The River Beneath the Cliff

"Miss, don't worry! I'm already dealing with the rocks blocking the path up the mountain, and there's no movement detected so far. But you must be extra careful!"

"I know. Keep me updated if anything happens."

Li Mucheng ended the call with Ah Fu and glanced back at Su Yuxin, who was still gritting her teeth as she climbed upward, before continuing her own ascent.

"Su Yuxin... Don’t you think what you're doing now is just as hypocritical as what I did before?"

"......"

Su Yuxin paused at these words, lowering her head and murmuring,

"I know the mistakes I made were severe... I don’t even dare hope for Ye Feng’s forgiveness. But even if he never forgives me, I’d rather save him from that woman Xie Yuyan than do nothing!"

"Hmph..."

Li Mucheng scoffed as she overtook Su Yuxin.

"Nice words, but in the end, you still hurt our teacher deeply."

Su Yuxin raised her head and glared at Li Mucheng’s back before lifting the hem of her dress to catch up.

"Li Mucheng, you’re hardly one to talk, are you? If I recall correctly, wasn’t it you who hurt Ye Feng first?"

"Su Yuxin, what do you mean by that?!"

The words struck a deep chord in Li Mucheng’s heart—a wound that would never fully heal, even though Ye Feng had forgiven her for the harm caused by her past behavior.

"Li Mucheng, aren’t you just as guilty as I am? What right do you have to stand above me and lecture me?"

The two locked eyes, the air between them thick with tension. After a long silence, they both let out a cold snort and resumed their climb.

"I’ll make up for what I did to our teacher. I’m the one who should apologize to him..."

"I... I feel the same. Ye Feng treated me so kindly, yet I was so afraid of losing him that I ended up siding with Xie Yuyan..."

As they spoke their minds, the hostility between them gradually faded.

"Mucheng, let’s focus on saving Ye Feng first, alright?"

"I agree. We can set aside our differences for now."

......

"Rip—"

"Ugh—!!!"

Ye Feng clenched a branch between his teeth, enduring excruciating pain as he used a sharp rock to reopen the wound on his chest. Blood gushed out like water from a broken pipe, the agony nearly making him pass out.

But through sheer willpower and resilience, he finally managed to extract the tracking device embedded in his flesh. Pale and unsteady, he forced himself to stay upright, crushed the device underfoot, and staggered to his feet.

"I... I did it!"

He spat out the bloodied branch and shakily began descending the mountain. Just as he was about to swallow a healing pill, heavy footsteps echoed behind him.

"!!!"

Ye Feng spun around in shock—Xie Yuyan was barely a dozen steps away. He quickly hid the pill, but she lunged forward and seized his wrist.

When she pried open his clenched fist, she found nothing.

"What was that?!"

"I don’t know what you’re talking about."

Ye Feng’s face was deathly pale, his hollow gaze fixed on her.

"Even now, you refuse to stay with me? You’d go to such lengths just to escape? Darling, you’re really making me angry."

Ye Feng remained silent, too weakened by blood loss and injuries to resist.

Xie Yuyan studied the wound on his chest before locking eyes with him, her dazzling gaze piercing.

"Such incredible willpower... But how many more tricks do you have left?"

"Xie Yuyan, you’ve lost your mind."

"Lost my mind? Yes... I have. For you. But it’s worth it, isn’t it? Look—I have you now. If any woman dares to covet you, I’ll drive them all away. So, Ye Feng, let’s go back to how things were before, happy together, okay?"

Seeing his bleeding wound, she pressed a hand against it and tore a strip from her sleeve to staunch the flow.

"Just say yes, and I’ll take you away from here. We’ll go somewhere with no one else, just us."

"Xie Yuyan... Let me go. And let yourself go too."

"......"

His calm words made her pupils constrict, the light in her eyes dimming instantly. At the same time, a warning blared in Ye Feng’s mind—his system’s alert. Before he could react, Xie Yuyan’s dagger was already pressed against his heart.

"Xie Yuyan, stop this! Do you realize how dangerous this is?!"

"Dangerous? It doesn’t matter anymore... Nothing does. The moment you kept leaving me, I stopped caring. Now I understand—the Ye Feng I love most is the one who can’t speak..."

She let out a chilling giggle, tilting her head as she advanced step by step, forcing him backward.

Crack.

Ye Feng’s heel met the edge of a cliff, loose pebbles tumbling into the abyss below. A swift river and dense jungle awaited at the bottom—survival chances, less than ten percent.

"I told you, you can’t escape. No matter where you go, I’ll chase you to the ends of the earth~"

Xie Yuyan studied his expressionless face, already piecing things together. The sudden disappearance of the pill had tipped her off—just like last time, when she stabbed him, yet he emerged unharmed. The thought made her smirk, pressing the dagger harder.

"Darling, show me all your tricks now. Otherwise, this blade is going in~"

Just as the dagger pierced his skin—

"Teacher!"

"Ye Feng!"

Two voices shrieked from behind her.