By the time her clothes were almost dried, Chu Lian had already yawned several times in succession as she waited by the fire.
This whole day had just been too tiring for her. She had ridden a horse, escaped the Tuhuns, fallen off a cliff, stumbled around an unknown mountain forest, been pelted with icy winter rain, somehow managed to drag herself and this big, burly military officer to shelter… It hadn’t been easy holding up to this point. Chu Lian had used up her entire store of energy, and she didn’t even have enough food to replenish it at the end of the day.
She placed her cloak on the ground next to the fire. Afraid that her saviour would freeze, she had moved him closer to the fire, too. After checking his temperature by touching his forehead, Chu Lian set down her worries and laid on her cloak, finally shutting her eyes for a well-deserved rest.
He Sanlang first felt a piercing pain in his head when he woke up. Next, his thick eyelashes trembled as he struggled to open his eyes.
He tried to move his arm and felt the prickling of pins and needles in response. He frowned with difficulty and shifted his gaze. In the next instant, his entire body stiffened up.
Chu Lian!
Her eyelashes fanned out like butterfly wings as they rested over her closed eyelids. There was a slight pout on her face as she drew in long, shallow breaths. From the upward curve of her lips, it was clear that she was in the midst of deep slumber.
One of her hands was curled over her heart while the other was placed on his chest. Her body was curled up in the crook of his arm and she was stuck to him like a leech.
He Changdi’s expression turned stormy and he subconsciously reached out to push the clingy Chu Lian away.
However, when he caught sight of that familiar woman’s cloak from the corner of his eye and realised that more than half of it was draped over his body, the hand that was in the midst of reaching out to push her stopped.
The memories of everything Chu Lian had done for him after he had gotten injured drifted up into his consciousness.
The depths of He Sanlang’s eyes turned unreadable as his gaze landed on Chu Lian’s porcelain white face.
Had things changed in this lifetime? Had this wicked woman’s personality changed completely? Otherwise, why would she have spent so much effort to save him when it was such a good opportunity to get rid of him? Wasn’t abandoning him to die more in line with her goals?
A multitude of feelings churned together in He Changdi’s heart.
Even though he was looking at the exact same face of his tormentor from his past life, he could feel that his feelings towards this person had changed.
He Changdi’s lips pursed together. The right hand hovering in midair finally moved towards the cloak. He tugged more of the makeshift blanket over Chu Lian, covering up her dainty little form.
The arm placed under Chu Lian’s neck was starting to go numb, but He Sanlang didn’t move it away. He simply raised his arm a little and moved Chu Lian closer to him so she could be more comfortable.
For some reason, even though this was an insignificant action between a married couple, there was a trace of satisfaction in the depths of He Sanlang’s heart.
While in the midst of her deep slumber, Chu Lian was starting to feel a little chilly in the middle of the night, so she flipped herself around. When her arm touched something warm, her body unconsciously wriggled towards that warmth.
As expected, after obtaining a source of warmth, she was able to drift back into a comfortable sleep.
After an unknown amount of time, Chu Lian slowly regained consciousness.
She realised that she was being held by a strong arm, and her nose was filled with a rather masculine smell.
It was mixed with the slightly mouldy scent of damp earth and the rotting leaves of the forest floor. The smell wasn’t pleasant at all, but she felt strangely reassured by its presence.