Marriage Seduction Addiction

Chapter 470 Congratulations on finding her

Tang Xu knew that Lu Xingyan had arranged for people to guard the hotel entrance and exit in order to prevent her from leaving, so she chose six o'clock in the morning when she was most likely to relax and fall asleep, and drove the car she borrowed from Duan Siwei to leave the hotel.

At first, she didn't know where she should go, but as the car drove on unfamiliar roads, she suddenly remembered the hiking spot she had mentioned to Lu Xingyan before.

It's a hiking trail in Sequoia National Park, about a four or five-hour drive from Los Angeles. It's familiar territory, not too far, so it's a decent place to visit.

Tang Xu set the navigation route and drove over there.

It's been a long time since I last came here.

At that time, Xu Xingyang had been gone for more than a year.

After Lu Xingyan took the college entrance examination, he moved to the United States and returned to his parents' side. Tang Xu took advantage of the winter vacation to come here to visit him. In fact, neither of them had been able to get out of the shadow of Xu Xingyang's departure. Since Xu Xingyang liked snow, they chose Sequoia National Park, one of the holy places for snow viewing, as a stop on their trip.

However, that trip was fraught with unexpected events.

The two people who were walking side by side got separated. Tang Xu got lost in the giant cedar forest and wandered around in the unfamiliar and thick snow for two or three days before finally returning safely.

Tang Xu's memory of that experience was actually quite faint, while Lu Xingyan clearly remembered it vividly, even describing it as "nine deaths and one life," which Tang Xu thought was a bit of an exaggeration.

Therefore, she had no psychological trauma when revisiting Tangxu. She had made thorough preparations, filling up the car with gas in Sanhe Town at the entrance, buying clothes from head to toe, putting on snowshoes, and preparing hot water and food. When she was checked and asked to install snow chains upon entering the park, she strictly followed the regulations.

Tang Xu didn't ask anyone for help. While looking up tips on her phone, she slowly put snow chains on each of the four wheels.

Other tourists passing by also came up to her and asked if she needed help, since she was alone.

Tang Xu declined all offers and spent nearly two hours installing snow chains on the entire vehicle himself.

Two hours is not a short time, but Tang Xu did not show any signs of discouragement or impatience. On the contrary, she was extremely immersed and focused, and she enjoyed it immensely.

Before this, she hadn't focused on anything for a long time, even if it wasn't particularly difficult and often just mechanical repetition. But it was enough to allow her to temporarily forget her inescapable worries.

To Tang Xu's surprise, even with such thorough preparation, she still got lost once again.

Sequoia National Park sees far fewer visitors in winter. The snow-covered giant sequoia forests lose their twisted and sharp edges, and the whole world seems to lose its angularity, becoming fluffy and soft, like a furry fairy kingdom.

Tang Xu was almost uncontrollably lost in this snowy landscape.

She didn't even remember when she had strayed from the main path. When she came to her senses, it was already sunset. The afterglow of the setting sun slanted through the forest, illuminating the huge trunks of the giant sequoias, while the snow behind the trunks was shrouded in a quiet blue shadow.

In this moment of interplay between cold and warmth, the world is utterly still.

Beside her stood giant cedars, some of which had lived for two or three thousand years; above her, the sky was darkening; behind her, only her footsteps echoed across the snow, utterly silent—

Tang Xu clearly felt her own insignificance and loneliness.

Before this, she didn't really know what loneliness felt like.

Even though she was alone most of the time, she never felt lonely.

Perhaps because she had grown accustomed to a life of constant loss, she had achieved self-consistency in most of her time alone and never dared to easily touch the atmosphere called "loneliness".

Until this moment.

Tang Xu raised her face and exhaled a deep breath of white air.

So this is what loneliness feels like.

Severing all ties with this world, standing alone beneath the vast sky, it feels as if only one person remains in the entire universe—

Did he feel the same way back then?

Was he like that when he decided to push everyone away from his world and actually carried it out?

At this moment, it seemed that life and death no longer mattered.

In any case, in an empty world, there is no expectation, no hope, and no despair.

The whole world has lost its meaning, sustained only by obsession.

His obsession was revenge.

So he forced himself to stay in this world, enduring excruciating torture to achieve his initial goal.

Tang Xu couldn't help but slowly close her eyes.

There is no such thing as true empathy in the world.

Even now, in this completely isolated world, as she tries to perceive all the loneliness and pain he has experienced, it is probably still less than one ten-thousandth of what he has personally experienced.

He was trapped in such isolation, unable to move an inch.

Looking around, she could only follow her instincts and became increasingly lost in the giant cedar forest.

Tang Xu didn't know how long she had been walking; even after it had completely darkened, she was still walking in the snowy forest for a long time.

Until one moment, she finally realized the passage of time, looked up and saw the still dappled snow in front of her, and finally slowly looked up and saw a full moon hanging high in the night sky.

She looked up and stared at the full moon for a long time.

Until the wind whistled past my ears, a whole chunk of snow suddenly fell from the treetop, landing on the thick snow with a heavy yet light sound—

This also brought Tang Xu's thoughts back to the present.

Her gaze remained fixed on the bright moon. After a long while, she finally murmured softly, "The moon is so beautiful, can you see it?"

No one answered her.

Even the sound of the wind stopped.

The surroundings returned to silence once again. Tang Xu stood quietly in the snow for a long time before finally taking another step forward.

Footsteps falling on the snow were the only sound in this silence.

She walked slowly forward amidst this sole sound, unsure if she was going the right way or what lay ahead—but she had to keep going, as if by simply walking forward she could fill the emptiness in her heart with her footsteps.

Until the last ray of moonlight fell.

Tang Xu finally stopped walking.

The world wasn't actually plunged into complete darkness; the snow was still visible, and the Milky Way was gradually beginning to appear in the sky. But she finally felt clearly exhausted.

She didn't keep track of how long she had walked; she only knew that she had been walking nonstop ever since she got off the bus. The snow was difficult to walk on, and she had to rely on her willpower to keep going. At this moment, she finally exhausted all her strength and sat down, leaning against the trunk of a giant cedar tree next to her.

She had experienced this kind of exhaustion many times before when dancing, and was already familiar with it, so she simply sat down and quietly waited for her strength to recover.

The world returned to silence once more; the vast forest of giant sequoias was completely still.

No.

wrong.

Tang Xu suddenly opened her eyes.

In such a quiet world, even when you are exhausted, your senses become heightened.

Tang Xu wasn't even aware of whether she had heard, smelled, or seen anything, but at that moment, she clearly perceived—

Some changes have occurred deep in the snow forest.

Perhaps it was the wind, lingering deep within, that she didn't perceive even a trace of it.

Perhaps it was an animal, which had accidentally wandered into this area or originally lived there, running and jumping around her, whether near or far.

She didn't really care, so she didn't do anything.

Until clearer sounds gradually came to my ears—

creak, creak.

It sounded like the sound of her walking in the snow earlier.

Closer, closer.

Just as the footsteps were about to reach her, a dark figure appeared from behind, sweeping past the giant cedar tree where she had stopped, almost brushing past her, before continuing forward—

That was... a person.

A tall person with a long silhouette.

At such a moment, in such a deep and silent snow forest, the sudden appearance of such a person is indeed somewhat eerie and frightening.

But at that moment, Tang Xu suddenly remembered the past—many years ago, in the same giant cedar forest, on the same snowy night, in the same deserted moment, she had also met someone.

Just like the figure in front of me, she was also tall and slender.

The difference was that when she saw that person, he was lying motionless in the snow.

The moment Tang Xu saw him, her heart almost stopped.

Because the way he was lying there looked just like a corpse.

In such a place, it wouldn't be surprising to find a corpse.

In the past, Tang Xu would probably have been so frightened that her legs went weak and she would have screamed and turned to run away.

But precisely at that time, she already had an extremely clear understanding of death—

What's there to be afraid of when someone is already dead?
Even if he becomes the most terrifying ghost in the world, there will still be people in this world who love him and will hold him tightly.

Besides, she has never believed in ghosts or gods.

So Tang Xu slowly walked towards the "corpse," squatted down beside it, and prepared to leave some mark or sign so that he could call the police to have the body taken back after leaving, and give the world that cared about him a clear answer.

However, just as she crouched down beside that person, she heard a faint panting sound.

She was stunned for a long time before she finally realized that what was in front of her was not a "corpse", but a person, a person who was on the verge of death and whose breath was extremely weak.

Tang Xu offered him all the help she could.

The items in her backpack were all prepared by Lu Xingyan, and they were quite complete.

She laid out a moisture-proof mat for him, wrapped him in a life blanket, took off her own scarf and put it around his head, and then fed him glucose and some energy bars.

She wasn't sure if these things would help him, so she could only stay by his side without leaving him for a moment until dawn broke.

As the first rays of sunlight shone down in the morning, the person suddenly woke up. Despite being in such a weak state, he quickly regained his mobility as soon as he opened his eyes. He tore off the things Tang Xu had wrapped around him, took several steps back, and then regained his footing.

Tang Xu could tell that it was a defensive posture.

At the same time, she also saw what he looked like.

This is a man, a man with long hair and a beard.

His unkempt hair hung limply on his head, completely obscuring his eyebrows and eyes. His beard covered the lower half of his face, thick and messy. The only visible features on his face were his slightly reddened nose and chapped lips. Apart from that, there were no other facial features.

Rather than a man, he was more like a wild man who lived deep in the mountains and forests.

Tang Xu tried to communicate with him, but no matter what language she used, the man remained stiff and did not make a sound.

Tang Xu guessed that he might not understand her language or had some kind of disability, so after thinking for a moment, she handed him her phone.

Although the phone can never get a signal here, this person's reaction when he gets the phone can probably tell you something.

However, just as she handed over her phone, the man suddenly swung his hand and sent her phone flying.

Clearly, he was either resistant to or afraid of this thing.

Everyone has their own way of life and their own choices. In the end, Tang Xu gave up the idea of communicating and did not intend to stay any longer. She got up and prepared to leave.

She wasn't really sure which way was right, but she had to keep moving forward.

As she turned to leave, Tang Xu stopped again. Then, she took out a few chocolates she always kept in her backpack, bent down and placed them on the snow two or three meters away from the man before getting up and leaving.

From beginning to end, Tang Xu never saw his face, didn't know what he looked like, what race he was, where he came from, or where he would eventually go.

She has almost completely forgotten about this experience.

But at this moment, that memory, which had long been blurred, suddenly became incredibly clear.

The blurry-faced man in my memory suddenly overlapped with the black figure in front of me.

At the same time, Duan Siwei's voice suddenly flashed through her mind—

He said you saved his life.

As numerous images flashed through her mind, Tang Xu's vision gradually shifted from near to far, from blurry to even more blurry, until it almost melted into the night ahead.

Tang Xu remained silent.

But the figure suddenly stopped and looked down at its feet.

Tang Xu knew that he must have seen the footprints.

In this deep mountain snowfield, there should only be a string of footprints left by him.

In the quiet depths of the snow-covered forest, she should have been all alone.

They should never have met.

The world is so big, and there are so many people in it.

Some encounters are simply impossible.

But they still met.

once.

twice.

three times.