“Hurry up, Jiang Yao, we have to go now!”

The door suddenly burst open and Wen Xuehui, who was drenched in rain, charged into the room anxiously. Jiang Yao looked at her, puzzled and confused. “What’s wrong?”

Wen Xuehui, being an impetuous person, didn’t have the time and patience to explain everything. She quickly packed a few items of Jiang Yao’s clothing, grabbed an umbrella, and snatched some of the important documents on the table and placed them into a bag before charging out of the dormitory while pulling Jiang Yao with her. She didn’t even close the door.

When Jiang Yao arrived downstairs, she found that everyone in her block had gathered on the field. There was a team of Support Guards in uniform standing before them, but she couldn’t see their faces with their backs turned on her under the heavy rain.

“Those who have already come down, leave at this instant. Don’t wait any longer,” the principal ushered in a tone of great dismay and anxiety.

Heavy rain had been pouring into this small valley in the mountain for a week in a row. Since two days ago, the villagers had been jittery and panicky for what would happen in the near future.

“What’s going on?” Jiang Yao asked in a low voice while catching up to Wen Xuehui’s swift footsteps.

“This horrible weather, that’s what’s going on. Because of the week-long downpour, there are many landslides in the village today and our village is no longer safe. The village head has asked for the support of the nearby volunteer guards and he wants to evacuate the whole village by tonight. Unfortunately, the road is too rugged for the guards’ cars to come in, so we have to walk to the junction where they’ve parked their car and escape.”

Wen Xuehui was talking nineteen to the dozen, indicating her anxiety and anguish. “See those guards there? They are here to help us.”

At Wen Xuehui’s remark, Jiang Yao turned and looked behind her. She saw two guards and the principal following behind them. One of the guards noticed Jiang Yao looking at him. He managed a shy smile and a wave, then tugged at his comrade by his side, who was keeping his head down as if looking for something on the ground.

The principal was pacing anxiously, presumably still worried about other people. He turned and said to the guards, “Comrades, I have to excuse myself to check on the other villagers elsewhere. Both of them are doctors from the city. They are our benefactors, our guardian angels who have been looking after us, the old folks in this village, over the years. Please escort them to safety and take good care of them.”

“You take care of yourself. No matter what, you must come and assemble here twenty minutes later,” the man with his downcast head ordered in a deep voice.

At the remark, Jiang Yao was stunned and her footsteps froze midway. She hurriedly looked behind her.

It was him. The voice sounded way too familiar.

In other words, the voice was carved in her mind. It was too memorable for her.

However, as she looked at the man who was keeping his head down, Jiang Yao turned around again, pondered, and then shook her head. She told herself that there was no way the man could be here—it was absolutely impossible.

In order to hide from him, she had given up her job at the prestigious hospital and came here voluntarily to tend to the villagers. In order to find her, that man had transferred troop after troop that it was impossible for him to be here.

The voice did sound familiar. Anyway, she hadn’t heard his voice for many years, so perhaps she had mistaken the voice with other people.

“Hey, what are you thinking of? Hello, mind your step!” Wen Xuehui noticed that her best friend was in a daze and quickly grabbed her before she stepped on cow dung. “Jiang Yao, what’s wrong with you? How can you be so absent-minded at a critical moment like this?”

They were almost running at the moment, so when Wen Xuehui pulled her out of her pace, Jiang Yao stumbled and nearly fell. Luckily, she managed to steady herself and stood firmly after a few wobbly tries.

"Sorry, I'm a little distracted," Jiang Yao whispered in apology. "I don't know why but I suddenly feel uneasy. We'd better hurry and run faster."

Wen Xuehui nodded, held Jiang Yao's hand, and started running. The two comrades behind them were also following them, so she didn't say anything.

The downpour was getting heavier and heavier with every second, coupled with enormous thunders and lightning. It was supposed to be the warmest summer, but instead, it was so cold that people couldn't stop shivering.

Wen Xuehui cursed at the weather and the sound of broken branches under their feet resonated into Jiang Yao's ears.

In the village, without the moon's illumination, the night was mysteriously and horribly dark. Thunder and lightning created a ghastly backdrop to the dark night.

If it weren't for the two guards behind them, Jiang Yao wondered if she and Wen Xuehui, two girls who were afraid of the dark, would have dared to run on this narrow path at this hour.

"Run! Hurry!"

Abruptly, there was a roar coming behind her along with an unusual shock vibrating into her ears. When Jiang Yao looked back in shock, a pair of hands appeared out of nowhere and pushed Wen Xuehui and her aside in an instant. In the midst of the darkness, she saw a face...

A familiar yet foreign face.

After being washed under the rain for several days, the soil of the mountain had dampened and lost its previous strength. After an enormous vibration, the mountain had disintegrated into piles and piles of slippery mounds.

The mounds buried the face deep beneath it.

"Lu..." Jiang Yao stared horrifically at the mounds in front of her. She wanted to go back despite feeling panicked.

"No! Jiang Yao, don't go, it's very dangerous!" Wen Xuehui frantically pulled at Jiang Yao, feeling her heart breaking into a million pieces. "The comrade has sacrificed himself and pushed us out in a moment of crisis. He has gave us time to escape the landslide but he's buried underneath it..."

"Captain!" The comrade next to them saw the scene and dashed forward hastily.

When Wen Xuehui saw that the landslide was showing signs of shaking, she quickly grabbed the comrade who was about to rush forward by his waist and screamed, "Stop! Don't go there! Look at the mountain. If you don't leave now, we will all be buried here and your captain's sacrifice will be in vain!"

"No, you're lying! There is no sacrifice, the captain will not die. I'm going to pull him out!" The comrade yelled vigorously as if he had lost his mind. "It's all my fault! I stopped and looked back like a fool when I heard the noise. It was the captain who had pushed me away in time, but because of me and my foolish mistake, he didn't have time to escape. It's all my fault!"

"Jiang Yao, what are you staring at? Hurry and come help me to drag this fool away!" Wen Xuehui shouted at Jiang Yao, who was staring into space and was about to move toward the mounds. "Don't you dare do any stupid act at this hour. Four deaths versus one death—it's a simple math problem, think about it!"

No, it was not a simple math problem, because the man buried in the mound was Lu Xingzhi, the husband she'd been married to for eleven years.

The man who was least likely to be here was here.

Although she was resisting her marriage to him, Jiang Yao couldn't bear to run away alone after seeing him buried under the mound.

"No, we must save him!" This was the only idea in Jiang Yao's mind. Avoiding the slope that was still continually shedding mud, she dashed toward the mound left by the landslide and dug into the soil with her bare hands. "He should be here, he should be here.."

"Jiang Yao! Damn! You're out of your mind!" Wen Xuehui was so agitated and shocked that she cursed at her best friend. She wasn't cold-blooded, but at a time like this, as she watched the soil getting slippery and starting to slide off the slope, she was unwilling to sacrifice three lives in order to save the guard.

"Xuehui, he is Lu Xingzhi! He is my husband!" Jiang Yao's tears rolled down her cheeks like a broken pearl necklace. "Lu Xingzhi! Lu Xingzhi! Can you hear me? I'm coming for you! Please stay alive!"

At this moment, Jiang Yao finally realized the genuine feeling of fear. She was afraid that Lu Xingzhi's life would end at this very moment. She was afraid that she would lose the husband she had avoided for many years.

***

Have you ever thought about how agile and strong a person could be?

You could survive without legs, you could survive without arms, and you could survive without half of your stomach and liver.

On the other hand, have you ever thought about how fragile a person could be?

In the blink of an eye, a living person has become a black and white portrait on the altar.

Just like that, he died.

This was the fragility of life, the weak and feeble life.

"Jiang Yao, I'm so sorry for your loss. He's gone now, he'll never come back." Wen Xuehui sobbed as she embraced Jiang Yao, who hadn't spoken a word for several days. She was so heartbroken to see the latter in such a state but she didn't know how to comfort her.

That day, she recoiled in shock as she heard Jiang Yao screaming the man's name and his status—her husband. She was so caught in surprise to the point of losing her sense of rationality and joined Jiang Yao and the comrade to start digging the mounds with their bare hands. If it weren't for the comrades who had arrived in time to pull them away, the three of them would have been buried beneath the mounds that had fallen down a few seconds later.

After the rain subsided, the guards cleared the muddy landslides and found the body of Jiang Yao's husband. On the very same night, the landslides took the lives of a guard, an old man, and two children.

Wen Xuehui figured she would bury this painful memory deep in her mind and never look back. The stormy night that was illuminated by thunder and lightning, the howling of the villages echoing across the car, and Jiang Yao's pale face when she looked back at her.

"Ma'am, these are the captain's belongings." The young comrade passed Lu Xingzhi's belongings over to Jiang Yao, his eyes blood-red. "In the box are the captain's medals, some certificates, and whatnot, and this is his uniform. I'm so sorry..."

Jiang Yao gazed at the box filled with Lu Xingzhi's possessions, his remnants. Her trembling fingers opened the old wooden box at the top of the items. "When did he transfer to your unit?"

"Almost two years ago," the young comrade said. "The captain was transferred shortly after you came to the village to be a volunteer doctor."

"So, he was already there when I went to your base to assist your team doctor. I see. At that time, were you all aware of our relationship?" Jiang Yao clutched her chest in pain. The pain was indescribable—it felt like a virus that was gradually consuming her body's perception system. "No wonder you always called me sister-in-law whenever you saw me."

She had naively thought then that 'sister-in-law' was just a collective term for married women.

It was only now that she realized how close Lu Xingzhi was to her. She was providing her assistance in his base while he was hiding from her.

She knew that he must be afraid that she would once again avoid him and leave this small village should she have found him here..