“You’re crazy!” The coach was the first to snap back to his senses. “What are you thinking of doing? To go up there to save her? It’s a thunderstorm out there, even the helicopters aren’t flying!”

“Cut the crap! Give me the paraglide!” Li Lei shouted angrily. “If anything untoward happens to Xiao Ling, all of you are going to pay!”

This was Xia Ling’s first time hearing Li Lei speak in such an angry tone. It was as if he were about to kill someone, and she felt a shiver run down her spine.

Yet, the coach was unaffected. “Who are you trying to scare?! I’m not afraid of you! Let me tell you, Li Lei… going up there in this weather is courting death! I’m in charge of this mountain region, and if I say no, no one will dare give you a paraglide! Li Lei! Where are you going?! Li Lei! Stop him! Someone stop him now!”

There was the sound of pandemonium coming out from the walkie-talkie.

Xia Ling could vaguely make out what was happening, and her heart beat nervously as she shouted with all her might into the walkie-talkie. “Li Lei! I don’t want you to come to save me! Don’t come up here! Don’t fly into the sky! Did you hear me?! Li Lei!”

There was no sound of response on the channel.

The wind blew onto her face such that it hurt, and raindrops the size of beans fell from the sky.

At the base camp, a paraglide rose up in the direction against the wind, the pilot clearly skilled beyond measure. It was extremely difficult to control the direction of the paragliding in this dreadful weather, but it came toward Xia Ling, albeit shakily. The bright red of the paraglide juxtaposed against the dark, menacing sky.

“Li Lei…” Xia Ling felt her eyes fill up.

“Xiao Ling, hang in there!” Li Lei was much calmer in the sky. “I’ll bring you safely back to the ground. Don’t be afraid!”

“I…” She knew that saying anything now was useless. Thus, she pressed down the fragility in her voice, speaking as calmly as she could. “I’m not afraid. You… you be careful.”

He laughed. “I’m a pro at this! Everything will be fine.”

The red paraglide inched closer and closer, unsteady in the midst of the howling wind, looking dangerously like it was going to fall at any moment. Xia Ling could hardly bear to watch, but her eyes seemed to have been bewitched, and she could not tear her eyes away from the approaching paraglide. She prayed incessantly in her heart to every God or devil that she could think of, that they would watch over Li Lei and make sure that he was safe…

“You lunatic…” The coach’s despondent voice transmitted through the walkie-talkie. “Alright, the target landing point is the top of the cliff. It’s very steep and dangerous there, Li Lei. Listen to my command, I will guide you there.”

Li Lei replied confidently. “Okay!”

After which, the coach rattled off a series of technical terms that Xia Ling could not understand.

As she hung in mid-air, she realized how basic her paragliding abilities were.

Li Lei piloted the paraglide closer and closer to her, making a detour such that he was diagonally behind her. “Xiao Ling,” he said. “Sit tight and grab on tight to the rope. I will land on the cliff above you, and it will cause some trembling. You have to… be careful.”

“Mmhmm.” She responded softly, realizing that his voice was shaking. She tried to allay his fear by laughing it off like he always did. “I’m not going to die so easily… neither of us is. You are going to land safely, and you are going to bring me back to the base camp safely.”

He was silent for a moment before saying, “Of course.” Calmness came back to his voice. “Xiao Ling, I’m going to countdown 3, 2, and 1, before I begin the emergency landing.”

He counted down 3 to 1.

The paraglide landed on the top of the cliff and Xia Ling clung on tightly to the rope with her still functional hand. She felt a strong wind all around her, and bits of gravel and sand rolled down from above her head, some striking her on the body so hard that she yelped out in pain.

The peach blossom trees rustled wildly in the wind, and some of the thinner branches snapped from the torrent of gravel and sand, falling together with them to the bottom of the cliff.

She closed her eyes, not daring to look. After a long while, she heard Li Lei’s voice. “Xiao Ling.”

This time, it was not from the walkie-talkie but his real voice right above her head.

She lifted her head and saw the top half of his body peeking out from the top of the cliff. His shirt was torn, likely from the rough landing, and it was grubby with mud and sand. His short hair was blown into a messy crop on top of his head, and his deep-set eyes looked at her brimming with concern.

“Li Lei…” Xia Ling’s nose crinkled, and the heat of her tears came rushing forward, almost spilling over.

“Hang in there! I’m going to think of a plan to save you immediately!” His voice was steady and comforting.

Xia Ling nodded. However, the situation was not good. From where Li Lei was at the top of the cliff, there was a two-meter drop to the peach blossom tree where Xia Ling was trapped. The cliff face was so smooth that there was no foothold for him to climb down. Even if there was, it would still be impossible for him to haul her up to the top all by himself, especially since she had one broken arm.

“Li Lei, what is the situation now?” The coach’s and Lin Yunan’s voices could be heard from the walkie-talkie.

“Prepare the emergency team! You guys are going to have to come into the mountains.” Li Lei said. “There’s no way to pull her up safely. I’m going to have to fly the smaller parachute down.”

“Are you mad?! You’re going to fly some more in this weather?!”

“We can’t just sit here and wait to die…” The storm was coming in fast, and if Xiao Ling were to remain on the peach blossom tree, the wind and rain would be sure to blow her down the ravine. Li Lei switched off the walkie-talkie and looked down at her. “Xiao Ling, do you know how to open the emergency parachute?”

“I do.” Xia Ling tried her best to remain calm. “The catch to open it is in front of my chest.”

“Don’t open it yet.” He said. “If you open it now it will get tangled in the peach blossom tree. Let me come down to cut the rope from the paraglide… you will experience free fall from there. In mid-fall, count to 3 before you open the parachute. Do you understand?”

She knew that she was in a difficult position, and his idea was indeed her only way out. Except…

“Li Lei, after you help free me from here and I parachute down, what happens to you?” Xia Ling asked. There was no way that he would be able to scale the two meters back to the top once he came down to her.

“I’m going to fly down on a parachute as well.” He gave a nonchalant laugh. “Don’t forget. I’m a pro.”

“You…” She knew that he was making it sound a lot easier than it was. The distance from the top of the cliff to the bottom would be nothing in good weather, but on a stormy day like this, the wind and rain could easily blow one off course.

She wanted to stop him, but he had already commenced his descent. The safety rope he was climbing down swayed in the wind, and her heart was almost in her throat as she watched him. She clenched her mouth shut and did not dare make a sound, fearing that it would distract him.

It took him more than ten minutes to climb down the mere two meters, and he was drenched in sweat when he set foot on the peach blossom tree and turned to look at Xia Ling.

The peach blossom tree had grown horizontally out of the cliff wall. Thus, Li Lei lowered himself onto his chest and inched toward Xia Ling with his chest pressed to the bark. Xia Ling’s paraglide was tangled in many of the tree branches, and she was perched extremely precariously, so he spent a long time before he got close enough to her, at the very edge of the tree, swaying in the wind.

“Be careful.” Xia Ling lifted her head to look at him, not daring to move. Only a few peach blossoms were between them, but she felt like they were ravines apart.

“I’m alright.” He gently said to her. “Xiao Ling, the small parachute is nothing like the paraglide. Do you know all the key pointers of flying it?”

“I do.” She recited them hurriedly, fearing that he did not believe her. In fact, she had practiced flying the emergency parachute during her training sessions and was familiar with how to operate it. The only thing she was not confident about was flying it in this stormy weather.