Chapter 148: Sudden Downpour

Zhang Mingyang took off his coat and draped it over Bai Muqing. "Wear this for now."

Looking at the rolling mountains below their feet, Zhang Mingyang and Bai Muqing were already very close to the peak. They had observed their surroundings all the way up. Although they did not know what they were looking for, he felt certain they would find something.

"Mingyang, we're almost at the top and still haven't found a thing. We should head back now," Bai Muqing said, noticing the sky growing increasingly dark. She worried a rainstorm might strike suddenly.

"All right." Although Zhang Mingyang was reluctant to give up, with nothing to show for their journey so far and a heavy downpour looming, he had no choice but to head back and rethink their plan.

Crack!

Suddenly, a streak of lightning leaped from the clouds and exploded across the sky, instantly illuminating the earth before them.

Rumble!

Immediately following was a thunderous roar that shook their very hearts.

"Zhang Mingyang!" Startled, Bai Muqing cried out and threw herself into Zhang Mingyang's arms. "I'm scared."

Zhang Mingyang was taken aback as well. While comforting Bai Muqing, he looked down the path they had come. "Oh no, I don't think we can go back down."

As the sky grew darker, the descending path became pitch black. Venturing down under such conditions was far too hazardous; a single misstep could plunge them to the base of the mountain. Yet, if they didn't descend, standing exposed on the peak meant they might very well be struck by lightning.

Patter...

Following the thunder, raindrops began to fall.

"It's raining!" Feeling the water droplets, Bai Muqing began to reproach Zhang Mingyang. "What do we do now that it's raining? I knew I shouldn't have listened to you, this is all your fault! Now look at us—we can't go down and there's nowhere to hide from the rain."

"Okay, okay, okay! It's all my fault!" Seeing the raindrops grow heavier and more urgent, Zhang Mingyang knew he had to think of something fast.

"Wait! Right! How could I have forgotten? We need to head straight for the summit."

"The summit?" Hearing the thunder growing ever louder, Bai Muqing thought he had lost his mind. She shouted, "Are you crazy? Going to the peak in a thunderstorm like this is just asking to be struck!"

"There's a cave just below the summit where we can shelter from the rain!" Zhang Mingyang had suddenly remembered that there was a fallout shelter near the peak. He recalled Jin Yaowen mentioning it to him, though he had never been there himself.

"Then let's hurry!" Since there was a place to escape the rain, what were they waiting for? Bai Muqing took the lead and ran toward the summit.

***

At this point, they were still a little over a hundred meters from the summit. Zhang Mingyang grabbed Bai Muqing and sprinted all the way. When they were about fifty meters away, the torrential rain broke loose.

Whoosh...!

The dense raindrops instantly soaked their clothes through. Zhang Mingyang wiped the rain from his face and, braving the gale-force winds at the peak, scanned ahead. "Only thirty more meters, we're almost there."

Bai Muqing kept her head down and her body crouched low. The fierce winds at the summit blew her off balance, forcing her to rely on Zhang Mingyang to inch her way upward. "I can't hold on much longer!"

Hardly had she spoken when Bai Muqing slipped and fell. Seeing this, Zhang Mingyang grabbed her arm and pulled her back up. "Be careful. Stay right behind me and hold onto my waist."

Left with no other choice, Bai Muqing followed closely behind Zhang Mingyang, gripping his waist as they climbed.

It took them nearly ten minutes to cover those final twenty meters and reach the summit.

Up on the peak, Zhang Mingyang wiped the rain from his face and surveyed his surroundings. "We're practically at the top, so where's the cave?" Due to the weather, everything around the summit was shrouded in pitch-black gloom, and the driving rain obstructed his vision, preventing him from seeing clearly.

"Did you find it?" Bai Muqing's voice trembled as she called out. Soaked to the bone, she shivered violently while clinging to Zhang Mingyang.

"Where is it? Where is it...?" Zhang Mingyang grew anxious; unable to see his surroundings, he couldn't locate the cave. "Let's walk a little further ahead."

Shielding Bai Muqing from the wind and rain was taking a heavy toll on him as well, but as a man, he had to shelter and protect her.

"Found it!"

Through the misty blur, he spotted a pitch-black shadow. As he drew closer, he realized it truly was a cave.

"Hold on tight to me, we're almost there!" Zhang Mingyang shouted backward before groping his way toward the cave entrance.

A moment later, he caught hold of the cave's edge and scrambled inside.

The moment they stepped into the cave, the rain and fierce winds vanished instantly. Collapsing onto the floor, the two of them panted heavily. Zhang Mingyang felt a profound gratitude for having survived.

"We're finally saved!" He glanced back at Bai Muqing beside him and saw her face was pale and her entire body was trembling.

"Bai Muqing! What's wrong?" He quickly scrambled up from the floor and hurried over to her. Touching her, he found her body ice-cold, so he hurriedly helped her up and leaned her against the stone wall.

"Cold...! So... sleepy!" Bai Muqing's voice trembled as she spoke. She had been soaked in the rain for far too long.

***

"What should I do?" Seeing Bai Muqing's condition worsen, panic set in. He shook her vigorously, telling her not to fall asleep; he had seen in movies that once someone fell asleep in this state, they would never wake up again.

"What do I do? I need to think of a way right now!" Zhang Mingyang looked around and spotted some dry branches. An idea immediately struck him. "Yes! Make a fire! That can warm her up."

He hurriedly gathered dry branches from around the cave and piled them beside Bai Muqing. "Where's the fire?" After collecting a sufficient amount of wood, he suddenly realized he had no fire source. Since he didn't smoke, where would he get a lighter?

"Dammit!"

He slammed his left fist heavily against the stone wall. Without fire, Bai Muqing would struggle to survive the night.

He frantically searched his mind for another solution. "Right! The communicator can generate fire!" He suddenly remembered Old Wang telling him that the communicator possessed a laser-cutting function.

He quickly pulled out the communicator, activated the laser-cutting mode, and aimed it at the dry branches on the ground. "Buzz...!" A laser-cutting sound rang out, and the branches on the ground were instantly sliced and ignited.

"There's fire!" Seeing a tiny flame spring to life, Zhang Mingyang grew excited. He anxiously shook Bai Muqing beside him, urging her not to let herself fall asleep.

"Hoo... hoo...!" He carefully blew on the tiny flame, coaxing it to grow larger. As he added more dry branches, the small flame transformed into a roaring blaze, and the surrounding temperature gradually rose.

Zhang Mingyang hurriedly moved Bai Muqing closer to the fire so the heat could permeate her body.

"How is it? Do you feel any better?" Zhang Mingyang asked her.

"Cold... so cold!" Bai Muqing was still freezing.

"Still cold?" Zhang Mingyang continued racking his brain for another solution. "What else can I do? What now?"

"I've got it!" He recalled a scene from a movie, though this method required removing Bai Muqing's clothes.

After a brief hesitation, Zhang Mingyang decided that saving a life came first! Without a second thought, he removed Bai Muqing's wet outer clothing, then stripped off his own shirt as well. Afterward, he pulled Bai Muqing into his arms and covered them both with the clothes, intending to use his own body heat combined with the warmth of the fire to bring her temperature back up.