I calmed down and looked ahead, they were still swaying on the small road. They were very clever, guarding the only way to the village. And I lowered my head to look at my phone, still no signal.

  I closed my eyes and thought for a while.

  I turned around and gently parted the grass with my hands, running towards the direction of Chen's house.

  At this moment, there is no one on guard under the Chen family building. All the curtains of all windows are pulled up tightly, as if it were a dead house. No one would think that something was happening in this house, and no one would notice at all.

  I crouched behind the railing, looked up at the roof, but couldn't see Tan Jiao anywhere. I quietly flipped over and started climbing up along the ventilation pipe and air conditioner. It was just that my climb was exceptionally slow and sluggish, and I heard my own blood dripping onto the pipe. I made it to Tan Jiao's side.

  Finally, I exhausted all my strength and climbed to the top of the three-story building. The rooftop was empty and desolate, with no one in sight. Only a bright moon shone above my head. My heart sank as I saw the two people below on the small road, who had turned back and were returning. They probably couldn't find me and were coming back to report. I lay flat on the rooftop, quietly waiting for them to enter the house.

  "Tan Jiao..." I called out in a very low voice, and only after the words left my mouth did I realize that my throat was hoarse as if it had been shattered.

  She suddenly appeared, poking her head out from the other side of the beam on the roof. Under the bright moonlight, I saw her clearly, with disheveled long hair, a face covered in dust and soot, and eyes full of tears. My chest shook violently as I pulled her into my arms at once.

  "Your body... your body..." Her voice was trembling. I couldn't hold back any longer, lowering my head to continuously kiss the hair beside her temple, saying: "I... I'm fine, are you scared?"

  "Hmm..." She reached out to touch my wound, and I shuddered all over. Her fingers were stained with blood as she covered her face, desperately trying not to cry out loud. At that moment, however, a softness suddenly filled my heart, as if a huge boulder had fallen off my chest, making the crisis below seem less urgent. I hugged her tightly and leaned against the rooftop, smiling.

  She looked at me with a pale face, but her voice was unusually soft: "You're still smiling?"

  "Hmm." I said, "Almost didn't make it back alive to you."

  She remained silent for a while, then lifted her head and gently kissed my cheek. I didn't say anything, nor did she. Her lips were incredibly soft, like a small animal lightly brushing against my face. It seemed as though the moonlight above was falling onto her gentle eyes. There was a blood stain on my lips, which also stained her face. She raised her hand to wipe away the blood and asked me in a low voice, "What should we do now?"

  A gust of cold wind blew, and we were only wearing our indoor clothes. I touched her hand, which had already been frozen to ice-cold. And I also felt a strong chill spreading through my limbs. If we stayed like this for any longer, even if no one found us, we would probably freeze to death.

  I lowered my head, above Chen's three-story building, there was another small storage attic. The windows there were pitch black, without any movement.

  I looked at Tan Jiao, she grasped my hand tightly.

  With her support, I slowly crawled through the window, using my last bit of strength to lie down on the floor. She also jumped in, fortunately the attic was high and in a dark corner, far from the first floor, so no one noticed the commotion.

  We were surrounded by piles of debris, with only a narrow space for the two of us to stay. I had already felt my whole body's strength was exhausted, my head was dizzy and dizzy, wave after wave of heat came, I didn't know when I would lose consciousness.