Chapter 169: Amid the Ruins, the Heart Fades 1
Chapter 169: Amid the Ruins, the Heart Fades 1
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Realizing that he had chosen to act as bait and bury himself alive just to protect her from that creature was like a thorn driven straight into Liang Yuexin’s heart.
For a moment, she didn’t know what to think anymore.
She had already had a bad feeling when he decided to stay behind to give her time to escape, but she chose to trust his words. She might not have known him deeply, even though they had known each other for years now.
but if there was one thing she had learned about him lately, it was that he had no intention of doing anything that could actually cost him his life.
From their journey to find that herb, to the end of semester exam, and even the tournament that decided the participants for the secret realm, Zhu Rong had shown again and again that he could face any adversity head on.
Even when it seemed there was no chance for him to win or survive, he always had some trick hidden up his sleeve.
That made her realize that this new him, completely unfamiliar to her, far more than the little she knew of the old him, always had a reason behind his actions. And never did those actions seem to truly put his life in danger.
That was why she had thought he must have another hidden card, something that would let him come out of this alive too, and so she chose to follow his plan. But now that she was outside, that conviction was starting to fade.
She wasn’t sure what had happened inside, but if it was enough to shake the entire mountain and clearly collapse the cave within, then it couldn’t have been anything simple.
Without realizing it, a strange burning feeling rose in her chest, something she was not used to.
The feeling of loss and pain.
It was the first time she had felt something like that. No, actually, it wasn’t the first.
She had felt it once before, when she learned the truth behind her mother’s death.
From what she remembered, she and her brother had always grown up with their father, and as far as she knew, her mother had died shortly after giving birth to her.
At the time she thought it had been due to an illness, but much later she discovered that the reason her mother had died wasn’t illness at all, it was so that she could survive.
Her lightning talent hadn’t been something developed at birth but inherited, directly from her mother.
She didn’t know why it had happened that way, but it had. And her mother had clearly chosen to pass that talent onto her, something that had cost her life.
Realizing that truth had hit her like a blade to the heart, and she finally understood why her father had always been so strict with her.
Even her brother, a few years older than her, had shown the same kind of attitude, though he always tried to hide that bitterness. With time, she noticed it in him as she grew up.
She too had been devastated when she learned the truth, and back then she had felt that same heartbreaking pain of losing someone because of herself, someone she had never even had the chance to spend time with, someone who left because of her.
Now she was feeling something similar again.
Zhu Rong, her fiancé whom she had despised for so long, but had slowly learned to tolerate and even accept to some extent, had chosen to do the same thing, sacrifice himself to let her escape safely.
Her mind began to whirl as these thoughts flooded her all at once.
Soon, her vision grew slightly hazy, and she felt the wetness on her cheeks. But she ignored it, trying not to fall into the spiral of emotions that had suddenly overwhelmed her mind.
Just then, the sound of pounding rang out of nowhere. Lost in her emotions, she flinched and snapped her gaze toward the collapsed tunnel ruins before her.
"Could it be..."
A spark of hope lit in her eyes as she heard the pounding grow stronger and stronger.
Seconds passed, and then the wall of debris sealing the tunnel trembled slightly before suddenly bursting outward.
The rubble, both large and small, was hurled outward, scattering in every direction, but Liang Yuexin, standing before the tunnel, didn’t care about them and kept her eyes fixed on its entrance.
There, through the cloud of dust that had risen, she could see the figure of a man standing.
Even though it was covered in dust, she immediately knew who it was.
"Cough, cough... tch, this damn tunnel, who the hell built it? Couldn’t even bother to make it sturdier," a male voice grumbled, a voice far too familiar to Liang Yuexin’s ears.
It was Zhu Rong, completely covered in dust from head to toe, hair all messy, with small burns scattered here and there across his body.
But overall, he seemed fine.
As he coughed and brushed away the dust around him, he stepped out of the tunnel. Just then, a shadow leapt at him, and before he could prepare to launch an attack, he was struck by something and knocked to the ground.
At first, he thought it was a beast, but the sensation of the body colliding with his felt warm and soft.
He was confused for a moment, but then he caught a faint, delicate floral fragrance—one pleasant to the nose, one he had recently smelled from someone.
’Could it be her? Don’t tell me she’s finally fallen victim to my charm,’ he thought, already forming an idea of who it was, as he lifted his eyes from the ground with his back against the dirt, finding the face of the woman above him.
He wasn’t sure how he had ended up in that position, but he certainly didn’t mind.