The hand was steady.
Not hurried. Not desperate. Not testing.
Just… there.
Jin Yue closed his fingers around it.
The grip tightened immediately...not crushing, not cautious either. It was the grip of someone who knew exactly how much strength was needed to keep another person alive without making it a contest.
"Easy," a voice said above him, low and amused. "You've got it."
Jin Yue allowed himself one controlled breath and shifted his weight. Pain flared through his shoulder, sharp and insistent, but the hand compensated without being asked. The man braced himself against the ravine wall, stance wide and balanced, and hauled Jin Yue upward with smooth efficiency.
Jin Yue reached solid ground and exhaled slowly, bracing one hand against stone as pain flared through his shoulder. He kept it contained, swallowing the sharp edge of it before it could show.
The man who had pulled him up crouched beside him, still holding his wrist.
Not tightly.
Not carelessly either.
