“Ahhhhhhhhhh-----------!”

I screamed on top of my lungs and breathed heavily. Although there was nothing here except for snow, the feeling on the ankle was so real!

It might be a hand, a monster, or some other unknown creature that was really to eat me alive!

I tried really hard to kick it off, but could not move much because that force was super strong, felt as if being grabbed by an iron shackle. After a minute of sharp scream, I finally managed to gather myself together and calmed down a bit. Knowing that there was no way to free my ankle, I stopped kicking.

My body was shivering like crazy. This was much worse than encountering a burning flying horse. When the danger was right in front of you, at least you could envision how to respond and what was the worst thing that could happen.

Fear of the unknown was not only embedded in the demons, but in humans as well.

My heart was pounding like a million frogs inside, and I tried to crawl closer to my ankle. I reached out a trembling hand and slowly brushed away the snow on my ankle.

What—---------!?

IT W-A-S A FREAKING HAND!

Those manly fingers were tightly held onto my ankle like that was the last straw of life for a drowning person. Traces of blood stained the white snow.

I calmed down a bit, knowing that it was just an injured person, but still lightly trembled. I came closer and quickly brushed away the top layer of snow.

My eyes were wide open and stunned, as if this was not true but just another wild dream.

Right in front of me, lay the body of a young man in his early twenties (maybe already in his hundreds since demons had different age counts than humans). I had never been to hell or even imagined what hell should look like, but he seemed like someone who just went to hell and somehow made it back alive.

The blizzard put a new layer of snow right on top of him, therefore I had no idea there was actually a demon buried below!

There was a lot of blood, I mean seriously, really A-LOT of blood covered on him and the snow, as if he was laying in an icy bloody bath or something. If a human lost half the amount of blood, he or she would be long gone to heaven. Somehow this demon managed to stay alive and grabbed onto my ankle as tight as steel.

His garment was very tattered, so old and torn as if being punished by the devil and had not changed for at least a few months. Yet, out of all the blood and dirt, you could still tell that it was different from the clothing in the Land of Ruins. It was a more silky type of fabric. I wonder where he was from.

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Another very strange thing was that he had a unique bronze mask on the upper face, covering the eye area. I couldn’t tell the features because the rest of his face was stained with blood and dust.

Wait……was he really alive?

All of a sudden this question popped in my mind, for I just noticed the color of his skin. It was light blue, indicating a severe sign of hypothermia. His fingers were the worst because they were the color of blueberries. Oh dear, he was so young to lose those fingers due to frostbite. What a pity!

“Umm…..can you hear me? Say something, you still alive?” My voice quivered.

Maybe he couldn’t hear me?

I got closer and spoke louder, “You alive or not!? ”

After seeing no reaction at all, I put my forefinger next to his nose, the breathing was extremely faint, as if at any time, that could have been his last breath.

I started to worry, “Don’t die! I will help you, OK? Hang on there!”

His conditions were so bad that I had no confidence that he would stay alive. If a human had this skin color, it would be game over. The only hope was that demons were different, that their endurance and limits were greater than humans. If that was the case, those blueberry fingers might still recover. Now the priority was to hurry and get him home so Grandpa Jin and Grandma Sha could take a look at him, and see if he could be saved somehow.

Great…..the wind was getting even stronger, and the blizzard was the worst I had ever seen!

Come on, LiNa, you can do it! It was just a six foot man weighing a hundred and seventy pounds, nothing to be stressed out, right?

For I had no idea how much this guy weighs, but unfortunately I would find out soon.

But first, how do I get those blue fingers off my ankle?

Somehow I was able to find a wooden stick buried in the snow, and used it to loosen the fingers one by one, then used all my mighty force and held onto his arm to put him over my back.

I failed terribly.

As I stumbled to get back up and gave it a few more tries, I finally could manage to put him on my back. I held onto both of his arms, and marched through the snow like a turtle. That was not a person I was carrying, but a frozen and stiff piece of gigantic “icicle”!

If this young man died after I made it back to the hut, I was going to swear so hard. Why was I doing this? It was not like I knew him or if the household could afford to feed another mouth. Life was already hard enough, and so did everyone else. It was difficult enough to survive through the winter.

Still, I couldn’t leave him there to die, right?

Just like Grandpa Jin, he saved me anyway despite all the bitterness life had thrown to him. After living in the Land of Ruins for months, that was not an usual quality of the demons. Most demons were cold nature and lacked empathy. Everyone was just getting by. No one owes you anything, and no one is responsible for your own food.

The more I interacted with the other demons, the more I appreciated Grandpa Jin and Grandma Sha. They were super warm natured and welcoming. Perhaps due to the fact that I resembled their deceased daughter, but I was still very grateful.

As I dragged this frozen body across the white land, the more I missed Mom and Dad, and of course my comfy bed which was in another world or universe now.

A long trail of blood stained the pure white snow.