Chapter 151: Recovered and Lost Again

When they walked out of the Misty Forest, the moon had already waxed and waned through another cycle.

Seeing the campsite set up in the wilderness, Fu Wenzhou felt a sudden, ominous foreboding tighten in his chest. "Did Youyou come here? Is she here?"

Xu Zezhan turned his head to look at him. Seeing how Fu Wenzhou had been half-dead moments ago, only to suddenly spring back to life like a corpse rising from the grave upon seeing these tents, Xu Zezhan's mouth twitched. "She arrived even earlier than us. After Jiang Xun heard news about you from the black market and told her, she came to Country Y the very next day."

"Damn it!" Fu Wenzhou cursed. "Is there something wrong with her brain? Why on earth would she tell Youyou about these things?"

Having finished cursing, he lay back down, wearing an expression of utter despair. "Youyou is going to be mad at me again."

Yun Nian chimed in, "Is Youyou your wife?"

"None of your damn business," Fu Wenzhou snorted coldly.

Yun Nian: "..." Master was right, people who have taken monastic vows should not gossip.

Xu Zezhan asked, "Are his injuries serious?"

Yun Nian replied, "Although they aren't fatal, they are still quite severe."

Hearing this, Xu Zezhan furrowed his brows deeply.

Fu Wenzhou glanced at the pitch-black night and lowered his voice. "Is there water at the campsite?"

Xu Zezhan frowned. "What are you trying to do?"

Fu Wenzhou said, "Wipe myself down and change into a clean set of clothes."

Xu Zezhan took a deep breath. "You're injured like this and you aren't rushing back for medical treatment? Fu Wenzhou, did your brain get severely damaged too?"

Fu Wenzhou shifted his body, instantly hissing in pain. Enduring the wave of agony, he spoke nonchalantly, "I like to be clean. Is that a crime?"

Xu Zezhan: "..."

With a cold face, he had men carry Fu Wenzhou into a pitched tent and personally waited on the young master Fu.

When Fu Wenzhou stripped off his blood-stained clothes, Xu Zezhan's expression shifted. He gasped sharply and fell into a prolonged silence.

Across his entire body, there was not a single patch of intact skin.

He tilted his head back, forcing down the stinging sensation in his eyes, and said in a hoarse voice, "Fu Wenzhou, you've really got guts."

A careless, indifferent smile tugged at the corner of Fu Wenzhou's lips. His voice was lazy, tinged with a hint of fatigue. "Did you only just figure that out today?"

"Yes, I only just figured it out today," Xu Zezhan said. "As a brother, I think you're a fool, yet from the bottom of my heart, I admire you. Fu Wenzhou, you're stronger than all of us."

Fu Wenzhou's eyelids drooped. He was exhausted, but the pain wracking his body kept him painfully awake.

After a long while, he let out a soft, "Mn."

With injuries covering his entire body, it was impossible to simply wipe himself down. Xu Zezhan could only clean away the dried blood caked around the wounds as best as he could, then called Yun Nian in to apply medicine and bandage him.

Applying the medicine was nothing short of torture, yet Fu Wenzhou possessed an extraordinary capacity for endurance, not uttering a single sound despite breaking out in a cold sweat.

Working with utmost care, Yun Nian took over an hour to barely finish the task.

"All done," Yun Nian said.

Fu Wenzhou changed into a spare set of Xu Zezhan's clothes. Since the two men were of similar height, the clothes fit him reasonably well.

It was nearly midnight when they drove back to the hotel.

The moment he got out of the car, Fu Wenzhou asked, "Which room is Youyou in?"

Xu Zezhan replied, "8066."

Fu Wenzhou nodded and limped forward.

Xu Zezhan stood watching his receding back in wordless silence, only snapping out of it when Yun Nian spoke up. "Sorry, what did you say just now?"

Yun Nian repeated, "Where should I stay?"

Xu Zezhan turned to Fu Bei, who was standing quietly behind him. "Take him to get a room."

"Understood," Fu Bei said, and promptly led Yun Nian to the hotel front desk.

Checking the time, Xu Zezhan saw it was two in the morning. Gu Bai would already be asleep at this hour, so he decided against waking him to report that Fu Wenzhou had been found.

It wouldn't hurt to tell him tomorrow.

For now, he should let Fu Wenzhou get some proper rest.

-

The wind was howling in the pitch-black night, and all was dead silent.

Fu Wenzhou unlocked the door with his room card, but instead of rushing inside, he stood in the doorway and vigorously rubbed his face and lips until a flush of blood returned to his skin before stepping in.

The room was unlit, illuminated only by a sliver of moonlight spilling across the windowsill.

A chair sat in the corner, and Song Qingyou was curled up tightly upon it, her arms wrapped around her knees, her head buried between them. Her spine jutted out, making her look as thin as a sheet of paper.

Fu Wenzhou's footsteps froze dead in his tracks. His heart contracted violently, and an indescribable ache rolled through the depths of his chest.

He limped slowly to Song Qingyou's side and squatted down—just this simple movement was enough to drench him in cold sweat.

Yet his expression remained entirely unchanged. His thin lips parted, managing to force out a hoarse whisper only on the second attempt, "Youyou, I'm back."

Song Qingyou had actually heard the commotion, but she didn't dare raise her head. The tug-of-war between dreams and reality over the past many days had left her unable to distinguish between what was real and what was fake.

She was far too terrified of waking up to discover it was all just a dream.

Her body trembled slightly, her fingertips gripping her arms turning white with force. Terrified though she was that this might be an illusion, she still couldn't bear not to look up.

Song Qingyou recognized Fu Wenzhou's clothes; the outfit he wore did not belong to him.

She froze, and tears instantly welled up and spilled over.

Panic instantly overwhelmed Fu Wenzhou. His brows locked together fiercely as he raised a hand to gently touch her cheek, his thumb slowly brushing beneath Song Qingyou's eyelids. The teardrops were faintly cool, yet they burned all the way down to Fu Wenzhou's heart, throwing his entire being into a state of anxious distress.

He coaxed her in a low voice, "Don't cry, Youyou, don't cry."

The familiar warmth of his fingertips against her cheek finally gave Song Qingyou a semblance of reality. She desperately wanted to angrily demand where he had gone all these days, why he had dared to plunge into the Misty Forest alone, and if he had lost his mind and no longer cared about his life.

Yet the words that escaped her lips were instead, "Fu Wenzhou, did you abandon me?"

A suffocating pain gripped Fu Wenzhou's chest, his throat feeling as though it were blocked by something agonizingly sharp. He longed to pull Song Qingyou into his embrace right then and there, but in the end, he merely clenched his fists tightly, forcibly crushing down that urge.

After a long, halting pause, he finally spoke, his voice carrying a slight tremble, "How could I ever abandon you?"

Song Qingyou's wet eyelashes fluttered, the corners of her eyes flushed red. Like a rose blooming out of parched earth, she appeared both fragile and resilient. "If you wanted me, how could you vanish for over a month without a trace?"

A dull, agonizing pain ached in Fu Wenzhou's heart as he hurriedly offered a flustered explanation, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Youyou. This will never happen again. I've found Yun Fang's disciple; he can cure your illness. From now on, we can be together forever."

Tears streamed down Song Qingyou's cheeks. Her lips parted, her voice raspy, "Fu Wenzhou, you're an absolute fool."

"Yes, I'm a fool," Fu Wenzhou wiped away her tears with a heart-wrenching tenderness. "Even if I'm a fool, I'm your fool and yours alone."

Unable to hold back her emotions any longer, Song Qingyou threw herself into Fu Wenzhou's arms, hugging him tightly as she cried out, "Fu Wenzhou, there must never be a next time."

No leaving without a word. No venturing into danger alone.

There must never be a next time.

Fu Wenzhou's face paled for a fraction of a second, and his right leg twitched slightly before he quickly steadied himself. Supporting himself against a nearby ledge with his left hand, he slowly wrapped his right arm around Song Qingyou's waist. "Mn, no next time."