Valle del Hombre Salvaje de Qingshan

Capítulo 28

With a whoosh, the two of them slid downwards. Mo Xibei couldn't help but close her eyes. She had heard people say before that people who jumped from the twentieth floor didn't die from the fall, but from being scared to death. She had always thought that jumping off a building was the worst way to commit suicide. She never imagined that although she wasn't jumping off a building, she would be jumping off a cliff. This was even worse than jumping off a building. She didn't know whether she would die from fear or from the fall, but she figured she would find out soon enough. It was just that she had no one to share this valuable experience with.

"Hey. If you're not dead yet, hurry up and throw the person you're holding up there. This rock isn't very stable." After a while without landing, Mo Xibei opened her eyes slightly. Then she heard someone say this. She quickly looked around and saw that she was still hanging on the cliff with Murong Lianyun, but her own legs were being held down. After two attempts to jump off the cliff, Murong Lianyun was either dizzy or something else, but this time she finally stopped moving. After roughly estimating the distance, she forcefully threw the person she was holding onto the cliff.

As her grip loosened, Young Master Mu, who had been dragging her, began to pull her upwards. Inch by inch, they watched as they grew further and further away from the bottomless, dark cliff. Mo Xibei's heart sank, but suddenly she heard Young Master Mu exclaim in a mixture of shock and anger, "You!" At the same time, the sound of loose rocks came. Mo Xibei felt her body lighten as she was quickly pulled up, but even faster, Young Master Mu, who was pulling her, was struck by a rolling rock and was almost rolling as he fell straight down the cliff.

Reaching out was an absolutely subconscious action, Mo Xibei thought. She had developed a habit of saving people, but Young Master Mu was not Murong Lianyun. The weight of an adult male and an adult female was definitely different. When she thought of this, she was already being dragged down involuntarily.

"So stupid!" Young Master Mu cursed through gritted teeth in his ear. Mo Xibei didn't have time to close his eyes this time, so he saw Young Master Mu pulling him along while forcefully plunging his sword into the rocks to cushion the impact of the fall.

She dared not feign death, so she followed suit, drawing her sword and forcefully stabbing it into the rock. They slid down another dozen feet, and their descent finally slowed. In fact, it was Young Master Mu who forcefully plunged his sword into the rock, and then the two of them swung like swings, hanging on the cliff, neither up nor down.

"Guess how deep it is down there?" Mo Xibei glanced down. It was almost dawn, and the mountain was shrouded in mist. She felt as if she were floating on clouds. Then she immediately realized that she had developed a new problem: a fear of heights.

"Are you reminding me to throw you down and use the sound of your landing to judge how deep it is?" Young Master Mu's voice sounded like it was being squeezed out from between his teeth.

"Pretend I didn't say anything." Mo Xibei immediately shut up. She also wanted to insert her sword into the crevice, but her left hand, which was holding the sword, was weak and powerless. She dared not move, for fear that if she moved, Young Master Mu would really let go and throw her down.

The two of them hung on the rocks like that. Mo Xibei simply closed his eyes, refusing to look or think, and pretended that he was practicing martial arts.

After a long silence, Young Master Mu asked, "Now you know fear?" "What's the use of knowing? You can't help but feel fear now," Mo Xibei said.

"I couldn't hold you back anymore," Young Master Mu sighed. "I fell because of you. I'm letting go now. I've done all I could. Don't blame me when you're a ghost."

"I..." Mo Xibei wanted to say something, but she quickly forgot what she wanted to say. She had barely uttered a word when she felt Young Master Mu release her grip, and her entire body plummeted as if weightless. She watched as the sword in her left hand slashed against the rocks, creating a series of sparks, but she couldn't stop her fall. A sudden emptiness filled her heart. Hong Lü, Murong Lianyun, the innkeeper on the fourth floor—many familiar and unfamiliar faces flashed before her eyes. Finally, it was Chu Junfeng's. That day, Chu Junfeng said, "I'm willing." He said he was willing to bring his own food and prepare three meals a day for her, and then follow her wherever she went. Mo Xibei smiled vaguely. She thought she had never truly taken up the task, so she couldn't say she had put it down. But it turned out she had already taken it up and hadn't put it down. But... Mo Xibei thought bitterly, "Chu Junfeng, why is he so pragmatic? Couldn't he have persisted just a little longer? Many times, if only he had persisted just a little longer, the outcome would have been different..."

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Chapter 49 People Die for Money (Part 2)

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The whistling wind in his ears suddenly stopped, but there was no pain as he had expected. Had he already died? Had he been scared to death during the fall? Mo Xibei thought with frustration. Judging from the time of the fall, the place where Young Master Mu had let go and thrown him shouldn't have been very high from the bottom of the cliff. Although he was exhausted and his limbs were weak from his fear of heights, if he hadn't given up, the worst he would have gotten was a broken arm or leg; he wouldn't have died. How hateful! He had died young, and from being scared to death! Poor gold mine, her fourth-floor apartment where she earned so much money every day—who would benefit from it now?

"I've noticed that you lack basic trust in your companions." Suddenly, someone spoke above Mo Xibei's head, and the voice sounded damn familiar.

"Wrong, I always trust my companions, but there are no companions here." Mo Xibei's first reaction to being criticized was to retort; it was instinctive. From a young age, she prided herself on always being right—she was always reasonable in everything, whether right or wrong. But when she opened her eyes, all she saw was a metallic mask still gleaming in the morning light. The mask's owner, with only a sliver of thin lips visible, said, "Since we're not companions, I have no reason to save you." With that, he withdrew his hands, and before Mo Xibei could even scream, her body made intimate contact with the ground. Who said there's usually a thick layer of soft fallen leaves at the bottom of a cliff? Who said that surviving a fall from a cliff guarantees a martial arts manual? Mo Xibei wanted to say that all of that was a lie. At the bottom of the cliff were actually many sharp pebbles, large and small, sharp enough to render a person immobile for a long time.

"You surnamed Mu, do you have a grudge against me?" Mo Xibei rolled on the ground for a long time, his mind blank from the fall. Finding that there were still sharp stones around him, he trembled and painfully got up.

Young Master Mu remained silent. He simply stood with his back to Mo Xibei. After a while, a drop of thick, red liquid suddenly splashed onto the pebble beneath his feet.

Mo Xibei was sitting on the ground rubbing his head, watching the crimson liquid fall onto the stones with a soft "ting" sound. Soon, a second drop, a third drop, a fourth drop…

"Hey! What's wrong with you?" The bloodstains at Young Master Mu's feet were spreading rapidly. Mo Xibei hurriedly stood up and gently placed her fingers on Young Master Mu's arm. Before she could exert any force, the person in front of her suddenly fell into her arms. After a night of turmoil, she was also weak and powerless. After being weighed down, she could only kneel heavily on the ground.

"You surnamed Mu. I'm sure I have a grudge against you." Mo Xibei gritted his teeth, his knees and calves throbbing with pain. It took him a while to catch his breath before he forcefully pushed away the person pressing down on his legs.

Young Master Mu's chest was already soaked with his own blood. He was originally wearing black clothes, but now, even the deep black faintly revealed a glaring red. Mo Xibei took back what he was about to say, decisively tearing open his clothes, and then remained silent in the face of the shocking wound.

Young Master Mu had a scar across his chest. It wasn't particularly deep, and judging from the angle of the wound, it must have been left by someone who suddenly attacked him. Judging from the slightly pale skin around the wound, he must have been injured more than an hour ago.

Looking up at the sun, the rising sun was a vibrant, round red, its light bright yet not glaring. This meant that Young Master Mu must have been injured before the two of them fell off the cliff. Mo Xibei recalled that when they finally fell, Young Master Mu had exclaimed in a mixture of shock and anger, "You!" The situation was too chaotic then; she hadn't thought of anything. Now, recalling it, could it be that someone else was also lying in ambush on the mountain? "The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind"—could this be a metaphor for their ordeal last night?

While lost in thought, she quickly found some medicine for her injuries. When Young Master Mu was first injured, the acupoints around the wound had been sealed, which was the key to why he was able to hold out until now before fainting. Mo Xibei's medicine was also good; after applying a thick layer, the bleeding from the wound stopped quickly. The only problem now was that there was no suitable bandage.

Tearing his own clothes was clearly not a good idea. Mo Xibei hesitated for a moment and then noticed that the white cloth clothes under Young Master Mu's clothes were of good quality. The front was stained with blood and needed to be washed before it could be used, but the back seemed to be usable directly. So he immediately used his sword to cut the clothes in two, forcefully pulled out a piece from the back and tore it into a bandage to fix the wound.

"I'm telling you, I saved your life, couldn't you have gone a little easier?" Mo Xibei tightened the bandage and tied it into a pretty bow, and Young Master Mu actually woke up.

“I didn’t have to use a little force, otherwise you wouldn’t have woken up so quickly.” Young Master Mu’s mask covered almost his entire face. Mo Xibei didn’t realize he was awake until he spoke. So, he could only smile awkwardly. Seeing that Young Master Mu’s thin lips were pursed, seemingly displeased, he made up an excuse for himself, “You were wearing a mask, so only a slit was showing in your eyes. How was I supposed to know you were awake? Oh well, I admit I was wrong this time. But if I had known you were awake, I would have been gentler. But to be honest, are you particularly ugly, so you wear a mask all the time?”

Young Master Mu did not answer her, but only glanced at her before quickly closing his eyes. A moment later, his breathing became long and even, and he had actually fallen asleep.

After sitting for a while, Mo Xibei felt that although her physical strength had not fully recovered, her spirits had improved a lot. She stood up and began to look around at the bottom of the cliff. She clearly remembered that Murong Songtao had fallen down before them last night, but she didn't know how lucky he was. The bottom of the cliff was surrounded by mountains and was not a large area. Although many places were overgrown with weeds, it was still easy to see. Apart from the two of them, there was no one else in sight.

That evening, Mo Xibei set up a grill and skewered the pheasant she had caught for barbecue. Young Master Mu also woke up and sat half-reclined by the campfire. "I used to think the owner of the fourth floor was some kind of shrewd person, but I only found out last night that you're incredibly stupid. You actually risked your life to save someone. What were you thinking back then?" Mo Xibei was completely absorbed in eating, and Young Master Mu, bored, couldn't help but mock her.

"I think you're a crow landing on a pig," Mo Xibei sneered.

"What do you mean?" Young Master Mu asked, puzzled.

"You only see others' darkness, but you don't realize how much darker you are!" Mo Xibei maliciously focused on the word "dark," glancing sideways at Young Master Mu. "I saved Lian Yun because it was my responsibility to take care of her. I didn't ask you to save her, so why are you meddling?"

"Don't flatter yourself. Who cares about saving you? It was Murong Lianyun who took that map. All I wanted was that map," Young Master Mu sneered.

"Oh, then where's the map?" Mo Xibei nodded, asking abruptly. "..." Young Master Mu thought that the map was still with Lian Yun, and that Lian Yun was currently on the mountain, so he didn't respond for a long time.

Chapter Forty-Nine: People Die for Money (To be continued)

The aroma of roasted chicken quickly filled the air. Mo Xibei suddenly seemed to remember something, patted himself down, and soon pulled out a small brocade pouch from his pocket with a broad smile.

"What are you doing?" Young Master Mu watched with a cold eye as Mo Xibei opened the brocade bag, took out several small paper packets, and began to carefully sprinkle the powder inside onto the roasted pheasant. He was somewhat puzzled, but more so, he was wary.

"Eating meat without seasoning is torture. Luckily, I have a habit of carrying seasonings with me for backup. You're in luck." Mo Xibei proudly raised her chin. She rarely needed to use these seasoning powders, so this was a rare opportunity.

"You...you still carry this with you?" Young Master Mu's expression was completely hidden behind his mask, and only a hint of amusement and helplessness could be heard in his voice.

"Food is the most important thing for people. What's wrong with making sure you eat well?" Mo Xibei sprinkled the seasonings, carefully wrapped all the paper packets, and then put them into bags one by one to carry with him. Only then did he tear off a chicken leg and wave it in front of Young Master Mu's nose with one hand.

Young Master Mu thought it was for him, but Mo Xibei had just sprinkled so much powder of unknown origin, and he didn't eat such things. Just as he was about to refuse, Mo Xibei swiftly withdrew his hand and took a bite of the chicken leg. The pheasant was plump and tender, and the roasting was just right. The skin was crispy, but the meat was snow-white. With one bite, a little oil seeped out.

"You..." Young Master Mu didn't know what to say to Mo Xibei for a moment.

“I know someone like you, who can’t even show your face in public, must be very cautious. You definitely won’t eat chicken with added ingredients, so I won’t force you. Don’t be polite with me, and don’t force yourself. This chicken isn’t big; I can definitely finish it by myself.” With that, Mo Xibei took another big bite. As he ate, he even let out a small murmur of praise, as if he were eating a delicacy.

Only then did Young Master Mu realize he had been ridiculed. No one had ever dared to tease him like this before. He was furious and remained silent. He turned over and lay down with his back to the campfire. His injuries weren't necessarily severe, but he had lost a lot of blood. After sitting for only a short while, he already felt dizzy and lightheaded. He wanted to defiantly go find something to eat, but he worried he would faint again after only a few steps, and be ridiculed even more. So he simply lay still.

Mo Xibei devoured the two chicken legs, two pairs of wings, and the chicken neck with gusto; she only liked the tender meat of roast chicken. She had no interest in large chunks of white meat like the chicken breast. After finishing, she licked her fingers and noticed that Young Master Mu was still lying with his back to her, feeling a pang of guilt. But it was only for a moment; he was someone who loved to suffer for his pride. Let him be. One day of hunger, tomorrow will be better.