“I’m sorry,” she said softly. “I have no choice left. Ayao… please tell them I’m sorry.”
I felt her breathing gradually calm. Silence returned, with only the sound of water droplets.
After a moment, I moved back to An Jin’s side, hugging his waist. His faint but steady breathing kept me grounded.
“Brother Jin…” I lay my head on his shoulder. “If you leave me, I won’t be able to live either.”
After saying this, I felt calmer. I closed my eyes, holding his arm.
“Ayao.”
When I heard this voice, I thought it was a hallucination until he held my hand, confirming he had awoken.
“Ayao, don’t be afraid,” he patted my hand softly. Just then, I heard sounds from above.
“Your Majesty!” A voice echoed like a heavenly melody. “Your Majesty, are you down there?”
I thought we had been down there for hours, but it was only less than half an hour. When the aftershock began, An Jin jumped down with me, and rescue was nearly there. They watched An Jin follow me into the crevice, unable to shout. The tremor was brief; once everything calmed, they found ropes to rescue us. An Jin and I were pulled up while another group rescued Jiang Yunqiao. An Jin had a horrific wound, like being pierced by a tree branch, but his life was not in danger. I only had a broken right leg.
Yunqiao and Xia Zhiyuan were carried out, pressed under a stone slab, hands tightly clasped, lifeless but still warm. The accompanying doctor said Xia Zhiyuan died slightly earlier, Yunqiao a bit later. If I’m not mistaken, they had been trapped for several days and hadn’t died until the aftershock caused the stone slab to fall.
If we could have rescued her earlier, perhaps this tragedy would never have occurred. Yunqiao’s eyes were closed, her expression frozen at the moment of departure, half sorrowful, half joyful.
Returning to Rao City, I executed the city official, but this did not ease my mood. After An Jin’s injuries improved, I took the imperial consort and Afu, along with Yunqiao and Xia Zhiyuan’s remains, back to Feng Zhu.
