Chapter 174 Fleeing for one’s life
Shu Huan didn’t know for how long she had dragged that person. When she was about to look back, she suddenly remembered the story of God’s destruction of the sinful cities of Sodom and Gomorrah in the Old Testament. She suddenly had a hidden fear that once she looked back, she would turn into a pillar of salt like Lot’s wife. Because this hell of a scene in front of her was no different from the destruction of the city by angels.
Nevertheless, she couldn’t leave her maid behind!
Therefore, she still looked back and saw that it was Liangchen who she (SH) had been dragging with her (SH). They had already lost sight of Meijing and Shang Xin in the increasing crowds. Moreover, it was dark everywhere, and where there were no darkness, there was a thick smoke, which limited her sight.
Her heart suddenly sank and there was a moment of panic. She asked Liangchen in a low voice as she gasped violently, “Where are the other two?”
Liangchen was normally a very composed person. However, she was completely in panic at this moment too. The frequency of her gasping was no less than Shu Huan’s. Only after being asked about it did she suddenly remembered there were still two other people. When she looked back, she was also at a loss.
“I don’t know….” As soon Liangchen opened her mouth, she coughed violently.
Shu Huan took advantage of the resting time and took out the water bag from her emergency bag. Even if she was dying of thirst, she didn’t dare to drink too much. She only drank two mouthfuls and then handed it to Liangchen.
As soon as cold water passed through her (SH) throat, she felt that she had recovered her strength back. She had calmed down a little bit too and spoke one word, “Find!”
It was just that the people who had been startled by the sudden earthquake, had now run out of the house to find a safe pace. There were people everywhere. Even if it wasn’t crowded and bustling, it would undoubtedly increase the difficulty of finding someone.
“Meijing…,” Shu Huan stepped on the pile of rubble and tried to shout, but the surrounding area was too noisy. Her shout couldn’t travel far at all. Not to mention her throat had been hurt because of being too dry. The voice coming out from it was rasp and hoarse.
Liangchen helped with shouting, “Shang Xin…”
No one answered. One could only heard waves of cries from afar. Besides them, there were many people who were also separated from their loved ones, shouting and searching.
After shouting two times, Shu Huan coughed up again and had to stop. She drank two mouthfuls of water to soothe the throat.
At this moment Liangchen suddenly screamed, she was flustered and took many steps back. Shu Huan hurriedly looked at her (L) way. She saw a pile of collapsed bricks with a bloody hand sticking out.
“Damn it!” Shu Huan couldn’t help but curse the heavens. She stuffed back the water bag into the emergency bag and went forward to dig up the person from the brick and stone pile. However, she didn’t dig for long when another wave of shocks began. The bricks and stones that were originally towered at the side collapsed. It buried the person in an instant again.
She couldn’t save him/her! At least, she had the heart but lacking the strength at the moment!
Shu Huan gritted her teeth and backed back for a few meters to avoid the bricks and broken woods that were constantly falling and waiting for the wave of shocks to gradually stop…
“Let’s go!” She didn’t want to look at this miserable scene anymore and ran away as soon as she turned her head.
The earthquake continued to occur. Sometimes it was still very strong. Even if there were no tall buildings, no large billboards and telephone poles on the streets in the ancient times and it could be said that one was a bit safer if one escaped from the house during the earthquake, but she intuitively believed that it was still very unsafe here.
Liangchen stumbled as she tried to catch up with Shu Huan. She asked, “What about Shang Xin and Meijing?”
“We’ll look for them after the situation isn’t so messy anymore!” Shu Huan couldn’t help but blame herself. “It’s my fault too. I didn’t say what to do in case we are separated from each other!”
She had prepared the emergency bags and had thought about what might happen, but she subconsciously didn’t think that it would really happen. She was prepared just in case and to do something to reassure herself. However, she didn’t expect that the situation would be worse than she thought it would be!
Liangchen was unwilling to give up hope and looked back again. She still didn’t see Shang Xin and Meijing. She hurriedly came closer to Shu Huan and asked, “Where are we going?”
Shu Huan stopped for a moment. That was right. She was completely out of her head!
It was useless to run aimlessly. She had forgotten to ask Liangchen if there was any open space near here.
“Is there a place that is rather empty without houses?”
Liangchen shook her head and said, “I rarely come out, so I’m not very familiar within the city.”
“Then, what about outside the city?”
Liangchen suppressed her flustered emotion, thought for a moment and said, “When I went out to Foguang Temple to pray with madam in the past, I saw a wasteland on the way. There was no woods, only weeds. I don’t know how if it is now….”
Before she finished speaking, Shu Huan handed her a piece of candy and said, “Eat it and let’s go! Meijing should know this place too, maybe we can meet them over there.”
Liangchen hurriedly peeled off the candy paper, put the candy in her mouth and ran with Shu Huan once again.
Since they had calmed down their panicked state a bit, they paid attention to the surroundings as they ran all the way to the city gate. They noticed that the earthquake of this time was particularly strong. Intact houses were almost nowhere to be found. All was half-collapsed or completely collapsed. Moreover, some of the roads had deep cracks in them due to the earthquake. Cracks that were so wide that one couldn’t jump over it and had to go around it. They had even seen people fall into the narrow cracks where half of their body was sandwiched as they struggled to get out.
They were still lucky because they had been prepared. When the earthquake occurred, they immediately ran out of the house with their emergency bags. Until now, they weren’t injured but the others weren’t as lucky as them. Everywhere, one could see people injured at their hands and feet. There were also people injured on their heads. Everywhere, people were supporting each other and fleeing in twos or threes.
Some women who wailed because of they lost their children were forcibly towed away by others. There were others shouting madly for their parents and rummaged over the rubble to try to save their loved ones who had been buried under them.
There were tragic scenes everywhere. It was like a knife that cut through Shu Huan’s heart. A city full of prosperity had become a ruin in a blink of the eye! She wondered whether Gu Xiran who was far away at the moment was affected or not by this earthquake. She also wondered whether Ji Danqing and the others had escaped yet and whether or not they were still well.
There was no curfew in this city, but the gate was always locked and closed after night. It wasn’t easy to get out. However, at this moment, she didn’t know if some important people had fled the city or the soldiers who guarded the gate had fled, but the two doors of the city gate were open and looked like a giant mouth that was constantly swallowing up the fleeing people.
Besides the opening of the city gate, the wall had also been shattered in half. Therefore, it was easy to get out. Things such as crowded stampedes wouldn’t happen. It was only at this moment that Shu Huan suddenly got an idea. She pulled Liangchen who was leading the way to the empty wasteland after they had come out of the city. She said, “We will wait here for a moment to see if we will meet Meijing and Shang Xin. If we didn’t meet them, it is still not too late to go.”
It was better to stay here and wait for them than to run out to look for them randomly.
They found a relatively empty and wide place and sat down where the city wall wouldn’t collapse on them. While resting, they looked around, trying to find Meijing and Shang Xin from the crowd.
However, sir heaven wasn’t cooperating. Sounds of wind and thunder gathered in the already dark sky. One after another thunder tumbled and lit the sky as if to tear the sky apart. Not much later, a lot of rain poured down and it even put out the big fire in the city.
Everything was blurred again in the heavy rain.
Shu Huan was covered in water. She and Liangchen hugged each other. After feeling the tremor of the earth again, her heart was very empty and perplexed. She wondered whether this rain was a good or a bad thing.