Chapter 23: Rescuing and Getting Beaten

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Rural people have this characteristic: they live in the same village and, even if they have conflicts or even fought before, they can immediately unite and work together to overcome difficulties when faced with a major crisis. Therefore, when Squad Leader Long shouted, everyone sprang into action.

Finally, Jixiong Zhang was caught by the water willows in the river and also heard the shouts from the people on the bank, giving him hope. He clung tightly to the willow, preventing the flood from pushing him further downstream.

Hearing the shouts from the bank, knowing that people were trying to rescue him, gave him more hope, and he clung even tighter to the small willow tree.

Soon, several bamboo rafts from the village were swiftly transported by Mengsheng and a few young men. Some of the young men who were good swimmers, led by Squad Leader Long, jumped onto the bamboo rafts and used ropes tied around their waists to jump into the river.

Those who entered the water had ropes tied around their waists, so even if they fell into the river, the people on the bank could pull them back up.

Jixiong Zhang's father, Wansheng Zhang, saw everyone desperately trying to save his son and immediately jumped into the water as well.

Squad Leader Long shouted, "Don't come down—"

Wansheng Zhang yelled back, "My son is in the water!"

Squad Leader Long didn't have time to argue with him. "Tie a rope around him."

Wansheng Zhang quickly tied a rope around his waist and jumped onto a bamboo raft, but he didn't even hand the rope to the people on the bank. It wasn't until Squad Leader Long noticed that he had grabbed the rope and scolded, "Why are you being so troublesome? Why didn't you give the rope to the people on the bank? What's the use of tying the rope around yourself?"

"Stop nagging!"

"I'd rather nag than see you risking your life like this."

When the bamboo raft hit the water, it was immediately swept downstream by the current, making it impossible to reach the location where Jixiong Zhang was holding on to the willow tree. If it weren't for the people on the bank pulling hard, the young men trying to save Jixiong would have been swept into the river.

Several rescue attempts failed.

Squad Leader Long shouted, "The current is too strong to paddle across. Let's go upstream and release the bamboo rafts from there, using the pushing force to get the rafts to Jixiong's side."

Longdaizu's brother, Longxiaozui, immediately retorted, "You're brave! You try releasing the bamboo rafts from upstream. How can the ropes reach that far?"

Indeed, these ropes were all made of cowhide and wouldn't be long enough to reach that far.

Just then, a wave hit Jixiong Zhang's willow tree. The already slender willow tree was pushed forward by the wave, and then with a snap, it broke.

As the wave passed, Jixiong Zhang disappeared.

"Oh no, where did Jixiong go?" Longdaizu shouted.

Everyone looked and indeed, Jixiong Zhang had disappeared along with the willow branch he was holding onto.

Everyone panicked.

"Look, over there!" Aishì pointed to a cluster of branches that had just surfaced. She had been fed a lot of water from the medicinal spring by Tang Ailian, and her vision was much better than that of an ordinary person. "He's still holding onto the branch—" She couldn't find the right word for "branch."

Everyone rushed downstream and indeed saw Jixiong Zhang, who was still holding onto a half-broken willow branch, sinking and resurfacing alternately in the water. 

In Tang Ailian's memories from her previous life, there seemed to be no person named Jixiong Zhang, indicating that this person had likely drowned in her previous life. Later, the Zhang family had several more sons, named Jisheng, Jirong, and Jichun.

"Oh no—" Jixiong Zhang's father, Wansheng Zhang, exclaimed, directly jumping off the bamboo raft. The people on the bank who were holding onto the ropes tied to him were almost pulled into the river by him.

Wansheng Zhang's brother, Fengsheng Zhang, quickly grabbed the rope around him.

Squad Leader Long shouted, "Let go of the ropes on the bank, everyone, tie the ropes together, and use the bamboo rafts to move downstream to save the father and son from the Zhang family."

Paddling across the current was difficult, but going downstream was much easier. Soon, three bamboo rafts reached Wansheng Zhang.

Finally, Jixiong Zhang was placed on the protruding roots of a large camphor tree at the west end of the village, controlling the water.

However, he had spent too much time in the water, and no matter how people tried to revive him, he showed no signs of life.

Jixiong Zhang's mother, who had poor health to begin with, heard that her son had died and cried out in grief before fainting.

When Tang Ailian was carried to the large camphor tree under the watchful eyes of her sister Aishi, she took advantage of her sister's inattention and walked over to Jixiong Zhang. She reached out and touched his chest.

She felt a slight warmth in Jixiong Zhang's chest, so she wanted to try if she could use the spirit water to revive him.

However, her actions were spotted by Tang Xiaohu, the eldest son of the Da Zhang family. He pointed at Tang Ailian in disgust and shouted, "Aishi, your sister touched a dead person! You're not allowed to bring your sister to my house to play in the future!"

Aishi turned around and saw her sister, Tang Ailian, holding something in her hand and trying to feed it to Jixiong Zhang. She was shocked and yelled, "Ailian, what are you doing? Come here quickly!"

Tang Ailian, realizing that her actions were exposed, shook the small glass bottle in her hand and said, "Ailian, save... brother!"

At just ten months old, Tang Ailian had been drinking water from the medicinal spring every day, and combined with her practice of the Shamanic Arts, she had already entered the first stage of the Innate level, becoming a true warrior. Her psychic control value had also reached over five thousand.

Her current performance was that of a toddler who had just learned to walk, and she could speak some two-word phrases.

Of course, this was all

 an act. In reality, she could not only walk but also run. Her speech was fluent as well. However, speaking and walking at ten months old were already much earlier than most children, so she couldn't appear too extraordinary.

Jixiong Zhang's father, Wansheng Zhang, who was mourning with his face covered, heard the commotion and saw his daughter holding a small bottle in her hand, trying to feed his son water.

Thinking that his son had already drowned after drinking a bellyful of water, this little kid was actually trying to feed him more water! He couldn't help but be furious and shouted, "What are you doing?"

In the next moment, Wansheng Zhang rushed over and slapped Tang Ailian in the face.

(End of this chapter)