Chapter 401: Uneasiness
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
Su Ying didn’t hesitate to rush forward and stabilize herself with the steel cable. Then she yanked Zhu Lin up and pushed him to a safe place.
“I’ll do it!”
The instant Su Ying pushed Zhu Lin out, the mountain flash flood surged down.
Fortunately, most of the mountain flash flood was blocked by the dam, but the violent splashing of flood waters still hit Su Ying, causing her to stumble and fall off the dam.
“Argh!”
The people standing on both banks cried out in terror.
“Your Imperial Highness!”
Su Ying’s head was a little dazed from the impact of the gushing flood waters. Fortunately, she had already secured the steel cable in place, so she quickly regained her senses after a brief moment of confusion.
The flood waters continued to surge over the dam. Under such circumstances, the dam would be triggered to release the flood waters, but now that Su Ying was hanging below, if the flood waters were released, Su Ying would immediately be washed away by the flood waters.
“The Empress! Go save the Empress! Go save the Empress!” Zhu Lin yelled madly and wanted to rush over himself, but he was pulled back by the workers. If he went over at this time, he would only die!
Su Ying gripped the steel cable tightly with her hands. After stabilizing her body, she slowly approached the crack in the beam. There were already flood waters flowing out from the crack and gushing relentlessly through it.
Su Ying grabbed the glue suction pad behind her. As she withstood the enormous force of the gushing flood waters, she clenched her teeth to try and deploy the glue suction pad over the crack.
However, the flood waters were getting more voluminous, and Su Ying could barely get close to the crack. She could only think of a way to get close from the side.
Su Ying tightened her grip on the cable and moved her body to the other side, intending to cover the crack with the glue suction pad from the side.
Zhu Lin’s heart was in his mouth. “Hold the rope tightly. We can’t let anything happen to the Empress!”
Su Ying squeezed closer bit by bit from the side with the glue suction pad. The flood waters pounded her face so hard that she almost couldn’t open her eyes. She gritted her teeth and used all her strength to push the glue suction pad on. Squelch! The glue suction pad attached itself to the crack!
Before Su Ying could rejoice, the glue suction pad could not withstand the tremendous force, and a fine crack suddenly appeared.
Su Ying’s face sank. She then grabbed the other glue suction pad and attached it below the first to reduce the pressure on the first glue suction pad.
At this moment, the flood waters had already reached the top of the dam, and the surging flood waters instantly submerged the spot where Su Ying had secured the cable.
“Your Imperial Highness! Your Imperial Highness!” The people standing on the banks screamed in panic.
Su Ying’s figure was also on the verge of being washed away by the powerful pounding of the flood waters.
“Quick! Quickly grab the rope and pull the Empress up! Hurry!” Zhu Lin frantically pulled on the steel cable that was holding Su Ying at the waist, trying to pull her back. However, in the face of nature’s great force, even Su Ying was gradually finding it difficult to pull herself back.
When they saw the flood level increasing, everyone’s nerves tensed up.
“Pull the Empress up! Pull the Empress up!”
Suddenly, with a loud boom, a huge column of water gushed down, instantly breaking all the cable attachments on Su Ying’s body.
Her body was also swept away by the flood waters in the blink of an eye.
“No, no! The Empress! The Empress!” Zhu Lin was practically screaming his lungs out.
This sight terrified all the commoners present. They began shouting madly.
“Your Imperial Highness! Your Imperial Highness!”
However, no matter how they shouted, Su Ying’s figure could no longer be seen.
Zhu Lin knelt on the ground stiffly with his mouth agape and held his head in anguish. “Your Imperial Highness… Your Imperial Highness…”
“Go! Go downstream! Maybe we can find her if we go downstream.” The minor official’s lips trembled. He was not merely afraid that they would be held accountable if something happened to Su Ying. It was also because after spending these past few days with Su Ying, they truly felt that Su Ying was a good Empress worthy of everyone’s respect.
“My Lord, we need to release the flood waters. If we don’t release the flood waters soon, the dam will be in danger.” The minor official rushed to Zhu Lin’s side and shouted and pulled at Zhu Lin, who had lost control of his emotions somewhat.
Zhu Lin’s eyes were bloodshot. There was only one thought in his mind, and that was he must locate Su Ying! He must locate Su Ying!
“My Lord! My Lord! Please come back to your senses! We have to release the flood waters now!”
Zhu Lin’s eyes were wide open, and his eyeballs were about to pop out of their sockets. “If… if the flood waters are released now, can… can we still locate the Empress?”
The minor official held Zhu Lin’s hand tightly. He did not dare to tell Zhu Lin that even if he did not release the flood waters, it was still impossible to locate the Empress!
“My Lord, if the dam collapses, all the commoners of Jing Prefecture will be in danger!”
Zhu Lin gritted his teeth and clenched his fists tightly. “Re… release the flood… flood waters!”
When the minor official received the order, he immediately opened the floodgates to release the flood waters.
The surging flood waters gushed out. With such a great water impact, even a small rock mountain would be smashed into bits, not to mention a human being.
Zhu Lin knelt down on both knees and wailed loudly as he looked at the torrential flood waters.
After the flood waters were released, the level of the river water downstream instantly rose. The commoners who were still playing downstream did not realize that danger was approaching.
“Run quickly! The flood waters are coming! Everyone, go up to the mountains!”
“The mountain flash flood is coming. Run! Quickly run up the mountain!”
The workers rode their horses and shouted at the crowd.
When everyone heard that the mountain flash flood was coming, they turned around and fled in fear.
Not long after they turned around and ran up the mountain, they heard the sound of splashing water coming from the mountain stream. A stream of yellow water slowly gushed down. Before long, the stream of water gradually grew larger and developed into a river. It instantly flooded the place where they were just now.
If it wasn’t for someone reminding them in time, they would have drowned in the flood waters by now. Everyone’s faces were filled with fear and relief.
“It hasn’t rained for the past few days. Why is there so much water in the mountains?”
Someone looked at the surging flood waters with a face full of doubt.
“You probably don’t know about this. It rained for so many days a while ago. It is very likely that the water has accumulated in a place that we do not know about. When the place reaches the limit of its storage, the water will burst out like bamboo shoots after a rain shower. If it was not for someone reminding us in time today…” The man shook his head without finishing his sentence.
“That’s right. If we were caught in such a flood, how could there be any possibility of survival?”
At this moment, a thousand miles away, Xiao Jin was sitting in the Imperial study and staring blankly at the memorial in his hand. For some reason, his heart suddenly started beating so fast that he almost suffocated.
“Your Majesty… Your Majesty.”
Xiao Jin suddenly came back to his senses, and the memorial in his hand fell to the ground with a clatter.
When he saw this, Zhang Shuming instructed a young eunuch to boil a bowl of tea for Xiao Jin to calm his nerves.
“Your Majesty has been too working too hard recently. Why don’t you rest early tonight?”
Xiao Jin reached out to touch his chest and felt his heart thumping. He had a feeling that something was going to happen.
“Is there any news from Jing Prefecture?”
“Your Majesty, we received some news yesterday. Lord Zhu said that the Empress is doing well and the construction work on the dam is also progressing very smoothly.”
Xiao Jin furrowed his brows tightly. “That was the news from yesterday. What about today? Is there any news today?” The uneasiness in his heart grew stronger and stronger. Xiao Jin desperately wanted to hear news of Su Ying.. He wanted to immediately confirm that she was fine!