Seeing she had finally "surrendered," Qing Muyue walked over and stood before the nearly vertical half-meter steep slope, extending his hand to her.
Meng Jingwei glared at him, then took his hand and stood up.
As her feet landed on the small steep slope, she slid down. She couldn't help but let out a surprised gasp, but the next second, she was already in Qing Muyue's arms, standing steadily.
"Phew... What kind of road is this? It's impossible to walk. Qing Muyue, you're so rich, do some good deeds for humanity and fix this road."
She couldn't help but mutter, deeply lamenting how difficult life was for the people in Liangchuan.
"Mm."
Qing Muyue responded.
It sounded like an agreement, or perhaps a perfunctory reply.
But the next moment, Qing Muyue's hand swept across Meng Jingwei's cheek, smearing the mud on his hand all over her face. "You have mud on your face, let me wipe it for you."
"Ah? Really? Then help me wipe it."
Meng Jingwei believed him.
Qing Muyue extended three fingers and drew a line across her left cheek, then another across her right.
In an instant, his mud-covered hand left cute little Hello Kitty mustaches on her face, which stood out starkly against her fair skin.
"It's clean now."
Qing Muyue nodded his head with utmost seriousness, casting a look of 'admiration' at Meng Jingwei. He concealed the smile in his eyes, held her hand, and started walking down the mountain.
The mountain path was slippery. Afraid of falling again, Meng Jingwei held Qing Muyue's hand tightly as they walked.
What was originally a four to five-hour journey, due to the slippery mountain path, Meng Jingwei's delay of nearly an hour, and the sudden downpour, made the path difficult. They had only covered half the distance in four to five hours.
Seeing that night was approaching and Liangchuan was still far, Qing Muyue said, "Let's rest here for the night and continue our journey tomorrow."
"Phew, that's a good idea. With the rain, the road is difficult, and the mountain is steep. If we fall, the consequences would be unthinkable."
Meng Jingwei strongly agreed with Qing Muyue.
The two set up camp on the mountaintop, but in the end, there was only one tent, Meng Jingwei's.
"How will you sleep if you don't bring a tent?"
Meng Jingwei looked at Qing Muyue and asked.
Qing Muyue pointed to Meng Jingwei's tent, "This is a double tent."
"I'm a woman, and you're a man. Men and women should maintain proper distance. Don't you know that?"
"I'm your brother, and you're my sister. We're family, so there's no need for so much fuss."
"But you're not my biological brother."
Meng Jingwei crossed her arms, her defensive gaze scrutinizing Qing Muyue. She felt like this scoundrel was trying to take advantage of her.
"What, is this the first day we're sharing a room?" The man raised an eyebrow and retorted.
"How can that be the same? Your house is over two hundred square meters, but this tent is only two to three square meters!"
She didn't believe Qing Muyue's nonsense.
However, the next moment, she saw Qing Muyue hook her chin and say softly, "You're nowhere near as well-endowed as Yun'er, so as for you..."
As he spoke, his gaze swept up and down Meng Jingwei, "I'm not interested."
With that, he let go of Meng Jingwei and turned to enter the tent.
Meng Jingwei pouted, "Shameless."
She lowered her head and looked at her own proudly upright chest, muttering, "Is he blind? How am I not as good as Li Yun'er?"
Li Yun'er was as slender as her, but her bust size was a full size larger than hers, making them incomparable.
Annoyed, she rolled her eyes and turned to crawl into the tent.
Inside the tent, Qing Muyue had already lain down to rest. Meng Jingwei lay beside him, always feeling that being together was somewhat strange and ambiguous.
However, there was only one tent, and there were mosquitoes and insects outside, making it inconvenient to drive him out.
Pulling the tent zipper shut, Meng Jingwei lay down, then sat up again, reaching out to open the zipper at the top of the tent.
When it was opened, it revealed a transparent rain cover, allowing a clear view of everything outside.
"Qing Muyue, look quickly! The sky is full of stars, it's so beautiful. I haven't seen such beautiful starry skies since I came to Lan Cheng."
He patted Qing Muyue's arm and pointed to the top, speaking to him.
Qing Muyue looked up, through the waterproof rain cover, and gazed at the night sky outside. Indeed, the stars were bright and dazzling, exceptionally beautiful.
Meng Jingwei lay down, her hands resting on her abdomen, looking at the sky outside. "This feeling is so good."
It had been a long, long time since she had enjoyed a moment of leisure amidst her busyness.
After admiring the starry sky for a while, she took out her phone. Looking at the phone with no signal, it felt like holding a brick, utterly useless.
"We've entered the mountains, there's no signal,"
Qing Muyue said.
"Yes, no signal, it's so boring."
Since her phone was unusable, Meng Jingwei put it down and stared blankly at the sky, resting.
Soon, her stomach began to growl. It was then she realized, "Qing Muyue, it seems we haven't had dinner."
She was so hungry.
To her surprise, Qing Muyue took out some items from his backpack and handed them to Meng Jingwei. "There are many wild beasts in the mountains, so try to avoid starting a fire, lest you attract them."
Meng Jingwei looked at the pile of snacks and compressed biscuits Qing Muyue had taken out and pouted, "Alas, I'll just have to make do."
If it hadn't been for the sudden rain, they wouldn't have had to camp on the mountain.
*Pfft—*
Suddenly, a sound rang out.
Meng Jingwei looked over and found Qing Muyue holding a bottle of beer, intending to enjoy it all by himself.
"Qing Muyue, you can't be so selfish. How can you drink beer without me?"
She snatched the beer from him and guzzled it down in large gulps.
Seeing her demeanor, Qing Muyue couldn't help but ask, "Do you really like drinking?"
Meng Jingwei wiped the corners of her mouth with the back of her sleeve and sighed, "My master loves to drink, so I would often accompany him. As I drank more and more, my tolerance increased, so I've basically never gotten drunk."
Never gotten drunk?
The man raised an eyebrow, recalling the scene from that night when she was dead drunk, vomiting her guts out over the toilet, and a faint smile couldn't help but appear on his lips.
"Mm, you have a good tolerance."
A perfunctory compliment, half true and half false.
Although her tolerance wasn't as good as his, the alcohol she drank that night had a high proof, and she hadn't sobered up, making it easier to get drunk.
Moreover, she had drunk several bottles in a row, so her tolerance was still... passable.
Meng Jingwei ate a little something, then turned off the flashlight and lay down in the tent to sleep.
Before long, Qing Muyue also lay down. In the darkness, both of them looked up at the brilliant stars in the sky, lost in their own thoughts.
"Qing Muyue, if one day, the Li family wants me dead. Will you... help them?"
Suddenly, she asked.
The abrupt question made Qing Muyue pause for a moment. He had never expected her to ask her innermost thoughts so directly.
"Why would the Li family want to kill you?"
He countered with a question instead of answering.
"Because..."
Because her existence threatened the Li family.
But even if she told Qing Muyue these things, he wouldn't understand. So, Meng Jingwei decided not to explain too much, only sighing, "Forget it, forget it. Li Yun'er is your fiancée, you'll definitely side with her. But no matter what, I just hope that if one day I die, you absolutely won't harm my adoptive parents."
Qing Muyue fell into silence. He simply turned his head in the dark to look at the woman beside him, saying nothing.
Then, she added, "I saved your grandmother. I'm not asking for any reward, I just hope you can promise me this. Let this be our gentleman's agreement, alright?"