Chapter 4
When Dashaeva woke up, the first thing she saw was the crackling firewood burning peacefully in the old fireplace.
She didn't rush to sit up or make a sound, but remained lying on her side in front of the fireplace, silently surveying her surroundings with her slightly open eyes.
The ropes binding her hands had been untied, and she was most likely saved. Several places on her body were still throbbing with pain, probably from the abrasions caused by the impact, but compared to the desperate situation of being at the mercy of others, these were fortunate consequences.
Dashaeva still remembers what she did at the time—first, she stayed quietly to lower their guard, but then, when a large vehicle came from the opposite direction, she suddenly rammed into the driver, causing chaos inside the vehicle for a moment, and the steering wheel went out of her control.
In that one moment of losing control, with a bit of God's blessing, she successfully orchestrated an accident that allowed her to escape the clutches of her kidnappers.
Moreover, he was completely unharmed and was lying in a warm little wooden house, warming himself by a hot fire.
She breathed a sigh of relief, certain that she was now safe.
After all, given how long she had been unconscious, if the rescuers hadn't just intended to move her here, but wanted to do something else, they probably would have succeeded a thousand times over.
Perhaps she was rescued by the forest rangers near that road? The van carrying her did indeed pass through a pine forest at the bend, extending quite far outwards, so it's highly likely that forest rangers were stationed there.
If the other party happened to be nearby, it makes sense that they would come over to check the situation after hearing the noise.
Dashaeva finally sat up with a sense of relief and took the opportunity to carefully examine the surroundings of the cabin.
This is a small, old wooden house with a crooked wooden table in the center and a rusty axe in the corner. A wooden bed in the corner is covered with some dry grass and a tattered cloth as bedding. In addition to the distinctive smell of burning pine wood, there is also a heavy smell of dust in the air, indicating that no one has lived here for a long time.
A section of the floor near the door was also damaged, but fortunately the log walls and ceiling were intact, effectively blocking out the relentless nighttime wind and snow from outside the window.
Dashaeva's gaze swept carefully around the small house before finally settling on the boy beside her.
He was sitting in front of the fireplace with his knees drawn up to his chest, his head wrapped in two strips of cloth that looked like they were torn from some clothes, with some blood seeping out towards her, indicating that he was injured.
The flickering, warm flames were reflected in those beautiful eyes, casting a soft halo over the expression of someone intently staring at the fire.
As if he hadn't noticed she had woken up, he hadn't taken the initiative to greet her.
As for the overcoat the other person was wearing, which looked like a military uniform and was also too big... Dashayeva's gaze lingered on it for a few seconds before naturally shifting away.
Perhaps it belongs to an elder in the family? A wise person doesn't need to have too much unnecessary curiosity, so as not to actively invite danger into their home.
Especially when the other party is someone who saved your life.
Having roughly grasped the current situation, Dashaeva coughed softly, breaking the overly silent atmosphere.
"I'm so sorry, I was unconscious for so long. You must be a kind-hearted person, a noble and kind, respectable little gentleman."
She spoke in a very gentle tone, still warming herself by the fire, but moved closer to the boy. "May I have the honor of knowing how I should address you? Anything is fine."
"…………"
He was being gazed at with such fervent and grateful eyes—a gaze that persisted even after the atmosphere had fallen silent for a while—that he finally realized the other person seemed to understand he could no longer ignore her, and had no choice but to turn his head toward her.
He was indeed a remarkably handsome young man, and Dashaeva was certain that he was a few years younger than her.
But unlike those gentle and calm eyes, his aura was more mysterious and dangerous, exuding a kind of indifference that seemed to contain a divine quality... or perhaps compassion? A rather subtle sense of contradiction made her pause for a moment, then quickly suppressed this doubt in her heart.
The key to surviving a blizzard is to take shelter, and this cabin is like a life raft at sea. Leaving for a few minutes is fine, but if you are exposed to the outside for too long, the extreme cold can send you to meet your maker in no time.
Obviously, deliberately stepping on the other party's landmines at this time is a very challenging behavior.
Dashaeva watched as the boy slowly shook his head without uttering a single word—this attitude of not intending to answer the question was entirely within her expectations, allowing her to maintain a genuine smile on her face.
“Of course, it doesn’t matter if you don’t know, my gratitude will still be there,” she continued. “But there is one thing I absolutely need your answer to, it’s just a small matter that would benefit both of us, and I hope you won’t mind…”
"How incredibly polite," Ye Yihe thought to himself as he listened to this long, tactful explanation.
This is probably what it means for Japanese people to use honorifics to the fullest... Compared to the rude language of the other prisoners and the two guards in the same vehicle, this young lady's level of education is much higher.
He had indeed found this abandoned cabin with great difficulty, just before the blizzard completely swallowed them both up.
Thanks to the abundance of these primitive log cabins in the Russian forests, which have even become popular tourist attractions worldwide—some are private properties, some were used to cover mine entrances, and some were temporary lodgings for forest rangers or hunters.
Upon noticing the approaching blizzard, Ye Yihe rushed to a pine forest he had spotted while looking out. Luckily, he found the abandoned hut not far away and even went to cut some branches to start a fire.
He had previously found a lighter in the pocket of the military overcoat, which the guard must have used to light his cigarettes. Little did he know it would save their lives here.
After his body warmed up, he went out and used the clean snow to clean his wounds, then tore off a piece of the hem of his prison uniform to bandage them.
These few sentences summarizing his memories may seem understated, but the actual experience was truly thrilling, and several times he felt so exhausted that he couldn't breathe.
Faced with the eager young lady asking his name, he could only shake his head apologetically, indicating that there was nothing he could do.
Just now, when the other person was curiously looking him up and down, he deliberately pretended not to see her... As long as their eyes did not meet, he could justifiably choose not to greet her.
Fortunately, she didn't seem to want to pry, and instead made another request in very polite terms, "If it's possible right now and you'd like, I'd like to borrow your phone."
“After all, you see,” Dashayeva began to explain to him in detail.
"There are no supplies in this cabin, which means that even if we leave here, we won't be able to last long on the road. This is a predicament that neither you nor I want to encounter, and asking my father for help is the most appropriate choice."
“Besides, this is Siberia, my kind little gentleman,” she sighed softly, “nowadays only criminals who need to be reformed in prisons go here.”
Ye Yihe, a criminal who was about to be forced into labor camp but escaped midway: "………………"
This really is Siberia. The jokes I used to laugh about online have now come back to haunt me.
“I was kidnapped and brought here. The kidnappers wanted my father to make a deal with them,” Dashaeva said sincerely. “These despicable villains tried to hide and avoid populated areas along the way, but they let their guard down when they were about to succeed and ended up completely defeated.”
"Now that I think about it, do I want to know if they're dead or not?"
Ye Yihe recalled the tragic state of the three kidnappers, who were barely breathing and would likely not have survived without timely rescue, and nodded seriously.
Given the vast, desolate road and the blizzard, even if an ambulance sped over, carried the person onto a stretcher, and then drove back under the stars and moon, it would probably take most of the day... It seemed unlikely that the person would survive.
Dashaeva burst into laughter. "Serves you right." — Her mood instantly brightened. "So, do you have a mobile phone that I can use to contact you? The kind that can make satellite calls, since I don't think there are any civilian signal towers around here. In return, I will definitely provide you with a generous reward."
There was a cell phone in the pocket of the military coat. Ye Yihe wasn't sure if it could make satellite calls, but he handed it over anyway.
Anyway, he wouldn't be able to use this phone which is entirely in Russian, so I might as well let her try her luck.
“Great! I’ll contact my father right away and arrange for someone to pick us up and take us out of Siberia!”
Dashaeva went to a corner to make a phone call, and Yeikh finally heard the belated system notification at that moment.
[Congratulations, host, on successfully completing this good deed. Resurrection Points +5.]
[Doing a good deed requires extreme wilderness survival,] Ye Yihe thought to himself. [The difficulty is so high, and the survival points are only +5... How many points do I need to survive?]
"1000." Xiao Ai kindly explained.
"[Where is your alien planner? Bring him out,]" Ye Yihe replied succinctly and instantly. "[I'm going to report him for being heartless.]"
If he had known that he would need to resolve two hundred more of these incidents to be revived, he would have preferred to simply go into eternal sleep.
The system reassured the host, "The reward for successfully resolving each incident is different, and the difficulty of the incidents also varies."
[...Do I have to do something even more difficult to get more resurrection points than 5?] Ye Yihe was incredulous.
There are many factors involved in this assessment, so it shouldn't be this difficult every time...
[Ah, I don't believe it.]
Ye Yihe chuckled and clearly and forcefully expressed his point of view.
However, the system's settlement of resurrection points also meant that he could finally take a break, as his body was about to be returned to its original owner.
"The communication went smoothly, and Dad will urgently send people to search our area."
After making the call, Dashaeva returned to report the good news and returned the phone to the kind, pretty young man. "If nothing unexpected happens, we'll be able to leave Siberia tomorrow."
Fortunately, this place is not too far into Siberia, so leaving won't take too long.
"……Um?"
Dashaeva heard the other person finally speak when she took the phone. The polite young man's voice was very pleasant. "Leave Siberia?"
Leaving the place where he deliberately forged his identity and crimes to get to Gusinger Prison, and endured the journey in the prison van all the way?
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