When the explosions began, Chen Lin was very calm—he knew that Su Qing was in there, and he knew that he cared for this person very much. So he gently closed his eyes and devoted himself to experiencing the tiny stab of pain passing through his heart.
Chen Lin thought, now that Su Qing was dead, all ties between him and this base had been cut. He wouldn't miss it, wouldn't even remember it. From now on, his body and mind would be entirely free.
While the fighting was in full swing outside, Su Qing, still lost in the dream of himself becoming a feathered animal, hadn't yet clearly worked out what was happening when he was buried along with a child.
He remembered that when he had just opened his eyes, he seemed to have glimpsed Professor Cheng. Was he back at the base, then?
Su Qing laboriously raised his hand to feel his earlobe and found that the communicator had been removed.
Fuck, wasn't it supposed to be "Heaven always finds a way"? Su Qing thought this was simply God going all out to block his way.
He bled more and more, and his body became colder and colder. His mind began to grow hazier as well. Su Qing had to exert what seemed like the last of his strength to bite his tongue, grimacing from the pain, to force his head to clear a little. He bent slightly in the small, narrow space, using his whole back as a support, shielding Tu Tutu in his arms.
The child's body was warm and soft, with a faint milky scent. This was practically his only consolation in this hopeless position. Su Qing could still hardly speak. He could only pat Tu Tutu's back and say in a hoarse, quiet voice, "Hush, don't be scared, don't be scared."
Tu Tutu rubbed against his chest. "Uncle, have we been shut up in a little box?"
Su Qing said, "Don't talk nonsense. We'll only get shut up in a little box after we're burned up."
Tu Tutu was scared silly. "Burned...burned up?"
The child considered it for a long time. "Uncle, I don't taste good at all. I'm still little."
Su Qing's vision was going dark, and his ears began to buzz. He laughed bitterly. "Then eat me first. I'm tough. All right?"
After thinking about it, Tu Tutu cheerfully agreed: "All right!"
Su Qing's other leg, which was still barely holding his weight, nearly folded. "Little ingrate, do you have any conscience?"
Tu Tutu couldn't move at all, and he quickly found that Uncle Annoying's voice was getting quieter and quieter, and his reactions slower and slower. He wouldn't play with him.
It was pitch-dark all around. He couldn't see a thing. Tu Tutu lay in Su Qing's arms. Soon, he felt sleepy and began to emit little snores.
Su Qing laughed bitterly, thinking that the little devil was impervious; the sky came falling down, and he used it as a quilt, not taking anything to heart.
Su Qing tried to move and found that stones fell at his slightest attempt, so he settled down. Small stones weren't so bad. At worst they would hit him on the head and leave a bruise or a cut. If a really big piece of something fell, he would be turned into a pancake.
Just then, Su Qing heard a faint cry for help. It sounded like a girl... Zhao Yifei?
Then he heard a familiar voice: "Can the person calling for help hear me? Please hold on."
Su Qing gave a start, nearly bursting into tears from excitement. Hu Bugui!
As soon as he had heard that life signs had been detected in the still half-burning grey house, Hu Bugui had thrown himself in without a second thought. Xu Ruchong yelled over the communicator: "Captain Hu, you can't go in! This place needs clearing, the fire hasn't been put out yet, the intensity and spread of the fire are likely to set off another round of explosions..."
Xu Ruchong shut his mouth, because on the increasingly blurry monitor image, he saw that Hu Bugui had already put on his helmet and charged in.
The nerd pitifully turned his head to Lu Qingbai and said, "I...I was talking to him."
For once, Lu Qingbai didn't pick up. He only stared fixedly at the increasingly jumpy image. After a long moment, he quietly said, "If that child really is... That would be a pity."
Su Qing wanted to shout, but sadly the hardware in his throat wouldn't cooperate. He couldn't raise his volume no matter what he did. Cold sweat was trickling into his eyes from his forehead. He decided to run a risk. Using one hand to shield Tu Tutu, he pressed the other against a big stone next to him and, for the first time since putting it on, activated the shock ring.
There was a pop and a small-scale earthquake. There was a strong pain in Su Qing's arm. It wouldn't move anymore.
He thought, That's it, this is a disaster. His arm had been crushed by a falling piece of sharp stone; it had broken with a snap.
And the worst luck was yet to come. Before he could think of a way to move his arm, a piercing pain came from his back. Su Qing shook, pushed forward by the great pressure. He abruptly remembered that he was still holding Tu Tutu and desperately pressed his shoulder against the wall on his other side. When he opened his mouth, he spat up a big mouthful of blood.
The stone that had fallen on his back had perhaps broken a rib, and the bone had punctured his lung. More and more blood came up, choking his windpipe. Su Qing was running out of strength to cough. He could only prop himself up with half his body. Tu Tutu was scared into wailing. Su Qing gave a start. He had no more strength to hold him and could only let the child slide from his arm and curl up at his feet.
There was more and more blood coming from his mouth, all dripping onto Tu Tutu.
Hu Bugui had seen a necklace Zhao Yifei had left behind and approximately determined where the little girl's cry for help was coming from when he suddenly heard noises, turned his head, and saw a hand sticking out of the wreckage, soaked in blood. Only the bottom of the middle finger was unusually clean. This was the location of the invisible shock ring.
"Su Qing, Su Qing, is that you? Are you in there, too?"
Never mind answering, Su Qing was even finding it hard to open his eyes. When he opened his mouth, he couldn't keep himself from coughing. Hu Bugui drew close and frowned, pressing his ear to the wreckage. He could faintly hear the coughing and the child's crying inside. He made a visual estimate of how many stones there were, then took off his jacket and tossed it aside. He had no tools but a machine gun and his own hands. It seemed he would have to use bare hands. "Hold on a moment, I'll get you out."
Hu Bugui got no answer from Su Qing, but the child cried louder and louder. The child's voice sounded very robust, and he relaxed slightly. If the child had this much strength to cry, then there was probably enough space inside, and Su Qing could still think of using the shock ring to break open the wall. It appeared that for the moment the problem wasn't so serious.
And so Hu Bugui made the most regrettable, most appalling mistake of his life—he thought that Su Qing's coughing came from being choked by falling dust. When he heard the sound gradually fade, he thought that his coughing had subsided.
"Hold on a while, just hold on a while."
Su Qing felt that he had lost the ability to think. He didn't know how heavy the stone on his back was. He only felt that the thing was squeezing all the air right out of his lungs. There was blood blocking his airway, as though he was steeping in a sea of blood. Only the sounds of Hu Bugui's comforting and Tu Tutu's cries mixed together into his sole source of strength to continue holding himself up for all he was worth.
Just then, Zhao Yifei's cry for help sounded again. Hu Bugui froze, realizing that the girl's cries were considerably weaker than before. Strictly speaking, Hu Bugui had come to help Zhao Yifei and had found Su Qing along the way. His emotions had been stirred, and he had nearly forgotten about the girl. Hesitating, he looked at Su Qing's hand in front of him, then turned in the direction Zhao Yifei's cries were coming from.
This...was unfair to her.
The girl said, "Help...help...me...someone...help..."
Then her voice suddenly vanished. Hu Bugui's heart sank. He pulled up his communicator and rapidly said, "I've found survivors here, why hasn't a way been opened yet? How long before the search and rescue team gets here?"
Fang Xiu and Qin Luo were working with tacit cooperation. With a traitor like Chen Lin in the blue seal base, it would have been hard for matters not to come to a head. Fang Xiu said, "We're basically in control of the situation. The search and rescue team is working to reach you within five minutes."
Hu Bugui took a deep breath and gently pressed Su Qing's hand, wiping the blood from the back of his hand with his thumb. He softened his voice and said, "Wait a bit, the search and rescue team will be here within five minutes. Just hold on a while. There's a companion of yours over there, a little girl. She suddenly stopped calling for help. I'm afraid she may be... Just wait for me!"
"No! Don't go!" Su Qing felt alarm and despair, but when he opened his mouth, he couldn't cry out. Only more blood came up, raining down on Tu Tutu's head.
At last Su Qing could hold out no longer. He thought that he was going to die.
Don't go... Why would you abandon me at a time like this... Why...
He had never felt so cold. Tu Tutu was hugging his leg, which trembled like a stalk of wheat. His little fingers were digging into his clothes, and he was calling non-stop: "Uncle... Uncle... Uncle Annoying..."
Su Qing forced himself to open his eyes. In the dark, he could faintly see the small figure. He didn't know why he hadn't fallen yet. Perhaps he was already stiff.
Why would he believe that someone would come to save him? As his consciousness approached dimness, this inexplicable thought suddenly appeared in Su Qing's mind. Then more voices sounded. He could no longer tell what they were saying. He only felt very, very tired.
Before the light could prick his eyes, Su Qing's eyelids closed. He didn't hear the cry of alarm beside him.
When the search and rescue team arrived, Hu Bugui had already dug up Zhao Yifei with his bare hands—she wasn't buried deep. But she had been shot, so by the time she was pulled out, she had passed out entirely.
Hu Bugui urgently called people to lift her, then immediately directed the rescue workers on the scene to start searching for other life signs and find a way to get Su Qing out.
When Hu Bugui saw the young man again, it was as though he had been struck by lightning. He stood there blankly, feet nailed to the ground, unable to say a word.
One of Su Qing's arms was broken, the bone sticking out of the flesh. One leg was caught between some slabs of stone. He was slightly bent, standing on one leg. The huge stone weighing several dozen kilograms pressing on his back at last rolled aside, but he still remained in the same posture—shoulder pressed to the wall, supporting his whole body, and one hand hanging down, fallen on the head of a child covered in blood.
The child was hugging his leg, lips drawn back in a wail. A rescue worker reacted at last, bending down to pick up the kid.
Su Qing swayed and fell to the ground as though all the blood had poured out of his body. He lay there lifelessly.