Chapter 594: You’re Injured
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Su Qingsang still felt a little uneasy after she got into the car. She fastened her seat-belt and looked out of the car window.
They were all relatives, so she didn’t think too much about it. However, after the incident where he got drunk last time, she always felt a little ill at ease when she was facing Zhang Yichen.
Zhang Yichen glanced at her from the corner of his eyes as he drove the car, then turned around to focus on driving.
“Where are you going?”
Su Qingsang realized that he was talking to her.
“The nearest department store.” Su Qingsang didn’t want to trouble him. “Just find the nearest department store and drop me off.”
“Department store?”
“Yes.” Su Qingsang cleared her throat. “Any department store will do.”
Zhang Yichen glanced at her and turned the steering wheel at the front.
C City was a city with a long history. It was more than two thousand years old. Ancient buildings could often be seen on both sides.
Su Qingsang hadn’t strolled around properly since she came here.
Now that she looked at the scenery on both sides of the street, she was a little interested. Perhaps she could have some fun here for two days after the study exchange?
“You’ve never been to City C before?”
Zhang Yichen’s voice made her turn around, and she nodded. “No, I haven’t.”
In the past, she had been focused on her studies. In addition to her sensitivity towards her ident.i.ty, she had never thought of traveling or having fun.
“Are you familiar with this area?”
From Zhang Yichen’s driving, he seemed to be very familiar with this place.
“Yes. Our troops belong to S Province’s military region.”
Their troops were here. Naturally, they were very familiar with this place.
Su Qingsang nodded and looked at Zhang Yichen. Perhaps it was because he wanted to visit Chen Yi, he didn’t wear a military uniform.
“You, are you alright? Will this delay your official business?”
She felt that he was always very busy.
“I’m fine. I’m taking the day off.”
Su Qingsang’s voice was still cold. She didn’t notice that Zhang Yichen’s grip on the steering wheel had tightened.
She wanted to ask that didn’t he want to spend time with his girlfriend on his day off? However, this question wasn’t quite suitable for her to ask.
He seemed to be two years older than Huo Jinyao, but he wasn’t married yet.
Su Qingsang didn’t say anything else and continued to enjoy the scenery. Fortunately, the awkward atmosphere didn’t last long, and they arrived at their destination very quickly.
“This is a very famous street in C City. All the big department stores are here.”
Zhang Yichen’s voice was indifferent. Su Qingsang glanced at him, thanked him, and got out of the car.
Zhang Yichen noticed her movements and couldn’t help but call out to her, “Call me when you’re done shopping. I’ll pick you up.”
“There’s no need for that.” Su Qingsang quickly waved her hand. “I can hail a taxi on my own.”
“It’s hard to hail a taxi here.” Zhang Yichen’s voice was indifferent. “Remember my phone number. Call me when you’re done shopping later.”
“There’s really no need.”
Su Qingsang wanted to refuse, but Zhang Yichen had no intention of driving away. Su Qingsang was a little helpless. She took out her phone to save his number.
She decided to take a taxi back later without telling Zhang Yichen to pick her up.
Zhang Yichen watched her save his number and asked her to dial it. When he heard his phone ring, he let her go.
After Su Qingsang left, he looked at the number displayed on it and saved it.
Just saving her name made him struggle for a long time. In the end, he entered her full name, Su Qingsang.
However, he didn’t leave immediately. Instead, he parked his car in the parking lot.
He looked back at the department store in a daze. After an unknown amount of time, he finally hit the steering wheel hard. He got out of the car quickly.
Zhang Yichen would say that it’s not that he wanted to be with Su Qingsang, but he just had something to buy as well.
Yes, that’s right. He also had something to buy. For example, he wanted to buy a gift for his mother. Huo Yangxiu’s birthday was coming up.
It wasn’t until he entered the department store that Zhang Yichen wanted to punch himself in the face.
What was he doing? Su Qingsang was already married. She was Huo Jinyao’s wife.
It was useless for him to be like this. He shook his head and strode out.
But as soon as he walked outside, he felt the ground shake.
Zhang Yichen’s first reaction was that it was an earthquake. Without thinking, he laid down, face down, and grabbed the railing beside him. At the same time, he used one hand to protect his head and the back of his neck.
The ground was still shaking violently. Zhang Yichen suddenly thought of something. He quickly stood up and ran into the department store.
There were already people running outside. There were screams all around. Zhang Yichen wanted to pa.s.s through the crowd and continue to head inside.
But the gla.s.s door of the department store shattered at this time. Zhang Yichen protected his head and squatted down again.
Soon, it wasn’t just the gla.s.s. The walls of the building began to crack. The gravel, cement, and dust flew down like flying dust.
Some people were hit by the rocks, and some fell down. The surroundings were filled with wails and howls.
When a middle-aged man was about to be hit by the rocks, Zhang Yichen quickly pulled the man up.
The man thanked him, but his legs were weak, and he couldn’t stand up at all.
“Go, go to an empty place and put your hands on your head.”
After Zhang Yichen finished speaking, he looked at the scene in front of him and thought about how Su Qingsang was still inside.
He immediately took out his phone and called Su Qingsang, but no one picked up. The surroundings were still shaking. He called again, but no one picked up.
Since she still wasn’t picking up, he suddenly couldn’t care about anything else, and he rushed into the department store in the opposite direction.
The shaking inside of the department store was even worse than that of the outside. Things kept falling down.
Zhang Yichen regretted it. If he had known earlier, he wouldn’t have only asked Su Qingsang to save his number. He should have followed her in.
The shaking continued. Zhang Yichen had no way to move forward.
There were people screaming and running towards the outside. He was the only one who was walking towards the inside.
He looked at the people running towards the outside. None of them were Su Qingsang. He became more and more anxious. The crystal lamp on the ceiling smashed down in his direction. He quickly dodged to the side and avoided it.
There were people constantly running outside and blocking his way.
Zhang Yichen was anxious and said loudly, “Don’t panic. Everyone, bend down and protect your heads as you run outside.”
Upon hearing someone speak at this time, those people who were running blindly seem to have found the direction.
Zhang Yichen couldn’t care less about these people. All his attention was now focused on finding Su Qingsang.
The women’s clothing department was on the second floor. If Su Qingsang was here to buy clothes, she must be on the second floor. The stairs had already broken. Some people were so afraid that they didn’t dare to come down.
The escalator had already stopped. But it could still move forward. Zhang Yichen used the physical strength he had developed during his training in the army.
He rushed up at his fastest speed. Regardless of the ground’s shaking, he rushed straight to the most dangerous place.
There were fewer people on the second floor than on the first floor. When the earthquake happened just now, everyone kept running outside.
Zhang Yichen didn’t know where Su Qingsang was, so he could only search through the clothing stores one by one. As he searched, he avoided the falling cement and dust.
At the same time, he didn’t forget to call Su Qingsang.
He could feel that the ground beneath his feet was shaking even more.
However, Su Qingsang didn’t pick up the phone.
He became anxious and ran even faster.
Trying to avoid objects that might hit him, he kept calling and running. He was really in a sheepish state.
However, just as he was sheepishly doging the falling objects, he heard a ringtone from a nearby shop.
Zhang Yichen froze for a moment. He avoided a shop sign that was about to fall off and looked at the shop door that was blocked by broken gla.s.s and a counter.
He hung up the phone and realized that the ringtone had stopped. He made another call and realized that the ringtone had rung again.
Zhang Yichen’s eyes burned. He looked at the shop name on it and instantly determined that Su Qingsang was inside.
The vibration stopped at this moment. Zhang Yichen pushed open the counter and went inside.
Besides the counter, there were two other shelves blocking the door.
Zhang Yichen didn’t hang up the phone call. He heard the ringtone.
He walked forward and seemed to have stepped on something. He stopped for a moment and found a female shop a.s.sistant lying under the shelf.
He squatted down to take a look, then found that the back of the female shop a.s.sistant’s head was bleeding and she was no longer breathing.
Zhang Yichen’s heart tightened and he felt his heart aching.
He pushed the shelf aside without thinking and moved the female shop a.s.sistant’s body to the side.
He took a deep look at the shop a.s.sistant and looked around. Other than the salesgirl, he didn’t see anyone else. The phone was still ringing.
Next to him was the fitting room. Zhang Yichen thought that Su Qingsang was here to buy clothes, so she might be trying on clothes here.
Without thinking, he walked towards the fitting room. The wooden door of the fitting room had already fallen down. It was half-stuck at the door.
Zhang Yichen’s heart was beating fast. Even though he had partic.i.p.ated in a mission that was a thousand times more dangerous than this, it still didn’t ease his mood.
He forcefully pulled the door open and saw Su Qingsang lying there. She was holding a piece of clothing in her hand and seemed to have lost consciousness.
There were no windows in the fitting room, and the power in the building had also been cut off.
He could only use the dim light from outside to see Su Qingsang’s current appearance. There was no blood on her face, but there was a lot of dust that had fallen on it.
Her legs were curled together, and her body was leaning against a chair beside her. There was no obvious blood stain.
He used his hand to probe the tip of her nose and found that she was still breathing, which made him feel more or less relieved.
“Su Qingsang? Su Qingsang?”
Zhang Yichen called out twice, but there was no response. He squatted down beside her and was about to pick her up to leave, but he didn’t expect the violent shake behind him.
He saw the light above his head shake and it looked like it was about to fall.
At the critical moment, Zhang Yichen quickly lifted the door that had just fallen and s.h.i.+elded their bodies with it.
The light fell as expected, and an even more violent tremor followed. Su Qingsang’s body was leaning against the chair. Zhang Yichen held the door. No matter how many things crashed down from above, he didn’t move an inch.
After the shaking stopped, Zhang Yichen realized that he and Su Qingsang were trapped.
G.o.d knew how many pieces of cement and walls had fallen outside. They had completely blocked off the fitting room.
The shaking continued. Zhang Yichen gritted his teeth and letting her lean against him, he supported Su Qingsang with one hand.
The ground was shaking under his feet, and dust kept falling from above his head. Zhang Yichen didn’t dare to move, nor could he.
At this moment, he was even glad that the shaking just now had knocked the door down. Otherwise, the two of them might have been buried by now.
After an unknown amount of time, the shaking finally stopped.
Zhang Yichen’s back was numb. He tried to look left and right. He pushed the door against one of the cracked walls.
This way, the fitting room formed an extremely narrow triangle.
He used this gap to squat down again.
“Qingsang? Su Qingsang?”
There was still no reaction. He gritted his teeth and reached out to touch the back of Su Qingsang’s head.
Sure enough, he felt a lump there. She must have been hit by something just now.
“Su Qingsang, wake up, wake up quickly.”
It was very dark inside. Zhang Yichen took out his phone and turned on the light. Surrounded by dust and rocks, he kept calling Su Qingsang’s name.
After a period of time, Su Qingsang finally regained consciousness.
She was very uncomfortable and felt dizzy. The voice that kept calling her sounded somewhat familiar.
She opened her eyes and saw a dirty face under the faint blue light.
Su Qingsang was shocked and instinctively stepped back, but before she could step back, she felt a throbbing pain at the back of her head.
She snorted and instinctively raised her hand to cover the back of her head.
“Qingsang, you’re awake?”
Zhang Yichen breathed a sigh of relief. That familiar voice made Su Qingsang look at the person in front of her again.
“Uncle?”
Why was he here? And —
Su Qingsang remembered almost instantly. “T-this is an earthquake?”
She had always known that S Province was a major earthquake province. Every year, there would be earthquakes from time to time. However, she had never expected that she would encounter an earthquake in her lifetime.
“Yes, an earthquake.” Not neglecting touching the back of her head, Zhang Yichen looked at her. “You seemed to have been hit by something. Are you okay?”
“I –” Su Qingsang’s voice sounded a little hoa.r.s.e. She rubbed the back of her head and felt that it hurt badly.
She also remembered that she had thought of buying two pieces of clothing. After shopping for a while, she directly chose this shop and came in.
She saw a piece of clothing and was about to try it on, but she didn’t expect such a thing to happen before she could change her clothes.
She shook her head and felt a little headache. Fortunately, she didn’t feel nauseous, so there shouldn’t be any internal injuries.
She tried to stand up but realized the situation before her. There was a chair behind her. Her bag was still on the chair. In front of her was Zhang Yichen.
There was a door panel behind Zhang Yichen. Forming a triangle, the door panel was stuck between the stone and the wall.
The s.p.a.ce was very small, and Zhang Yichen blocked most of it. She was sitting close to him. If she wanted to get up, she would definitely b.u.mp into Zhang Yichen.
Su Qingsang didn’t know how to react for a moment. She tried to move her limbs, and fortunately, she found that she could still move.
She couldn’t help but look up at Zhang Yichen. His face was completely ashen, and so was his hair. His expression wasn’t very good. One of his arms was propped on one side of the door to prevent the door from falling.
His other hand was still holding the phone. The light from the phone shone , so the s.p.a.ce wasn’t completely dark.
“Why are you here?”
“I’m here to find you.”
Zhang Yichen’s voice was slightly cold. Su Qingsang wasn’t an idiot. She had already made a guess before, and this was just proof.
“You, you specially came to save me?”
“Yes.”
Zhang Yichen didn’t deny it. Su Qingsang looked at him. Her first reaction was that he came to save her because she was Huo Jinyao’s wife.
Her second reaction was that he was a soldier. This was his duty to begin with.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
After the extremely polite yet distant conversation, Su Qingsang didn’t know what else to say.
She suddenly remembered that she had brought her bag along to try on clothes.
Where was her bag?
She had put it on the chair just now, but the chair was empty now. It must have moved during the earthquake.
With the light above her head, she soon saw it. Her bag was buried in the pile of rocks beside the chair.
Su Qingsang took out her phone from inside. She was glad that she had a good habit of charging her phone every day before going out.
The battery was full. She swiped the screen and saw that there were more than ten missed calls, all from Zhang Yichen.
“You called me?”
“Yes.” Zhang Yichen nodded. It was only now that he had the time to think about calling the police for help.
However, he was afraid that no one would come now. The earthquake had just happened, so the police must have been bombarded with 911 calls.
It would take some time for the higher-ups to make arrangements. He only hoped that they would act quickly.
He wanted to tell Su Qingsang that it was useless to call for help now, but little did he know that she was calling Huo Jinyao.
Zhang Yichen forced himself to look away. However, the s.p.a.ce here was so small that it wasn’t something that he could just ignore.
Before Su Qingsang could pull out Huo Jinyao’s phone, the earthquake started again.
Her hand shook and she could barely hold her phone.
She was shocked and couldn’t help but look up. There was the sound of something smas.h.i.+ng down from above the door.
She could even feel that the s.p.a.ce they were in was shaking more and more.
She couldn’t help but want to grab something to stand up.
“Don’t move.” Zhang Yichen was afraid that the door would press down, so he used one hand to support his back.
He looked at Su Qingsang and said softly, “Lean on me, quick. Don’t move.”
Su Qingsang didn’t dare to move, but she didn’t go near Zhang Yichen either. Instead, she leaned against the chair.
She grabbed the phone in her palm. Zhang Yichen’s phone rang.
He glanced at Su Qingsang and picked up the phone.
The call was from the army. They told him that there was an earthquake and he needed to join the rescue team.
“I’m sorry, I can’t come now.” Zhang Yichen said softly. He glanced at Su Qingsang from the corner of his eyes and then moved away.
“I’m trapped in Chunhui department store. I can’t get out for the time being.”
“What?” The voice on the other side seemed to be in disbelief. After asking about Zhang Yichen’s location, the other party said that they would send people to rescue him.
Zhang Yichen told him the address and the situation in front of him. After hanging up the phone, he looked at Su Qingsang.
“Don’t be anxious. Wait for them to come. Once they’re here, we’ll be safe.”
Su Qingsang nodded. At this time, she could only remain calm. The aftershock was still continuing. Su Qingsang endured the pain of the shaking and called Huo Jinyao.
No one answered the phone. Su Qingsang thought about the time. He should be in an early morning meeting.
She called again, but before she could get through, another round of shaking started again. The voice on the phone started to become unstable.
Su Qingsang heard Huo Jinyao’s voice from the other end of the phone.
“Qingsang –”
“Jinyao, I –”
The phone was cut off as soon as the word “I” was said. Su Qingsang looked at the phone screen in confusion. She couldn’t believe that the signal was cut off at this time.
The ground was still shaking. Su Qingsang even had the feeling that she would fall down immediately.
She couldn’t help but look up at Zhang Yichen.
“It’s normal for phones to have no signal during an earthquake. Wait a moment. Perhaps it will recover later.”
Later? Su Qingsang didn’t dare to think about it any further.
She looked at the narrow environment in front of her and the light from Zhang Yichen’s phone.
“Can we go out now?”
The shaking happened time to time. It might not be very violent, but this kind of feeling made people feel even more uneasy.
Zhang Yichen didn’t answer her question. He tried to move his back. The sound of something falling from the door came from time to time.
Those sounds could only make people feel more uneasy.
He glanced at Su Qingsang. “I’m afraid we can’t get out for the time being. We can only wait for the earthquake to stop or for someone to come and save us.”
He didn’t know how many walls and blocks of cement were blocking the way outside.
He could only see that the door was blocked. He didn’t know what was going on outside, so he could only guess.
But what he knew was that they wouldn’t be able to leave this place for a while.
Su Qingsang looked at him, who had been holding up the door. “You, aren’t you tired? Why don’t you let me do it?”
Zhang Yichen glanced at her but didn’t say anything.
The shaking seemed to have stopped for a moment. Su Qingsang tried to move her feet. The s.p.a.ce in front of her was too narrow, and she couldn’t stand up at all.
She held her phone tightly and looked at the entrance of the fitting room. “Why don’t we try and see if we can leave this place?”
As soon as she finished her words, the shaking intensified again. Su Qingsang couldn’t help but turn pale.
“Lie down and lean against that chair. Don’t move around.”
Zhang Yichen said in a low voice. Su Qingsang didn’t dare to move around at this moment. She leaned against the chair tightly and used that action to calm her nerves.
The situation before her not only didn’t allow her to leave, but whether or not they could survive the current situation was also a question. Even if they were to leave, if there was another wave like this, they might be smashed to death once they left.
She had seen many life and death situations, but she had never thought that one day, she would encounter such a situation.
The huge wave of shaking finally stopped. It was very quiet around. Su Qingsang could even hear her own heartbeat.
She didn’t have time to rejoice that she had survived this time. From the corner of her eye, she saw that Zhang Yichen’s expression didn’t look very optimistic.
“You… Uncle, are you okay?”
She looked at Zhang Yichen seriously, and she saw that his arm seemed to be bleeding.
When the shaking was at its worst, Zhang Yichen was focused on protecting Su Qingsang so that she wouldn’t be hit.
He held the door and withstood most of the pressure, along with the falling pieces of cement.
However, he didn’t expect that a piece of cement would hit his arm when it was shaking.
The sharp side cut his arm.
It was bleeding.
“Uncle, you’re injured?”