Director Wang left, but the mayor sat command at the Command Center, causing various forces of the entire city to continuously converge in this direction.
As Fang Huai watched the Command Center’s lights, always on, and the stream of people constantly moving in and out, he also keenly felt that the atmosphere not only had not relaxed due to the late night but had beco even more tense.
...
Dawn slowly broke.
There was good news: around four to five ters underground on the periter, another house was discovered, with three dead and one unconscious.
They had finally rescued soone alive!
Later, a search dog earned its keep once again, directly alerting to a spot to dig, and after just two ters of shallow digging, they found a person.
However, the condition of the victim made everyone around take a deep breath.
The body was covered in wounds, and a large hole had been smashed in the rigid head, revealing the bloody flesh inside, likely killed by rocks before being buried.
At the crowing of the rooster, He Zhijun led his team, and next to a landslide-ford dam, they found a rotten piece of wood, marred with spots.
It was just a piece of wood, but it massively boosted everyone’s confidence.
Because that was a piece of furniture wood that shouldn’t have appeared amidst the wilderness.
Soon, there was another discovery.
"There are clothes here! And a ledger!"
Hearing the news, Fang Huai hurried over and, seeing the extrely compacted dirt and rocks surrounding the area, his heart sank.
"Dig quickly! Send another group here!"
Hoes, pickaxes, and shovels all got to work, and more and more items were uncovered.
"Here we go, we’ve got one!" soone from the Chongqing Fire Brigade called out, as a woman’s back appeared beneath him.
"Dig carefully, lift her out!"
The woman was slowly lifted out—her body very stiff, her eyes half-open and devoid of life, her palm was still facing forward, her fist as if clutching a handful of dirt.
Everyone around swallowed hard, not wanting to look, but they dug even more fervently.
Very soon, clothes, bedding, books—discoveries were everywhere.
Seeing this, Fang Huai had a suspicion that the house had been completely collapsed, its structure no longer intact, and from the clothes on the ground, it was certain that this was not the ho of just a single woman.
Yet, no people were found for half a day.
Fang Huai had no choice but to call over so villagers nearby and after they had respectfully uncovered the cloth over the already-converged woman’s face, he asked:
"Do you recognize this person?"
They inspected repeatedly, but shook their heads consistently.
"She’s not from our village!"
"She might have been a visitor!"
Fang Huai’s heart thudded again, and after thinking for a mont, he asked, "You know whose house this is, right? Where’s the way out?"
"We know, it’s Yang Can’s ho! Oh... I rember now, this girl, she looks like his younger aunt! The road is over there!" A villager pointed in a direction outside.
Fang Huai imdiately ordered, "Dig in that direction!"
...
Over an hour later, the people were found.
When they were completely uncovered, the number of bodies was so many it was hair-raising.
Five n and one woman.
Entangled limbs, huddled tightly together, the situation was very similar to the first group of people they had unearthed.
Clearly, when the landslide hit, they had ti to gather and attempt to flee, but the coverage area was too extensive, and they didn’t escape.
The six people lay close to the road pointed out by the villagers, their bodies even bearing steel rebars that should have been on a house several ters away, indicating that the house had been completely pushed out by the mass of soil.
"Bring the cutting machine over! Be careful with the rescue!"
Fang Huai shouted and then hurried towards the Command Center.
While walking, he sent a ssage to Director Wang.
"Report!"
"Co in."
The voice responding from inside the Command was, unexpectedly, the mayor’s.
Fang Huai pushed the door open; the mayor leaned very tiredly on a wooden chair, and the people beside him were standing, looking at a blueprint.
Chief Commander Chang was also awake, standing on the side, and upon seeing Fang Huai enter, he said:
"Little Fang! Beijing has issued an important directive, asking that we do everything possible to conduct rescue work and prevent secondary disasters! A high-ranking leader has also set out from Beijing at five o’clock this morning! How are things outside?"
Upon hearing this, Fang Huai felt a catch in his throat.
"We just dug out seven, all dead."
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