Chapter 270 - 268. What Is This Feeling?

Third-person POV

Zhang Wei was free-falling into the endless cliff without any restraint from himself which caused the speed to increase in every second.

Zhang Wei closed his eyes and reminisced a piece of memory that he held dearly since he was a baby. It was a pair of hands that were as warm as the gentle sun, gently holding both him and his twin sister with her trembling hands.

Although he couldn't remember how her expression was at that time but he could feel the unconditional love radiating from her glassy eyes.

"Mother…" Zhang Wei whispered softly.

Remembering the figure who risked her life for him and his sister, he opened his eyes and tried to think of a way to lessen the impact with the water surfaces. He didn't know how deep the river was if it was shallower than he calculated then he would instantly die if his head hit the bottom surface.

He stretched out his left hand and a purple flame shot out from his palm caused his body to shift slightly to the right. He did this a few times until he made sure that the landing position was correct.

Then he twisted his body to face downwards, he summoned his halberd with his left hand and easily spun a two times longer than his body halberd only with his fingers.

Water started to build up in every spin that he made and slowly but surely the water tornado became comparable with the waterfall behind him.

Zhang Wei held his breath as he waited for the right time to strike. After the distance between him and the water surfaces lessened, he saw that the anatomy of the river was more complicated than it seems.

Even though the river was very deep, yet the giant-sized rocks were scattered all over the river which means there no safe landing area in the river.

Seeing that the distance was perfect for him to unleash the water that he had been acc.u.mulating while he was in the air, Zhang Wei growled and swung his halberd on the water.

"GRAAHHH!"

*CLANG

"What happened?!" Tao Qi dashed to Hong er's side.

Then he saw a deep cut on Hong er's finger, the cut was so deep that he could see her bone.

"How can you be so clumsy!" Tao Qi angrily guided Hong er to sit on a stool.

He gently wiped the blood that was pouring out from the cut. He wrapped a clean cloth around the cut and went to a shelf to look for a herb that can heal the wound. But since recently Hong er rarely got injured, he didn't buy any herb as it would be dried out and became a waste of effort for buying it.

Tao Qi took Hong er's uninjured right hand and wrote using his finger, 'Stay here, I will descend the mountain and buy you some medicine. I will be back at dawn.'

Hong er slightly nodded her head but Tao Qi knew that her mind was somewhere else. He chose to ignore it and went out to a nearby town to buy herbs.

Hong er sat dazedly as she pressed her wounded finger. She was cooking dinner for Tao Qi and herself when her heart suddenly stopped for a second. The knife that she was holding accidentally slit her fingers and caused her to drop her knife.

The wound throbbed yet the pain couldn't compare to the anxiousness in her heart. Her non-existence eyes started to tear up however it was blood that was staining her white blindfold.

'Why…How…someone called me 'mother'…' Hong er cluelessly looked around even though knowing that only darkness met her eyes.

Hong er clenched her chest as the anxiousness didn't subside. After a few seconds of pondering, Hong er made up her mind to pursue her instinct and ignored Tao Qi's warning to stay inside the cave.

She took the long wooden stick that was laying beside her and left the cave by using her intuition as her guide.

.

.

After almost half an hour of wandering aimlessly, Hong er's breathing was as stable as if she didn't even exert any energy. She could tell that the sun had set by the cold breeze that brushed over her pale skin.

Yet, she didn't show any sign of giving up. She kept moving towards the place that was pulling her heart. She hit the ground and her surroundings with the wooden stick in her hand to detect any holes or trees so that she wouldn't stumble onto any of those.

One hour had passed by, however, she hadn't found the source of her anxiety. The anxiety grew in every second that she wasted.

'What is this? The feeling of lost…no…it hasn't gone yet, it is dying. I have to find it as soon as possible or else…' Hong er's thought stopped at that moment.

'Or else what? What is this thing has to do with me that I am so desperate?' Beads of cold sweat built up on Hong er's forehead as she asked herself.

Hong er frowned and swung her palm across her cheek. 'What are you thinking at this time?! I have to focus!'

The second she slapped herself out of her daze, she noticed that there was something tugging on the hem of her skirt. She looked down even though knowing that she couldn't see anything besides darkness.

"…help…" A weak whisper escaped from the boy's mouth.

Little did he know, she was unable to hear any of his plea. He kept whispering 'help' without letting go of the only ray of hope that he got.

Hong er threw her stick away and immediately kneeled on the ground to support the pitiful creature. She gently touched the boy and felt his body, she figured out that it was a human and a child to make it worse.

The short breath that brushed over her skin made her face paler than snow. With her trembling hand, she tried to place the boy on her back so that she could piggyback him back to the cave where she lives.

However, the boy's arms kept dropping from her shoulder and made her difficult to walk stably with one of her hand holding on her wooden stick.

"Aghhuughh..uhh" Hong er incoherently babbled while pointing her shoulder.

The boy lifted his heavy eyelids when he heard the incomprehensible noises that came out from the woman. He saw her pointing at her shoulder and made a few simple signals that he more or less understood.

He circled his arms around Hong er's neck and leaned his aching head on the crook of her neck.

"…so tired…" this was the last words that left his lips before he passed out on the back of the stranger.

Although Hong er had never met any human for nearly 14 years, she couldn't understand why she was so fond of the boy that she risked her own safety in order to help him.

It didn't took her too long to arrive back at her cave as she left a faint scent along the way therefore she wouldn't lose herway back. She always smeared a certain herb paste on to the end of her wooden stick, thus the herb's scent would linger on places that she hit with the wooden stick.

As soon as she entered the cave, she smiled guiltily and walked pass the other boy that grumpily stood at the entrance of the cave without paying a single heed to his piercing glares.

She carefully placed the boy on her clean bed and swiftly filled a basin with hot and cold water until the temperature was suitable for children's bodies.

With her high-sensitivity skin, Hong er managed to wipe off the dried blood on the boy's body and helped him change his blood-stained clothes with one of Tao Qi's clothes that she handmade.

Tao Qi furrowed his brows as Hong er had been acting like he didn't exist. He approached her and lightly tapped her shoulder.

But before he could say anything, Hong er interrupted him by asking him to bring her a grinder and certain herbs. Sensing that Tao Qi didn't move an inch from his spot, Hong er sighed and gave him an apologetic smile.

Tao Qi groaned and stomped his way to the shelf where the newly bought herbs were stored. He walked back to Hong er's side and took her hand.

'You grind the herb, I will apply the paste. You can't see the wound.' Tao Qi wrote a short explanation

Hong er nodded and started to do her task.

.

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A deep line appeared on Zhang Wei's forehead ass he growled in his sleep. His body was so heavy as if there was a huge boulder on top of him.

The pain from the wounds that he got from fighting the man-made his body covered in a cold sweat. And to make it worse, the nightmare of seeing his twin little sister and Bing Wen got killed in front of him haunted him since the time he closed his eyes.

But every time he almost fell into the dark pit of agony, a touch that was filled with love tranquilized his anxiousness without him even realizing it. The touch was as gentle as the falling snow yet as warm as the sun in the evening.

Zhang Wei never truly experienced the so-called motherly love that his teacher talked about when his teacher was teaching him a subject about filial piety.

Although Meiyun treated him like her own son, still, she wasn't his biological mother. In return, Zhang Wei and Rong Ai highly respected Meiyun as their foster mother for everything that Meiyun had done for them.

Everyone around him always told him that his mother was still alive somewhere out there. But after living his whole life motherless, he just hoped that his mother would just rest in peace beside the Goddess of Light.