Autumn, 1975.
The sixth day of the tenth month.
In the outskirts of Jiangcheng City, the newly built reservoir of Red Flag Production Brigade was being filled with water.
Brigade leader Zhao Jianhua stood on the earthen dam, watching the reservoir fill while chatting with his nephew, who had come from the city to visit him.
His nephew was tall with long legs, dressed in an olive-green military uniform. Standing at the edge of the reservoir, his figure was upright and his bearing exceptional.
The only flaw was that, at twenty-six, he was still a bachelor.
That was enough to worry them all to death.
“Hanzheng, once you’re back at your unit, work is important, but you need to pay some attention to your personal life too!”
Zhao Jianhua urged his nephew. “Your mother is so worried she can’t sleep.”
A faint smile appeared on Gu Hanzheng’s cold, hard face.
“Uncle, no rush…”
Before he could finish, he suddenly noticed a surge of groundwater welling up in the distance. The water, which had been half-filled, formed a powerful whirlpool.
And in that whirlpool, he seemed to see a figure.
Like a person.
Gu Hanzheng narrowed his eyes slightly.
Zhao Jianhua had seen it too.
“Hanzheng, is there something in the water?”
Gu Hanzheng answered while taking off his jacket. “It’s a person.”
With that, he leaped into the water and swam with all his strength toward the center of the whirlpool.
“Ah, Hanzheng, be careful!”
Zhao Jianhua shouted anxiously from the shore.
Gu Hanzheng didn’t look back.
At the center of the whirlpool, Jiang Xu lay on her back on the water.
The whirlpool swirled around her body, yet she felt none of its force.
The whirlpool, with its tremendous power, felt to her more like soft clouds, cradling her body.
Her eyes were open, her fair face tinged with pink.
She didn’t look like someone drowning—more like someone sleeping in the water.
On her jade-white face, her delicate features showed no emotion.
A pair of overly dark eyes held no focus at all.
She tried to recall what she had been doing before the water washed her out.
Oh, right—she had merely been dozing off in the Daoist temple.
How did she end up washed out by the water?
Recalling what had happened to her, Jiang Xu felt a little displeased.
This groundwater was really quite inconsiderate.
Just as she was about to sit up, someone grabbed her wrist.
Jiang Xu turned her head.
Her gaze met a pair of unfamiliar eyes.
“Are you all right?”
Gu Hanzheng hadn’t expected that this female comrade, swept along by the current and unable to escape, would actually be conscious!
The moment their eyes met, he couldn’t help but draw in a breath.
What a calm, beautiful female comrade.
Was she really human?
Or some water… fairy of the deep?
Gu Hanzheng had his doubts, but he knew that saving her came first.
He had to get her out.
Gu Hanzheng moved a little closer.
“Do you still have strength? If I push you out of the whirlpool, can you swim out on your own?”
“Swim?”
Jiang Xu stared at Gu Hanzheng for a good while before repeating his last word.
Having not spoken for so long, her voice was somewhat hoarse when she first opened her mouth.
Her dark eyes were full of confusion.
Her expression at that moment gave Gu Hanzheng a sense of worldly innocence.
Besides, she really did look young.
She wore a black skirt and a blue top, looking like a student who hadn’t yet graduated from high school.
Gu Hanzheng’s voice unconsciously grew softer.
“That’s right.”
“Swim out.”
Jiang Xu shook her head.
“Not swimming.”
As she spoke, she reached into her pocket and pulled out a piece of yellow paper and a box of cinnabar.
Gu Hanzheng??
Why was the talisman in her hand still dry, even in the water?
She had been completely submerged!
Gu Hanzheng was full of questions.
The moment he saw her dip her finger in cinnabar, about to touch it to the yellow paper, he instinctively pressed her.
“What are you doing?”
Jiang Xu looked at Gu Hanzheng strangely, thinking this man was a bit odd.
Couldn’t he see she was about to draw a Water-Receding Talisman?
“I can make this water disappear.”
Make the water disappear…
An entire reservoir’s worth of water, no less…
What an unusual choice of words.
“Comrade.”
A second before Jiang Xu began drawing the talisman, Gu Hanzheng grabbed her wrist. “No.”
Jiang Xu blinked. “What?”
“Come out of the water with me first. Get to shore.”
Gu Hanzheng supported her, expecting it would take great effort to pull her out of the whirlpool, but she was as light as a cloud.
He swam with her toward the shore, and it took no effort at all.
Jiang Xu looked curiously at her held wrist. Her yellow paper and cinnabar had already been put away.
What she wanted to know now was why this man had stopped her?
Was this water important to them?
Was it their drinking water?
But they had soaked in it—it was dirty now. Could they still drink it?
She couldn’t figure it out.
Jiang Xu kept her eyes on Gu Hanzheng, letting him pull her along until they reached the edge of the reservoir.
“Wait here a moment.”
After saying this, Gu Hanzheng climbed up the dam, took his military jacket from Zhao Jianhua, and came back to hand it to Jiang Xu in the water.
“Put this on before you come out.”
Jiang Xu??
How strange.
She rose from the water and walked up the embankment.
“Wait—put on the jacket.”
As the words fell, Gu Hanzheng’s jacket dropped over her shoulders.
She looked at him in confusion, not understanding why he was so insistent on draping his scent-covered clothes over her.
Did it carry some special meaning?
Jiang Xu, who didn’t belong to this world to begin with, had just woken up and her head was still groggy—she was completely out of step with this world.
For the moment, she couldn’t remember how to interact with people, nor what she was supposed to be mindful of.
Gu Hanzheng met her innocent, curious gaze and coughed awkwardly.
“Your clothes are soaked. It’s not decent.”
“Decent?”
Jiang Xu repeated his words.
After a moment, she lowered her eyes, looked at her own clothes, and nodded. “I see.”
She pulled the jacket snugly around her shoulders.
Her hair was soaked, wet braids hanging over her shoulders.
She should have looked bedraggled, yet she felt not the least bit disheveled.
“Little comrade, where did you come from? Why were you in the water?”
Zhao Jianhua asked in confusion.
Gu Hanzheng signaled his uncle-in-law to hold off on the questions—they could talk back at the brigade.
Zhao Jianhua nodded.
Fair enough.
The little comrade had just come out of the water, her clothes dripping wet. She needed to go back and change first.
“Brigade leader! Brigade leader…”
A young, anxious voice called from a distance. “Brigade leader, my grandpa—he’s not doing well!”
Zhao Jianhua’s face changed drastically.
He turned to look at Jiang Nan, who came running.
“What’s wrong with Uncle Jiang?”
“He’s very sick…”
Tears welled in Jiang Nan’s eyes.
His young face was full of worry.
Zhao Jianhua turned to leave. “Let’s go take a look.”
“Wait.”
Jiang Xu stopped them.
Her gaze passed over Zhao Jianhua and landed on Jiang Nan behind him.
On that fair, flawless little face, though there was still no excess of emotion, her puzzlement was plain to see.
“You’re one of the Jiang family.”
Her red lips parted slightly as she spoke, word by word. “What is your relationship with Gou Wazi?”
“His scent is on you.”