Still in a daze, her mother's gentle voice rang out again, "Anan, on the day it first snows, you can make a wish."
"The snow goddess will listen to you and help you realize your dreams."
Will it come true?
It did.
Suddenly, she reached out and accurately latched on to the "white snow".
Shen Juncheng frowned slightly. He wasn't used to other people touching him, so had decided to throw her off. He was about to do so when he heard her soft pleading voice, "Save me, save me…"
She tightly clutched at his sleeve, as if she was holding on for dear life.
"I don't want to die. I've only just come back… Can you save me?"
Her voice was as pitiful as the cry of a baby beast, "Snow Goddess, please save me…"
Shen Juncheng had stopped trying to flick her away. Her last sentence seemed to have overlapped with another one, buried deep in his memory.
In the cold snow, the darkness of the night was like a giant beast that devoured people, and when the darkness fell, it seemed to have no end.
A boy could be seen curled up in a similar way, as he kept on making wishes to the snow.
"Snow Goddess, please save me. I don't want to die."
Though the boy never believed in those folk legends, and even his mother had said they were rubbish, on that particular day, no one believed in them more than himself.
Because they were his only hope.
He couldn't die. He definitely couldn't die.
Hence, he stubbornly made his wish over and over again.
But no one answered.
Only the cold and cruel wind did, by blowing away his weak wish.
As he fell onto the snow, he watched as the last colors of his life faded before muttering, "Father, Mother. Cheng'er is so cold…"
When he woke up again, his eyes had been covered with a white cloth. From then on, his world lost its light.
"Guye, Guye, how is the Young Miss?!"
Hearing her Miss' muttering and begging, Cui Yan's heart ached. She ignored Yue Luo's instructions and stepped forward to anxiously ask, taking Shen Juncheng out of his reverie.
When he looked down, he saw that she was still holding on to his sleeve tightly. Just like how he held on to that handful of white snow all those years ago. On to that glimmer of hope.
Carefully. Humbly. Faithfully.
However, that handful of snow eventually melted away from his fingertips.
Shen Juncheng suddenly closed his eyes.
"It's fine. She's just got affected by the cold winds and is running a fever."
"I have a prescription of medicinal herbs left by a doctor in my room. It is very useful. Let Yue Luo take you to prepare it. You can boil them yourself. After your Young Lady takes it, she'll be fine tomorrow."
Cui Yan heaved a sigh of relief and immediately offered her thanks. She knelt down and kowtowed a few more times, then she quickly followed Yue Luo out to get the medicine ready.
When Cui Yan left, Shen Juncheng ordered Chao Sheng to get a bottle of medicine from his study.
Chao Sheng was slightly surprised. A Heart Protection Pill? Wasn't that her master's medicine? Was he intending to save her?
Chao Sheng stopped trying to guess her master's intentions and just followed his orders. She closed the door as she left.
Shen Juncheng had the urge to take back his sleeve.
However, Su Anan held on so tightly that he couldn't do it even if he tried. He frowned and gave up on doing so.
Instead, he took a small porcelain bottle and poured out a pill the size of a red bean.
He pinched Su Anan's mouth open and threw it in. Then, he raised her chin up until he saw her swallowing.
This was the antidote for the frost powder, but after taking it, he still needed to use his inner energy to activate its effects as soon as possible, because if the frost poison managed to invade her heart, saving her wouldn't be easy anymore.
Since Su Anan obviously didn't have any inner energy, she needed someone to help her do it. So he coursed his inner energy into his palms and held on to her dantian for half an hour to help her absorb the elixir. Then, he used the Qichong[1] point, Xinshu point, and the Shenshu point to promote her blood circulation and to accelerate her absorption of the elixir.
It wasn't difficult at all, but the key was that the location of one of these acupuncture points was a little inconvenient, and as he needed to be in direct contact with her dantian, he had to take out her clothing in that area.
[1] Qichong point is an acupuncture point situated in the pubic area.