Summer leaned back in his arms. One of her hands dangled by her side as she could barely raise the other to grab the corner of his shirt.
Mud covered Leonardo’s body too, but that did not prevent Summer from snuggling into his arms.
Her heart finally settled down.
In a rare moment, Leonardo did not say anything to pick on her. Instead, he let her nuzzle up against him.
“I can walk, but I need a moment,” she finally said after a while.
Her body was still too stiff, and she needed to stretch her limbs.
As Leonardo looked down at her, she gazed up with a smile on her lips.
It was a gentle smile that he had never seen before.
He reached out to place his hand on Summer’s forehead, his brows drawn together even tighter.
The moment there was contact, his hand flinched from the heat on her forehead.
Again, he held his hand against her forehead, followed by his to measure their temperatures. “You’re having a fever.”
“Really?” She held her own hand against her forehead. “No wonder I feel a little hot.”
Her voice was weak, and her head was being supported by his arms. She was exhausted.
His furrowed brows never eased up.
“Keep your footing,” he said as he held her.
He then squatted down in front of her and drew her hands so that she would coil them around his neck.
Summer went weak at the knees. She curled her arms around his neck and lay on his back. “Are you going to carry me like this? I gained weight recently.” Her voice had become faint now.
Leonardo ignored what she said as he carried her on his back and trudged ahead.
“Am I heavy?” He heard Summer ask him again after he just took a few steps down the road.
“Not at all,” he answered seriously.
She was not heavy but very light.
He felt that she would look even better if she could put on more weight.
“Oh, all right…” Her voice began to trail off toward the end of the sentence.
The condition of the road ahead was better than that of the one behind him, albeit just barely.
The dirt roads in the countryside would turn muddy on rainy days. Plus, Leonardo was carrying a person on his back with mud sticking to his feet. As physically strong as he was, he was starting to find it too much to take.
It did not help that the woman would babble from time to time on his back.
“Am I heavy?”
Leonardo had lost count of how many times she had asked that question.
“Damn heavy, so you better shut up from now on.”
“Oh.” Summer did not say a word again. She was unusually docile when she was having a high fever.
Meanwhile, Leonardo could feel her body temperature rising.
He could not let her condition deteriorate further. She needed rest and a doctor.
Yet, no matter where he looked, there was only forest and mud.
He had lost track of how long he had walked when he finally spotted a house in the woods.
Leonardo studied it for a time before he approached it with Summer still on his back.
It was a traditional farmhouse built with black brick. It was rudimentary, but it was the best shelter for them at the moment.
The door was open.
With Summer still on his back, he went up to the door and saw an elderly man in a chair, holding a fish in his hand and playing with a cat.
The elderly man heard voices and looked over with squinted eyes. “Can I help you?”
“We encountered a mudslide, and we need a place to stay.” Leonardo’s reply was concise.
However, the elderly man could only speak his local dialect, not much Mandarin.
The communication between them failed.
Luckily, the elderly man was kind enough to usher them inside when he saw their conditions. He had probably guessed what they had encountered.
The house may have been rustic but it was spotless inside.
The elderly man brought them to the kitchen, then pointed at the water tank and a big iron pot. That meant, if they wanted to take a shower, he would have to boil some water first.
The elderly man boiled a pail of hot water for them, then found two sets of clothes for Leonardo and Summer before he went back out to amuse his cat.
Leonardo glanced in the direction the old man had gone. After that, he placed Summer on a stool and gave her a couple of smacks on the face to wake her up. “Get up, Summer.”
She could barely open her eyes. When she saw Leonardo, she just said, “I need some sleep,” then closed her eyes and fell asleep again.
Was she not worried about him?
Leonardo took a deep breath and threatened her, “You better open your eyes and clean yourself up, Summer. Otherwise, I’m going to leave you here.”
She forced herself to open her eyes. “You won’t leave me here… I’m sleepy… You clean me up…”
His expression changed from one to the next. In the end, he had no choice but to compromise.
If she did not take a shower and bring down her body temperature, it would cause brain damage.
But right then, in Leonardo’s mind, he had no memories of ever bathing a woman.
Yet, when he undressed her and helped her shower, it felt like he was doing it for the hundredth time.
Leonardo was startled. What kind of spell did this woman put on him to make him willingly perform such a thing for her in the past?
As he slowly cleaned the mud off her body, her fair skin was exposed, inch by inch, in front of his eyes.
Her skin was so fair that he found it dazzling.
Leonardo started to feel hot. He creased his brows and looked away, but his sense of touch was too hard to ignore.
He even managed to have a reaction before a woman with a high fever.
He bit his lip and continued to clean her up. Once he was done, he glanced at the clothes that the elderly man had given to them. Shortly after, he took off his jacket and shirt, which he put on Summer.
It had not been raining while he was out there. While his jacket was covered in mud, his shirt was clean.
Once he carried her into the bedroom, he left and had a cold shower. After that, he took Summer’s clothes and hung them in the bedroom.
He had no idea how to handwash clothes, but at least, he could clean the mud off of them.
The elderly man allowed them to stay in a bedroom on the first floor while he stayed on the ground floor. He was not very mobile because his legs were weak.
After Leonardo came back out, he saw the elderly man grip the handrail as he climbed up the stairs.
He was holding a damp towel with one hand and a bottle of wine with the other.
Only then did Leonardo notice the legs of the elderly man, who was slightly crippled.
He walked down to the elderly man and took the items from him. “Thank you.”
“Use this to keep your wife’s temperature in check. It’s impossible to see a doctor in this weather.” The elderly man spoke very slowly.
This time, Leonardo understood some of what he said.
“Okay.”
The elderly man nodded and went back down the stairs as his cat followed him from behind.