The rain was falling harder, and there were no more sounds from above the cave. The boy grew restless.
"Big brother, I'm going to check it out," he said, worried that it might be another companion. If someone was injured and left out in the rain, their chances of survival were slim.
"Alright," Mei Lin replied, feeling uneasy herself. She wondered if someone else had fallen from above. If that were the case, this place might not be safe to stay in for much longer.
The boy left and returned shortly, dragging another person with him. The night was so dark that nothing could be seen, but Mei Lin could feel the damp, cold mist being carried in, causing her to shiver involuntarily.
"He's not dead yet," the boy said as he worked to rub warmth back into the cold hands and feet of the newcomer. "His clothes are soaked, and I can't tell where he's hurt."
Mei Lin remained silent, but she noticed that the presence of another person seemed to make her discomfort more bearable. Her body was still feverish, and her wounds still throbbed, but she no longer felt isolated, swallowed up by the darkness.
"He's too cold. He'll die, he'll die..." the boy murmured, followed by the sound of rustling clothes. "I'll take off his wet clothes. Big brother, let's huddle together. It'll be warmer that way." As he spoke, he dragged the unresponsive man closer to Mei Lin.
Mei Lin didn't resist. After roughly assessing that the newcomer posed no immediate danger, she shifted her body closer, allowing the three of them to share warmth. In this situation, she didn’t mind sharing her feverish body heat with others.
A thin, claw-like hand reached over from the other side, wrapping around her shoulder, pulling the three of them closer together. The pain from her shoulder wound flared up, waves of agony washing over her, but Mei Lin gritted her teeth and didn’t make a sound. The pain kept her alert, and the feeling of sharing life with others in this desperate moment was something she found herself oddly clinging to.
However, this fragile sense of connection was shattered when daylight crept into the cave.
By dawn, the extra body heat had helped reduce Mei Lin’s fever. The hand gripping her shoulder had slipped away as its owner fell into a deeper sleep, now resting limply on the man in the middle.
Mei Lin hadn’t slept all night. As the soft morning light filtered into the cave, allowing her to see more clearly, she turned her stiff neck and looked at the person she had huddled with through the night. Her face instantly turned pale.
She closed her eyes, then opened them again, confirming it wasn’t a dream. Her hand clenched unconsciously as she took deep breaths, then silently slid into the shadows at the back of the cave.
Murong Jing He. The pale, unconscious man lying next to her was none other than Murong Jing He.
What a cruel joke!
Mei Lin was thrown into disarray, unsure of how to handle the situation. Perhaps she should leave immediately, or maybe she should take this chance to kill him...
Outside, the rain continued to drizzle, the sound of droplets hitting the leaves and the ground echoed in Mei Lin’s already fragile mind, making her headache worse. As an assassin, killing someone was nothing out of the ordinary, so she could easily kill the man who had caused her so much suffering. After all, just the morning before, he hadn’t shown her an ounce of mercy when she begged him for help.
As chaotic thoughts swirled in her mind, Mei Lin's frantic emotions gradually calmed down. She crawled toward the entrance of the cave.
Catching the raindrops that dripped from the leaves into her parched mouth, she felt slightly better. After taking a few deep breaths of the fresh air near the entrance, she sat down and coldly looked back at the two people inside the cave.
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