He didn't make a move, however.
One had to admit, the man was somewhat of a gentleman, possessing a sliver of conscience.
She couldn't bring herself to ignore him either.
Returning to sit beside Qing Muyye in a huff, her pale face was tinged with a hint of red from excessive anger, making her fair cheeks appear even more charming.
Qing Muyye had taken in the scene. "Since you're angry, why did you help him?" he asked gently.
When the masked man appeared, Qing Muyye had intended to eliminate him immediately. But Meng Jingwei's words and actions had shown him that she was a woman with her own mind, and he shouldn't interfere with her affairs.
Unless... she couldn't handle it.
This was out of basic respect for Meng Jingwei.
"Hmph, he... forget it. I'm so hungry, dwelling on him is a waste of my life."
Meng Jingwei snatched a skewer of roasted meat from Qing Muyye's hand in a fit of pique. In her haste to eat, she burned her mouth on the searing meat. "It's so hot, damn it!"
With various matters piling up, she was feeling quite frayed.
Her demeanor was akin to a little sister next door who had suffered great injustice, leaving one unsure whether to laugh or cry.
Qing Muyye took the skewer of roasted meat from her hand, cut off a piece with his dagger, skewered it on the tip, blew on it, and then offered it to her mouth. "Here."
Famished, Meng Jingwei bit into it without much thought, her expression instantly stiffening. Frowning, she looked at Qing Muyye. "It's... so bad."
Without salt, it certainly lacked flavor, but this roasting was truly awful.
"It's that bad?"
Qing Muyye raised an eyebrow, took a bite to taste it, and his dark, ink-like brows furrowed.
The meat was tough, with a burnt taste, and even bloody inside, burnt outside and raw within.
A rare hint of embarrassment flickered across the man's exquisitely handsome face.
"Qing Muyye, are you only capable of making congee?"
Recalling their time together previously, including the day after they arrived on the mountain, he had always served her congee.
Congee, and nothing but congee.
It seemed he hadn't cooked anything else.
Meng Jingwei saw through the truth with a single glance. Qing Muyye's gaze flickered. "Fine, don't eat it then."
His silence made Meng Jingwei realize instantly that Qing Muyye truly couldn't cook, only congee!
"Well... actually, you're so busy with work, it's already good that you can make congee. Yes, it's good."
Meng Jingwei said perfunctorily, then quietly took the roasted meat from Qing Muyye's hand and began to gnaw on it.
Even though the meat was undercooked, she was starving and needed sustenance. She could only endure the fishy, burnt taste and chew a few mouthfuls.
Despite her hunger, one had to admit...
It was truly... incredibly awful!
She swore that poison wouldn't taste this bad.
"Ugh... ugh..."
After forcing herself to eat a few bites, Meng Jingwei couldn't help but retch.
Seeing this, Qing Muyye's expression darkened like the bottom of a pot, yet he also felt a pang of concern for her.
"If it's that bad, don't eat it."
Qing Muyye snatched the roasted meat from her hand and handed her the pistol. "Take this. I'll go find something for you."
With that, he cast a warning glance at the masked man and got up to leave.
"Hey, where are you going?"
Seeing Qing Muyye about to leave, Meng Jingwei's sense of security instantly vanished.
Yet, she was entirely unaware of her growing reliance on Qing Muyye.
The man left without looking back. Meng Jingwei called out, "Qing Muyye, you're not going to abandon me and leave on your own, are you?"
Could this man be planning to abandon her because she had made him feel his dignity was wounded by vomiting from his cooking?
Hearing this, Qing Muyye's steps halted. The words, "You're not going to abandon me and leave on your own, are you?" echoed and spun in his mind.
The words, tinged with helplessness and pity, stirred the softest part of the man's heart, causing it to clench.
A faint smile bloomed in his obsidian-like beautiful eyes. "Silly girl, what are you thinking?"
His smile was exceedingly gentle, radiating an unconcealable affection.
Such hidden tenderness was something a "tough girl" like Meng Jingwei couldn't comprehend.
"That's more like it. Regardless, you're my brother. If you dare to ditch me, I'll complain to Grandma as soon as we get out."
She pouted, issuing a warning.
In her past life, Meng Jingwei must have been an iron tree to be so oblivious and spoil the mood.
Hearing her words, the gentle smile on Qing Muyye's face instantly froze, then visibly darkened.
Sensing the change in his expression, Meng Jingwei's heart tightened. "Hey, Qing Muyye, are you... are you really going to leave me? Then, then, then... that won't do."
If God had finally opened a door for her, only to seal it again, she would have nowhere to cry.
Thinking this, Meng Jingwei panicked.
She immediately stood up from the ground, scurried to Qing Muyye's front, grabbed his sleeve, and pouted pitifully. "I was just kidding. It's not actually that bad, just a tiny bit... a tiny bit of that fishy, burnt taste. Everything else is great. It's like... like how foreigners like their rare, bloody steaks. It's actually quite good. But I'm a bumpkin from the countryside, so I'm not used to this way of eating, hehe."
Heaven knew how many brain cells she had to rack to come up with such an explanation to grudgingly save his face for Qing Muyye!
Having grown accustomed to Meng Jingwei's duplicity, Qing Muyye should have pushed her away.
But at this moment, the little woman's face was dirty, her shoulder-length hair slightly messy, and her clothes smeared with mud, looking as disheveled as a mischievous child who had crawled out of a mud pit. It was both infuriating and amusing.
More than anything...
Her desperate desire to survive and her pitiable lack of security touched the man's heart.
Qing Muyye gazed down at Meng Jingwei, his unfathomably deep, cool eyes shifting from indifference to reluctance, then to heartache...
This emotional shift happened so quickly that Meng Jingwei couldn't detect it.
"Qing Muyye, don't be angry. I was just joking."
To Meng Jingwei, Qing Muyye was a lifeline. Her strong survival instinct prevented her from daring to offend him further.
After all, she still had too many things she couldn't let go of. She didn't want to die, and she dared not die.
She could only tightly "grasp" Qing Muyye to secure more chances of survival.
In the past, the little woman had shown him a thousand faces, sometimes aloof; sometimes wild; sometimes obsequious...
She was unpredictable, yet her insincerity was palpable.
But now, she was disheveled and pitiful, alone and helpless, much like a child afraid of being abandoned. After enduring immense pain and fear, her sense of security had greatly diminished, and even her last bastion of comfort was gradually being destroyed.
This "forced" her to shed her facade and reveal her vulnerability to him.
Qing Muyye's brow furrowed slightly, his face, peerlessly handsome, filled with heartache.
The next moment, he couldn't help but pull her into his embrace, holding her tightly.
He held her shoulders, carefully avoiding the wound on her arm. He simply held her, showing no aversion to her dirtiness. His so-called "cleanliness" had vanished entirely at this moment.