Chapter 2: Landslide

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

They were almost running at the moment, so when Wen Xuehui pulled her out of her pace, Jiang Yao stumbled and nearly fell. Luckily, she managed to steady herself and stood firmly after a few wobbly tries.

“Sorry, I’m a little distracted,” Jiang Yao whispered in apology. “I don’t know why but I suddenly feel uneasy. We’d better hurry and run faster.”

Wen Xuehui nodded, held Jiang Yao’s hand, and started running. The two comrades behind them were also following them, so she didn’t say anything.

The downpour was getting heavier and heavier with every second, coupled with enormous thunders and lightning. It was supposed to be the warmest summer, but instead, it was so cold that people couldn’t stop shivering.

Wen Xuehui cursed at the weather and the sound of broken branches under their feet resonated into Jiang Yao’s ears.

In the village, without the moon’s illumination, the night was mysteriously and horribly dark. Thunder and lightning created a ghastly backdrop to the dark night.

If it weren’t for the two guards behind them, Jiang Yao wondered if she and Wen Xuehui, two girls who were afraid of the dark, would have dared to run on this narrow path at this hour.

“Run! Hurry!”

Abruptly, there was a roar coming behind her along with an unusual shock vibrating into her ears. When Jiang Yao looked back in shock, a pair of hands appeared out of nowhere and pushed Wen Xuehui and her aside in an instant. In the midst of the darkness, she saw a face…

A familiar yet foreign face.

After being washed under the rain for several days, the soil of the mountain had dampened and lost its previous strength. After an enormous vibration, the mountain had disintegrated into piles and piles of slippery mounds.

The mounds buried the face deep beneath it.

“Lu…” Jiang Yao stared horrifically at the mounds in front of her. She wanted to go back despite feeling panicked.

“No! Jiang Yao, don’t go, it’s very dangerous!” Wen Xuehui frantically pulled at Jiang Yao, feeling her heart breaking into a million pieces. “The comrade has sacrificed himself and pushed us out in a moment of crisis. He has gave us time to escape the landslide but he’s buried underneath it…”

“Captain!” The comrade next to them saw the scene and dashed forward hastily.

When Wen Xuehui saw that the landslide was showing signs of shaking, she quickly grabbed the comrade who was about to rush forward by his waist and screamed, “Stop! Don’t go there! Look at the mountain. If you don’t leave now, we will all be buried here and your captain’s sacrifice will be in vain!”

“No, you’re lying! There is no sacrifice, the captain will not die. I’m going to pull him out!” The comrade yelled vigorously as if he had lost his mind. “It’s all my fault! I stopped and looked back like a fool when I heard the noise. It was the captain who had pushed me away in time, but because of me and my foolish mistake, he didn’t have time to escape. It’s all my fault!”

“Jiang Yao, what are you staring at? Hurry and come help me to drag this fool away!” Wen Xuehui shouted at Jiang Yao, who was staring into space and was about to move toward the mounds. “Don’t you dare do any stupid act at this hour. Four deaths versus one death—it’s a simple math problem, think about it!”

No, it was not a simple math problem, because the man buried in the mound was Lu Xingzhi, the husband she’d been married to for eleven years.

The man who was least likely to be here was here.

Although she was resisting her marriage to him, Jiang Yao couldn’t bear to run away alone after seeing him buried under the mound.

“No, we must save him!” This was the only idea in Jiang Yao’s mind. Avoiding the slope that was still continually shedding mud, she dashed toward the mound left by the landslide and dug into the soil with her bare hands. “He should be here, he should be here.”