Chapter 12

Su Cheng looked around and pointed at the treetops. "Let's hang them up there. A little higher, where the wind can reach them more easily."

"Okay."

Yun Nian climbed up with the thin string and moved slowly along. With her small, nimble frame, she had no trouble hanging the bottles and cans from the treetops.

Once she finished, Yun Nian worried about how much weight the branch could hold, so she did not sit beside Su Cheng. Instead, she settled on the branch just above her, as close as possible.

Yun Nian gently tapped the drink cans in her hands together. "Get some rest, big sister. The rescue team will hear us soon and come save us!"

Su Cheng nodded. "Are you hungry?"

Yun Nian shook her head. "I just had some chocolate and a bottle of orange juice with pulp. I'm not hungry at all."

"Okay. Tell me if you get hungry."

"Okay."

"Big sister, I'm a little cold..."

Night was approaching. Unlike the blazing sunshine of the day, the temperature dropped sharply at night. Whenever the wind blew, the two of them, still dressed in wet clothes, felt even colder.

Su Cheng felt cold too. She took out two cold tablets, taking one herself and giving Yun Nian the other as a precaution.

Darkness fell quickly. The stars and moon hid behind the clouds. Without any source of light, their surroundings looked steeped in ink. They could not see their hands in front of their faces, and having their eyes open felt no different from keeping them shut.

Clack, clack.

Yun Nian struck the two drink cans together, sending crisp sounds through the silent night.

"Big sister... I'm scared of the dark..."

"I'll do it. Close your eyes and rest for a while. Think of happy things with your eyes closed, and you won't be scared anymore."

After her parents passed away, this was how Su Cheng had made it through every tearful night of her childhood.

"Okay."

Su Cheng reached up to take the cans Yun Nian offered, the two of them fumbling through the handover in the dark.

When Yun Nian touched Su Cheng's hand, she exclaimed in surprise, "Your hands are so cold!"

"Let me hold your hand, big sister."

Yun Nian held one of Su Cheng's hands and rubbed it to warm it up. "Please don't let anything happen to you, big sister. I don't want to be alone..."

"Don't be scared. Nothing will happen to me."

Su Cheng placed both cans in her lap. With one hand being held, she used the other to tap the cans together.

Clack, clack.

Clack, clack.

Clang, clang, clang...

The wind swept past the cans hanging in the treetops.

These faint sounds were all that broke the silent night.

Su Cheng tapped the cans in a slow, steady rhythm, only stopping when she ran out of strength in the latter half of the night.

The latter half of the night grew bitterly cold, a stark contrast to the heat of the day.

Dressed in thin clothes and worried about hypothermia, Su Cheng could only keep rubbing her skin with her palms for a little warmth.

Her mind was hazy. She might have fallen asleep at some point, or she might not have. She passed the night in a daze.

Yun Nian also drifted in and out of sleep. Once, she slept deeply enough that she nearly fell, startling herself awake. After that, she could no longer sleep peacefully.

A pale light appeared on the horizon.

Unfortunately, an entire night had passed, and they still had not been rescued.

"Big sister!"

Yun Nian's sudden cry instantly jolted the groggy Su Cheng awake.

Looking in the direction Yun Nian pointed, Su Cheng's breath caught, and her expression turned dreadful. A surging torrent was charging straight toward them!

The ground rumbled and shook. This wave was even fiercer than the last.

The tsunami had started again!

The terror of being submerged once again gripped her heart. Su Cheng shouted, "Hold on to the tree!"

Bam-

Seawater battered the tree, and floating debris kept slamming into its trunk, driven by the current. The tree swayed precariously but continued to resist.

Su Cheng was terrified that the tree would be swept away. She truly did not want to experience tumbling through the water and suffocating again!

Crack.

The tree tilted, bringing both girls an inch closer to the water...

"Ahh! Waaaah..."

Unable to bear the terror of falling at any moment, Yun Nian clung to the trunk and burst into tears.

Su Cheng's breathing quickened. She was frightened too, but she was not a child, after all. She could not cry at the top of her lungs like Yun Nian to let out her fear.

Whoosh, whoosh...

The sound of the rushing water seemed like a show of force, terrifying beyond measure!

Debris that had settled in the mud became messengers of danger, blindly crashing forward with the current...

Fortunately, despite the battering debris, the tree did not fall. It stubbornly held its ground, giving Su Cheng and Yun Nian a chance to catch their breath.

"Climb onto a higher branch!"

"Sob... okay."

They moved slowly, even more carefully than when they had climbed the tree before. If they fell now, they would not land on the ground. They would be swept away by the current...

Su Cheng struggled onto a higher branch.

Perhaps her movements had been too large and strained the already injured organs in her abdomen. By the time she lay against the branch, pain had spread from her abdomen throughout her body.

Su Cheng's face twisted in agony. She trembled all over from the pain, and a sweet, metallic taste rose in her throat.

"Cough, cough..."

Blood streamed from her mouth and nose, each drop rippling across the water...

So cold. So cold!

Su Cheng clung tightly to the branch beneath her but could draw no warmth from it.

Her vision blurred, and in her daze, she returned to her mother's warm embrace.

She could not make out her mother's face, but instinct told her that this was her mother.

Her mother gently stroked Su Cheng's hair, murmuring softly. Su Cheng closed her eyes, wanting to sleep peacefully and securely. She was so very tired...

"You can't sleep yet."

Just as Su Cheng was about to fall asleep, her mother's murmurs became tangible and suddenly struck her heart.

Everything around her dissolved. She opened her eyes, and the hands that had nearly loosened tightened around the branch beneath her once more. Below her was the raging current...

The pain had made her hallucinate.

She had almost let go and fallen into the water!

Shaken by the close call, Su Cheng shook her head, trying her best to stay alert.

Yun Nian's anxious cries came from above. "Big sister, are you okay?"

Su Cheng spat out the blood in her mouth and forced out a breathy whisper. "...Keep calling to me. Don't let me fall asleep."

Su Cheng was terrified that if she fell asleep, she would never wake up again.

Hearing Su Cheng's voice, Yun Nian understood that her condition was grim. She hugged the trunk and cried. "Waaaah..."

Su Cheng wanted to offer a few words of comfort, but she did not have the strength to speak.

Even as Su Cheng struggled to hold on, she could not stop her breathing from growing weaker. Blood kept welling up in her throat, and when she swallowed it, it came out of her nose instead...

The feeling of it flowing from her nose was even worse!

Helpless, Su Cheng could only turn her head and let the blood spill from her mouth, dripping into the water and flowing away...

Su Cheng understood that the internal injuries from her earlier collision had worsened. The unrelenting bleeding was very likely caused by further rupturing of her organs.

"Big sister, please stop bleeding... waaaah..."

Yun Nian's frightened sobs sounded in her ears, but Su Cheng no longer had the strength to respond.

At that moment, only one thought remained in her mind: if she could leave this instance alive, she would never let herself end up so weak and helpless again.

Su Cheng had always wanted to live, and she had always worked hard to stay alive.

During the car accident, her parents had held her tightly in their arms to protect her. Her mother's last words had been to live on, carrying their share of life too.

A fierce refusal to give in swept through Su Cheng's chest!

An intense will to survive erupted from the depths of her heart. That fierce determination overcame the haze brought on by pain, and her eyes gradually cleared in a final rally.

The fingertips gripping the branch were scraped raw by the rough bark from the excessive force, but Su Cheng felt no pain at all. She only gripped harder, as though she wanted to fuse herself with the thick branch. She would not fall!

Her will fought against her body.

As long as she held out until rescue arrived, she would have a sliver of hope.

I don't want to die!

I want to make it back alive!

That single sentence filled her mind, murmured over and over.

Until a mechanical voice abruptly sounded:

[Ding~ Congratulations, owner, on unlocking the first-stage gene lock! Skill acquired: Self-Healing]

[Self-Healing: Enhances the activity of the body's repair factors, rapidly repairing bodily wounds. Repair speed depends on gene lock level and constitution.]

[The personal information on the owner's bracelet has been updated. Please check it after returning to the apartment~]

Su Cheng froze, and the breath she had been holding escaped.

It felt like someone desperately clinging to the edge of a cliff, firmly resolved to hold on, only for a rope to suddenly drop down and pull them up!?

Su Cheng's expression remained frozen for quite a while before a belated smile appeared.

Although the pain in her abdomen had not yet eased, blood was no longer surging up her throat.

The scratches on her face suddenly itched, as though they were about to scab over...

Her earlier guess had been right. The apartment really did provide assistance.

This assistance was not the supermarket items Su Cheng had initially imagined, but a special ability that could only be triggered once certain conditions were met.

"Does the apartment only consider giving someone a support skill when they're about to die?"

That was far too harsh.

Author's note:

None

Chapter 12

The sight of Su Cheng smiling with a mouthful of blood startled Yun Nian. Thinking that something had gone wrong with Su Cheng's mind, she cried in panic, "Big sister... what's wrong? Don't scare me!"

Seeing that Yun Nian was truly terrified, Su Cheng wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth. "Don't worry. I've come back to life..."

Yun Nian looked at the bloodstains at the corner of Su Cheng's mouth. Though she was still a little doubtful, she nodded.

Su Cheng pointed at her face. "If you don't believe me, look. Haven't the wounds on my face healed a lot?"

Yun Nian widened her eyes and examined her carefully before nodding in surprise. "The wounds on your face have scabbed over!"

Hearing that, Su Cheng relaxed. She could faintly feel the pain in her abdomen easing a little, and some strength had returned to her body.

Yun Nian wiped the remaining tears from her face. "Big sister, I want to go home. I miss Mom and Dad..."