Chapter 30 Falling off a cliff

Wen Youqing froze, a bone-chilling chill instantly freezing every limb. The answer was breathtakingly clear—the border troops! They were their target!

"They...how dare they..." Her voice was shaking.

"For power and wealth, what's there to be afraid of?" Cui Junji's tone returned to a cold calm. He took out the medicine bottle he had prepared long ago and bandaged Wen Youqing in the dark. "Madam, do you still think that everyone on Wang Rong's side is kind?"

Wen Youqing was speechless, a heavy darkness completely engulfing her. She and Wang Rong were personal friends, and she had no idea what he was like in his official duties or what his subordinates were like. "So you brought me here specifically."

There was a crisp "pop" sound.

Wen Youqing shook off his numb palm and sneered at the stunned Cui Junji: "Let's put it this way. If I can't get out alive, then you can't get out either."

Unexpectedly, Cui Junji looked like a fool. He pouted his cheek and laughed, "Madam, your expression changes so quickly..."

"Shut up!" Wen Youqing didn't want to listen to him barking, so she found a stone sheltered from the wind and slowly closed her eyes.

The numbers on the account books carried a cold murderous intent and dripping blood. The schemes of those around her also put her in danger. She felt a strong sense of dizziness, but ultimately, the extreme exhaustion and fear could not withstand it, and she passed out.

After an unknown amount of time, Wen Youqing was awakened by the chill and found herself leaning against Cui Junji. Cui Junji's expensive mink fur coat covered most of her body, while Cui Junji, wearing only a thin brocade robe, stared warily out the crevice.

She was slightly startled, feeling a complicated and indescribable feeling in her heart.

"Awake?" Cui Junji said hoarsely without turning around. "Save your energy. We have to leave before dawn." He paused. "Outside, there are wolves passing by."

Wen Youqing's heart sank suddenly, and she silently wrapped herself tightly in the mink fur coat.

Before the sky even broke, Cui Junji was the first to emerge from the crevice. The wound on his shoulder had already healed. Though disheveled, his eyes were sharp. "Let's go," he whispered to Wen Youqing, who had struggled out and whose arm was simply bandaged.

The two men made their way through the rocks and dead trees. When they crossed a ridge and were about to enter the forest, Cui Junji suddenly stopped and fell silent. A sweet, fishy smell lingered on the wind.

Not far away, there was a group of strong men, about thirty or forty people, each carrying a knife and sword, searching the valley bottom.

Wen and Cui held their breath and slowly retreated.

Suddenly, the hairs behind his ears stood up, Wen Youqing turned around and retreated, pushing Cui Junji hard.

A burly man with a face full of flesh came towards him, brandishing a knife. There were people not only in front but also behind him.

"They're here!" the strong man shouted.

As the man spoke, Wen Youqing sealed his throat. But it was too late. Wen Youqing looked at the people rushing towards him, then at the cliff that was just a stone's throw away. "Did you know that cliffs in books can't kill people?"

"What are you crazy about?" Cui Junji frowned and resisted the strong man who pounced on him.

Transmigrating into a book, male protagonist, cliff.

Wen Youqing grabbed Cui Junji's arm and jumped down without hesitation.

-

The torrential rain poured down, slamming heavily against the steep cliffs, making a dull and heart-pounding roar, as if a giant beast was roaring in one's ears.

The last time Wen Youqing regained consciousness was when a huge force suddenly pulled her body away from the falling trajectory. Then the world spun around, and the only sounds left in the world were the sharp sound of the wind and the cold, ubiquitous raindrops.

Consciousness drifted in and out of the darkness. After an unknown amount of time, a dull ache spread throughout her body, accompanied by a biting cold. She struggled to open her heavy eyelids, her vision filled with a blur of mist and a graying sky. The rain pelted her face mercilessly, icy cold.

She tried to move, and immediately felt a tearing pain in her limbs, and she couldn't help but let out a suppressed gasp from her throat.

“Hmm…”

"Don't move." A low and hoarse male voice sounded in her ears, with a kind of forcibly suppressed pain and fatigue.

Wen Youqing was startled and completely awake. She was shocked to realize that she was not lying on the cold, wet, hard rock, but was enclosed in a warm embrace.

Her head rested on his solid chest. Through the wet, cold fabric, she could clearly feel the chest rising and falling slightly. Every breath seemed to stir up some kind of pain, bringing about subtle tremors. She could even smell a faint scent of blood, diluted by the rain.

She almost jumped to try to break free from this overly intimate position, but as soon as she moved, she felt a piercing pain in her right shoulder, which made her vision go black and she fell back onto the solid support.

"Hiss——" Wen Youqing gasped in pain.

"Your right shoulder is dislocated and your ribs may be injured too. You are really a lunatic. You jump without thinking." Cui Junji's voice was still hoarse, but unusually steady, as if he was stating a fact that had nothing to do with him.

He loosened his arms around her waist, his movements showing deliberate distance, supporting his heavy body and slowly sitting up.

The rain kept flowing down his angular jawline, and his face looked particularly pale in the dim sky. A wound on his forehead, which was washed white by the rain, was slowly oozing blood.

Only then did Wen Youqing see clearly the situation of the two people.

They were trapped on a narrow, inward-sloping cliffside platform. Beneath their feet were jagged, slippery rocks. Beyond them lay a bottomless valley, completely swallowed by rain and fog. Behind them was a nearly vertical, wet cliff face, with rain cascading down from above. The only source of light was the gray, oppressive sky overhead.

Wen Youqing's voice was weak and dry, trembling with the pain of surviving a disaster, "Where are the people..."

"I can't catch up with you. After all, no one is as crazy as you. You are lucky. You got caught on the vines and fell on this stone platform." Cui Junji explained briefly. His heart stopped beating the moment she pulled him to jump off the cliff.

Fortunately, nothing happened.

The rain continued to wash away the blood on his face, adding a touch of coldness to his embarrassment. "The pursuers can't come down for now, but we can't go up either. We have to find a way to survive." Seeing Wen Youqing's vigilant eyes, Cui Junji reiterated.

Live. These three words hit Wen Youqing's heart like a cold stone.

She looked around, seeing nothing but cold, damp stone and endless rain, and almost no sign of life. Hunger and cold, like two venomous snakes, began to gnaw at her will. The sharp pain in her shoulder and the aches throughout her body continued to drain her already dwindling strength. "Are you okay?"

"It's just a scratch on the head, but the rest of it is fine." Cui Junji stood up, his tall figure a little cramped on the narrow stone platform. He held onto the slippery cliff face and carefully explored the small shelter.

As expected of the male lead, as long as he lived, she couldn't die. Wen Youqing felt reassured, looking at his rain-soaked back. His dark, military-inspired uniform clung to his body, outlining his broad shoulders and taut muscles. Wen Youqing instantly had many more plans to exploit Cui Junji.

Cui Junji, completely unaware of the situation, slowly moved along the edge of the stone platform, his eyes scanning every gap like an eagle.

"Here." His voice rose slightly, breaking the suffocating sound of rain.

Wen Youqing looked in the direction of the sound and saw him crouching in a small, unassuming recess at the innermost edge of the stone platform, where the cliff meets the ground. Sheltered from the wind and less exposed to the rain, a few clumps of low-growing weeds stubbornly grew there. Their leaves were slender and dark green, a hint of life's tenacity visible against the gray veil of rain.

A faint glimmer of hope, like a candle in the wind, flickered within her. Cui Junji carefully pulled up a few plants, shook off the mud and water, and returned. He handed most of them to her, keeping only a few leaves for himself. His movements were filled with undeniable decisiveness.

"Chew it up and swallow it." His voice was unquestionable and as decisive as a military order.

"What's this?" Wen Youqing took the damp, muddy blades of grass, her fingertips cold. The blades gave off an extremely bitter, even slightly earthy smell that assaulted her nostrils.

"I don't know. Let's eat first to fill our stomach."

She watched as Cui Junji stuffed the leaves in his hand into his mouth without hesitation, chewed them vigorously for a few times, and swallowed them with difficulty, his Adam's apple rolling. His brows were tightly furrowed, and it was obvious that the taste was not pleasant.

Wen Youqing no longer hesitated. A strong desire to survive overwhelmed her instinctive resistance. She stuffed the muddy-smelling blades into her mouth and chewed vigorously. An indescribable, nauseating bitterness and earthy taste instantly filled her mouth, harder to swallow than the bitterest medicine. She resisted the urge to vomit, forcing herself to crush and swallow the blades. The rough fibers scraped across her throat, causing a burning pain.

After eating a few leaves of grass, the pitiful feeling of fullness, which was better than nothing, did not come as expected. Instead, it was like a cold flame was ignited.

At first, it was just a strange churning in his stomach, like a cold snake wriggling inside. Soon, the chill spread rapidly, coursing madly through the meridians of his limbs and bones. Wen Youqing shuddered violently, a hundred times more intense than when he was caught in the rain just now, and his teeth chattered uncontrollably.

"Cold..." She curled up, hugged herself tightly with her arms, and her voice trembled, "It's so cold..."