TLDMDTBS Chapter 47

Chapter 47

Family member?

Hmm, family member.

For a brief moment, Gu Xiuyi almost couldn’t control his expression.

He had never heard those two words from Ji Ruan’s mouth, let alone used to describe himself.

In that instant, it felt like the spirit of all things converged into one, and Gu Xiuyi experienced an unprecedented clarity, his soul feeling double in size.

He tilted his head and pressed the corners of his lips tightly, finally letting Ji Ruan go, straightening his collar: “Alright, when you come back, I’ll take you out for dinner. What do you want to eat?”

Ji Ruan’s eyes brightened, and he pointed a finger at his lips: “Isn’t the most famous here the perch?”

Gu Xiuyi chuckled softly: “Okay.”

In the afternoon, Ji Ruan, filled with anticipation of enjoying delicious perch, climbed Qing Xi Mountain with Cheng Zizhang and the others.

The mountain wasn’t high, and it wouldn’t take long to reach the end. The pavilion halfway up was easy to get to.

The teachers still had some unfinished business, so they, the little disciples, took some tea and snacks up first.

The wind at the waist of the mountain was stronger than on flat ground, blowing so hard that it made Ji Ruan’s hearing a bit fuzzy.

He and Cheng Zizhang only brought a few bags of snacks, but others were well equipped, with someone even bringing a complete set of celadon tea utensils to boil water for tea in the pavilion.

“Hey, the teachers are almost here,” Cheng Zizhang looked at her phone and said, “I’ll go down to meet them.”

Everyone responded, “Okay.”

“Be careful.”

“Come back quickly.”

Everyone else had their own things to do, and since Ji Ruan had brought less, he felt embarrassed just sitting there, so he decided to go down with Cheng Zizhang.

On the way down, the wind grew stronger, constantly flapping Ji Ruan’s clothing in all directions.

Cheng Zizhang walked with her arms wide open, taking a deep breath, satisfied: “The air in the mountains is so fresh, right, Xiao Ruan?”

“Ah? Yeah…” Ji Ruan smiled in agreement.

He looked up and glanced around, listening to the rustling of the leaves blown by the wind, as if the tree trunks were colliding.

Is the wind a bit too strong?

Ji Ruan felt inexplicably uneasy; this kind of weather and the sound of the leaves felt familiar—where had he heard it before…

Suddenly, Ji Ruan stopped.

—Heavy rain!

A thought flashed through his mind.

Just like the last time when Gu Xiuyi took him out for Western food, and it suddenly poured.

Ji Ruan’s heart began to race; encountering heavy rain on the mountain was no joke.

He quickly took a couple of steps forward to grab Cheng Zizhang and said nervously, “I think it’s going to rain.”

Earlier Ji Ruan hadn’t spoken, and Cheng Zizhang also began to sense something was off, but still clung to her hopeful thoughts: “No, it shouldn’t, I checked the weather forecast specifically today, it didn’t mention anything…”

The last time, the weather forecast hadn’t predicted heavy rain either!

As if to affirm this, the moment Cheng Zizhang finished speaking, a large raindrop fell down, hitting her nose with a “smack,” and Ji Ruan saw it clearly.

“Damn… no way…” Cheng Zizhang touched her nose, looking stupefied.

That raindrop was like the vanguard from the sky; in just moments, a torrent fell, occupying every inch of the mountain.

It was fierce and torrential, hitting people painfully.

Clearly a heavy rain.

And it was an unmeasurable downpour.

Their situation was very awkward; they were neither at the foot of the mountain to return to the hotel, nor at the waist of the mountain where there was a pavilion to seek shelter.

Ji Ruan and Cheng Zizhang exchanged a glance and, unspoken, took off running down the mountain.

For a brief moment, thunder rumbled loudly through the valley; after just a few steps, Ji Ruan was drenched, his hands and feet quickly losing heat in the rain mist.

At first, he tried to cover his ears, afraid the external device would get wet; then he simply took it off and gripped it tightly, and afterwards stuffed it into his pants pocket.

The ground was now especially muddy and difficult to traverse; Ji Ruan and Cheng Zizhang supported each other as they ran, trying their best not to fall, but still slipping uncontrollably multiple times.

The rain was so heavy it was hard to see the path ahead; Ji Ruan genuinely feared that staying in the woods would result in being struck by lightning.

Suddenly, his hand was gripped tightly, a force yanking him back; Ji Ruan staggered several steps before finding his footing.

Cheng Zizhang’s long, straight hair, even when she was hospitalized, had never been seen out of order; but at that moment, her hair was soaked, clinging to her cheeks and shoulders, with countless drops of rain rolling down from above—Ji Ruan had never seen her looking so disheveled.

Her lips moved, seemingly saying something loudly, but Ji Ruan couldn’t hear a thing.

He stood stunned for half a second before reaching into his pocket to find the external device; his numbed fingers were uncooperative, and he shivered a few times before he managed to put it on.

But Ji Ruan was soaked through; even if he put the device in his pocket, it inevitably got wet.

That little thing malfunctioned; the noise was significant, crackling badly, making Ji Ruan sometimes hear a bit, and at other times, it was like watching a silent film.

Yet he ultimately understood what Cheng Zizhang was saying.

She was saying, “Don’t run.”

“Don’t run, we can’t run anymore.”

Her expression seemed very fearful.

Ji Ruan’s cheeks were stung painfully by the pelting raindrops; he was breathing heavily, yet couldn’t hear his own breath.

He turned his head to follow Cheng Zizhang’s gaze; pouring rain struck the ground before bouncing back up, resembling smoke or mist.

Amidst the haze, he saw several large trees collapsed on the muddy road and numerous rocks, large and small, with dark, muddy water rushing rapidly across the ground.

—Their way was blocked.

Ji Ruan’s mind went momentarily blank.

A landslide?

So soon?

His face was covered in rain, wiping it away only for it to fall again, faster each time, his hearing completely cut off behind a barrier, leaving only the vague and distant rumble.

Beside him, Cheng Zizhang staggered and grabbed Ji Ruan’s arm; only then did he realize he could feel the ground shaking.

He stood rigid, and followed Cheng Zizhang’s gaze upward.

Under the relentless downpour, the once solid mountain seemed suddenly soft like foam, occasionally sliding down a few stones.

And a massive stone at the top swayed perilously in the storm, as if a trapped beast desperately trying to break free from its bindings.

In the next moment, it was going to fall.

Ji Ruan felt the blood drain from his face.

In extreme circumstances, all survival instincts kick in.

With his heart racing like crazy, Ji Ruan grabbed Cheng Zizhang’s hand and desperately lunged to the side.

Boom—!

The rock rolled down, crushing branches and sending torrents of muddy liquid cascading down, breaking fences and slamming into tree trunks, rushing into the turbulent river below, creating gigantic waves.

Dust and mud mixed together in the mountains, the air thick and murky, like a battlefield filled with smoke after tumult.

After the violent rumbling, a silence remained, full of fear and trepidation.

—

“At 4:10 PM on the 5th, Qing Xi Ancient Town in B City was hit by a torrential rainstorm, triggering a landslide that trapped several students in the mountains. Rescue teams are currently conducting emergency rescue…”

A reporter from the city TV station, wearing a raincoat, conducted live coverage; the rain was gradually easing, but the scene was so chaotic that he still had to shout into the microphone.

The sky was dark, as if it had entered another world from the bright spring hours earlier.

The scene was chaotic, with reporters, crowds, medical personnel, and families all cramped together.

Some families of the trapped students arrived quickly, crying hysterically at the mountain entrance, barely able to stand with the aid of the teachers.

Song Ling held an umbrella for Gu Xiuyi, standing with him in the rain.

Gu Xiuyi wore a long black coat, nearly blending into the gloomy sky, his back straight and unmoving as he stared at the exit, watching the rushing muddy water flow out.

His face held no expression, the flickering orange-red lights of the rescue team shone on him, dimming and brightening over and over.

But that glimmer of light couldn’t penetrate deep; Gu Xiuyi’s pupils were as black as stagnant water.

He was uncharacteristically calm.

Around him, some were anxious, some irritable, and some were mournfully crying; Gu Xiuyi stood like a rock in the rain, devoid of emotion.

Yet Song Ling felt a deep-rooted fear from this.

Standing beside Gu Xiuyi, he knew every muscle in Gu Xiuyi’s body was tense, like a caged beast, silently roaring, straining against the fragile chains binding it.

Song Ling dared not imagine; if there was even a one in a thousand chance that something happened to that person in the mountains… Gu Xiuyi’s thread of sanity, pulled by a slender strand, would shatter completely, leading to a horrific scene.

Figures shifted at the entrance, voices rising—

“We found them! We found them!”

“Anyone unnecessary, step back, step back!”

“Students from the pavilion are all out!”

Song Ling felt a daze, and when he looked again, Gu Xiuyi had already stepped forward several paces.

His coat was soaked with rain, sticking against his pants with every movement, while his back was so rigid it seemed that bending it would break it.

In such a moment, the umbrella felt overly cumbersome; Song Ling frowned and folded it up, quickly catching up to Gu Xiuyi, watching as the rescue team brought out students one by one from the mountains.

Gu Xiuyi focused intently on every person coming out, his eyes sluggishly moving.

Among the group of students, some were supported, some still had the strength to walk, while others lay on stretchers.

With each person on a stretcher, Gu Xiuyi’s dripping fingers turned a shade whiter; after confirming the person lying there was not Ji Ruan, he would close his eyes momentarily as if gaining brief solace.

One, two, three… ten…

Until the exit was empty, and the last rescue team member emerged, he still did not see the person he longed to meet.

In his daze, Song Ling heard a shattering sound.

He could feel Gu Xiuyi’s suppressed emotions reaching a breaking point as he rigidly turned his head to scan every individual on the ground—the group of muddy, weeping people.

As if conducting a final confirmation.

Then he saw Gu Xiuyi’s eyes gradually fill with blood, slowly turning to look at himself, expressing the ultimate repression in two syllables:

“Where is he?”

He seemed like a calm lunatic.

Song Ling almost fell to the ground, hastily pulling up a rescue worker: “Brother… big brother, there’s not enough, we’re still missing one, our child is still inside!”

“—Two! It’s two!”

Just as he finished, an elegant woman rushed over; originally graceful Teacher Cheng was now disheveled, collapsing next to Song Ling, trembling as she choked out:

“Our Zizhang didn’t come out either…”

In an instant, the air became supremely still.

Not knowing how long it had been, maybe only a few seconds, a string of sobs pierced the night veil.

“Teacher… Teacher…”

A girl with a bleeding forehead trembled as she sat up from the stretcher: “Zizhang and the others should be… should be trapped on the other side…”

She must have been scared stiff by the sudden landslide; her tears flowed uncontrollably as she stammered, “They… they went to get you… took the closest route down… down there…”

Gu Xiuyi’s head jerked up, his bloodshot eyes staring blankly into the void.

In the dark, the majestic peaks loomed like ghosts tearing apart a mask, revealing snowy white fangs in the lightning, splitting the rain curtain into a surging abyss.