Chapter 1124 — Valentine's Day Special: Xiao Ning's Story, Part 9

Among the wolves there was plainly a leader. It gave a single cry to the pack, and the beasts began closing in on the cave together.

Wei Zhao was startled. He had not expected the pack to be organized. Having earlier seen two wolves at odds with each other, he had assumed these vicious creatures had simply drifted together of their own accord.

"Awooo—" The lead wolf let out a shrill, mournful howl.

"Get behind me!" Wei Zhao drew a deep breath. He could not abandon Xiao Ning. She was the one he had been charged to protect, but even if she were not, given what had passed between them, he could never turn his back on her.

"Mm..." Frightened as she was, Yu Ning rose at his words and hid behind him. "You'll protect me, won't you?"

Wei Zhao nodded.

Yu Ning smiled faintly and wrapped her arms around him from behind. Such a bold move was something she would never have dared in ordinary times, yet today it came to her naturally. In a place like this, one could do things one would never dare to do otherwise.

Wei Zhao could not help but smile bitterly. With Yu Ning clinging to his back, he had no way to deal with the wolves charging toward them, and both of them would be trapped. At the thought, he said to her, "Let go of me!"

"No!" Yu Ning thought he meant to drive her away and shook her head stubbornly.

Wei Zhao was taken aback, then resigned. He could only turn around, pull her brusquely into his arms, and support her by the hips so that she sat cradled against him. Holding Yu Ning with one arm was no great feat for him; a weight like that was nothing at all.

This way, though she was still a burden of sorts, he had freed one hand and both legs, enough to deal with the wolves' attack.

Yu Ning was badly startled by his sudden move, yet her heart brimmed with sweetness. So when he told her to let go, it was because he wanted to hold her himself.

Wei Zhao had no time to explain. The pack had already rushed in.

"Close your eyes!" he said to Yu Ning, and then he struck.

Dealing with wild beasts was nothing to Wei Zhao. As a boy, he had often gone up the mountain with Er Gou Dan to hunt game; the two of them had punched wild boars and kicked wolves, rampaging across the slopes and sweeping all before them. A few wolves were beneath his notice.

And the reason he told Yu Ning to close her eyes was that he did not want to frighten her. He was about to unleash slaughter, and it would be far bloodier than what had come before.

Howls and screams of agony rose and fell in waves. One starving wolf after another crashed to the ground or against the cave walls, dead where it fell. In the blink of an eye, more than half the pack lay dead or wounded. At last the lead wolf could hold no longer; it gave a great howl and led the survivors in a swift retreat from the cave, and in a moment they were gone without a trace.

To them, Wei Zhao was a natural predator, an existence they could never overcome. To stay was only to die. If not now, when would they flee?

"All right, you can open your eyes now," Wei Zhao said.

"Is it over?" Yu Ning opened her eyes and saw the cave strewn with wolf carcasses. She gave a start. "You killed them all?"

"Some got away." Had he wished to finish them all off, it would have been no trouble; it was only that holding Yu Ning made him a little clumsy in his movements, and so he had let the pack go.

In truth, Wei Zhao bore these wolves no grudge. They had come for him purely by instinct, and he could not stoop to the level of a pack of beasts. What he had killed was enough to feed him and Yu Ning for days; there was no need to slaughter them all.

"I knew it. You'd risk your life to protect me!" Yu Ning said happily, a sweet smile on her face.

"If you died, I'd have a hard time answering for it." Wei Zhao understood what she meant, but he could not let things run their course. That was all he could say.

Yu Ning's expression dimmed. She pressed her lips together and in the end said nothing.

Wei Zhao set Yu Ning down on the ground. Though she clung to his neck and would not let go, he simply crouched there, showing not the slightest intention of holding her any longer.

Yu Ning was not about to yield either, and stayed frozen on him just like that. For an ordinary person, holding such a half-crouch was no easy thing; within moments the legs would ache. But for Wei Zhao it was nothing, far easier than the horse stances he had held as a boy.

In the end, Yu Ning could hold out no longer and was the first to give in, sliding down from him. "You're heartless!" she complained.

Wei Zhao said nothing. He turned and went to deal with the wolf carcasses in the cave, piling them together.

"I... I need to relieve myself..." Yu Ning said suddenly.

"Oh. Then I'll go out." Wei Zhao turned and headed for the mouth of the cave.

"No, I want to go outside. This is where we live," Yu Ning said.

"Oh. Then you go out, and I'll stay inside and not come out." Wei Zhao turned and walked back into the cave.

"But I'm scared. Come with me!" Yu Ning's state of mind was much like that of any girl in her rebellious teens. The more Wei Zhao avoided her, the more unwilling she became to let it go, and the less she cared about anything else, growing bolder by the moment.

"It's fine. You can just gouge out their eyeballs and pop them under your feet." Wei Zhao could not resist a teasing remark.

"Huh?" Yu Ning was stunned for a moment, then recalled her own bold declaration. She had not expected that the words she had muttered to herself so softly had actually reached Wei Zhao's ears. She felt a flush of embarrassment, but on second thought, so what if he had heard? She had been forward and bold enough already; she was not afraid of what he might think. So she said, "I meant you kill them first, and then I'll pop them."

"..." Wei Zhao was speechless. There was sometimes no reasoning with a girl. "Then let's go. I won't look at you."

Yu Ning frowned and said nothing. She rather wished he would steal a glance at her. It would be embarrassing, yes, but at least it would prove he was interested in her.

Once outside the cave, Yu Ning found a spot beneath a tree root, undid her trousers, and relieved herself. The trickling sound made her blush. She glanced sidelong at Wei Zhao not far off, only to find him staring fixedly in the opposite direction...

This left Yu Ning somewhat disappointed. Did he truly feel nothing for her at all?

In truth, it was not that Wei Zhao felt nothing, but that he felt a great deal. The sounds Yu Ning made in particular set his heart racing. He wanted to turn and look, but he could not.

For the fastest updates, read without pop-ups at.