Trap in a Book

Chapter 26

The bandit fell forward right next to her as a bloody sword was in front of her. Her eyes widened in shock. She then looked up at the person who was holding the bloody sword. "I thought the Great General Huang's daughter knows how to fight?" a teasing voice said as he pulled her up from the ground.

"I-I drank too much poison and lost some of my memories of how to fight," Xiaomei tried to find an excuse as her mind was absent-minded.
"Is that so," he said, wiping off the blood on her face. She saw the blood on his hands and sleeves. She was shaken up. She never saw anyone being killed in front of her. She thought, "That's the bandit's blood..."

"Stand behind me, so you don't get hurt," he said, seeing her being absent-minded. She didn't reply but stood behind him as he continued to fight. She forced herself to snap out of it. "This is not the time for this. Let's see if the story is progressing," she thought, looking for LiJie. She spotted him behind the carriage and fighting off three bandits. She saw Bojing fighting the leader and two bandits, while Junfeng was fighting two bandits. She still saw Chuhua and Baozhai were still inside the carriage fighting off the bandits from inside.

"Hey, step back a little," ZhangWei told her as he was fighting off four bandits. She listened to him and stepped back. She then noticed that Baozhai was not paying attention to LiJie. Xiaomei glanced at LiJie again to find him kicking one of the bandits, but while he was kicking one, another one struck his head and kicked him toward the river. LiJie fell into the river.

She quickly looked at the carriage to see if Baozhai noticed because, in the story, once LiJie fell into the river. Baozhai immediately noticed and screamed his name and got off the carriage before jumping in the water to save him. However, this time Baozhai didn't seem to notice. Xiaomei waited for a couple of seconds to see if Baozhai would turn her head this way as Xiaomei was still looking at LiJie floating away in the river as he was unconscious.

"The crown prince fell in the river," she said aloud to draw some attention, but it didn't seem that they heard her. She shouted again.
"Hm?" ZhangWei heard Xiaomei shout something but didn't hear what she was clearly saying. He glanced back.
"Liu-," she tried to say, but ZhangWei's attention got drawn back to the fight before she could say anything.

She thought, "You gotta be kidding me." Her hands fidgeted as she was making her decision. She noticed that he was drifting further. "I'm going to regret this, but whatever," she said in her head and quickly jumped in the water.

ZhangWei heard a splash. He turned his head towards the river to see a glimpse of Xiaomei's clothes in the water as he turned his head back to find additional bandits behind him. He immediately thought that the bandits probably kicked her into the water. "Daiyu fell in the water!" ZhangWei yelled as he was still fighting off the bandits.

For some reason, everyone heard that and turned their head toward the river. Bojing finally knocked the leader to the ground. The leader hurried to get up and ran as he shouted retreat to his minions. Soon all the bandits quickly ran off and disappeared into the forest. "Where's LiJie?" Baozhai said, worried. "Don't tell me. He also fell in the water," she added. They all looked at the river to see none of them there.

"Hurry. Let's follow the river. They probably got pushed from the current," ZhangWei said as they hurried along the river to see if they could spot them.