it weren't for him, I'm afraid I would have really lost you."

"Isn't he lucky too?" Yan Zheng thought to himself, and hugged the person in his arms tighter.

Then he joked, "Besides, we're still together now. I can take on challenges and fight, and I can even catch fish and ducks for you to eat. Now it seems the outcome isn't so bad."

Jiang Xi didn't know how to refute his saintly remarks; her mouth seemed stuck, but she still stubbornly refused to turn around.

The rain gradually intensified, and Yan Zheng wiped the raindrops from her forehead.

Once she had calmed down a bit, Yan Zheng held her hand tightly, as if to encourage her, and led her back the way they came.

As he walked, he kept a close eye on the ground. When he got close to the cave, he had already clutched a handful of herbs in his hand. The man was still lying under the tree, looking like he had passed out. Yan Zheng quickly went over to check his breathing and then carried him up.

Jiang Xi was initially reluctant to go over, but seeing Yan Zheng struggling, she went over to help and lent a hand, supporting him from the side to help him into the cave.

She told herself, "Just do it for Yan Zheng's sake."

The man was injured on his shoulder. Yan Zheng took off his shirt. It was already late autumn in the woods, but he was only wearing a short-sleeved shirt and a spring/summer windbreaker.

The bleeding had stopped, but the wound was deep, and there were no stitches available. He first helped clean up the surrounding blood and water stains, then took out two anti-inflammatory pills from the inside of his backpack, feeding him one and sprinkling the other on the wound.

Then, help him lean against the wall to rest for a while.

Both of them were soaked to the bone, and there was no dry firewood in the cave to keep warm, only a straw mat to use as a bed.

Yan Zheng is hot-tempered, and he can tolerate taking off his clothes to dry, but Jiang Xi can't. Even without wearing wet clothes, she will catch a cold in the current temperature.