Chapter 34: The Last Task, 17K Original Release

ny more pastries for quite some time. It was too sweet...Wait, sweetZi Lin frowned slightly and quickly scanned the remaining dishes. She walked to where the pork ribs were, dipped her finger into the...Chapter Thirty-Four: The Last Mission, 17K Original Release

This was the second time Qi Lin and Bai Qianye were alone in the wilderness, but this time, Bai Qianye became the protected little lamb.

Qi Lin woke up to the sound of birds chirping. She wanted to change positions but found her neck aching terribly, causing her teeth to clench as she struggled to get up and discovered an empty space beside her.

"Sss~"

Frowning with discomfort, Qi Lin held her sore neck in one hand while the other hung stiffly by her side. Any movement caused unbearable pain.

"You're awake"

Qi Lin turned around in surprise to see Bai Qianye approaching with a wild game in his hand. She regretted not stretching beforehand, as her current posture was awkward and she could barely move without causing more stiffness, managing only a stiff smile for Bai Qianye.

"Is your injury okay now" Qi Lin massaged her shoulder and noticed that the jacket draped over her was actually Bai Qianye's. She then asked, "Are there any lingering effects I mean, are you experiencing any discomfort"

Bai Qianye shook his head slightly, sitting beside her and gently applying pressure to her neck.

"Ah." Qi Lin couldn't help but let out a sound as Bai Qianye pressed on several points along her arm. She glared at him, intending to scold him, but found that her body wasn’t so stiff anymore. Her neck moved freely now, and she smiled gratefully, saying "Thanks."

"Gulur~"

The sound made Qi Lin's smile fade as she pointed at the wild game in Bai Qianye’s hand and said, "Shouldn't we roast it"

Unexpectedly, Bai Qianye threw the game aside without any intention of roasting it. Instead, he took out a wild fruit from his chest pocket and handed it to Qi Lin.

"What’s this..." Qi Lin swallowed as she looked at the discarded game, wiping her mouth after biting into the fruit. She frowned in displeasure: "It's so sour."

Upon closer inspection, however, the fruit seemed familiar.

"Even if I'm going to die, let me be a full belly before then."

"It’s not poisonous; it just tastes... very sour."

The fruit was one they had eaten together previously. Its taste was extremely sour, and Qi Lin smiled slightly, saying "I didn't expect this place to have such fruits."

"We can only find these kinds of fruits." Bai Qianye picked up a stick and sharpened the end with his sword. “Let's eat some first.”

“But why don’t you roast that one” Qi Lin pointed at the game lying aside, asking, "Aren't you worried your injuries will be affected by this"

Saying that, Qi Lin got up to fetch clothes for Bai Qianye and worriedly looked at the place of his injury, as if she wanted to see how well it had healed. Just as she was thinking about this, Bai Qianye suddenly pulled open his clothes and exposed his bandaged wound.

"What are you doing"

“Look, I'm fine.” In order to put Qi Lin's mind at ease, Bai Qianye even patted the spot where he was injured, but she grabbed him. Smilingly, she said, "My body is naturally stronger than most people’s and with prolonged medication, my recovery speed is much faster compared to normal people. I had a good rest last night, so it should be fine by now. You, on the other hand, were wounded in several places but didn’t even realize it because of the dark last night."

Qi Lin was slightly stunned and only then did she feel some pricks of pain on her face, as well as a faint ache on her arms and body. She also realized that all these injuries had been treated. Qi Lin’s face heated up in embarrassment as she lowered her head and said, "You were the one who treated me"

"I guess it can be seen as repayment for what you did for me last night." Bai Qianye tested his stick, finding that it was quite handy.

"How come I didn’t know about this" After asking, Qi Lin blushed again. Bai Qianye’s usual method of getting things done: paralyze first and then deal with the situation. "By the way, why do you have a stick like this"

“To catch fish.” With a faint smile, Bai Qianye walked toward where he heard water splashing.

Qi Lin scratched her head and followed him as well; she might as well wash her face and comb her hair. But when Qi Lin reached the spot she had referred to as "the little stream" last night, she realized that it was no mere stream but a lake. A small stream flowed into this large body of water. If she hadn’t been careful last night, there was a real possibility that she could have drowned.

What a close call! Qi Lin patted her chest and took a deep breath before pointing at the calm surface of the lake and asked, “Are you sure there are fish in here”

But when she looked over at Bai Qianye, he was getting undressed. Terrified, Qi Lin turned around and covered her eyes. Nevertheless, she couldn’t resist turning back and peeking through her fingers.

"What are you doing" The wounds hadn't fully healed; shouldn’t one avoid bathing But Bai Qianye didn’t stop taking off his clothes but instead was about to take off even his undergarment. Qi Lin rushed over without hesitation, grabbed his hand and said smilingly, “This isn’t good for your injuries.”

Bai Qianye was taken aback as he saw the redness on her cheeks, and smiled again, saying, "Fish are in the lake at this time of day. You can't catch them here; you have to swim out."

"No way, your wound hasn’t healed yet." Qi Lin immediately rejected his suggestion. There was no room for negotiation.

“It doesn’t matter.”

"I said it's not okay and it’s not okay!" Picking up Bai Qianye’s clothes, Qi Lin threw them at him and firmly said, "When I lived on White Tiger Mountain before, I also caught fish. Let me do this."

After saying that, she was worried that Bai Qianye would change his mind so added a warning: “You must listen to me this time. If you don’t get any food tonight, at least you won’t starve to death.”

Fortunately, she could swim and fortunately, she had not given up on swimming when in university because it was troublesome. Qi Lin silently sighed with relief; at least she fell into the mountains instead of the lake when she arrived.

But before she prepared to swim, Qi Lin still made Bai Qianye close his eyes as he needed to take off clothes for this, and used a waist belt to help him so that he wouldn’t fall in. Maybe due to psychological reasons, Qi Lin covered Bai Qianye’s eyes.

The morning water was cold. Wearing only her self-made small bra and shorts, the moment she touched the water, goosebumps rose all over her body as she shivered from the chill; then, she walked in, finding that the soil here was quite soft with a deep footprint left by each step. From this, it could be seen that there were big fish here.

“Splash.”

Qilin completely submerged herself in the water and was surrounded by the icy lake, but she no longer felt cold. Suddenly, a large carp swam past her. Qilin was startled and reached out to grab it, only touching its tail. The carp, frightened, dived into the water. From this view, the water wasn’t deep. After taking a deep breath, Qilin followed it underwater.

Fortunately, ancient lakes were still relatively clear, and that large carp was right in front of her, seemingly looking for food. It is said that fish have a memory span of only seven seconds; therefore, the earlier fright had long passed. Ahead of the carp was a small cave. Qilin smiled slightly and swam over to it, spreading out her hands. The carp, startled again, darted into the cave. Qilin then pulled out her jade hairpin and reached inside the cave with her hand, feeling the tail of the carp. The clumsy carp struggled hard to swim deeper, so Qilin decided to use the jade hairpin to poke around in the cave.

Unfortunately, fish are slippery, making it impossible for her to hurt them even a bit. Qilin’s breath-holding limit was nearly reached; however, missing this chance might mean no more plump carp to eat, and Bai Qianye needed it to supplement his nutrition.

Thinking of this, Qilin mustered all her strength and poked hard several times until she finally hit the carp’s tail. She then lifted the carp out. The fish was still struggling fiercely; its strength was so great that Qilin nearly lost her balance. If not for pushing it against the cave wall, she wouldn’t have been able to catch it.

"Puh~ Ah-huh." After surfacing from the water, the carp in her arms continued to struggle desperately. Qilin held onto it tightly and swam towards shallow waters.

"Look, I told you—"

Unexpectedly, Bai Qianye suddenly rushed over and hugged her. Qilin clutched the carp even tighter and whispered, "I caught a large carp."

But Bai Qianye acted as if he hadn’t heard her and tightly held onto her until she had difficulty breathing before letting go. Yet, before Qilin could see his expression clearly, she was picked up horizontally to the shore.

"Look mmm—"

Before she could steady herself, she was kissed. Qilin didn’t have any intention of resisting because she sensed Bai Qianye’s panic.

Gulping...

Qilin frowned awkwardly; Bai Qianye released her and slowly opened his eyes, tugging at the corner of his mouth embarrassedly. "I... was about to starve."

"Listen carefully: until I give my consent, you cannot die." Bai Qianye held Qilin’s shoulders seriously. "This is an order from me."

Qilin nodded dumbly; she had thought that Bai Qianye believed she would perish. Of course, she never told him diving was a passion of hers she wouldn’t give up even if it cost her life.

"You didn’t... " Qilin pointed at Bai Qianye’s hand and looked at the belt scattered aside before glancing back at him.

"Next time when binding someone, remember to tie hands behind their backs and never use a slipknot."

Um... she was truly sorry; she didn’t know how to bind people.

Qilin pouted but the cold wind made her shiver. She quickly put on clothes, only to find an extra outer garment had been added.

"It’s windy here."

Qilin obediently wore it as Bai Qianye started a fire by the lake and began roasting the carp after preparing it. Meanwhile, Qilin stared at the fish drooling uncontrollably.

However, Bai Qianye's mood was like the flickering flames before him; it remained unsettled. If in the past he deliberately made ambiguous moves towards Qi L琳 to make her fall in love with him so that everything would proceed according to his plan, then after that night when Qi L琳 confessed her feelings for him, his goal had already been achieved. But today, he realized that what he felt for Qi L琳 was more than just a momentary feeling.

When Qi L琳's figure wasn't seen on the water surface for over an instant of tea time, he panicked. When she resurfaced and smiled at him, he lost control.

This wasn't his first loss of control due to the scent on Qi L琳's body.

He had fallen in love with Qi L琳.

"Ah!"

The sudden scream from Qi L琳 made Bai Qianye pause, and he snapped back to reality as she nervously pointed at the fish.

"It's burning! Quick, flip it over," Qi L琳 said anxiously without noticing the gentleness in Bai Qianye's gaze, which wasn't just surface-level but came from his heart.

After a while, the fish was finally ready. Bai Qianye tore off a piece and handed it to Qi L琳, reminding her to be careful of the bones.

Qi L琳 nodded, carefully removing the fish bones before placing it by Bai Qianye's mouth with a smile, saying, "You are the patient; you take precedence."

Bai Qianye smiled slightly and opened his mouth to bite half of the fish meat, leaving the rest for Qi L琳.

"Hehe," Qi L琳 was already famished from not eating last night. Seeing Bai Qianye leave it for her, she didn't refuse and swallowed down the remaining fish meat in one go.

Unfortunately, there wasn't any salt, but this was still very good.

Following that, Bai Qianye would tear off the best pieces of fish to give Qi L琳, who would meticulously remove the bones and hand it back to him. He always ate half and left half for her. The unseasoned fish meat tasted like a delicacy between them; they finished an entire carp in no time.

With their hunger satisfied, Qi L琳 began to worry. She hadn't returned home all night, so Green Bamboo must be concerned. Furthermore, with such significant events happening there, the government would surely be alerted, not to mention Mu Qingfeng, who was bound to be anxious as well. Although she had already investigated the cause of everything that happened, she originally planned to stay for a couple more days at least to visit Yu Mu and two other people whom she must see.

Those were Su Feng andouldn’t respond to an empty cup, but she didn't want to anyway.She had thought that they would execute her immediately next, but Qi Lin, like Qiao Er, waited for the execution instead of receiving it....