The rooster of Qīngshān had not yet crowed, but Zhì Yuǎn had already been awake for some time. Sitting on the bed with his back against the bamboo wall, he breathed slowly while his chest rose and fell with effort. During the early hours he had tried to draw the cold air of the night to calm the heat that still burned inside, but the mountain air was too thin and it did nothing. The fire he had absorbed from the sun continued throbbing beneath his skin, keeping his entire body hot and feverish.
Beside him, Yù Qíng slept deeply, naked, her face turned toward him.
Zhì Yuǎn rose carefully so as not to wake her, put on only a pair of linen trousers, and stepped barefoot onto the rear veranda, where a large clay basin stood full of water from the stream. When he plunged his hands into the icy water and threw it over his face and nape, a low sizzle rose in the air and the water evaporated too quickly on his hot skin, the moisture vanishing in a few moments.
He rested his hands on the rim of the basin, breathing heavily as he realized the internal heat was too strong and that neither the water nor the night air could cool him.
The bamboo floorboards creaked behind him and Yù Qíng appeared wearing only her thin shift, stopping at her husband's back to place her cold hands on his hot skin before resting her cheek between his shoulder blades.
"The bed got cold," she murmured, hoarse with sleep.
"The night doesn't have enough water in the air," Zhì Yuǎn answered, his voice a little rough. "If I keep absorbing heat from the sun, I'll end up burning from the inside."
Yù Qíng tightened her arms around his waist from behind.
"The sun hasn't even properly risen yet. Lie down again."
"I need to go down. I'm going to test a new bracing in the deep galleries before the men enter."
She let out a sigh of irritation, but did not argue, releasing his waist after a long moment to take a step back.
"Then I won't get in your way," she said. "I'll stay here washing clothes and sweeping the yard, and I'll have lunch ready for when you return."
Zhì Yuǎn nodded, turning his face to look at her for an instant before going back inside to dress.
------
The last six days on the northern slope had been a test of limits that came close to killing him. Since the war decree had been thrown into the courtyard, Zhì Yuǎn had spent the mornings buried in the narrow tunnels trying to create a system of levers and iron wedges to tear the hard rock where the veins had thinned, but nothing worked because the mountain stone was too dense for the little iron the village had.
On the third day, when he tried to remove a rotten beam alone at the entrance of the southern gallery to study the abandoned vein, the ceiling gave way and a slab of a thousand jīn crashed down in the dark. Zhì Yuǎn only avoided having his skull crushed because the new reflex in his tendons jerked him backward an instant before, tearing the leather of his left shoulder from end to end, and two days later the cable of an improvised pulley snapped under the traction of the stone, nearly splitting him in half against the wall.
A mortal's method would not pull two thousand sacks from that mountain. And today, with the fire locked in his chest, every hammer blow on the wedges made the internal channels burn as if they were about to tear, forcing him to hold his breath in the middle of the coal dust so he would not faint in front of his father-in-law, until the afternoon began to fall and he finally left the tools.
Zhì Yuǎn returned to the cabin carrying a hare he had taken on the way, his tunic torn at the shoulder, stained with soot and stuck to his body by sweat, while the skin of his neck and arms burned a feverish red.
Yù Qíng was hanging clothes on the line when she saw him arriving, letting the tunic she was holding slip from her hand and fall to the ground before crossing the space between them in quick steps. Zhì Yuǎn raised the hare as if to hand it to her, but Yù Qíng did not even look, throwing the animal carelessly onto the veranda bench to place her hands on his chest.
The moment she touched the hot skin through the opening of the tunic, her eyes widened.
"You're worse than this morning," she said with a tense voice, tightening her fingers on his tunic. "Neither the water nor the shade helped. Tell me what I should do. I can go down and get something from grandmother—"
Zhì Yuǎn held her hand against his chest.
"Your grandmother has nothing that solves this," he answered bluntly. "I tried drawing the night air again, but it's not enough. It doesn't work."
He paused, looking at her worried face.
"Last night… every time you came, a cold freshness came out from inside you, different from the night air."
Yù Qíng went quiet and her breathing changed, fixing her dark eyes on his while a slow smile, with a touch of something wild, appeared on her lips.
"You want to use it?" she murmured, quickly rising onto the tips of her toes to bring her mouth close to her husband's ear in a whisper. "You want what I release when you're inside me?"
Zhì Yuǎn tightened her waist with his free hand and answered in a low, provocative voice.
"I want to see how far I can take you to draw out more."
Yù Qíng nipped the lobe of his ear, her gaze growing darker.
"Then lock the door," she continued, whispering. "Let's test it."
------
The afternoon was still hot when they entered the cabin.
Yù Qíng locked the door and let her dress fall to the floor. She lay on the bed and opened her legs, looking at him with her dark eyes shining.
Zhì Yuǎn climbed on top of her, covering his wife's body completely with his own, and Yù Qíng was already breathing faster when he positioned himself between her thighs and pressed the thick head of his shaft against her wet entrance.
He did not go slowly.
He pushed everything in at once, deep. Yù Qíng arched her back and let out a hoarse moan, her nails digging into his back. His shaft stretched her to the limit.
"Nghh…!" the sound came out muffled when she bit her lower lip hard.
Zhì Yuǎn let out a low grunt against her neck and began moving his hips. Long, heavy, steady thrusts. Every time he entered deep, his broad hip struck against her with a wet sound. The mattress creaked loudly.
Yù Qíng moaned uncontrollably. Her small body swayed every time he thrust. Her legs could barely close properly around his broad waist.
"More… deeper…" she whimpered, her voice failing.
Zhì Yuǎn gripped her hips harder and began thrusting with heavier force. Sweat ran down his back and dripped onto Yù Qíng's belly. The sound of flesh striking flesh echoed in the room along with her hoarse moans.
Yù Qíng came for the first time trembling all over, her legs squeezing what they could of his waist, a loud moan escaping her throat. In the instant she came, Zhì Yuǎn felt a wave of cold freshness rise through where they were connected. The relief was immediate. The heat inside his chest lessened a little.
He did not stop.
He continued thrusting while she was still trembling from the release, forcing deeper. The freshness that came out of her every time his shaft entered and left calmed him. He began to crave the sensation. The more of that cold moisture she released, the more relief he felt.
Yù Qíng was already breathless, her body limp, but he continued. He changed the angle from time to time, sometimes slower, sometimes rougher. She moaned low, her nails scratching his back, her legs trembling uncontrollably.
"You're going to kill me like this… so deep… ahh…" she murmured hoarsely, almost delirious.
Zhì Yuǎn leaned close to her ear, his voice grave and low:
"One more time. Come for me one more time."
He continued. The thrusts became deeper, slower, and even heavier. Yù Qíng came again some time later, her entire body going rigid, a long and broken moan leaving her. Another wave of cold freshness rose into him. The relief was greater.
After that she was already almost without strength, panting against his shoulder, her body limp and trembling. Even so, Zhì Yuǎn did not stop.
He continued in her for a while longer, drawing every drop of that cold moisture he could, until Yù Qíng finally gave out—her body completely limp, her eyes rolling, a last weak moan escaping before she passed out.
Only then did Zhì Yuǎn stop.
He was breathless. The heat that had tormented him the entire day had been controlled. He withdrew from inside her slowly and lay on his side, pulling her cold and limp body onto his own chest. He ran his hand along her back and felt how cold she was.
He had gotten what he needed.
But her body could not endure doing this every night.
He remained stroking his wife's back.
If he wanted to keep using her freshness to balance himself, he needed to make her body endure. He could no longer only take. He had to give as well.
Next time, he would not only draw. He would force his own heat into her as well. He would open her channels by force, the same way he had opened his own. So that the two of them could bear each other's weight.
He held her tighter and closed his eyes.