They somehow fished up Jiang Xiu out of the river. The villagers naturally wouldn't have known that this shameless guy had drifted over here from Eastern Europe and believed he must've lost his footing somewhere nearby and fallen into the river.
"Is he breathing?"
"How is that even possible? God knows how long he stayed inside the river. He must've already stopped breathing."
"Such a pity for a handsome child like him to die."
The group of people looked at each other. A middle-aged man among them asked, "Let's call the police and let them handle it."
"Wait a second…"
The elderly lady reached out to grope Jiang Xiu, following which her eyes grew wide open, "The body is still warm, he's alive…" She believed it was a pity for Jiang Xiu to die and held one last hope. That's why she tested it, and as it turned out, his body was indeed warm.
"Stop kidding. He's been inside the river for so long that he has turned into a block of ice!"
"It's really warm. Touch the body yourself if you don't believe me."
A few of them realized that she was serious and went to grope him. Their expressions warped immediately. Keeping aside the fact whether the body was warm or not, his body wasn't stiff at all, but somewhat soft.
In such cold weather, anyone would absolutely freeze stiff in 1-2 hours after falling into the river.
"He's really alive. Quickly carry him…"
The party of villagers carried Jiang Xiu to the village, and when they reached the entrance, someone went to call for the doctor so a saline drip could be injected into him. But that shameless guy opened his eyes right at this moment and discovered he was being carried into a house by a group of wild men who then stripped off his clothes. He was immediately enraged, "What are you doing?!"
Fudge!
The people inside the house were all scared witless. An old man sitting on the wooden chair and munching on melon seeds slipped down the chair.
"Aiyah, you woke up? We saved you."
Only now did Jiang Xiu realize these people didn't have any malice towards him and that they might've discovered him while he was drifting inside the water then taken ashore. He wore a kinder expression on his face, "I-I'm fine."
He quickly stood up.
The elderly lady said, "Your clothes are wet so better change into something else, or you might catch a cold."
Now that she had mentioned this, Jiang Xiu really felt chilly. Even a God required heat to resist the cold, just like humans, but this level of cold was far from injuring Jiang Xiu, so he asked, "Is there any food?"
"Of course, there is…."
Jiang Xiu took off his outer garment and placed it beside the heater. The elderly lady brought him a bowl of bloated noodles and looked at Jiang Xiu with worry, "Are you really okay?"
After having that bowl of noodles, Jiang Xiu felt warmer, and there was the heater nearby as well, so the clothes had dried quickly. It was just that the coat was a British windbreaker which was quite absorbent, so it didn't dry yet. "I'm fine. Is there anything else?"
"There is, but eat first…"
An old man standing beside asked him, "Young man, how did you fall into the river?"
Jiang Xiu was about to say he drifted over from Eastern Europe or from Siberia, but he didn't do that lest he scared the old man. "I got careless and fell inside the river."
The old man asked, "You need to be careful. The river surface isn't that hard."
"Right, where are you from?"
As the two of them were chatting idly, Jiang Xiu took note of the calendar on the wall, it was already December. Including the time he had spent cultivating, over a month had passed by.
He asked, "Uncle, did anything strange happen recently?"
The uncle replied, "Nothing strange happened. We stay in the village most of the time and don't know much about what happens outside. What we know mostly comes from the news. Shall I turn on the TV for you?"
Jiang Xiu nodded.
The uncle's TV was really something, it was a 20-inch color TV and had many channels. Jiang Xiu chose an international news channel. Since a month had already passed, there wasn't much news about the Heaven's Gate battle now. In fact, this kind of news would never appear on TV, and even the upper-class elites didn't know about it as these were classified as the highest level secrets of the country.
After looking at the international news for 30 mins, the current situation could be surmised in a few words - Mayhem due to natural disasters.
In the U.S., meteorites had fallen in several places, and there were many earthquakes as well. Several meteorites had landed in China's Yunhai province as well while earthquakes had occurred in Western Sichuan. There was even a particular segment about how the land of a place called Wulin in China had uplifted 10 km higher after the earthquake. The specialists all said that this was the result of movements in Earth's crust.
"Young man, do you want to call your family?"
Jiang Xiu finally realized his situation. He couldn't just live here. "Oh. Uncle, is it possible to make a phone call here? I'll need to make a call."
The elder replied, "There's a phone at the shop near the village's entrance."
The issue was settled, but the other party had saved him, and he had even eaten their food. It wasn't his style to leave after they had done so much. At the very least, he wanted to thank them so placed his hand inside his pocket, but there was not a single cent inside. His cell phone was also dead due to getting wet in the river.
"What is it? Is something missing?"
"My purse is gone…"
"Maybe it fell into the river."
"It doesn't matter. There wasn't anything precious inside anyways. How about this? Uncle, I'll give this cell phone to you, and you can accompany me to the shop."
The uncle waved his hands when he saw the phone, "No need for that. I'll take you there."
After his outer garments had dried, Jiang Xiu went to the shop while being accompanied by the uncle. He ran into another problem here. All the numbers were stored on his phone, and he didn't remember them. The only number he remembered was his Jiang City's home number. But now that his parents had gone to Annan, that number was already canceled.
He still remembered another number, which was Nangong Kou'er's number. Since he had personally called her that day and even received an SMS from it, the number was left behind in his memory.
But he couldn't just call her like that!
Their relationship was quite complicated, and if he called her, she might think something else. Now that he remembered about this, he recalled that wild afternoon he spent with her.
"What happened?"
The uncle saw Jiang Xiu hesitate while holding the receiver.
"The numbers are all inside the cell phone."
The store lady boss said to him, "Give me the phone, I'll take a look."
Jiang Xiu handed the phone over. The lady boss tinkered with it a little then said, "It's completely dead. It'll take 200 RMB to repair it, and it's even uncertain whether the numbers are still inside or not…"
The uncle was a good person, but he had accompanied Jiang Xiu till here already, even Jiang Xiu didn't have the face to ask the uncle for the money.
He furrowed his brows, "Let me try calling once."
He called Nangong Kou'er's number. The phone rung four times after which it was picked up. Nangong Kou'er's sweet-sounding voice came through from the other side, "Hello, who is this?"
Jiang Xiu spoke with a cramped voice, "T-That… It's me!"
Nangong Kou'er paused for a few moments, "Who are you?"
This was a bit hard for Jiang Xiu to take, his face went red. It looked like she wasn't even bothered by what had happened. "It's Jiang Xiu. I… need your help with something."
"Aaah, you!"
Nangong Kou'ers tone turned ice-cold, "We aren't that close."
A few days after she returned home, she heard some astonishing news. The Jiang family had committed a crime which led to chaos in Jiangnan and was thus judged by the Diaoyutai. That elite family had fallen down.
To avoid getting implicated into it, the Nangong family immediately broke ties with the Jiang family and didn't even recognize the so-called engagement between her and Jiang Xiu.
Jiang Xiu was no longer a child of an elite family but instead a penniless brat.
Naturally, she didn't care who he was. Besides that time, the both of them had never had any interaction.
"Yes, we are indeed not close. I ran into trouble over here and I only remembered your number."
Nangong Kou'er said, "What did you remember my number for?"
I also didn't want to remember it. You wrote it down for me in Jiang City, and I called you later as well. What can I do about that?
"How do you want me to help you?"
Nangong Kou'er didn't end the call.
"Think of some means to help me. I'm currently at Liaodong peninsula's Yalu river. I'm alone here. I lost my purse along with my I.D and my phone is dead as well."
Nangong Kou'er replied, "You were the one who called me, and you want me to think of some means to help you?" Her tone was quite harsh, almost as if she might hang the call any second.