Chapter 281: Chapter 281: The Terrifying Experience
It was only then that Gu Pan and Lu Ruisheng noticed that Chen Lang’s left arm was completely gone, his shoulder ending in empty space.
Seeing their expressions, Chen Lang smiled and said, “It’s all in the past, I’ve accepted it, co into the house.”
Gu Pan and Lu Ruisheng entered the house, and the next mont when they saw Duan Shui, their hearts sank again—Duan Shui’s left eye was covered with an eye patch, clearly damaged beyond repair.
Duan Shui seed pleased to see them, “Teacher Chen told you were back, and I thought you would co over. Please, co in and sit.”
Gu Pan and Lu Ruisheng called her Teacher Duan and then made their way into the house.
Chen Shaonan had turned on a rechargeable lamp, which noticeably brightened the room. As electricity was only supplied for two hours each day, essentially every household had such ergency lamps, although they had low wattage, they were sufficient for temporary use, and were rarely turned on except in tis of need.
As all the houses here had two bedrooms, the living room was quite small, so they all moved to the master bedroom, where there was a table and four round stools beside the bed.
The reason they did not stay in the house that Gu Pan and Lu Ruisheng had previously tidied up was that they had converted it into a one-bedroom and one-living room setup, which wasn’t as suitable for their family of three.
After sitting down, Chen Lang poured them water. Though he was missing a hand, his movents were still nimble; being young did make adaptation sowhat easier.
Gu Pan placed all the food they had brought on the table, and said to Chen Lang, “Inside there are chocolates and biscuits, and also canned food. It’s been a long ti since you’ve had any, hasn’t it?”
Chen Lang was particularly happy to hear this from Gu Pan, “Yeah, it’s been too long since I’ve had canned food.”
Gu Pan helped him take out a can, then opened it, arranged the disposable spoons, and handed it to him, “Eat up.”
Chen Lang took it, but didn’t eat it himself, “I’ll fetch a bowl from the kitchen. It’d be a waste to eat this good stuff all by myself.”
Gu Pan didn’t stop him and watched Chen Lang go to the kitchen in high spirits.
Duan Shui looked at them both, “It’s so good to see you again. I once thought I’d never get to see you again. I never imagined we would all survive and be here.”
She didn’t want to cry, knowing that in the apocalypse everyone understood tears were the least useful thing, but in that mont, seeing her old friends, Duan Shui couldn’t suppress the emotions bubbling up inside. Tears fell uncontrollably, and the more she cried, the less she could control herself.
Gu Pan walked over and embraced Duan Shui. When she first saw Duan Shui and Chen Lang, she had already been suppressing her own emotions, and now she felt deeply distressed.
Chen Shaonan, along with Chen Lang who had returned holding bowls and spoons, were also silently wiping away tears, thinking back to those days when they almost didn’t make it—there was so much bitterness.
Lu Ruisheng turned his head and wiped the corner of his eye, their current state making it impossible not to think of everything they must have gone through.
It took a while for everyone’s emotions to stabilize.
Duan Shui took Gu Pan by the hand and sat down on the bed, while Lu Ruisheng and Chen Shaonan sat by the table.
Chen Shaonan started to speak about the events following the tornado, “At first, we were swept up into the sky by the tornado, not knowing how far we’d been flung. Then suddenly, we plumted down, the car rolling down a very high embanknt. By the ti I woke up, it was already dark. I reached out to touch Teacher Duan in the passenger seat, and my hand was covered in blood. Teacher Duan was completely silent; I was so scared. When I touched her arm and it was still warm, I shook her arm vigorously. Finally, she made a sound, but no matter how we called out to Chen Lang in the backseat, he made no sound.”
As he spoke, he recalled that day’s events. Although it had been a long ti, it still felt as if it had just happened yesterday.
Duan Shui continued where Chen Shaonan left off, “Teacher Chen managed to crawl out of the car and pulled out as well, but the back door was jamd shut no matter what we did. After we found a tool to pry the door open, we discovered that Chen Lang’s arm had been completely crushed. At that mont, we thought he was gone. Unexpectedly, after we got him out, he actually spoke.”
“Afterward, we took all the supplies we could from the car and found an empty small factory nearby to administer first aid to Chen Lang, and then we checked and bandaged each other’s wounds,” Chen Shaonan took a deep breath, rembering how he had thought at the ti that Chen Lang wouldn’t make it. But the kid was incredibly lucky, surviving such severe injuries.
Duan Shui touched her eye patch with a wry smile, “At first, I thought my eye was just clotted with blood, or it was just congestion. It turned out that I had lost the sight in one eye. However, we were fortunate to have antibiotics. Despite nurous difficulties, we survived, we’re all alive.”
Chen Shaonan said, “At that ti, the three of us never expected to all make it out alive.”
The dangers they faced weren’t just the injuries they could see, and everybody was in pain. No one knew if they had internal injuries. All we could do was endure, and life or death was in the hands of fate.
Chen Lang added, “Since we couldn’t move while recovering from our injuries, and there were plenty of supplies in the car, plus the factory hadn’t been looted, we stayed put and incidentally missed the acid rain. That was a stroke of luck.”
Gu Pan squeezed Duan Shui’s hand tightly, “Being alive is what matters. Everything else we can find a way to overco.”
Duan Shui nodded, “That’s right. Our main belief back then was to find you guys. After the acid rain, our injuries had mostly healed, but we weren’t very accustod to the situation at that ti. Without any ans of transportation and with two disabled among the three of us, we didn’t dare to casually go to the city to look for vehicles and supplies. It took ti to adapt before we could search for a car and make our way here.”
Chen Shaonan continued, “The place where we were blown to was remote, with nobody around us. We had no communication devices, so we didn’t even know where we were. After we set out, we took many detours.”
Chen Lang’s youthful face was filled with complex emotions, “That tornado was really freakish; it had no pattern, even a geography teacher would shake their head at it.”
Lu Ruisheng looked at Chen Lang and smiled, “With you, the spirit of joy here, life for everyone else will be much more cheerful.”
Chen Shaonan laughed and said, “You don’t know, Chen Lang was planning to co back and stay today. He’s been with Cheng Yang these past few days. If we hadn’t stopped them, Cheng Yang would have taken leave.”
Chen Lang bead with pride, “Brother Cheng Yang and I are best of friends.”
Before this, Gu Pan and Lu Ruisheng worried that after going through such an ordeal, Chen Lang’s personality might drastically change, but thankfully, it didn’t. He was still the sa sunny and cheerful big boy.
With a young person like Chen Lang enlivening the atmosphere, the conversation soon lightened up. Although they still spoke of the recent hardships, the tone was no longer as sad.
Chen Shaonan went on to tell them about so things that happened on the road as they arrived, like ruthless betrayals and brothers fighting each other. Everywhere there was strife, and people would sacrifice a life over a bite of food, and the countless number who starved or died of illness by the roadside.
Even though everyone had anticipated it and Gu Pan and the others had seen it for themselves, bringing it up again made them feel contemplative, and yet grateful to still be alive, able to find a place at the base. They truly were lucky.
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