Yu Jin no longer answers her as he already reaches fence of a balcony on one of the building then lets go his grip at the branch, almost simultaneously. He climbs the fence as quickly as possible before the rope gets tighten. He only manages to step a foot on the balcony floor when he feels a heavy load on his waist as the rope is tight. Yu Jin almost falls to the water as the load drifts him. He pushes his body to fall to the balcony then he immediately is dragged to hit the iron fence.
He stands while holding tight to the fence, make sure he won't fall to the water. He becomes panic when he doesn't feel to be dragged anymore. Did the rope break ? But then he sees some movement on a tree five meters from the building. It is Xiao Ping, waving on him. The red rope still traverses between them. Xiao Ping somehow manages to climbs the tree. Yu Jin widely smiles. He thanks God that the girl is smart and tough.
"I will pull you here. Get ready to swim, okay ?" Yu Jin shouts at her, competing with the sound of the wind. Xiao Ping nods and gives him a thumb, a signal that she understood.
"Ready ? On count of 3. 1.. 2.. 3.."
Xiao Ping jumps to the water again without hesitate. The stream is strong. The rope is quickly tightens up again. As Xiao Ping tries hard to swim against the stream, Yu Jin giving all his power to pull her. He pulls her little by little, loops the rope around his body as a barrier. He doesn't care about his bleeding hands, his torn jacket, nor the twisted rope that suffocating him. All of his body is only focusing on pulling the rope. Their efforts are not fruitless. Xiao Ping is slowly but sure getting closer to the building. But she begins to fatigue.
"Don't give up!! Just a little more !" Yu Jin shouts to motivate her. He bends down, carefully not to touch the TV antenna below him. He is stretching his hand so Xiao Ping can reach it. Exhausted, Xiao Ping reaches his hand weakly. "Don't let go, okay?!" Xiao Ping nods. But then a wave comes to them and she loses his grip. "No !" Yu Jin shouts then bends down a little more, forgetting about the antenna. The antenna stabs him a little but he manages to hold her wrist. Another wave comes, moving the antenna to prick his stomach deeper. Yu Jin shouts in pain but doesn't lose his grip a single bit. He grabs Xiao Ping's other wrist. Then with the last strength he's got, he pulls her to reach the fence. Xiao Ping grabs the fence. With very much struggle, she straddles the fence then drops her body on the floor.
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The cold splashed water finally wakes Yu Jin up. He is still standing, hangs on the fence. His upper body is outside the balcony. When he tries to straighten his upper body, a tremendous pain attacks him. Soon, he notices the TV antenna is still stuck on his stomach. With a loud painful growl, Yu Jin releases the antenna from his body. Still in pain, he checks in his wound. There is a 5 cm rip with a torn angle shape on his stomach and blood is coming out from it, but only leaking. I should be fine, he convinces himself.
With one hand pressing the wound, Yu Jin goes to where Xiao Ping lays. "Wake up, Xiao Ping," he calls her and slaps her cheeks gently to wake her up. Her eyes are moving and soon opening. "We need to go to the top floor," Yu Jin says to her. The water is already reaching the 2nd floor. It is about 5 centimeters high. Xiao Ping nods. With Yu Jin's support she slowly stands up. "Can you walk ?" Yu Jin asks again. "Sure," Xiao Ping responds.
She walks to the glass door. "It is locked," Xiao Ping says. Yu Jin tells her to move a side while he is struggling to take off his jacket and twisting it on his right arm. He then hits the glass door. The glass is cracked after few times of try. He hits it one more time and the glass finally breaks down. He hits couple more times to enlarge the hole.
"Let's go," Yu Jin invites her to come in once the hole is a human large and leads the way. Inside, there are a lot of ceiling tall book shelfs, tables and chairs. "It's a library," Xiao Ping whispers. "Hey, we're in public library," Xiao Ping continues in excitement. Yu Jin nods in respond. "Come on," he leads her to find a stair.
"Are you okay ?" Xiao Ping asks once she notices Yu Jin is limping. "Yeah, I just got a little wound," he answers. "We should check it first," she urges. Yu Jin shakes his head. "Better later when we arrive at the top floor," he refuses. Xiao Ping doesn't argue him anymore.
They walk slowly, groping in the dark. When they finally find the stair, the water is already at Xiao Ping's knee. They climb the stair in snail speed as Yu Jin can no longer hide his pain. The last rows of stair he even needs Xiao Ping's support to be able to climb up.
Once they reach the fourth floor, Yu Jin lays his body on the floor. Xiao Ping detaches the rope that is still tied at her body and explores the room to search for light source. It looks like this floor is for digital and online collections of the library. Instead of book shelfs like the second floor, this floor has lots of desks with computers on top of them. She is lucky, there are some reading light that operated by battery on the desk. She turns some of them, and grabs one on her hand.
"Let me see your wound," she says while gently gets rid of Yu Jin's hand that covers his stomach. She turns on the lamp and gasps on surprised to see so much blood on his shirt. She quickly opens his shirt. The blood is leaking from the wound non-stop. She runs and searches the room again, finding a dry fabric. Their clothes are wet from the flood. Who knows how clean is the water. She comes back with a table cloth on her hand.
Xiao Ping crumples the table cloth and puts it on Yu Jin's wound, presses it hard with both of her hand. Yu Jin opens his eyes and slowly puts his hand on top of Xiao Ping's hand. "Let me do it," he says and gives her a weak smile. Xiao Ping lets go her hands then hugs him. "Thank you," Yu Jin whispers to her. "Don't die on me, please," Xiao Ping says to him. "Don't worry. I won't."