Chapter 29: A Lifeline in Desperate Straits

After a sharp jolt of pain, Shi Yuning’s stomach-lurching freefall came to an abrupt halt. Instead, surging river water rushed in from all directions, engulfing her completely.

Shi Yuning’s heart soared with joy. She forced her eyes open underwater—they had truly landed like protagonists from a story, blessed with luck no ordinary person could dream of!

The protagonist cliff-diving survival rule had kicked in!

Beneath the mist, the base of the cliff revealed itself as a vast stretch of water.

The river was icy cold, but Shi Yuning’s heart burned hot. Since she had survived unscathed, Xie Zhaoran surely had as well.

Having grown up in the watery lands of Jiangnan, Shi Yuning was no stranger to swimming. The moment she hit the water, she opened her eyes wide and scanned for Xie Zhaoran’s figure.

But after searching every direction around the impact point, she found no sign of her.

Unsure if Xie Zhaoran could swim, Shi Yuning’s heart clenched in worry. She quickly surfaced, got her bearings on the wind and current, then took a deep breath and dove northwest.

Xie Zhaoran might have been swept downstream by the flow.

The moment Xie Zhaoran saw Shi Yuning plummeting alongside her, her heart twisted like a knife.

Only when they hit the water did a flicker of relief pierce her despair—at least Shi Yuning wouldn’t die.

She knew Shi Yuning had been raised in Jiangnan and had once mentioned diving for fish as a child. Her swimming skills should be solid; she would surely make it.

Xie Zhaoran’s arm was injured, and from bearing both their weights earlier, one shoulder had dislocated completely, rendering it useless.

The river soaked her wounds, the pain so excruciating she nearly blacked out.

She thrashed desperately a few times, only to realize her right leg had been hurt at some point, limp and powerless. She sank deeper and deeper.

Xie Zhaoran didn’t want to die. She couldn’t yet confirm Shi Yuning’s safety, and there were so many words left unsaid between them.

She wanted to tell her that she adored her.

She had liked her from the very start.

But no matter how she struggled, she kept sinking.

In her fading consciousness, she recalled Shi Yuning’s talk of the protagonist rule. Of course—only someone as radiant as Shi Yuning deserved to be the lead.

Reflecting on their mere months together, Xie Zhaoran’s heart filled with regret and self-reproach. Her tears mingled with the water, her body growing colder, her mind dimmer.

Then, suddenly, her foot tightened in someone’s grip.

Xie Zhaoran jolted awake from her daze. Someone had grabbed her foot and was tugging off her waterlogged, heavy boots.

A guess formed in her mind. She forced her eyes open. The underwater light danced and shimmered, but she made out a familiar face.

Who else could it be but Shi Yuning?

Xie Zhaoran watched as she laboriously pried off the shoe and cast it aside, time seeming to slow a hundredfold beneath the surface.

She watched her draw closer and closer. The water wasn’t clear, yet somehow Xie Zhaoran could see Shi Yuning perfectly.

Her outer robe hung in tatters, swaying like rags in the current. Her snow-white inner garment was stained with blood—whose, she couldn’t tell—stark and piercing.

The hair Xie Zhaoran had pinned up for her had come loose without its tie, fanning out like seaweed.

Her face was deathly pale, but those eyes burned red, wrenching at the heart.

Though time dragged on, Shi Yuning inched nearer bit by bit until she was right beside her.

Thank goodness—you’re alive. Xie Zhaoran closed her eyes in weary relief.

She waved off Shi Yuning’s reaching hand. She knew swimming and saving someone were worlds apart.

She wanted to shout for her to leave, to swim up alone and forget her—but underwater, she couldn’t utter a word.

Her body grew lighter, as if floating upward.

She seemed to hear the wind whistling. And that alluring fragrance wafting toward her—gentle yet vibrant, a scent she remembered from only one person.

Xie Zhaoran recalled last year, the first time she laid eyes on Shi Yuning.

It started with that distinctive aroma, then the girl came bounding around the corner ahead, impulsive and unguarded. Her round face beamed with childlike curiosity and innocence.

Those eyes, pure black, lit up with awe at the sight of her. Xie Zhaoran heard her call out, “Pretty big sister!”

She had asked who she was and if she knew the way to the Empress’s Palace.

For the first time, Xie Zhaoran’s heart pounded like thunder. She had never met such an endearing girl before—like a fox spirit turned sly housecat, all clumsy charm as she scooted closer, nuzzling for affection.

As she drew nearer, Xie Zhaoran had stepped back sharply, warning her not to be rude.

Now, looking back on it all, Xie Zhaoran regretted it to her core.

What had she been playing at back then? She should have just swept the girl off to her estate and let her call her “pretty big sister” all night long.

“Xie Zhaoran—Xie Zhaoran—”

Who was calling her?

“Xie Zhaoran! Xie Zhaoran! Wake up! Please wake up! Don’t sleep! Wake up, okay? I beg you, don’t sleep! Don’t leave me alone! Wake up!”

That voice—it sounded like Shi Yuning’s. Why wasn’t she calling her “sister” anymore? How could she ever leave her? She wished she could tie Shi Yuning to her side and watch her every moment.

In the pitch-black void, faint white light flickered. Xie Zhaoran felt her body sinking again, pain flaring anew.

Shi Yuning pressed down on Xie Zhaoran’s abdomen with all her strength over a dozen times. Seeing no response, she fought back tears swirling in her eyes, pinched Xie Zhaoran’s cheeks, and breathed several more lungfuls of air into her.

Wiping away her tears, she pressed another dozen times.

“Cough, cough.”

Thank heavens. As Xie Zhaoran finally coughed up water, Shi Yuning’s face lit up with joy. She patted her cheeks. “Xie Zhaoran, Xie Zhaoran, you’re awake! That’s wonderful—you’re not dead!”

Xie Zhaoran felt utterly wretched, pain throbbing everywhere. Even trying to speak comfortingly, her throat ached too much for sound.

She coughed up more water before fully opening her eyes.

Shi Yuning’s hair dripped wet, her bangs plastered to her face in utter disarray. Bloodshot eyes made her look heartbreakingly pitiful.

Xie Zhaoran’s heart ached for her. She coughed up a few more mouthfuls.

Shi Yuning finally exhaled in relief, the tension snapping like a bowstring.

She leaned in and hugged Xie Zhaoran tightly. “You scared me to death! I thought you were gone for good. What would I do if that happened?”

Shi Yuning burst into sobs. Everything that had befallen them today had been far too perilous—just a hair’s breadth from never seeing each other again.

Xie Zhaoran’s right shoulder was dislocated and immobile, so she strained her left arm to hug her back, forcing a smile. “It’s—it’s okay now. I won’t—won’t leave you.”

Shi Yuning sniffled hard, stemming her tears. She knew this wasn’t the time to cry. Xie Zhaoran was awake, but her condition was dire.

Shi Yuning had noticed the dislocated right shoulder while dragging her ashore, and the right leg seemed broken from striking a hidden rock.

Countless wounds of every size crisscrossed her body. Without a doctor soon, the outlook was grim.

Even in summer, the soaked clothes and blowing wind made Shi Yuning shiver.

They needed dry clothes immediately, or fever would claim the gravely injured Xie Zhaoran.

“We have to get out of here right away,” Shi Yuning said unsteadily, rising to scan their surroundings.

She had pulled her to the nearest shallows, ringed by mountains with no sign of civilization.

It was desolate—no chance of a clinic nearby.

Glancing at Xie Zhaoran’s state, Shi Yuning couldn’t bear leaving her alone while seeking help.

After a moment’s thought, she made up her mind. She helped Xie Zhaoran up, turned her back, and squatted down to hoist her onto it.

Caught off guard in her haze, Xie Zhaoran rasped a protest once she realized. “I can wait here—”

Shi Yuning cut her off before she could finish. “I won’t leave you. Don’t talk. We survived that fall from such heights—nothing can stop us now.”

Xie Zhaoran lay feebly against her back, mouth opening for more, but darkness claimed her vision. Her head lolled, and she fainted atop Shi Yuning’s back.

Shi Yuning heard nothing more. She trudged onward, one laborious step at a time, away from the riverbank.

Whenever she couldn’t go on, she dropped to her knees for a rest—but after Xie Zhaoran lost consciousness, she hadn’t stopped once. Her shoes tore open; blood seeped from her soles. Still, she pressed on.

Her mind held one thought alone: she would keep Xie Zhaoran alive.

When lush green fields appeared, followed by a distant village, Shi Yuning wondered if she was hallucinating.

Only upon confirming it was real did her legs give out. She collapsed to her knees, weeping.

“Xie Zhaoran, I told you—you’re the protagonist. No desperate straits without a way out.”

Shi Yuning laughed through her tears, too weary to wipe them. Carefully, she laid Xie Zhaoran by the roadside and stumbled toward the village.

Tian Dame’s daughter was due any day. After entrusting her chickens and ducks to a neighbor, she took a shortcut to Green Mountain Town thirty miles away, clutching a jar of nourishing chicken soup for her girl. Suddenly, a blood-soaked young woman came dashing toward her from the fields, startling her so badly she nearly dropped the jar.

“Auntie, Auntie, help!” Shi Yuning had no time for explanations. Spotting the woman, she begged, “My sister’s hurt bad—please save her!”

“You—you—who are you? Where’d you come from?” Tian Dame gaped, thinking she’d never seen such a striking girl in these parts.

When Shi Yuning dragged her to see Xie Zhaoran by the road, Tian Dame froze in shock. “Oh my lord—this—how did this happen? She’s hurt so terribly!”

“Hurry—come with me.”

Hearing Tian Dame agree to help, Shi Yuning crumpled like a wall robbed of its pillar.

Her strength had long been spent; only the drive to save Xie Zhaoran had kept her going this far.

In her final moment of collapse, Shi Yuning thought that if they both survived this, she would confess her feelings to Xie Zhaoran.

For saving her life, even if Xie Zhaoran wouldn’t marry her in gratitude, she had to give her a chance to pursue her!