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The accompanying imperial physician was shot to death in the hail of arrows. Du Yaoyao had a high fever that wouldn't go away. Chen Jie used common methods to apply a wet towel to her and feed her clean water, but to no avail.

There are mountains and deep forests within a hundred miles of here, and there are no villages or houses. The bandits behind are chasing us, so we can't stop. It is estimated that a tight net has been set up in Jindu City, so we can only surrender if we go there.

Du Yaoyao's body was weak and she felt drowsy. She had to rely on Chen Jie to carry her or him on her back on the way. The dry food they brought had been left for several days and became dry, hard and without any nutrition. In order to maintain their strength, the guards caught wild birds and skinned them alive and ate them raw.

The reason for not lighting fires is that they are afraid of being exposed by smoke during the day or fire at night.

Chen Jie fed Du Yaoyao the chewed dry food. She swallowed it with difficulty, but she developed a stomachache at night. Her face turned pale from the pain and she fainted.

After she swallowed the fresh raw meat, her condition worsened, and she began to vomit and leak bile.

By the evening of the fourth day, he had lost almost all consciousness and fell into a coma.

Chen Jie sat alone holding Du Yaoyao.

The night is dark and the moon is lonely and bleak. The swaying shadows of the trees, with their branches and leaves, look like a group of wild ghosts summoning souls and demanding lives.

The woman in his arms was like a rapidly withering flower. In just a few days, her beauty disappeared, and her sunken eye sockets and pointed chin became more obvious.

"Yaoyao." Chen Jie put his face against hers, feeling her warm and weak breath. For the first time in his life, he felt confused, helpless, lost, and at a loss.

Like a beast trapped in a cage.

Tears welled up in his eyes and flowed down her cheek without him noticing.

Is it raining?

Du Yaoyao felt as if she was surrounded by a white fog and couldn't get out no matter how hard she struggled. She felt a warm touch on her face and a drop of water fell on her lips. She licked it and it tasted salty, just like sea water.

Has she returned to the present?

"Yaoyao, Yaoyao..." Chen Jie noticed that Du Yaoyao's lips were moving, and called out in surprise.

For several days, her high fever had been rising and falling, and her mind was mostly in a coma. She either moaned in pain or mumbled incoherently, and she hadn't been able to speak a single word to him properly.

Du Yaoyao's eyelids seemed to weigh a thousand pounds. She tried hard for a long time and finally managed to keep them open.

What came into view was a face with tired features and dark stubble.

The voice uttered by this face was rough and hoarse, no longer as clear as before.

"Yaoyao, you're awake. Are you feeling better?"

In Du Yaoyao's impression, Chen Jie was clean and tidy, cold and arrogant, and he was rarely seen unkempt and sloppy.

She forced her lips together and uttered a word, "Ugly..."

Chen Jie held up Du Yaoyao's back and poured water into the lid of the pot to feed her. "I was so worried that you were still in the mood to joke with me after waking up."

Du Yaoyao smiled palely.

"Would you like to eat something?" Shen Jie asked.

Du Yaoyao shook her head. Her stomach felt like it was burning, with waves of burning pain, and she was afraid she wouldn't be able to eat anything.

I don’t know how many years I have spent in this illness. “How many days have we been gone?”

Shen Jie said: "This is the evening of the fourth day."

"The fourth day." Du Yaoyao sighed in bewilderment.

It would take at least ten days for someone from the capital to come and rescue her, and she might not be able to wait that long.

Chen Jie looked at her silent expression, his heart ached, and he coaxed her gently: "Yaoyao, it's okay, I won't abandon you, you have to get better soon."

Du Yaoyao smiled slightly and remained silent.

Chen Jie took out a dagger and cut the wound on his wrist. Blood gushed out and he put it to her mouth.

Du Yaoyao looked at his swollen wrist, which looked like a wound that had healed and then reopened. She asked in shock, "What are you doing? Are you crazy?"

Chen Jie acted as if it had nothing to do with him, and said considerately, "You've been drinking these days, Yaoyao, open your mouth quickly."

The smell of blood lingered in her nose, and blood seeped from her lips to the tip of her tongue. Du Yaoyao's eyes turned red and she turned her head away, "I don't want to drink it, take it away!"

Shen Jie did as he was told. He did not bandage the wound. The blood beads formed into lines and pieces, dripping down, and the ground was covered with blood.

"Chen Jie, what are you doing?" Du Yaoyao was so angry that tears fell.

"If you die, I will die with you." Shen Jie said lightly.