I don’t know whether Xue Shu is alive and well in the end, Yin Chengyu thought vaguely.

Yin Chengyue is a man of great talent, but he is still too young. If Xue Shu can assist him well, Dayan will surely be able to continue to develop according to his plan for a long time.

The only thing that worried him was that Yin Chengyue was even more stubborn than he was. The turbulent life in his early years still left traces on him, which made him feel cold.

Moreover, Yin Chengyue has never liked Xue Shu.

If Xue Shu's arrogant and conceited character had not been restrained, when Yin Chengyue reached the age of ruling the country, there would probably be another bloodless fight.

He had feelings for Xue Shuliu and couldn't bear to kill him, but Yin Chengyue might not feel the same way.

This was the future he had foreseen before issuing the edict.

Xue Shu's burial alive with the emperor was a very happy ending for everyone.

But in the end, he failed because of his momentary weakness.

He did it even though he knew it was impossible.

"Xue Shu..." Yin Chengyu felt chills all over his body and called Xue Shu's name softly.

"I am here."

"Xue Shu..."

"I am here."

Yin Chengyu's consciousness was a little fuzzy. He called Xue Shu's name again and again, and Xue Shu did not get tired of it and answered him one by one.

He called and he answered.

The body in my arms was getting colder and colder, and the voice was getting weaker.

Xue Shu raised his hand with difficulty, and when his arm moved, the wound on his back was pulled, causing his face to twist for a moment, and his movements also paused. But it was only for a very short time, and he endured it, his fingers touched Yin Chengyu's body, and he carefully groped over inch by inch, and finally stopped at Yin Chengyu's waist.

It felt sticky there, obviously there was an injury and a lot of blood.

But Yin Chengyu remained silent from beginning to end.

Xue Shu's heart tightened for a moment, and he called him with a trembling voice. After receiving a weak response, he calmed down a little, tore his sleeve into strips with his teeth, and wrapped the wound on his side with them.

Perhaps the wound was pulled, and Yin Chengyu let out a slight hum.

Xue Shu paused his anxious movements, and groped his way to kiss him with a strong soothing tone.

The lips that were usually plump became dry and a little cold. If there was light, you would be able to see that the lips were pale from excessive blood loss.

Xue Shu rubbed it lightly, then stepped back, lowered his head and bit his wrist.

…

When Yin Chengyu woke up from his coma, he felt something being passed into his mouth. He swallowed it instinctively, and his mouth was full of a salty and fishy taste.

The smell was both familiar and strange, causing Yin Chengyu to open his eyes wide.

After he realized what was happening, he wanted to fight.

"What are you doing?!"

Yin Chengyu was shocked and angry, and raised his hands to grope him randomly, but Xue Shu restrained him with his arms to prevent him from moving, then found his lips and kissed him hard.

"Don't move around, save your energy."

Yin Chengyu's limbs were already weak, and after being restrained by him, he was unable to move.

He bit Xue Shu's lips as if to vent his anger, his voice intermittent: "What did you feed me?"

Xue Shu avoided answering, and only felt relieved when he felt the body in his arms warmer. He hugged her tighter and responded to Yin Chengyu's biting gently: "I don't want to stay in the West Factory anymore. After I get out, Your Highness will transfer me to the East Palace to serve." He rested his chin on Yin Chengyu's shoulder, rubbed his nose against his cheek, and rubbed his ears: "I will definitely serve better than Zheng Duobao."

Yin Chengyu stepped back, panting slightly, and laughed briefly: "You took over Zheng Duobao's job, what do you want Zheng Duobao to do?"

"Go to the West Factory, or the Horse Guards, or do anything else, as long as you don't compete with me for His Highness." Xue Shu hugged him tighter, buried his face in his neck, and his voice became lower and lower: "I can't bear to be separated from His Highness."

Yin Chengyu groped for his hand, interlocked his fingers, and held it tightly: "Then we won't separate."

Xue Shu responded quietly and said nothing more.

Yin Chengyu's fingers trembled slightly as he moved his palm upwards along the back of his hand. When he reached the wrist, he felt the rough bandage.

He closed his eyes, exhaled slowly, and tried to turn his body sideways to kiss his chin.

What Xue Shu fed him was blood.

He was not at all unfamiliar with this feeling; he had experienced it in his previous life.

Yin Chengyu leaned her head on his shoulder and tried to open her eyes wide to look at him, but she could see nothing clearly.

It was pitch black all around.

He could hear no sound, couldn't tell the time, and felt as if he was on an isolated island. Only the warm body behind him could give him some comfort.

That was what happened when he injured his eyes in his previous life.

That was the most dangerous assassination attempt he had ever encountered. The second brother was already defeated, and he was desperate. He sent someone to assassinate him when he was out of the palace.

He was accidentally poisoned and lost his sight. Xue Shu took him to avoid being hunted down and he fell off a cliff.

Outside, there were assassins searching for him everywhere, and he was unable to see. Xue Shu was worried about leaving him alone, so he had to take him to hide in a cave and then look for a chance to contact his subordinates.

They hid in a cave under the cliff for half a month.

The area below the cliff was desolate, with little food and water. They managed to survive for the first seven or eight days by eating wild grass and tree bark.

By the tenth day, due to lack of water, his body had become extremely weak and he was in a daze. He only vaguely heard Xue Shu say that he had caught two birds.

They had no tools to make a fire, so Xue Shu killed the bird and fed him the blood with his hands. He also chewed up the bird meat and fed it to him bit by bit.

Relying on the two birds, they survived the next four or five days and waited for the reinforcements that came according to the secret codes along the way.

After returning to the palace, the imperial physician cured him of the poison. He went to look for Xue Shu, only to find that he was more seriously injured than himself.

The imperial physician said that all other injuries were fine, except that a large piece of flesh was cut off from the arm, and a lot of blood was lost.

Yin Chengyu already had some vague guesses in his mind at that time, but there were too many other things mixed up between them, and they were used to hiding their true thoughts when facing each other.

No one dares to take that step lightly.

This way, at least when the battle comes in the future, we won't be soft-hearted and unwilling to give in.

So he just asked Xue Shu: "Why me?"

Xue Shu replied: "No one else is as good-looking as Your Highness."

His question was vague and Xue Shu's answer was perfunctory.

After that, the matter was never mentioned again.

He just pretended not to know.

The smell of blood seemed to come out of his mouth again, and Yin Chengyu's eyes felt a little sore. He tilted his head and tried his best to see Xue Shu's appearance, but it was in vain.

"Xue Shu...Xue Shu..." Yin Chengyu called twice before getting a response.

He trembled and turned his head to kiss him.

Xue Shu's lips were very cold. Yin Chengyu widened his eyes in the darkness and licked them slowly to give him warmth.

Xue Shu was a little slow in responding to him. He felt the body in his arms trembling slightly and his cheeks felt wet.

"Your Highness?"

"Have I been bad to you?" In the darkness, Yin Chengyu's voice sounded normal, but extremely hoarse.

Xue Shu shook his head, his voice becoming weaker and weaker: "Your Highness is very kind to me."

No one could be better to him than His Highness.

Yin Chengyu didn't say anything else, just kissed his lips and chin intermittently.

Whenever Xue Shu was about to fall asleep, he would wake him up and talk to him. Xue Shu's reaction was much slower, but he would still respond instinctively when he heard his voice, but most of the time he would only reply with one or two words in a weak voice.

He just held Yin Chengyu's arm and never let go from beginning to end.

Yin Chengyu leaned in his arms, staring up with eyes wide open, not daring to miss even the slightest movement.

He couldn't tell exactly how long he had been underground, but based on the stubble on Xue Shu's chin, he guessed that at least two or three days had passed.

Occasionally, there would be some movement overhead, but it was so faint that it was hard to make out, as if it was from a long distance away.

In the darkness, time goes very slowly, and with every moment forward, death is one step closer.

Yin Chengyu forced himself to stay alert, and whenever he was about to fall into unconsciousness, he would bite his arm hard.

The pain made him sober and confirmed that he was still alive.

He held Xue Shu's wrist tightly with one hand, his fingers resting on his pulse. Only the slight beating of the pulse under his palm could give him a sense of peace.

Suddenly, a dripping sound was heard in the darkness, and a drop of water fell on Yin Chengyu's face.

The water drops meandered down the cheeks and flowed into the mouth.

Yin Chengyu licked his lips, raised his head, and a second drop of water fell.

Then the third drop, the fourth drop...

"It's raining." Yin Chengyu said hoarsely, with a little surprise.

He estimated the direction from which the water was falling and opened his mouth to catch it.

It must have been raining outside for a long time. The water droplets fell one by one at first, and then gradually formed a line.

Yin Chengyu held the water in his mouth but did not swallow it. Instead, he turned his head and fed it to Xue Shu bit by bit.

Xue Shu hadn't responded to him for a while, but fortunately he was able to swallow instinctively after drinking some water.

Yin Chengyu fed him water three times. He didn't know if it was his illusion, but he always felt that the pulse under his palm was beating stronger.

He leaned back and got closer to Xue Shu, hoping to keep him warmer.

Just as he was about to fall into unconsciousness again, there was a sudden knocking sound above his head, along with a vague human voice.

Yin Chengyu suddenly came to his senses and listened for a long time, but he couldn't hear the content clearly. However, he could hear the knocking sounds - someone was shoveling the pile of earth and rocks.

He guessed correctly, someone was still looking for them.

Yin Chengyu opened his mouth and tried to make a sound for help, but he found that his voice was so hoarse that even he himself could hardly hear it, let alone the people outside.

The sounds of banging and digging above his head seemed to be fading away. Yin Chengyu gritted his teeth and forced himself to calm down. He groped around with his hands, and when he touched a loose stone, he dug it out in ecstasy. Ignoring the tearing pain in his waist, he tried to twist his body, and held the stone to knock on the boulder behind him.

The rocks collided with each other, making a crisp sound.

Yin Chengyu was delighted and knocked even harder.

He remembered that Xue Shu had casually mentioned to him the codeword for internal communication within the West Factory. He held the stone tightly and knocked it with long and short beats at a regular frequency, trying to attract the attention of people outside.

Cui Ci and Ying Hongxue had been searching the ruins for three days without sleep.

It started to rain after the earthquake, which made the search more difficult. Fortunately, Ying Hongxue dispatched 5,000 Red Army soldiers to help, and the cleanup progress was much faster.

During these three days, they dug out many buried soldiers from the pile of earth and rocks. Most of them were already dead, and their bodies were mutilated and bloody.

Only a few were still breathing.

Every time they dug up a body, they were both happy and scared.

They were glad that the bodies they dug out were not the crown prince and Supervisor Xue, but they were also afraid that as time went by, the chances of their survival would become smaller and smaller.

The commander of the Qingzhou Guard even wanted to report the news of the prince's accident, but was suppressed by Cui Ci.

The rain was getting heavier and heavier, with raindrops as big as soybeans hitting my face and I could hardly open my eyes.

Cui Ci looked at the area that had not yet been searched, then at the soldiers who were struggling to move rubble in the rain, and shouted to Hong Xue, "Withdraw the troops first, and continue when the rain stops."

Ying Hongxue hesitated for a moment, but finally nodded.

It's raining so hard that it's really not suitable to look for anyone.

The searching soldiers gradually withdrew. Ying Hongxue wiped the water off her face and limped towards the makeshift tent. Just after she took two steps, He Shan ran over and squatted in front of her: "Come up."

Ying Hongxue did not refuse. She lay on He Shan's back, looking around, wondering whether she should change the search location after the rain subsided.

While I was thinking about it, my ears caught an unusual sound.

She didn't pay attention at first, but then the sound continued several times.

"Stop." Ying Hongxue jumped off He Shan's back and tried to identify the direction of the sound: "Did you hear it? There is a sound. It sounds like someone is knocking on stones."

He Shan listened attentively for a while and said uncertainly, "It seems so."

"There is someone!" Ying Hongxue said firmly.

Cui Ci saw that the two of them had stopped moving, so he came forward to ask what was going on, and he also heard the unusual sound. The sound was muffled by the heavy rain, and he had to try very hard to distinguish it clearly.

Three long, two short, one long. Repeat.

"It's the secret code from the West Factory!"

Cui Ci immediately became excited: "It must be Supervisor Xue!"

After saying this, he immediately gathered people to start cleaning and digging, regardless of the heavy rain.

There was a slight vibration above my head, and I could vaguely hear someone shouting.

But Yin Chengyu felt dizzy and could not hear clearly.

He just grabbed Xue Shu's hand and said in a hoarse voice: "Xue Shu, someone is here to save us."

The person behind him did not respond to him, but his pulse was still beating weakly.

Gravel, dirt and raindrops were falling down from above. Yin Chengyu closed his eyes and could only rely on his ears to distinguish the movements above.

First, the top soil and rocks were dug up, and then there were movements from the tree trunks above...

I don't know how much time had passed, but my tightly closed eyes suddenly felt a dazzling light. Yin Chengyu raised his hands to cover his eyes, and his ears were filled with the voices of countless people.

He couldn't hear clearly, so he just said in a hoarse voice: "Save Xue Shu first."

The author has something to say:

Gou Gou: Your Highness loves me so much.

Big Dog: Your Highness loves me so much.

Big Dog & Dog Gou: Who do you think you are?