She ran forward with all her might, but the wheat grew taller and denser, increasing the resistance. Behind her, she could hear the man's incessant cursing in the wind.

"You bitch, I'm telling you, you can't escape!" Seeing the fire coming towards him, Wu Dali didn't dare to rush forward. He could only go around the fire and chase after them from the side.

Sun Miao'er's heart was pounding. Just as she had expected, this body was weak and had never tried such high-intensity exercise before.

As she suddenly started running, she felt as if her feet were filled with lead, and they slowly began to ache and swell. Her nasal cavity was filled with the smell of blood, and her throat felt like it was being burned by smoke. She opened her mouth wide to inhale and exhale air, not daring to slow her pace in the slightest.

Wu Dali charged out!

Sun Miao'er knew something was wrong. The wind suddenly changed direction and blew diagonally backward, which meant that the fire had also changed!

She glanced back and saw that the fire, which should have been burning directly behind her, had instantly changed direction, spreading out to the diagonal rear.

Wu Dali took advantage of the gust of wind and rushed out of the fire.

"This is truly divine intervention, hahahahaha!" He looked like a demon crawling out of hell, the firelight making his rugged face appear even more grotesque, filled with hatred and desire.

The source and vessel of those negative emotions was none other than Sun Miao'er, who had run away.

Wu Dali lifted his leg and chased after her, watching her slowly lose her vitality in her own torment, just like a rabbit. He was going to keep her to play with later!

Sun Miao'er dared not turn back. She pushed aside the wheat in front of her. Fortunately, she was small enough to squeeze through, but Wu Dali was too fast. He could kick the wheat away effortlessly and trample over it at will as he strode over.

It takes Sun Miao'er two steps to equal his one step.

At the end of the wheat field, she thought she would find hope, but instead, she found only the bank of a river.

The river in front of me was calm and still, and the moon was reflected in the water, making it look so peaceful and beautiful.

Sun Miao'er stared at the moon before her, ripples spreading across the water. She had no way out.

This river irrigates the main villages around it. It is formed by the confluence of several mountain streams and flows eastward into the sea. Not only is the water deep, but it also has swirling eddies. Once you fall in, the chances of survival are extremely slim.

Wu Dali was slowly approaching, and Sun Miao'er could feel his nauseating aura. The sound of wheat being flattened and trampled was also getting closer.

While he was lost in thought, Wu Dali was already standing a few feet away from Sun Miao'er.

He grinned lewdly, like a ghost. "I told you, you can't escape. In Fushui Village, taking you is as easy as turning my hand. You're just an orphan with no parents, who would look for you? That old woman from the Sun family who's half-buried in her coffin? Or Sun Xiaoman who's not even half my height?"

Sun Miao'er retreated to the bank; if she took just one more step back, she would fall into the icy river.

She grabbed a stone from the bank and hurled it at him, one, two…

The stones hit Wu Dali's thick chest and back without causing any pain or itching. Wu Dali was already sturdy and big, and with the darkness, no one would come near. He was even more arrogant, not dodging, but simply knowing that the girl had nowhere to escape.

Seeing that he had no reaction to the stone, Sun Miao'er changed her approach. She picked up a branch from the ground, suppressed her fear, and calmly warned him, "I really will die with you."

Wu Dali didn't take her seriously at all. He moved closer, his belt already undone, and he was about to take off his pants.

Sun Miao'er knew he was serious, so she seized the opportunity, grabbed his belt, held it tightly in her hand, and used her feet to brace against the tree roots as a support for her body.

He wanted to throw Wu Dali into the river.

But as she supported herself, the tree, which wasn't very tall and whose roots weren't very deep, was supporting the weight of two people. The soil around the roots began to loosen slightly.

"Are you crazy?!" Wu Dali noticed the change in the tree roots and shouted. He was being held by Sun Miao'er with her belt, and he tried to tear the belt off, but he couldn't find a notch and couldn't break the burlap belt at all.

A chill ran through Sun Miao'er's eyes. "I've said it before, I'm not afraid of death."

Of course she wasn't afraid of death; she had already died once. To be able to live again, to meet her loving grandmother, the clever, cute, and caring Xiaoman, the steady and sensible Xiaoning, and her master...

That's enough.

Wu Dali strained his wrists, tearing a sliver of cloth. Fortunately, the tear was against the grain, and the belt was still intact.

As Sun Miao'er watched the belt slowly crack and break in two, she closed her eyes. "I'm sorry," she thought, "this time I'm going to take a gamble." Just before the belt broke, she kicked backward hard, knocking down the small tree. The riverbed collapsed, and she pulled on the belt, tumbling into the river with Wu Dali.

Wu Dali didn't even have a chance to react before being pulled into the water by this seemingly frail body. He underestimated Sun Miao'er's strength and her determination.

Water rushed in from all directions, and in the last moment before she fell into the water, she seemed to be hallucinating.

An indigo blue, beneath the moon, just as it was when I first met him.

She wasn't a good swimmer and could only hold her breath briefly underwater. When she entered the water, she loosened her belt and couldn't open her eyes, so she couldn't see Wu Dali's location at all.

What she regrets most now is that she insisted on being stubborn when she left, insisting on taking the lantern from her master to go home by herself. If her master had taken her home, would things have turned out differently?

She couldn't hold her breath any longer; a feeling of suffocation washed over her. She tried desperately to thrash herself upwards with both hands, attempting to stick her head above the water. However, the current was like an invisible rope, reaching out from the bottom and tightly binding her. The more she tried to pull herself up, the more she felt herself sinking rapidly.

The feeling of choking on water was so unpleasant that she wanted to curse, but she couldn't utter a sound at all!

Sun Miao'er's strength was gradually swallowed up by the water, and her consciousness gradually blurred. It was as if she had returned to the days when she started her own business, or as if she was going through the original owner's memories, going through all the suffering she had endured in her childhood.

"Master, I'm scared..." She couldn't say these words, but she was actually afraid of dying. She had died once, and she was even more afraid of dying again. She didn't know if she would have a third chance.

But she still wanted to wait for her grandmother to see her achieve success in her career, and she also wanted to wait for Xiaoman to grow up. Xiaoning had not yet returned home, and everything was still uncertain. If she were to die like this, it would be too unfair!

Before she completely lost consciousness, she struggled to open her eyes. The indigo blue in front of her turned into a deep blue in the water, and her round-necked robe spread out underwater, forming a huge curtain.

"Master, save me... I'm so scared..." She instinctively opened her mouth to survive, but only spit out a bunch of bubbles; even her hearing was swallowed by the water.