“Junior Huang,” Yun Ning declared, “I’ll get you through this.”
Yun Ning hoisted the young girl’s arm over his shoulder, allowing her to lean her full weight against him.
Though the posture resembled two close companions, it undeniably eased a significant portion of her burden.
However, they had barely taken two steps.
The observant Yun Ning immediately noticed Huang Xiu’s tightly furrowed brows and the cold sweat beading on her forehead.
‘This isn’t good!’
A sudden jolt went through Yun Ning’s heart as he instantly sensed something was amiss, his gaze dropping downward.
There, he saw Huang Xiu’s right ankle, once fair and delicate, now swollen grotesquely large and red, resembling nothing so much as a plump radish.
“You’ve sprained your ankle? Can you still run?” he quickly asked.
‘Nonsense,’ Huang Xiu thought, ‘who can run on a sprained ankle?’
Hearing his question, Huang Xiu couldn’t help but inwardly grumble, though she merely covered her mouth and shook her head.
“I can’t! It hurts too much.”
This was no time for bravado; the fall moments ago had severely twisted her right ankle.
Every time her foot touched the ground, a searing, piercing pain shot through her.
She was not a delicate person by nature, yet the intense agony her sensitive body now experienced made it impossible for her to persevere.
‘Damn it… if only I hadn’t transformed…’
“Shall I carry you on my back?” Yun Ning asked.
The garrison troops, who had been holding the line at the rear, now noticed Huang Xiu and Yun Ning’s predicament and decisively slowed their advance.
Brass casings clattered and scattered across the ground, mingling with the concussive blasts of grenades.
Still, they could not stem the tide-like advance of the monsters.
Their firepower was visibly waning.
‘There’s no more time to waste!’
“Good!” Huang Xiu responded, her voice firm and decisive.
Having said this, as if fearing she might second-guess herself, she mustered her remaining strength and pushed off the ground, scrambling onto his back before Yun Ning could even fully react.
“…”
With a sudden person on his back, Yun Ning felt a momentary unfamiliarity; his body dipped slightly, causing his steps to falter for a half-beat.
Huang Xiu observed all of this.
“Senior Yun, can you still carry me? If you’re out of strength, please just put me down!” she voiced her concern.
This was no attempt to provoke him; it was her genuine sentiment—she truly abhorred the thought of burdening anyone.
“It’s fine, you’re incredibly light,” Yun Ning replied, speaking the truth.
The young girl on his back felt as airy as a marshmallow, so soft and yielding that she seemed poised to be whisked away by the wind or melted by the slightest warmth.
Despite his words, given his formidable physique, he could effortlessly sprint even if he were carrying a ‘Tiger Tank.’
The only difference would be a marginal reduction in speed.
“That’s good,” Huang Xiu murmured, a faint blush spreading across her cheeks.
‘Incredibly light…’ she thought. ‘I used to weigh a full 130 jin (TL Note: A Chinese unit of weight, approximately 65 kg or 143 lbs), the perfect figure that looked slender in clothes but was well-built underneath.’
She had never imagined that the adjective ‘light’ would ever be associated with her.
‘Damn it, I turned into a girl, and now my weight is lighter too!’ Huang Xiu grumbled internally, a hint of dissatisfaction stirring within her.
“I’m going to accelerate now, Junior Huang, so you must hold on tight; I won’t be able to brace you.” Yun Ning lifted his sole remaining left hand, the implication clear.
“Mm,” Huang Xiu mumbled softly.
While she had agreed readily enough moments before, once she fully regained her senses—and her intellect descended from its temporary high ground—an inexplicable wave of shame coursed through her, numbing her from her toes to her fingertips.
Her delicate toes curled tightly against the soft soles of her shoes, and Huang Xiu wished she could retreat into her goblin lair.
This had nothing to do with gender differences; rather, it was her pride at work.
The last time she had been carried on someone’s back like this was during her childhood, playing with her father.
Ever since reaching adulthood, she had grown increasingly resistant to intimate gestures that made her feel immature.
Even when heavily intoxicated and staggering, she would force herself to walk home.
Consequently, not even her closest confidantes had ever carried her.
But today, Yun Ning had shattered that ironclad rule!
Yet, given the utter lack of alternatives today, Huang Xiu could only seethe with impotent rage and secret shame, not daring to utter a single word of complaint to Yun Ning.
She would even have to thank him, ‘Thank you, Senior Yun,’ when all was said and done.
‘Aaaargh!’ The thought sent Huang Xiu into another fit of exasperation.
‘But then again,’ she mused, ‘I’ve already turned into a girl…’
‘It seems I can’t be a goblin anymore; I can only be the saintess kidnapped by goblins.’
‘Oh no, the temperature’s rising!’ Huang Xiu’s rampant imagination was practically making her ‘redline’ (TL Note: A Chinese slang term, ‘hong wen,’ typically referring to an engine or computer overheating, here used humorously to describe her face flushing from embarrassment).
“Damn it!” the young girl swore under her breath.
After a series of deep breaths, she finally managed to shake off the suffocating wave of shame.
She had always been someone whose emotions flared quickly and subsided just as fast.
‘Hold on tight…’
Gazing at the young man’s back—not particularly broad, yet undeniably sturdy and well-proportioned—Huang Xiu found herself momentarily at a loss as to how exactly she should ‘hold on tight.’
‘This is truly the limit; it’s going to be the death of me!’
Inexperienced as she was, she literally had no idea where to place her hands.
After less than a second of contemplation, Huang Xiu gave up on finesse, opting instead to simply wrap her legs around the young man’s waist and her arms around his shoulders.
She clung to his back like a koala.
“Go ahead and run at full speed; I’m holding on tight!”
For a reason she couldn’t quite articulate, Huang Xiu dared not press her upper body fully against Yun Ning, so she spoke with her upper half slightly arched back.
“Alright!” Yun Ning had no leisure to concern himself with Huang Xiu’s discomfort at that moment, his gaze fixed solely on the path ahead.
The instant his words faded, he surged forward with explosive speed, the flagstones beneath his feet cracking and shattering under the immense force of his push-off.
Whoosh!
The scenery on either side stretched backward like a rubber band, vanishing from sight in the blink of an eye.
“So fast, so incredibly fast!”
The immense wind pressure caused Huang Xiu’s facial skin to indent, and her dark hair whipped wildly around her.
This initial burst of speed must have been at least 100 mph!
Her eyes were practically forced shut!
Huang Xiu no longer dared to keep her distance from Yun Ning; she quickly leaned her upper body closer to reduce her wind resistance.
In a flash, the two of them burst from the woods, then sped out of the school gates, turning left onto the road outside the campus.
The road was utterly deserted; there were no pedestrians, no vehicles, and even the residential buildings across the street showed no signs of light.
The entire campus, along with everything nearby, seemed to have been forgotten by the world, plunged into a dead silence.
Yun Ning seemed to have no intention of waiting for the garrison troops; he sped along the road with Huang Xiu on his back.
His speed was in no way inferior to that of a typical private car.
At such a velocity, Huang Xiu dared not move, fearing that one careless shift would send her flying off.
She clung to Yun Ning, half-crouching, half-clinging.
It was strange; even with the roaring wind in her ears, she could distinctly hear the strong, powerful beat of the young man’s heart in his chest, and catch the faint, clean scent of laundry detergent mingled with the smell of blood and sweat.
It was her favorite Blue Moon Lavender scent, and Huang Xiu didn’t dislike the smell at all.
Because it was the scent of home.
For some reason, in that moment, a profound sense of security washed over the young girl.
She comfortably squinted her eyes like a cat, leaning silently against the young man.
‘So tired… truly so tired…’ She felt herself drifting off to sleep…
Just as her consciousness was about to slip away, the faces of her roommates suddenly appeared before her eyes.
‘Ugh…’
Guan Shuai and Fang Yongyi hadn’t been rescued yet; this was no time to sleep!
Huang Xiu gently bit her tongue, instantly snapping herself back to full alertness.