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Psst! We're moving!
The next day, Shen Yihuan learned the reason for the sudden alarm the day before.
Heavy rain and hail had struck Yili, Aksu, and other areas, causing floods that had already resulted in several deaths, and large areas of crops were damaged or completely destroyed.
Photos of the disaster could already be seen online.
Severe flooding had led to the collapse of residential houses, and the widespread floods left only car roofs visible. Displaced people were everywhere, and electrical circuits were being urgently repaired to prevent electrocution in the water.
Rescue personnel in orange life vests navigated through the floodwaters, rescuing trapped civilians from windows and tall buildings. The floodwaters were turbid.
People online had already widely shared the news, praying for the disaster-stricken areas.
Shen Yihuan called Lu Zhou several times, but no one answered.
Only then did she belatedly begin to panic.
Such severe flooding, if one was unfamiliar with the local terrain, could easily lead to a misstep and a fall into the river. The heavy rain continued, and there were already reports of deaths due to lightning strikes.
Her fingers clenched, her gaze lowered to the phone screen, brows furrowed, long eyelashes shadowing the light in her eyes.
“Sister Qin Zheng,” she looked up.
Qin Zheng was discussing follow-up filming issues with the photographer; they had decided to go to the disaster area as well.
She turned back: “What’s wrong?”
“Can I go with you?”
She paused for a moment, then said: “You can, but this operation carries a certain risk. According to your studio’s magazine requirements, you don’t need to go.”
Shen Yihuan lightly clenched her fingers.
Her rounded fingertips created an indentation on her palm.
She said: “I’m going.”
...
The car drove on a straight road.
The closer they got to their destination, the more the devastation became apparent.
After passing higher ground, the vehicle could no longer proceed; they had reached the flooded area.
Outsiders were not allowed to enter casually. Qin Zheng presented her identification and explained their purpose before being allowed through, led by firefighters deeper into the heavily affected area.
Everything around Shen Yihuan was shocking.
Seeing it in pictures had been unsettling, but witnessing it firsthand was truly overwhelming.
She hadn’t expected that in this world, there were people who had to exert all their strength just to survive.
Nor had she expected that there were people who exerted all their strength to save others from dire straits.
They arrived at the heavily affected area.
They disembarked from the boat and split up.
Shen Yihuan had originally only come to find Lu Zhou, but seeing the scene before her, she understood that Lu Zhou had no time to answer her calls.
She didn’t rush to find Lu Zhou.
She put on the life vest given by the rescue personnel, tied a tight knot at the chest, put her phone in a sealed bag, hung it around her neck, and stepped into the chest-deep floodwaters, joining the rescue team.
The rain kept falling. This was a low-lying basin terrain, and with tributaries flowing in, the water would soon be over their heads. Shen Yihuan was much shorter than the men and was instructed to return immediately after understanding the situation.
The floodwater reached her chest, chilling her to the bone. She shivered as soon as she entered the water.
“Be careful,” someone said to her.
Shen Yihuan turned around.
It was a man also wearing a life vest. She smiled at him and walked forward.
Once deeper in the heavily affected area, no one paid attention to her. Everyone was busy with the rescue, with no time to tell a woman like her to “be careful.” Besides, perhaps no one had time to even glance at her, nor did they treat her as a woman.
The ends of Shen Yihuan’s tied-up black hair were completely wet, sticking to her neck, a sharp contrast of black and white. The cold made her even paler than usual, almost bluish, and the veins under her skin were more prominent.
“Quick, carry him out!”
A basin was shoved into Shen Yihuan’s hands. It was heavy, and inside was something wrapped in thick cloth.
She tilted her head to look inside; it was a small infant.
Her heart skipped a beat. She held it tightly to her chest, protecting it.
The current was swift, making it difficult to walk. Shen Yihuan carried the basin towards the rescue boat.
She finally reached it.
She handed the basin with the infant to the man in the rescue boat.
The man looked at her and said, “You get on too.”
Shen Yihuan: “I’ll go check again.”
“No, if you go back and forth one more time, the water will already be over your mouth. Get on.”
Shen Yihuan looked down, only then realizing that the water, which had initially only reached her chest, had somehow reached her chin.
She didn’t try to be brave and allowed the man to pull her onto the rescue boat.
She was taken to a safe point along with the others on the boat.
The temporary shelter was on higher ground.
Shen Yihuan took a large bath towel at the entrance and draped it over herself. She let down her ponytail, wiped her hair, and then sneezed again.
Then she heard a vibrating sound.
She was bewildered for a moment, then looked down to see her phone lighting up in the sealed bag. She eagerly picked it up, her hands too cold. It took a while to finally open it.
She took out her phone.
It wasn’t Lu Zhou.
She sat on the ground, leaning against the wall.
She pulled the towel over her head, burying herself inside. She answered the call; it was Gu Minghui.
“Hello?”
“Cherry, how are you? I called you several times, but you didn’t answer. You’re not in the disaster area, are you?” The voice on the other end was anxious.
“No,” she sniffled, then sneezed three more times in a row, “but I just came to the disaster area.”
“Why did you go there?! Does your work require this kind of risk?!”
“No, I wanted to come myself.”
“I bought a plane ticket for tomorrow. Send me your current location in a bit.”
“Tomorrow?” Shen Yihuan paused, “What about Ruru?”
“She’ll be a few days later.”
She hung up the phone.
Shen Yihuan hugged her knees, burying her head in her arms.
All around her were displaced people, their homes swept away by the flood. Some were injured, some cried, some fainted. Everything as far as the eye could see was a mess.
She didn’t know how she fell asleep in such a noisy environment, but she did.
When she woke up several hours later, the heavy rain outside had stopped.
She pulled off the towel from her head, looked up, and through the crowd, she saw a familiar figure: Lu Zhou.
She opened her mouth, then saw the person beside him: He Can.
They were kneeling by a stretcher, examining the injured person on it. They were very close. Lu Zhou was completely drenched, his clothes clinging to his skin, outlining his physique underneath.
He Can was also wet, holding an oxygen tank and giving oxygen to the patient on the stretcher.
From Shen Yihuan’s perspective, their figures overlapped, appearing intimately close.
She watched them for a while in that direction, then pulled the bath towel over her head again, like an ostrich, hiding herself inside, out of sight, out of mind.
She didn’t know why, but she didn’t even have the courage to go over.
Perhaps it was the moving sight of the disaster area.
She was completely hidden by the large bath towel when her phone at her feet suddenly lit up. The words on the screen were a bit glaring. Shen Yihuan stared at them for a while, then reached out and pulled her phone under the towel, putting it to her ear.
“Looking for me?” Lu Zhou’s voice came from inside.
She swallowed dryly: “Are you okay?”
The other end remained silent, quiet.
Shen Yihuan, however, felt his breath was right beside her.
After a long time, he finally spoke again: “Shen Yihuan.”
He liked calling her by her full name so much, stiff and emotionless, yet seemingly suppressing an unspeakable anger.
Shen Yihuan buried her head, sniffled, and felt inexplicably wronged: “What do you want?”
“Can you just listen for once?” he said.
Shen Yihuan suddenly seemed to sense something, and she abruptly threw off the towel from her head.
She looked up and saw Lu Zhou squatting in front of her, holding his phone.
The heavy rain had temporarily stopped. Light streamed in from outside, scattering boundlessly over the man’s broad back. The noisy background sounds seemed to automatically recede, leaving only the pale blue light of the phone screen, illuminating half of the man’s firm, tall silhouette.
Shen Yihuan opened her mouth, too surprised to speak, finally just letting out a sneeze.
Lu Zhou frowned.
Only after entering the temporary shelter did he have time to check his phone. So he called Shen Yihuan back, but the phone rang behind him.
His hearing was always sharp; even in this environment, he could distinguish sounds clearly.
He turned, seeing Shen Yihuan enveloped in the bath towel.
He was angry, angry that she had come here regardless of the danger. If anything had happened... that “if only” was something he couldn’t even bear to think about; just the thought made his entire heart clench in pain.
But when he saw the young girl’s face beneath the towel, half of his anger instantly dissipated.
Her face was smeared with dried mud, which had cracked into fine lines on her cheeks. On her pale skin, it made her features strikingly beautiful.
“Wait.”
He said, then stood up.
When he returned, he held a towel in his hand, surprisingly warm.
He simply squatted on the ground, covered in mud, his shoes even dirtier, water dripping from his pant legs.
He held the warm towel, his lips a tight line, his expression somber. He extended his arm and gently wiped the dirt from Shen Yihuan’s face.
After wiping, he left again.
Shen Yihuan didn’t even have time to say a word.
But she could feel that Lu Zhou was suppressing his temper.
Ten minutes later, Lu Zhou walked over, carrying a thermos, and stopped in front of her.
He looked down at her: “Let’s go.”
Shen Yihuan stood up, her legs numb from sitting too long: “Where to?”
“There’s a hotel nearby. Go change out of your wet clothes first.”
Shen Yihuan followed him out. As Lu Zhou passed He Can, he stopped and said to her: “The rain has stopped for now. Please proceed with checking the arriving disaster victims. Thank you.”
He Can smiled and shook her head: “It’s my duty.”
Then she glanced at Shen Yihuan behind Lu Zhou, and Shen Yihuan nodded lightly at her.
...
He Can watched the two of them walk away.
Suddenly, she curled her lips in self-mockery.
She had met Lu Zhou more than two years ago. He came to the hospital to treat his wounds. That was the first time she saw the tattoo on his back.
Passionate and flamboyant, very unlike him.
She had long guessed that he had someone he couldn’t let go of in his heart, likely a “white moonlight” he’d never forget, but she didn’t care.
She thought he would eventually let go, eventually accept someone else.
Until that night, when she walked past the dorm corridor.
She saw Lu Zhou pressing Shen Yihuan against the wall, in a posture that brooked no refusal, leaning over her, his breath ragged, burying his head against her fair neck.
Only then did He Can realize that this man was not as cold and detached, as devoid of desire as he appeared on the surface.
It was just that his desire, his passion, his tenderness, all belonged to one person.
In that moment, she knew.
The story of that tattoo was Shen Yihuan.
And she would never wait for the day he truly let go.
________________________________________
The path to the hotel required walking up a high slope.
It was a long stretch of road.
Muddy and slippery, covered with withered branches and fallen leaves, and many messy, scattered footprints, both ascending and descending.
The sky was gradually darkening.
“Will it rain again tonight?” she asked.
Lu Zhou: “Probably not.”
Precisely for this reason, he had time to take Shen Yihuan to the hotel now. If the heavy rain continued relentlessly, the disaster would worsen, and rescue operations would be unable to stop throughout the night.
He hadn’t slept for a whole day, busy from the previous night until now.
“Then do you want to rest for a bit?”
“I’ll go back after I drop you off.”
Shen Yihuan nodded.
After thinking for a moment, she tilted her head and asked the man beside her: “Are you angry?”
Lu Zhou glanced at her: “Don’t come to such dangerous places again in the future.”
“He Can can come, why can’t I?” she retorted, dissatisfied.
“I don’t feel at ease,” he said, his tone calm, “I’ll do your part for you.”
Shen Yihuan’s heart fluttered, suddenly feeling as if it were coated in honey.
They continued walking uphill.
The mountain path was more treacherous than any she had walked before. Shen Yihuan walked for a while, her feet occasionally slipping. Eventually, Lu Zhou simply gripped her arm.
“Don’t step on dry leaves, they’re very slippery after the rain.”
“Oh,” she nodded, avoiding the leaves and stepping on the mud.
In the past, such muddy roads, which would make her shoes dirty and black, she definitely couldn’t stand. But now, she felt nothing at all.
The altitude here was relatively high.
Uphill paths were also strenuous.
After walking for a while, Shen Yihuan felt a bit breathless, her breathing rising and falling greatly.
Lu Zhou noticed: “Walk slower, breathe through your nose.”
“Am I getting altitude sickness?”
“A little.”
Lu Zhou could judge the situation by her appearance. The altitude here wasn’t extremely high, and she had already adapted for several days in the military camp, so severe altitude sickness wouldn’t occur. It was just due to the high oxygen consumption of uphill walking.
Shen Yihuan closed her mouth, trying to breathe through her nose, but that supplied less oxygen.
She adjusted her breathing, walking very slowly. Her breathing gradually regulated, becoming lighter, yet light enough to sound like gasping.
Lu Zhou’s gaze shifted. He grabbed her arm and stopped.
“What’s wrong?” She blinked.
Lu Zhou didn’t speak, silently staring at her, his lips a tight line. The dim, yellow light obscured half his face.
“Are you stupid?” Shen Yihuan raised her hand and waved it in front of his eyes.
He said seriously: “Stop gasping.”
Stop gasping?
Was he trying to make her suffocate?!
She had just recovered, how could she not gasp?
Wait a minute?!
Shen Yihuan suddenly thought of something. She looked up at Lu Zhou, his eyes deep and dark, with a faint glow. The nerves near his temples pulsed.
No way...
She quickly lowered her eyes, glancing somewhere unknown, then swiftly lifted them again, her eyelashes fluttering in confusion, her mind frozen.
She opened her mouth, but for a moment, she couldn’t find anything to say that would bypass Lu Zhou’s sudden vulgarity.
Finally, she resigned herself and pulled her collar up to her mouth, revealing only a pair of dark eyes.
“Lu Zhou,” her voice muffled by her clothes, hot breath on her face, “Are you sick or something?”
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