On the lakeshore, the man who had fallen into the water was pulled from the water, but his heart had stopped beating. So the two people poured water on him, gave him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, and took turns performing chest compressions to resuscitate him...
After much effort, the man who had fallen into the water remained lying flat on his back, motionless. The man and woman who had rescued him and brought him ashore were quite puzzled.
The stern-looking man lifted the drowning man's head with one hand and gently patted his face with the other, urgently calling out, "Hey, wake up, wake up..."
After a while, the man who had fallen into the water finally twitched his fingers slightly, but did not open his eyes.
Upon seeing this, the woman in pink quickly reached out to carefully take his pulse. After a moment, she seemed to finally breathe a sigh of relief and explained to the cold-faced man, "No wonder he hasn't woken up for so long. It turns out he suffers from a serious gallbladder disease and had just recovered from a major illness when he fell into the water from a cliff ten feet high. It's a miracle he's still alive."
"Young lady, you know medicine? What should we do? Can he still be saved?" the cold-faced man asked anxiously.
The woman smiled and comforted him, saying softly, "Don't worry, he'll be fine. He's just too weak from the long journey, so he won't wake up for a while. He just needs to find a place to rest and recuperate properly, and he'll wake up soon. Once he's awake, give him some ginger tea or strong tea..."
Before she could finish speaking, the cold-faced man, who had been listening intently to the earnest yet gentle voice, glanced up at the woman's face and exclaimed in surprise, "Miss Ruoxi, your face..."
Upon hearing this, the woman realized that she had been preparing to descend the mountain when she overheard a group of people discussing someone falling off a cliff into the water, but no one daring to jump in to save them. In her haste to save the person, she had hastily removed her black veil. Although a pure white veil still covered her face, she feared that the water would reveal everything. Realizing her mistake, she hurriedly and frantically covered her face, crying out, "My face… Ah, I'm so sorry!"
In an instant, both of them fell silent, lost in their own thoughts.
After a while, the stern and unsmiling man finally broke the silence, saying, "Miss Ruoxi, your clothes are completely soaked. It looks like it's getting dark soon, and the air in the mountains is cold. You should hurry back and change into some dry clothes. Be careful not to catch a cold. Leave everything here to me. I will definitely take him back and take good care of him!"
Upon hearing this, the woman examined herself, who was already soaking wet, and thought for a moment before saying, "Alright, since that's the case, then I'll trouble you. I'll go back and prepare some medicine for him, but all the herbs I just collected are still in the mountains, so I'll have to go back and collect some more. Once the medicine is ready, I'll personally deliver it to you, okay?"
"That's good, but it's getting dark. How can you go up the mountain alone?" the stern-faced man said with a worried frown.
The woman pursed her lips, glanced up at the mountain path on the other side, and immediately said with a joyful expression, "Don't worry, I'll be fine, look..."
Following the direction the woman was looking, the cold-faced man saw two Xiaolong Society guards who had just rushed down the mountain road and were now hurrying towards them.
"See? Those two are the strongest subordinates of Chief Long... Alright, don't worry about me. You should take him back quickly. The wind here is getting colder and colder. Don't let him catch a cold, that would be terrible." At this moment, the woman urged him.
Upon hearing this, the cold-faced man seemed to feel much more at ease. He immediately picked up the man who had fallen into the water, stood up, and stepped onto a suspension bridge over the lake. He then hurried back towards the direction of the Xiaolong Society.
The woman stood up, and only after watching the stern-faced man safely cross the suspension bridge leading to the Swift Dragon Society did she look up at the sky. Night was approaching, and she knew she had to hurry. So, she strode towards the direction where the two guards were to meet them.
The two guards were terrified when they saw the woman walking peacefully in front of them suddenly rush over and jump off the cliff. Their hearts pounded so hard they felt like they were about to jump out of their chests. Without thinking, they turned and ran down the mountain as fast as they could.
At this moment, seeing the woman standing unharmed in front of them, they finally looked at each other and breathed a deep sigh of relief.
Still seemingly shaken, one of the younger guards, hands on his hips, gasped and exclaimed in surprise and reproach, "Miss Ruoxi, you...you...you...you really scared us to death! How could you jump off a cliff more than ten zhang high? Do you know how dangerous that is? Even the two of us couldn't possibly do that! Do you know that if you had lost even a single hair, we would have been in deep trouble? If the leader blamed us, we might have lost our lives!"
However, the woman seemed not to be worried at all, because she knew that this was something she could definitely do, even though she had amnesia and did not know why.
So she immediately interlaced her fingers behind her back, gently tiptoed, and smiled slightly at the two of them. Under the light white veil that had long been dried by the mountain wind covering her face, a very beautiful smile appeared at the corner of her mouth, instantly extinguishing all the resentment and excitement in their hearts.
Then, she slowly took two steps forward, passing through a narrow gap between the two people who were standing, just wide enough for her to easily pass through. As she passed through, she still smiled innocently and gently, extending her two slender hands to place on their shoulders, and said softly, "Don't worry, next time before I jump, I will definitely tell you in advance so that you can be prepared."
The two men were completely captivated by the petite woman who had suddenly become as docile as a kitten. When they finally came to their senses, they turned around abruptly and exclaimed loudly at her retreating figure, "What? There's going to be a next time?"
"Miss Ruoxi, Miss Ruoxi, it's already dark. Where do you think you're going? Let's go back quickly, or we won't have anything to eat today... Miss Ruoxi, wait for us!"
After the woman left them with a single sentence that had finally put them at ease but now put them back in suspense, she continued walking forward without looking back, no matter what they did or said. Instead of going up the suspension bridge to the only road back to the Xiaolong Society, the two sighed helplessly again, calling out to her retreating figure as they quickened their pace to catch up.
She hadn't walked far when she saw several white-flowered motherwort plants growing in a sunny spot by the roadside. Curious, she picked one up and, as she walked, explained to the two people catching up behind her, "Saving lives was the priority! I didn't think about anything else at the time! Next time, I'll just tell you first. By the way, do you know any shortcuts to get back to where I jumped into the water? We need to find those herbs I picked quickly. We barely managed to save that person from the brink of death; without those herbs, it would all be for nothing!"
At this moment, the two guards, who had already realized that they had been deceived by his kind appearance, crossed their arms and followed him coldly without expression, remaining silent no matter what he said or did in front of them.
Not receiving the response she expected, the woman immediately stopped and turned around in confusion. But when she saw the two men's gloomy faces, she froze.
After a moment of stunned silence, he suddenly broke into a bright smile and approached them, clasping his hands in a fist salute. He pleaded with them in a playful, coquettish manner, "Hehehe... Please, gentlemen, have mercy on me and don't just stand by and watch me become a drowning dog for nothing!"
At that moment, unexpectedly, another guard, who seemed to be older, suddenly snorted at her and gave her a disdainful look, asking her inexplicably, "What are you holding in your hand?"
Although somewhat puzzled as to why this person would suddenly ask such a question, she still earnestly half-raised the motherwort she was holding and replied, "This is motherwort! It's an essential medicine used by physicians throughout history to treat gynecological diseases. How amazing it is that there are actually several motherwort plants with white corollas growing here; usually, the corollas are mostly pink to pale purplish-red..."
When talking about herbs, she always looks delighted, speaking with great interest and enthusiasm, thoroughly enjoying herself.
The guard scoffed, saying, "Luckily, you recognize it as motherwort. But do you know that motherwort symbolizes maternal love? There's a saying: 'Our bodies, hair, and skin are given to us by our parents; we dare not damage them—this is the beginning of filial piety. To establish oneself in the world, to make a name for oneself in posterity, and to glorify one's parents—this is the end of filial piety.' Even if you are currently unknown, you can't be so reckless and dangerous every day. If something were to happen to you one day, how heartbroken your parents would be! Is this how you repay their kindness in giving you life, when 'white-haired parents bury their black-haired children'?"
Although she didn't yet know what kind of person she was, what her family background was, or whether anyone still cared about her, the man in front of her clearly cared about her and that's why he said that.
So she silently lowered her head, gently twirling her sash around her fingers, and said seriously, "Brother is right, Ruoxi was reckless."
After a long pause, the older guard suddenly said, "If you know you're wrong, come with me now!"
The woman immediately looked up in surprise and asked, "Where are you going?"
The guard, still feigning anger, glanced at her and walked past her onto a mountain path, calling out, "Go where you want to go, find what you want to find, don't let yourself be a drowning dog for nothing today!"
Upon hearing this, the woman was so happy she almost screamed, and then quickly chased after him.
The other young guard was still standing there, scratching his head and muttering to himself in bewilderment, "Well, we still ended up doing what she wanted. Looks like we're going to go hungry again tonight... Hey, you two, wait for me!"
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