Chapter 66 Xie Jingchen Protects Xia Fanxing
The two dismounted and began searching for the viper's tracks separately.
As Xia Fanxing was turning over a rock, several milky-white, plump moth larvae that were hibernating were suddenly disturbed.
They fell to Xia Fanxing's feet, and one even fell onto her sleeve.
Xia Fanxing, who had always maintained a calm and professional demeanor, suddenly screamed in surprise.
She jumped away from the "scene of the incident," immediately pulling her hands into her sleeves and frantically shaking them, trying to shake off the soft moth larvae.
But after shaking it for a while, she almost fainted. The moth larva was still firmly clinging to her sleeve, and because of her violent reaction, it even crawled a little into the empty sleeve!
"What's going on?" Xie Jingchen rushed over after hearing the commotion.
Xia Fanxing quickly brought her sleeve to his face, tilted her head and closed her eyes, her face full of fear and dared not look him in the eye, and her body even began to tremble slightly.
"There's a bug on my cuff! Quick, get it off me, it's crawling inside!!"
Xie Jingchen looked closely and saw that there was indeed a soft moth larva in Xia Fanxing's cuff. It was struggling to wriggle its body and slowly crawling into the warm place inside the cuff.
These insects were not scary to Xie Jingchen at all; in difficult times, they could even be used as a source of protein.
Even when faced with poisonous insects, he wouldn't react as strongly as Xia Fanxing.
Xie Jingchen simply picked up the plump moth larva with his bare hands and put it back under the rock.
He looked at Xia Fanxing, who was still in the same position, and said with a smile, "Comrade Xia, I've taken the bug off and put it back. You can open your eyes now."
Xia Fanxing first opened one eye to peek secretly, and only after confirming that there were really no bugs in her cuff did she breathe a sigh of relief and extend her hand back out of her sleeve.
But before she could even catch her breath, she saw several white moth larvae wriggling around on the ground.
"Ah!" she cried out involuntarily, letting out a short, sharp scream.
She immediately hid behind Xie Jingchen, "There's still some on the ground... could you please clean it up again?"
Xie Jingchen turned around and glanced at Xia Fanxing.
She was genuinely frightened, and closed her eyes again, too afraid to open them. Her two small hands were gripping his military overcoat so tightly that it was deformed.
Xie Jingchen simply couldn't reconcile the woman trembling with fear at the sight of the moth larvae with the woman who remained calm and composed when facing the infected soldiers.
After Xie Jingchen finished dealing with all the moth larvae, Xia Fanxing peeked out from behind him, her head trembling.
Xie Jingchen finally couldn't help but laugh and said, "You're not afraid of infection, but you're afraid of little bugs?"
Xia Fanxing took a deep breath, and her tense and scared mood calmed down a little.
"Don't you think things without bones are terrifying?" Xia Fanxing felt goosebumps all over just saying it.
Xie Jingchen shook his head.
He suddenly thought of something, "What if you see a viper later? Won't you be scared too?"
Snakes are also boneless creatures, and they are much larger than moth larvae.
Xia Fanxing had only just realized this problem.
She was too frightened to speak, her face was deathly pale, and her expression was blank.
Seeing her like this, Xie Jingchen lost all desire to laugh; in fact, he even felt a slight, stinging pain in his chest.
"Comrade Xia, you stay behind me. Once I catch the viper, all I need to do is judge whether it's what you want."
Xia Fanxing wholeheartedly agreed with this plan.
She hid behind Xie Jingchen the whole way, clinging tightly to his military overcoat.
Xie Jingchen was tall and imposing, like a wall in front of her, a terrifying creature that isolated her from all softness.
What they didn't expect was that before they could find the viper, they encountered the "white-haired wind".
A blizzard is a type of snowstorm, which is not uncommon in the border regions during winter, but encountering one even once you go out is considered bad luck.
Visibility suddenly dropped, the cold wind was biting and howled past, and the horses, frightened, began to neigh uncontrollably.
Xie Jingchen shielded his face with his arm and shouted, "We can't stay here any longer, we need to find somewhere to hide."
He glanced down and said loudly, "To avoid getting separated, I apologize for the inconvenience."
Then he reached out and firmly grasped Xia Fanxing's wrist.
Xie Jingchen, holding the horse in one hand and Xia Fanxing's hand in the other, struggled through the wind and snow, finally finding two connected, shallow, narrow rock crevices.
The space in the rift was very small; the horse occupied one space by itself, while Xia Fanxing and Xie Jingchen shared another.
The space inside the cave was just enough for the two of them to sit down curled up.
Outside, the wind and snow howled, but inside, it felt as if the world had turned away, with only the rapid breathing of two people and the cold air.
Xie Jingchen used the matches he carried with him and the dry branches he found to painstakingly start a small fire.
The flickering firelight illuminated Xia Fanxing's face, which was red from the cold.
Xie Jingchen was slightly stunned.
Xia Fanxing has fair skin, and the rosy cheeks look like a natural blush, while the rosy tip of her nose adds to her charming and lovely aura.
Xie Jingchen suddenly came to his senses.
He took off his military overcoat and wrapped it around Xia Fanxing without saying a word, saying, "Wear this. You still need to treat the soldiers; you can't fall ill."
His tone was stiff, even deliberately cold.
However, his words and actions revealed a touch of care.
Xia Fanxing did not refuse; she took the initiative to put on the general's coat, not wanting to disappoint Xie Jingchen's kindness.
While getting dressed, she accidentally bumped into Xie Jingchen's back, and Xie Jingchen actually groaned.
Xia Fanxing immediately thought of the whipping incident and frowned, asking, "Is the injury on your back still not healed?"
"It's nothing," Xie Jingchen said.
It's that line again!
Xia Fanxing suddenly felt a surge of anger.
She slapped Xie Jingchen hard on the back and then ground her hand on it.
You still say you're fine?
Even so, Xie Jingchen didn't say anything more, but just clenched his teeth, his brows almost furrowed together.
Xia Fanxing quickly withdrew her hand and took the opportunity to swiftly lift his clothes.
When Xia Fanxing saw his back, she gasped instantly, overwhelmed by a wave of heartache, and her eyes welled up with tears.
The crisscrossing whip marks not only failed to heal, but also showed signs of redness, swelling, and inflammation in several places, with one or two even slightly ulcerated and oozing pus. This was clearly due to the infection not being properly treated and the fatigue from the past few days.
"Why didn't you treat it? Why didn't you apply the medicine properly? You... you just kept enduring it like this?" Xia Fanxing tried her best to control the trembling in her voice.
But Xie Jingchen still managed to figure it out.
"I'm really fine." Xie Jingchen's tone softened, revealing a gentleness and reassurance that he himself didn't realize. "The injuries I sustained on the battlefield before were much more serious than this, but I'm still perfectly fine now, aren't I?"
Xia Fanxing's voice was very low, "I'm sorry, I was just..."
She just wanted to teach Xie Jingchen a lesson for his stubbornness; she never expected that more than a month later, his injuries would still be so severe!
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