Chapter 11: Barely Clinging to Life
Mengyu quickly weighed the pros and cons.
No, she had to find a way to stretch her leg onto the trunk.
Otherwise, whether the fabric couldn't bear the strain, or her hands lost strength and let go, she would face a gruesome fate.
She gazed at the pine trunk, estimating its maximum capacity.
She grabbed onto the trunk with both hands, swinging her body.
This was extremely dangerous.
She didn't know if the pine trunk could handle the increased load due to the centrifugal force when she swung.
If it couldn't, the trunk would break, and she would fall.
Moreover, if she slipped and her hands came off, the centrifugal force would also throw her out and down the cliff.
If anything went wrong in these elements, she would end up shattered.
But she had to take the gamble, betting that the trunk could bear her weight, betting that her hands would maintain their grip.
Because with the gamble, there was a sliver of hope; without it, she had none.
She tightly clutched the trunk, swinging her body again and again, until at the highest swing her feet finally hooked onto the pine trunk—human potential is indeed infinite.
The pine trunk, too, barely managed to bear the double burden of her weight and the centrifugal force.
Finally, Jiang Mengyu, with her feet hooked around the trunk, managed to climb onto it, carefully disentangling her snagged clothing, and she breathed a sigh of relief.
She had finally clung to life!
This life's experience of jumping off the cliff, though more perilous at the beginning than in her previous life, had a better ending.
Apart from some scratches, and a layer of skin worn off the palm by tree branches, she had no serious injuries, unlike in her previous life when she broke her leg.
This outcome occurred because the human trafficker grabbed her leg.
She didn't know whether to thank or curse the human trafficker.
Unquestionably, she was still lucky. If her hands had still been tied, she would have had no chance at all.
Even now, it was a narrow escape from death.
She heard Lao Liu's furious cursing from above.
But she knew he couldn't see her from up there; a large protruding rock blocked all sightlines downwards.
She also gambled that he wouldn't dare to jump down after her—the cliff on this mountain was seventy to eighty meters deep!
At least for now, she was free.
Mengyu wondered how Jiang Haiyan and Pi Yuhua were doing.
Before she jumped, Pi Yuhua had gone first but was caught by the human trafficker, clearly failing to escape.
Throughout the journey, they would be watched closely; Pi Yuhua had no chance to try again, likely avoiding the tragedy of her past life.
However, she was in no position to save them now, caught up in her own predicaments.
She climbed along the trunk to the base, then to the cave she remembered from her past life.
This time, she didn't have a lighter, so she cleared the entrance of vines to let light into the cave.
Upon seeing the jars she had broken in her previous life intact, she finally relaxed: Good, the items were still there!
She opened the small jars, and as in her previous life, took out the stone beads. Checking her body, the grazed areas had stopped bleeding.
She simply bit her middle finger and smeared the blood on the stone beads.
If it was like her previous life, she would see treasures shining like tiles, mountains of food, cloth, medicine, wine, and other daily necessities piled high.
She first took out medicine, sprinkling the powder on her wounds.
Then she took out dried meat and wine—there was no water in the storage talisman, but there was wine.
Fortunately, the alcohol content of this ancient wine was low, barely sufficient to quench her thirst.
After eating and drinking her fill, she pondered what to do next.
Going up immediately was definitely not an option; she was certain someone would be guarding up there.
If she went up, it would only be walking into a trap.