Chapter 10: I Think I

An hour later, the merchant ship with a large hole in its bottom sank completely, and there were many heads floating and struggling in the river water.

Fortunately, red small boats sailed out from the riverbank, rowing rapidly toward the direction where the merchant ship sank, and the rescuers on them rescued the drowning people one by one.

The fame of the Zhenjiang Prefecture Red Boat Rescue Team was indeed well-deserved.

Lin Zuo's water skills were not bad. If it were just him, he should be able to swim in the water for an hour. However, now there was a drag like Tang Zheng by his side, who couldn't swim and struggled desperately, kicking and kicking with his hands and feet, hugging his waist and neck, making him flustered for a while.

Fortunately, a beautiful shadow on a Red Boat not far away seemed to have discovered the situation here. She leaped into the water from the boat, swam to Lin Zuo's side like a nimble fish, helped drag Tang Zheng's arm with one hand, and paddled with the other. Only then did the two work together to barely drag Tang Zheng to the shore.

Only then did Lin Zuo have a chance to catch his breath and take a good look at this girl.

She was about sixteen or seventeen years old, with skin like healthy wheat, a tall figure, and a beautiful face, especially a pair of big eyes looking around, looking extremely agile.

At this moment, she was soaked, and water droplets flowed down her hair drop by drop, crossing her forehead, cheeks, and neck, with an indescribable natural youthful atmosphere.

"Thank you, girl." Lin Zuo thanked her. I don't know why, but he always felt that he had seen this girl somewhere, but he couldn't remember.

Facing Lin Zuo's grateful gaze, the girl just smiled slightly and said: "You're welcome, helping drowning people is the mission of our Red Boat Rescue Team."

Then she pointed to Tang Zheng, who was paralyzed on the ground, and asked: "Is he alright?"

"He should be alright." Lin Zuo looked at Tang Zheng. This guy struggled quite fiercely in the water just now, why did he faint instead when he got ashore?

"Hey, hey, wake up." Lin Zuo patted Tang Zheng's cheek with his hand and found that the latter was soft like a dead fish, while the girl said from the side: "You can't do this, you have to press the water out of his stomach."

After saying that, before Lin Zuo could speak, the girl had already taken the initiative to sit on Tang Zheng's body, pressing her hands on his lower abdomen and pressing down hard.

One... two... three—with the girl's rhythmic pressing, Tang Zheng spat out a mouthful of water, but still closed his eyes tightly, showing no signs of waking up.

"How could this be?" The girl saw this and said worriedly: "If it really doesn't work, I can only give him artificial respiration."

And just when the girl said the four words "artificial respiration," Lin Zuo noticed the eyelashes of Tang Zheng, who was in a coma, twitching involuntarily.

So this kid woke up early, but was deliberately pretending to be dead here.

Really full of bad water.

Lin Zuo smiled in his heart, but deliberately said to the girl: "How embarrassing is this? Artificial respiration, I'd better do it."

"Oh, alright." The girl didn't think much, stood up from Tang Zheng's body, gave the position to Lin Zuo, and Lin Zuo took the opportunity to sit over, making a leaning posture.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait." Tang Zheng, who had been in a "coma" state, suddenly shouted, opened his eyes and sat up, waving his hands wildly: "No trouble, I'm awake, awake!"

Looking at the kid's panicked look, Lin Zuo resisted not exposing him, just looking at him with a smile.

The latter met Lin Zuo's gaze, felt a bit narrow, and could only laugh and say: "Thank you, brother, thanks to you for saving me just now."

"Don't thank me." Lin Zuo pointed to the girl beside him: "If you want to thank someone, thank this girl from the Red Boat Rescue Team."

A wind blew, and Tang Zheng, who was soaked, felt a bit cold. He hugged his arms and turned his head to say: "Thank you, girl, for saving my life, I..."

Halfway through the sentence, he suddenly stopped. Facing the girl, Tang Zheng's body was like being acupointed, his whole body stiffened, and his face turned red at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"Put on some clothes, don't catch a cold."

The girl didn't notice Tang Zheng's strangeness, just took an old piece of clothing from the people who came to help and handed it to Tang Zheng, while the latter maintained his original posture and expression, like a clay sculpture, not even going to take the clothes in the girl's hand.

Even Lin Zuo couldn't stand it from the side, took the clothes from the girl for Tang Zheng, and said: "Thank you, girl, may I ask your name?"

"You're welcome, my name is Su Xiaoxi." The girl smiled at Lin Zuo, looked at Tang Zheng again, then turned and left, continuing to help the drowning people on the riverbank who needed help.

Watching her back walk further and further away, Tang Zheng suddenly trembled, as if waking up from a dream, and let out a sound of gasping for air.

"Su Xiaoxi, this name is really nice."

As he spoke, he snatched the old clothes from Lin Zuo's hand and put them on in a panic.

Looking at his silly smile with the corners of his mouth raised, Lin Zuo couldn't help but complain: "Do you know that you look very lewd when you smile now?"

"You don't understand." Tang Zheng kept staring at the direction Su Xiaoxi left, and said without looking back: "I think I'm in love."

Because there were many drowning people, many people near the shore came to help spontaneously, and the rescuers of the Red Boat Rescue Team not only were responsible for salvaging the drowning people, but also thoughtfully sent some clothes and food to keep the drowning people warm and full. Lin Zuo's body was fine, and he could have left on his own, but Tang Zheng insisted on staying, and in order to find out more news about Zhenjiang Prefecture from Tang Zheng, Lin Zuo could only stay. The Red Boat Rescue Team provided two steaming buns for each drowning person, and the girl named Su Xiaoxi was also distributing them in the crowd. Tang Zheng wanted to go over to get a bun, but seemed a bit embarrassed, and his hesitant look made Lin Zuo laugh.

Lin Zuo's body was not in any serious condition and he could have left on his own, but Tang Zheng insisted on staying, and in order to gather more information about Zhenjiang Prefecture from Tang Zheng, Lin Zuo had no choice but to stay.

And just then, a shout came from not far away, and then a team of government soldiers dispersed the onlookers and pushed a young man tied with five flowers toward them.

Seeing the young man's face, Lin Zuo froze—wasn't this the Grain Transport Supervisor Commander Su Shanhe he met on the ship earlier?

He saw him being pushed forward all the way, and curses from the people kept coming from all around, all saying that he was disrespectful to the River God, causing the River God to be angry and overturn the ship, which caused so many people to fall into the water.

Some even picked up stones and dirt blocks that could be seen everywhere and threw them at him, and from beginning to end, Su Shanhe just held his head high and didn't say a word.

"Deserve it!" Tang Zheng spat on the ground from the side, not knowing if he still remembered the incident of being interrupted by Su Shanhe earlier.

And just then, a somewhat familiar voice came from not far away.

"What are you doing? Let go of my brother."

Then he saw Su Xiaoxi rush out of the crowd and pounce toward Su Shanhe. ===== CHAPTER 11 =====

Shortly after, Su Xiaoxi was seen rushing out of the crowd and throwing herself at Su Shanhe.