Chapter 272: Days Of Living Together With Hongling

Chapter 272: The Days of Living with Yue Hongling

“Crack! Crack! Crack!”

The sound of flint striking steel echoed through the pile of rubble, sparks scattering one by one.

It was a tedious task—without oil-soaked tinder, lighting a fire with only dry grass was exceedingly difficult. Zhao Changhe had never imagined he would one day curse Xia Longyuan for this: “You’ve unified the land for so many years, and you couldn’t even invent a lighter! A disgrace to all transmigrators!”

But then he reconsidered: even if he had a lighter, it would be useless in water. It seemed the flint and steel were still better. So he had no choice but to keep striking.

After much effort, the fire finally caught. Zhao Changhe, overjoyed, hurriedly piled on more dry branches and twigs. Before long, a warm campfire took shape in the center of the stone pile.

The space was windless, the flames steady. Zhao Changhe leaped up in delight, laughing like a child.

Yue Hongling, naked, peeked her head out from behind a rock to look at him.

Zhao Changhe waved excitedly: “You can bring your wet clothes over to dry!”

Her head ducked back: “Don’t come over!”

“As if I care.” Zhao Changhe ignored her, sitting back down by the fire, cheerfully pulling out new clothes from his bundle.

He had intended to dry a set for himself, but as he pulled them out, he remembered he had also bought a set of white men’s clothes for Yue Hongling. Smiling, he hung them nearby: “Lucky you, you don’t have to wear that red dress anymore.”

Yue Hongling fumed: “Zhao Changhe!”

Zhao Changhe looked up at the sky.

Yue Hongling glared at him from behind the rock for a long moment, then suddenly laughed: “Fine, I’m stinky. If you’ve got the guts, don’t ever kiss me again.”

Zhao Changhe immediately backed down: “You’re fragrant, fragrant.”

“Hmph.” Her head finally retreated.

But the atmosphere suddenly grew quiet.

An empty space, a tranquil shore; a warm campfire, separated by a single rock.

She was naked, and he knew it.

Just that awareness alone was enough to unsettle anyone. It felt as if they could hear each other’s heartbeats across the space, thumping and thumping.

Zhao Changhe lowered his head to tend to his wounds, then suddenly said: “This probably isn’t the sea, but a big lake.”

Knowing he was deliberately changing the subject, Yue Hongling still replied with an “Mm,” then leaned against the rock and laughed bitterly at herself.

What was she thinking? The self-reliance she had built through years of wandering alone seemed to have vanished in such a short time. It was as if she, not him, was the inexperienced one—like Cui Yuanyang back then, helpless and clueless.

In truth, Yue Hongling understood why Zhao Changhe thought this was a lake. The water wasn’t salty; even when their wounds were submerged, there was no stinging sensation from salt. Not only was it not salty, but it might also be extremely pure—so pure that it lacked many elements.

Such water might not be beneficial to drink, but it wasn’t harmful either. It was fine for hydration and even better for cleaning wounds. That was what Zhao Changhe meant by his remark.

Neither spoke further. They silently cleaned their wounds, reapplied medicine, and bandaged themselves, letting their exhaustion slowly fade in this place.

Zhao Changhe moved a portion of the fire closer to the rock, careful not to peek: “Yours.”

Yue Hongling glanced at the campfire beside her. It was warm, just like him.

She lowered her head again and murmured, “Mm,” saying nothing more.

Zhao Changhe returned to his own fire, wearily poking at it for a while. Before he knew it, he had fallen asleep, leaning against the rock behind him.

He was far too tired.

Yue Hongling silently watched him for a long moment, then slowly closed her eyes as well.

…

The next morning, Yue Hongling opened her eyes.

Not that she could tell if it was morning—the sky was invisible here, still pitch black, making it impossible to judge the time.

The small fire beside her had gone out at some point.

But after a night’s rest, her night vision had improved significantly compared to the previous night. Though she couldn’t see far, the darkness in this space was now almost like daylight to her.

She first examined her internal condition. After fighting on horseback with injuries, her state was a mess. Fortunately, her external wounds hadn’t become infected. With medicine applied and a good night’s rest, they had improved somewhat. But her internal injuries were troublesome. The Tiger Blade, ranked forty-first on the Human List, was no joke. Its blade energy had invaded her body, wreaking havoc, damaging her meridians severely, and nearly destroying her dantian.

She had taken medicine the night before, but it seemed ineffective. After resting all night, she had managed to gather some true qi, but it was almost entirely scattered, unable to coalesce.

Yue Hongling sighed, stopped her internal examination, and propped herself up.

Looking down at herself, she realized with a start that she was still naked… There was no wind here, and it wasn’t cold, so she hadn’t noticed…

Embarrassed, she rubbed her head. She had actually spent the night like this with a man, without feeling flustered or ashamed, sleeping soundly. Was it just exhaustion? But even after waking, she hadn’t thought of it immediately…

She cautiously peeked her head out again to look at the fire on the other side.

The fire had dwindled to a tiny, flickering flame. Zhao Changhe was still asleep, leaning against the rock, deeply unconscious. She could see him frowning even in his sleep, his body slightly curled up, looking very uncomfortable.

In the latter half of yesterday, he had been the one holding everything together. His exhaustion far exceeded hers. She guessed that besides his injuries and fatigue, the backlash from his blood aura was starting to act up again… The towering man had curled up like a child.

Yue Hongling carefully crept out from behind the rock, silently reached out her jade hand to grab the white men’s clothes he had hung nearby, and swiftly retreated.

A moment later, dressed in the men’s outfit, Yue Hongling stepped out from behind the rock, glaring at the sleeping Zhao Changhe. Her face was even more flushed with shame than when she had been naked.

What kind of lousy clothes were these? From the right shoulder to the right hand, there was no fabric at all—half of it was bare! Even the outer curve of her right breast was clearly visible.

You wanted me to wear this?

Yue Hongling clenched her fist, pretending to punch him. But when her fist reached his cheek, she stopped, letting out a “Hmph.”

Turning her head, she saw the flame was about to go out. Yue Hongling jumped up, hurriedly gathering nearby branches to feed the fire. Watching the dying flame revive, she couldn’t help but smile.

No wonder he had laughed like a child yesterday. Happiness could be so simple.

She checked his bundle. There were still dry rations, well-wrapped in oil paper. Though a little water had seeped in, it was mostly fine.

So she took out some rations, ate them slowly with clear water, and felt even happier.

After eating, she went to the lakeside to wash up properly. After a moment’s thought, she jumped into the water and scrubbed herself thoroughly… Yue Hongling didn’t know why she was washing. She had already said she didn’t get dirty and wasn’t unclean… Was it to make him believe she had washed and wasn’t dirty? Why did she need him to believe that? What was she planning?

Yue Hongling didn’t know. But she washed naturally, then put on that off-shoulder outfit again, wrung out her hair, and returned to the campfire.

She knew she had taken a long time with all that washing and fussing. But when she got back, Zhao Changhe still hadn’t woken up. In fact, he was curled up even tighter, his brow deeply furrowed, and he was even letting out faint groans.

Yue Hongling’s heart leaped. She reached out and touched his forehead.

He had a fever. And that wasn’t all—the blade energy rampaging inside him was tearing his organs apart. The blood aura lurking in his veins seemed to be stirred, roaring and surging like a tide.

—He hadn’t been sleeping; he had been unconscious.

Yue Hongling quickly rummaged through the bundle, found a healing pill, and tried to put it in his mouth. But he couldn’t swallow, and it fell out.

Though Yue Hongling had extensive experience in the martial world, she had always traveled alone. She had never “taken care of a patient” before and didn’t know how to make him swallow. She was stumped.

After thinking for a while, she simply propped him up, leaned him against her shoulder, chewed the pill herself, and then lowered her head to feed it into his mouth, mouth-to-mouth.

Just like the breath-transfer yesterday. Perfectly normal.

Oh, you dare spit it out?

She pushed it in with her tongue!

Finally, the medicine’s effects reached the unconscious Zhao Changhe. The torment of the blade energy eased slightly, and the soothing, cool sensation of the medicine nourishing his meridians spread. He slowly began to regain consciousness.

Before he even opened his eyes, he felt the softness in his mouth, lips and tongues entwined.

Her hand was around his neck, and the sensation was even stranger… It felt like the touch on his neck was bare skin—her hand was still uncovered, wasn’t she wearing anything?

His awakening was actually perceptible to Yue Hongling; her arms instinctively tightened around him, and she murmured indistinctly, "Don't move, let sister help you."

The true qi accumulated through the night was once again poured into his body without reservation: "Focus on your breathing, don't overthink."

Zhao Changhe said nothing, silently leaning in her embrace, circulating his qi to receive the true energy and regulate his meridians.

The actual scene was this: in the darkness, by the warm campfire, the man curled up in his sister's arms, gently kissing and breathing softly, murmuring.