Chapter 237 Wanwan, don’t cry!
When she woke up again, Zhuang Wan shivered before she could even take in her surroundings.
Someone nearby asked, "Are you cold?"
She turned around and Liang Jinxian handed her a blanket.
Zhuang Wan remained stunned, not accepting the offer, letting him wrap her in the blanket. She slowly glanced around, seeing only the empty, cold wilderness and, not far away, the snow-capped mountains. The mountaintops were stained white, shrouded in pale clouds. Even the sky was a boundless blue.
"......here it is?"
She spoke slowly, her tone hesitant.
Liang Jinxian didn't answer, but raised his hand and waved it in front of her eyes: "What's wrong with you? Haven't you returned to your soul yet?"
As he said this, he looked a little remorseful. After a pause, he said, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have treated you like that before."
"But I told you," he added, "don't irritate me, or I'll be out of control."
Zhuang Wan slowly moved her neck, which still hurt a little.
She was in a trance for a moment, then continued to ask: "Where is this?"
Liang Jinxian said, "We walked westward all night and arrived at a plateau. The Chang Kingdom called this place Tianyuan."
"Has he been gone for a day? Where is Pei Xingju?" she asked.
The smile in Liang Jinxian's eyes froze, and he curled his lips in a forced smile: "At this time, are you still thinking about him?"
"If not him, who are you thinking about? You?" Zhuang Wan regained some of her energy. "You brought me to this godforsaken place, and I'm supposed to be happy?"
“…”
"Where are you planning to take me?"
"If we cross the snow-capped mountains ahead and then go north, we will enter the territory of Dan Country." Liang Jinxian said, "Of course, I will take you to Dan Country."
"You are actually colluding with the Dan Kingdom?"
Liang Jinxian smiled without saying anything. His eyes fell on the soldiers not far away, who were setting up camp and cooking. Smoke rose up into the sky.
For a moment, his face was a little confused.
"Zhuang Wan..." he said, "Actually, I..."
Zhuang Wan turned around, wanting to hear what he was saying, when a scout came running over in a panic.
"Your Majesty, this is bad! The Pei family army is chasing us!"
Upon hearing this, the soldiers began to panic.
"What should we do? The enemy is chasing us!"
"Where on earth are we going to flee to? We're running out of food."
"Yeah, I don't know if I can survive and get over the mountain ahead."
Someone started to cry softly. Although the voice was small, it was like a mournful tune in the chaotic background, adding to everyone's emotions.
Only Liang Jinxian had a calm and indifferent expression on his face.
He seemed not to have heard the scout's report. His eyes were still fixed on the smoke from the cooking stove, and he said nothing.
General Shen came over and said, "Your Majesty, what should we do now?"
Liang Jinxian thought for a moment and stood up.
"General Shen, take them back." He said, "Most of them are captured Dazhao people. Pei Xingju will not kill them."
"As for you..." He paused for a moment, then said, "If you want to escape, then escape. If you want to surrender, then surrender."
Shen Yuanji was startled: "What about you, Your Majesty?"
Liang Jinxian did not answer this, but untied the horse reins from his side, then took Zhuang Wan's arm and sat on it.
Zhuang Wan hurriedly grabbed the noose, and the next moment she felt Liang Jinxian sitting behind her.
Then I heard him say, "I am going to find my destination."
As soon as he finished speaking, he kicked the horse's belly and galloped away with a "whirlwind" sound.
Zhuang Wan was confused by Liang Jinxian's words: "Liang Jinxian, what are you doing? Looking for your whereabouts?"
Liang Jinxian immediately laughed: "Where I go is where you go."
"Pei Xingju is hot on my heels. I can't go to Dan Country anymore. I might as well take you with me to die." He said, "Just like you promised me, if we can't sleep together in life, we must study together in death."
"Madman!" Zhuang Wan struggled, "You are a madman!"
On this side, Pei Xingju chased to the wilderness, but saw the soldiers of Changguo waiting there tired and depressed.
He frowned: "What's going on?"
A deputy general stepped forward and said, "General, they are soldiers from Changguo. They surrendered!"
"Surrendered? Where's Liang Jinxian?"
"According to what they say, His Majesty the Chang Kingdom has already fled with Miss Zhuang." The deputy general pointed in the direction of the snow-capped mountains not far away and said, "It is said that they went there."
Anyone who has been to the plateau knows how dangerous the snow-capped mountains are. Once you enter, you'll find a hundred miles of barren wasteland with no grass, freezing cold, and drifting snow.
Once you get in, it’s hard to get out.
Pei Xingju looked at the vast expanse of snow-capped mountains, and his heart felt chilled.
Xue Gang's face turned pale after hearing this. He asked in a low voice, "Yuzhi, are you still going to pursue me?"
Pei Xingju squeezed out a word from between his teeth: "Chase!"
"Don't you want to live?" Xue Gang scolded him, "Your injuries haven't healed yet. If you get lost in there, you'll be dead within three days."
"Besides, the snow-capped mountains are covered with snow all year round. It's freezing cold, and there's always the possibility of an avalanche. If you get caught in an avalanche, no one can save you."
Pei Xingju's expression remained unchanged as he continued, "Chase."
He turned his horse and tightened the reins.
Xue Gang hurried forward to stop him: "Are you crazy? Is it worth dying for a woman?"
"If Jingzhe was in the snowy mountains, what would you do?" Pei Xingju asked slowly.
Xue Gang paused and stopped talking.
"You guys wait for me here, you don't have to follow me in." Pei Xingju said, "I can go in alone."
"Ce——"
After saying this, he rode his horse towards the snow-capped mountains.
.
The icebergs towered into the clouds, their icy gleam gleaming in the sunlight. Snowflakes flew wildly, piling up a thick layer on the ground. The wind howled past, stirring up the biting snow foam.
Liang Jinxian and Zhuang Wan abandoned their horses and set off. Because they had been running day and night, the horses died of exhaustion in the snow.
The moment she fell from her horse, Zhuang Wan wanted to strangle Liang Jinxian to death. Liang Jinxian fell to the snow, letting her strangle him, but he couldn't stop smiling.
"Save your energy. If you come in here, you'll die with me." He said, "If Pei Xingju catches up, the three of us will die together."
"Look," he sneered, "in the end, he still couldn't beat me."
"Go die!" Zhuang Wan pounced on him, bent her legs and pressed them against his chest, pinching his neck with both hands, and cursed viciously, "Who wants to die with you? You're dreaming!"
Liang Jinxian laughed out loud.
Before long, Zhuang Wan had exhausted all her strength, and though she hadn't strangled Liang Jinxian to death, she was incredibly exhausted. The oxygen was thin in the snowy plateau, and she realized she couldn't go any higher. If she continued, she would truly die.
After resting for a while, she got up.
"Where are you going?" Liang Jinxian looked at her and asked.
"I won't die with you. Pei Xingju will come after me and take me away from this damn place."
Liang Jinxian ignored her and watched her leave silently. Sure enough, Zhuang Wan fell to the ground not long after she walked.
She gasped for breath, feeling a tightness in her chest. The cold wind blew, scratching her face like a bayonet.
Liang Jinxian stood up, walked over, pulled her up, and dragged her under a huge rock.
It's a little warmer here because the rocks block the cold wind.
Zhuang Wan couldn't walk anymore, so she sat down and stared blankly at the azure sky and the breathtakingly white snow-capped mountains.
"Liang Jinxian, actually I have a secret that I haven't told you." She suddenly spoke.
Liang Jinxian stopped.
"I'm not Zhuang Wan, not the daughter of the Zhuang family, not the one you like." Zhuang Wan wrapped the blanket tightly around her and exhaled warm air to warm her hands. "The daughter of Zhuang you like died a long time ago. I just happened to come upon her by accident."
"Don't you find it strange?" Zhuang Wan turned to look at him and, as if in revenge, told him the truth: "My personality is nothing like Miss Zhuang's. You don't really think I'm her, do you?"
Liang Jinxian lowered his eyes and remained silent.
"Even if you drag me to die with you, she wasn't your classmate. And..." Zhuang Wan continued, "She hanged herself on the day the Zhuang residence was raided."
"I know Zhou Wan is your man. You originally wanted Zhou Wan to take her away, right? But unfortunately, Zhou Wan was a step too late. She was already dead."
"Do you know who killed her?" Zhuang Wan asked slowly.
Liang Jinxian raised his eyes, his emotions hidden and turbid.
"It's you," Zhuang Wan said. "You could have saved her, but you hid away to avoid suspicion and to prevent Duke Xin from getting suspicious."
"If it were me, I would definitely be disappointed if my lover, who I once swore to love, didn't come to my rescue." She said, "A coward like Miss Zhuang would not have hanged herself unless she was disappointed."
"I know." After a while, Liang Jinxian spoke.
"You know?" Zhuang Wan turned her head and was frightened when she saw his bloodshot eyes.
"Of course I know..." Liang Jinxian's throat trembled, and his eyes looked a little crazy because of the grief: "I knew you were not her a long time ago."
Zhuang Wan was surprised.
"But so what?" he said, "Even if it's just her body, I want it!"
Zhuang Wan sneered, feeling discouraged and like they were talking at cross purposes.
"You couldn't save her then, and now you want to destroy her body?" she questioned.
Liang Jinxian was stunned and didn't say anything.
He leaned against the stone wall and slowly closed his eyes. After a long time, he chuckled softly.
"I met her earlier than any of you." He seemed to be recalling: "She was only six years old at the time. She ran into me while searching for a fallen kite. I was out for an outing with the ladies of the Duke of Xin's mansion, but those illegitimate sons deliberately left me behind..."
"I unfortunately encountered a starving stray dog. It stared at me fiercely," he continued. "I was so skinny and weak that I was no match for the stray dog. I was so desperate I thought I was going to be its meal that I didn't even dare to move."
"But she showed up. She was even smaller than me, only six years old." Liang Jinxian smiled. "I still remember she was wearing a pink flowered jacket, with twin buns and colorful ribbons tied around her hair. She looked pretty."
Zhuang Wan was actually fascinated by what she heard: "And then?"
"Then she saw me and the wild dog. She was clearly terrified and wanted to cry, but she still picked up a stone and stood in front of me to confront the wild dog."
"And then?"
"Later..." Liang Jinxian laughed, "She was crying and throwing stones. The stones didn't hit the stray dogs at all, but her own crying was deafening. Her crying attracted the maids and old women. When they arrived, the stray dogs immediately ran away."
"Do you think she's stupid?" He opened his eyes, a trace of lonely tenderness in them: "After that, I learned that she was the daughter of the Zhuang family, and I began to covet her in a despicable and vicious way until she grew up."
"She was timid and cowardly, and I dealt with anyone who bullied her." He continued, "I coaxed her, protected her, and tried to meet her whenever she went out."
"I once thought about marrying her when she reached marriage age."
"Is she willing to marry you?" Zhuang Wan asked.
"She can only marry me."
"Why?"
"Because she only recognizes me."
"Why does she only recognize you? Don't you allow her to meet other men? Don't you think that's selfish?"
Liang Jinxian chuckled softly: "This is your first day meeting me, Liang Jinxian? I am selfish."
"Ever since I was little, I've felt like I was as dirty as a rock covered in rotting corpses, while she, on the other hand, is as pure as the moon in the sky." He said sinisterly, "I've coveted the moon for so long, how could I let anyone else covet it?"
"But your moon disappeared." Zhuang Wan sneered mercilessly, "It was your selfishness that killed her."
"Now, you still selfishly want her to be destroyed."
.
"Liang Jinxian, are we really going to die here?"
After a long while, Zhuang Wan asked, exhaling a puff of hot air as she spoke.
She was tired and hungry, and her chest felt stuffy as if it were filled with cotton, making it difficult for her to breathe.
The snowflakes were still falling, and the biting cold wind blew in from the side of the stone wall, making Zhuang Wan shiver. She quickly tightened the blanket.
"Liang Jinxian?" Zhuang Wan didn't see him respond, so she turned her head to look.
He was leaning against the stone wall without saying a word, as if he was asleep. His lips were very dry due to the hard work and fatigue of the past few days.
"You won't die, will you?" Zhuang Wan asked.
Liang Jinxian raised his dry lips slightly: "Are you afraid of death?"
"I'm not afraid of death, but I don't want to die with you." Zhuang Wan said, "Take me with you..."
Having said this, she suddenly stopped and listened carefully.
——It seemed like someone was calling her name in the distance.
Liang Jinxian also heard it, opened his eyes suddenly, and pulled her away without saying anything.
"It's Pei Xingju!" Zhuang Wan was delighted. "It's Pei Xingju who's here!"
She struggled to escape from Liang Jinxian's hand, but she was ultimately outmatched and Liang Jinxian pulled her straight towards the high snow-capped mountains opposite.
"I'm not going!" Zhuang Wan staggered as he pulled her. "I don't want to die with you."
The further we go, the higher the terrain becomes. Even if we don’t freeze to death, we will die from lack of oxygen.
"Pei Xingju, I'm here!" she shouted.
"Pei Xingju, I'm here!"
"Pei Xing, um—"
Liang Jinxian covered her mouth, so she bit his finger fiercely. Liang Jinxian bled from the pain, but he still didn't let go, so Zhuang Wan simply kicked and hit him hard.
With this pulling, Liang Jinxian's speed slowed down, and the sound in the distance became closer and closer.
Pei Xingju is coming soon!
Zhuang Wan thought.
Sure enough, not long after, someone called her.
"Zhuang Wan?"
Zhuang Wan looked in the direction of the voice and saw Pei Xingju standing halfway up the opposite mountain. He looked very tired, his face pale and covered in snow.
"Pei Xingju!" Zhuang Wan's heart was filled with great joy. She shook Liang Jinxian off and waved to Pei Xingju, "I'm here!"
However, she didn't understand why Pei Xingju's expression suddenly changed at this moment, as if he had seen some ferocious beast.
She turned her head blankly and looked behind her. Before she could see the situation clearly, Liang Jinxian pulled her and started running.
"Go!"
On the mountaintop, a massive avalanche of snow suddenly collapsed, surging down like a silent torrent. Rocks and rocks flew everywhere it passed, like a giant beast with its maw gaping, devouring everything in its path.
Zhuang Wan's heart leaped with fear, and she instinctively followed Liang Jinxian. In her panic, she saw Pei Xingju running towards them.
She wanted to yell, asking him to stay away, but her throat was burning with pain from panting so hard that she couldn't make a sound.
There was a loud rumbling sound behind her, and before her was a vast snowy plain. In the hazy snow and fog, Pei Xingju's figure was getting closer and closer, so close that it seemed as if he could catch her at the next moment.
But it was too late.
She was suddenly tackled and thrown to the ground, as if something huge had crashed down upon her. Then, a blanket of snow and ice descended upon her head, and Zhuang Wan's vision went dark.
The world suddenly became quiet...
An unknown amount of time passed, as if centuries had passed, before Zhuang Wan, her mind hazy, moved her arms. She felt suffocated and uncomfortable, pushing away the things on her body, trying to find a breath of air in the snow.
But I felt a warm and wet hand.
Looking closely, it was bright red blood.
"Liang Jinxian?" She turned her head to look.
Liang Jinxian's face was pale and his lips were purple. He was lying in the snow, and even the snow was dyed red.
Zhuang Wan was shocked: "You...what's wrong with you?"
Liang Jinxian opened his eyes and smiled at her: "Not bad."
Zhuang Wan opened her mouth, remembering the moment when the snow buried them. She vaguely saw a huge rock falling towards them.
But before she could react, she was knocked down by Liang Jinxian and heard a muffled groan.
She looked at Liang Jinxian in disbelief: "Don't you want me to die with you? Why did you save me?"
Liang Jinxian's breathing was heavy, and the blood under his body was getting more and more, which was shocking.
"Zhuang Wan," he said with difficulty, "I didn't want you to die. When the avalanche happened, my only thought was that you were alive and well."
He continued to laugh: "I should be the one who should die. What's the point of someone like me living? In fact, I should have died a long time ago."
"Go ahead and find Pei Xingju."
Zhuang Wan's throat tightened.
Although she hated Liang Jinxian, she couldn't bear to see him bleed so much at this moment.
"Pei Xingju?"
She looked around frantically, trying to find Pei Xingju, but the snowfield was in a mess and there was no trace of him.
After a moment, she crawled over tremblingly and helped Liang Jinxian up.
"I wish you would die too, but now I can't bear to see you die." She dragged Liang Jinxian to a nearby stone wall with great effort.
"Wait for me, I'll go find Pei Xingju and ask him to rescue you."
“No need…”
Liang Jinxian called out to her, blood spreading from his back to his entire body. Perhaps due to the excessive bleeding, he was weak and even though he was gasping for air, he still had difficulty speaking.
"You don't have to save me..." He said, "Go, and live well with her body. If she... if she can feel..."
He raised his eyes, his light-colored eyes were still as cynical as when they first met in the capital, and a casual smile played on his lips.
"Just tell her...I, Liang Jinxian, have only loved her in my life."
After he finished speaking, he leaned back with his head tilted back and his eyes closed, his breathing gradually becoming weaker.
"Liang Jinxian?" Zhuang Wan panicked. "Liang Jinxian?"
She shouted several times.
But Liang Jinxian fell asleep.
.
After the avalanche, even the snow seemed to stop and the surroundings became quiet.
Liang Jinxian fell asleep and never woke up again.
Zhuang Wan sat there blankly for a while, pulled the blanket tightly around her, and staggered to her feet.
"Pei Xingju?" she shouted, her voice a little hoarse and her throat sore.
Following the direction of her memory, she searched with one foot deep and one foot shallow.
"Pei Xingju?"
But before her was a vast sea of snow, with nothing to trace beneath the heavy snow. Her heart was overwhelmed by panic, and her steps became heavier and heavier. Hunger was gradually exhausting her, and her frozen legs were almost numb.
Suddenly, he stepped on empty air and a large pile of snow fell down, and Zhuang Wan rolled down with it.
She closed her eyes, and the world spun and rolled for a long time before it stopped.
When she looked up again, she found that she had rolled into the mountain stream and was far away from where she was just now.
She got up sluggishly and looked up at the sky blankly.
The emotions that she had been suppressing could no longer be contained and she began to sob.
As if cut off from the world, in this silent snowy field, her cries were drowned out by the wind. Despair and helplessness washed over her, and tears streamed down her face. The cold wind sliced at her skin, but she no longer felt the pain; she simply sat there numb.
I don’t know how long I cried like this until a gentle voice came from above my head.
"Wanwan, don't cry."
Zhuang Wan paused, looked up, and saw Pei Xingju standing opposite her, covered in snow.
"Pei Xingju!"
Zhuang Wan got up, but before she could run over, the person who came had already hugged her tightly.
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