The woman noticed that neither Liu Hu nor Lin Junyang paid any attention to her. She then looked towards the tree branch, but the man who was on the tree had already disappeared. Only then did she realize what she had just grabbed.
She pouted and muttered, "Can't he swim? Is it necessary to be so nervous? He left me here, not knowing how to swim, and kept talking about rescue. What kind of world is this, bullying ordinary people without power or influence?"
As she muttered, she held onto the rope and swam bit by bit towards the shore...
Due to the heavy rain, An Ran had to wait at the station for two days before getting a bus to Linjiang. Once she got on the bus, she didn't expect that when they were close to Lin'an, the driver would change direction, saying that the road ahead was flooded and they had to get off there to go to Linjiang.
After getting off the bus, An Ran sorrowfully realized that she was the only one going to Linjiang.
Looking at the desolate road, without a village in front or a shop behind, An Ran looked up at the sky speechlessly. Was heaven also bullying her?
Fortunately, the driver had told her that if she walked about 20 miles forward, she would reach the city area. If she was lucky, she might get a hitchhike. The sky looked clear for now, so An Ran felt it was a blessing in disguise.
She walked along the road for a while and came across the washed-out section the driver mentioned. To be precise, it was an uphill road which, due to rainwater and the wheels of vehicles, had severe water accumulation and was indeed unfit for travel.
An Ran detoured around it and arrived at a dam. This road was built on a large dam, with a small river on one side which was a branch of the Qiu River.
After several days of rain and floods in the mountain area, the water level of this small river had significantly risen, and the flow had become more rapid. An Ran walked while observing the scenery on both sides.
Occasionally, objects washed downstream from the upper reaches could be seen in the river. Seeing these things, An Ran couldn't help but feel a bit desolate, wondering how many people had lost their homes.
Suddenly, in a densely wooded area, something on the water's surface that was different from the green of the branches caught her attention. An Ran stood on the dam for a long time but couldn't figure out what it was. The more she couldn't see clearly, the more curious she became, so she went down the dam, trudging towards the river.
When she finally saw what the green object was, her face turned pale—it was a person. However, the person was lying motionless on a large rock protruding in the middle of the river.
Could it be a dead person? An Ran thought to herself. She wanted to take out her phone to call the police but then remembered that Sun Xuehui had taken her phone.
In this kind of weather, people would avoid going out if they could, and this road was a remote section. On her way here, she hadn't seen a single vehicle. Looking at the figure on the rock, whether it was a person or a corpse, An Ran hesitated.
At that moment, the figure moved slightly.
Still alive, An Ran felt a sense of relief. She quickly put down her backpack and took out the lifesaving tools that Xiao Xiao had prepared for her.
She had mocked Xiao Xiao for being silly at the time, but now she didn't expect to use them so soon.
Xiao Xiao had prepared a raincoat, a life jacket, and a rope for her. An Ran knew how to swim. Though the water was fast, she believed she could manage. Besides, the person's location wasn't very far from the shore.
An Ran put on the life jacket, observed the length of the rope, and tied it to a large tree on the shore and the other end around her waist. Testing the strength, she took the other end of the rope and went into the water, holding onto the rope around her waist.
An Ran was focused on what she was doing and didn't notice that the person on the rock had gently opened their eyes...