Suicide pacts are not an ancient legend.
The door opened, and in the last moment before darkness completely filled his vision, Xie Chengnan fell face-down.
As if divine intervention had occurred, or perhaps it was simply his destiny, Zhan Xian and her men quickly surrounded him. The flesh and blood of the An army, along with their shields, formed an unbreakable barrier, tightly protecting him within.
Swords, spears, and halberds could no longer harm him in the slightest.
Beyond the shield formation, another detachment of An soldiers, as fierce as tigers, tore through the Li army's encirclement. Long swords, spears, and arrows pierced flesh, and shields struck bodies with deafening thuds.
Anjun shouted and roared as they welcomed back their two generals.
The Li army retreated entirely back to their camp, and the An army also withdrew to their defensive lines.
The latch fell, as if dust had settled.
Both sides suffered heavy losses, but in the end, Anguo won by half a point.
He was so badly injured that basins of blood were carried out of the hospital.
He had countless wounds, large and small, but the most fatal arrow had pierced his left lung through the area below his collarbone. Air rushed in through the wound, causing a pneumothorax. But that was the worst of it; bleeding in his lungs and blood filling his alveoli had already affected his breathing.
Even while unconscious, bloody foam uncontrollably spilled from the corners of his mouth.
Lin Yi removed the foreign object from his mouth, adjusted him to a position that made it easier for him to breathe, applied herbs such as Bletilla striata and Panax notoginseng to reduce inflammation and stop bleeding, and then covered the wound with sheepskin. After working for most of the hour, he finally managed to stop the bleeding.
She slid down to the floor in front of the bed, her hands covered in blood, making it difficult to even grasp anything.
The bleeding had been temporarily stopped, but Lin Yi knew that this was not enough to save Xie Chengnan's life. He needed surgery.
The ruptured lung lobe urgently needs repair, and the damaged and cracked sternum also needs to be healed and corrected.
However, there is no sterile environment, no professional operating table, and not even a professional, let alone authoritative, doctor here.
But she couldn't give up; if she did, who could save him...?
Not daring to waste even a second longer, Lin Yi immediately found the system and, unwilling to give up, flipped through the books and medicines available for redemption on the store shelves again and again.
"Do you have any books on internal medicine or surgery? Or on lung trauma repair? Anything is fine, as long as I can successfully complete the surgery for him!"
The system responded after a long delay: 【No, host.】
"If you don't have it, then find a way! The host has a need, so go find it, buy it, or even steal it! With access to modern big data, you'll always find a way to get it!"
[Host, the system understands your anxiety. Although you have a high score, you cannot redeem items that are not available in the store; this is the rule.]
"Can the rules be changed?!"
In principle, it is not possible.
Lin Yi took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down. "Then it can be changed. Tell me, how?"
[Friendly reminder: According to the system's assessment, this character has less than a 40% chance of survival. Please do not make futile struggles and respect the character's fate.]
"Respect your mother!" Even if there's only a 40% chance, she'll still do it.
Wait! The words "characters' fates" gave her a sudden reminder! Lin Yi suddenly thought of the cloaked figure that appeared in the ending. After Gu Shu'an successfully ascended the throne and the country was at peace, the mysterious cloaked figure who flashed by in the ending! That was Xie Chengnan; she couldn't be mistaken.
Like a drowning person grasping at a last straw, Lin Yi held on tightly.
The system cruelly shattered the last glimmer of hope: [In the original story, there is no direct description indicating that the cloaked figure is Xie Chengnan. Even if the host has made some deductions, without explicit revelation of his identity, the cloaked figure could be Xie Chengnan, or it could be someone else.]
[In the original book, Xie Chengnan's storyline ends after the battle with Xili. Therefore, if this character dies, the subsequent plot will be automatically corrected, and another character will take over as the cloaked figure.]
Lin Yi was stunned, and before she knew it, tears were streaming down her face.
She held back her tears when she saw Xie Chengnan return severely injured, and she didn't cry when she saw him covered in wounds, with his fatal wounds gushing bright red blood like a spring.
Tears fell silently, and Lin Yi reluctantly reached out to wipe them away, forgetting that her hands were covered in blood, which smeared half of her face.
He looked as wretched as a demon.
She wiped away her tears, but more welled up soon after, so she ignored them and stared at a point in the void, asking, "What about me? If the host dies, will this world, along with you, the system, still exist?"
Her tone was calm, and she could even laugh, which made her seem all the more cruel.
The system fell silent, but soon responded: "As the host, your final mission—ensuring Anguo's victory—has been completed in principle. Even without a host, the male and female protagonists' storyline will continue as it was in the original book."
"Hahahaha," Lin Yi laughed out loud. So that's how it is.
Qiu Qingye's storyline had already concluded, and the prerequisite for Anguo's victory—the deaths and serious injuries of the two leaders of Xili—was negligible. The outcome was already decided when Zhan Xian shot the Xili crown prince with an arrow. He was no longer of any use to the plot or the system.
In the world of "Mountains and Rivers with You," it doesn't matter whether she exists or not.
Lin Yi finally gave up completely.
But she wouldn't give up. How could she give up? How could Xie Chengnan die? No, absolutely not. Such a good Xie Chengnan, her Xie Chengnan, she would never let anything happen to him.
He must live.
“If Xie Chengnan dies, I will go with him. Before that happens—until the An army achieves final victory—I will kill Gu Shuan and Zhan Xian, and burn the An army camp to the ground. I will destroy this world, and I mean it.”
Without any hysteria, her words were all the more convincing.
The system remained silent for a while, then seemed to sigh.
[The host's requirements are too stringent; it needs to be integrated with the latest medical database and upgraded by importing relevant professional expertise. The system will submit an application to the technical department, and the corresponding update and upgrade will be carried out after the application is approved. This will take at least three business days to complete.]
"one day."
[Host, this is not buying groceries at a market. Bargaining is not supported. A minimum of three business days is required; otherwise, the professionalism of the information cannot be guaranteed, and the host will be solely responsible for any consequences. Host, do you confirm the upgrade?]
"Upgrade! Quickly... the faster the better."
Three days... she was afraid... afraid he wouldn't be able to wait that long.
In real life, such a severe injury would warrant immediate admission to the ICU for surgery.
He could only lie in the simple military medical tent, without nutrient solution or antibiotics, enduring the hardness of the bed.
She could only watch helplessly, waiting for the system's message, unable to do anything.
Just like last time, she waited for Xie Chengnan's news.
No, it's different, Lin Yi told himself. During the last storm, he didn't know where the other was, or whether he was alive or dead. He could only wait passively, while the other was the only one making an effort.
Now, she will wait with him for these three days, accompany him through these most difficult three days, and then she can perform the surgery on his behalf.
Lin Yi kept telling herself this, brainwashing herself over and over again. If she didn't do this, she was afraid she wouldn't be able to hold on before Xie Chengnan.
That night, Xie Chengnan started to have a fever.
The high fever persists.
No matter how she called out, the system did not respond.
Lin Yi even wondered if there would be no updates at all, that the system had finally had enough of her bossy attitude and stopped caring about her, leaving the world to fend for itself. Whenever this happened, Lin Yi would abruptly interrupt her thoughts and force herself to do something.
She wiped Xie Chengnan's body, held his hand and spoke to him gently, or did nothing but stare at his face for hours on end until the fever subsided.
As the agreed-upon three days drew closer, Xie Chengnan's sudden high fever became more frequent and severe with each episode. For the last two days, the fever persisted, and despite Lin Yi's best efforts, his hands remained burning hot.
"Xie Chengnan, if this keeps going, I'll be able to scramble an egg on your forehead," Lin Yi said with a wry smile.
But it wasn't funny at all, and the smile on her lips quickly faded.
Then she held Xie Chengnan's hand and burst into tears.
On the morning of the third day, the fever seemed to have subsided somewhat. But Lin Yi was not happy at all.
Xie Chengnan's breathing became increasingly rapid, like the violent gasping of a dying person, desperately craving the thin air, only to suddenly weaken at certain moments.
The system remained unresponsive, but the cheat system diligently reminded her of the body's appalling condition, making her realize how luxurious it was to even wait for the agreed-upon three days.
She was sometimes as anxious as an ant on a hot pan, cursing the system in her mind over and over again. Then, like a dying old woman, she sat slumped beside Xie Chengnan, thinking in despair, "So be it. Let him and I, along with this world, perish together."
Nothing should exist.
Immediately afterwards, she slapped herself awake.
He is still alive. Even if his breathing is weak, he is trying his best to live in this world. How could she give up on him first? How could she even have the thought of giving up?
How could she possibly be worthy of it?
Sometimes she would suddenly feel that she was terrifying.
The front lines were still engulfed in gunfire, and the soldiers disregarded their own lives, providing her with the safest corner in the entire Anjun camp. There were even special guards outside her tent to protect her safety.
Zhan Xian, also a woman, was still recovering from her injuries, yet she led her troops to the front lines.
This world doesn't belong to her alone. Even without Xie Chengnan, even without her, it should continue to exist.
How could she have taken the threat system's words seriously...?
She felt as if she had been split in two.
One half of her body sank into despair like mud, half of her body already plunged into the abyss, being swallowed little by little by the bottomless darkness. The other half gritted its teeth and clung to itself, struggling and pulling itself back to that glimmer of light in its heart time and time again.
She indulged him. It was as if she was torturing herself like this; even if she couldn't bear it for him, hadn't she touched even a fraction of his pain? Could that be considered empathy?
Perhaps unable to bear seeing someone torment him like this, Xie Chengnan's consciousness cleared for a moment amidst his constant drowsiness.
His eyelids twitched slightly; it was unclear whether he could see the person standing very close to him.
Lin Yi leaned closer with concern and asked him if he could hear her, if he could see light, and if his wound was still very painful.
His eyelids twitched, and Lin Yi's heart trembled along with them.
He wanted to say something, but he was too weak, and his eyelids, which he had kept open, closed again after a short while.
Lin Yi felt that he could hear him, and he murmured a lot, like spilling beans. Including things he had never said to him before.
He had many suspicions before, but never asked them, and she never thought of confessing them herself.
It wasn't that they hadn't thought about it at all, but they felt it wasn't the right time yet. They felt that after the story was over, they would have plenty of time, and then they could slowly tell him about it.
Do they even have a future?
"Xie Chengnan... I might not be able to save you. But I will stay with you, wherever we go, I will be with you..."
"Actually, I'm much older than you. I'm so much older than you, but I still can't..."
Xie Chengnan was sometimes awake and sometimes asleep. In his hazy state, he could hear her murmuring in his ear.
It's so annoying. He didn't want to pay attention to her, but she sounded so sad, like she was about to break.
He mustered all his strength before he finally opened his eyes again.
He couldn't see her clearly, but he knew she was right beside him, within reach.
But he didn't have the strength to touch her anymore.
He struggled to open his lips, feeling no vibration in his vocal cords, unsure if she could hear him...
"I thought... you were only three years older than me, but I didn't expect... then I really have to call you 'older sister'."
Dear sister, please don't cry anymore.
Perhaps she heard it... otherwise, why would golden tears suddenly fall on his face...?
It's better not to comfort him; he doesn't know how to comfort people and has only made them cry again...
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