Chapter 173 Facing an imminent catastrophe
After finding out from Gu Xihe that Ji Danqing knew the whereabouts of Shu Huan, Gu Xiran’s heart finally settled down.
Although, they haven’t met for a long time, but he knew Ji Danqing’s character. He knew that he (JDQ) would not let Shu Huan fend for herself. Since he (JDQ) looked after Shu Huan, things couldn’t be bad. Perhaps, he could reunite with Shu Huan the moment he got out of here.
With this slightly lighter feeling, he felt that even his running steps were quick and light.
The whole way, the servants of Gu household didn’t know yet what had happened at Pine Crane Hall. No one came to stop him. However, when he was about to go outside, the ground under his feet shook strongly. He felt that the sky spun and the earth went round. He lost balance and almost fell on the ground.
The shaking continued. Immediately, he was surrounded by shouts and screams. Many people yelled, “Earthquake! Earthquake!”
Gu Xiran’s heart went cold. He didn’t think about his own safety. His first concern was the safety of Shu Huan.
He didn’t care that the ground was shaking so much, making people unsteady. He flew to outside of Gu residence…
—
At this time Shu Huan had already finished dinner. She lit an oil lamp and was teaching Liangchen and Meijing how to read. She had written the word “I” just now on the paper when the dog outside began to bark wildly.
Shu Huan was startled. She put down her brush and stood up. She saw that the lamp in front of her began to shake. Then, she saw that the door and windows began to rattle.
“Earthquake!”
This time, Meijing reacted quickly and jumped up.
They didn’t expect that it truly came! Moreover, the degree of shaking was significantly more intense than two days ago!
For a moment, Shu Huan’s heart was filled with a fear despair. Fortunately, she calmed down and said with a shaking voice, “Bring out the bags and go out quickly.”
As soon as she finished talking, she blew out the oil lamp on the table for fear that the earthquake would let the lamp cause a fire.
Fortunately, she blew it out because as soon as it was blown out, the lamp swayed and fell on the table. Then, it fell on the ground and broke into pieces. Some oil splashed on the ground.
Under the panic, no one noticed this little detail. The three maids ran panickily to outside with Shu Huan. They didn’t run two steps when Liangchen had fallen on the ground because of the shaking.
Shu Huan had already run to the outside. When she heard the shout, she turned and saw that Liangchen was struggling to climb to outside of the room. She pulled her (L). The two of them just staggered to the yard when a large piece of tile fell from the roof. The cracking sound was everywhere. If they had been hit by this, their head would’ve broken. Even if they hadn’t been hit by it, they coughed because of the dust that had risen because of the tile. Their eyes also couldn’t be opened. They could only fumble to the outside.
The already prepared emergency bags had been put in the small firewood room nearest to the door. At this time, Meijing and Shang Xin already took those out. Shu Huan took over the bag belonging to her and put it on her back. Then, she took the coat where she had sewn a pocket and rushed out.
All of this had in fact occurred in only a few seconds. They had just stepped over the threshold when the shakings had stopped.
The sight was already unclear in the darkness. After the shaking had stopped, the dust in the sky hadn’t fallen yet. They couldn’t see even more in front of them. There were weeping, calls for help and curses. All sorts of sounds were mixed together and came from all directions.
Shu Huan stood there and still felt a slight dizziness. She felt carefully and knew that the ground wouldn’t tremble again.
Others were also like her; heartbeat beating fast and in a panicked state.
After a long while did Meijing regain her senses back. She looked around and said with a shivering voice, “Miss…a house seemed to have collapsed at that side…I don’t know if someone had been buried…”
Liangchen was a bit calmer than her (M) and said, “It’s so dark that I can’t see anything. I will go inside and look for a lantern.”
She was about to leave when she was grabbed by Shu Huan, “Don’t go. It’s too dangerous!”
It was really dangerous. The earthquake of just now made the originally strong house look extremely unreliable. Moreover, after the big shocks there were usually aftershocks. Who knew if the house would collapse after some more shocks?
Fortunately, she had grabbed Liangchen. Her voice just fell when the ground began to tremble again. The four people were like a small boat on a big ocean, swaying so much that they couldn’t stand steady. After a few seconds, they heard a bang. They didn’t know what had been broken. Then, the whole house collapsed in front of their eyes!
This kind of sounds continued. The four’s ears had been pierced by the sounds so much that they couldn’t hear any other sound. They could only sense that the bricks and stones flew around and crumbled to the ground. It was extremely painful when it hit the face.
Shu Huan used that cotton coat to cover most of her head and moved the bag to the front to protect her vital parts. Then, she pushed the three people who stood in trance at one place. She dragged one and step by step they run to the street.
This earthquake was stronger than she had imagined. The most important thing was that she couldn’t tell whether this was the pre-shock or the main shock. She only felt that the waves of shocks became stronger. It was too unsafe to stay here. They had to run to an empty space to escape this.
She didn’t know whether it was luck or misfortune that during the earthquake many places caught fire. After being blown by the wind, the fire got fiercer and fiercer. The fire was scattered everywhere and made the eyes of people feel painful that they wept. However, because of the light from the fire, they could vaguely see the way to escape.
Shu Huan ran till she was out of breath and also coughed hard. She already didn’t know how many times the ground had shaken, when it was shaking and when it was not shaking. She also didn’t dare to go think about the hard and sometimes soft things she stepped on. There was only one thought in her mind…
Run!
Get up when fallen. Bumping into people, stop a moment and then continue to run. If she couldn’t run anymore, grit her teeth and persist! She had to escape here as soon as possible and run to a relatively safe place!
Not having exercised for a long time, the capacity of the body was extremely limited. If it wasn’t for the desire to survive and her longing to see Gu Xiran again, she would be absolutely incapable to run for so long. So long that her throat had been cracked by smoke and heavy breathing. A strong taste of blood spread in her mouth. So long, hat she felt that every time she breathed, her lung would burst because it had been blocked by the too much dust that she inhaled.
No matter where she ran to, everywhere were visible ruins that had been collapsed and raging fire. What she heard were cries and shouts for help. Whole Jingtian City was like a hell on earth at this moment. It was the super destructive power of nature that was displayed in front of her eyes just like the punishment of God!
She couldn’t control her body from trembling. That was a terrible fear and also from extreme shock. She had always known that an earthquake was very destructive, but she had never experienced it before. She couldn’t imagine that it would be so fierce and terrifying! She didn’t even know if she could escape from this hell on earth!
Suddenly a thought came to her mind…
Thank heavens that Gu Xiran was not here. He didn’t have to experience all that she had gone through. However, she also hated and blamed the heavens that Gu Xiran wasn’t here and made her feel so helpless and so fearful!