"I wasn't afraid before." He paused, then slowly continued, "I'm afraid now."
She didn't quite understand what he meant and was about to ask when the man said.
"If you had fallen off the cliff and died, you would have been left alone to face the rest of the journey, which would have been even more dangerous."
Xiao Nanhui was speechless. She had originally wanted to persuade him to cherish his life. After all, his status was different from others, and he held the hopes of countless people at his fingertips; he couldn't afford to make any mistakes. But now she was unsure whether all this was just a balancing act for the man before her.
She quickly reapplied the medicine and changed the bandage with a clean cloth. When she stuffed the bottle of medicine back into her clothes, three black beans fell out of her waist belt with a clinking sound.
She was also stunned. She picked it up and took a closer look, and her face turned red.
They were three apricot kernels. They were the remains of three apricot kernels she had stolen from the tent a few days ago when she was still in the camp.
In order to avoid Mo Chunhua's big mouth, she ate secretly with the fruit kernels hidden in her sleeves. She didn't dare to throw away the fruit kernels after eating, but stuffed them into her waist belt and looked for opportunities to throw them out of the camp.
These three pieces must have been forgotten to be thrown away after eating, and they have been stuck in the folds of clothes ever since.
She knew that this was not very respectable and wanted to pick it up secretly, but the man had sharp eyes.
"What fell out of your clothes?"
She was a little embarrassed. She picked up the three fruit cores and held them in her palm. She was awkward for a while before showing them to the man.
The emperor stared at the three black fruit cores for several seconds and suddenly laughed.
He rarely laughed, and even less often did he laugh out loud. Even when he did, it wasn't a typical laugh; it always chilled people to the core. But that smile just now had a touch of ordinary humanity, and even the dust on his face seemed to come alive.
Xiao Nanhui stared at the other person blankly, feeling that this person was extremely abnormal tonight, and the abnormality made her feel a little uneasy.
"What else is hidden in your clothes? Why not pour it out?"
She heard a joking tone in his words and felt a little unwilling, so she tried hard to turn the situation around.
"This apricot kernel is a good thing. It would be a shame to throw it away."
After saying that, she picked up a stone beside her, smashed the apricot kernel open with a few strokes, and carefully took out the almond inside.
Three almonds, the size of a fingernail, are round and plump.
She picked up one and put it in her mouth to taste. It tasted a little bitter, but also had a sweet fragrance. She then placed the remaining two in the man's palm.
"Your Majesty, it's already this late, let's not waste it."
Two bitter almonds might not even be enough to fill the gaps between teeth under normal circumstances, but now they are quite precious.
He looked at it quietly for a while, then slowly put one into his mouth.
He ate very slowly, as if he wanted to grind the almond completely into ashes before swallowing it.
Then he flipped his palm, and the remaining almond disappeared into his wide sleeve along with his hand.
The bonfire crackled, and the long, cold night was truly unbearable.
After an unknown amount of time, Xiao Nanhui turned his curled body around and brushed off the snow on his head.
She had been holding Pingxian and guarding the windward side. When she turned around, she found that the man's posture had not changed, and he was still leaning there.
She remembered that he had fallen asleep like this when he was sick in the carriage when he left Huozhou.
How could anyone get used to sleeping like this?
"Is your Majesty still awake?"
Her voice was so soft that it would disappear in the wind if you didn't listen carefully.
The inky figure turned over and said briefly, "I'm cold and can't sleep."
She rubbed her hands, then got up, picked up the coarse cloth coat that had been placed next to the fire, and put it on in front of her body backwards.
Creak, creak.
It was the sound of her footsteps stepping on the thin snow.
Then, warmth came from behind him.
She smelled of freshly roasted firewood, hot, rough, and prickly, like a reckless house dog, just sticking close to him.
"I was only six or seven when I left my hometown. I can't remember much else, but I remember clearly the hunger and cold. There were many children like me in Suyan at that time. At night, we would huddle together for warmth, and the older ones would comfort the younger ones."
A pair of rough hands brushed across his back and patted it gently.
"Go to sleep, you won't be cold when you fall asleep..."
The low voice behind him seemed vague and unreal in the wind and snow, faintly revealing the traveler's fatigue.
Snowflakes were still falling all over the sky, as if foreshadowing that this cold night would have no end.
The emperor's tightly closed eyes slowly opened, and the bonfire illuminated his pupils, like the sparks in ancient myths that fell from the sky to the earth.
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