The Vanishing Beauty - Chapter 10 - 13
Chapter 10 - 13
Yu Meng shrieked. Instantly grabbing onto Old Luan's legs, she pulled with all her might, but the mud seemed to grow a mouth, stubbornly sucking him inward just to spite her.
He sank deeper and deeper. Amidst the torrential rain, Yu Meng could not tell the difference between her pain and her tears; only a single thought echoed in her mind: save him. She had to pull Old Luan out. Moon City was gone. Old Luan had to live! She had no desire to handle his funeral arrangements! If he died right here, would Haosiyu and Zhengyu ever forgive her or let her off the hook? No, no, no—she refused to let him die, she forbade it! Strangely enough, at this very moment, Yu Meng realized that she was not entirely devoid of feelings for Old Luan after all.
She stripped off her raincoat, spread it flat over the mud, and quickly scrambled onto an exposed rock. Tearing off her pants, she tied one end around Lao Luan's foot and slung the other over her shoulder. Transforming herself into a female track-hauler, she pulled with all her might!
Slowly, like a radish pulled from the earth, Luan Chengyun was dragged free. Crawling and scrambling, Yu Meng managed to haul him onto the rock. She frantically scraped away the mud, ripped off the raincoat, and hurriedly scooped mud and sand out of his mouth and nostrils before slapping his back. It seemed he still had a faint pulse of breath.
The downpour washed away the filth on Luan Chengyun's face. He had yet to regain consciousness. Terrified to the point of tears, Yu Meng wondered what to do—ah, artificial respiration. Pressing her lips to Old Luan's, she sucked in hard, but her mouth filled with mud and sand, sending her into a fit of choking coughs. Turning him onto his stomach instead, she used her raincoat to catch water, continuing to clear his oral cavity, nostrils, and ear canals to administer first aid. Seconds ticked by agonizingly slow. Crouched beside Luan Chengyun, Yu Meng repeated the mechanical movements over and over again. She had to save him; he could not die! Weeping while she worked to revive him, Yu Meng chanted, "I won't let you die! You are not allowed to die! I won't let you die..."
At last, Old Luan let out a rough cough. He had pulled through. Letting out a sharp cry, Yu Meng threw her arms around his head and planted a fierce kiss right on his brow. The sudden weight caused Old Luan to cough again. Yu Meng quickly released him. While the rain still poured down, she cupped his face in her hands, alternating between crying and laughing.
In the wake of the torrential rains and floods triggered by the tropical cyclone over the past week, a total of thirty-nine people had lost their lives, and over two hundred thousand were displaced. The international community had already issued emergency aid, and a refugee camp had been established near the small town.
Yu Meng and Luan Chengyun temporarily took shelter there. With communications severed and supplies severely depleted, Yu Meng felt as though she had been cut off entirely from the outside world, or perhaps as if she had just stepped off Noah's Ark, standing as survivors of a biblical deluge. She and Luan were like Eve and Adam—only they were not in the Garden of Eden, but rather ragged, starving, and forced to forge a brand new epoch entirely on their own.
At the very least, they had survived.
Luan's lungs were damaged, making speaking rather difficult. Yu Meng's daily task consisted of foraging—a truly primitive existence reminiscent of slash-and-burn agriculture. By hook or by crook, she scrounged up whatever food she could find, steaming and boiling it to help nurse Luan back to health. Her massive, designer luxury handbag was still around, though it had been completely demoted into a foraging container, functioning no differently from the bamboo baskets carried by local women. Everything had been turned upside down. It was only now that Yu Meng truly appreciated Luan's irreplaceable value. Wasn't it so? At the ends of the earth, right on the precipice of life and death, having a person like this by your side—what more could you possibly ask for? Yet, Yu Meng still had not agreed to remarry Luan. In her mind, the time wasn't right yet. She hadn't fully thought it through.
Should she remarry him simply out of gratitude? She refused.
They could talk about all of that once they returned.
As night fell, to pass the time and chase away the gloom, Yu Meng would occasionally sing, choosing her old favorite, "The Birthplace of First Love." No matter how poorly she hit the notes, Luan Chengyun would always applaud her.
A few days later, the young translator managed to secure a few books written in Chinese, and Luan spent his free time reading them. It truly felt like living through a refugee crisis. Yu Meng felt as though she were subconsciously dodging something; her relationship with Old Luan seemed to have been swept by the floodwaters onto an entirely new stage.
When they weren't talking about themselves, they talked about others.
Reviewing her girlfriends one by one, Yu Meng gossiped about them to Old Luan.
"Sister Jia is a wolf in sheep's clothing, playing hard to get while secretly leaning in. By now, quantitative change has probably tipped over into qualitative change with Xiaobai."
"Shuang is simply too overly dramatic. She overanalyzes everything instead of just diving in and doing it first."
"Rui's fate is destined for sharing hardships, not enjoying wealth."
"And Qi is the same, marrying an actor and spending the rest of her life cleaning up his messes."
"As for Old Weng, she's definitely going to die of anger. Her face has completely warped out of shape." Mimicking her words, Yu Meng used hand gestures to shape her face into a pig-like snout. Luan chuckled aloud.
Warmed up by the conversation, Luan asked in his hoarse, gravelly voice, "And what about you?" Caught off guard, Yu Meng stammered, "I just live life day by day, making a grand and chaotic spectacle of it," before her expression turned melancholy. "I'm truly getting old."
"Everyone grows old."
"Growing old as a woman is especially cruel." Depression settled over her; only here could she bring herself to speak so candidly with Luan.
"Do you remember when we first met?" Luan suddenly asked.
"You were the patient, I was the nurse," Yu Meng replied casually, before suddenly pausing with a flash of realization. Pointing at him and then at herself, she added, "And the same goes for right now."
Both of them burst out laughing.
"Life is truly a cycle," Yu Meng sighed heavily. "Back then, you were faking illness."
"I was genuinely sick."
"You were genuinely sick at first, and then you faked it afterward."
"It was genuine later on as well; I simply prolonged the course of treatment because I wanted to see you more often," Luan explained.
"You better take a good look at me now, because once we head back, we might never see each other again," Yu Meng remarked.
Luan smiled in silence.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"You're quite something."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"You say one thing and mean another."
"Doesn't everyone?"
Shifting the topic, Yu Meng asked, "What do you want to eat?"
"Can I place an order?" Luan asked.
"I'll do my best to fulfill it."
"Fish, I suppose." He actually ordered it. Having saved her life, he figured he deserved to be rewarded.
Living near the water meant an abundance of fish. However, finding their strange appearances somewhat intimidating, Yu Meng only dared to pick out the smaller ones for boiling. Boiling was her sole culinary skill, and under the current conditions, boiling was all she had.
Yu Meng carried a bowl of fish soup into the tent.
Taking it from her, Luan Chengyun took a sip and gave her a thumbs-up. The throat injury he sustained was acting up, making his voice even raspy and hoarser than before.
Scooping a bowl for herself as well, Yu Meng sat down beside him and teased deliberately, "If you ended up permanently mute, it wouldn't be half bad either. At least I wouldn't have to listen to your slick, greasy tongue, and my meals would taste much cleaner."
Luan Chengyun smiled silently, the lines around his mouth lifting.
"Regardless of everything, we're even now," Yu Meng added.
Luan Chengyun flashed an OK hand sign.
Yu Meng continued, "Everything in the past... all of it... everything entirely... your mistakes... my mistakes... let's wipe the slate clean." She gestured with her hands as though speaking to a foreigner or a deaf-mute.
Luan maintained his smiling expression.
Suddenly, a wave of melancholy washed over Yu Meng. "It's all gone, absolutely nothing is left. We have to start entirely from scratch in a brand-new era." She let out a bitter laugh.
She had to stay optimistic. A bitter smile was still a smile.
A head poked into the tent—it was the young translator. He informed Yu Meng that communications in the town had been restored and someone was calling for her. Asking who it was, Yu Meng learned it was a woman. She instructed the translator to tell the caller that she would wait by the line at seven o'clock that evening and to have her call back then. The translator agreed to pass the message along. The refugee camp was quite a distance from the town center, and communications could only be scheduled by appointment.
Promptly at seven o'clock that evening, Yu Meng arrived at the reconstructed communication center in town to wait. Around seven-ten, the call finally came through. It was Yu Jia. Both sisters were overcome with emotion for a moment, Yu Jia bombarding her with questions and remarking that surviving such a major disaster meant good fortune lay ahead. When the topic turned to Old Luan, Yu Meng briefly summarized their current situation and asked how Haosiyu and Zhengyu were doing.
Urging her to set her mind at ease, Yu Jia assured her that the children were well before adding, "I just found out about something. Weng Yue let it slip, and I felt it was necessary for you to know." Puzzled, Yu Meng wondered what sort of news warranted being relayed by Weng Yue. Yu Jia concisely laid out the core facts, leaving Yu Meng so shocked she nearly dropped the phone.
Hanging up the call, she stood frozen in a daze as if her soul had been sucked out of her. Stepping out of the building, she walked a short distance before realizing she was heading in the wrong direction and turning back toward the camp.
The entrance of the tent glowed with a soft, warm light. To her surprise, a few fireflies danced in the surrounding air.
Ducking into the tent, Yu Meng found Luan lying down, reading an old book by the light of an emergency lamp.
With a swift motion, Yu Meng snatched the book right out of his hands, tears streaming down her face. "Why didn't you tell me sooner?"
Looking at her in confusion, Luan raised an eyebrow.
"Why didn't you tell me?" she demanded loudly.
Luan spread his hands, putting on a show of nonchalance.
"It was you..." Yu Meng choked out, her voice trembling.
Luan sat up, his gaze burning intensely into hers.
"Min Jianzhong... You are Min Jianzhong... You are the investor... The investor is you... Min Jianzhong is you..." Yu Meng rambled incoherently.
Her agitation grew by the second.
Luan Chengyun's expression remained tranquil, as though he were Noah himself, following the mandate of heaven to build a massive ark and ferry Yu Meng away to safety. He was Min Jianzhong. Had he used his real name, how could she have ever accepted his help? Yet he had been willing to accompany her through all of this hardship, braving every trial and tribulation by her side.
"You're such an idiot, such a fool, such an utter fool..." Lunging forward, Yu Meng threw her arms around him, showering him with kisses as her tears fell uncontrollably.
Luan Chengyun wrapped his arms tightly around her in return.
"You're a scoundrel!" Yu Meng cried, her expression suspended somewhere between tears and laughter.
"We're both scoundrels..." Luan murmured.
After the great flood, even people felt like mere debris left in its wake.
"Why, why, why, why..." Yu Meng beat her fists blindly against his chest while weeping.
Luan pulled her even tighter into his embrace.
The emergency lamp flickered out. Heaven and earth plunged into utter darkness. Only the tiny, radiant specks of fireflies drifted outside the tent. What was there to fear? As long as he remained holding her in his arms, there was nothing in the world left to fear.
Rolling over, Luan pinned her gently beneath him.
Clutching tightly onto his arms—so solid and dependable—Yu Meng finally understood and truly felt, in this exact moment, the deep, steadfast, expansive, and boundless strength of a man.
(End of Novel)