The One in the Mountains

Blurb:

War was raging, and even the border town was caught in the turmoil. Luo Lin was lucky enough to survive the disaster. Carrying an address his family had given him on their deathbeds, he fled with the family servant to a small village deep in the mountains, hoping to find shelter.

The two of them crossed countless mountains and forests, eating grass when they were hungry and sleeping in trees when they were tired. At long last, they reached their destination and were taken in by an old friend of his parents. Life finally began to settle down, but disaster soon came knocking.

It was only when the family servant and the old friend's daughter pushed him into a deep pit and dropped a heavy rock on him that Luo Lin realized the two had fallen for each other. They were targeting him because he was in the way: he was the one chosen to be their son-in-law.

Looking at the pit several yards deep and his shattered left leg, Luo Lin resigned himself to being buried in the mountains. Just as he was nearly out of breath, something stirred in the pit.

A beast sprang at him...

He thought the beast would devour him completely, leaving not even his bones behind. Instead, it carried him back to its lair.

It turned out the beast wasn't really a beast, but a wild man who had somehow ended up there. The wild man had several shelters in the mountains: a cave, a treehouse, and other places he moved between with the seasons. They were quite comfortable to live in.

Luo Lin was a young master who had never known hardship, so, little by little, the wild man's cave acquired tables and chairs, teacups, firewood, rice, oil, quilts, blankets, and even sweet drinks and desserts.

Luo Lin's life changed day by day, and so did the wild man. Luo Lin gently pushed away the wild man who was sprawled on top of him, nuzzling against him. Even he couldn't tell whether he wanted the man to go back to being a wild man or to become a proper human being.

Either way, he wouldn't be so exhausted as he was now.

A note for readers: There aren't any major battle scenes. The story mainly follows the couple's quiet life in the mountains.

Theme: Love means staying by each other's side through danger.