Jun Huailang had indeed heard the sounds outside.
There were noisy voices and the sounds of people moving stones. The commotion was so loud that it nearly drowned out the rain, faintly reaching into the cave.
But he could also sense Xue Yan’s condition.
He seemed to be teasing him, but perhaps even he himself had not noticed that his voice and breathing were gradually weakening, and the smile in his voice was becoming increasingly forced.
Jun Huailang did not dare say anything. He merely forced himself to remain calm and respond to him, hoping to make him talk to him a little longer.
But in the end, Xue Yan stopped speaking.
Jun Huailang called out to him in a trembling voice, but Xue Yan no longer gave him any response.
Even though it was already futile, Jun Huailang repeatedly spoke beside him, telling him to listen to the sounds outside.
But Xue Yan never responded.
The sobbing in Jun Huailang’s voice grew heavier, eventually turning into choked whimpers.
“Xue Yan, you promised me.”
His tears fell into their hair.
“You have to get out safely. You can’t break your promise.”
By this point, he was completely talking to himself, yet he stubbornly continued speaking to Xue Yan without growing tired of it.
His voice and body were trembling, and tears kept streaming down.
Just then, a faint voice sounded outside.
“Your Highness? Your Highness, the Heir?”
The distinctive high-pitched voice of a eunuch.
It was Jinbao.
“We’re here!”
Jun Huailang, who normally never raised his voice, shouted back, almost using every bit of strength in his body.
The people outside immediately heard him.
“Here! Dig this way!” Jinbao hurriedly directed everyone.
“Xue Yan, did you hear that? It’s Jinbao’s voice.”
Jun Huailang cautiously raised his hand and touched Xue Yan’s face.
“The rain hasn’t stopped, but they’re already here. Once you get out, you can’t punish him anymore.”
Under his touch, Xue Yan’s head shifted slightly.
A weak breath brushed against Jun Huailang’s neck.
It was extremely faint, like a soft ribbon that could snap at any moment if pulled.
Jun Huailang’s hand trembled uncontrollably.
The sounds outside grew closer and closer. Jun Huailang could gradually hear the tools digging through the stones.
There must have been many people outside, and they were moving quickly.
Yet to Jun Huailang, they seemed unbearably slow. Every second felt like an entire year.
Only then did he belatedly realize that he had not felt this way before because Xue Yan had been there with him.
Trembling, Jun Huailang whispered repeatedly beside Xue Yan’s ear,
“You promised me. You said it just now.”
Just then—
Crash!
An opening suddenly broke through the stones in front of them. Broken rocks flew everywhere, and torrential rain immediately poured inside.
Jun Huailang instinctively raised his arm and wrapped it around Xue Yan’s broad back, shielding him from the flying stones and heavy rain.
Immediately afterward, he felt a hot, wet warmth beneath his hand.
Through the hazy rain, he finally saw Xue Yan clearly.
His head hung against Jun Huailang’s neck, his entire body curled around him in an embrace, protecting him completely where he was.
And from the back of his neck downward, he was covered in blood.
Beneath the torn and filthy silk clothing were large, deep wounds covering his entire back, deep enough to expose bone.
They had all been caused by the rocks tumbling down from the mountain.
Jun Huailang had never known that a person could lose so much blood.
So much that his tears mixed with the rain, unconsciously covering his entire face.
“Save him.”
Jun Huailang used all his strength just to force a few words from his throat.
“Save him quickly.”
——
At Xue Yan’s residence, the doors were wide open. Maidservants came and went, carrying bowls of bloody water and gauze.
The entire relay station, inside and out, was now under strict guard by the Embroidered Uniform Guard. Guards in dark Feiyu uniforms stood watch everywhere.
The officials all remained in the front hall. No one dared leave.
And Jun Huailang alone sat outside Xue Yan’s room.
He said nothing and refused to let anyone persuade him to leave.
Jinbao’s hands had already been rubbed raw and bloody while digging through the stones earlier. They were now wrapped in gauze, so he could not even carry tea for Jun Huailang.
When he came out of Xue Yan’s room, he saw that the young servant beside him had already been frightened speechless by the situation and was showing no sense of propriety.
Jinbao raised his leg and kicked him in the shin.
“You’re just going to let the Heir sit here doing nothing?”
Jinbao gritted his teeth and asked in a low voice.
The young servant hurriedly scrambled off to bring him a cup of hot tea.
When the tea was brought before him, Jun Huailang, for the first time, failed to raise his hand to accept it.
He merely glanced at it before looking away.
“Put it down.”
But aside from the chair Jun Huailang was sitting on, there was nowhere else to put the tea.
“This…” The young servant had no idea what to do and looked up at Jinbao.
Jinbao, whose hands were both unusable, lifted his chin and motioned for him to leave.
Only after watching the young servant walk away did Jinbao cautiously approach Jun Huailang’s side.
Perhaps Jun Huailang himself had not noticed how abnormal he looked at that moment.
His gaze was empty, his eyes rimmed red.
His lips were pale, and he looked utterly disheveled, yet no one could persuade him to leave.
Others said that the Heir of Yongning Duke must have been frightened.
After all, how could a young nobleman from the capital have ever witnessed such a life-threatening scene?
Some even said that because the Prince of Guangling had suffered severe injuries while saving him, if something really happened to the prince, the Yongning Duke’s Residence would certainly be implicated. That was why he was frightened.
But Jinbao could see it.
The Bodhisattva was worried about his master.
Jinbao had been right beside them when the two of them were rescued.
At that time, the Heir had been tightly embracing the prince, crying until his eyes were red.
Jinbao had never seen this Bodhisattva, who normally stood high above the clouds, reveal such an expression.
At that moment, he truly thought the prince was going to die.
And he was terrified that the prince would die.
He had even begged the people who came to rescue them to save the prince.
Jinbao stopped beside Jun Huailang and cautiously said,
“Your Highness?”
Hearing Jinbao’s voice, Jun Huailang raised his head and looked at him.
His gaze was still somewhat empty, filled with bewilderment after experiencing overwhelming grief and joy.
“Go ahead.”
His polite response at this moment was entirely instinctive.
Jinbao comforted him.
“Your Highness, don’t worry. That renowned physician who came down from the mountains is inside. His Highness will be fine.”
They had to thank the Young Master of the Shen family for that.
When the mountain collapsed, it had blocked the entire road.
Young Master Shen had escaped unharmed. When he hurried back, he found that the only thing left there was one of Xue Yan’s horses.
Everything else had been buried beneath the rocks.
The young master was terrified. He rode his horse frantically up the mountain and forcibly barged into the divine physician’s home.
The divine physician kept carrier pigeons at home. Since the two of them could not leave, they used a pigeon to send a message to Jinbao.
If that pigeon had not flown so quickly, they would never have been able to rescue the men so promptly.
And after Young Master Shen begged and pleaded desperately, the divine physician had also agreed to come down from the mountain and help this once.
Jun Huailang hummed in response, gradually coming back to himself.
“How is the prince?”
The divine physician had spoken rather rudely, so Jinbao could not repeat his words exactly.
The physician had said that the man’s bones were truly hard.
On anyone else, a fall like this would have shattered their spine into several pieces.
How could Jinbao possibly let the Bodhisattva hear that?
So he softened the words.
“The physician said there was no injury to the bones. They’re all flesh wounds, just with a little more blood loss.”
A little more blood?
Hardly.
Jun Huailang had clearly seen that even the rocks that had been pried open behind them were stained completely with Xue Yan’s blood.
Even the heavy rain had not been able to wash it away.
He gave a faint hum.
Seeing that he had responded, Jinbao pressed on and cautiously asked,
“Then, Your Highness… why don’t you go rest and change your clothes?”
After all, he had also been caught in quite a lot of rain while returning from the mountain.
If the prince woke up later and the Heir fell ill, how was Jinbao supposed to explain himself?
But Jun Huailang shook his head.
“I’ll wait here,” he said. “Once the physician has finished treating his injuries and people are allowed inside, come and call me.”
After saying this, he lowered his eyes and did not look at Jinbao again.
Seeing this, Jinbao knew there was no use trying to persuade him.
He could only return to Xue Yan’s room.
The people serving here were not attendants brought from the capital, so their movements were clumsy.
Although both of Jinbao’s hands were injured and he could barely use them, he still could not leave the room for even a moment. He needed to coordinate and direct everyone.
After Jinbao went inside, Jun Huailang slowly raised his eyes.
He turned his head and watched the servants entering and leaving the room.
The sight before him once again brought Xue Yan’s appearance from earlier to mind.
At that moment, if he had not still been able to feel Xue Yan’s faint heartbeat, he truly would have thought Xue Yan was already dead.
Such severe injuries…
How could anyone possibly endure them?
Yet he had still forced himself to remain conscious, pretending as though nothing had happened, continuously talking to him and even comforting him in return.
Tears welled up in Jun Huailang’s eyes again.
He forcibly held them back.
He withdrew his gaze and unconsciously raised his hand, placing it against the front of his neck.
Hanging there was a wolf fang tied with a rough leather cord, warmed by his body temperature.
His fingers were cold.
Slowly, he pulled the wolf fang out from inside his collar and held it tightly in his palm.
——
After a long while, a lazy voice came from inside the room.
“Next time, if it isn’t a life-threatening injury, don’t come looking for me again.”
The man spoke lazily.
“It’s not worth making this old man run back and forth. Everyone in Yangzhou City who knows me has heard that I retired to the mountains long ago, haven’t they? This is the only time. There won’t be a next time.”
Jun Huailang recognized the voice of the divine physician.
He hurriedly stood up.
Just as he reached the doorway, Jinbao came out to meet him.
“It’s done!”
Jinbao’s face was full of joy.
“The physician said we only need to wait for His Highness to wake up. His Highness the Heir has been worried all this time. Come in and take a look!”
Jun Huailang hurried inside, immediately walking past Jinbao.
Most of the maidservants in the room had already withdrawn.
Only a young man who looked no older than thirty was left, packing up his medicine chest.
The room was filled with a strong medicinal smell, intermingling with the heavy sandalwood incense that had already permeated the room.
The young man before him was the very divine physician who had repeatedly referred to himself as “this old man.”
When he saw someone enter, the physician raised his head and glanced at him.
Then his gaze paused.
“Is this the other person who was buried beneath the rocks with him?”
The physician’s features were rather plain and understated. He was tall and slender, yet there was an otherworldly, immortal-like air about him.
Jinbao hurriedly confirmed it.
The physician looked Jun Huailang up and down, revealing a rather astonished expression.
“Not injured at all?”
Jinbao did not know either.
He quickly turned his head toward Jun Huailang.
Jun Huailang shook his head.
The physician was stunned for a moment, then laughed several times.
“How strange! How truly strange!”
He said, “I’ve traveled that road many times myself. With a collapse of that scale, being able to come away alive would already be a stroke of incredible luck. And yet there’s actually someone who came out without a single injury?”
As he spoke, he lifted the packed medicine chest and stood.
“All right, I’m leaving. You stay here and wait for him to wake up.”
He raised his brows with a smile and, as he passed Jun Huailang, reached out and patted him on the shoulder.
“To have you standing here completely unharmed, the man on that bed must have protected you with his life.”