2 Chapter 2: Would You Feel Better If I Hug You?

There was a deafening explosion!

The car was suddenly engulfed in flames.

The massive fumes of smoke almost swallowed up the white silhouette that was running towards him like the wind.

At one point, Gong Siyu thought that the girl who had rescued him had died because of him, engulfed by the flames… 

Then, there was a sudden crack!

A screen shattered, a cellphone with a dimly lit screen landing in front of him.

Immediately, he looked up with narrow eyes, only to see a small, delicate face in front of him, which had been stained black by the smoke.

Her beautiful, almond-shaped eyes were filled with tears and she looked extremely pitiful, as if she was on the verge of tears. Terribly frightened and unable to stop shivering, she still pointed towards the cellphone.

"I found the cellphone!"

The car that had returned stopped for a moment a short distance away, perhaps because of the massive fire, before turning around and driving away once again.

It was early March, which meant that it was just before spring. Thus, it was still chilly, and the temperatures were freezing at midnight.

The car continued to burn, the blazing flames warming the surrounding area. 

Due to the cold, Ji Younai had to move the man to a spot under the tree that was close to the fire blazing at the side of the road. She made him lean against the tree while she curled up by his side, shivering and trying to get a signal on the cellphone.

Looking at the back of the girl huddling beside him for warmth, Gong Siyu forced himself to smile, attempting to show his friendliness.

He said feebly, "If you're cold, I can take off my jacket and put it on you..."

Ji Younai turned around to look at him when she heard his words. 

Her tiny face was covered in soot and there was a mole at the corner of her almond-shaped eyes, which revealed a great many emotions.

She had calmed down a little by now. She was anxious, nervous, worried, terrified...and doubtful of his words. 

"No, it's cold and you're wounded. You need to stay warm more than I do."

In order to stay awake, Gong Siyu chose to talk to the young girl nonstop.

"Are you alone?"

"Yes, I'm alone," Ji Younai said in a clipped voice.

She was afraid that Gong Siyu might not be able to hang in any longer. Thus, she turned back every now and then to make sure he was still alive.

He was wounded in three non-fatal spots. However, Ji Younai knew that if he did not stop bleeding soon, his body would go into shock and die...

That was how she had passed away. 

She glanced at the cut on her left wrist from the corner of her eyes, Ji Younai's pupils constricting.

'Where is the wound? Where did the wound go?'

There was still dried blood on her wrist but there was only an ugly scar left. The wound had healed itself!

The memory of waking up in the embalming room resurfaced in her mind.

Ji Younai couldn't help but shiver in the cold, fear and panic filling her heart again.

She did not realize that the wounded man was frowning and looking at her while pondering something.

Ji Younai suddenly discovered that something was hanging from her ankle. 

Ignoring the pain, she pulled a shard of broken glass that had been stuck in her sole, quietly removing the tag that was tied to her ankle.

Amidst the light of the burning flames, she read the words written on it.

[Name]: Ji Younai

[Serial Number]: Embalming Room No. 3, 09 

[Cause of death]: Slit wrist, excessive blood loss.

[Note]: Corpse unclaimed.

"What are you looking at?"

The words startled Ji Younai, who tossed aside the tag that she had been holding onto.

It was as if she was afraid of letting the man behind her see it. 

Teary-eyed, she shook her head and wiped the tears away.

After glancing at the "unknown object" that had been tossed aside by the young girl, Gong Siyu once again began to scrutinize her peculiar outfit. 

The weather was chilly but the only thing she was wearing was a thin piece of white cloth that covered her body.

'Where did her clothes go? Why is she here, alone, in this remote and deserted place at such a late hour?'

"Where are your parents?" No parent with even a small sense of responsibility would allow their daughter to stay out alone in such an eerie and cold place in the wild.

By the time he asked that question, she had returned to his side. 

However, Gong Siyu saw all the agony and misery in her eyes the moment her parents were mentioned.

"They're dead. They're both gone."

"Then...how did you end up here alone?"

After glancing at the cellphone, which still could not receive a signal, Gong Siyu focused as much attention as he could on the girl's perfect side profile.

He looked down to see that she was holding the cellphone with her tiny hands, of which the bones were white. 

Gong Siyu heard her sobbing softly, sounding as if she was resisting the urge to cry out loud. She was sobbing feebly, which tugged at his heartstrings.

"I don't know... When I woke up, I was lying in that horrible place with a lot of dead people around me... It was pitch dark and no one came to rescue me. No one came to help me, I could only run away as if I had lost my mind!"

Hugging herself in fear, she looked around at her surroundings in a frightened manner.

Seemingly having thought of something, Ji Younai looked at the man beside her, her vision blurred by tears, "You can't die, okay? You must hang in there until someone comes to your rescue!"

While she was overwhelmed with fear and on the verge of a breakdown, she had a living person to keep her company. It was not a cold, lifeless corpse, but a living, breathing person with a beating heart, someone who could speak. That gave Ji Younai some sense of comfort.

The light of the fire was reflected in his narrow eyes, but some of the austerity and hostility were replaced by a trace of inexplicable weakness.

The young girl's words seemed to have given him some faith to live on.

"Okay... I promise you, I won't die."

He subconsciously made his voice gentler, sounding like he was coaxing her. 

Ji Younai still couldn't stop shivering uncontrollably. She knew that a car would never pass by such a remote place.

"We can't just sit here and keep waiting blindly. Stay here while I go somewhere with reception to call the rescue number that you gave me. Wait for me!"

After saying that, Ji Younai ran away.

-

After an unknown period of time, Gong Siyu got used to the excruciating pain running through his body, which seemed to have turned numb. He was extremely weak and could not open his eyes. However, he believed that she would not leave him behind and run away on her own. He heard a panicky cry in his ears.

"Don't sleep! Wake up! I'm back! The call went through and your friend said he'd arrive soon. Don't fall asleep!"

He struggled to open his eyes and murmured lowly in a faint voice, "I'm cold..."

In the next instant, Gong Siyu, who had fallen to the ground, felt himself being picked up and held in her embrace.

He saw the young girl, who was holding him in her arms, sobbing and wiping away her tears.

"I'm sorry! My body is cold too. Would holding me help?"

The flames had subsided and dulled, gradually showing signs of being extinguished. The temperature was no longer as warm as before.

"Tight… Tighter..."

"Like this?" She tightened her grip around him, her slender arms encircling him.

"Yes..." Gong Siyu smiled without noticing it, asking her in a weak voice, "Where did you go? You took so long..." 

The teary-eyed Ji Younai explained patiently in a soft and tender voice, "The signal is poor here but there's a funeral parlor nearby. I went there since there must be signal coverage."

Gong Siyu was shocked to hear her mention a funeral parlor. 

Somewhere deep within his heart, he felt like he was being shaken, able to feel the shivering of the person who was holding him.

He was sympathetic towards her and tried his best to stay awake. 

"Were you… scared?"

The cold wind was bone achingly cold and it was freezing.

Ji Younai shuddered and sniffled with bloodshot eyes. 

She answered in a shaky voice, "Yes… but that was the only place I could get a signal..." 

She had escaped from that place. How could she not be afraid?

"My last name is Gong... My name is Gong Siyu. What about you?"

"Ji Younai."

Ji Younai?

"You have a nice name..." Gong Siyu smiled with a pale face, his narrow eyes dark and charming. "Let me ask you..."

"Yes?"

"You've saved me… What would you like in return?"

She had saved his life. 

Gong Siyu had thought about it before and decided that he would give her whatever she wanted, and perhaps even more...

He looked down and exchanged glances with her tear-filled eyes. Ji Younai's smile was miserable and mournful, her eyes filled with a dull, dead gray color. 

"I don't want anything." She did not hope to have anything because she had nothing.

Before he knew it, Gong Siyu fell into a deep coma.

Ji Younai had also begun to get dizzy, slipping into a daze because of the cold. 

However, she vaguely sensed that people had arrived!

Bodyguards dressed in black surrounded them. There was a large convoy of luxury cars that had stopped not too far away from them. The headlights of the cars were all switched on, lighting up the entire deserted and secluded road on the mountain. 

Ji Younai felt that she had been picked up by someone. 

Gong Siyu's rescuers had arrived!