Chapter 35 Let's Die Together "I won't let you die."...
Where to?
What are you doing?
"And what about him?"
Jiang Xiliu suddenly jumped back twice and asked three questions in a row, which made Huang Mao frown and impatiently scold, "Why are there so many questions! Just leave when I tell you to."
Perhaps because this blond guy looked too unprofessional, Jiang Xiliu dared to bargain with him: "Don't be so fierce, can't you just choose one of the three? Answer me one question, and I'll obediently go with you right away."
Out of the corner of her eye, she quickly glanced at Jin Zhao, who had just removed his hood by the wall. He was calmly untying the rope binding his feet with his bloodied and mangled hands.
But the blond-haired man wasn't like Assistant Liao; he didn't have much patience for her. Seeing that she wouldn't cooperate, he rolled up his sleeves and was about to take action: "You won't listen to reason, so you'll have to drink the penalty shot! Knock her out and take her back!"
Before he finished speaking, he reached out and grabbed Jiang Xiliu's nape.
Using the explosive force of her waist and abdomen, Jiang Xiliu suddenly tilted to the side and backward, barely dodging the hand.
"Fine, I won't answer. What kind of behavior is this, touching me like that? You have no manners at all!" she retorted stubbornly as she continued to bounce back.
She didn't look back at all. Jiang Xiliu only stopped staggering the moment her back hit the cold wall.
Since there's no way to escape, jumping around won't help.
The blond-haired man took a few steps forward and reached out to grab her arm: "Hurry up, I'm taking you to record a video—damn it!"
The blond-haired man's words came to an abrupt halt, and he fell straight forward. As he fell, the blood from his head finally flowed onto the dusty cement ground.
Jiang Xiliu was stunned for two seconds before collapsing to the ground, exhausted, and leaning against the wall, panting heavily.
She looked up and met Jin Zhao's gaze, who was holding a brick.
"Come here and untie me." Jiang Xiliu coughed twice. "This person hasn't been here for too long. Once Assistant Liao notices something is wrong, he'll definitely send someone over to check on the situation. We need to hurry."
Jin Zhao didn't say anything more, and squatted down to start untying the ropes on her feet.
When Jiang Xiliu was drugged and taken away, she was sleeping. She wasn't wearing shoes at all, and the socks she was wearing were ones she had put on before bed a few days ago after listening to a health blogger.
The original color of her socks was no longer visible; the soles were covered in dark cement dust and had a few dry leaves stuck to them.
"Hurry up." Jiang Xiliu was annoyed by his slow movements and impatiently moved her feet. The skin on her ankles was marked with several deep purple marks from jumping back and forth, and every movement caused her excruciating pain.
Looking at her wrists, the once fair and delicate skin was now marked with red and swollen marks from the hemp rope.
"Does it hurt?" Jin Zhao's gaze fell on her small cut, and he subconsciously softened his movements.
"Stop talking nonsense! Hurry up!" Jiang Xiliu was too lazy to answer his question, and she was getting impatient with his slow pace. "If you keep dawdling, you won't be able to leave soon."
Upon hearing this, Jin Zhao moved a little faster, and the wound on his wrist, which had already begun to scabbed over, started bleeding again, accidentally rubbing against the marks left by her ligature.
"How disgusting, your blood is all over me." After Jiang Xiliu's hands and feet were released, she moved her wrists and wiped the dirt off Jin Zhao's body. "So filthy."
She raised her hand and pushed Jin Zhao, who was blocking her way, aside.
Jin Zhao could tell that nothing serious had happened to her since she was still full of energy and annoying.
Jiang Xiliu squatted down, rummaged through the unconscious blond-haired man's pocket for a moment, and pulled out an old, cheap lighter.
She held the lighter and tested it: it worked.
But the only thing in the room was a few rusty iron frames piled up in the corner; there was nothing else that could be burned.
Jin Zhao circled the edge of the room and observed: "There are people guarding under the windows, and there are footsteps on the stairs, so there should be people there too."
They were locked on the second floor. To get down, they could either take the stairs or jump out of the window to escape.
As expected, Assistant Liao isn't stupid; it would be strange if he just assigned a useless person to watch over them.
It looks like a dead end.
Holding the lighter, Jiang Xiliu finally understood why she had chosen to set the fire in the original story.
"There's no time to think about it." Jiang Xiliu kicked the blond-haired man on the ground, looked up at Jin Zhao, and said, "Let's give it a shot. At worst, we'll just get caught and beaten again. Take his clothes off."
Jin Zhao: "..."
He squatted down and quickly stripped the blond-haired man of his clothes.
...
The clothes, which were burning brightly, were thrown outwards with force.
As the light flashed by, the tattooed man touched his bald head and said, "August is really hot. The sun is so hot it's burning my scalp."
The other person next to him wore glasses and was not the same person who had appeared in the car earlier. He looked refined and his profile resembled Liao Zhu's. He said in a calm tone, "Don't exaggerate. It's almost the beginning of autumn."
"No exaggeration." The tattooed man couldn't see the top of his head, but he felt a patch of skin that was both painful and burning. "I have to rinse it with cold water tonight; it feels like I've got a sunburn."
"Wait, why is there smoke over there?" The bespectacled man noticed something was wrong first. "Go check it out."
Although it was a barren mountain, it was full of life in the summer, and the fire started much faster than expected.
In just a few words, flames erupted from where it had been smoking.
The tattooed man exclaimed "Holy crap!" and quickly called for help to put out the fire.
Jiang Xiliu leaned against the windowsill and looked down, her eyes meeting those of the bespectacled man who was still standing guard by the wall.
The moment their eyes met—they were discovered.
The bespectacled man immediately reached for his phone in his pocket. Jiang Xiliu didn't hesitate at all; her body had already made the best decision for her before her brain could. Without a sound, she turned over and jumped out of the second-floor window.
Jin Zhao, unaware of what was happening, was so shocked that his heart almost stopped. He reached out to grab it, but could only grasp at air.
He rushed to the window and saw the young lady kneeling on the ground.
Jiang Xiliu was panting heavily, not daring to make a sound. She just looked up at him, quickly waved her hand, and then stepped aside, revealing the person who had been knocked unconscious beneath her.
—A ready-made flesh cushion.
Nevertheless, Jin Zhao still saw the dagger that the young lady had kicked away not far away. Her leap just now was not as easy as she had made it out to be.
Rapid and chaotic footsteps echoed from the staircase. Giving him no time to think, Jin Zhao took a deep breath and jumped down.
Uneven paw pads are not very useful.
Jiang Xiliu wanted to take the bespectacled man's phone, but the man held it tightly and she couldn't budge it no matter how hard she tried.
"They're catching up." Jiang Xiliu had no choice but to give up on her phone.
Jiang Xiliu and Jin Zhao could only run around to the back of the factory.
The vegetation on the mountaintop was sparse, and there was almost no cover around them. The two of them were quite conspicuous, and it was only a matter of time before they were found.
Continuing to set fires will only temporarily confuse the kidnappers; once the fires are extinguished, they will have even fewer places to hide.
As Jiang Xiliu ran, she wanted to curse: Judging from the conversation between the man in the car and Assistant Liao, they had been unconscious for at least twelve hours, which meant that the car had been traveling for twelve hours, and they had most likely crossed provincial borders.
After the ropes were loosened, Jiang Xiliu immediately checked the tracking accessories on her body, only to find that Liao Zhu had taken them all.
Facing an enemy, even a powerful one, is not the most terrifying thing. The most terrifying thing is when this enemy knows everything about you and can easily block all your escape routes.
As they passed a precipice, Jiang Xiliu suddenly grabbed Jin Zhao and stopped him: "We can't keep going around in circles with them like this, we have to go down the mountain."
Going in circles will only lead to a stalemate; the other side has more people, and they will be caught sooner or later.
“We’re not familiar with this place,” Jin Zhao said, panting. “Even if we go down the mountain, we might not be able to outrun them.”
“You’re right.” Jiang Xiliu turned her head, opened her arms to him, her expression not changing much. “So we’re not going down the mountain.”
...
No normal person could come up with the idea of "jumping" down the mountain.
This is tantamount to courting death.
Jin Zhao stood at the edge and looked down: he was sure that the bottom of this place was not some lake or river that "could buffer the impact of a rapid descent"; under the sparse tree branches was a solid expanse of ground.
"Hold me tight, no matter what happens, don't let go, then lean back." Jiang Xiliu reached out her hand and took a step closer to him.
Jin Zhao looked at her, his lips moved, and he asked in a slightly hoarse voice, "This time, do you want me to be your cushion?"
The young lady tilted her head, and a bright smile, unlike anything he had ever seen before, suddenly appeared on her face, which was covered in dirt and blood.
Even though she was in a sorry state, even though her hair was messy and tied haphazardly behind her head, it couldn't hide the young lady's amazingly bright eyes.
"I'm not asking you to be my cushion."
Jiang Xiliu asked him matter-of-factly, "Wouldn't you rather die with me?"
Let's die together?
Jin Zhao felt as if his heart was about to jump out of his chest.
He felt that he was probably not quite right in the head, because he actually thought that dying together with her would be a very good ending.
but.
He's just a worthless life, he should just die. How can someone like Jiang Xiliu die in the wilderness?
Jin Zhao stared intently at her, then reached out and pulled her into his arms.
For the first time, she took the initiative and, not so gently, pinched Jiang Xiliu's cheek.
There's hardly any wind on the mountaintop in summer; only the scorching sun hangs high in the sky, hot enough to melt you.
Jiang Xiliu grabbed Jin Zhao by the collar. She stood on tiptoe, and beneath her indistinguishable socks, dark red blood mingled with dust.
The smell of blood grew stronger after the run, and it was impossible to tell whose lips had been bitten; in any case, both of them were desperately trying to get the moisture from each other's mouths.
A very brief but intense kiss.
Jin Zhao tidied her messy hair, gazed at Jiang Xiliu quietly for a few seconds, and then opened his arms to hug her without saying a word.
Behind him was a sheer cliff of unknown height, and in front of him was his "lover" with a bright future.
Although he knew she wouldn't acknowledge this identity, and although he understood he was merely a mundane source of amusement in her vibrant life—
Jin Zhao lowered his head, rubbed his face against her cheek, and then placed a kiss on her trembling eyelashes.
"I won't let you die." His voice was so soft that only he knew what he was saying.
Jiang Xiliu tilted her head back in his arms, innocently yet cruelly making him repeat, "What did you say?"
"It's nothing, I just wanted you to hold me tight."
"Oh, aren't you keeping your eyes closed?"
"You have to keep your eyes open to know which way you're falling."
...
The brief and meaningless conversation ended.
The sound of rapid descent and the feeling of weightlessness enveloped the two.
His back snapped one dead branch after another, and in his excruciating pain, Jin Zhao held the person in his arms even tighter.
As he crashed heavily to the ground, Jin Zhao wanted to ask her, "If, if I die beside you, could you truly cry for me?"
-----------------------
Author's note: Don't project this onto reality. Don't project this onto reality. Don't project this onto reality—a mindless, melodramatic, and feel-good story.
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