The two of them embraced quietly in the cable car. Surrounding them was pitch-black darkness. From below, the occasional low growls of wild beasts could be heard, and the wind howled past their ears, with cold air pouring in completely.
Gu Moqian wrapped Ji Wei tightly, not letting a single bit of cold touch her, while he himself wore only a thin shirt.
Gu Moqian leaned close to her ear and said softly.
Ji Wei rested in his embrace. She hadn’t planned to sleep, but the overwhelming danger before her had pushed her spirit to the breaking point. In her hazy exhaustion, she drifted off.
Ji Wei was in a deep sleep when suddenly there was a violent rattling noise—clanking and banging!
She snapped her eyes open to see the cable car swaying relentlessly in the wind. The noise had come from the connection point above the cable car.
Without further thought, Ji Wei understood that the connection area was fracturing and couldn’t hold on for much longer!
She turned to Gu Moqian in panic. "Are we... really going to die here?"
Gu Moqian reached out to touch her pale cheek, his lips curving into a faint smile. "No, we’ll get out of here safely."
As he spoke, Gu Moqian looked up at the pitch-black night sky.
There was no sign of lights or rescuers nearby.
The cable cars totaled dozens, and they were somewhere near the middle. Even if the rescue team had already arrived at Nanshan, they would still need to search each cable car one by one to find them.
The longer it took, the slimmer their chances of survival became.
If only there were some way to let the rescue team quickly know their location...
Suddenly, an idea struck him, and he reached into the pocket of his trousers.
Ji Wei watched as Gu Moqian pulled out a small firework.
It took only a moment for her to understand his intent.
He was going to use the firework as a signal flare to mark their position for the rescuers!
Gu Moqian placed the firework within a crevice of the cable car and lit it.
An intense flash of light exploded across the night sky!
Though it was just a small firework, the sound of its burst was loud enough to catch anyone’s attention in the vast mountain wilderness.
As the firework blossomed, Gu Moqian quickly reached out to cover Ji Wei’s eyes, afraid the bright light would harm her.
Seven or eight seconds later, only the faint scent of gunpowder and a wispy trail of smoke lingered in the air, as the mountain returned to its deathly silence.
Meanwhile, about a hundred meters away from the cable car, the rescue team noticed a sudden burst of light in the sky, accompanied by a faint rumble.
The rescue team leader’s expression brightened, and he immediately shouted, "Deploy the helicopter at once! Head toward the area where the light appeared!"
The impact from the firework was enough to make the already unstable cable car shake more violently. Ji Wei clung tightly to Gu Moqian’s chest, not daring to move an inch.
Her hands clutched at Gu Moqian’s sleeve with a death grip. Her face was ashen, yet she bit her lip hard to stifle any sounds of fear.
"Don’t be afraid. The rescue team will be here soon. Don’t be afraid..."
Gu Moqian’s voice, rough and hoarse from the cold seeping into him, trembled slightly as he suppressed the shivers wracking his body, all while continuously comforting the young woman in his arms.
In the obsidian blackness of his deep-set eyes, a flicker of unease surfaced as well.
Around them, the silence was oppressive. In the boundless darkness, there wasn’t a single speck of light.
The cable car swayed more fiercely in the biting wind. The grating screeches of the scraping metal sounded bone-chilling.
Gu Moqian held tightly onto the handrail beside him with one hand, barely managing to stay seated and stop himself from slipping.
Ji Wei’s entire body was unbearably stiff. With every sway of the cable car, she couldn’t steady herself and her body began to slide downward.
Time and again, Gu Moqian reached out to pull her back up.
When she fell back onto his chest once more, Ji Wei raised her head and looked at the handsome man’s face so incredibly close to hers. Her teeth chattered uncontrollably, yet she mustered a faint trace of a smile at the corners of her lips. "Mo Qian, if today really is our fate, and we can’t escape... I don’t regret it. Because, in the final moments, you were by my side."
Her body, taut with tension, heaved with each breath. Strands of hair on her forehead clung to her skin, damp with cold sweat.
After a brief pause, Ji Wei suddenly spoke, "I love you, Mo Qian. I love you, I love you..."
She smiled at him through her tears, which fell uncontrollably.
Again and again, she repeated "I love you," as though wanting to say all the "I love you’s" she had for a lifetime in one breath.