Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

  Eldest Uncle heaved a sigh of relief when he heard that. “Mm, then come over early tomorrow morning. Don’t buy fruit or anything else like today. Just buy a bottle of your maternal grandfather’s favorite barley wine. He’ll definitely be happy if you come to see him. He was still thinking of you on his deathbed.”

  Back when his maternal grandfather had passed away, it had happened to be during the four years when Ji Buwang had been neither dead nor alive. It was on the hospital bed that he had received the news of his maternal grandfather’s demise.

  At the time, he had wanted to see him off and take one last look at him, but he hadn’t been able to.

  Now, he was a step late, but he was finally there. Ji Buwang nodded. “I’ll definitely bring it.”

  “Alright, go back and rest early today. You still have to drive tomorrow. Since you’re staying at the guesthouse, I won’t keep you here. It’s stuffy and hot today. The house is small and stuffy too. It’s not as comfortable as the guesthouse.”

  Eldest Uncle knew that Ji Buwang didn’t lack money, so he didn’t have to wonder if he needed to save on accommodation fees.

  “Okay.”

  Ji Buwang and Mu Jingzhe bade him farewell. When he came out, he could still hear his maternal grandmother’s voice, as if she was saying something.

  “Were you frightened?” Ji Buwang held Mu Jingzhe’s hand. “Grandma is like this sometimes. When she was young, she often recited poems. She’s a young lady from a rich family, so she is very particular.”

  Mu Jingzhe nodded. She had seen Grandma’s small feet and knew she had bound her feet in her younger?days1. This was a bad habit, and the process was very painful. However, a long time ago, only the young ladies of rich families had possessed the means to bind their feet. Girls from humble families had been too busy making a living.

  Mu Jingzhe had never seen bounded feet before. It would be a lie to say that she wasn’t curious, but she couldn’t just keep staring at them because she was curious. That would seem too disrespectful.

  On the way back, Ji Buwang bought some barley wine and asked the boss for cigarette packaging. “I’ll go back and make you a fan.”

  \r \r \r

  Making a fan required tougher paper. Ji Buwang remembered seeing the packaging.

  After returning to the room, he started folding the paper. While watching him, Mu Jingzhe was hit by nostalgia. She had folded paper fans when she was young too. There were also students who mischievously tore off paper from their textbooks to fold it into paper fans, which resulted in their parents chasing after them to spank their butts.

  The fan Ji Buwang folded was sort of a success. However, when the two small paper fans were combined, an issue arose. They went to ask the boss for glue, but he didn’t have any, so they ended up using gruel. In the end, the fan opened after drying.

  As Mu Jingzhe laughed, Ji Buwang decided to clip it with a pen cap. It looked sort of ridiculous with the pen still attached to the pen cap, but Ji Buwang refused to admit it.

  “The fan still works well. I can use it.”

  Although the fan was strange, the wind it produced was indeed cool and Mu Jingzhe felt very comfortable.

  “Not bad, not bad. Xiao?Jizi1, keep up the excellent fanning. I’ll reward you later.”

  There weren’t many palace dramas in this era, so Ji Buwang couldn’t react for a moment. “Xiao Jizi? What a strange form of address.”

  Mu Jingzhe chuckled. “I can’t very well call you Xiao Buzi or Xiao Wangzi, right? Wait, actually, Xiao Wangzi is quite good too. It sounds like ‘little prince’.”

  “Then you’re a little princess?” Feeling helpless, Ji Buwang resigned himself to fate and sat down to fan her.

  “You should come here. It’ll be cooler if we’re next to each other.” Mu Jingzhe pulled Ji Buwang up and leaned against him happily.

  It was already nighttime, but the sky was getting hotter and hotter, and there were no signs of the weather turning cool.

  Mu Jingzhe couldn’t bear to let Ji Buwang continue fanning her, so she could only silently pray with a calm heart that she would naturally cool down and fall asleep. Just as she was about to fall asleep in a daze, she felt a cold wind. When she opened her eyes, she saw that Ji Buwang was actually lying on his bed and fanning her.

  Mu Jingzhe got up without hesitation and went over. “Why are you so disobedient that we’re sleeping separately? Hurry up and go to sleep.”

  After saying that, she hugged Ji Buwang and fell asleep. Ji Buwang wanted to say something but hesitated. In the end, he let her hug his arm and didn’t say anything.

  Half-asleep, Ji Buwang was still fanning her. Later on, he really fell asleep until he was eventually woken up by a violent shaking motion all of a sudden.

  When he opened her eyes, it was dark. He couldn’t tell what time it was, but he could feel that everything was shaking badly. “Jingzhe.”

  Mu Jingzhe immediately grabbed Ji Buwang’s hand. “This… It can’t be an earthquake, right?”

  Mu Jingzhe had never experienced a major earthquake before. He had only experienced two or three aftershocks. Even so, she was quite frightened. At that moment, she didn’t even dare confirm it. She thought that this was impossible.

  Ji Buwang had already grabbed her hand. “It’s an earthquake. Run!”

  Ji Buwang’s reaction was considered fast, but as soon as he got off the bed, his legs went limp and he felt dizzy. Due to the pitch dark before his eyes, he couldn’t run far. After taking a few quick steps, he felt an intense tremor and felt the heels of his feet suddenly sink.

  “Ji Buwang!” Mu Jingzhe reached out to hug him, and Ji Buwang hugged her at the same time. The two of them instantly fell down. They seemed to hear screams and cries, but in an instant, everything seemed to disappear.

  By the time it all stopped, Mu Jingzhe’s nose was filled with the smell of houses being demolished at a construction site. She found herself amid the ruins, and her surroundings were still dark. Ji Buwang was still hugging her, but she sensed no movement from him.

  “Ji Buwang? Ji Buwang!” Mu Jingzhe quickly shouted, but Ji Buwang still didn’t respond.

  This was the first time Mu Jingzhe was so flustered. She hadn’t expected to be unlucky enough to encounter an earthquake. The news about earthquakes that she had seen in the past flashed in her mind one after another, such as the abnormal weather before a quake, the stuffy heat, the anxiety and frustration of the people, and so on. All of these boxes had been ticked earlier on, but she hadn’t seen this coming at all.

  Mu Jingzhe tried her best to calm down. She hugged Ji Buwang and tried to figure out if he was alright. There didn’t seem to be any blood on his body. However, there seemed to be a bump on the back of his head, as if he had fainted after being hit. He had been struck unconscious while protecting her.

  Fortunately, Ji Buwang’s breathing was typical. Mu Jingzhe heaved a sigh of relief and started to explore bit by bit. She realized that although they were buried, they were still considered lucky. They weren’t completely buried, so there was still a possibility of them saving themselves or being saved.

  She felt around and touched a lot of things. Amid the mess, she seemed to feel a towel and a teapot, but the water inside had been lost during this chaos.

  This was a pity, but after Mu Jingzhe knocked on the teapot, she noticed that it made quite a loud sound, so she put it aside. This could also be used as a tool to call for help later on.

  After calming down, Mu Jingzhe recalled the first-aid knowledge she had read about in the past. If one was pinned under something, they had to prepare themselves for an aftershock and try their best to prevent another collapse.

  Mu Jingzhe thought that it would be good if the place where they were buried was relatively shallow. However, other than the house collapsing, they also seemed to have sunk downward, so she couldn’t figure out exactly what was going on for a while.

  After searching for some time, Mu Jingzhe figured it all out. There seemed to be a closet on top of them. She didn’t know if it was the one in their room, but because it was pressed against a table, it created a small safe place.

  They were both very unlucky and lucky to be trapped in such a relatively safe place.

  As long as the closet and table remained intact or they found some other kind of support, they could slowly wait for help. She just didn’t know if this place had sufficient ventilation.