Six hours before the landslide.
At Tiger's Foot Village beneath Autumn Tiger Mountain, a young woman ran back from outside the village and shouted to the villagers chatting at the entrance:
"The hunt ended this morning! The Third Princess got first place again!"
The villagers burst into cheers.
"Our Third Princess really has skills."
"Without real ability, how could she marry the Regent? Could she hold her down otherwise?"
The Spring Hunt was being held nearby. Though the villagers weren't allowed to interfere with noble affairs, none of them were fools. If there was excitement, they wanted to see it.
Who said only they were allowed to be entertainment for nobles, but nobles couldn't be entertainment for them?
So every day, they sent young villagers to secretly watch from the mountains near the hunting grounds, then come back and tell everyone.
"She shot a stag today! The antlers were huge!"
The young woman vividly described the morning's events. The villagers listened, satisfied, then dispersed to prepare lunch.
Only a few children remained under the big tree at the village entrance, playing pretend—until they argued over roles.
"I want to be the Third Princess."
Hu Ya was six years old, almost taller than the village's eight-year-olds. She was sturdy, dark from the sun, missing one front tooth. She tensed her arms confidently, showing off her barely-there muscles.
"I'm the strongest."
"Why should you?" protested the hunter's child. "The Third Princess hunts. My family hunts. I should be the Third Princess."
They locked eyes, wordlessly put hands on each other's shoulders, bumped foreheads, and started pushing like bulls.
In the end, Hu Ya knocked the other child over and planted her hands on her hips proudly.
"I'm the Third Princess now."
The hunter's child didn't argue. Losing was losing. She dusted herself off and stood up.
"Then I'll be the Regent."
Hu Ya's younger sister, Hu Zhi, pouted. Tears immediately filled her eyes.
"I want to be the Regent. I want to be the pretty one. I want to be my sister's bride. She brings me food."
She was only four—too young to understand what a bride was. She'd only heard the village sisters say the Third Princess hunted food for the Regent, and that sounded intimate, like her own sister feeding her.
Seeing she was about to cry, Hu Ya hurried to comfort her.
"You won't be the Regent. You'll be the puppy. The Third Princess's puppy also gets food."
Hu Zhi stared, mouth open. After a long moment, her tears nearly dried.
"Really?"
Hu Ya nodded vigorously.
"Really! Now act like a puppy!"
Hu Zhi was already short. With a bend of her legs, she plopped to the ground, barked twice, then rolled around.
A perfect little rice dumpling instantly turned into a dirt dumpling.
Hu Ya was satisfied.
"Good! Now let's cook lunch!"
They ran to the nearby grass, picked some unripe pink-tinged berries, used leaves as plates, snapped twigs as chopsticks, and laid out a feast.
"Wow, four dishes and a soup," Hu Ya exclaimed dramatically, gripping her twigs and preparing to eat.
But Hu Lili, the hunter's child, stopped her, looking completely justified.
"I'm the Regent. You have to let me eat first."
Little Hu Zhi growled fiercely, staying in character to protect her sister.
"Woof! Why do you get to eat? Woof!"
Hu Lili patted her chest, very reasonable.
"Didn't you hear them say? Everything the Third Princess hunts is eaten by the Regent first."
They argued noisily. In the end, no one ate the sour berries. Before they could settle it, their parents called them home for lunch.
And then?
What happened next?
Six hours later, in darkness, Hu Ya tried to remember.
What happened?
She only remembered being called home to eat. Afterward, one mother worked in the vegetable patch. She and Hu Zhi went back to playing at the village entrance until nightfall.
That evening, when the mothers finally had time, they discovered Hu Zhi was filthy. They stripped off her clothes, soaked them in a basin to wash the next day.
They took out needle and thread, sewing patchwork for a quilt cover. Too stingy to light two lamps, they lit only one small one. The two mothers leaned close together, smiling as they chatted.
Hu Ya and her sister sat on the bed. Hu Ya waved her hands, watching shadows turn into animals on the wall, giggling together.
And then?
Then it seemed to rain.
The mother said the rain was especially heavy this year.
It rained for a long time. In the middle of the night, Hu Ya was woken. As soon as she opened her eyes, she saw Hu Zhi on the other mother's back, lips trembling, about to cry.
"Hurry, we're leaving. Forget the things," the mother said.
Hu Ya was lifted onto her back too. Seeing Hu Zhi about to cry, she reached out and patted her forehead.
"Don't cry. Don't cry. Next time I'll let you be the Third Princess—the one who hunts really well."
Hu Zhi sniffed.
"Really?"
She didn't know who the Third Princess was—only that it was something good.
Hu Ya nodded.
"But the Third Princess never cries."
Hu Zhi bit her lip, her face scrunched up, holding it in.
The mothers hurried to pack, carrying both children toward the door. By then, water had reached their calves.
The door opened. Hu Ya heard thunder rolling overhead, like the sky scolding her.
Then an even louder sound came—something rolling downward.
The mothers glanced toward the mountain in terror, slammed the door shut, rushed back, and shoved Hu Ya and Hu Zhi under the table.
They stood in front of it, holding hands, facing the mountain.
And then?
Then the world seemed even darker.
The oil lamp went out.
She couldn't see anything—only felt something rushing toward them.
A tremendous crash.
Hu Ya heard her mother crying.
Then everything went black.
She woke up only now.
Half of Hu Ya's body was buried in mud. She blinked in confusion, dried sludge clinging to her eyelashes.
She struggled to stretch out her hand and pushed at the mother beside her. Both mothers' backs were stiff and cold, and neither responded.
She reached out again and touched her younger sister. Her sister's face was still soft and warm.
Hu Zhi was poked awake. When she opened her eyes and found everything pitch black, and felt that no mother was beside her, she could no longer hold it in and began to cry softly.
"Mother… Mother…"
Hu Ya knew her sister was afraid of the dark. Their family couldn't afford to keep a lamp burning all night, so the mother would hold her sister while sleeping. That way, she wouldn't be scared.
She struggled to shift her body, trying her best to cup her sister's head with her hands, imitating the way their mother did, gently coaxing her.
"Don't cry, little sister. Don't cry."
But a very long time passed. The sky still hadn't brightened. Everything before her eyes remained black. Hu Ya's arms ached badly.
She sniffed and forced her own tears back.
After a while, her stomach grew very hungry, and she felt terribly cold. She couldn't endure it anymore and began to cry quietly.
Hu Zhi cried with her.
They cried for a long time—so long that their tears dried layer after layer—until exhaustion finally made them lean their heads together and drift into a light doze.
Then they heard a clear shout.
"There are people here! Hurry!"
It sounded like shovels digging rapidly, like footsteps moving back and forth above them.
The mud around the table was cleared away, and the first beam of light from an oil lamp fell onto Hu Ya's face.
Hu Ya scrunched her face tightly. After a long while, she slowly opened her eyes a crack and saw a young woman holding an oil lamp, staring at them with curiosity.
She heard her say, "They're children—alive—two of them! Come help!"
Hu Ya and her sister were each lifted out from under the table by a strong soldier woman and carried away, told they were being taken somewhere safe.
Half-conscious, Hu Ya heard the other women addressing the youngest-looking woman from earlier.
"Your Highness, Third Princess."
Third Princess?
—
Xie Yu and her group moved very quickly. By her estimate, they should reach Autumn Tiger Village around three in the morning.
When they arrived, the soldiers fell into complete silence at the sight before them.
The entire village had been buried in mud. Vast amounts of soil, water, stones, and trees were mixed together, piled almost as high as the walls of the houses.
And the houses themselves?
The walls facing the mountain were almost entirely shattered. Better-built houses still had three walls holding up the roof. Worse ones didn't even have a single wall left.
The soldiers had never seen anything like this. They silently parted to form a path, allowing Xie Yu to come forward from the rear, waiting for her orders.
Xie Yu took several deep breaths when she saw the scene. After thinking briefly, she began issuing instructions.
"You—and you." She pointed at two soldiers as thin as monkeys. "Go to the back and find a safe spot. Climb a tree and keep watch on the mountain. If the slope collapses again, fire a signal flare."
"You two, return to camp immediately. Borrow military medics from Lady Shen. Have her send word to the northern outskirts and tell the medics to bring medicine and gather several physicians here as fast as possible."
She then turned to the rest.
"The remaining people—work in groups of four to dig for survivors. Remember, call out first. Dig whichever house responds first."
She picked up a shovel herself. The wind blew rain into her face, making it almost impossible to open her eyes, yet she forced them wide and shouted:
"Move fast. I'll dig with you."
In the raging storm, the soldiers began digging.
The first household Xie Yu uncovered was Hu Ya's.
They pulled out two children who were almost completely unharmed, and then dragged out two adult women whose bodies were already cold, stiff, and long without breath.
Xie Yu glanced at them. She didn't even have time to sigh. With a grim expression, she ordered two soldiers to carry the bodies to the village entrance and instructed that every body found afterward be placed there as well, for later identification and counting.
Around five in the morning, the sky was still pitch black. The clouds were thick, and thunder continued to roar.
A soldier hurried over to report that they had seen two or three people wearing bamboo hats approaching from different directions with oil lamps, but after observing from afar, they had all run away.
Xie Yu paused, straightened up, compared the directions with the locations of nearby villages, and said,
"They're probably from nearby villages, coming to check the situation. Ignore them."
When the sky finally began to pale, the military medic arrived. She had already been in the southern outskirts collecting medicinal herbs with her apprentices, and upon hearing the news, rushed over immediately.
When she arrived, she saw that two or three enormous shelters had already been erected on slightly elevated ground outside Autumn Tiger Village.
The white canopy cloth stood out starkly in the heavy rain.
As she approached, she saw that severely injured and lightly injured villagers had already been separated into different areas for easier treatment.
Closer still, she heard someone speaking urgently and hoarsely, swallowing repeatedly just to keep talking, yet still insisting on shouting something over and over.
What was being repeated?
"Thirty compressions—two breaths!"
Xie Yu was covered in mud, sitting among villagers with only minor injuries, teaching them how to attempt rescue when people from their village were dug out and brought over.
She had already divided the digging soldiers into two rotating groups—one digging while the other rested, switching back and forth.
It should have been her rest period now. Yet instead of sitting quietly in the soldiers' shelter, she ran among the villagers, trying to teach them the most basic form of cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
"First, pull her mouth open. If there's mud or grass inside, clear it out."
The rain still hadn't stopped. Without realizing it, her voice grew louder and louder.
But the longer she spoke, the shorter her sentences became. Every few words, she had to pause to swallow—her lips and throat were painfully dry.
The military medic observed once and quickly grasped the purpose of the technique. She stepped forward immediately.
"Your Highness, Third Princess, I understand it now. I'll teach them. You go rest and drink some water."
Xie Yu was abruptly interrupted and looked at her in disbelief, still swallowing reflexively.
The medic quickly had an apprentice bring over a water flask and urged her to drink.
Xie Yu drained more than half the flask in one go before finally recovering enough to speak.
"Are you sure you can handle it?"
"Even if I can't, I have to," the medic said, pushing her toward the soldiers' shelter. "I need to replace you so you can rest."
"You're the commander here. You're the pillar holding everything up. You can't collapse. Go rest."
Only then did Xie Yu sit down.
But she didn't rest for long. An apprentice soon came over, saying,
"Your Highness, Third Princess—the two little girls you rescued earlier are awake. They said there's a household in the village with many children and asked you to go dig there."
Xie Yu hurried to Hu Ya's side and asked in a low voice.
Hu Ya's eyes were still red, but she forced herself to stay calm.
"They have a big estate. Lots and lots of children. But they never let them come out to play with us. I could only sometimes see them over the courtyard wall."
That description alone was strange enough. Xie Yu frowned unconsciously.
Hu Ya continued, "They don't live in a house. They live underground. Their door is like our cellar door."
What kind of people locked so many children in a basement?
Xie Yu bit the tip of her tongue, forcing her mind to stay sharp, asked several more questions, and finally formed a rough picture.
The estate Hu Ya described was located not far outside the village. The people there weren't related to Tiger's Foot Village by blood, didn't share the same surname, and the compound was usually empty. The villagers didn't even know whether anyone lived there.
The villagers were busy with their own lives and rarely went that way. Only children who liked running wild occasionally went there to play hide-and-seek.
Sometimes Hu Ya saw those children standing watch in the courtyard.
She once stood outside the fence, calling to them, wanting to play together—but instead, an adult came out.
That adult looked very fierce. Hu Ya hid immediately.
After looking around and failing to find Hu Ya, the adult locked all the children back inside.
Based on Hu Ya's description, it was a wooden trapdoor laid flat against the ground, pulled open by hand, with children climbing up and down using a ladder.
Xie Yu knew with certainty that some form of criminal activity was taking place there.
But this was not the time to pursue that. The urgent task was to dig those children out.
She led a small squad of soldiers quickly to the location—only to find the entire courtyard buried under mud and sand.
They stood atop the debris. The mud beneath their feet reached waist height. The wooden door was long buried below, with no sign of where it might be.
Not far away, the river had swollen violently. Carrying mud and sand, it roared downstream. The sound traveled through the grove like the howl of a monster.
Xie Yu was silent for a moment, then shrugged.
"What's there to hesitate about? We have to dig sooner or later."
She divided the courtyard into several sections and assigned different people to dig each one.
They were lucky. After about half an hour, they uncovered the wooden door.
Everyone gathered together, widening the pit until the entire door was exposed.
Xie Yu grasped the cold, filthy iron ring on the wooden door and pulled.
Below, the curious faces of more than ten children appeared, all looking up at them.
Thank heaven—they were all alive.
Due to mild oxygen deprivation, their faces were flushed, but they had no injuries. Only deep tear marks streaked their faces.
It was the first time Xie Yu had ever seen such tear stains on a person—like tears had dried, then flowed again, dried again, over and over, countless times.
Forget it—just get the people out first.
But the children were extremely panicked and frightened and refused to trust them.
Xie Yu coaxed them for a long time before finally persuading them to climb up.
She had just received six or seven children when a tremendous sound thundered beside her ears.
She looked up and saw a signal flare streak across the gray, murky sky.
Xie Yu glanced toward the mountain. Her expression changed instantly. She turned back and roared:
"A flash flood is coming—move, now—!"
The children climbed up one by one. Xie Yu grabbed each of them in turn and handed them to a soldier. The moment the soldiers took hold, they ran straight toward safety.
The roaring of the flood grew louder and louder, charging toward them at terrifying speed.
"Third Princess, you have to go—now! It's dangerous!" a young soldier shouted at her through the torrential rain.
Xie Yu ignored her completely, doing nothing but pulling children out nonstop.
The last child.
The flood reached her back.
She shoved the child into the soldier's arms, then forcefully pushed the soldier toward a thick willow tree in the courtyard.
The next instant, she was struck by the flood.
The soldier instinctively grabbed the willow tree, stabilizing herself. When she turned back, she saw Xie Yu caught in the yellow-brown torrent, still struggling desperately to save herself, swimming toward a nearby tree.
But in the very next moment, a massive stone carried by the flood smashed into her head.
The hand that had been thrashing above the water sank instantly.
Then her body sank as well, swallowed by the flood, swept away, never to be seen again.
All that remained was a spreading smear of dark red in the muddy current.
—
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