First of all, she did not feel the slightest bit cold, and later in her sleep she even had a beautiful dream. In the dream, while sleeping, she was hugging a princess in her arms. Although she could not see the face clearly in the dream, instinct told her that the princess was extremely beautiful.
Unfortunately, the princess ran away in the end, and in the dream she somehow ended up hugging a big rock from who knows where, continuing to sleep.
The next day, when Yan Luqing woke up, the daylight was already bright. Sunlight shone in through the entrance of the tree hole, spilling warmly upon the body.
She drowsily rubbed her eyes and discovered that in the sleeping bag there was only herself, and in her arms… she was hugging her own backpack.
“……?”
Yan Luqing let go of the backpack, sat up rather dumbfounded, and at once saw Gu Ci, who ought to have been in the sleeping bag.
He was sitting opposite her, leaning against the inner wall of the tree trunk, looking at his phone. Gu Ci was not facing her directly; from this angle half of his face was in the halo of light, half in shadow, each line of his features seemingly calculated with precision instruments.
Yan Luqing looked for a while and thought inwardly: in her dream last night, the princess she hugged while asleep—she wondered if that one’s beauty could compare to this.
She cleared her throat and greeted him: “Gu Ci, morning.” Then, conveniently, she asked, “When did you wake up?”
Hearing her voice, Gu Ci slowly lifted the eyelids that had been drooping, shifted his gaze away from the phone screen, and moved it onto her face.
She did not know whether it had to do with his injury, but the color of his lips was very light. Yet it was not the terrifying pallor of when they had first met; there was a trace of faint pink. Yan Luqing just looked at his lips opening and closing, as he said: “What you should ask is, when did I sleep?”
Yan Luqing was startled: “……Ah?”
Gu Ci once again looked at his phone, slid his finger across the screen twice, then braced one hand on the ground, rose, and walked over to her side.
Yan Luqing looked at the phone he handed to her, and heard him say: “See for yourself.”
She took it.
It was a video.
It was a video that—someone as careless as her, upon seeing it, would feel the urge to go sit in prison.
Judging from the light, it was already the early dawn. The video had been taken by Gu Ci, naturally from his point of view.
Thus from his perspective, Yan Luqing watched herself with eyes closed, clutching him, grabbing, inching closer, rubbing against him… The more he evaded, the more she stuck to him. Several times, her closed-eyed face bumped straight into the camera. Not ugly, indeed, but utterly foolish. Yan Luqing nearly suffocated from watching it.
At the end of the video, Gu Ci left the sleeping bag, stuffed her backpack into her arms, and only then did she finally quiet down.
“……”
Save me.
The princess has been defiled, the princess has been molested.
Save me save me save me save me……
When Yan Luqing was already embarrassed to the point of not knowing what to do, Gu Ci’s voice, carrying a hint of laughter, came from above her head: “You reassured me last night, turns out you sleep very honestly.”
“……”
“Miss Yan, after watching, what thoughts?”
Yan Luqing lifted her head, and Gu Ci happened to be crouching in front of her. Their eyes were nearly level, and the first thing she noticed was the dark bluish shadow beneath his eyes.
“My thoughts are……” Yan Luqing pondered for a moment, then said, “Niu/bi.” [“ox awesome”; slang for “badass”]
Gu Ci’s tone carried a hint of absurdity: “What?”
“My meaning is to say——” Yan Luqing instantly changed her expression, pushed up her glasses, and before the person in front of her she put on an act of pitifulness. “Gu Ci, last night I made such a fool of myself, yet you didn’t just throw me aside and leave. Your character is truly too niu/bi…”
“……”
Yan Luqing watched Gu Ci’s expression change again. Those eyes that tapered outward gradually narrowed, forming a fine, long shape.
Given Princess Ci’s level of sharp tongue, given the richness of vocabulary of someone called “word,” if he really opened his mouth to roast her, Yan Luqing simply dared not imagine how tragic the scene would be.
So she immediately slid down to her knees.
Yan Luqing propped her right hand with her left, her right hand making an upside-down “V” sign, representing a little person standing. Then, the next second——
Her finger bent, and the little person fell to its knees with a plop in the palm of her left hand, facing toward Gu Ci’s direction.
This action seemed to amuse Gu Ci. From the time Yan Luqing had woken up until now, it was the first time the corners of his lips curved upward. “What are you doing.”
Yan Luqing waggled the little kneeling person formed by her fingers, and in a small voice said: “Making an apology to you.”
Gu Ci simply let the matter pass.
At first, Yan Luqing hardly dared to believe that Princess Ci could be coaxed so easily. But she quickly remembered, this was not the first time she had challenged Princess Ci’s bottom line. Yet not once had he ever truly gotten angry at her.
——Except that time at the villa, when she swallowed the medicine he gave her and was then forced by him to vomit it out. She felt Gu Ci’s emotions then were closer to genuine anger.
Yan Luqing discovered that a warming patch had been stuck onto the back of her clothes. Only, she could not recall at all when it had been put there. The patch had already cooled completely, and when she got up she tore it off in passing.
The water and food in the backpack now came in handy. After the two had satisfied their hunger, Yan Luqing looked toward Gu Ci’s back. “How’s your side? Do you need the medicine changed?”
“No need.”
“Then you didn’t really sleep well last night……” Mentioning last night, Yan Luqing’s voice grew guilty and faint, and she proposed: “Why don’t you sleep a while now? I’m really energetic right now, this time I definitely won’t fall asleep.”
This time Gu Ci finally lifted his head to look at her. “I’ll go out for a bit first.”
“Go out? To do what?”
“Yesterday, we rolled down from the mountain almost in a straight direction. Even if the distance is farther, by now, with the search, they should have found us.” Gu Ci, rarely, spoke many words. “I paid attention to the sounds outside last night, there was no one searching. So I’ll go take a look now.”
From Gu Ci’s tone, he did not sound the least bit anxious about this situation. It was merely an explanation for her.
The moment last night was brought up, Yan Luqing grew embarrassed again.
Why on earth had she slept so soundly in such a situation… even she herself found it difficult to understand.
“From… the time you recorded the video, you had already been awake?”
Gu Ci made a sound of assent. “Otherwise?”
“Then you were awake for so long, why……”
Why wait until she woke before going?
Yan Luqing did not voice it aloud, but the other’s comprehension was too sharp—he had already understood. He smiled and said: “Of course it was because someone else was not yet awake. I didn’t want to profit off a person’s tears.”
“……”
“Gu Ci, I really didn’t cry last night!” Yan Luqing, after one final emphasis, climbed up from the sleeping mat. “I’ll go out with you.”
“You only just dislocated your ankle yesterday and had it reset, don’t walk too much.” Gu Ci stood at the mouth of the tree hole, the light behind his back. His gaze on her carried a trace of helplessness. “You yourself said it: since I didn’t run away in the morning, I won’t be running now either.”
“……I’m not afraid of you running.” Yan Luqing walked up to him, flexed her ankle a little. “See, my foot is fine now. And besides… I just don’t want to stay alone.”
“……”
After a moment of silence, Gu Ci suddenly gave a low laugh, speaking in the tone of an older brother bringing along a child: “Alright, let’s go.”
……
What Gu Ci called “going out to take a look” was indeed just taking a look. The two of them walked along the tree hole back to the slope they had rolled down from, then walked up some distance in that direction. Yet the path was blocked densely by irregularly spaced trees, and it was completely impossible to see where they had fallen from.
And in this area, aside from the two of them, there was no one else. Dieye Mountain was such a large tourist spot, even serving as the autumn outing destination for quite a few schools, yet not a single sound of visitors’ conversations could be heard.
Perhaps because he was taking care of her ankle, their pace was very slow. While walking, Gu Ci suddenly said: “In the morning, the phone got signal.”
“……!” Yan Luqing froze for a moment. “Can we make calls?”
“Mm.”
“And can we send messages?”
“Mm.”
Gu Ci did not show the slightest surprise, just as last night, when he realized the phone had no signal, he had also not seemed surprised.
So strange.
She even felt that from the very beginning, when he tried to pull her up but couldn’t, Gu Ci might have already known that none of this was caused by natural factors.
But… impossible, right?
It should just be that his personality was good at hiding emotions, making him seem especially calm. Yan Luqing told herself this inwardly.
After all, how could a normal person accept such unnatural, unscientific things?
Yan Luqing was focused in thought when her arm was suddenly blocked by someone. At the same time, from the forest came the brief sound of something moving through.
Yan Luqing’s scalp went numb. By reflex she directly hugged Gu Ci beside her, arms around his waist, and cried out in a panic: “What was that? Gu Ci, what was that?”
Gu Ci did not answer immediately.
As she waited, Yan Luqing grew more and more frightened, more and more frightened, until she heard Gu Ci drawl with teasing in his tone: “So it turns out, Dora-a-Qing is afraid of these things too?”
“……” Yan Luqing felt a little ashamed and angry. “What was it, really? Did you see it?”
“A small animal, gray in color. Not sure if it was a rabbit or a squirrel.”
Yan Luqing let out a huge sigh of relief.
In her understanding, according to what Makka Pakka had said, she was already cut off by the system from the outside world. Yet now, with animals appearing and phone signal returning, it was very likely the punishment was almost over?
“What time did we fall here? Do you still remember?”
“Around nine in the evening.”
Yan Luqing quickly counted on her fingers, and realized that more than twelve hours had passed since they had fallen down. If six hours was one level, though Makka Pakka hadn’t said how many levels, then it meant every six hours was a possibility.
From all signs, it was either this six-hour period, or the next.
Yan Luqing’s mood instantly improved quite a bit.
——Yet she did not notice that her every movement, each change of expression, even the numbers she unconsciously mouthed under her breath, all fell within Gu Ci’s eyes.
On the way back, Yan Luqing was looking through the messages on WeChat.
Big Black and Little Black were already nearly frantic. When she opened their chat box, not only were there many new messages, but the bubbles were so many they nearly overflowed the screen.
Yan Luqing tapped on Little Black’s blue bubble: Although Miss Yan is sick, I still think she is a good person…
Little Black’s gray bubble: Miss Yan won’t really have gotten into an accident, right?! Don’t, ah!
Little Black’s red bubble: Why is it that with so many people searching they still can’t find the two of them??? If they can’t find them fine, but they even forbid us from interfering—damn it, I’m so mad!
“……”
Before, Little Black’s blue, gray, and red were all used to roast her. Now, all three colors were filled with worry about her.
Yan Luqing: ……What’s with this kind of gratifying, motherly feeling.
Big Black’s messages were about the same as Little Black’s.
Then there were messages in the classmates’ group chat, messages from Yan family’s parents after hearing from Big Black and Little Black, even messages from Jiang Baichu—anyway, whoever could send messages had all sent a pile, and basically every bubble was serious concern. Even her eldest brother, who disliked her and always stood up for Gu Ci, sent a bubble saying this time she had better not really cause something to happen to herself.
However, none of these emotions in bubbles had the pink ones that were so richly adorned with text and images. These were all just plain words.
While Yan Luqing was reading messages and pondering how to respond to those blue and gray bubbles, the two of them had already walked back into the tree hole.
As soon as Yan Luqing saw the sleeping bag, she thought of last night’s embarrassment, and immediately looked at Gu Ci. “You sleep. If anything happens I’ll call you.”
This time Gu Ci did not refuse. He straightforwardly walked over, got into the sleeping bag, lay down, and closed his eyes.
Yan Luqing sat by his side. At first she wanted to swipe open her phone screen and continue looking at it, but her attention was drawn to his face instead.
She was inwardly sighing: how did this perfectly fitting brow bone height and nose bridge height come together in such harmony, how could someone lying on their back look so good—truly I picked the right name, worthy of being called Princess… and a whole series of rainbow flattery.
Then Gu Ci suddenly “shua”—opened his eyes.
“Miss Yan, what are you staring at me for?” His gaze carried drowsiness, so it did not look aggressive. “Or rather, do you want to tell me a story before I sleep?”
“Ah, no,” Yan Luqing now recalled the quilt pulled up to his neck and the shadow cast over him. She shook her head. “After all, I can’t tell stories in your kind of style…”
He directly asked with his eyes: Then what are you doing.
“I’m looking at your face,” she answered honestly. “I think your bone structure looks really good.”
“Mm?” Gu Ci responded with a single upward-intoned syllable.
Perhaps men don’t really understand this kind of term?
Yan Luqing thought for a moment, then explained in her own understanding: “Put it this way. I mean, if right now every single person suddenly turned into skeletons on the spot, you’d definitely be the best-looking among all the skeletons.”
Gu Ci: “……Thank you. Your story isn’t bad either.”
After saying that, he really did close his eyes. Before long, his long eyelashes went from an occasional faint tremble to almost no movement at all, and his breathing grew steady and deep.
He was asleep.
With such a beautiful sight at hand, not taking a picture would be a waste of resources. Yan Luqing found an angle and took a photo of Gu Ci, then sank back into having nothing to do, once again beginning to idly play on her phone.
To be honest, ever since she had seen the upgraded version of the pink, Yan Luqing thought all the colors had been upgraded. But just now, upon checking, she found the other colors still had only text.
Right now she very much wanted to see richly adorned versions of other emotions too—such as “sad Little Black,” “angry Little Black,” and the like.
Thus, Yan Luqing had no choice but to once again open that short-video app she had not touched for days, with a clear purpose: to beg for likes. But this time, her goal was comprehensive collection—not only likes and comments of joyful emotion, but also with a touch of forty-five-degree sorrow.
When Gu Ci was asleep, his whole person was cold; when he awoke, however, he had become much warmer.
It seemed he had slept for quite a while, because the light inside the tree hole had dimmed. And lying right in front of him, who knew when she had crawled into the sleeping bag, was Yan Luqing.
She was lying slightly on her side, her back half-turned toward him, playing on her phone. Her hair, in a lighter shade, was loose, giving off the same scent of shampoo as his own.
Yan Luqing’s fingers tapping on the screen were very pleasing to the eye. Her hands were slender and small, the pale skin forming a sharp contrast with the black screen.
But… it was better not to look too closely at what she was typing.
The last experience had left Gu Ci subconsciously resistant to seeing the words she typed. Yet with his eyes recovering and his brain’s reaction speed too fast, a single sweep already let him catch the contents quickly.
Her style had suddenly become completely different from the last time he saw it.
First was a video of the sea and waves. She typed: You said you like the sea, but when the tide came you chose to retreat.
……
Then she scrolled to something that looked like a melodrama clip, and commented: When you don’t love him, that’s when he loves you the most.
……
Yan Luqing scrolled further, and Gu Ci saw large words written on the video——【Talk about your ex.】
This one she seemed to ponder for a moment, then typed a long sentence: Can’t remember clearly anymore, only remember he loved to wear fake shoes. But last time I brought a pair of fake shoes to visit him, he had a white cloth covering his head, as if he wasn’t very willing to see me.
Gu Ci: “……”
He was already preparing to stop Yan Luqing from such behavior, when she scrolled to another video, and without even really looking at the content, she once again typed in a comment:
Lonely night, QQ not ringing, WeChat not ringing—just let my Dou-something ring once, thank you, stranger.
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