Life is Like a Journey – Chapter 55
by Little PandaVolume 2: Inheritance
Disaster
I’m not afraid of taking responsibility; I’m afraid he won’t wake up!
People began evacuating within a 10-kilometer radius. Vehicles could only approach as far as the police line. Gu Yanzhi slammed the car door shut and jumped out, with Lu Qingshi following closely behind. In an instant, all they could see were flames shooting skyward from the factory area, accompanied by intermittent ear-splitting explosions. The ground trembled slightly.
Police lights, fire truck lights, and ambulance lights flashed alternately, casting a solemn expression on everyone’s face.
A deathly silence fell; no one spoke. Only the agonized groans of workers being carried out from the fire scene could be heard. Their work uniforms were tattered and corroded by chemical materials, revealing large patches of exposed, charred skin underneath. Many more people were unable to make a sound, already zipped into body bags by the time they were carried out.
Just standing outside the factory area, Yu Gui felt her body hair standing on end, one by one. Waves of scorching heat rushed towards her face, and the pervasive toxic gases forced her to bend over, coughing violently.
Gu Yanzhi swiftly donned a sealed chemical protective suit. A subordinate handed over a filtered gas mask, which she promptly passed to a nearby doctor.
“Put it on quickly, there’s toxic gas!”
She certainly knew that vinyl chloride, also known as chloroethene, was a Group 1 carcinogen as classified by the World Health Organization. The power of its leak and explosion was far more dangerous than merely a gas cylinder catching fire.
Lu Qingshi didn’t hesitate. She put on a white coat and secured the gas mask. The fire department had distributed another one to each member of the medical team. The two had no time for goodbyes before joining their respective teams.
Outside the police line was the medical team’s station, where a constant stream of injured people was being brought. Lu Qingshi only had time for brief instructions: “Focus on rapid fluid resuscitation and maintaining open airways. Be vigilant about preventing and treating cerebral edema (swelling of the brain). Red-tagged patients get priority for ambulance transport. Understood?!”
“Understood!”
Members of the medical team dispersed in pairs.
“The entire factory complex covers an area of 200,000 square kilometers. This section is the dormitory area, where approximately dozens of workers are trapped,” Gu Yanzhi said, circling a large area on the factory layout map with a red pen.
“Prioritize rescuing people, then focus on extinguishing the fire. Discard the dry powder extinguishers and bring foam fire suppression devices instead.”
Heavy equipment was unloaded from the fire trucks. Each firefighter, clad in orange-red chemical protective suits, strapped one to their back.
Dozens of fire trucks surrounded the factory area, leaving no gaps. High-pressure water cannons emerged from the roofs of the vehicles, uniformly cooling the surrounding tanks through physical means.
Further away, where the water cannons couldn’t reach, manual firefighting was necessary in the central area of the factory complex. Gu Yanzhi removed her filtered gas mask and strapped on a positive pressure breathing apparatus capable of sustaining prolonged operations.
“First squad, search the dormitory area. Bring out everyone, even the deceased!”
“Second squad, using the chemical plant as the center point, search within a one-kilometer radius for collapsed houses and damaged vehicles. You must rescue all buried civilians!”
“Third squad, with me at the core, carry foam firefighting equipment and advance to the center of the factory complex to extinguish the fire!”
“Yes!”
The entire Jinzhou Fire Brigade had assembled, lined up in front of the fire scene with Gu Yanzhi at the lead. The search and rescue dogs they held on leashes were eager to begin, and their shouts filled the air. Lu Qingshi looked up, and Gu Yanzhi, seemingly sensing something, hesitated for a moment before stepping towards the fire scene.
“Captain—” A team member behind her called out.
She abruptly turned and ran towards the doctor, stopping in front of her, out of breath. Without waiting for Lu Qingshi to speak, Gu Yanzhi reached out and removed the communication device pinned to the doctor’s chest. She pressed a few numbers and then tucked it back into Lu Qingshi’s pocket.
“It’s my private channel. Be careful,” Gu Yanzhi said.
Lu Qingshi secured the communication device, her tone remaining casual as ever, but her eyes darted uncomfortably towards the fire scene.
“I should be the one saying that.”
A faint smile appeared on Gu Yanzhi’s lips. “Don’t worry.”
“One, two, three…” Yu Gui muttered, her hair disheveled, as she continuously compressed the patient’s chest. The vital signs monitor still showed no response.
“Prepare for the fourth defibrillation!”
Hao Renjie handed over the defibrillator. She pressed it firmly against the patient’s chest, causing it to rise slightly due to the electric current.
She turned back to look at the vital signs monitor, unable to hide her disappointment. Gritting her teeth, she ordered, “Push intravenous adrenaline!”
Hao Renjie hesitated, “Yu Gui, this is the fifth dose. Our drug supply is limited…”
The young doctor whipped her head around, her eyes bloodshot. “I said push it!”
Before her words faded, someone shoved her aside. Lu Qingshi crouched down, feeling for the worker’s breath and pulse, then listened to his heart sounds, confirming death.
“Attach a black tag and move him over there.”
“Alright,” Hao Renjie quickly sprang into action, while Lu Qingshi turned and rushed to the next battleground.
Yu Gui chased after her for a few steps, her eyes reddening. “Teacher Lu!”
The doctor’s white coat was already stained with blood splatters. Her once clean and delicate face was now smudged with smoke, yet it couldn’t conceal her sharp and clear gaze. Her voice was calm and controlled.
“Don’t waste effort. Save the medicine for those with a better chance of survival.”
Yu Gui pressed her lips tightly together. Lu Qingshi thought she would argue, but the young woman only hesitated for a moment with reddened eyes before running off again.
“Let us in! My husband is still inside!”
“Call the factory manager out! Make him pay with his life for my brother’s death!”
“Doctor, doctor, please save my son! He just graduated from high school…”
The crowd beyond the police line grew larger and larger. Armed police maintained order with anti-riot forks. The on-site commander raised a megaphone and shouted, “Quiet down, everyone quiet down! All available rescue forces in Jinzhou City are arriving continuously! We will definitely rescue the survivors, and we will surely give everyone an explanation for the deceased. Please trust the city government!”
“Where’s the factory manager? Make him come out!”
“Arrest him and execute him by firing squad!”
The workers’ families were in an uproar. Even now, not a single leader from the chemical plant had come out to apologize and offer compensation. Although this wasn’t something that could be resolved with mere apologies and compensation, most of the time, people just wanted an explanation, a form of psychological comfort.
An armed police officer leaned in and whispered something in the ear of the on-site commander.
“The factory manager has fled.”
The face of the city party secretary, a man in his fifties, instantly turned grim. “If you can’t catch him within two hours, all those rice buckets in the Public Security Bureau can f*cking kiss their jobs goodbye!”
“Captain Xiang, urgent mission.”
Xiang Nanke retrieved her service weapon from the drawer and secured it, her combat boots striking the ground with vigor. “Prepare to move out!”
The police car sped out of the city, cutting through the wind. A technician sat beside her, reviewing the surveillance footage along the route. “Surveillance shows that half an hour ago, a black Volkswagen with license plate Jin A2N158 entered the Shanghai-Chengdu Expressway via the entrance ramp. It’s now fleeing towards Guiyang.”
Xiang Nanke picked up the radio: “Attention Traffic Management Bureau, a black Volkswagen with license plate Jin A2N158 is fleeing along the Shanghai-Chengdu Expressway towards Guiyang. Highway patrol, please set up checkpoints to intercept. Highway patrol, please set up checkpoints to intercept.”
After repeating the call three times, a firm voice came through the receiver: “Jinzhou Traffic Police Detachment, message received and understood!”
“Doctor, save him quickly!” The fire brigade brought out a boy of eighteen or nineteen, grabbing Yu Gui’s hand.
“Alright, hold still, don’t move…” Yu Gui was cleaning the wounds of a worker who had just come out of the fire scene. She turned her head unexpectedly and immediately drew in a sharp breath.
The boy lay on the stretcher, half of his face unrecognizable. His eyeball had fallen out of its socket. Shrapnel from the exploding gas cylinder had turned him into a porcupine. One arm had been blasted off to who knows where. Blood pooling beneath him formed a puddle. The pungent smell of blood mixed with the stench of burnt flesh and hair assaulted her nostrils, compounded by the visual shock.
Yu Gui stood up: “Ugh…”
Hao Renjie couldn’t help but retch a couple of times as well.
Lu Qingshi yanked the stethoscope from her neck and pressed it against the boy’s chest. “Bandages, gauze, quickly!”
Hao Renjie directly tore off a wad and handed it to her. Lu Qingshi grabbed the iodine and poured it directly onto the boy’s severed arm. She balled up the gauze and tightly wrapped the bandage around it to stop the bleeding, then glanced at Yu Gui’s pale face.
“Go over there and watch the yellow tag area.”
Yu Gui, as if granted a reprieve, scrambled to her feet.
“Forceps,” Lu Qingshi said. She used the forceps to pick up the eyeball that had fallen out of its socket and placed it in saline solution, her exceptional psychological fortitude unmistakable.
“Pack it well, it might still be usable,” she said, glancing at the unconscious boy. That is—if he survives.
“Sir, sir, can you hear me?” Yu Gui shook a patient with a head injury, then shone a penlight into his pupils. They were unequal in size and sluggish in responding to light.
She picked up her communicator to call the neurosurgeon: “Dr. Zhang, I have a patient here with brain herniation. Can you come over?”
The other end was in the middle of performing a craniotomy to remove a hematoma, overwhelmed: “Can’t come. Find your Teacher Lu!”
Yu Gui looked up, searching for the shadow of the white coat among the chaotic crowd and the rescue personnel rushing back and forth.
Lu Qingshi was also run off her feet, simultaneously performing two emergency thoracotomy exploratory surgeries.
Yu Gui gritted her teeth: “Good sister, give me the cranial drill!”
“Dummy Xiaogui, this isn’t a simulated operating room! Are you crazy? If something goes wrong, I’ll be in trouble along with you!” Despite saying this, his body honestly handed over the cranial drill—after all, he had tried to dissuade her.
“I’m not afraid of taking responsibility. I’m afraid he won’t wake up!”
Outside the factory gates, the sound of crying was deafening. This worker might be the husband, father, or son of one of those grieving family members…
She couldn’t stand by and watch someone die just because she was afraid of taking responsibility. This was also something Lu Qingshi had taught her through words and actions.
Yu Gui closed her eyes, recalling the contents of the textbook. Those chaotic sounds—explosions, ambulance sirens—seemed to fade away from her. Only the black and white text in her mind transformed into three-dimensional images.
“Scalpel,” she opened her eyes, clarity evident in them.
As she was about to make the incision, her wrist was suddenly grabbed. A worker with bandages on his leg lunged at her.
“Don’t save him! Let him die! It’s all because of him… because he smoked! My brothers, my fellow villagers, they’re all dead!” The worker wailed, his face so dirty it was unrecognizable, wiping his snot and tears on her sleeve.
Yu Gui’s whole body trembled. She looked up at the factory area still burning under the pitch-black night sky, at the blood-stained ruins, at the patients continuously being carried out by rescue personnel, at every member of the medical team exerting all their efforts to treat the injured, at the body bags in the black tag area not far away, filling two entire rows, at the people beyond the police line, craning their necks in anticipation, full of anxiety and hope.
She slowly pried open the crying worker’s hands: “I’m sorry, I can’t do that.”
Her conscience told her this person shouldn’t be saved; he was the main culprit.
But she was wearing a white coat, with a Renji Medical University badge on her chest, and in her hand was a scalpel that could save lives. She was a doctor, not an executioner. She couldn’t violate professional ethics.
Even though her conscience was uneasy, the young doctor’s eyes reddened slightly, but she still made the incision with the scalpel: “Cranial drill.”
Hao Renjie compliantly handed over the instrument she requested. As Yu Gui rotated the cranial drill, boring a small hole in his skull, she said fiercely: “If this disaster was caused by you, then you especially can’t die. Live on and bear the responsibility that belongs to you!”
“A rescue worker is injured! Doctor! Doctor, come quickly!” Someone shouted from afar, and Lu Qingshi sprang to her feet.
Firefighters in orange-red hazmat suits ran past her carrying a stretcher. An arm, charred and red, slipped from beneath the non-woven cloth cover.
As if time had stopped, Lu Qingshi swallowed hard, watching helplessly as another doctor rushed over. After a series of emergency procedures, she shook her head: “No hope. Send him to the black tag area.”
The doctor frantically searched her white coat, rummaging through all the pockets but couldn’t find the communicator. Finally, the communicator rang from inside the green scrub shirt.
They both spoke at the same time: “Are you alright?!”
Lu Qingshi breathed a sigh of relief: “I’m fine.”
Gu Yanzhi had just received the news that rescue personnel were injured. The stone hanging in her heart instantly fell to the ground.
“It’s good that you’re fine.”
“Suspect rammed through the checkpoint! Interception failed! Interception failed! Traffic police injured, traffic police injured, requesting support, requesting support!”
Chaotic radio waves sounded from the wireless radio. Xiang Nanke stepped on the accelerator to the floor, directly rushing out from the messy checkpoint. The police car, wading through pools of blood, skidded a perfect parabola on the asphalt road.
“Target spotted ahead! Police officers injured, requesting ambulance reinforcement!”
“Xiang Nanke, don’t be impulsive! The suspect is extremely vicious, be careful…”
She abruptly cut off the communication with a snap, wildly turning the steering wheel. The technician in the passenger seat was already hugging the computer, face pressed against the car window.
“Xiang… Captain Xiang…”
“Fasten your seatbelt!”
As the black Volkswagen was about to disappear from view after turning around the bend ahead, Xiang Nanke continued to accelerate, stepping on the gas pedal to the floor. The police car roared forward without looking back, with a bottomless cliff thousands of feet deep beside them.
“F*ck! Damn it! This cop must be crazy!”
Seeing the relentlessly pursuing police car in the rearview mirror, the man wearing sunglasses in the driver’s seat spat viciously and grinned, showing his yellow teeth: “Boss, we’ll need to charge extra for this trip.”
The chemical plant owner sitting in the passenger seat was already shaking like a sieve: “Add… add as much as you want…”
Finally, a fierce light appeared in his eyes: “If we can’t shake them off, just finish them!”
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