Waiting for You in a City

Late at night, Fifth People’s Hospital of Di City.

The emergency building was brightly lit, and the lobby on the first floor was in chaos. A mobile hospital bed quickly rolled across the ground, leaving a trail of blood, and the figures of the medical staff quickly disappeared at the end of the corridor.

In the next second, a new mobile hospital bed was lifted from the ambulance and rushed to the emergency room.

The blood stains rolling through the wheel drew long red lines, one after another, staggered together.

Within a few minutes, the floor of the hall was painted with red and black marks into a large flower face.

Several emergency operating rooms lit red lights in unison.

After a brief bustle, the hall fell into an eerie silence.

Several nurses at the consultation desk frowned with their expressions solemn.

“How did so many people get hurt?”

“There was a fire over on bar street and it exploded.”

“But it’s terrible for the firefighters, I heard that one died on the spot, there wasn’t enough ambulances, and the body hasn’t been brought back yet.”

“Aih…”

A soft sigh.

The wall clock ticked one by one.

The cleaner picked up the mop and wiped the blood on the floor. The door of the consultation hall suddenly opened, the cold wind of the deep winter poured in, sweeping all over the room, and everyone looked over.

A woman with a pale face rushed in, her eyes swept around, and quickly fell to the consultation desk.

She ran through the hall, saw mottled blood on the soles of her feet, and her lips turned pale for a while: “Excuse me, there was a fire on bar street, and the injured firefighters were sent to your hospital?”

“Yes.” The nurse glanced at her, she must have come from home, pajamas could be seen under the down jacket, and the person was shivering with cold.

“Is there a list of injured firefighters?”

“Nope. Are you…”

“I’m from Third Military Hospital,” Xu Qin said, “My, my family member, is a firefighter.” She paused for a second, as if her mind couldn’t keep up with her rate of speech, she licked her dry lips, and said, “I’ve called him for a long time, and no one answered. I’m a little worried.”

The nurse looked at the woman in front of her, she wasn’t just “a little” worried. Her hands were clutching the edge of the table, her phone covered with sweat. She was trying her best to maintain the expression on her face, but every time she said a word, the expression on her entire face was not right.

“There is no list right now, who was sent in, we don’t know as well.”

“How are the injured doing?” She tried her best to ask for as much information as possible.

“There is one that’s quite serious. I heard that there was another one who died on the spot.”

She swayed, pinched the phone tightly, hesitated for a while, turned around to leave, then paused for a while, then turned around and said, “Thank you.”

“No problem.” When the nurse saw her turn around, a burst of tears suddenly welled up in her eyes, as if she wanted to cry, but in an instant she blinked hard and suppressed it.

She left the consultation desk, walked to the corner leading to the operating room, crouched down along the wall and hugged herself.

Above the operating room, a red light was on.

……

Liu Ye Tan, bar street.

Due to the explosion of the fire at the bar, the risk factor increased greatly and the trapped people had no possibility of survival, so all the firefighters withdrew from the fire scene and used high-pressure water cannons to extinguish the fire by external spray.

The firefighters continued to work, the high-pressure jets of water carrying black soot flowed through the street.

Onlookers and media were evicted to outside of the police cordon.

Inside the cordon, fire truck lights and ambulance lights were flashing continuously, and the figures of firefighters and doctors were busy going back and forth.

Song Yan was sitting in the ambulance, his protective suit covered with a thick layer of soot, mixed with a lot of blackened blood. His hair was also covered in smoke, his face had just been cleaned, his skin was red from the heat, and there was a few traces of chapping.

But that was nothing.

The nurse bandaged the wound on his arm, and on the other side, Xiao Ge had a burn wound on his neck and was tilting his head for the doctor to deal with.

The moment the explosion occurred, Song Yan pulled Xiao Ge out of the staircase. Jiang Yi and the others also quickly withdrew the moment they received the order, but as soon as they rushed up half of the stairs, it exploded underneath.

One of the recruits was on fire, although the firefighters outside immediately went in to spray water, he had already stopped breathing when they dragged them out.

He was a recruit from Liu Ye Tan Fire Squadron.

The doctor said the shockwaves generated by the burst shattered his chest.

Song Yan glanced outside the car, the curb was covered with a white cloth, the recruit laid there. The cold wind blew past and lifted a corner of the white cloth, the child’s hands were thin and covered with bloody ash.

After his wound was treated, Song Yan got out of the ambulance and walked towards him, but someone covered the corner of the white cloth.

The squadron leader of Liu Ye Tan stretched the white cloth for the new recruit, sat aside, lowered his head and covered his face, crying until his shoulders twitched.

Song Yan sat beside him in silence and listened to him whimper like a child: “I shouldn’t have sent him in, I shouldn’t have sent him. How can I explain this to his parents…”

Song Yan was silent, he looked at the bar where the accident occurred, the water column was still spraying, and there was an uproar. The fire was extinguished, but nothing could be recovered from the fire.

The place had burned to the ground, and a group of firefighters went in, dragging out the bodies of the dead civilians one after another.

The fire was completely extinguished. The captain next to him was still crying, Song Yan got up, patted him on the shoulder, and walked back into the bar.

It was all charred inside.

Before, some objects could still be seen in silhouettes, but now they were burned to the ground, except for a few load-bearing walls, all of which were reduced to ashes.

This fire burned too fast and too hard.

Song Yan opened the burnt fire hydrant in the corridor to check it, then picked up a fire extinguisher and looked at it.

After looking at it, he threw the things back without saying a word, and went down to the basement.

The compartment decks were all burned down and turned into a large space.

After walking a few steps, a guest was lying in the ruins under his feet, his skin glowed yellow, the firefighters behind him dragged the victim out.

Song Yan walked to the most severely burned wall and took a look, the most severely burned area upstairs was also on this side. Judging from the movement of the fire, it was the circuit on this side that caught fire and burned the entire wall above and below.

The upper part was more ventilated, the fire spread quickly, while the lower part had less air flow, incomplete combustion, narrow and continuous heating, combustible gas mixing, and finally a deflagration.

It could have been less catastrophic.

Someone came up behind him, it was Suo Jun: “The owner of the bar was taken away by the police, and we got an investigation result of the cause of the fire. Lao Dong and I are in charge. You are injured, go back to the car to rest first.”

Song Yan: “I will write the report this time.” 

Suo Jun noticed that his face was different: “What’s wrong?” 

Song Yan did not speak, he turned over facing the residual ash on the wall.

Suo Jun sighed: “Explosion is the most uncontrollable aspect in fire rescue, and no one could have helped in this situation.” 

“It shouldn’t have been this bad.” Song Yan looked extremely calm and looked up at the ceiling, “There was only one exit in this place, and it was a high-risk area. But the smoke alarms and sprinklers here were all useless, there was no water in the hydrants, and the fire extinguishers have expired. And this wall full of flammable material, overloaded circuit design, how did it pass the fire inspection?”

Song Yan sneered: “I bet that this boss paid a bribe, he’ll get punished for this.”

He turned around and walked out, Suo Jun stepped forward to grab him and whispered: “What are you going to do?”

Song Yan stared at him: “What do you mean what am I going to do?”

Suo Jun glanced at the firefighters who were clearing the scene everywhere, and forcibly pulled Song Yan aside,

“Bribery?” Suo Jun lowered his voice, “If there were bribes, then somebody must be receiving the bribes! Are you going to say which of your superiors took the bribes? Huh?”

Song Yan: “I don’t care which bastard took them.”

Suo Jun: “The people in the upper brigade all look up and don’t look down——”

Song Yan: “Who looked up with them and didn’t look down, and did they think about the brothers below when they collected the money?” 

Suo Jun: “You wait for this matter first, discuss——”

Song Yan: “No negotiation!”

His anger could no longer be suppressed. Suo Jun was silent for a second and did not speak.

Song Yan turned around to leave, Suo Jun stepped forward and grabbed him, about to go crazy: “Song Yan, if you don’t care about them, think for yourself! Today you judged correctly and saved the lives of at least five firefighters, you did a meritorious service! The higher ups have to praise and reward you.”

“You’re about to be promoted, and at this juncture you are going to poke a hornet’s nest, do you still want to—”

Song Yan lifted his hand and pointed to the door: “That child is still lying outside and no one has collected the body! Your fucking conscience was eaten by dogs!”

Suo Jun was dumbfounded, his eyes turned red in an instant, his lips trembled a few times, with his bloodshot eyes he lowered his voice: “Song Yan, we are all brothers, doesn’t my heart hurt?! Doesn’t my heart hurt when he was still alive and kicking around just now?! Who am I doing this for? I’m afraid you’ll step on thunder! Was it easy for you to get to where you are today? Those military merits are all exchanged with blood and lives! Now that people are dead, let’s take the living too? Do you still want to work?”

The corner of Song Yan’s mouth twitched: “I’ll fucking quit! And what?”

“Fuckin’…” Song Yan seemed to want to say something, but when the words came to his lips, he shook his head, unable to say anything, he looked up at the dark roof, and laughed out loud.

“Tell me, why do the brothers train so hard? With such a big fire, who hesitated for a second and said no. Then, let someone stab them in the back…”

He lowered his head, shook his head, smiled and laughed so hard until his shoulders collapsed.

Suo Jun covered his face, his tears choked up: “I just saw that child being carried out, and I burst into tears. He said he was only nineteen… I don’t know what happened to the few that our team sent to the hospital. But Song Yan, I still have to say, these years have not been easy for you, and you are about to make it through…”

“I’m going to the hospital.” Song Yan interrupted, started to leave, and said, “If it’s really like what you said, I will be suppressed, then I really don’t want to continue anymore.”

Song Yan walked out of the bar, and used the water pipe to wash the ash and blood on the surface of his clothes.

The dead firefighter was carried to the ambulance, and Song Yan went to the hospital with him. The captain of Liu Ye Tan could no longer cry, leaning against the inner wall of the car, his eyes dull.

Song Yan was also exhausted, physically and even more so in his heart.

A glance out the window, the night scene of this city was extremely prosperous.

Young people roamed the streets, laughing.

At three o’clock in the morning, media waiting to report gathered at the entrance of the hospital.

At this moment, Song Yan could no longer hear those official words, his ears blocked everything, and he avoided the reporter to enter the hospital hall.

He went to the information desk and learned that most of the firefighters had been treated, but one was in surgery.

Song Yan followed the nurse to the ward to check one by one and to confirm the information of the injured, Jiang Yi, Yang Chi and Tong Ming in his team had been treated and were now asleep.

The captain of Liu Team also calmed down a little and checked the identity of his team members with the nurse.

After the nurse left, Song Yan sat alone in the ward for a long time, looking at the young faces full of scars on the hospital bed.

Much later, he got up and left.

The heart was clear, firm, he cannot fail them.

He passed through the hallway and heard the rolling sound of a moving bed, the last operation was completed.

Song Yan followed the sound and saw Xu Qin at a glance.

His mind was immediately confused.

Wrapped in a down jacket and wearing pajama pants, she squatted on the ground, staring blankly in the direction of the operating room.

As soon as she saw the door open, she immediately got up, got up too quickly, swayed, and quickly held on to the wall. The hospital bed was pushed over, and she looked at it with a pale face stretching her neck.

On the hospital bed was an unfamiliar face.

The hospital bed was pushed away.

She stood in a daze, her face gradually showing panic, she turned around to run out, but she was facing his line of sight.

She was stunned, her chest heaving violently, and after calming down a little, she quickly trotted towards him, quickly scanned him up and down, and asked, “Are you all right?”

He shook his head, his expression was not good. Don’t look past her, don’t look at her.

She noticed: “What happened? The one that died… was he yours…”

“He’s not.” He interrupted.

Xu Qin was stunned for a moment, and Song Yan also realized that his attitude was a little tough, he was silent for several seconds, but he still didn’t look at her and asked, “Why are you here?”

She observed him cautiously: “I saw the news, saying that there was an explosion, firefighters were injured…”

“When did you come?” He looked at the wall.

“……Twelve. ”

She waited for him for three hours in panic and fear.

Song Yan suddenly turned around, turned his back to her, and rubbed his face hard.

He didn’t want to see her in such a state, and he didn’t want to see himself dragging her into this state.

He was irritable, angry, restless, and at that moment, he owed her, felt guilty and powerlessness; adding fuel to the fire, the two waves of emotions tugged and pulled his nerves, it was too much to bear, and he was about to burst.

Xu Qin had already discovered that something was wrong. She sensed that Song Yan’s emotions were a little out of control, as if he was holding back to prevent a collapse.

She didn’t dare to walk in front of him and carefully touch his hand from behind: “Song Yan——”

He abruptly dodged and the man turned around.

Her hand caught the air, and her heart followed.

She was a little flustered, and her eyes stared at him: “Song Yan, what’s wrong? Tell me.”

He took a big breath, calmed down a little, and finally looked at her squarely: “I still have to rush back, there is not much time. Xu Qin, the promotion I promised you, something may change. ……Sigh, maybe I’m quitting.”

She didn’t say anything.

He pulled out a smile: “You can call me untrustworthy, irresponsible, lying to you…”

“Don’t say that!” She couldn’t listen anymore, her eyes turned red in an instant, and she interrupted, “Song Yan, don’t say that.”

The look in her eyes made him feel cold.

He was quiet for a moment, staring at her.

She asked, “What happened?”

“The fire was serious, in part because the fire inspection took loopholes.”

Xu Qin understood in an instant, and suddenly couldn’t say anything.

Song Yan: “Disappointed?”

She immediately shook her head.

She just got it.

She understood his painful struggle at this moment. If it weren’t for her, he probably wouldn’t feel so burdened.

Her heart hurt a little.

For him, for her, and for both of them.

Such a good person, why was the road up so difficult?

Such a good couple, why was the road to each other so bumpy?

It was clear that they had worked hard along the way, but there were always new accidents and troubles. They clearly looked forward to a better future, but there were always so many obstacles, she didn’t know if they could reach the final destination in the end.

However, even so, she still want to go on.

Her eyes were slightly moist and she smiled: “Is this life?”

Song Yan smiled lightly: “This is life with me.”