Late at night.
Song Yu tossed and turned in bed, unable to fall asleep.
She just couldn’t clear her mind of those nagging thoughts—
The man’s jet-black hair and his clear, bright eyes.
She opened her eyes and let out a soft sigh. How could she get so easily stirred up?
“What’s the use?” Song Yu muttered to the pitch-black darkness in front of her. “I’m leaving anyway.”
The next day, the entire crew withdrew, taking all their equipment with them.
Song Yu sat in the helicopter, staring out the window.
Down in the tribe, people were preparing breakfast amid lush green foliage, thin trails of blue smoke rising into the air.
The helicopter climbed higher and higher before banking toward an area where the greenery thinned out.
A long while passed.
Song Yu finally pulled her gaze away. She tilted her head back, lifting her wrist to cover her face.
Whatever.
Just let it be.
São Paulo, the city where raw wildness had long been tamed, hadn’t escaped the rainy season’s onslaught either.
Rain poured relentlessly in the humid air, but in this steel-and-concrete jungle, its effects on the environment felt muted and distant.
Song Yu hadn’t planned to linger in São Paulo, but plans couldn’t keep up with Xu Zhouxu’s sudden whim of a “surprise.”
Five thousand meters up, inside the spacious private jet with its lavish, exquisite interior.
To set the mood, the cabin lights were dimmed, with pink spotlights sweeping back and forth and gauzy fabrics draped everywhere—a perfect match for Young Master Xu’s garish tastes.
Song Yu lounged lazily at the card table, her chin propped on one hand. Two slender, pale fingers held a slim ladies’ cigarette, its tip glowing and fading in the low light.
A spotlight swept slowly across her, casting an ambiguous glow.
Her eyes were half-lidded, as if she hadn’t fully woken up.
Song Yu raised her wrist and took a gentle drag, her movements casual yet elegant. She blended right in with the surrounding revelry and excess.
She hadn’t smoked in ages back in the rainforest. This one cigarette instantly dragged her bad habit back to life.
The air was thick with the scent of smoke, liquor, and women’s perfume—a far cry from the raw, primal mix of plants, sweat, and animal musk in the jungle.
“Welcome back to the civilized world,” a man said with a teasing laugh. His voice carried a mature, steady timbre that suggested refined upbringing.
Song Yu lifted her eyelids slightly and glanced at the man seated across the card table.
Zhou Yan sat with his hands clasped together, resting on the edge of the polished mahogany table. He wore a crisp white shirt, his handsome features sharp, thin lips curved in a subtle smile. An air of ingrained superiority radiated from him.
She shrugged without responding and tapped her cigarette into the crystal ashtray with her index finger.
Xu Zhouxu pressed his right hand over his two cards while his left thumb flipped them open. He let out a triumphant laugh, eager to make sure everyone knew he had a good hand.
“You guys want it? No? Then I’m playing!”
Zhou Yan said nothing.
Song Yu and Xu Zhouxu were partners. She folded her cards right away, waiting for his move.
Xu Zhouxu gleefully tossed out a pair. “There!”
He leaned back into the sofa and nudged Song Yu with his elbow. “Hey, we really need you here. Without you, no one wants to team up against Zhou Yan. This trip was totally worth it.”
Song Yu shot him a look. Who else but Young Master Xu would fly his private jet across the entire Pacific just to drag her into a card game? No one.
Xu Zhouxu was one thing, but Song Yu hadn’t expected Zhou Yan to have nothing better to do than tag along.
Zhou Yan had always been the most clear-headed one in their circle of spoiled rich kids.
He’d had the best of everything growing up, built a successful career, and made a big name for himself in the investment world—a textbook case of young and promising.
Xu Zhouxu loved hanging off his cousin’s coattails, even though as kids he’d gotten plenty of beatings from his dad for trying to measure up to Zhou Yan.
Song Yu had never had much fondness for Zhou Yan. She found his deep-reserved, self-satisfied elite demeanor irritating.
She wasn’t the type to hide her likes or dislikes.
Zhou Yan was well aware of her attitude. For some odd reason, the more she snubbed him, the harder he tried to put on a perfect show in front of her.
He chuckled softly and tossed out one of his cards.
Song Yu glanced at it—a 2.
Her eyes drifted to the discard pile, where another 2 lay buried under a few cards. If she remembered right, it was the one he’d played last round.
She knew Zhou Yan always kept count of the cards; by the late game, he had everyone’s hands figured out.
Too lazy to think it through herself, she also knew he’d deliberately let her have this one.
How dull.
Song Yu stubbed out her half-smoked cigarette. The fingertip pressing against it was clean and translucent.
Zhou Yan noticed her flagging interest in the game. “About time to call it? We’ve been at this all night.”
Xu Zhouxu had raked in a good haul from Zhou Yan that evening—at least enough to cover the fuel costs. Everyone agreed to quit while ahead and scattered to find their own entertainment.
The spotlights picked up speed, and the background music grew even more chaotic.
After months of listening to the forest’s whispers, Song Yu found the pounding metal music jarring.
She sank into the plush leather sofa. It was soft and comfortable, and the plane’s cool temperature was a far cry from the rainforest’s sticky heat—far more suited to human life.
Zhou Yan approached at some point and handed her a wool blanket.
Song Yu didn’t actually feel cold, but she was too lazy to protest. She accepted it with a quiet thanks.
Draping the blanket casually over her legs, she let her gaze wander into the distance.
Xu Zhouxu bobbed his head happily to the beat, lost in the fun. Women in high heels and miniskirts flaunted their pale, almost sickly thin legs.
Song Yu drifted off, her thoughts turning to the festival rituals in the Native American tribe. The men and women there had healthy, wheat-toned skin and strong, well-defined muscles.
“What are you thinking about?” Zhou Yan asked.
Song Yu reined in her wandering thoughts, her tone flat. “Nothing.”
“If it’s nothing, then why were you smiling?” Zhou Yan rarely saw her looking so lost in thought.
“…” Song Yu frowned. “Are you that bored?”
Zhou Yan brushed off her sharp tone.
“The rainforest must have been rough. You’re a lot tanner now.”
Song Yu toyed with the lighter in her hand. Its silver-brass surface felt cool to the touch.
It reminded her of the copper six-pointed star earring dangling from the man’s thin earlobe.
“Not bad,” she replied indifferently, leaning over to pick up a magazine from the side table.
It was the latest issue of Nature, the prestigious international science journal.
The cover showed an aerial view of the forest from above.
Layer upon layer of treetops resembled crowded green balloons, filling a ball pit to the brim.
Zhou Yan chuckled lightly, clearly not buying her casual dismissal.
“No need to play tough. People used to living at the top just can’t hack it down there.”
Song Yu tuned out his smug lecture about the rules of the “upper” world.
She flipped through the magazine on her own, her attention caught by one article in particular.
It detailed the distribution of surviving Native American tribes in southern Brazil.
Many previously documented tribes had been updated to “extinct.”
Song Yu scanned the list of vanished tribes, a strange pang tugging at her heart.
She recalled the night before, when the tribe’s revelry had peaked with drink, only to plunge into an inexplicable silence—from ecstatic joy to melancholic lows.
Takwar had cried the hardest.
She hadn’t understood it then, but now it clicked.
During their ancient Native American festivals, they donned traditional garb, reaching toward a new world while clinging to a fading past.
The bitter taste of mate tea lingered on her tongue, refusing to fade. Song Yu pursed her lips.
The plane’s blaring music filled her ears, the heavy drumbeats pounding like blows to her heart—utterly grating.
After finishing the article, her peripheral glance caught the author’s name in the byline.
Pei Zhi. It sounded like a Chinese name.
Her upper and lower lips brushed together as she silently mouthed the syllables.
She pictured a tenacious scholar trekking deep into the rainforest heartland, forging ahead alone through mountains and rivers.
For some reason, the vague image of the scholar solidified into a very specific face.
The man tilting his head back, black hair falling across his forehead, his obsidian-dark eyes bright and intense as he gazed at faded paintings on a dim cave wall.
Suddenly, Song Yu wanted to be a skylark.
Trailing behind him, her wings brushing the clouds, recording those forgotten histories.
With no response from her for so long, Zhou Yan lost patience and rapped lightly on the table. “What are your plans after this?”
Song Yu’s eyelashes fluttered as she snapped back to reality.
She closed the magazine and looked up at Zhou Yan with a faint smile. “I’m going back to the rainforest.”
When Xu Zhouxu heard Song Yu was heading back to the rainforest, he insisted on tagging along to check it out.
With his pampered upbringing, he wouldn’t last two days.
She tried to talk him out of it for a while but eventually gave up and let him do as he pleased.
The helicopter’s downdraft churned up the rainforest’s green canopy.
Xu Zhouxu jumped down—and promptly stepped right into a puddle of mud.
He grimaced in discomfort, sucking in a sharp breath. In this unfamiliar place, he sniffed the air like an animal testing new territory.
The rainforest air was fresh, heavy with damp moisture.
Once they reached the farm, Xu Zhouxu picked out a room to crash in.
When he saw the dirt-strewn floor and the crude bed pieced together from a few wooden slats, he froze in place.
Song Yu stared at his rigid back, which looked like his brain had short-circuited from the shock.
This was probably the first time in Young Master Xu’s life that he’d faced such harsh conditions.
“Backing out isn’t shameful,” she said in a leisurely drawl.
“…” Damn it.
Xu Zhouxu cursed under his breath. Song Yu really had him figured out.
The more she said things like that, the harder it was for him to talk himself out of it.
Just then, a woman’s clear voice came from outside the hut.
She said “hello” in English.
Song Yu recognized the voice right away. She raised an eyebrow, ignored Xu Zhouxu, and stepped out of the hut.
Kasi was standing in the open space of the farm. She spotted the person emerging from the hut, and her bright black-and-white eyes lit up.
Then she remembered she was supposed to be mad at Song Yu.
She suppressed her smile, pursed her lips, kicked a pebble on the ground, and shuffled slowly toward Song Yu.
“Why are you back?” Kasi asked, feigning impatience.
Song Yu smiled and got straight to the point. “To take you to São Paulo.”
Kasi blinked in surprise.
“What do you want in return?” she asked.
Song Yu liked how quick she was on the uptake. “Live with your tribe for a month, and I’ll take you there for a month. If you find a way to make it on your own there, I won’t interfere anymore.”
Kasi tilted her head, thinking it over. It seemed like a good deal. “You can’t back out!” she said, jumping up happily.
Like a child, her emotions came and went in a flash.
“When are you coming? Today?” Kasi asked impatiently.
A loud clang echoed from inside the wooden hut. No one knew what Xu Zhouxu was doing in there.
Song Yu glanced at the hut. “I’ve got something to handle first. I’ll come find you soon.”
Kasi only cared about things that interested her. She paid no mind to the noise from the hut. “Okay, hurry up.”
After saying goodbye to Kasi, Song Yu returned to the hut.
Xu Zhouxu was struggling to climb up from the collapsed bed frame, which now lay in a pile of splintered wood.
He was furious. “What kind of shitty bed is this? It collapses the second I lie down!”
The bed in this hut had never been slept in before. Due to the humid weather, the nails connecting the wooden frame had rusted and corroded. With Xu Zhouxu’s tall frame and solid build, it simply couldn’t hold his weight.
Song Yu found it both amusing and exasperating. She didn’t have time to deal with him. “You’re on your own. I’m heading out and won’t be back until tonight.”
“Where are you going?”
“There’s a Native American village nearby. I’m going for some photography.” Song Yu explained it in terms he could grasp.
At that, Xu Zhouxu perked up. He dropped what he was doing. “Then I’m coming too.”
Song Yu thought it over. By this time, Takwar and the others should be back from hunting. Bringing Xu Zhouxu along shouldn’t be a problem.
It had rained in the rainforest that morning, leaving the path a muddy mess. Even Song Yu ended up looking disheveled. Xu Zhouxu fared far worse.
By the time they neared the camp, dusk had fallen, and the sky was the dull gray typical of the rainy season.
Song Yu stood at the edge of the shallows, dipping her feet into the water to rinse the mud from her rain boots.
She checked the camera battery while reaching into her pocket to make sure she had enough of those pretty beads.
Xu Zhouxu leaned against a banana tree, panting heavily. His meticulously styled hair had long since fallen into disarray.
He had started regretting his decision the moment they arrived in the rainforest—and he’d been regretting it nonstop ever since.
A breeze stirred the air.
The banana leaves rustled softly.
From the dense jungle across the shallows emerged a fluffy little monkey, squeaking noisily.
Moments later, Xu Zhouxu spotted a man stepping out of the undergrowth.
The man wore a simple white shirt and long pants, with leather boots on his feet. His sleeves were casually rolled up, revealing a glimpse of taut, muscular forearm.
He had striking features, with dark hair falling over his forehead and framing deep, intense eyes. He carried himself with a cold, aloof air, like a lone wolf prowling the forest.
Xu Zhouxu’s gaze met the man’s, and he felt an instinctive chill, momentarily freezing up.
The man’s eyes lingered on him for two seconds, his brow furrowing ever so slightly. Then he looked away without a word, turning his attention to Song Yu at the water’s edge.
Song Yu, still looking down, hadn’t noticed him yet. She spotted the approaching monkey first.
Judy splashed water at her, sending up a small spray.
Song Yu arched a brow and kicked some water back at it.
Judy darted aside nimbly. It missed Song Yu but ended up dousing the man standing behind her.
The morning rain had left the shallows murky.
Song Yu stared at the black leather boots that had appeared in her view, along with the splattered mud on the man’s pants. She froze for a moment.
Lifting her head, she looked straight into his dark eyes.
His lips pressed together in faint exasperation.
Pei Zhi led the way toward the camp.
Song Yu and Xu Zhouxu followed behind. No one spoke, and the three of them moved along in a strangely harmonious silence.
Song Yu stared dazedly at the dark and light mud stains on his pants.
His reaction to her return was even more indifferent than she’d expected. He hadn’t even asked why she’d come back.
She pursed her lips and made no effort to speak to him.
With Pei Zhi in the lead, he knew exactly which patches of ground were firm enough to step on.
Song Yu simply followed in his footsteps, making much better time than she had on the way there.
Xu Zhouxu didn’t catch on at first, but he soon did and stuck to Song Yu’s path.
Bringing up the rear, he stole occasional glances at the two ahead of him.
Whenever Song Yu fell behind, Pei Zhi would slow down deliberately, waiting for her to catch up before continuing.
When they had to cross small boggy patches, he always chose routes she could manage in a single step.
Xu Zhouxu might not be the serious type, but he was especially attuned to these seemingly pointless details.
As they neared the camp, the path widened, and they ended up walking abreast.
Finally, Xu Zhouxu couldn’t hold back. He tugged at Song Yu’s sleeve.
“I get it now—why you ran back to the rainforest.” He spoke in Chinese, making no effort to hide it. The man beside them wouldn’t understand anyway.
Song Yu shoved her hands in her pockets and raised an eyebrow, motioning for him to go on.
Xu Zhouxu’s expression grew complicated.
He’d genuinely thought Song Yu had lost her mind to come to a place like this. If that were the reason, he might have understood—a little.
He came to a conclusion.
“You trying to hook up with him?”
“…”
Pei Zhi and Song Yu both halted in their tracks.