Xiaomei was not expecting a strong current. She quickly tried to swim towards him. "L-Liu LiJie," Xiaomei shouted, trying to stay afloat. "W-wake up," she shouted again, spitting up the water that went in her mouth. He was still unconscious and drifting away. She reached out her hand to grab him. She missed him on the first try before finally grabbing his clothes and pulling him to her. She then did a friendly headlock on him and started to swim toward the edge. She gritted her teeth as she couldn't believe how heavy he was even in water. However, when she was close to the edge, the current got stronger and pushed them down the river. She almost let go of him as she grabbed his clothes tighter. She cussed in her heart and tried to swim closer to the edge again.
She was finally able to reach the shore. She could touch the ground and started walking in the water and pulling him with her towards the shore. Once the water was up to her knees, she repositioned herself before grabbing both of his arms and dragging him as she walked backward. She realized he was even heavier than he was in the water, as half of his body was out of the water. She tripped on rocks, but she still held his clothes tightly so as not to lose him. She was panting and gritting. "You are lucky you are the main guy, or I would have left you to drown," she said, pulling him up to the shore. "You better be okay. I don't want to waste my energy for nothing," she added. She did one last pull and fell on her butt. She groaned in pain and let him go as his body was still half in the water and the other half on the rocks. He started to groan. "Liu LiJie," She said, going up to him to see if he was awake. She patted his face, "Are you up?" she said. He slightly opened his eyes to look at her, but he could barely tell who was in front of him since his sight was blurry.
"Baozhai," he called out and grabbed onto her clothes before closing his eyes again. Once she heard him call for Baozhai, her eyes widened. She looked at him in disbelief as she thought she really did waste her energy for nothing.
"Fine, it's whatever. Think it's Baozhai so the story can progress," she muttered. Before she could start pulling him out of the water again, she heard them calling for them. Her eyebrows raised as an idea appeared in her head.
Xiaomei tried to remove his grip from her clothes, but he wouldn't let go. She struggled with him for a minute. Once she finally removed his hands, she quickly got up and placed some heavy rocks on his clothes so he wouldn't drift off again as she hurried and left. However, what Xiaomei didn't notice was that LiJie had ripped her small tassel off her waist.
Baozhai and the rest spotted LiJie lying on the rocky shore. "LiJie," Baozhai shouted, running to him. She picked him up in her lap and tried to wake him up. "LiJie," she said again. He opened his eyes again to clearly see Baozhai holding him in her arms.
"What happened?" he asked.
"During the fight, you fell in the river," Baozhai said. "So, you save me," he muttered in a satisfied voice as he assumed she saved him.
"What did you say?" Baozhai said, helping him up. "Nothing," he said, holding on to the small tassel in his palm as he smiled, still thinking that Baozhai saved him. Bojing came in to help Baozhai carry LiJie.
"Where's Huang Daiyu?" Chuhua said to the other. ZhangWei and Junfeng appeared behind them after they didn't find anything. ZhangWei saw LiJie with them. "Where's Daiyu," he asked them. They all shook their heads in response.
"What happened to Daiyu?" LiJie asked. "She also fell in the river," Baozhai said.
"Junfeng, keep looking," ZhangWei said to Junfeng as he was also going to look for her.
"Are you guys looking for me?" a voice said behind them as it was enduring her aching body. They all turned their heads to see Xiaomei all wet and dirty. She also looked pretty beaten up. At first, Xiaomei wanted to escape but noticed the sun was coming down. She knew if she left in her exhausted condition and met some wild animals along the way, she would probably face death. So it was better to stick with them until she had another chance to leave.
"Are you alright," ZhangWei asked, concerned.
"What happened to you," Chuhua asked, suspicious.
"What does it look like? I got thrown into the river by the bandits, and the current took me away before I could swim to the shore on my own," Xiaomei said, making up the lies. They all were quiet before ZhangWei said, "Let's head back to the carriage. We have to reach the next town before it's dark." They headed back to the carriage.
She followed them and thought, "This way, the main couple's love can deepen, and no one will suspect it was her, who saved LiJie. So the story technically didn't change since he thought it was Baozhai, who saved him."