Chapter 21 The Warmth

“I’m fine…” I wiped my eyes, but tears still kept falling. I struggled to stand up as I turned my back to him, barely refraining from bursting into tears.

This was so embarrassing.

I began to look around to alleviate the awkward atmosphere.

The place where I was right now should be deep inside the village, however, the place where I met Gudiao was a little farther away, so what was going on? Did Wen Jiubo save me?

Waves of pain crashed into my chest, the blood hadn’t stopped yet. Though the blood left on my hand looked scary after I touched the wound, it was just superficial, explaining why I could still walk around even after being attacked.

Oh, right, how about the man-eating beast? Where is it?

I turned around and to my surprise, the giant monster lay on the ground nearby as if it was bound by an invisible rope, howling desperately and unable to break free.

“It’s a miracle that you survived.” Wen Jiubo stood up and looked at me with a frown. “Luckily, Gudiao didn’t see you since you hid behind the well, otherwise, you would have ended up in his stomach if I hadn’t arrived in time.”

A cold shiver ran down my spine when I thought of the Gudiao’s bloody mouth and huge claws.

However, since I passed out, if it wasn’t Wen Jiubo who saved me, then who did?

Did Chu Bai save my life?

“I told you, don’t run around before you totally understand the situation here.” Wen Jiubo frowned. He looked angry and raised his voice a little higher, ” As I said, you should look for me first before taking action, why are you always trying to be a hero?”

Huh? I didn’t know why he criticized me like this, but I immediately became furious.

“How could I know the Gudiao was still wandering in the village?! You didn’t notice that and you didn’t warn me! Now you blame me for running around! How could I react when it suddenly showed up in front of me! I almost died!”

“This is why you should be more careful! Humans only have one life, and you always risk your life doing reckless things!” Unlike the calm and emotionless face he usually had, Wen Jiubo’s eyes were full of anger.

I stared him back without fear. “How dare you say that. I’m just a liability to you! You won’t even care if I die!”

At that moment, I saw Wen Jiubo’s face harden, his eyes gleaming with anger. And then, he shoved me against the wall so hard that my back hurt.

Before the pain even dissipated, Wen Jiubo got closer and pinned me against the wall.

I had never seen Wen Jiubo like this before.

“Gu Yu, don’t push me,” Wen Jiubo whispered into my ear. “There’s nothing more painful to me than to see you die. So, please don’t ever say something like this again. You’re more important to me than you think.”

Then, I felt the warmth of his body, Wen Jiubo was holding me in his arms. I was stunned.

So he lost his temper because…

He was worried about me?

I opened my mouth but I was speechless. No words could be used to express my complicated feelings at this moment. I raised my arms and gently patted his back.

“Uh, I’m okay now…” I stammered, “I couldn’t feel more alive.”

I actually thought about this before.

About why Wen Jiubo treated me differently since he was such an indifferent and cold-hearted person. Sometimes, I felt the way he cared for me had crossed the boundary of friendship.

Our first meeting was an accident. I was an ordinary college student, and he was a mysterious exorcist who trained in the old residence for an unknown period of time. We met because of fate, but I didn’t believe our relationship was deep enough for him to care about me that much.

However, even though…

Even though I had doubts and I was wary of his intentions, I couldn’t refuse.

I couldn’t refuse his charisma, and I couldn’t refuse the warmth and tenderness he made me feel. After all, he was the only person that could give me this kind of gentle feeling.

“Oi, what’re you doing?”

Suddenly, Bai’s voice cut in. Wen Jiubo seemed startled by his voice and quickly released me, it saved me from the awkward situation.

“Did you find the water I asked for?” Wen Jiubo’s expression went back to his usual one so fast that I almost doubted if what happened just now was real.

“Yes, I did. It took me a lot of effort to find it, the whole village didn’t even have a clean well.” Bai complained while handing over a bottle of water he held in his mouth.

“Will this work?”

Wen Jiubo opened the bottle and poured some water on his hand. He nodded, “It will. Good job, I’ll buy you a drink when we’re back.”

“You better keep your word!”

Wen Jiubo then walked towards the Gudiao with the bottle. The Gudiao immediately groaned when it saw Wen Jiubo approaching, it struggled to stand up but it was seemingly powerless.

I followed Wen Jiubo and slowly walked towards that monster.

To me, this man-eating monster… was no different from any other animal. It could get hungry, curious, and scary. When I looked in its eyes, I began to understand Wen Jiubo’s theory about wolves eating rabbits.

However, it still was a man-eating monster. Wen Jiubo poured the water on the Gudiao before chanting some spells that I didn’t understand.

A thought occurred to me when he performing the exorcism and I whispered,

“Wen Jiubo…”

“En?”

“Does the Gudiao only attack villages?”

Wen Jiubo smiled when he heard my question. “No, it’s doesn’t. But villages are its usual targets.”

“Why?”

“Well…” Wen Jiubo looked at the struggling Gudiao in the magic array and replied, “Because the Gudiao is very smart. It always looks for weak groups during a hunt, these remote and isolated villages are the perfect target in its eyes.”