Chapter 114 — Breakout

It took no time at all for the two starving souls to make short work of that rabbit. The first full meal in many days was a true delight. Bili found a small mountain stream, and the two of them washed up at the water's edge, and before they knew it both were feeling drowsy. Small wonder: deep in that mountain belly their nerves had been strung taut the whole time, as though they walked always on the knife's edge between life and death, and now that they were out, with the whole body relaxed, the weariness came surging up.

Bili was the first to give in; she lay down and slept on a small patch of green lawn beside the stream. Zhang Qingyue felt drowsy too, and lay down at her side, but the sunlight was warm and gentle upon them, and he could not help turning his head to look at Bili. After washing, her hair was still a little tousled, but her face was once more as it had been at their first meeting, white as jade, her skin finer than snow, so delicate it seemed it would yield to a breath. Her eyes were closed now, and she lay there quietly; a light breeze came and stirred the tips of her hair, which caught the sunlight and gave off a soft radiance.

Suddenly, in her deep sleep, Bili seemed to see something; her brows drew faintly together, and her right hand reached out as if by habit and took hold of Zhang Qingyue's shoulder, and she nestled close against his side. Then a faint smile touched the corners of her lips, and just so she slept on, at peace.

Zhang Qingyue was struck dumb. Yet gazing at that face—slightly wan, and still so beautiful—he could not for the life of him find the courage to move her hand away. He lay there without stirring, and little by little drowsiness rose in him too; his eyes closed, and it was as though he had forgotten the whole matter, as though it were the most natural thing in the world, and he slept, at peace.

The breeze in the woods still blew gently on, passing over the treetops, over the green leaves, over the quietly flowing stream, raising faint ripples, and at last it brushed across the bodies of these two young people.