Глава 4, ч.2

” They both looked up to the sky, and saw black clouds rolling in fast. Very quickly the moon and the stars disappeared, followed by heavy rain pouring down. In no time at all the tranquil river turned into a wildly turbulent one. The Great River was pitched black, they could not even see the fingers in front of their nose, let alone the woman-in-white. Therefore, they could forget about steering the boat in such a difficult situation. The fishing boat was tossed around endlessly by the river; they were surrounded by vast darkness. The rain shot down like arrows. Their clothes were completely drenched, making them cold and miserable. In their frantic struggle, ‘Boom!’ the fishing boat suddenly hit something, immediately it leaned sideways and capsized. They both cried out in alarm and threw themselves in the direction of the woman-in-white. With its earth-shattering power [orig. hiding the sky and covering the earth], the river water swoop down on them. The three people held on to each other and sank down together into the river. In this situation, where the violent storm blew the rain horizontally, where the waves surged rapidly, where the turbulent water prevented them from seeing their own fingers, where Xu Ziling and Kou Zhong were starving and freezing, where they were attacked relentlessly by the water, every time they struggled hard to surface, they would immediately be pulled down into the water again. The two boys’ original intention was to rescue the woman-in-white, but in the end Xu Ziling was holding on to her neck, while Kou Zhong was pulling her legs. The woman-in-white was still in deep sleep, but her body was perfectly straight; no matter how hard the wind and the rain attacked her, she stayed floating face up on the river. In a way, she has become the two little demons’ life-saving raft. They were struggling between being living persons versus being water ghosts for nobody knows how long. The power of the rain finally lessened. The moon also showed its face a little. It was only then did they realize that the water has washed them out closer to the shore. In their great delight they exerted the strength that they did not know they still had, to pull the woman-in-white along to the shore. As soon as they reached the muddy shore, the two boys were not able to hold on anymore; they lay down on the sand on either side of the woman-in-white. The river still sent its waves to the shore, but no longer with the violent force of a moment ago. The two boys could not stop panting, in contrast to the woman-in-white soft and slow breathing, as if she was sleeping soundly. The moon was obscure by drifting clouds once again. Before the three people were shrouded by the darkness, light suddenly came from the direction of the lower reached of the river. The two boys forced themselves to look up, and were shocked to see six big, brightly lit five-mast warships, with all their sails down, sailing at full speed toward them. They were so scared that their scalps felt numb. Quickly they crouched as low as possible behind a sandbar. In time like this they really wish the river tide would be a bit more violent. Time seemed to stop to a stand still. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦 While in their hearts Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling beseeched all gods and Buddhas, known or unknown to them, the huge warships finally sailed far away. Fortunately the ships were so tall that their lights barely reached the darkness where the three of them were lying down, plus at that time the sky was still filled with drizzle, so the visibility was low, plus lantern lights could not reach far; hence the three of them escaped great calamity. With the woman-in-white between their hands and feet, the two boys huffed and puffed to get her onto the grassy area farther up the shore, and then both of them dropped down, totally exhausted. Xu Ziling was the first to suffer a dizzy spell, he could not hold on, his vision blackened and he blacked out. Kou Zhong called him twice. And then after feeling his back to make sure the ‘secret manual’ was safe, he felt relieved and closed his eyes to sleep. After sleeping for nobody knows how long, Kou Zhong was the first to wake up. He saw the sun was shining on the open space around him, his body felt comfortably warm, the heat seemed to penetrate his body and soul. Moaning in comfort, for a moment he felt as if he was still in his little nest in Yangzhou. It was not until he heard the rumbling noise of the river beneath his feet did he finally remembered what had happened the previous day. He woke up with a jolt, opened his eyes wide, and sat up. The place where they were was surrounded by range of hills, the sun had already at the top of the hills, the Great River was flowing from the south, flowing right next to them. After looking more clearly, he could not help sucking a breath of cold air. Turned out in this section of the river the rapid water merged with rugged shoal, reefs stood up everywhere; no wonder that although he tried to steer it, their boat suddenly crashed and sank. But it was a good accident; if not for their boat capsized, perhaps Yuwen ‘Huagu’s ships would have caught up with them early on. Xu Ziling was still sleeping like a dead person. Heavens! Where is that woman-in-white?

Kou Zhong was at a loss, but he was also being paranoid; he was afraid she might slip back into the river. Quickly he crawled toward Xu Ziling and slapped his face in his usual technique. “Xiao Ling! Xiao Ling! Wake up! That evil woman is gone.” Xu Ziling struggled hard to open his eyes, but unable to withstand the harsh sunlight, he closed his eyes immediately. “Ay,” he moaned, “I was just dreaming of Zhen Sao’s delicious meat and vegetable steamed buns! What?

That evil woman slipped away?

” Suddenly he sat up and glanced to the left and looked to the right with a look of disappointment on his face. Chapter 4, Part 2 window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "62910880adf4e30027560830", id: "pf-1556-1"}) Szfong, Weed, Anh, Janger, Strawberry, you are welcome. Scrapper, welcome to the forum. In case you did not know, you may want to check other great stories here, quite a number have been finished. Drak, welcome back. It’s always nice to see familiar names. Weed, I meant to post this last night, but was busy. Kou Zhong burst into laughter, “Xiao Ling!” he said, “You fell in love with that woman, didn’t you?

Be careful, I think she might want to take your little life. Hey! Ha ha! Ow! Ay! You are not supposed to laugh on an empty stomach.” Xu Ziling shot him an angry glare, “I am just afraid she slipped away for personal gain, taking along our secret manual with her!” Startled, Kou Zhong felt his back. Suddenly he sprang up, his countenance changed. “Stinky woman, mother thief, she really stole our secret manual!” Xu Ziling still thought he was joking; reaching out to feel Kou Zhong’s back and lower waist, he let out a miserable scream and threw himself to the ground. Spreading out his hands and feet, he sobbed, “It’s finished! The person is gone, the money is gone, the secret manual is gone, and we have become fugitives. O God! Everything is finished.” Gnashing his teeth, Kou Zhong stood up, made a fist toward the heavens and shouted madly, “No! I will do whatever it takes to get the secret manual back! Ah ...!” Something flew across and hit his face. Kou Zhong screamed miserably and tumbled down to the ground. Xu Ziling sat up, aghast. He saw standing on a rock about a zhang away, was the woman-in-white. Her beautiful face looked as if it was covered in a layer of cold frost; with her apricot eyes opened wide, she glowered at them. When Kou Zhong was struggling to crawl up, he discovered that the ‘secret projectile’ that attacked him was precisely the darling of their hearts, their life treasure. With a strange cry he returned the book inside his clothes on his back. His manner of regarding the book as important as his life was ridiculously funny. With a cold snort the woman-in-white said, “What martial art secret manual?