6 The Wounded Man

The pitter-patter of cold rain on her face slowly brought Wang Jingyuan back to consciousness. She realized that she couldn't feel her limbs and panicked. Was she dead? Did she break every bone in her body? Her head pounded with a headache as she thought back to what had happened. A van came out of nowhere and drove straight into the café, slamming into the spot where she and Shao Wenbo were sitting at. Wang Jingyuan knew she was hit; she felt it. She didn't know if it was possible to survive such a powerful and direct hit.

Besides the sound of rain, it was quiet around her. What happened to the other people in the café? Where are the blaring sirens from the paramedics? Did no one call an ambulance? Wang Jingyuan's mind was muddled with questions. Was Shao Wenbo okay?

She kept her eyes closed in fear of what she might see when she opened them. Would her body be split into several pieces? Wang Jingyuan remembered reading about someone who was guillotined but retained consciousness even though the head had been separated from the body. God, what if that became her? She didn't want to die. She was too young to die.

After a while, Wang Jingyuan realized with a start that she was feeling cold. The rain had soaked her clothes, and when the wind blew past, she shivered. Her rational mind argued that if she could feel coldness, then she definitely was alive. Wang Jingyuan forced her eyes open.

Instead of the ceiling of the café, a dark canopy of leaves greeted her. Wang Jingyuan blinked once, twice, and closed her eyes. She counted to ten and opened her eyes again. The same leafy trees came into view. Wang Jingyuan felt herself begin to panic again. Why are there trees? Did the impact throw her through the walls and all the way into the park?

No. The park didn't have trees that were this close to each other. This looked like a forest. With much difficulty, Wang Jingyuan pushed herself up into a sitting position. She breathed a sigh of relief to see that her head was still safely attached to the rest of her body, and that everything was where it supposed to be. Besides being cold and soaked with rain, she felt fine. No pain, no wounds, no blood. That's weird.

Wang Jingyuan looked around carefully. She had been lying on a grassy floor on the side of a mountain. Trees stood at attention in every direction for as far as she could see. It was an unfamiliar place, and she was alone. The rain continued to drum on the leaves.

Don't panic, don't panic. Wang Jingyuan took several deep breaths to calm down. Her logical mind was working overtime as she tried to sort out her thoughts. She was in an unfamiliar forest by herself. It was supposed to be mid-afternoon, but with the cloudy skies she couldn't tell the time. She was not in the café, or any place within the city she knew. She was cold, because all she was wearing was a blouse and jeans and those had gotten wet from the rain. She wasn't hurt, even though she had just gotten hit by a van.

Too many unknowns and too little answers. Wang Jingyuan decided to try and find her way out of the forest. Maybe she would run into someone, or find human civilization, and figure it out from there. The rain had diminished into a steady drizzle, and the leafy trees above her blocked a good portion of the rain. Wang Jingyuan picked a direction that seemed to go downhill and began to walk.

There were lots of loose rocks and tall grasses that made travel difficult. Wang Jingyuan mourned the destruction of her good sneakers as she stepped in yet another muddy puddle. She was thinking about how she would have to give her clothes a heavy wash when she tripped over something and fell face-first into the grass.

"Ow!" Wang Jingyuan pushed herself up and rubbed her knees and elbows. Her clothes were definitely ruined now. A little angry, she turned to look at what had tripped her. There, camouflaged against the mud and grass, was…an arm?

Alarm bells went off in her head. Wang Jingyuan picked up a large stick that was nearby before cautiously approaching again. She followed the arm to see a man covered with mud and lying face-up in the grass. Wang Jingyuan looked closer and barely stifled a scream. He was also covered with blood.

Little red rivers ran down his forehead, across his tightly-shut eyes, and over his face, which bore dark purple bruises. Dried blood mangled the moustache above lips that were blue and split. His skin was as white as paper, making him look like a ghost. His clothes, a black robe over a dark gray hanfu, were soaked with both rain and blood and splattered with mud. His left arm—which Wang Jingyuan had tripped on—and right leg were bent in angles not possible for a normal human. A sheathed sword laid on the ground next to him.

Wang Jingyuan was frozen with shock. This man was dressed like a person out of the wuxia dramas she liked to watch. A thought hit her like a thunderbolt—did she transmigrate into a wuxia world? Sure, she had fantasized about what it would be like if she was knew cool martial arts and fought in the relentless battles between different sects, but that was just her daydreams. No one transmigrates in real life! Especially not her, who was just an average schoolgirl!

The more she thought about it, the more confused she became. Did she actually transmigrate? Why? How? What is she supposed to do now? How does she go back? In all the dramas she watched, it was usually the main character's soul transmigrating into someone else's body in the new world. But here, she was clearly still in her own body. How did that even work?

Thunder rumbled overhead again. Wang Jingyuan stared at the bloody man on the ground. She noticed that what she had first thought was mud around the man was actually a pool of blood. This man was hurt very badly. Was he even alive?

Wang Jingyuan gingerly prodded the man with her stick. "Um, hello? Are you okay? Can you hear me?" There was no response.

She crouched down and placed two fingers on the man's wrist to feel for a pulse. She thought she felt a light beat, but she couldn't be sure. Keeping her eyes on the man's unconscious face, Wang Jingyuan cautiously put her index finger beneath the man's nose. There! He was still breathing, but just barely.

Wang Jingyuan had a new dilemma. It would be easier to just leave the man here, but now that she knew he was alive, she felt bad about leaving him, exposed to the elements, even though she wasn't sure he would survive. She didn't even know who he was. What if he was a bad guy that everyone was hunting?

Thunder rumbled overhead again. The rain came down faster. It looked like she wouldn't be able to make it down the mountain before it got dark. Looking around, Wang Jingyuan spotted a tiny cave on the side of the mountain. The ground inside was dry.

She looked back down at the unconscious man. The rain had washed away some of the blood from his face, and she was able to see his features a little more clearly. He didn't look like a villain…

Wang Jingyuan sighed. She picked up the sword, tucked it under her arm, and grabbed the man's good arm. "I guess since I found you, I can't leave you here to die," she said as she dragged him towards the cave, leaving a trail of mud and blood that was quickly washed away by the rain.