1 – Artificial Respiration
Late June. Deep in the night.
A heavy rain had escalated into a torrential downpour. Raindrops the size of beans came hammering down from the sky, violent yet rhythmic, striking the ground, the roofs of abandoned factory buildings, and the tops of cars.
Heaven and earth merged into a single dim color.
Jiang Wanning was trapped inside her car. In her ears was the muffled, chaotic pounding of rain against the roof—as if the next second, the roof would be smashed through.
“Help!”
“Is anyone there? Please, save me…”
From inside the car came a woman’s faint, low cries for help.
But for a long time, apart from the rain, there was not the slightest movement outside.
Twenty minutes earlier, Jiang Wanning had woken up to darkness before her eyes, her head spinning violently. When she tried to move, she found her whole body weak and limp.
Worse, her calves were nearly submerged in water.
Water?
How could there be water inside the car?!
What was going on? How had this happened?
Jiang Wanning had no idea what was happening.
She didn’t know how long she had been asleep in the car, or why she had suddenly passed out. All she knew was that when she woke, her hands and feet were ice-cold and weak, and her whole body felt drained.
Her limbs were soft as cotton.
It took her a long time to recover, and only after drinking an entire bottle of mineral water did she feel slightly better.
Outside, the torrential rain continued relentlessly, accompanied by rumbling claps of thunder. Jiang Wanning looked around in terror, but it was pitch black outside—she could see nothing. Then another rolling thunderclap crashed down, startling her.
Jiang Wanning was terrified of thunder!
Her brows knitted tightly as she fumbled with trembling fingers to unbuckle her seatbelt, then struggled to push open the car door and get out.
But the door wouldn’t open.
She couldn’t push it open at all.
The outside world was cut off by the rain; she could see nothing.
“What’s going on? Why won’t it open!”
“Damn it!”
Jiang Wanning cursed angrily, then pressed her face against the car window. At the scene before her, her heart began to panic. Water—water everywhere. Not only had water seeped into the car, but outside it was deep as well!
It had nearly submerged half the car body.
No wonder the car wouldn’t respond no matter how she tried to start it.
Jiang Wanning was frightened. She watched the water seeping in, rising higher and higher—it would soon reach her waist, and the air inside the car would grow thinner and thinner, until the oxygen ran out.
Or she would drown.
No. Jiang Wanning didn’t want to die tonight, didn’t want to die helplessly, trapped in her car! She hurriedly searched for her phone, only to find it had slipped under the passenger seat, soaked in the water.
Jiang Wanning’s heart grew even colder.
Panicking, she pounded on the car window. “Is anyone there? Anyone? Help! Is anyone there…”
Half an hour later.
Jiang Wanning’s voice had gone completely hoarse from shouting, and she had no strength left in her body.
Stiff all over, she stared blankly at the water rising up to the car seats, a wave of fear and despair washing over her.
No one.
Not a single person, not a single car had passed by. No one had found her.
Was she destined to die tonight?
The thought that if no one saved her tonight, her corpse would be found tomorrow—and that when the news reached Du Shiqin’s ears, that woman would be overjoyed—made Jiang Wanning shudder.
The person who most wished she would vanish from this world was probably Du Shiqin. And of course, there was also her half-sister, only two years her junior—Jiang Wanrou.
Only if Jiang Wanning died would all of the Jiang family’s assets naturally fall into the hands of Du Shiqin and Jiang Wanrou, mother and daughter. If she died, her stepmother and half-sister probably wouldn’t shed a single tear—on the contrary, they’d probably be secretly overjoyed.
Jiang Wanning lowered her head to look at the little lime bracelet on her wrist. It wasn’t new—it was actually quite old. It had been placed on her wrist when she was born and had never been taken off, not for a single day.
It was a keepsake from her mother.
The only memento she had left.
As Jiang Wanning looked at it, her eyes gradually grew moist, and tears fell uncontrollably. She was trapped in the car and couldn’t get out. She was going to die. At least she had her mother’s bracelet to keep her company.
The water in the car kept rising.
It had already reached her chest, and she felt a chill spread through her heart.
In the sealed space, Jiang Wanning’s breathing grew more and more labored, more and more difficult.
She closed her eyes and waited for death.
Tears of despair rolled silently down her cheeks.
They splashed onto the water’s surface, merging with it.
The water kept rising. Jiang Wanning’s consciousness gradually blurred. She felt her soul drift out, drifting back to the Jiang family home. She saw Jiang Wanrou clinging to her father’s arm, acting coquettish, while Jiang Sunan, his face full of doting affection, promised her yet another car, an apartment, and several designer handbags.
Then Jiang Wanrou went to her room and, in a provocative act, slashed her favorite clothes with scissors, poured colorless toilet cleaner into her toner, and spat into her half-finished bowl of bird’s nest congee.
Fury burned in Jiang Wanning’s eyes. She wanted to strangle Jiang Wanrou.
She wanted to rush over and teach her a lesson!
The next second, she heard a voice by her ear.
She couldn’t make it out—it was noisy.
It seemed to be a man’s voice, stern and cold: “Whoever’s in the car, hold on! Don’t fall asleep! Don’t sleep! If you can hear me, open your eyes!”
Jiang Wanning’s eyelids twitched, but she couldn’t open them.
Her consciousness faded again.
The man’s voice disappeared, as if he had left.
Before long, the man returned. At the same time, the car window was smashed open with a steel rod, and fresh air rushed in.
Jiang Wanning lay with her eyes closed, dazed and half-conscious.
She only felt a cool breeze brush across her cheeks, and a voice called out in her mind: Ningning, my Ningning.
Two seconds later, she struggled to open her eyes and tried to move, but her body slid downward like a falling leaf, going limp and sinking into the water.
Jiang Wanning was drowning.
She was completely submerged, her nose and mouth full of water. She wanted to struggle but had no strength left. Less than three seconds into that suffocating agony, a pair of strong hands gripped her shoulders and yanked her out of the water.
The man was soaked through, his black T-shirt clinging to his muscles, water dripping steadily from his hair. His face was rugged and handsome, his eyes deep and captivating, as if they held stars and seas within them. Raindrops landed on his raven-feather lashes, and with a blink, clear droplets slid down the bridge of his straight nose onto his tightly pressed lips.
“Miss, wake up!”
“Miss?”
As the man called out, the waterproof walkie-talkie clipped at his waist crackled with the voice of his teammate Li Hang: “Yan-ge, are you back with the team yet?”
Fu Yan had no time to bother with that.
The more important thing right now was saving her.
Jiang Wanning seemed trapped in a nightmare. Fu Yan had smashed the car window, dragged her out, and laid her on the ground, but no matter how he called to her, she didn’t respond.
She lay there, lifeless.
Fu Yan couldn’t worry about anything else. He bent down, pressed on Jiang Wanning’s chest, and performed rapid first aid. Then, his lips touched Jiang Wanning’s lips as he gave her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation with complete focus.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
When Jiang Wanning opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was an enlarged face.
Fu Yan’s face.
The man’s features were handsome and chiseled.
Especially those eyes—deep and captivating, as if they held ten thousand miles of starry rivers.
“You…”
After uttering that single word, Jiang Wanning’s strength gave out. Her vision went black, and she passed out completely.