**Boom!** The entire wooden cabin was blasted into smithereens.
A wave of scorching heat surged toward us, flinging Qi Qiqi and me outward. I clutched Bai Yueming tightly to my chest, twisting midair before landing on my back. Bai Yueming tumbled onto me, his earlier cries replaced by gleeful giggles as he stared at the fiery glow.
The raging flames before me felt eerily familiar, as if I’d seen them in a dream.
Qi Qiqi landed a few meters away. Clutching Bai Yueming, I scrambled toward her, finding her unconscious, her left arm drenched in blood. Parts of her hair were singed, and blood trickled down her temples. Her face was deathly pale, her breathing faint.
I propped her up, pressing hard on her philtrum, but she didn’t wake.
By then, the cabin was engulfed in roaring flames. Villagers from Xianggu Village had started fleeing past us. Someone shouted Yu Qian’s name, but when no one answered, they retreated indifferently, barely sparing a glance at me holding Qi Qiqi.
*”Don’t die… mother of my child… don’t die…”* I pleaded.
Blood seeped from Qi Qiqi’s arm, soaking half my body. Bai Yueming sniffed the metallic scent, his lips parting to reveal tiny fangs—craving blood again.
*”Mama… Mama…”* he whimpered.
I laid Qi Qiqi on the ground, pressing both hands against her chest, performing CPR. Each compression sent a sharp pang through my own heart.
*Where have I seen you before?*
*Why won’t you wake up?*
Her body grew colder under the inferno’s glow. Had we met in another life, amidst war and chaos?
An old man once told me: *Sometimes, déjà vu means you drank too little of Meng Po’s soup—or picked out the cilantro—letting fragments of past lives linger. A stray dog wagging its tail at you? Maybe in another life, you smiled at it through a doorway, and now it repays you with companionship.*
Minutes ticked by. If she didn’t wake within fifteen, she never would.
I compressed harder, then pinched her nose, breathing into her mouth.
*Were her lips always this cold?*
**Cough!**
Suddenly, Qi Qiqi gasped, propping herself up with a weak chuckle. *”Xiao Qi… why are you crying?”*
I yanked her into a crushing embrace. *”You’re alive! You’re alive—that’s all that matters!”*
*”Ow! You’re hurting me!”* she yelped.
At the creek, I cleaned and bandaged her wounds. She scowled at her charred hair, borrowing my knife to hack it short. *”When it grows back, who’ll marry me now?”*
The shorn locks floated downstream as Bai Yueming quieted.
Her injuries weren’t severe—just knocked unconscious by the blast. But now, fever set in.
*”I almost met Yama,”* she rasped. *”Then I heard you calling, cursed him out, and came back.”*
*”Quit the ghost stories,”* I scoffed. *”If I hadn’t—”*
She cut me off, eyeing Bai Yueming. *”Someone took advantage of me while I was out.”*
I flushed but didn’t argue. *”That didn’t count. Want a do-over?”*
She shoved my face away. *”Pervert.”*
By dawn, the fire had died. Searching the ruins, I found no trace of Zuo Shan—he’d tricked us.
The smoked pork legs, though charred, were edible beneath the crust. With salt scavenged from the kitchen, we ate our fill, packing the rest in leaves for the journey.
Qi Qiqi, pale but uncomplaining, kept pace as we trekked uphill—avoiding leeches—into the jungle. I foraged herbs for her wounds, watching tropical bats flit overhead.
*”Scars don’t matter,”* she joked. *”Not like I’m marrying anyone.”*
*”Want me to?”* I teased. *”I’ve got no house, car, or money.”*
She laughed. *”Relax. I didn’t ask.”*
We freed rabbits after Bai Yueming drank their blood, camping at dusk on a boulder warded by snakes.
But by midnight, Qi Qiqi burned with fever, muttering: *”Dad… no… I want freedom…”*
Her wound festered. Without penicillin, she’d die.
Carrying her and Bai Yueming, I followed my compass until voices echoed below—**Zeng Jie and Ruan Nan**, stranded with a broken jeep.
*”Keep hitting him,”* I ordered Ruan Nan, gun drawn. *”Your master tried to vaporize me.”*
Slaps rained until Zeng Jie’s face was *unrecognizable*.
*”Deal?”* I offered Ruan Nan. *”Team up against Zuo Shan?”*
*”Done,”* he agreed.
With Qi Qiqi loaded in the repaired jeep, we sped toward dawn—where Little Scoundrel waited at the nameless village’s edge.
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