Chapter 161 - Aftershocks Happened

Chapter 161 (Aftershocks Happened) At Sunset, Zhao Yuan Finally Found Wenxi

The days passed by and the golden time for rescue within 72 hours after the earthquake had passed. The traffic in the counties of Xichuan had gradually returned to normal. In the past few days, many volunteers were assigned to carry the wounded on a large scale. But unlike before, now they would go to every ruin and every place that might have survivors calling continuously. Sometimes, Zhao Yuan was asked to throw food and drinking water which was scarce in the disaster area to some holes that looked quiet and empty.

“Excuse me, is there someone called Zhao Yuan here?” Along the way, a girl in overalls asked with an anxious look. At this time, the girls at the medical station just had finished their breakfast in a hurry. The girl was quite worn out by a long journey, and her face was covered with dust. But she still looked quite noble and extraordinary refined. The other girl with her had a graceful figure, who looked very charming and amiable. But it seemed that the girl couldn’t stand the hard journey. Among them, there was a valiant boy who was tall and strong. The other handsome boy was very elegant, but he appeared quite worried and frightened.

“Chen Wanxin, why are you looking for him?” The cold voice of the medical team leader rose behind Chen Wanxin.

In a surprise, Chen Wanxin felt happy that someone answered her, and she turned around. But then, she saw a face almost covered with hatred. The beautiful face seemed to be painted with some black color by those dark clouds overhead, and some sadness had immersed into the face. The team leader was Lu Sisi!

“Brother Kai, is everything fine with you?” Lu Sisi pursed her lips and asked in a spurious smile.

“Now it was not the time to talk about the nonsense. Zhao Yuan, where did he go?” Zheng Kai asked.

“You are still so rude, annoying, and detestable!” Lu Sisi curled her lips and said.

“Who knows where such a living dead has been sent off? Or did he run by himself?” Lu Sisi looked at Chen Wanxin with an ice-cold face.

“Lu Sisi, may I ask where is he?” Chen Wanxin asked very politely.

“Why should I tell you?”

“Sisi, Zhao Yuan is my brother.” Zheng Kai started to talk. He looked at the medical team leader, somewhat apologetically.

“The girls you have dumped for this woman are enough to form a female baseball team! I cannot wait to beat you to death with a stick. But it is a pity that you are too tough. Then, I have to hit Chen Wanxin!” With this, Xiaoyuan rushed to strike Chen Wanxin.

Zheng Kai was going to stop her, but Chen Wanxin blocked his hands.

“You can slap me ten times only if you tell me where Brother Yuan is.” Chen Wanxin was almost pleading. Seeing Chen Wanxin’s imploring look, the muscles on Zheng Kai’s face turned tight because he had never seen such an overbearing and bossy little princess would become so subservient.

Lu Sisi gave Zheng Kai a sweet smile. “If I hit you, Brother Kai Ge will beat me to avenge you. Well, Brother Kai, if I hit her, will you beat me for real? In fact, I am willing to be beaten by you.”

“You tell me the truth. Then, let’s go back to do something intimate.” Zheng Kai said with a smile. With his eyes fixing on Lu Sisi’s chest, he slightly got closer to her. Lu Sisi couldn’t help but flushing. All in a fluster, she took a step back.

“This is the business between her and me!” Chen Wanxin was unable to restrain herself and pinched Zheng Kai. “If you dare to touch this woman once again, I will curse you that you can never get a wife and you will only have Wang Xiang, your little follower, to stay with you all your life!”

Wang Xiang’s expression changed dramatically, but Zheng Kai felt quite happy in his heart, secretly.

“Remember that you should pay me back everything you owe me sooner or later.” Lu Sisi forced a sweet smile. “He went to Dongchuan. I suppose that he must have gone to find the war reporter, Lin Wenxi.”

Chen Wanxin’s nose suddenly twitched. “He… Is he alright?”

“Do you think people who have come here will have a good time?” Lu Sisi pointed to those patients with minor injuries who lay together behind them. Some of them were waiting for their families here. Some people were here to wait for the government to resettle them. Among them, those busy people who shuttled back and forth were volunteers from schools. Each of them looked tired, but they forced themselves to keep up their spirits.

“You’ve been working very hard, sisters.” Chen Wanxin nodded to show her respect. Then, she was ready to go along the path with Zheng Kai. But at this time, a group of martial-looking men surrounded them. The one who led was exactly Luo Yang.

“Miss, I’m here to bring you back.” Luo Yang said while slightly bowing down. When Zheng Kai saw Luo Yang give him a sharp look before he bent down, he immediately felt his fists were ready to fight.

“Get lost.” Chen Wanxin only said one sentence.

“The communication here has not been restored. Otherwise, I will ask your mother to talk to you directly. She is very worried about you.” Luo Yang insisted.

“Even if you don’t listen to me!” Chen Wanxin said with some hatred. Luo Yang immediately lowered his head and went behind those men he brought. Those people were going to catch Chen Wanxin. At this point, Zheng Kai squared his shoulders and stood before Chen Wanxin.

“Zheng Kai, don’t overestimate yourself.” Luo Yang said coldly.

“Luo Yang, do one thing for me. Leave a few people here to help.” She pointed to the leader Lu Sisi. “Each of you looks so strong and powerful. Please do something serious! Stay here and follow Miss Lu’s words.”

Lu Sisi was short of hands. She saw the few people were robust and strong, and it seemed that their kungfu was at least as good as not Zheng Kai’s. Feeling quite happy, she immediately agreed and nodded.

“The rest of you can be our guards, and you should listen to Zheng Kai’s command!” With this, she smiled gently toward Luo Yang. “The military truck you brought here can be a big help.” After that, she took Luo Yang’s phone and casually threw it into the ruins on one side. “Your communication is interrupted, and you search for me here for a few days. Finally, you find me and escort me home safely. How about this story?”

Luo Yang took out another phone and said, “I have another one.” His act made a group of people to laugh.

Chen Wanxin immediately pulled a long face and went straight to the truck. “Zheng Kai, I don’t believe the bunch of garbage. You drive.”

Dongchuan.

“Wenxi? Hey! He is really a talented person! We didn’t plan to take him at first. But his attitude was tough and he jumped on the car with us. We asked him what he could do. He said that he could write. We laughed at him about that! But who knew that he dared to go all the places that even those local reporters and other kinds of reporters didn’t dare not go. Because of that, he got a lot of first-hand information and photos. Thanks to his reports, many places got timely reinforcement!” The leader of the advance team of Jifu University was an old friend of Zhao Yuan on the basketball court. At this time, he put his arm around Zhao Yuan’s shoulder and said excitedly.

“Where is him?” Zhao Yuan asked.

“I don’t know. He didn’t follow the support team like us. He followed those firefighters. To my surprise, he was very popular among those firefighters. Lin Wenxi does his jobs much faster than those professional reporters, like taking photos, sketching the scene on the sport, and sending quick news!”

“How can you not know? As a team leader, how is it possible that you don’t know where he lives, what he eats, and how he arranges his jobs?”

“Brother, you have seen Dongchuan here. Unlike Xichuan, all the places here are in great confusion. People all over the places need help from others. Immediately after volunteers arrive here, the rescue team will call them for help. Then, those volunteers will follow the rescue team. Even if you want to come back, sometimes you just cannot find the way back! Great changes will take place in minutes! If I didn’t stay at the base camp and left seven or eight medical students, I wouldn’t know which corner I would stay at this time.” The team leader smiled bitterly.

Phones couldn’t get any signal in here.

Zhao Yuan dialed several times and picked up the phone to check. Suddenly, he threw it heavily on the ground. The team leader helped him pick the phone up and muttered, “Is this has anything to do with the phone…”

“Hey, if there is no signal, you cannot get it by smashing your phone. Well, I dropped mine a few days ago. So did other students…” Some students came over and shrugged. “All of us use local beepers. We have sent a few beepers to every registered team of volunteers. But Lin Wenxi doesn’t have one.”

“If there is no signal, how could he send out his reports?” Zhao Yuan asked.

The leader pointed to the radio on the ground. “The only channel that is available now is this. Sometimes, people broadcast the news on this channel. Sometimes, people command and dispatch through it.”

“What is the place in the last brief report of Lin Wenxi?”

“I suppose it is the Red Star Road in the west. I have a map here. We are now on Zhuhai Road, which is tens of kilometers away from the Red Star Road! But bro, take a look around. No matter how hard you try, you cannot walk a distance of tens of kilometers!” While they were talking, the tents began to shake gently. The group of volunteers still remained calm and continued to nurse the wounded who were lying on the ground. What was more, those volunteers tried to comfort them. They told those injured persons that the roads were expanding and the ambulances would come soon such that they could be transferred to receive treatments in a better hospital. But as a matter of fact, none of them knew when a touch of green on the reinforcements’ camouflage uniforms and the white color of doctors and nurses could appear at this place. The place mid horrifying ruins which only had a scene of desolate bricks and stones. Fortunately, there was air-dropped food. Otherwise, the supply they brought here when they set out would run out.

The new volunteers separated in all directions. Zhao Yuan was given a flashlight. While checking the map, he groped for the direction and moved to the Red Star Road.

The scenes along the way looked more miserable and deserted than that of Xichuan. On the road, Zhao Yuan often met people who would ask him for help. He didn’t decline any of them. Not deny it. Luckily, he had a strong sense of direction. After he took many turns to help, he could still go back to his way. He picked up a supply bag on the ground and ate something in a hurry. Then, he continued to go forward with difficulty.

There was no smell of the human world here.

Rubble could be seen everywhere. There was a doll covered with dust and a squashed iron can. On the broken window leaned sideways, a terrifying white curtain was torn to strips. Sometimes, they floated high in the wind, and sometimes those stripes would fell down, like the prayer flags chanting in the wind again and again.

The people on the stretchers were carried from here to there by the running soldiers, rescue team members, and firefighters. The shirts, suits, and dresses of those people should look pretty good originally. And the person with the newly dyed red hair should have combed the hair by the window.

Without even knowing it, a glowing red sun had already hung in the west, facing the bronze face of Zhao Yuan.

The sky was getting dark. The wind of May blew on his thin soaked shirt, and Zhao Yuan felt the hidden coldness of the shirt. From noon to nightfall, he finally arrived at the place near the Red Star Road.

Standing among the high ruins, Zhao Yuan checked the places as far as he could see. Seeing the flickering light of lantern shadows in the south, he carefully moved over there in the surging crowd.

This was a primary school. The rescue operations were carried out in an intense but orderly manner. The police dogs and the detectors had already done the final check. There was no sign of life. If there were no accident, they would move to the next place when the last child in the innermost place had been sent out. They would wait for the notice and transferred tonight. Or, they would rest on the spot tonight. Soldiers and volunteers were too tired these days. The team leader of the armed police was smoking thoughtfully before the ruin with an exhausted look.

However, he noticed that when all the other people were evacuating, someone arched his back and went straight to the ruins.

“Who is that? Stop!” The loudspeaker rang.

But how could Zhao Yuan stop? When he got close to the crowd, Zhao Yuan found the figure went along with the crowd and entered the building. He had not seen this figure for a few days, but he felt that they had separated for half a lifetime. All of a sudden, Zhao Yuan nearly burst into tears upon seeing the figure.

“Wenxi!” Zhao Yuan dashed straight in. But he found that he could barely stand. The whole building seemed to heave its last groan. The dust on both sides of the trembling wall fell with a rustling sound. Aftershocks happened!