CHAPTER 460: CHAPTER 460: YOUNG LI (PART 1)

Seeing that Li was still asleep, Xiao Jinsheng reached out, her fingertips gently tracing the graceful brows and eyes of the person beside her pillow.

Feeling an itch on his face, Li’s long lashes fluttered, and in his attempts to evade, he buried his head directly into Xiao Jinsheng’s neck.

Xiao Jinsheng nudged him: "Stop pretending, I know you’re awake."

"I’m so sleepy, still not awake." Li answered groggily, turning his head to plant a kiss on her neck.

"Didn’t see this when we were kids." Xiao Jinsheng poked his face with a smile.

"What did you remember again?" Li flipped over in surprise, looking at her expectantly.

"I remembered everything." Watching as his long hair lay over her chest, Xiao Jinsheng didn’t brush it away.

Instead, she reminisced about those fifteen days of fleeing during childhood.

During those fifteen days, Li protected her well.

Even though he was injured, he kept hiding from the Fog Corpses with her while searching for food and water.

The food they found was scarce, and he had to coax her, pretending he wasn’t hungry.

Thinking of childhood scenes, Xiao Jinsheng’s lips curled in an attempt to smile, but no smile emerged.

Instead, a sour pain gripped her heart.

Seeing the teardrop fall from Xiao Jinsheng’s eye, Li immediately became flustered.

He quickly turned over, holding Xiao Jinsheng in his embrace, gently wiping away her tears.

"The past is past, don’t think about it anymore."

"And don’t cry."

If remembering all the memories was causing Xiao Jinsheng pain, he would rather she forgot their childhood memories.

Even without the childhood friendship, Li believed he could be with Xiao Jinsheng happily.

"Doggy..." Xiao Jinsheng buried her face in Li’s embrace, soon making him feel the dampness on his chest.

He tried everything to comfort Xiao Jinsheng.

Thinking that Xiao Jinsheng had completely recalled those fifteen days of their escape.

Moreover, Xiao Jinsheng was timid as a child and must have been terrified.

He held her tightly, gently patting her back to soothe her: "Don’t cry, don’t cry, it’s all past."

"Think about it, those Fog Corpses weren’t scary at all."

"Look, after you transformed them on Mist Continent, don’t they all look human now?"

"Are you joking?" Already immersed in the emotions of her heartache for the young Li, Xiao Jinsheng’s sobbing hitched. Combined with Li’s words, she suddenly didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry.

The Fog Corpses on Mist Continent did look good now; she had crafted them with well-used data.

But the old Fog Corpses were indeed ugly and terrifying.

Back then, she was well-protected at the Terminal shelter, and timid, that was true too.

So those fifteen days of escape were all about the young Li protecting and caring for her.

Xiao Jinsheng remembered everything completely.

After struggling through a night on the water tower, the Terminal shelter didn’t open, and the sudden thick Mist didn’t dissipate.

Fog Corpses wandered below the water tower.

But trapped on the water tower with the young Li, they had no water, no food, and no medicine.

Xiao Jinsheng didn’t want to cry, but seeing the boy’s pale, bloodless face, her tears wouldn’t stop falling.

"Doggy..."

"Come here." Seeing Xiao Jinsheng’s eyes swollen from crying, the young boy feebly called out.

Xiao Jinsheng approached Li, and the boy used the back of his relatively clean hand to wipe her cheeks again: "Hold it in, no more crying."

"Can’t... hold it in." Xiao Jinsheng wiped her tears and sobbed.

She knew she shouldn’t cry now and needed to conserve her strength.

But thinking about not having medicine now, the boy might die here because of her.

Her body couldn’t control it, and her tears kept falling uncontrollably.

"We have no water or food; hold it in now, don’t cry. When we don’t have water to drink, you can cry and drink some tears." The boy weakly suggested.

"Huh?" Xiao Jinsheng paused her hand wiping away tears.

Meeting Li’s serious gaze.

Her mind was a mess, not thinking about the rationality of lacking water while crying and whether tears could be drunk or not.

She lifted her chin, tilting her head back, trying to look at the top of the water tower.

"What are you doing?" The weak young boy was confused by her strange action.

"I’m holding back the tears," Xiao Jinsheng stretched her neck and spoke with difficulty.

The boy: ...

Forget it, as long as she’s happy.

Finally, managing to hold back the tears, Xiao Jinsheng felt capable again.

Seeing that the Terminal shelter wouldn’t open anytime soon.

If she and Li wanted to survive, they had to rescue themselves.

Xiao Jinsheng carefully approached the edge of the water tower, peering down.

The dense Mist obstructed her view; she couldn’t see the shadows of the Fog Corpses below.

But she could hear the hissing sounds from the Fog Corpses.

Hearing those sounds, Xiao Jinsheng recalled holding Li as they hid in a cardboard box, startled by a blood-drenched Fog Corpse.

She shook her head, retreated in fear, and her arm bumped into Li, who was weakly leaning against the wall.

Full of worry, Xiao Jinsheng squeezed the boy’s arm; it was icy cold and stiff.

If they couldn’t find medicine today, Li would surely die!

Thinking of this, Xiao Jinsheng gritted her teeth, listening closely again to the Fog Corpses’ hissing below the water tower.

She stealthily grabbed the metal rod the boy used to kill Fog Corpses, intending to climb down the water tower to find medicine.

She remembered some small supply stations near the Terminal shelter.

Those were places the robot Carrot occasionally visited, unknown to others at the shelter.

She knew because she liked to tag along with Carrot, and he had taken her there.

Later, after Bai Yan was rescued into the Terminal shelter by her, Xiao Jinsheng rarely had the chance to play with Carrot again.

Now that the Terminal shelter was not opening, Xiao Jinsheng thought the only way to save themselves was to go to the supply station.

To see if Carrot had stored any supplies there.

But just as Xiao Jinsheng picked up the rod and stood, she found it wouldn’t budge.

The other end was being tightly held by the young boy.

He looked at Xiao Jinsheng, obviously scared and trembling, yet ready to go down the water tower alone: "Where are you going?"

"There are supply stations around the Terminal shelter. I want to check if there’s any medicine." Xiao Jinsheng explained softly.

"Not afraid of the Fog Corpses?" The boy glanced at her.

He hadn’t forgotten the way Xiao Jinsheng had clung to him, rolling and crawling to escape from the Fog Corpses.

Because when Xiao Jinsheng rolled on the ground, as a cub, it had caused him to get a mouthful of grass.

"Not...probably not afraid." Xiao Jinsheng mumbled weakly.

Facing the boy’s calm gaze, she lost her confidence: "Shouldn’t be afraid... or just a little?"

"Pull me up." The boy took a deep breath, extending his hand to Xiao Jinsheng.

"You’re still hurt." Seeing him wanting to follow her down the water tower, Xiao Jinsheng disapproved: "You wait here, I’ll grab the medicine and come back quickly to save you."

"You go for the medicine and leave me here." The boy gave a weak smile.

"When you die outside and I die inside the water tower, even as ghosts, we won’t be reunited."

"It can’t be like that." Xiao Jinsheng muttered.

"We’ll go together." The boy Li held the other end of the rod firmly, his tone unyielding: "If we can’t live, we die together."