Life is Like a Journey – Chapter 56

Volume 2: Inheritance

Command

In the face of life, no one has priority

When once again hit by the suspect’s vehicle against the mountain rocks on the winding road, the car body sparked as it rubbed against the hard rock wall. The steering wheel began to disobey commands, spinning on the mountain road. Just as it was about to slide off the road and fall into a deep abyss, Xiang Nanke calmly turned the steering wheel to the right while stepping on the brake, barely stopping at the edge of the cliff. The technician beside her was so frightened he didn’t dare to breathe.

The black Volkswagen took the opportunity to slip out of sight. Xiang Nanke backed out of the danger zone, her gaze falling on the bend ahead on the inevitable path. She stepped on the accelerator again, accelerating to the limit, and crashed into it hard.

This was completely a mutually assured destruction tactic. The man in sunglasses driving the car exclaimed “Holy sh*t!”, but before he could react, he was hit bottom-up by the police car that rushed in like lightning.

The two cars collided on the narrow provincial road, tires sparking against the ground, making a teeth-grinding sound. They finally broke through the guardrail and sped away. After a huge roar, broken parts and spots of fresh blood were scattered all over the road.

Police cars arrived with sirens wailing. There was silence, with only the police sirens sounding like tolling funeral bells.

“Gauze, give me gauze quickly!” Yu Gui was almost screaming. Hao Renjie was also panicking terribly, directly stuffing a large wad to her. Yu Gui knelt entirely on the gravel, her arm vertically pressing on the patient’s wound. The opened skull was continuously oozing fresh blood, soaking her sleeve, and her white coat was also stained with blood.

“Blood pressure dropping! 20-40! Heart rate decreasing! Less than 60!” The monitor started beeping sharply.

“Shock, it’s shock!” Hao Renjie shouted: “Damn it, think of something quick!”

“I know! I know!” Yu Gui turned back, her face covered in tears, carefully pondering where exactly the problem was.

“The operation method was correct, the hematoma was also removed, why is it still bleeding! Where exactly is it bleeding from?!”

She tried to remove the gauze, but as soon as she opened a small gap, a stream of blood spurted out, unexpectedly spraying her face. The warm, fishy smell was something she would never forget in her lifetime.

Her heartbeat and breathing quickened, her panting sounded like a bellows, her ears were buzzing. She stood there stunned, not knowing what to do. Just as she was about to reach the edge of collapse, a strong force from behind pushed her away.

Lu Qingshi quickly squatted down: “Hemostatic forceps”

The doctor’s hands were steady, even in such extremely adverse conditions, it didn’t affect her operation.

“The anterior artery (the artery supplies blood to the front portion of the heart) has ruptured, 4.0 absorbable suture”

Lu Qingshi took the needle holder, gripping it steadily in her hand, reached into the pool of blood, found the ruptured area by feel, quickly sutured to stop the bleeding, and spared a glance at Yu Gui.

“Why are you standing there stunned? Go check on the other injured!”

“Captain Xiang, Captain Xiang!”

The police car had already plunged down the cliff, falling into the mountain stream. On the lonely road, there was only a black Volkswagen, with half of its front end hanging over the guardrail.

The reinforcements that arrived afterwards were shouting at the top of their lungs in the valley, the echo traveling far.

“F*ck!” A hot-tempered criminal investigator, red-eyed and unable to control himself, directly rushed up and gave the rescued factory director a flying kick, but was forcefully held back by his colleagues.

“Ah ah ah don’t stop me! Damn it! He harmed so many people! He’s the one who should die! Not Captain Xiang!”

The investigator struggled in his colleagues’ hands until a rustling sound came from the edge of the mountain stream. A hand covered in bruises was the first to climb up the cliff edge, followed by a sturdy and powerful arm.

Xiang Nanke showed half of her head: “Damn it… quickly pull me up”

Everyone scrambled to pull her up. Xiang Nanke looked back at the deep ravine and the shattered police car, then without a word went up and gave him a punch. The factory director’s head was knocked to the side, blood oozing from the corner of his lip. This time, no one stopped her.

“Has he been caught?”

“He’s been caught.” Upon receiving the affirmative answer, the municipal party secretary leaned against the police car and let out a long sigh, his deeply furrowed face full of defeat.

“It’s good that he’s caught, it’s good that he’s caught.”

“Secretary Zhao, there’s a call from the city bureau.” The half-centenarian who had been rushing back and forth to comfort the masses and console the injured hadn’t rested for long before being called away by another phone call.

“Hello, this is Zhao Mingwen from the municipal party committee.”

“Another firefighter is injured! Doctor, where’s the doctor?!” A firefighter who had rushed out of the fire scene at the risk of his life, dragging, carrying, and supporting another injured firefighter, limped over and grabbed Lu Qingshi’s sleeve.

“Doctor, doctor, save my comrade!”

“Put him on the ground,” Lu Qingshi also squatted down, quickly removing his respirator. His face was already blue-purple, covered in sweat, but there were no external injuries.

“Did he come into contact with anything?!” Lu Qingshi asked while clearing his airway.

The firefighter recalled: “Yes! Yes! Not long after we went in, his steel cylinder ran out of air. We thought the vinyl chloride in the dormitory area wasn’t very concentrated, so we took off our equipment and worked for a while…”

Lu Qingshi’s gaze fell on the positive pressure respirator on his back, and she pressed her lips tightly: “Help me take off his clothes, give me physiological saline.”

The nurse directly handed her a bottle, and Lu Qingshi took it and poured it from head to toe: “Alright, prepare for tracheal intubation.”

While intubating, the doctor kept an eye on the vital signs. When she saw that the green line had started to fluctuate, she let out a long breath, then looked up and asked: “Your… respirator, how long can it sustain operations?”

“About four hours.”

Lu Qingshi looked up at the fish-belly white (sun) appearing on the horizon, and had a bad premonition in her heart.

“They are all my soldiers! I don’t agree! Gu…” The Jinzhou Fire Brigade Captain, holding a communicator, was abruptly silenced by someone. Zhao Mingwen, his eyes bulging with rage, grabbed his collar and roared.

“They are all your soldiers, but they are also the people’s soldiers of my Jinzhou City! Look at this scene of devastation! If we don’t shut off the main valve to stop the leak, we’ll all be f*cking done for!”

Looking in the direction he was pointing, the night sky was illuminated by fire. Injured people were continuously being carried out, rescue workers were vomiting uncontrollably on the ground due to the toxic gas, corpses were lying on broken walls and ruins, cars were burned down to just metal shells, and the sky was tinged with a layer of gray.

The towering seven-foot-tall man cried: “No… no more people can be sacrificed… Secretary Zhao…”

“I know!” The old man over fifty also had slightly moist eyes: “But someone has to do these things.”

When the order was given to Gu Yanzhi, she was working with Ci Ertou to lift out a female worker trapped under the ruins.

“Support the head, support the head, good, it’s supported. One, two, three, lift!” After a shout, the reinforced concrete slab was slightly raised by hydraulic cutters, creating a small gap. The remaining firefighters mustered their strength and half-lifted, half-carried the person out.

“Send, send, send, quickly send her out.” Several people carrying the stretcher avoided the remaining fires along the way, running outwards through the falling dust that covered the sky.

The firefighter running at the back suddenly fell to his knees, loosening his grip on the stretcher. Gu Yanzhi steadily supported it, while Ci Ertou went to pull him up.

“Don’t worry about me… quickly send the person out…” The firefighter took off his respirator, gasping for air mixed with toxic gases.

“Steel… steel cylinder… out of air…” The alarm on his back lit up red, flashing incessantly.

Ci Ertou gritted his teeth: “No, get up, I’ll support you! We’ll go together!”

Gu Yanzhi looked back. Flames were devouring the ground. The usually brave and resolute fire brigade commander’s eyes reddened slightly as she shouted hoarsely: “Ci Ertou, you f*cking get back here right now, that’s an order!!!”

“Just lifted out from under the ruins five minutes ago, weak heartbeat, no breathing…” A firefighter in an orange-red hazmat suit lifted the stretcher to her side, briefly explaining the situation.

This voice was too familiar. Lu Qingshi suddenly looked up, meeting a pair of reddened eyes.

“Can he be saved?”

The doctor nodded firmly: “Trust me.”

Gu Yanzhi hesitated no longer, got up and ran towards the fire scene. Lu Qingshi, busy with emergency treatment, didn’t say goodbye to her. She didn’t know this was the closest she had ever been to death.

The cycle of cause and effect in this world is so mysterious, and for Gu Yanzhi, this was the closest she had ever been to understanding her own feelings.

When a fish is dying, it will puff up its gills and frantically fan them, its whole body stiffening and bouncing on the ground, so similar to humans. As oxygen is depleted, one wants to breathe deeply, but what’s inhaled is all toxic gas. The lungs hurt as if being stabbed by needles, the nasal passages and airways gradually become blocked until even toxic gases can’t be breathed in. Vision starts to blur, thoughts of one’s past life come to mind, the body feels light and floaty as if drifting in the clouds. This must be the legendary near-death experience, the firefighter thought hazily as he lay on the ground, until determined footsteps came through the fog.

Gu Yanzhi lifted him up with one arm: “Hang in there, brother!”

Ci Ertou also took his other arm over his shoulder, and together with Gu Yanzhi, they walked out, one foot deep, one foot shallow.

“Captain… put me down…” A weak voice sounded by her ear. Gu Yanzhi turned her head and roared: “You f*cking shut up! I’ve been a soldier for so many years and have never abandoned my comrades, my brothers!”

Until they walked out of the fire scene, when they were still some distance from the safe zone outside the police line, Gu Yanzhi put him down and handed him over to Ci Ertou.

“Take him back, find Dr. Lu. She will find a way to save him.”

Ci Ertou looked back. She had already started to remove her heavy equipment: foam fire extinguishing device, dry powder fire extinguisher, twenty-kilogram hazmat suit. Only the positive pressure respirator remained. Her whole body, clad in deep flame-blue training uniform, was like an unsheathed sharp sword.

Ci Ertou seemed to sense something: “Then what about you?!”

Gu Yanzhi tucked the communicator into her jacket pocket: “I have another mission.”

She said lightly, then pressed the communicator and started walking back: “Attention all units, attention all units, evacuate, evacuate, all evacuate beyond the police line.”

No one questioned her order. The earpiece transmitted a uniform “Received.”

Occasionally, firefighters running out from the fire scene passed by her. The world was a vast expanse of desolation. Gu Yanzhi’s figure was thin, yet carried a force of unstoppable advance, walking on the path against the flow.

“Dr. Lu, save him, please save him quickly!” Ci Ertou came running, carrying someone. Lu Qingshi was performing closed chest drainage on another injured person and hurriedly looked back.

“Put him down first. Nurse, rapid fluid replacement.”

Ci Ertou grabbed her sleeve: “Dr. Lu, save him first!”

Lu Qingshi’s gaze fell on the orange-red hazmat suit the injured person was wearing. Her expression remained without the slightest hesitation as she shook off his hand.

“In the face of life, no one has priority. I must save them all.”

“Listen, Gu Yanzhi, do you see the tallest building in the factory area?”

Gu Yanzhi picked up the communicator: “Received.”

“That’s the warehouse for the entire chemical plant. It stores large quantities of vinyl chloride and other chemical raw materials. Due to the fire and explosion in the workshop, the valves of the polymerization axe and separation tower have been loosened by the shock, and the fume hood exhaust fan has also stopped working. Your mission is to close the main control valve and repair the malfunction of the fume hood.”

Still, there was an unwavering “Understood!”

The other party paused, then said earnestly: “The exhaust fan has stopped working for about four hours. No one knows what has happened inside. There might be little toxic gas leakage, or maybe… But no matter what, come back alive! This is an order, is that clear?!”

Gu Yanzhi loosened her muscles and bones, leaping over the concrete slab in front of her: “Nagging. Prepare good wine and food to welcome me back.”

After saying this, she cut off the communication channel with the deputy commander. A burning plywood on the beam beside her fell from mid-air with sparks. Gu Yanzhi rolled with the momentum, perfectly avoiding it. It crashed onto the concrete ground next to her, splashing up a cloud of dust.

When she groped her way to the warehouse entrance, due to the power outage in the factory area, the electronic door lock had already failed. Gu Yanzhi pushed hard several times, but the door didn’t budge at all. Wisps of white gas leaked from under the door.

She bit her glove with her teeth to take it off, then took out a wire from her pocket and inserted it into the door crack. After poking for a while, the door still didn’t open. Something inside might be blocking it. Possibly for fear of gas leakage, the entire warehouse didn’t even have a single window, let alone any way to climb in.

Gu Yanzhi had no choice but to press her shoulder against the iron door. She took a deep breath and exerted all her strength. The veins on her neck bulged, and solid muscles swelled beneath her sleeves.

Five minutes later, the door still hadn’t budged an inch. Gu Yanzhi panted heavily: “F*ck…”

Her pushing force was at least a hundred kilograms. What the hell was blocking this door?

From afar, another person came through the fog. Without a word, he stood beside her: “I’ll help too.”

After saying this, he also pressed his flesh and blood body against the thick iron door.

After seeing clearly who had arrived, Gu Yanzhi became furious: “What are you doing here?! Didn’t I already give an order…”

Ci Ertou yanked off his armband and threw it on the ground: “F*ck the order! I’m here now to help my comrade!”

“You…” Gu Yanzhi was stunned for a moment, looking at the armband fallen in the dust, slightly narrowing her eyes.

“Pick it up.”

Ci Ertou stiffened his neck, his face flushed red from forcefully pushing the door: “I won’t!”

“This is the last order. Pick it up, put it on, and fight with me as a firefighter for the safety of Jinzhou’s citizens.”

---

---