My girlfriend was reborn.

Chapter 137 I'll Save You Again

When Cheng Shuangjiang regained consciousness, the first thing she felt was a chill.

She vaguely remembered that it rained heavily, and then the three of them clung to a pine tree to protect themselves from the flash flood. Later, the pine tree was swept away by the flood, and they held onto the trunk and drifted downstream. Midway, she and Lu Bai were almost swept away, and it was Zhou Heming who pulled them back. He was hit by the water many times and almost swept away. When the flood receded, she let go of the trunk and closed her eyes because she was too tired.

"Zhou Heming!"

Recalling this, she immediately looked around, searching for the boy.

Cheng Shuangjiang was in a forest.

The ground was muddy, and her clothes were already dirty.

However, the floodwaters have disappeared without a trace, at least not yet.

The rain seemed to have lessened, falling softly, obscured by the leaves of the deep forest, with only a few drops landing on her head.

She felt some pain in her body and looked at her legs and arms, where she could see some bruises.

Fortunately, no bones were broken or skin was scraped; it was just accidentally bumped when it was swept down.

"Cheng Shuangjiang, are you alright?"

Zhou Heming's voice came, making Cheng Shuangjiang want to stand up suddenly. She immediately saw Zhou Heming next to her.

It seems that when Cheng Shuangjiang fainted, Zhou Heming carried her to this tree.

"Fortunately."

Cheng Shuangjiang saw that Zhou Heming had many scratches on his body and wanted to reach out, but then immediately withdrew her hand.

She looked to the side.

Lu Bai has woken up, but his condition is very strange.

Lu Bai's Xuanjun clothes were torn in many places. He was squatting under the tree, covering his ears with his hands, staring blankly into the void in front of him, muttering something under his breath.

"she"

Cheng Shuangjiang came to Lu Bai's side and gently pressed her shoulder.

But Lu Bai seemed oblivious to her, continuing to utter soft, low murmurs.

Cheng Shuangjiang listened attentively.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

Lu Bai is apologizing.

Zhou Heming gently embraced her, and Lu Bai recovered somewhat, becoming silent.

Cheng Shuangjiang stood up and looked around.

Clearly, they had been swept away quite a distance by the flash flood, and this place should be near the foot of the mountain.

"Because of the unique geological composition of Heming Mountain, landslides and mudslides are easily caused when it rains heavily, which led to the legend of the monster."

Cheng Shuangjiang murmured.

For superstitious people in ancient times, the frequent disasters at Heming Mountain were attributed to monsters, but in reality, it was just a special geological feature.

"The location of Heming Temple is perfect for observing hydrogeological conditions. Is the Xuanjun ritual essentially an inspection of soil erosion along the mountain path?"

Cheng Shuangjiang, with her science-oriented mindset, analyzed the ins and outs of the Xuanjun ritual, and then checked the condition of the trees and soil next to her.

He was so calm, unlike someone experiencing a disaster for the first time.

"No cell phone signal, what about you?"

Cheng Shuangjiang took out her phone and turned around.

"No, I don't know if it's a problem with the base station or the weather."

Zhou Heming confirmed that, although neither of their phones had been exposed to water, they also had no signal and could not access the internet.

"Fortunately, the infrastructure construction and maintenance of Heming Mountain in recent years have indeed played a role; otherwise, it would have been a real flash flood that swept us away."

Cheng Shuangjiang glanced at the height of the tree trunk after it had been submerged in water; it only reached about their thighs at most.

Of course, this level of flash flood is already quite severe, but it is indeed much weaker than the one seven years ago.

Seven years ago, they would have been corpses by now.

"We don't know if it will continue to rain. We'd better find a way out, or some higher ground."

Cheng Shuangjiang glanced at Lu Bai, who had triggered a stress-induced trauma, and said softly.

She could understand Lu Bai.

Seven years ago, in a life-or-death moment, I lost my closest loved one. Now, almost the same thing happened again, and I almost lost my dearest person again.

This is indeed difficult for an 18-year-old girl to accept at first.

As for Cheng Shuangjiang...

She has seventeen extra years of memories, and her reborn experience is hardly any better—it's almost hellish, but she has certainly developed a tolerance for disaster.

"Ah."

Zhou Heming nodded and looked at Lu Bai.

"Can I leave?"

Lu Bai pursed his lips, nodded, and slowly stood up with Zhou Heming's help.

Do you know where north is?

Zhou Heming looked up at the sky, but there was no sun, so he had no idea where he was.

"It should be over there. Our slope leads this way. According to the east-west mountain range of Heming Mountain, this side is probably north."

Cheng Shuangjiang opened the offline map and compared it.

"Theoretically, we should be able to reach the bottom of the mountain by going down the slope, but it's hard to say how far the nearest village or town is."

Noticing that Zhou Heming was staring at her, Cheng Shuang subconsciously brushed the hair that had fallen beside her ear.

"No, it's just that you seem to be talking more."

Zhou Heming replied.

Although Cheng Shuangjiang still spoke in that cold tone, to Zhou Heming it sounded calm and composed. Moreover, the girl, who was usually sparing with words and didn't like to express herself, was now talking non-stop.

"Let's go down the mountain first."

Cheng Shuangjiang didn't explain, she just walked downhill.

Fortunately, all three only suffered superficial injuries without any obvious wounds, and were able to walk. It was a stroke of luck; otherwise, if the smell of blood had attracted some strange creatures in this deep mountain forest, they would have been in serious trouble.

After walking for about ten minutes, the surrounding vegetation became lush, and Zhou Heming suddenly saw a large, white rock.

The rock looked like the remains of some colossal creature that had been weathered over millions of years. It was about half the size of a basketball court, two meters high, with one side flat enough to climb up, while the other side was straight as if cut by a knife.

"This doesn't look like it fell from the mountain."

Zhou Heming had Cheng Shuangjiang help Lu Bai while he walked to the flat side.

Unexpectedly, on the other side, there were faded vermilion characters.

"It looks like some kind of talisman."

Zhou Heming pointed to the dazzling, worn marks on it and said.

Cheng Shuangjiang helped Lu Bai to the stone wall.

They naturally couldn't recognize those characters.

After looking at it once, Zhou Heming only recognized the signature.

Crane-Cry Taoist.

"It seems to be the person who suppressed the monster and established the Xuanjun ritual back then. According to Cheng Shuangjiang, he must have observed the hydrogeological conditions before setting up the Taoist temple as an observation station, right?"

Zhou Heming turned to look at the two girls.

suddenly.

Lu Bai's eyes widened, and he tried to back away in fear, almost slipping.

Zhou Heming quickly grabbed her.

"what happened?"

"This is it, this is it, that rock."

Lu Bai's voice trembled.

Zhou Heming was taken aback.

Then he reacted.

At that time, Lu Bai and Lu Qian were trapped on the mountain and chose a towering rock to take shelter from the flood. This is that rock.

Since the two girls were only ten years old at the time, the stone was indeed very tall for them.

In a sense, it was the inscription erected here by the Taoist Heming many years ago that saved Lu Bai many years later.

While sighing with regret, Zhou Heming also noticed that Lu Bai's trembling had intensified.

For seven years, she probably has never forgotten that night, and the last look the two sisters exchanged.

Zhou Heming pulled her head close, preventing Lu Bai from continuing to reminisce over the objects.

"Rest here."

Cheng Shuangjiang said.

The three of them reached the other side of the rock and climbed up.

Although it's unknown whether there will be more flash floods, at least this place is high up. Seven years ago, Lu Bai and Lu Qian were able to wait for rescue, so they certainly won't be submerged now.

"If the signal is restored, this place can also serve as a landmark to let the rescuers know where we are."

Cheng Shuangjiang added another sentence.

"really."

Zhou Heming felt that Cheng Shuangjiang's words made a lot of sense.

"At the current pace of emergency relief, it should be soon."

Cheng Shuangjiang glanced at her phone.

There was still no signal, and even emergency numbers were unreachable. Given that it's a mountainous area and had been hit by a natural disaster, communication disruptions were to be expected, highlighting the difficulty of disaster relief efforts back then.

"sorry."

At this moment, Lu Bai suddenly spoke, making the two of them look at her.

“It’s all my fault. If I hadn’t participated in the ceremony and hadn’t meddled, we wouldn’t be stuck here.”

Her voice was low and somber.

"No one expected this to happen at the time."

From Zhou Heming's perspective, this flash flood and mudslide was somewhat strange. Putting aside everything else, since the meteorological bureau knew that there would be a large gathering at Heming Mountain today, they should have made a thorough forecast and not just stood by and watched the risk occur.

But the disaster still happened.

It's unlikely that there really is some monster in the mountains that resonated with Lu Bai's role as a Mystic Lord, causing a flash flood and mudslide.

"I'm sorry, I wish it had been me who died back then."

Lu Bai gave up on himself.

"What are you saying? Stop talking."

Zhou Heming shook her body, signaling Lu Bai to stop blaming herself.

"if."

Cheng Shuangjiang glanced at Lu Bai and spoke.

"If you really feel guilty, then you should live well and not let her down. In that moment, it may have been an instinctive reaction or a decision made after a struggle, but in any case, she chose to sacrifice herself so that you could move towards the future. Don't let her down."

She seemed to be talking about Lu Qian, but also about herself, who had been reborn.

Lu Bai stared blankly at Cheng Shuangjiang.

For a fleeting moment, Zhou Heming seemed to see Cheng Shuangjiang's arrival in his mind.

Some indescribable change seemed to be occurring in Cheng Shuangjiang.

Just then, her phone vibrated.

"We have a signal."

Cheng Shuangjiang picked up her phone and quickly checked it.

"It's very weak, it must be a temporary signal vehicle. I'll send a message to Uncle Liu directly."

She sent a message to Liu Jian, but it took a long time to be successfully sent via WeChat.

After waiting a few more minutes, Cheng Shuangjiang received a reply.

"I'll send a few more messages to confirm he received them. This should be called, um, a three-way handshake."

She was talking about knowledge she had somehow acquired.

After putting down her phone, Cheng Shuangjiang glanced at the two of them, then looked up at the sky above the gap in the trees.

"The weather has cleared up."

*
About an hour later.

Rescuers found the three of them, put them in their car, and took them back to town.

On the way, with the gradually restored signal, Zhou Heming got a general understanding of the disaster situation.

The mudslides caused by the heavy rains, along with the resulting flash floods, rushed down from the mountaintop and swept across most of Heming Mountain.

However, as Cheng Shuangjiang said, the prevention and repair work in recent years has been effective, minimizing the damage caused by flash floods.

Thanks to the timely rescue efforts, all the missing persons were found by evening, and fortunately, no one died.

Only a dozen or so unlucky people suffered fractures of varying degrees, while many more suffered abrasions, bruises, and other injuries.

Of course, someone will eventually be held accountable for this disaster, but that's not something Zhou Heming needs to worry about.

After receiving treatment for their minor injuries at the hospital, the three gave up their valuable medical resources to those who needed them more and returned home.

Zhou Heming didn't tell his grandmother about his dangerous situation; he only said that he was trapped by heavy rain.

He first told the two girls to take a hot shower to avoid catching a cold, while he picked up his phone and opened a webpage.

Searching for Lu Ban, Zhou Heming saw the director's first work.

Sure enough, in this horror thriller with poor special effects, props, and costumes, and only decent imagination, Lu Bai and Lu Qian played a pair of terrifying twin ghosts.

The story is simple: the protagonists encounter ghosts in a haunted house, and after various explorations and struggles, they discover that they were actually already dead and are trapped forever on the day they died.

Following this, he found clips of some old movies on video websites.

Indeed, just as I've heard before.

Lu Qian's acting skills are noticeably worse. Even though the two look exactly alike, you can still tell the difference when they deliver their lines and make expressions.

Looking at the twin sisters, Zhou Heming sighed softly.

He looked up when he heard the sound of slippers.

He saw Cheng Shuangjiang, dressed in short-sleeved pajamas and shorts, drying her hair.

Zhou Heming instinctively wanted to offer to help her blow-dry her hair, but he immediately realized that this action would be inappropriate and swallowed his words.

But Cheng Shuangjiang didn't rush to use the hair dryer; instead, she stared at Zhou Heming.

"Today is actually very dangerous, not only physically, but also psychologically."

Cheng Shuangjiang said coldly.

"I've been talking to try and calm you down, especially Lu Bai, otherwise she might have already broken down."

"Um"

Zhou Heming later realized this as well.

If all three of them had remained silent at that moment, the atmosphere would undoubtedly have become extremely tense. Putting aside Zhou Heming, Lu Bai, who had suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, would definitely not have been able to withstand it and would have completely collapsed.

That girl wasn't actually as strong as Zhou Heming thought.

"And if I remember correctly, when we were drifting down, you pulled us both back to the tree trunk, and you almost got swept away yourself."

Cheng Shuangjiang continued.

"I didn't think too much at the time, I just did it on instinct. Now that I've come to my senses, I'm really scared. But if I really encountered that kind of extreme situation, I would probably still make the same choice."

Zhou Heming smiled self-deprecatingly.

"At that time, I was actually thinking that if I died in the flash flood, wouldn't it be a bit unfair to her?"

Both of them knew who he was referring to as "she".

"Will not."

Cheng Shuangjiang spoke.

"You're not going to die."

"what?"

Zhou Heming was a little taken aback.

Cheng Shuangjiang looked away, as if searching for a hair dryer.

"If you die in a flash flood."

She picked up the hair dryer, turned around, and prevented Zhou Heming from seeing any of her expressions.

"Then I'll find a way to be reborn on that day at the funeral home again, and save you once more."

Cheng Shuangjiang plugged the hair dryer into the power source.

The room was filled with the sound of howling wind.

*
When Zhou Heming came out of the bathroom, only Cheng Shuangjiang was left in the living room.

The television was broadcasting local news reports about the disaster relief efforts at Heming Mountain.

"She's in her room upstairs."

Cheng Shuangjiang didn't look at Zhou Heming and said calmly.

"it is good."

Zhou Heming went upstairs.

I opened the door; the curtains were drawn, and the lights were off, so it was completely dark.

Lu Bai appeared to be curled up on the floor, hugging his knees with both hands.

Zhou Heming didn't turn on the light, but sat down next to her and gently pulled the girl into his arms.

Feeling that slightly cool body temperature, Zhou Heming knew that what happened today had completely brought Lu Bai back to that day seven years ago.

Or.

The girl has been here for seven years.

I've never truly moved on from that day.

She was trapped in her childhood expectations, imprisoning herself in a self-imposed prison.

therefore.

Zhou Heming took a light breath.

In the dimly lit room, he spoke in a deep voice.

"It's been seven years, that's enough."

Zhou Heming gently stroked the girl's cheek and lifted her up, letting her look into his eyes in the darkness.

The girl looked slightly confused, as if she didn't know what Zhou Heming was trying to say.

"If I'm not mistaken, Lu Bai is no longer here, is he?"

Zhou Heming spoke softly, gazing into the girl's eyes as he called her name.

"A-Qian".

*
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(End of this chapter)