CH 76

Gu Feidi hugged the unconscious Su Yang. He became a little frenetic when blood started seeping out from his nose and mouth.

Fortunately, Bear Weng had been equally scared by Snake Po who had also passed out. He immediately ceased his attacks and carried his wife off to retreat.

Seeing that both parties had someone that needed tending to, Bear Weng withdrew along the mountain path without saying a word.

Gu Feidi also held Su Yang tightly in his arms. He raised his bloodshot eyes and stared profoundly at Bear Weng and Snake Po. Then, he immediately lifted Su Yang horizontally, activated his light footwork and shrouded both of them in the dense fog with a few leaps.

The mountain path was surrounded by sheer cliffs with massive rocks. With some difficulty, Gu Feidi managed to locate a stone crevice that was somewhat sheltered from the wind and brought Su Yang in to hide.

This time, Su Yang’s cold symptoms were pounding incessantly into him. His physical condition was extremely poor and blood was still seeping out from his mouth and nose. Gu Feidi’s red eyes were anxious as he used his internal strength to probe Su Yang’s meridians, but he was driven back by the icy air that had congested inside. He had no choice but to apply his internal strength outside the meridians in an attempt to stabilise the dwindling body temperature.

There wasn’t much of Gu Feidi’s internal strength left after the earlier battle, yet he had no time to adjust his energy and regulate his breathing. He could only exhaust his remaining internal strength and transfer it to Su Yang to keep him warm.

It wasn’t until his last bit of internal strength had been wrung out, that his meridians began to throb and Su Yang’s body temperature gradually settled.

Although he was being held, he was still as cold as a block of ice. At least his breathing and pulse had finally stabilised.

Hugging Su Yang with one arm, Gu Feidi opened his luggage with his other hand and poured out all the clothes and other items inside. He used the clothing to wrap both of them together and warmed Su Yang’s body with his own.

There were still bloodstains at the corners of Su Yang’s mouth which couldn’t be wiped off because they had congealed and dried. Gu Feidi lowered his head and softly kissed Su Yang’s lips. He slowly stuck out the tip of his tongue and gently licked away all the bloodstains.

He pressed Su Yang’s cheek to his forehead and slowly closed his eyes.

“Su Yang, please… get better soon.” Gu Feidi murmured in Su Yang’s ear.

The weather in the mountains rapidly changed and snow began to flurry down outside the stone crevice again.

Without internal strength circulating within his body, Gu Feidi also suffered the winter-like chilly air. He hugged Su Yang tightly, closed his eyes and adjusted his breathing, recovering some internal strength and transmitting all of it over to Su Yang. After Su Yang’s physical signs had stabilised, he regulated his breathing for a while and then helped warm Su Yang up.

As such, he maintained and repeated this cycle until the snowstorm gradually stopped. By that time, the darkness of night had already fallen outside the stone crevice.

The Cold Pond Ice Spirit in Su Yang eventually quieted down in degrees and his body temperature began to increase, slowly returning to normal. Unfortunately, he had all along been immersed in a deep sleep and no matter how Gu Feidi shouted, he didn’t wake up.

The unexplained fatigue was disconcerting. Gu Feidi didn’t dare to fall asleep. He held Su Yang for the whole night and sat with him until daybreak.

When Su Yang opened his eyes, he caught sight of a thin layer of snow that had fallen onto the piles of clothing stacked up in front of him. His body was tightly attached to Gu Feidi’s chest with only a thin piece of clothing separating them and his hands were being mindfully warmed in his embrace.

He shifted his stiff arm. Bits of snow from the clothes he was wrapped in fell to the ground.

Gu Feidi suddenly opened his eyes and said hoarsely, “You’re awake!”

In the early morning, most of the fog in the mountains had condensed on the mountainside and the clouds had not yet reached their highest.

Sunrise came from the east and spilled its faint golden rays into the stone crevice. Its light reflected the thin layer of snow that had fallen onto Gu Feidi’s hair, making it appear like translucent glitter.

For a while, Su Yang was a little dazzled and stunned. He opened his mouth to talk, but a surge of pain in his throat caused him to cough. At last, he managed to cough up the insufferable energy that was caught in his chest and when he wiped his lips, Su Yang realised there was a blob of bright red blood on his palm.

The rims of Gu Feidi’s eyes were red and it looked like he was about to cry.

Su Yang flattened his mouth, quickly moistened his lower lip with his tongue and said with a smile: “It’s alright. Didn’t you used to vomit blood every day when the blood Gu kicked up a fuss? Once the poison Gu has been removed, I’ll be fine. Don’t worry.”

As he spoke, he pushed himself up from Gu Feidi’s arms and casually took a piece of clothing soaked from the snow to wipe off the bloodstains on his hands.

When he looked up again, Gu Feidi’s expression had already calmed and he was using his internal strength to help Su Yang warm up their dry food rations.

The two of them remained in the stone crevice and had some food. Then, they packed up their luggage and continued to walk up the mountain, hand-in-hand.

This time, they wordlessly agreed not to use their internal strength. They could only rely on their legs to slowly trek along the mountain road.

After walking through a very steep plank road built into the rock face, they finally reached the permanently snow-covered mountain summit. The terrain there was also slightly level, but a thick layer of snow had piled onto the stone steps making it wet, slippery and difficult to walk on. Both of them had to use light footwork again to head upwards.

Pretty soon, Su Yang started feeling cold again.

He didn’t endure it this time and tugged on Gu Feidi’s hand for a while before saying in a low voice, “Can you carry me on your back?”

Of course Gu Feidi wouldn’t turn him down.

Su Yang bent over behind Gu Feidi, hugged his neck, pressed his cheek to his ear and smiled: “I seem to have dreamed of this scenario.”

Gu Feidi asked: “Is that so?”

Su Yang nodded, “Mmm, really. Seems like… when I’d just completed my discipleship in Lesser Jade House and returned to the Devil Sect, I dreamt that someone was carrying me on his back up a snowy mountain. The snowy mountain was terribly cold, but the person’s back was extremely warm. After that—”

He abruptly paused when he was speaking. Su Yang recalled what had happened that day after he had woken up from the dream. He sensed his ears become a bit hot and his heartbeat helplessly quickened.

He hadn’t actually recognised that Gu Feidi was the person with the indistinct face in the dream. Being this close to Gu Feidi’s back at this moment made him immediately realise that——apparently, Gu Feidi had already entered his dream at such an early stage.

Evidently, traces of Gu Feidi had remained in the depths of his subconscious from such an early point of time?

Gu Feidi didn’t get to hear the second half of the sentence for a long while, so he asked, “After that? What happened?”

Su Yang didn’t answer. He pursed his lips and asked, “What about you? Have you ever dreamed of me?”

Gu Feidi emitted a light laugh, “Of course.”

Su Yang: “Of course you have? Or of course you haven’t?”

Gu Feidi: “Of course I have… and many times too.”

Su Yang smiled, “When was the first time?”

“Ak…” Gu Feidi hesitated.

“Say it!” Su Yang nudged his shoulder.

“The first time… was in Lesser Jade House.” Gu Feidi said, “The night you left the Veiled Pearl Pavilion.”

Su Yang was surprised: “You remember it so clearly?”

Gu Feidi smiled: “Mmm, it left a deep impression.”

Su Yang asked again, “Then, do you still remember what you dreamed of?”

Gu Feidi turned his head and glanced at Su Yang.

Both of them were so close to each other, their gazes crossed and their breaths merged. In the midst of the icy world, they warmed a little of the atmosphere in the small space that they occupied.

Su Yang easily kissed Gu Feidi’s lips. He smiled and asked, “What did you dream of?”

Gu Feidi swallowed a little and turned his head. He merely smiled and didn’t answer.

Su Yang wasn’t willing to let it go: “Aai, tell me…”

Gu Feidi asked, “Do you truly want to know?”

Su Yang: “Of course I do!”

Gu Feidi couldn’t help laughing and shook his head. He wavered for a long time, but ultimately replied in a low voice: “After that dream, I realised for the first time that my feelings for you… were not just friendly.”

He stared back at Su Yang and smiled: “…understand?”

Of course, Su Yang understood.

He just hadn’t expected Gu Feidi to have feelings for him so early on.

Recalling the life in Lesser Jade House, both of them had socialised for only a mere half year. Moreover, the ‘him’ at that time was still unwilling to have any deep friendships with this world and had been trying to avoid it.

Later, Gu Feidi had entered the Veiled Pearl Pavilion and after a year and a half of separation, his feelings had not waned. Instead,… it had evolved into something wonderful.

Fortunately, they were able to meet again.

Su Yang pondered like this as he pressed his cheek against the side of Gu Feidi’s neck. He inhaled the faint flower fragrance from his body and slowly closed his eyes.

His hands that were clasped in front of Gu Feidi suddenly loosened and abruptly slid off.

Gu Feidi was about to say something, but it got stuck in his throat.

He quickly supported Su Yang on his back steadily, turned his head and called out: “…Su Yang? Su Yang?”

Su Yang leaned feebly on him without any response.

Gu Feidi anxiously brought Su Yang into his arms and checked his breathing, pulse, body temperature and internal strength. But, he couldn’t detect anything unusual——Su Yang had just fallen asleep.

However, this falling-into-a-deep-sleep-without-warning caused an unexplained panic to rise in Gu Feidi’s heart.

He still couldn’t wake Su Yang despite many tries. Gu Feidi raised his head to blink away the wetness in his eyes. He placed Su Yang on his back, used some clothes to firmly bind him and hastened his pace to the top of the mountain.

It wasn’t until he spied a courtyard with white walls and black tiles on the hillside in the distance, that Su Yang bewilderedly came to.

Noticing the vast differences of the surrounding environment, it was then that he became aware. When he had ‘closed his eyes for a short while’, more than half a day had already passed.

Su Yang leaned on Gu Feidi’s back and asked softly, “Earlier I… fell asleep?”

Gu Feidi’s body abruptly shuddered.

After a long time, he silently nodded.

Su Yang was also silent. He knew this was not a good omen.

Perhaps, in that severe cold environment of their current geographical location, the double-edged sword of Cold Pond Ice Spirit had finally begun to affect the triple cold techniques and slowly consuming his life force.

Or maybe, it was slowly approaching the winter season when he was to be pierced through the heart by Gu Feidi’s sword. Even if he did not intend to continue running with the storyline, the rules of this formidable world still did not permit him to exist here for any longer than that.

“It’s alright.” Su Yang smiled and moved near to speak into Gu Feidi’s ear, “It’s just that it’s too cold here and my techniques are cold. Maybe…maybe I just need to hibernate. Once we’ve found the Divine Doctor, eliminated the poison Gu and have returned to the foot of the mountain, I should be fine. Don’t worry.”

Gu Feidi gave a low ‘Mmm’ and said nothing.

Su Yang tried to act spoiled to divert him: “I’m starving…”

Gu Feidi didn’t speak and continued to brood as he trudged on.

Su Yang: “Shidi, shixiong is hungry… Is there anything to eat? Ng? Where did you put the dry food?”

Gu Feidi was so annoyed that he helplessly let out a sigh and said, “It’s on your left in the greased paper bag of the luggage. You can reach it easily.”

Su Yang already knew where the food was. Gu Feidi had been teased by him until he spoke, so he didn’t ask any further. He felt around the bag and retrieved the dry food cake. Then, he put his hands together in front of Gu Feidi and tore off a piece to eat.

After taking two bites, he broke another piece of the cake and brought it to Gu Feidi’s mouth. Gu Feidi obediently opened his mouth and ate it.

Su Yang slowly broke apart most of the cake to feed Gu Feidi and himself one bite after another.

When it came to the last piece, Su Yang moved it to Gu Feidi’s mouth.

Gu Feidi had just instinctively opened his mouth to bite, when Su Yang moved his arm a little out of the way, bringing the cake with him. Gu Feidi leaned forward, but he was still unable to bite it. He finally let out a laugh, “Naughty.”

Su Yang laughed ‘hehe’ and brought the piece of cake to hold in his mouth.

Then, he tapped Gu Feidi’s cheek with the other end of the cake and hummed twice, motioning for Gu Feidi to turn his head.

“Don’t tease.” Gu Feidi smiled, looking at Su Yang, “You’re clearly a naughty boy. In the end, who’s the shidi?”

Su Yang paid him no attention, raised his chin and brought the cake to Gu Feidi’s mouth.

Gu Feidi helplessly bit the other end of the cake and they finished eating the last small piece of cake this way.

Su Yang wiped both their mouths, then pinched Gu Feidi’s chin to turn his face around and gave him a kiss.

“Shidi.” He called out.

“Mmm?” Gu Feidi replied.

Su Yang laughed softly: “…The moonlight is very beautiful tonight.”

Gu Feidi glanced up at the sky. It had just passed noon, so he didn’t understand: “Has sleeping made you muddle-headed?”

Su Yang didn’t answer.

He tightened his arms around Feidi’s neck and asked, “Is that Yuqiong Divine Doctor’s courtyard up ahead?”

Gu Feidi nodded: “Mmm, we’ve arrived.”