The old chieftain’s after-dinner drinks hit pretty hard, and even though Yan Qi could usually hold his liquor, he ended up slightly tipsy. Taking advantage of Cheng Xu’s good mood, Yan Qi clung to him again, and then spent the whole night holding him tightly.

He even started to wish they could stay there a few more days because as long as they remained, Cheng Xu couldn’t possibly escape. With Cheng Xu in his arms and after a satisfying round of love-making, Yan Qi fell into a deep sleep. It took nearly a minute of his wrist communicator vibrating intensely to wake him up.

Yan Qi, still groggy, absentmindedly tapped on the communicator screen, and a voice came through, “Young master, Young Master Yan, are you sleeping? I have something very important to tell you!”

The urgency in the voice snapped Yan Qi to a bit more alertness as he yawned and felt Cheng Xu stir in his arms. He covered Cheng Xu’s ears with one hand and pressed the communicator to his ear with the other, replying grumpily, “This better be important!”

On the other end, Li An urgently said, “Experts predict that a 5.3 magnitude earthquake will strike your area in five minutes! Please leave the area as quickly as possible! I received this message an hour ago, but there was no signal on your end. I had to set up a spare signal booster on my spaceship to get through to you. Please, hurry!”

Hearing the word “earthquake,” Yan Qi fully woke up and sat bolt upright, finally disturbing Cheng Xu enough to wake him. Cheng Xu, sounding more tired and still a bit languid, asked, “What’s happening?”

Yan Qi didn’t pause for a second, quickly starting to dress Cheng Xu while saying, “There’s going to be an earthquake in five minutes! We need to get out of here, now!”

Cheng Xu, still baffled, repeated, “Earthquake?”

“Quick!” Yan Qi urged, grabbing him.

Predictions of earthquakes throughout the star system were extremely accurate, specifying the exact timing usually an hour before an event, and were never wrong. Seismic activity was rare on this geothermal planet; historically, only two or three significant earthquakes had occurred, none with severe consequences.

A 5.3 magnitude wasn’t typically a major disaster elsewhere, but Yan Qi and Cheng Xu suddenly remembered. The Xi’er Tribe had chosen to live in a valley between two large mountains for shelter from the cold. An earthquake here meant a risk of falling rocks—a potentially deadly scenario for those in the valley.

Dressed in seconds, they heard Li An over the communicator, “Four minutes left! Young Master Yan, please leave immediately!”

Yan Qi dragged Cheng Xu outside, kicking open the door of Ma Liu’s house on the way. Startled awake, Ma Liu sat up in a panic, his face a mask of fear, “What’s going on?”

“Earthquake, run!” Yan Qi shouted as he pulled Cheng Xu with him. They had just over three minutes to get out of the valley to the open area where his spaceship was parked.

As Yan Qi was about to speed up, Cheng Xu suddenly stopped, insisting, “We need to warn the others!”

Yan Qi looked at him incredulously, “Xu Ge, are you out of your mind? We have just over three minutes, and there are over five hundred people here, how can we possibly—?”

Cheng Xu cut him off, “We alert as many as we can.” He then shrugged off Yan Qi’s grip, determined, “You go ahead!” Without another look back, he ran to the nearest house, pounding on the door and shouting, “Earthquake! Get up and out! Now!”

His calls echoed clearly in the night, a night that might have had a more immediate response had it not been for the intoxication from the celebration hours earlier. Everyone was deep in sleep, reacting slowly. It took Cheng Xu half a minute just to open one door, but he didn’t pause, rushing to the next.

Yan Qi, fists clenched and teeth gritted, ignored Li An’s warning of “Two and a half minutes left!” and headed to another tightly shut door.

As more and more people were awakened, the tribe was gradually roused. Seeing that no one was leaving but instead began to call others, Cheng Xu shouted, “Those with children, take them and go now! Women, move quickly!”

As people started moving, the ground began to tremble subtly at first, making it slightly dizzying to stand. Within ten seconds, the tremors intensified, and soon a crackling sound filled the air as the frequency of the shakes increased, causing cracks in the ice houses.

When the first rock fell, it wasn’t particularly large but enough to puncture a hole through an ice house. Then a second, third, and fourth rock followed quickly…

Chaos ensued, cries of men, children’s sobs, and women’s calls filled the air as the tribe lost its calm. Most people were now out of bed; some were still confused, others frantically tried to salvage their possessions.

Yan Qi stumbled and fell, but quickly got back up, dizzy and disoriented, searching for Cheng Xu, shouting, “Xu Ge! Xu Ge!” His heart filled with a terrible fear, fearing the worst for Cheng Xu.

The ice houses were already half-destroyed, larger rocks kept falling, the sky filled with a blizzard of snow and rock, blurring the vision. Panicked, it seemed like only minutes passed before Yan Qi finally spotted Cheng Xu.

Cheng Xu was struggling forward, his left arm holding a two-year-old child, his right grasping a woman, moving with difficulty. Yan Qi saw fresh blood staining the back of Cheng Xu’s shirt, panic seizing him as he rushed to help, when suddenly a large rock fell towards Cheng Xu’s location. In an instant, summoning strength he never knew he had, Yan Qi ran at a speed he never thought possible, reaching Cheng Xu just in time to push him forward.

Cheng Xu stumbled forward with the child, rolling a few times without even feeling the pain until a loud crash sounded.

Snow was flung up by the impact, temporarily blinding him. When it settled, Cheng Xu’s heart nearly stopped.

Yan Qi had saved him, but now nearly half of his body was crushed under the rock.

The surrounding snow turned red with fresh blood, Cheng Xu’s pupils dilated with shock, a heart-wrenching pain spreading from his chest. By the time he scrambled to Yan Qi’s side, he could clearly see the scene: the rock meant for him now crushed Yan Qi’s legs, and Cheng Xu could almost hear the bones breaking. The usually handsome face was now deathly pale yet painfully alert as Yan Qi yelled, “Move! Get to the side of the mountain! Go!”

For the first time, Cheng Xu experienced true panic, an emotion he hadn’t even felt when he went bankrupt. He opened his mouth, unable to make a sound, as if he had lost his voice. Yan Qi, growing weaker, pushed him, “Go! Xu Ge, get to the side of the mountain! Fast!”

“No… no…” Cheng Xu finally snapped to, biting his lip, trying to lift the rock crushing Yan Qi. The rock weighed at least 400 pounds, and despite all his strength, it wouldn’t budge. Yan Qi was furious, cursing, “Just go! Damn it, I didn’t save you just to watch you get crushed too! Move!”

“No.” Cheng Xu was shaking all over, the sight of the blood and Yan Qi’s increasingly ashen face overwhelming him with fear, making it impossible for him to do anything but try to move the rock.

Soon, others noticed Yan Qi’s plight and rushed to help Cheng Xu move the rock.

Once the rock was finally moved, the earth’s violent shaking stopped, and no more rocks fell, but the Xi’er Tribe was left in devastation.

With the rock gone, Yan Qi’s legs were revealed, mangled and bloodied below the thigh. The sight was horrifying. Ma Liu arrived later, frozen in shock, but before he could collect his thoughts, Cheng Xu’s arm gripped his pants, “Get medicine! Fast!”

Ma Liu snapped to action, rushing to find Ai Pu for medicine.

Yan Qi’s legs continued to bleed as Cheng Xu removed his jacket, unsure where to start binding. His whole body shook, his hands trembled violently, overwhelmed by pain.

It was unbearable, a pain he had never experienced before.

When his hand was gripped, Cheng Xu hadn’t yet realized it, his gaze slowly meeting Yan Qi’s now dim eyes.

After a moment of looking at each other, Yan Qi managed a weak smile, his voice frail, “Xu Ge, congratulations.”

Cheng Xu, confused, seemed not to understand what he was being congratulated for.

Gasping, Yan Qi said, “You finally… can be rid of me…” After speaking, his face showed reluctance, his eyes fiercely fixed on Cheng Xu, as if trying to draw him into his own body with his dying will.

But Cheng Xu finally understood, his features crumbling, no longer the calm and elegant man he usually was, he shouted, “I don’t want to be rid of you anymore! Yan Qi! Hang in there!”

As the brilliance in Yan Qi’s eyes slowly faded, his eyelids seemed too heavy to stay open.

It was as if signaling something, Cheng Xu’s body shook even more violently, large tears uncontrollably fell from his eyes, he roared, “Yan Qi! Don’t die! Don’t leave me! I love you! If you pull through, I’ll stay with you for life! I promise! I’ll never leave your side!”

The man who would normally have responded energetically to such words now closed his eyes, unresponsive.

Cheng Xu was nearly insane with grief.