Episode 108

Actually, Song Caitang wasn’t sure if she could revive Fourth Missy Gan. But as long as there was hope, she couldn’t give up.

She had learned how to get rid of water from a person’s body from the book she had read before, Song Ci’s Collected Cases of Injustices Rectified.

Song Ci was a noble character who was truly admirable, and many of his theses were of great significance. This book listed many methods of reviving unconscious people, even if they had hanged themselves, drowned or simply collapsed. Some had been proven ineffective by modern science, but most of them were proven to be actually effective.

Right now, performing CPR on Fourth Missy Gan would be the best way to revive her, but she had swallowed way too much water and leaving the water in her body would affect how effective CPR would be. This way of getting rid of the water was quick and effective.

Everything happened very quickly.

The runner was muscular and tall enough to carry Fourth Missy Gan, so she finished vomiting all the water in her body after just a few steps.

Song Caitang got the runner to place her on a flat surface, then she knelt down next to her. She loosened Fourth Missy Gan’s top, then pressed her forehead down slightly while raising her chin so that her chin and earlobes were in one straight line, opening up her air passageway.

Then, she took a deep breath, pinched Fourth Missy Gan’s nose, and started doing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

The crowd was completely stunned. Some covered their mouths with their hand, some widened their eyes so much, their eyes nearly fell out of their sockets.

“Sh-sh-she’s really blowing air into the woman’s lungs!”

“Is she an immortal imparting life to the woman?”

“Maybe that’s the air that will send the woman to the nether world!”

“More importantly, does it even work?! If it actually works, wouldn’t that mean you just need to blow air into a dead person to revive them? That’s ridiculous!”

Song Caitang was very focused and paid the voices around her no attention.

Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation was definitely insufficient.

She turned to place her left palm over her right hand, interlocked her fingers, used her right palm to find the spot two fingers above the xiphoid process, straightened her upper body, then pressed down hard!

She pressed 30 times on Fourth Missy Gan’s chest, followed by two breaths into her mouth.

She didn’t care what anybody else was saying, whether they were saying nice things or nasty things, whether they had faith in her or not. She kept her eyes on Fourth Missy Gan to see if there was any response, and repeated her actions again and again.

Perspiration started to appear on her forehead and she was running out of energy, but she refused to stop.

Zhao Zhi frowned and squatted down next to her, “Let me help you.”

Song Caitang shook her head, “No, your hands are too strong.”

One had to press hard but not too hard. Zhao Zhi didn’t know how to do this at all, so if he tried and pressed too hard, he might break her ribs. If a broken rib stabbed into an internal organ, then they would end up killing her rather than save her.

As for mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, that came with its own set of problems. Besides the fact that she was now in a very conservative society, someone who was doing this for the first time might not do it properly. They might not ensure there were no gaps between the mouths, not pinch the nose hard enough, not notice if the air passageway was clear and so on. Any of these factors would affect the efficacy of this technique.

Zhao Zhi frowned and walked away, since Song Caitang did not want his help. Qi Yan bounced over excitedly, “I’ll help you then!”

Zhao Zhi dragged him away by the collar, “You’re trained in martial arts and you’re going to be too strong too, so nope.”

“I’ll do it.”

Wen Yuansi walked over as he rolled his sleeves up and smiled gently at her.

Not knowing martial arts had turned out to be an advantage in this situation…

This time, Song Caitang did not turn him away and quickly briefed him on what to do, “Put your hands over each other, interlock your fingers, assert pressure on the part between your palm and wrist. Press down straight and make sure your arms are also straight…”

“Got it!”

They worked together to continue trying to resuscitate Fourth Missy Gan.

With Wen Yuansi’s help, Song Caitang had an easier time. Also, she decided to go faster. She blew in two breaths with every 15 pumps.

This process went on for a long time.

The two of them slowly got into the rhythm of things and their actions were seamless. Even after a long time, they continued at the same pace, working tirelessly to save Fourth Missy Gan.

The crowd slowly went from being shocked or stunned by the strange process they were watching, to making snide remarks like “she’s already dead, so why torture her like that” to eventually falling completely silent again.

Humans were reverent toward life. When faced with death, very few could face it without some change in their emotions or thoughts running through their minds.

Death was inevitable, after all. Regardless of how they died and how long they had died for, they would want someone to try and save them with all their might, even if the method they used wasn’t the best.

Every life was valuable, and worthy to be valued in this manner.

It was not appropriate to joke or pass nasty remarks at such a time. They could only watch on quietly and prayed for the woman silently.

Fourth Missy Gan, you’ve got to wake up!

But she did not wake up quickly, like everyone hoped. The two trying to save her looked like they were about to collapse too.

It was hard not to be tired from such vigorous movement.

Song Caitang’s waist began to tremble, while Wen Yuansi was beginning to perspire. His wrists and arms were getting stiff too.

The crowd looked at Fourth Missy Gan, who was still unconscious and unmoving, then at the two who were clearly exhausted but still refusing to give up…

They felt a little sting in their eyes.

They wanted to tell Song Caitang and Wen Yuansi to give up. The woman was already dead, so…perhaps it was better to just accept it and move on instead of tiring themselves to death as well.

But they didn’t dare to say such things because they looked so determined. They could only clench their fists tightly and pray that she would wake up!

The atmosphere was contagious. Once one person felt this way, the rest of the crowd quickly caught on. Every single person was cheering for Fourth Missy Gan!

“Fourth Missy Gan!”

In between breaths, Song Caitang tried to use her words to agitate Fourth Missy Gan, purposely mentioning things she knew would tick the widow off.

“You know what your son is made of! If you don’t protect him, how much further do you think he can go?”

“His capabilities cannot match his ambition – it won’t take long for someone else to gobble him up once he’s on his own!”

“Can death resolve all problems? Let me tell you now – it can’t!”

Sweat rolled into her eyes and it stung, and her waist ached so hard, she had trouble bending over. She stared straight at Fourth Missy Gan and spoke without holding back, “Didn’t you say you were the one who killed Lu Guangzong? If so, wake up and tell us how you did it!”

“You don’t dare to tell us but you dare to commit suicide? Are you feeling guilty about something else? Trying to cover up?”

The dark clouds hid the sun, the winds were a little chilly. The large crowd gathered by the lake and remained silent. Only Song Caitang’s unflinching and piercing words could be heard echoing loudly. She didn’t care to protect Fourth Missy Gan’s pride.

Hack! Cough!

Suddenly, Fourth Missy Gan started coughing.

An uproar went through the crowd.

“She-she-she-she’s moving!”

“She’s woken up!”

“I’m not seeing things, right?! She’s alive! Oh my god!”

“All that blowing actually worked?!”

Song Caitang and Wen Yuansi were the first to notice the change in Fourth Missy Gan. They immediately pulled away.

Song Caitang was exhausted as she plonked back down on the ground. Thankfully, mouth-to-mouth resuscitation only needed her to keep bending over, but her arms did not ache. Wen Yuansi, however, was suffering from aching wrists and his fingers were already trembling.

She checked Fourth Missy Gan’s pulse and nodded, “She’s fine.”

One cough was followed by many more as Fourth Missy Gan proceeded to vomit more water. She had regained consciousness, but her body was too weak to move. However, she could already speak, “Song…Caitang?”

She looked to the other side and saw Wen Yuansi.

She blinked a few times, coughed some more, then touched her own face. She quickly realized that she was basically still alive.

The blank and confused look disappeared from her eyes as she forced herself to get up from the ground. The first thing she did wasn’t to thank the two by her side for rescuing her, but to head for the lake again.

She was going to throw herself in again!

This time, the crowd watching wasn’t going to let her have her way. The ones nearest to her dashed over and blocked her way immediately.

“What the hell is wrong with you? They’ve saved you but instead of thanking them, you’re trying to kill yourself again? You think they saved you because they had nothing else better to do?!”

“Are you out of your mind?!”

“How bad could your problems be? Why do you insist on ending your life?”

“As long as we’re here, you can forget about reaching the lake! We’ll block every attempt you make! We’ll make sure you stay alive, no matter how badly you want to die! Everyone with me?”

“YEAAAH!”

Fourth Missy Gan was angry and frustrated that she couldn’t get to the lake, but she couldn’t fight the wall of men that had gathered to block her way, neither did she have the energy to really scream and shout at them. She collapsed to the ground and started crying, “It’s my life! I do what I want with it! Why can’t I choose to end it?”

“That’s right, I want to die! I should have died 15 years ago! But I was too afraid, too fearful. I finally managed to gather my courage to do it, but all of you are stopping me from fulfilling my wish! Why don’t you just let me die? Who are you to me? I don’t want to live anymore! Why can’t I? WHY?!”

Her words were filled with such earnestness and despair, someone tried to counsel her, “But if you die, then you won’t be able to do anything, right? There can only be hope for the better if you’re still alive.”

“No…” Fourth Missy Gan had a vacant stare in her eyes as she looked down at her own hands, “There’s no hope precisely because I’m still alive. The days ahead will only become more and more terrifying with each passing day…I can only get out of it if I die…”

Zhao Zhi gave Gan Zhixuan a kick to force him out from the crowd.

This boy, Fourth Missy Gan’s son, had cried quite a bit when he brought his mother’s suicide note to the courthouse. Yet when he saw his supposedly dead mother’s body on the shore, he didn’t have any reaction at all. He didn’t cry, he didn’t yell, he didn’t rush over agitatedly either. He seemed to have blanked out and looked both silly and afraid. But his presence would definitely cause a change in Fourth Missy Gan’s emotions.

Gan Zhixuan trembled slightly as his knees gave way and he knelt before Fourth Missy Gan, “Mother…”

But Fourth Missy Gan refused to look at him. She turned away and said frostily, “Since you’re already an adult and you can support a family of your own now, everything you do from now on has nothing to do with me. Get out of my sight, I don’t want to see you anymore.”

Gan Zhixuan had never been treated like this by his own mother before.

The cold treatment made him start crying, “Mother…you…don’t want me anymore? Mother, I’m not going anywhere. I’m going to take the exam and become an official so that you can have a good life ahead…”

PAK! Fourth Missy Gan slapped Gan Zhixuan across the face, leaving a large, red, and clear imprint on his cheek, “I don’t need any of that!”

Many who knew this mother and son duo were shocked by what they were seeing and didn’t understand what was going on. But Song Caitang and Wen Yuansi exchanged knowing glances.

Fourth Missy Gan was doing this on purpose.

She had doted on Gan Zhixuan for so many years. How could her love for him change so suddenly?

For example, she had slapped her son really hard, as though she really didn’t care for him. But her hand was trembling.

She couldn’t actually bear to do this to him.

Everything she did was for one particular reason.

She suspected, perhaps because of something that had happened, that Gan Zhixuan was the killer and she was doing everything within her means to take the rap for him.

How she got to this conclusion was not clear and nobody had the chance to ask her yet, but based on what they knew so far, this would be the only explanation for her actions.

Song Caitang saw that Fourth Missy Gan’s eyes were bloodshot and her fingertips trembled as she did her best to hold her true emotions in. She didn’t even care if she was still clean, neat and as beautiful as before.

Song Caitang then turned her head slightly to look out at the lake. There was no change in the water. The wind made the surface ripple.

Fourth Missy Gan said she should have died 15 years ago, but she didn’t. She continued living by herself before eventually giving birth, then brought her son up all on her own. It didn’t take a genius to understand how hard that must have been.

How did she persuade herself to leave a suicide note saying that she was going to throw herself in the lake? What sort of emotions did she go through as she put on her favorite dress, jump into the icy cold lake, allow the water to fill her lungs, choke and suffer the process of drowning while resisting the urge to keep her head above the water…

This woman had been very decisive, very resolute, and was willing to go all out.

All of a sudden, an image came to mind. Or rather, the back view of a person came to Song Caitang’s mind, stunning her for a moment.

That sort of thing…

…seemed to have happened to her before.

But she wasn’t the one doing the rescuing. She had been rescued.

Who was it?

Who had gone all out like that for her before?

Fourth Missy Gan pushed her son to one side, then ran over to Song Caitang and Wen Yuansi, “I was the one who killed Lu Guangzong! I hated him! He ruined my life, so I killed him!”

But Wen Yuansi was tired of watching her act like this and turned to Gan Zhixuan, “You’re the one who killed Commissioner Lu, right?”

Gan Zhixuan pointed at his own nose and looked utterly confused, “Me?”

Wen Yuansi nodded and Gan Zhixuan immediately retorted, “No, it wasn’t me.”

He then turned to look at the crowd around him, only to realize that everyone was seriously suspecting him of the crime!

His voice went up in pitch as he waved his arms about in horror, “How could it be me? I don’t even dare to kill a chicken or look at blood or anything like that! I’m serious! I wouldn’t dare to kill someone at all! I don’t have a feud with Commissioner Lu and I even thought he might be my dad for some time. How could I possibly kill him?”

This time, it was Fourth Missy Gan who looked utterly confused.

Nobody knew her son like she did. The way Gan Zhixuan reacted and the expression on his face looked like he was telling the truth.

She stared intently at Gan Zhixuan, “You really didn’t kill him?”

Gan Zhixuan looked upset, “Mother…don’t you know what sort of person I am? I don’t care if someone else suspects me, but you? I didn’t do it…I really didn’t. I really didn’t kill anybody.”

As he spoke, Gan Zhixuan fell to his knees and started crying miserably as he held onto the edge of his mother’s skirt.

Fourth Missy Gan suddenly fell to the ground to embrace her son. She trembled all over and couldn’t say a word.

She had finally realized that she had gotten it all wrong. She had thrown herself into the lake for nothing.

Death had come so close, and the experience had truly scared her.

There was no longer any need for hints. Wen Yuansi asked Gan Zhixuan directly, “What did you do to make your mother suspect you did it, and even tried to take the rap for you?”

Gan Zhixuan finally figured out what was going on and was terrified. His face was pale as he clutched his mother’s skirt and stared vacantly, “I…I really don’t know…”

Wen Yuansi flicked his fingers, “Then tell us now – what did you do in the pub that day? And why did you hide it from us?”

Gan Zhixuan shrank back.

Wen Yuansi smiled faintly, “Don’t wanna tell us? I’ll have no choice but to arrest your mother first, then. Men!”

“I’ll talk!” Gan Zhixuan gritted his teeth, “Fine, I’ll tell you! Tell your men to stay put!”

Wen Yuansi waved his arm and the runners stood still again.

Gan Zhixuan was only willing to speak after that, “Actually, I had diarrhea that day and I saw Commissioner Lu when I used the bathroom. I was lying when I said I didn’t notice him. We actually…spoke for a while.”

He swallowed hard, “I grabbed hold of him and asked if he knew who my father was.”