Fortunate to Have You This Lifetime
Chapter 1195: More Comfortable Than Drowning_1

Chapter 1195: Chapter 1195: More Comfortable Than Drowning_1

The river water was icy cold, and a myriad of small ice floes swirled around them.

Their breath came out as puffs of white mist, lingering, then dissipating.

Nathaniel had jumped in too hastily, not shutting off the ferry’s engine, and Cherry didn’t know how to pilot; by now, the boat had drifted far in its course, and the shore was not close either.

At first, Purple Summers tried to move her limbs, but gradually, she lost her strength.

She didn’t know if it was the medication in her system wearing off or if her hands and feet were numb from the icy water; she only felt Nathaniel desperately holding her up, the water occasionally flooding over her nose and into her lungs, causing fits of coughing.

The two struggled to swim in the water, impeded by clumps of ice. Yet, the ice was not thick enough to bear their weight and only served to drain their strength while also stripping away their body heat.

Eventually, even Nathaniel had little energy left.

He could not swim anymore.

The loss of body heat left him weak and faint.

He clung to a larger piece of floating ice, pulling Purple Summers close, "Hold onto it."

The ice was thick—while it couldn’t fully support their weight, it could somewhat serve as a makeshift float.

Purple Summers couldn’t hold onto it firmly; her fingers had stiffened from the cold, unable to exert any strength, and her body kept slipping down.

Nathaniel supported her, allowing her to half lie on the ice block, then pushed towards the riverbank.

The shore, almost a hundred meters away, seemed infinitely distant due to the obstructive ice and the low temperature.

Slowly, they stopped moving in the water.

Time ticked away, and bits of floating ice gathered with the current, nearly freezing them through.

"Can you still hold on?" asked Nathaniel.

Purple Summers struggled to stay conscious, gazing at the water in front of her, mixed with ice chips, and responded in a hoarse voice, "I don’t know..."

While she spoke, her tongue was so cold it was twisting, her voice trembling.

As the sound of her voice faded, her body sank a bit further.

The ice floe couldn’t support both of them at the same time.

Nathaniel half-supported her, his body heavily bobbing in the water, his complexion extremely pale.

He gasped for breath, then suddenly smiled, "Doesn’t our situation resemble that of the Titanic?"

Purple Summers’ thoughts were sluggish; after a moment of silence, she replied, "Not really, Jack and Rose at least truly loved each other."

"Yeah..." Nathaniel said slowly, "Love can beautify everything, even a life-and-death crisis can appear beautiful and romantic. But us, in this state, seem more like a pathetic joke, don’t we?"

Purple Summers also managed a weak smile.

"You shouldn’t have jumped in," she said.

"If I hadn’t, you might have drowned again, and who knows how you might have hated me for that," Nathaniel quipped half-jokingly. "Last time you were so mad, you wouldn’t even acknowledge me."

He was referring to the time she drowned in the river and came back to life only to not recognize him anymore.

Purple Summers said earnestly, "Not once. Twice."

That included the time in the bathtub as well.

Nathaniel looked dazed, "So this is the third time, huh..."

Purple Summers closed her eyes, speaking in a very low voice, "Are we going to drown?"

"Before we drown, we might freeze to death first," Nathaniel said softly. "In water below zero degrees, a person gradually loses sensation, becomes disoriented, and the numbness in the limbs ultimately leads to respiratory failure, until death... This process takes about 10 to 20 minutes."

"That doesn’t sound too painful," Purple Summers said weakly with a slight smile. "Much more comfortable than drowning."

"Perhaps so..." Nathaniel murmured softly.

His body sank a bit, then, clinging to the ice floe, he leveraged himself back above the water’s surface. The ice block wobbled, and he looked around.

Purple Summers knew he was searching for other pieces of ice that could support their weight, but nearby were only thin and small fragments. Unless Nathaniel had the strength to swim a substantial distance, there were larger ice floes closer to the shore.

Perhaps Nathaniel should push her down.

Her brain seemed to have frozen as well, her thoughts crawling at a snail’s pace.

Then, she heard Nathaniel ask, "What does it feel like to drown?"