On the bank, the safety rope was already being pulled back in, while Ah Wei and the person who had fallen into the water were completely drained of the strength to even move a finger, fully submerged, left to be pulled ashore by the safety rope.
Once they reached a safe area, the female college student and another woman rushed over; the other woman was pregnant and was the first one who had screamed "there's someone below," but, while Ah Wei could still weakly say two words to show he was alive, the other man couldn't respond at all. Suddenly, cries of "get to the hospital" and "call a doctor" began incessantly.
The medical arrangements for the disaster and the aftermath had been well-planned; two days earlier, a medical team had arrived from the county hospital, and the town health center was also prepared, with a temporary medical station right at Hope Primary School.
Tu Hengsha's attention was still on the water! By then, the rescue boat had arrived. Conducting a rescue in such turbulent waters, with the river still rising, was difficult. The rescue boat bobbed up and down with the waves in the vast, muddy water, tiny like a leaf. From afar, it seemed uncontrollable by the rushing currents.
But, during such times, there are always special methods; one must not only perform the rescue but also ensure the boat's safety. Thanks to the soldiers' efforts, the rescue boat finally stopped beside them.
Xu Gui was the first to be saved. Watching him be steadied by two soldiers and moved onto the lifeboat, Tu Hengsha finally let go of much of the breath she'd been holding. The person left in the tree appeared much thinner, probably a woman, and definitely much lighter than Xu Gui, which should make bringing her down easier.
However, things turned out to be so unexpected. Tu Hengsha was too far to see clearly, didn't know why, but when the woman was being helped down from the tree, her body tilted strangely, and then, although several soldiers ultimately caught her, a simultaneous cry of "Ah Gua—" came from the surface of the water.
Tu Hengsha then saw something being swept away by the river, vanishing in an instant...
So, the person just washed away was Ah Gua? Tu Hengsha couldn't believe her guess, but the cries on the surface became even clearer and more mercilessly confirmed that her speculation was indeed the truth!
Everything happened so quickly, in the span of just one second, marking the line between life and death...
Why did it have to be like this?
Tu Hengsha closed her eyes, a vision of the nineteen-year-old boy's dark and lean face, covered in mud, smiling at her innocently, surfaced in her mind.
"He's called Ah Gua! A melon kid!"
"When the big earthquake hit my hometown, I was very young... when I woke up, everything was dark... I was both hungry and scared... until finally, an uncle picked me up. He was wearing clothes like the ones I'm wearing now."
"Sis, don't report about me..."
Melon kid! You melon kid! If possible, I'd never want to have to report about you in a story like this!
When she opened her eyes again, the rescue boat was already heading back, the river surging with yellow waves, and that thin figure who had fallen in, like a drop of water, merged silently into the river, leaving no trace to be found.
The torrential rain blurred her vision, leaving only a murky yellow in view...
Until someone approached her, blocking her line of sight, she sniffed, and her gaze gradually focused on nothing but the rain-soaked chest wrapped in a striped shirt within her field of vision.
She couldn't speak, her eyelids too heavy to lift. After a long while, she reached out and grabbed his wet shirtfront at his chest, and he reached out and held on.
Both hands had been drenched by rain and soaked in water, swollen and pale, tightly overlapping each other.