Young Prime Minister, a Hermit

Chapter 41

"Young master... open your eyes..." It was a cold voice, yet it carried a contradictory mix of warmth and pain, "Let me... let your subordinates... know that you are still alive."

Please don't speak in such a sorrowful tone, don't embrace me with such fervor, for my heart aches so much. It feels like I felt that same excruciating pain a long, long time ago.

"Young master... please open your eyes..."

Please… How could he say "please"… Don't say "please," don't use that desperate tone, you are… but…

The blinding light, hot as it was, pierced my eyes. I closed them briefly, letting the tears stream down my face.

"Young master!" he called out to me, "How are you?"

"It hurts..." I groaned softly, "My whole body aches."

His hands wrapped around my neck gently and carefully, and he placed my head on his feet: "Young master, don't be afraid, as long as you are conscious, everything will be alright." His voice was soft, faint, and even weak, completely lacking the imposing manner he had displayed just moments before.

I opened my eyes and met those dark eyes. In that instant, my heart trembled and tears welled up like a flood.

“Yi...Han…” I called to him in a hoarse voice.

Shattering the Void

Please let me continue to wait.

The person before me was deathly pale with purple lips. His hair was disheveled and he had a full beard. His eyes had lost their former sparkle, and his cheeks were sunken. He was so thin, weak, and wretched that he was worse off than a beggar on the street.

How could this person be Yi Han? Who turned him into this?

Someone whispered a disdainful sneer in my ear, but when I looked up, I saw nothing. I tremblingly reached out and touched that face that was no longer recognizable. The silver hair brushed against the back of my hand, but it felt like a knife cutting into my heart.

Yes! How could I not know who ruined him like this?

"Yihan," I sobbed, choking back tears, "it's all my fault! It's all my fault! I've ruined you like this!"

My night sky no longer holds your constellation.

Many years ago, on a night

You have long since turned into a shooting star.

I waved from below.

But you slowly embraced the sun.

“Young master, don’t be silly.” He gently and weakly grasped my hand, his body swaying as if he might collapse at any moment, yet he still supported me, bringing the water bag to my lips, and said softly, “Young master, you are injured, you must drink more water to get out of this desert.” He paused, a clear light flashing in his dark eyes, “Drink slowly, don’t rush, there’s still water…”

I held back my tears and put my lips to the spout of the water bottle that he stubbornly offered to my lips. I heard the water gurgling in the water bag and a pungent smell of blood rushed up.

My eyes widened suddenly, I stared blankly, stunned, my whole body trembling uncontrollably.

“Young Master…” Yi Han gently and tenderly embraced me, holding me for the first time with a deliberate despair, yet also filled with all his longing and yearning. In a low, hoarse voice, he said, “Young Master, you must live on… live to get out of the desert. I will… watch over you, protect you… forever and ever… no matter where I am…”

The figure in blue slowly collapsed to the ground as the words faded, his black and silver hair spreading out across the floor, the yellow contrasting with the black, blue, and white. His hand holding the water bag loosened, and it fell to the ground with a thud. Bright red liquid flowed from the spout, running over his black and silver hair, staining it crimson, before quietly seeping into the bottom of the water.

Green robe with silver threads...stained red blood.

In the deepest part of the heart

To build you a sacred temple

The cuckoo's cry of blood is my wishful thinking, a fleeting dream.

"Yihan, don't scare me." I bent down and helped him up, my movements so gentle that it was as if he were a sleeping child, and I was afraid of waking him. "Yihan, please don't joke with me, okay? I know I was wrong."

"Plop—" A tear fell onto his forehead, dissolving the bloodstain. I quickly bent down to wipe it away, cleaning it thoroughly, revealing his bluish forehead. I burst into tears, hugging him tightly and shouting, "Yihan, please wake up! I'll never run away again, I'll never abandon you again. I'll learn to be strong, I'll learn to be smart, I'll achieve your dreams like Linyu. Please don't scare me, wake up! Wake up!"

“It’s been three days… He hasn’t drunk a drop of water. All the remaining water was used to save your life. Until this morning, there wasn’t a drop of water left, but you still hadn’t woken up, so he cut his own wrist with a sword and poured his blood into a water bag to feed you.”

I stared blankly at the hideous scar on Yihan's arm, fear, pain, and guilt engulfing me like a tidal wave.

“That day you rolled off the cliff, were seriously injured, and fell into a coma, with no will to live. So over three days, he channeled his internal energy into you eight times. Each time he finished, he would faint, but he would always stubbornly wake up in the end.”

Even though we were in the desert, my hands trembled and felt icy as I touched his purple lips and bluish forehead.

"He must have never walked in the desert before, so he couldn't tell directions, didn't know how to find water, or avoid danger. So, on the first day, he lost his camel and had nothing but his water bag. On the second day, when you were trapped in the canyon by a sandstorm, he used his hands and sword to dig through the sand little by little and rescued you."

I saw his hands, which should have been a bloody mess but had already scabbed over. His once slender and beautiful hands were now a pitiful sight. Tears streamed down my face. My heart ached! Whether it was mine or Lin Yu's.

"On the third day, the rocks collapsed, just like that time. But this time you were lucky. He rolled down in his arms, shielding you completely, and his back took a huge hit. That's the main reason he's in a coma now."

“Galan, I could have warned him to avoid these dangers.” I looked up and saw Zimo’s brown eyes. Even under the blazing sun, they were so cold, so… chilling. “But he couldn’t hear me.”

Your departing figure is deep within the drifting clouds.

Longing turned to ashes

I entrusted the rope of my longing to the wind.

Crackle, something is collapsing, something is crumbling, something... is growing, can you hear it?

I gently and carefully wiped Yihan's pale and haggard face with my dust-covered sleeves, calling his name again and again in my heart, but unfortunately, he couldn't hear me.

Zi Mo said, “Galan, you can’t escape this kind of love by saying I’m not Lin Yu. Because in his eyes, you are Lin Yu, and Lin Yu is you, and you are his everything. I’ve never seen anyone love like him, without asking for anything in return, without giving anything in return, never saying a word of love, yet he’s swearing it with his whole life.”

Yihan! Yihan! I turned my head away, tears falling drop by drop into the sand and disappearing into the soil. Yihan, how could you be so foolish? Was this kind of love worth it? Was this kind of sacrifice worth it? You even risked your life to love me, was it worth it?

If I could have come back sooner; if I could have learned to be strong sooner; if I were Lin Yu…would everything be different? Yi Han, please, don't leave me! Don't…leave me!

Suddenly, a sentence from a magazine that I had once laughed at and scoffed at popped into my mind.