Chapter 14: Chapter 14 Rescue
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But she had underestimated Li Chunhua's strength and the height of the dam; being forcefully pushed off from the dam and crashing down onto the water from such a height, she was certain to face dire consequences.
Yet pondering over her past special ability, she deemed it all worthwhile.
Then she felt herself smash into the water like a stone, her entire body as if crashing from a towering building onto solid concrete, the icy water engulfed her completely, the cold and gloomy reservoir water wrapped around her forcefully, dragging her into the depths of darkness.
In her blurred and confused thoughts, she considered that dying was indeed an unpleasant sensation.
She sank deeper, pulled by an unseen hand. She was dragged further down, and in her last glimpses, she could see the towering dam gradually disappearing from her sight.
After all the fear and pain, the end was almost a relief. For a long time, she could only surrender to the inevitable fate. But suddenly, instinct kicked in, and she began to struggle, trying to kick her legs to resurface.
However, the intense pain in her body made her lose control, and gradually she used up all her oxygen. Her lungs burned, heavy from rapid breathing; she knew the moment was upon her.
Her consciousness faded, and she knew no more.
An Zhiyuan was conducting training with his students at the reservoir beneath the dam.
In their area, floods threatened every summer, and the leadership's mission for them was to have a concrete concept of the floods, including countermeasures. This reservoir was the prime training ground.
They were engrossed in a drill when they spotted two women running to the top of the dam, tussling with each other.
Due to the distance, they couldn't hear what the two were saying.
But soon they saw one woman fiercely shove the other off the dam.
An Zhiyuan inwardly cursed their luck; from that height, even if the fall didn't drown her, the impact against the water could knock her unconscious, and regardless of her swimming skills, she would likely drown.
"Everyone in the water, save her!" An Zhiyuan dove in and swam towards where the woman had fallen.
As they were in the midst of training, and aside from their olive green shorts, they were all shirtless, saving the time to strip, and upon the instructor's command, all the students, like dumplings, plunged into the water.
The reservoir was too vast; they had a rough idea of the direction the woman had fallen, but seeing it and actually reaching the spot were entirely different matters.
An Zhiyuan surfaced, took a deep breath, and could see no trace of the woman on the water.
Diving again, An Zhiyuan finally saw a dark silhouette in the murk; he twisted his body, swimming towards her.
He grabbed the woman forcefully, struggling as if to drag her to the surface. In the water, their gazes pierced the shadowy depths and met; his face was so close to hers, Bai Xiao could see her pain reflected in his eyes.
She saw the flash in his pupils, felt the surge of his renewed strength, his arms wrapped around her waist, and with powerful kicks, he led them upwards, towards the surface for fresh oxygen, towards life.
A wave of darkness engulfed her.
An Zhiyuan, holding her, surfaced and quickly swam towards the shore. By then, Liu Baoguo had brought people to the edge of the dam and, seeing that someone had already dived in, finally breathed a sigh of relief.
It was lucky that the cadets were training here; had they waited to come down and then search in the water, who knows where they would have to look to find her.
Now, seeing someone had already rescued Bai Xiao, Liu Baoguo's mind incessantly chanted Amitabha, praying fervently for her well-being!
An Zhiyuan pulled Bai Xiao out of the water, but she was unresponsive, motionless as a rag doll resting in his arms, her lungs unable to function normally; she couldn't inhale the air she desperately needed.
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With the help of the villagers, he lifted Bai Xiao out of the water and laid her flat on the shore.
An Zhiyuan placed her on the grass and began patting her back, attempting to get her to cough up the water she had swallowed, but she showed no response at all.
Liu Baoguo looked at Bai Xiao, her eyes tightly closed. Her face was a ghastly pale with tinges of purple, motionless as she lay there. He reached out to check under her nose.
He shivered suddenly.
She wasn't breathing!
"Village chief, how is my Xiao doing?" Bai Jianguo asked anxiously. No one here was more anxious than he was, and no one was more worried that Bai Xiao might actually be dead.
"She's not breathing!" Liu Baoguo said dryly.
This was a big problem for Liupan Village now...
Bai Jianguo's legs went weak, and he fell to the ground; if Bai Xiao were dead, not only would Li Chunhua have to pay with her life, but if Bai Song came back, it could cost the entire Bai Family their lives.
An Zhiyuan shouted, "All of you back off and don't crowd around her; she can't breathe in fresh air like this."
He used his hands to pry open her mouth and scooped out some water plants. With no foreign objects in her mouth and nose, he yelled to the villagers, "We need to give her artificial respiration. Which one of you aunties or girls can come help?"
Although saving a life was as urgent as putting out a fire, An Zhiyuan also knew that without this call for help, there would be endless trouble in the future.
If he managed to revive this girl, he couldn't let rumors drive someone to death again.
As expected, no one stepped forward, fearing that Bai Xiao might already be beyond saving and that the Bai Family would blame her death on them.
Angry, An Zhiyuan glared and said, "You're the village chief, and I'm going to perform artificial respiration on her now." Then he took a breath and blew into Bai Xiao's mouth, mouth to mouth without leaving a gap, blowing forcefully.
Liu Baoguo and everyone else watched An Zhiyuan do this and couldn't help but blush, not expecting artificial respiration to be like this.
"Is this saving a life? How embarrassing!"
"Exactly, isn't this that... Ah! Shameless!"
"Just…"
Liu Baoguo glared, "What do you know? I've seen someone perform artificial respiration before, but it was on a child. If you don't understand, stop talking nonsense. Do any of you get it? This is about saving a life; there's nothing wrong here, so stop interfering needlessly."
Everyone immediately fell silent. In the village, the village chief had the final say, of course.
After An Zhiyuan had blown several dozen breaths, Bai Xiao finally coughed violently and began to gasp for air, coughing out a large amount of water.
He positioned her on her side, allowing her to more easily expel the water from her lungs.
As long as there was breath, it meant she had come back to life.
Bai Xiao opened her eyes, spitting out water in great gulps. Her blurred vision was full of people, and a gentle voice told her, "It's okay now, it's okay! Spit it out, and you will be fine!"