diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 8b3fb86713..a041619ece 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -4072,6 +4072,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "regex",
  "regex-automata 0.2.0",
  "snafu",
+ "tempfile",
  "tokio",
  "tokio-util",
 ]
diff --git a/src/index/Cargo.toml b/src/index/Cargo.toml
index 0835da45d0..4c0dc82b02 100644
--- a/src/index/Cargo.toml
+++ b/src/index/Cargo.toml
@@ -25,5 +25,6 @@ snafu.workspace = true
 
 [dev-dependencies]
 rand.workspace = true
+tempfile.workspace = true
 tokio-util.workspace = true
 tokio.workspace = true
diff --git a/src/index/src/inverted_index/create/sort/intermediate_rw.rs b/src/index/src/inverted_index/create/sort/intermediate_rw.rs
index 754a219155..3a4f15c0de 100644
--- a/src/index/src/inverted_index/create/sort/intermediate_rw.rs
+++ b/src/index/src/inverted_index/create/sort/intermediate_rw.rs
@@ -49,10 +49,14 @@ impl<W: AsyncWrite + Unpin> IntermediateWriter<W> {
 
         let value_stream = stream::iter(values.into_iter().map(Ok));
         let frame_write = FramedWrite::new(&mut self.writer, encoder);
-        value_stream.forward(frame_write).await?;
+        // `forward()` will flush and close the writer when the stream ends
+        if let Err(e) = value_stream.forward(frame_write).await {
+            self.writer.flush().await.context(FlushSnafu)?;
+            self.writer.close().await.context(CloseSnafu)?;
+            return Err(e);
+        }
 
-        self.writer.flush().await.context(FlushSnafu)?;
-        self.writer.close().await.context(CloseSnafu)
+        Ok(())
     }
 }
 
@@ -85,24 +89,32 @@ impl<R: AsyncRead + Unpin + Send + 'static> IntermediateReader<R> {
 
 #[cfg(test)]
 mod tests {
-    use futures::io::Cursor;
+    use std::io::{Seek, SeekFrom};
+
+    use futures::io::{AllowStdIo, Cursor};
+    use tempfile::tempfile;
 
     use super::*;
     use crate::inverted_index::error::Error;
 
     #[tokio::test]
     async fn test_intermediate_read_write_basic() {
-        let mut buf = vec![];
+        let file_r = tempfile().unwrap();
+        let file_w = file_r.try_clone().unwrap();
+        let mut buf_r = AllowStdIo::new(file_r);
+        let buf_w = AllowStdIo::new(file_w);
 
         let values = BTreeMap::from_iter([
             (Bytes::from("a"), BitVec::from_slice(&[0b10101010])),
             (Bytes::from("b"), BitVec::from_slice(&[0b01010101])),
         ]);
 
-        let writer = IntermediateWriter::new(&mut buf);
+        let writer = IntermediateWriter::new(buf_w);
         writer.write_all(values.clone()).await.unwrap();
+        // reset the handle
+        buf_r.seek(SeekFrom::Start(0)).unwrap();
 
-        let reader = IntermediateReader::new(Cursor::new(buf));
+        let reader = IntermediateReader::new(buf_r);
         let mut stream = reader.into_stream().await.unwrap();
 
         let a = stream.next().await.unwrap().unwrap();