Hu Xiaotian plummeted straight down. Before long, he plunged headfirst into the icy water. His luck held: there really was a great river below. He surfaced and wiped the water from his face, only to see another figure hurtling down overhead with a piercing scream. He recognized Princess Anping by her voice alone. Pinpointing where she hit the water, he quickly swam over. The current was fierce, and he struggled to reach the spot. He dove beneath the surface and groped around for some time before finding her, then wrapped his arms around her slender body and brought her up.
Princess Anping was pale and coughing incessantly from the water she had swallowed. Instinctively, she clung tightly to Hu Xiaotian's neck. The flash floods from the surrounding mountains all poured into this valley, making the current swift and brutally powerful. Hu Xiaotian simply let it carry them downstream. They drifted for more than two li before he swam toward the bank with her. Princess Anping was already utterly exhausted. After he pushed her onto the riverbank, she lay there with every bone in her body aching, unable to muster even a scrap of strength.
Hu Xiaotian climbed onto the bank after her. Not daring to linger there, he looked around. A dense forest stood a short distance ahead, offering a likely hiding place, so he picked up Princess Anping and hurried into it. Near a rocky slope, he found a cave where they could shelter from the wind and rain. He set her down, then helped her lean against the stone wall behind her. Fortunately, neither had been injured by the fall into the water. Princess Anping vomited up mouthful after mouthful of yellowish fluid before finally recovering a little, tears shimmering in her beautiful eyes. Raised in the imperial