Back to the 1980s: Transmigrated as the Bigshot's Pampered Wife-Chapter 24: Risking One’s Life to Save Someone
Gu Jiaojiao faintly heard the panicked voices of some women: "Help! Someone fell in the water!"
"You handle the wheelchair yourself. I’m going to save them."
Su Shuochi tried to grab her, but Gu Jiaojiao had already dashed over and leaped into the pond with a single bound.
SPLASH! The sound sent countless droplets flying, and Su Shuochi, furious, slammed his fists against his own legs.
He had never hated his crippled legs so much, his inability to stand. He felt like he was about to break.
Even if she was an Immortal descended to the mortal realm, this body of Gu Jiaojiao’s was not only flesh and blood, but also perpetually frail and sickly.
He knew she wouldn’t die, but what he feared most was her ascending to the heavens. His legs weren’t healed yet!
His heart clenched painfully, as if being sawed by a dull knife. Heedless of everything, he propelled his wheelchair forward at full speed.
"Jiaojiao, don’t be a fool! You’re not well, hurry and get out!"
But Gu Jiaojiao couldn’t hear him at all, nor could she sense his desperate cries. She was already in the pond.
Su Shuochi’s voice was so urgent and mournful it could move one to tears. It was only then that the crowd realized the one who had jumped in was the Sheng Family’s fake daughter.
"Don’t you worry. It’s only right for Gu Jiaojiao to save her. The one who fell in is her adoptive mother."
A woman kindly stepped forward to comfort Su Shuochi, as her husband was one of his subordinates.
Instead of comforting Su Shuochi, the woman’s words only made him more terrified.
’It’s right for her to risk her life to repay the debt of being raised, but what about me? What will I do?’
’Will she ascend to the heavens and leave the mortal world just like that?’
Gu Jiaojiao was oblivious to the man’s inner turmoil. Having jumped into the water, she had already taken hold of the person in it.
It was Mrs. Sheng. Like a drowning person clutching at straws, she latched onto Gu Jiaojiao and refused to let go.
Gu Jiaojiao tried to push her away to swim toward the bank, otherwise they would both exhaust themselves and die in the pond. But it was impossible to speak clearly in the water.
Mrs. Sheng was clinging to her arms for dear life. Seeing they were both about to go under, Gu Jiaojiao pulled a silver needle from her space and unhesitatingly jabbed it into her.
A sharp pain in her hand made Mrs. Sheng let go. Gu Jiaojiao tossed the silver needle back into her space, supporting the woman with one arm and paddling with the other.
After swimming only a dozen meters, Gu Jiaojiao started to panic. She had underestimated how weak this body was, and the bank was still some distance away.
She could only swim toward the bank with all her might. On the shore, a woman was holding a bamboo pole used for drying clothes.
Whether it was intentional or not, the woman suddenly used the pole to shove them back into the water. Mrs. Sheng grabbed Gu Jiaojiao’s arm again.
Gu Jiaojiao had no strength left to paddle, nor could she push the woman away. She was so angry she wanted to curse.
With a loud SPLASH, a figure swam toward them, reaching them in moments.
A large hand yanked Mrs. Sheng out of the water, and with another powerful heave, he threw the woman onto the bank.
When Gu Jiaojiao saw clearly that it was Su Shuochi, she was so scared her legs cramped. A partially paralyzed person has very poor coordination.
It would be easy for him to choke on water, and if things went wrong, he could drown and even die.
In her panic, Gu Jiaojiao’s limbs cramped up, and she began to sink. As she closed her eyes, she saw Su Shuochi wrap his arm around her waist.
He started giving her air. ’There goes my first kiss, lost in the water.’ With her limbs cramping, Gu Jiaojiao couldn’t swim.
Su Shuochi was completely focused on giving her air, terrified his wife would ascend to the heavens. The thought of it being a kiss never even crossed his mind.
Seeing his wife’s eyes shut tight, he gave her air even more frantically, one breath after another.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Sheng, who had been thrown onto the bank, wasn’t injured. Su Shuochi had tossed her onto the grassy edge of the pond.
Mrs. Sheng was the leader of the song and dance troupe. When they had no performances or rehearsals, they got off work earlier than others.
On her way home from grocery shopping, she ran into her sworn enemy, Ren Xiaofang, who was her older cousin.
For years, the two of them had bickered every time they met, but this time, Mrs. Sheng lost her cool completely.
Mrs. Sheng strongly suspected that Ren Xiaofang had deliberately switched their two children back then, but she had no concrete proof.
Furious, Mrs. Sheng went to hit Ren Xiaofang. In the ensuing scuffle, Mrs. Sheng’s chronic back pain suddenly flared up, and she fell into the pond.
Years ago, the two cousins had both been in love with Mr. Sheng, Sheng Liangyuan. In the end, Ren Cuiping had won.
Unable to accept defeat, Ren Xiaofang, in a fit of pique, married Sheng Liangyuan’s direct superior.
Ren Xiaofang’s husband was twenty-one years older than Mr. Sheng. A widower for many years, he hadn’t planned on remarrying.
Both Ren Xiaofang and Ren Cuiping were young beauties in the song and dance troupe, and naturally very attractive.
How could a man who had been a widower for so long resist the advances of a young girl? He hesitantly agreed.
After getting married, Ren Xiaofang moved in next door to Ren Cuiping. From then on, the two cousins became the compound’s resident case study in comparison and, at the same time, sworn enemies.
After her marriage, Ren Cuiping gave birth to three sons in a row, followed by a daughter. Her life was blissful.
Ren Xiaofang’s husband, on the other hand, was already in his forties and had a daughter and two sons with his late wife.
When Ren Xiaofang married him, his eldest daughter was already married. For many years after their wedding, Ren Xiaofang didn’t have any children.
By the time Ren Cuiping had already given birth to her second son, Ren Xiaofang finally became pregnant with her first child—and it was a daughter.
Ren Xiaofang was so furious she wanted to curse the heavens.
But that was nothing. Most importantly, Ren Xiaofang’s husband was getting old and about to retire.
Sheng Liangyuan, however, was still young. In just over a decade, he had surpassed Ren Xiaofang’s husband in rank and was only fifty this year.
Meanwhile, Ren Xiaofang’s husband was already seventy, the same age as the Sheng Family’s grandfather.
The two cousins, now in their forties, had been fighting covertly for decades, but this was the first time they had ever come to blows in public.
The reason was that Ren Cuiping had learned from her daughter that Sheng Xinglian’s adoptive mother was none other than Ren Xiaofang’s stepdaughter, Dong Yuehua.
How could Ren Cuiping possibly swallow that? It was obvious that her cousin had maliciously switched the babies.
And so, for the first time, Ren Cuiping threw her image to the wind and grabbed Ren Xiaofang to start a fight.
Mrs. Sheng was very well-liked. As soon as Su Shuochi threw her onto the bank, several women rushed to help her back home.
"Ren Cuiping, you black-hearted witch! Your adoptive daughter is still in the pond, and you’re just leaving her?"
Hearing Ren Xiaofang’s words, Mrs. Sheng’s hatred grew even stronger. She pretended to faint and remained unresponsive.
"Jiaojiao has her husband to save her. Our leader’s clothes are all wet; she needs to go home and change first," a young wife from the song and dance troupe said indignantly.
"Ren Xiaofang, you rotten-hearted fiend! We all saw you push our leader with that bamboo pole just now. We’re going to report you!"
Muttering curses, the women clumsily half-dragged, half-carried Mrs. Sheng toward the hospital.
Ren Xiaofang grumbled resentfully and slowly backed out of the crowd. She certainly didn’t have the guts to jump into the water to save anyone.
Although Gu Jiaojiao was, in name, her granddaughter, she wasn’t about to put herself in danger for a sickly good-for-nothing.
The women on the bank were all just shouting for help, but not a single one took any real action.
In the water, Su Shuochi had been giving her air for a long time and was growing more and more frantic when he felt his wife pinch him.
He trembled with joy, but because of his poor coordination, he couldn’t tread water. He tilted backward and sank beneath the surface...
