Exile Road: My Wife Brought Supplies Across Time - Chapter 2

Wei Xi reacted just in time, slamming her foot down on the brake!

Inertia threw her forward, but thankfully she was wearing a seatbelt, which kept her from smashing into the steering wheel.

Ignoring the physical nausea, Wei Xi looked ahead. Within the reach of her headlights, there was nothing.

If her eyes hadn’t been playing tricks on her, the person who had fallen must be lying right against the front of her car. They might have even been run over by the tires.

Wei Xi quickly unbuckled, switched on her hazard lights, and hurriedly opened the door to check.

Sure enough, lying right against the front bumper was a person dressed in strange attire a red robe with silver armor, looking exactly like a general from a period drama.

Because the person was curled up with their back to her, Wei Xi couldn’t tell if they were male or female, or if they were dead or alive. Fortunately, they hadn’t been crushed by the tires.

“Hey, are you alright?”

If this had happened on a city road, Wei Xi would have gone straight over to check on them. But now, in the dead of night, in the middle of nowhere, with someone wearing such peculiar clothes and seemingly having fallen from a mountain, Wei Xi kept a measure of caution.

“Do you want me to call the police for you?”

As she spoke, she took out her phone. While keeping an eye on her surroundings, she quickly dialed 110.

“I’m sorry, the user you are calling is out of service range.”

Wei Xi hung up and stared at her phone. She had already noticed there was no signal back in the tunnel. But hadn’t the internet said you could still call the police without a signal?

Wei Xi tried calling 120. In the brief pause before the call connected, she shouted once more toward the motionless figure on the ground.

“Friend on the ground, if you’re still alive, give me a sign and I’ll call an ambulance.”

The person on the ground didn’t respond, and the phone only offered the electronic prompt that the user was out of service range.

Wei Xi hung up, her eyes darkening as she looked left and right, trying to find some sort of landmark. She wanted to know what kind of hellish place she had driven into that could have absolutely zero signal.

Just as Wei Xi was trying to dial 119, the person on the ground moved imperceptibly.

After Ye Fengyu regained a sliver of consciousness, the pain of her shattered bones surged through her entire body. Her already curled-up form tensed every muscle to the breaking point to resist the agony.

Hearing a human voice, and a woman’s voice at that, the lips Ye Fengyu had bitten to keep from crying out relaxed ever so slightly.

She remembered something the Princess Royal had told her once.

She said that just before a person dies, they might hear the gentle call of their mother, but it would only be a ghost messenger in disguise. As soon as a person answered, their soul would be snatched away by the ghost messenger.

Was she dying? But this voice… it wasn’t her mother… and it wasn’t gentle either.

Ye Fengyu gritted her teeth. She couldn’t let her soul be taken. She couldn’t die yet.

She had to go to Cangzhou. She had to see the Princess Royal.

Ye Fengyu summoned her last bit of strength to get up, but the moment she moved, the world spun violently.

Before she lost consciousness, her ear pressed to the ground caught a sound, like falling gravel and rocks, followed by the sound of hurried footsteps.

“An earthquake or a landslide?!”

When Wei Xi saw stones falling from the mountain, she couldn’t care about anything else. She immediately shoved her phone into her pocket and rushed over to pull the person up.

When she couldn’t lift them on the first try, Wei Xi swore fiercely.

What sin had she committed to be subjected to such torture tonight?

Wei Xi couldn’t help but think of that earlier phone call. Surely breaking up after one day of dating didn’t constitute a “heavenly crime,” did it? Was the universe trying to bury her alive?

She couldn’t die like this. She hadn’t become a famous director yet, hadn’t directed a high-rated blockbuster, and hadn’t gained fame both at home and abroad!

Mustering every ounce of her strength, Wei Xi stood up abruptly, hoisted the person—armor and all, easily over a hundred pounds—into her arms, and sprinted toward the passenger seat.

The falling rubble from the mountain hammered against the car roof with a rhythmic clatter.

Wei Xi felt a pang of heartache. Although her car wasn’t worth much, it was everything she had saved up through her own hard work over the two years since graduation.

After stuffing the person into the passenger seat, Wei Xi rushed back to the driver’s side, started the engine, and drove forward.

She hadn’t even gone ten meters when she heard a loud rumble. Through the moonlight and the rearview mirror, she could see the mountain behind them undergoing a landslide.

The tunnel entrance was completely buried.

After driving to a safe distance, Wei Xi slowly stopped the car. She leaned back against the seat, breathing heavily, still shaken.

She truly regretted not checking her horoscope before leaving the house today.

Once her breathing steadied, Wei Xi picked up the thermos from the cup holder and took a sip of warm water to calm her nerves before looking at the person beside her.

The situation had been too critical to worry about whether moving them a second time would worsen their injuries. Survival had to come first.

“Consider yourself lucky you ran into me.”

If it had been anyone else, they might not have even been able to lift her. Wei Xi felt fortunate that she usually kept up with her fitness.

Under the car’s interior lights, seeing the person’s face clearly, Wei Xi was surprised.

This was a woman, and a striking one at that.

Thick brows, wide eyes, a wheat-toned complexion, a lean face, and excellent bone structure. She wasn’t a traditional beauty, but she had a distinct, wild aura.

Looking at it from a director’s perspective, Wei Xi was certain that if this face hadn’t been injured, it would captivate everyone on the big screen instantly. Even now, covered in bloody wounds, she could walk straight onto a set to play the role of the “beautiful, strong, and tragic” character.

“Hey, wake up.” Wei Xi avoided the wounds on her face and lightly patted the uninjured right cheek. “Wake up, are you alright?”

When she had picked her up earlier, she had confirmed the person wasn’t dead, and she had mumbled something, but Wei Xi hadn’t caught it.

Wei Xi tapped her again, with a bit more force. “Wake up! Do you know where we are? Is there a hospital nearby?”

In her haze, Ye Fengyu heard a woman’s voice again. This time, a fragrance accompanied the breaths between words.

It was a very unique scent, like a mix of flowers and fruit. She had never smelled such a rich fragrance before.

Her ice-cold body seemed to have been placed in a warm room, where she couldn’t feel even a trace of the freezing wind. It was like the room her mother used to warm up for her when she was a child—so cozy it made her drowsy.

I can’t sleep. In her delirium, Ye Fengyu instinctively gripped the hand that had been resting on her face. She still remembered she had important business to attend to.

“Cangzhou… I must go to Cangzhou…”

The sentence sounded like a murmur, vague and faint, but because Wei Xi was leaning in close, she heard it clearly.

“Cangzhou?”

Wei Xi had never heard of such a place, and even if she knew where it was, she wasn’t going there right now. “You need to get to a hospital. Do you know where we are?”

As she spoke, Wei Xi looked down at the hand gripping hers, her eyes filled with surprise.

She had never seen hands that were this rough. The back of the hand was covered in scars, and the knuckles were red and swollen, looking like chilblains. The palms were even worse—Wei Xi didn’t even need to look to feel the incredibly obvious calluses. If she weren’t seeing it up close, she would have assumed it was professional makeup.

“I have to go to Cangzhou…”

The person in the coma only repeated that one sentence.

“This isn’t the ride-share you ordered.” Wei Xi pulled her hand away, her tone firm. “You need to go to the hospital.”

Finished, Wei Xi didn’t want to waste more breath on this incoherent person. She checked her phone again—still no signal. The emergency calls wouldn’t go through either.

The tunnel behind them was blocked, so she couldn’t turn back. She had no choice but to keep driving. She could only hope to run into someone or get a signal.

Before starting, Wei Xi buckled the woman’s seatbelt and adjusted the seat back a bit so she could lie more comfortably. Seeing some bandages in the center console, she applied them to the woman’s wounds.

Back on the road, Wei Xi focused with all her might.

The night deepened. Under the bright moonlight, a white car slowly drove away from Hutou Mountain.

At the buried “tunnel,” thin weeds rapidly sprouted from the sand and gravel. In the blink of an eye, it returned to its original, wild state.

Stars twinkled, and the wind blew in gusts.

Time slipped away with every second of steady driving. Without a clock, time was a difficult thing to track.

Wei Xi had no idea how long she had been driving, but she was certain it had been a long time.

Looking at the endless dirt road ahead, Wei Xi stopped the car with a heavy heart. If she kept driving like this, she, a staunch atheist, was going to start believing in unscientific things.

Otherwise, she couldn’t explain why, after driving for so long, the battery gauge on the dashboard hadn’t dropped by even a single percent.

Even stranger, the time on the display had frozen at 23:23. It was the same time as her phone.

Wei Xi remembered that when she first entered the so-called General Mountain Tunnel, her phone had also shown 23:23.

How much time had passed since then?

She looked at her smartwatch, lit the screen, and the time still read 23:23. She stared at the screen and silently counted to 100, confirming that even though well over a minute had passed, the displayed time didn’t budge.

Wei Xi gripped the steering wheel, desperately trying to find a scientific explanation—like some sort of energy field in this place that was causing all her electronics to malfunction.

While she was thinking, something flashed before her eyes.

The next second, something pressed against her neck, and a low, suppressed voice sounded in her ear.

“Who are you?”

Wei Xi looked down. Pressed against her neck was a… short sword?

She had seen props like this on film sets, though the scabbard was crafted quite exquisitely. Wei Xi followed the sword to the person holding it and met a pair of blood-red, crimson eyes.

“You’re awake?”

Wei Xi was pleasantly surprised. She had tried to wake her several times on the road with no response, and she had been worried the person might die in her car.

Ye Fengyu had been awake for a while. She had only moved once she was sure there was only one person nearby.

“Speak. Who sent you?”

Wei Xi: “Huh?”

Who sent her? Was she asking about the ride-share platform?

Wei Xi reached out to push the object away from her neck. “That’s not a very polite way to ask a question.”

Ye Fengyu felt her movement and pressed the sword blade closer.

Her eyes were injured, and everything looked as if it were veiled behind red silk. She couldn’t see clearly, so she could only judge that there was a young woman beside her. Also, they seemed to be in a small cabin. In her delirium earlier, she had felt movement, fast, but she heard no sound of wheels and no sound of horse hooves.

Feeling the letter still on her person, Ye Fengyu guessed the other party probably wasn’t someone from Yezhou sent to pursue her. Thinking back to the footsteps she heard when she fell off Hutou Mountain, this person must have snatched her into this carriage at that time.

Hutou Mountain was on the border of Yezhou, with no residents for dozens of miles. Why would a normal, respectable woman appear here in the middle of the night?

This person must have come for her.

But how did this woman know in advance that she would leap off the mountain?

“Are you sick? I was kind enough to save you, and now you’re doing this? Returning kindness with enmity!” Wei Xi grabbed the sword at her neck with both hands, looking at the person beside her with a stern expression.

“Save me?” A clear note of skepticism filled Ye Fengyu’s tone.

“Don’t you remember? You fell off the mountain right in front of my car. There was a landslide. I kindly saved you, put you in my car, and was trying to take you to a hospital. What are you doing now? Robbing me?”

Ho-pi-tal? Ye Fengyu pondered the woman’s words; she had never heard of such a place.

With a swish, Ye Fengyu drew the short sword entirely, the blade pressing tight against the woman’s jaw.

Feeling the coldness on her chin and seeing the sharp blade, Wei Xi’s temple throbbed. What was happening here?

“Kind?” Ye Fengyu didn’t believe it. “If you were kind enough to save me, why tie me up?”

As she spoke, Ye Fengyu tugged at the rope on her body. This wide, flat rope seemed loosely tied, yet after she woke up, she had tried to pull it off and couldn’t—especially the piece across her waist.

Watching her actions, the nerve in Wei Xi’s temple throbbed even harder.

“Are you acting out some drama, or are you for real?” Wei Xi looked at her, and for the sake of that face, gave her one last chance. “Your joke isn’t funny.”

Ye Fengyu never joked with anyone. “Speak. Why did you tie me up?”

As the sword pressed closer, Wei Xi’s heart skipped a beat. She felt like this was a real sword. Too afraid to move, she realized she had probably encountered a madwoman!

“That’s a seatbelt! What do you mean ‘tie you up’? It’s to protect you! If I hit the brakes, you’d fly right out without it!”

Seat-belt? Ye Fengyu knitted her brows; she had never heard of such a thing. She didn’t believe this explanation either. Why would anyone tie a person up for their safety, unless they were a madman who enjoyed hurting others?

“Untie it.” Ye Fengyu didn’t want to waste more words; she had important business. “Don’t try anything funny.”

“Fine.” Wei Xi agreed immediately. “Move the sword away a little. Don’t move, I’ll unbuckle it.”

After a moment of hesitation, Ye Fengyu moved the sword back slightly. Watching the figure lean closer, she braced herself to strike at any moment.

With a click, just as Ye Fengyu grew alert, she felt her body go loose.

That was it? It was untied? What a strange technique of binding…

“There, it’s undone. Listen, I was kind enough to give you a ride. I don’t need a reward, but could you please get out of the car?”

Not knowing the other person couldn’t see clearly, Wei Xi forced a smile. She didn’t want to die at the hands of a madwoman; she didn’t want to be responsible for any criminal deaths.

Hearing that the woman was willing to let her go, regardless of what the other’s original plan had been, Ye Fengyu didn’t want to pursue it right now. She had things to do.

“Fine. Let me out of the car, this carriage—”

Before the word “carriage” could even leave her lips, Ye Fengyu heard a buzzing sound. At the same time, her hand, which had been reaching for the protective copper coins on her belt to pay for the ride, suddenly went limp.

It wasn’t just her hand; her entire body began to tremble, becoming weak and numb. The sword slipped from her grip!

Dreadful. I’ve fallen into her trap!

Wei Xi watched the person collapse. Not taking any chances, she zapped her a few more times. She was thankful that she had been cautious and decided to prepare some self-defense tools when she went out driving at night, just in case. She just hadn’t expected to meet a madwoman on the very first day.

After using the stun baton to knock her out, Wei Xi first picked up the short sword. She checked it—it was real and incredibly sharp; a light graze against the madwoman’s sleeve had sliced the fabric right open.

“She really is a madwoman!”

Wei Xi felt her luck tonight was truly nonexistent. She didn’t dare hold onto such a controlled weapon, in case she accidentally hurt someone. When she opened the window, intending to toss the sword and scabbard together, she noticed characters on the blade.

“Wind? Rain?”

She didn’t quite recognize the characters, but guessed based on the shapes. It might be the sword’s name.

Since it was called Wind and Rain, let it go experience the wind and rain in nature.

Wei Xi stepped out of the car and realized it had become foggy. The mountain, which had been clear in the moonlight, was suddenly covered by a veil, appearing ethereal.

There had been too many abnormal events tonight, and Wei Xi didn’t have time to worry about this sudden change in weather. She threw the sword with all her might toward the side of the road, letting “Wind and Rain” return to the mist.

After tossing the sword, Wei Xi went around to the passenger seat, intending to toss out the person as well. She didn’t dare keep her in the car. This was a lunatic; even without the sword, what if she grabbed the steering wheel while they were driving?

Holding the stun baton, she half-dragged and half-carried the person out of the car and placed her in the grass on the side of the road.

“Don’t worry, as soon as I have a signal, I’ll call the police.”

Wei Xi poked the woman’s face with the stun baton. Regardless of whether she could hear her, she warned, “And don’t think about accusing me. My car has a dashcam.”

Finished, Wei Xi stood up and prepared to leave. But the moment she moved, her leg was grabbed.

“Who… are… you?”

Ye Fengyu struggled to lift her head to look at her, her face filled with bewilderment. It was her first time being knocked down in one blow, completely powerless to retaliate… What kind of martial art was this… or rather, what kind of hidden weapon had she used?

Wei Xi looked down at the person on the ground. The woman tilted her head back, and in the moonlight, from this angle, the interplay of light and shadow made her look like a frozen frame from a movie.

Wei Xi couldn’t help but imagine a touching scene where a general risked her life to hold off the enemy so her companions could escape first. It was such a pity; if she weren’t a madwoman, she would definitely have made friends with her.

Assuming the other person wanted to know her name for revenge, Wei Xi extended the stun baton to its full length.

“Who am I? Listen up.”

Wei Xi flipped the switch and poked the baton against the woman’s hand.

“I am the legendary Goddess of the Stun Baton of Ancient Greece.”

After zapping the madwoman’s hand, Wei Xi returned to the car, buckled her seatbelt, started the engine, and stepped on the gas.

In the rearview mirror, the madwoman was staring at her own numb hand in astonishment.

“Goddess?”

Ye Fengyu looked at her tingling hands in disbelief.

“Is she… a goddess?”