Volume One, Chapter 11: The Rescue

This was not the first time Wang Dong had witnessed death...

Staring at the bloodstains near the cliff’s edge, a scene from six years ago resurfaced vividly in his mind.

The rushing river, the foaming white waves—just a fleeting moment before the figure disappeared beneath the water’s surface. The name he had called out countless times, but could never bring back...

Six years ago, his newlywed wife, Zhang Xiaohong, had been caught in a riverbank collapse and, along with a dozen workers, plunged into the roaring Nen River.

From that day on, his already displeased father-in-law grew even more resentful toward Wang Dong.

And from that day on, a piece of Wang Dong’s heart was forever missing.

His marriage to Zhang Xiaohong was brief and unhappy. Unlike the timeless love stories sung through the ages, there was no deep affection between them, no mutual respect symbolized by the raised tray. Instead, it was more like two despairing souls, each choosing someone they could tolerate, enduring their shared life.

Yet only after losing Zhang Xiaohong did Wang Dong finally understand the ancient saying: humans are not plants; who can be without feeling? After all, she was the woman who had lived with him for a year!

When she bobbed up and down in the river, Wang Dong had gone mad trying to save her. She looked at him with eyes full of both despair and hope, reaching out repeatedly, calling out:

“Save... save... save me...”

“Help... help...”

Wait—why was that a man’s voice?

The low, hoarse cries for help and the relentless barking of dogs pulled him back from his memories.

Wang Dong immediately realized: the man was still alive!

He quickly cast aside the chaotic thoughts in his mind and cautiously approached the cliff’s edge.

Sure enough, the man was hanging there.

The man looked young, with stubble barely grown on his face, but his weathered expression spoke of a hard life from an early age.

He was clutching a shrub on the cliff with one hand while desperately gripping a protruding rock with the other, struggling to hold on.

As for the bear...

It had long since disappeared.

There was no sign of the bear at the bottom of the cliff, only a pool of blood on the ground. The bear had evidently fallen as well, but astonishingly, it had not died from the two-hundred-meter drop.

The bear’s tough hide and thick flesh made survival plausible, but a human falling from such a height was obviously a death sentence!

What made matters worse was that the man was already wounded.

Blood dripped steadily from his forehead, his eyes were bloodshot, and there were streaks of fresh blood on the protruding rock above him—clear evidence that he had hit his head during the fall.

Wang Dong did not dare waste a moment. He took the hemp rope he had just bought from his waist, tied one end securely to a tree behind him, added several tight knots on the rope to increase friction, then wrapped the other end around his arm before tossing it down.

“Hey! Buddy! Grab the rope!”

He shouted anxiously, hoping the man would catch hold and climb up.

But the man did not reach for the rope. Instead, he looked around in panic, completely missing the rope dangling right before him.

“Who’s there? Brother, I... I can’t see, brother! Everything’s a blurry mess of blood. I can’t see a thing!”

Great.

Wang Dong instantly understood.

The man had not only hit his scalp hard but his eyeballs were bloodshot, and he might even have suffered brain damage!

It was clear to Wang Dong that the man’s eyes were open, and only a thin veil of blood partially obscured his vision.

Several hunting dogs barked frantically nearby, but they were helpless, only adding to Wang Dong’s frustration.

“Shut up, damn it! Stop barking!”

Wang Dong’s roar silenced the three dogs instantly. Even the wailing figure below the cliff ceased its screams, instead sobbing:

“Brother, I won’t shout anymore! Please don’t leave me! I’ve got an eighty-year-old mother above and—”

“Shut up! Shut up!”

Wang Dong pulled the rope back, scolding the man to stop yelling while quickly tying a noose knot at the end. Then he threw the looped rope directly toward the man’s head.

After three or four attempts, the rope finally caught around the man’s head.

Seeing this, Wang Dong breathed a sigh of relief.

“Hey, buddy! Did you feel the rope just now? That’s a noose knot. Slip one arm through the loop and don’t move. When I tell you, you’ll climb along the rock face, okay?”

Though the man couldn’t see, his agility was impressive. As soon as the rope landed on his head, he released his grip on the shrub and grabbed the noose.

Once he understood the noose, he quickly slipped his left arm through the loop and tightened it himself, not even needing Wang Dong’s instruction.

“Brother, I’ve got it. Pull me up!”

“Hold on!”

Wang Dong spat twice on his hands, grabbed the rope, and pulled with all his might...

But it wouldn’t budge.

Damn.

Whether it was because Wang Dong had grown weak from hunger these past few days, or because the man was simply too heavy, after two or three tries, he still couldn’t pull him up.

Fortunately, the man himself did not panic, and neither did Wang Dong.

After a few more attempts, Wang Dong managed to move the rope slightly before stopping to catch his breath.

He shouted down the cliff:

“Forget it, I can’t pull you up. Climb the rock face a bit, and I’ll help you again!”

But this time, no sound came from below.

Wang Dong wasted no time, dropped the rope, and peered over the cliff.

The man was lying motionless.

Seeing how he hung there twisted and limp, Wang Dong knew he must have fainted.

Hunters rarely fear heights, so either the man had lost too much blood or had indeed suffered a critical injury.

Either way, there was no chance this guy could climb up on his own now.

It was up to Wang Dong.

Looking at the taut rope, an idea struck him.

He untied the rope from the tree and pulled it tight, fastening it securely around his own waist.

Forming a simple pulley system at a right angle with the tree and rope, Wang Dong used his body as the counterweight. He pulled with all his strength again.

Hey, it moved!

Though only slightly, it finally moved!

Step by step, Wang Dong trudged down like a stubborn ox pulling a load, each heavy step bringing him closer to the man below.

But at this very moment, as Wang Dong strained to save a life, he was blissfully unaware that by arriving early, ascending the mountain alone, and attempting this rescue, the wheels of fate had quietly begun to turn.

His life was about to veer sharply off course.

Whether this was for better or worse—only heaven knew.