Transmigrating into the world of Jade Dynasty, I was targeted by the female lead in a reverse romanc

Falling.

The wind howled in my ears, growing colder and stronger.

Before me lay boundless darkness, so thick it was impenetrable, that I couldn't even make out the faces of people so close to me.

Only the warmth and strength from another person emanating from my left wrist were so clear they sent shivers down my spine.

Jiang Xiaochuan pulled hard and drew Lu Xueqi into his arms.

He wrapped his arms around her, turned his body slightly so that his back was down and his face was up.

The only light overhead, the white light from the giant rock in the Abyss of the Dead, was rapidly shrinking and receding, eventually becoming a tiny white dot before disappearing completely.

Only darkness remained, utter, pure darkness, as if even time had stood still.

The feeling of falling was strange. At first, it was weightlessness, my heart was in my throat, and then I slowly became numb. The wind was whistling in my ears, and then it seemed to gradually fade away.

Only the warmth of her body in his arms and the somewhat disordered breathing of the two of them intertwined were the only real things in this boundless darkness.

Lu Xueqi seemed to move slightly. Her face rested against the crook of his neck, her breath brushing against his skin, warm and carrying a very faint smell of blood.

"...Fool." The voice was very soft, almost torn apart by the wind.

Jiang Xiaochuan didn't hear clearly, or rather, he heard clearly but didn't understand.

He lowered his head, his chin brushing against her slightly damp temples.

"What?"

Lu Xueqi didn't answer. She just buried her face even closer to his shoulder and wrapped her arms around his waist tightly, like a drowning person grabbing onto a piece of driftwood.

After a while, just when Jiang Xiaochuan thought she had fainted, her voice rang out again, low and faint, with a hint of something else, neither quite right nor quite right:

"...Didn't we say that if anyone falls down, you shouldn't follow them down?"

Jiang Xiaochuan was stunned for a moment. He remembered that he had said something like that on the platform. He opened his mouth, wanting to say something, such as "the situation is urgent" or "we can't just watch you fall," but when the words came to his lips, he felt that they were meaningless.

Finally, he just grunted an "Mmm" and tightened his grip on her arm.

In the darkness, he felt Lu Xueqi laugh very lightly, her breath brushing against his neck, making him feel a little ticklish.

"...That's nice," she said again, her voice even softer, as if she were talking in her sleep.

What's so good about it? Jiang Xiaochuan wanted to ask, what's so good about falling down together and dying together?

But he didn't ask. He just held her, feeling the softness and warmth of her body in his arms, and the clear, heavy, and persistent pounding beneath the coldness of her left chest.

Thump, thump, thump. Not fast, but each thud was powerful, making him a little dizzy, yet strangely reassuring.

The fall seemed endless, as was the darkness. Time became blurred, and Jiang Xiaochuan began to feel cold—not from the wind outside, but from a chill that seeped into his bones.

The Blood-Devouring Bead was cold, and so were the Soul-Seizing Bones. Normally, he could still bear it, but now, in this darkness and eerie wind that seemed to freeze his soul, the chill seeped out from the depths of his bone marrow, making him shiver uncontrollably.

The person in his arms seemed to sense something. Lu Xueqi stirred and raised her head. In the darkness, he couldn't see her face, but he could feel her breath so close to his.

"Cold?" she asked.

"A little," Jiang Xiaochuan said honestly.

Lu Xueqi was silent for a moment, then she loosened her arms around his waist and fumbled to untie the belt of her outer robe. Her movements were somewhat clumsy, not easy in the ever-falling darkness.

"What are you doing?" Jiang Xiaochuan asked in astonishment.

Lu Xueqi did not answer.

She simply tore open one side of her robe, then hugged him again, wrapping most of his body with the open robe, still warm from her body. Her own arms wrapped around him from outside the robe, tightly binding them together.

Warmth enveloped her instantly, not just the warmth of her robes, but also the warmth of her body, transmitted through the thin clothing, carrying with it her cool, refreshing scent mixed with a faint fragrance and the smell of blood.

Jiang Xiaochuan was stiff all over. He felt his face burning, even though his body was still cold.

He wanted to say "You don't need to do this," and "You'll catch a cold," but his throat felt blocked, and he couldn't utter a single word. Only his left chest was being pounded harder and faster, making his eardrums buzz.

Lu Xueqi rested her face on his shoulder, her voice calm, as if she were saying something perfectly ordinary: "This way, it'll be warmer."

Jiang Xiaochuan didn't speak. He slowly relaxed, letting the warmth envelop his cold body.

He gently rested his chin on the top of her head, inhaling the faint scent of soap in her hair. The wind was still howling, the darkness was still heavy, and the fall was still continuing, but at this moment, it didn't seem so scary anymore.

"Will we fall to our deaths?" he suddenly asked. His voice drifted slightly in the wind.

Lu Xueqi remained silent for a while.

"Maybe."

Are you scared?

"...A little."

She paused, her voice lowering slightly, "But with you, it seems... I'm not so scared anymore."

Something inside Jiang Xiaochuan felt like it had been gently bumped.

It tasted sour, soft, and carried a strange, fluttering sensation.

He wanted to say something, but racked his brains and couldn't find the right words. In the end, he just tightened his arms and held her even more tightly in his embrace.

"Hmm," he responded softly.

He continued falling for a long time, so long that Jiang Xiaochuan began to doubt whether the abyss had any bottom at all, so long that the cold and exhaustion in his body gradually accumulated, and his consciousness began to become somewhat blurred.

The person in her arms suddenly stirred. Lu Xueqi's voice carried a barely perceptible weakness: "...I think I'm a little dizzy."

Jiang Xiaochuan's heart tightened. He remembered that she had been injured before and had forcibly activated Tianya to fight against Shanhe Fan. Her energy must have been greatly depleted. In this cold and icy abyss, she probably couldn't hold on.

"Don't sleep," he said hurriedly, his voice rising involuntarily. "Xueqi, don't sleep, talk to me."

Lu Xueqi seemed to give a soft "hmm," but her breathing weakened considerably. She leaned on his shoulder, her body slightly limp.

This person... is really stupid. He was injured, and he didn't know what dangers were below, so why... did he jump down?

She felt a pang of sadness, and then a burning sensation, as if something scalding hot had melted in her chest, coursing through her limbs and making her fingertips numb and her eyes hot.

She suddenly remembered that night at Rainbow Bridge, when he smiled and said to her, "With no woman in your heart, you will naturally be a god when you draw your sword."

fraud.

She shifted slightly, burying her face deeper into his embrace, drawing in the faint but real warmth. Her nose was filled with the mixture of blood, moisture, and a clean, crisp scent emanating from him.

That's fine, she thought vaguely.

It's better that we fall together like this.

If I were to die like this... I would have someone to accompany me on my journey to the underworld, and I would no longer have to look at his always evasive eyes, or wonder if he truly cared for me.

On the verge of losing consciousness, Lu Xueqi used her last bit of clarity to think: It's a pity I haven't heard him say it himself... say that he likes me. But it's better this way. If he had said it, I'm afraid I would have been even more greedy, wanting more, wanting a lifetime. Now that we're falling together, disappearing together, he will always be mine, and no one can take him away.

She gently pressed this somewhat dark yet undeniably real thought deep into the recesses of her heart, and then, with her last ounce of strength, very softly but very clearly, whispered three words in his ear:

"……be mine."

She tried to open her eyes wide to see his face again, but all she could see was a blur of blackness, the sound of his heartbeat in her ears, and the arms tightly wrapped around her waist—all so real.

With her last bit of strength, she gently hugged him back—a very light gesture.

Then, everything went completely black.

In the boundless darkness, only the howling wind and two hearts, clinging tightly together, fall together into the unknown abyss remain.