Chapter 428 Encountering Danger
Zhou Mubin has always been arrogant and self-important, so he is unlikely to lie.
Cui Xiao's expression softened. "Don't be nervous. Miao Miao came to me because she wants me to be her advocate and ask you to continue sponsoring her."
Zhou Mubin breathed a sigh of relief. "She certainly knows how to find connections. What, are you really planning to act as her go-between? Cui Xiao, can't you use your compassionate heart on me even a little bit?"
"I don't have the time or inclination for that."
Cui Xiao leaned back in her seat, her gaze sweeping over the street scenes passing by the car window. "But she insists that I told you to stop. I have to find out the truth, so I don't get blamed for nothing."
Zhou Mubin's voice deepened, losing its previous nonchalance. "You're not entirely innocent either. I stopped sponsoring Miaomiao because of you. Nanzhi and Xibei said that even if it was well-intentioned, it's still a minefield. If you find out and misunderstand, I'll be in deep trouble no matter what. So I might as well not be a pushover."
Cui Xiao felt a lump in her throat and didn't know what to say.
Seeing that she didn't speak, Zhou Mubin pressed, "Why aren't you saying anything? Cui Xiao, do you really not believe me?"
Zhou Mubin panicked, "Damn it, so all my chastity for you was for nothing?"
Cui Xiao was speechless. "Alright, I need to get back to work. That's all for now."
Cui Xiao hung up the phone in a hurry, and Zhou Mubin was in a state of utter confusion.
He slammed his laptop shut, picked up his suit jacket, and walked out of the office. As soon as he stepped outside, he glanced at Sun Lu one more time.
Sun Lu rested on the table.
Zhou Mubin walked over step by step, then suddenly said, "Still sleeping? What about the 30,000-word self-criticism I asked you to write? Have you finished it?"
Sun Lu suddenly woke up with a start, shuddering in fright.
Seeing Zhou Mubin, she looked as if she had seen a ghost, "Lawyer Zhou, I..."
Zhou Mubin glared at her, "What do you mean, 'what do you mean, 'If you can't hand in a 30,000-word self-criticism before you leave work, you can forget about your salary this month's salary.'"
Sun Lu felt like dying.
Just because she didn't complete the task Zhou Mubin assigned her yesterday, she was punished today with a 30,000-word self-criticism, which had to be handwritten and couldn't be found online.
She didn't sleep a wink last night, her head was buzzing, and she really couldn't write this self-criticism.
Sun Lu was a recent college graduate and had never experienced such pressure before. Her eyes reddened. "Lawyer Zhou, could you reduce it a bit? It's really too much."
Zhou Mubin was in a bad mood, and she wasn't going to get away with it either. "Trying to negotiate with me?"
Sun Lu hung her head, completely at a loss.
Watching Zhou Mubin leave, Sun Lu gritted her teeth in anger. She really wanted to throw down her employee badge and quit.
But after thinking about it, I decided to hold back.
No pain, no gain; she is determined to rise above others and become a phoenix.
Cui Xiao was in a good mood all afternoon.
Even her secretary noticed. "Vice President Cui, you seem to be in a good mood today. Is something making you happy?"
Cui Xiao herself didn't even realize it. "Really?"
The secretary, Yang Min, said with a smile, "You were just laughing."
Cui Xiao subconsciously touched the corner of her mouth. Was she smiling?
Yang Min handed a document to Cui Xiao, "Vice President Cui, this is President He's information, including his personal preferences, achievements, family background, all the information is here."
Cui Xiao was looking through the document when someone pushed the door open and said anxiously, "It's bad, Vice President Cui. A tsunami has struck the South China Sea. All the experts we sent to survey the terrain are out of contact, and more than twenty workers are trapped."
Cui Xiao suddenly stood up, put down the documents in her hand, and said, "Secretary Yang, book me a flight to the South China Sea immediately, quick."
Yang Min immediately nodded, "Okay, I'll book the tickets right away."
Upon opening the package, Yang Min's face instantly turned pale. "Vice President Cui, the South China Sea is currently in a natural disaster emergency response phase. All inbound and outbound flights have been suspended, and high-speed rail and long-distance passenger transport have also been temporarily suspended. What should we do?"
Cui Xiao frowned deeply, her knuckles turning white from clenching her fists. "Book a flight to City C, the closest city to the South China Sea, as soon as possible, even if it's a flight in the early morning."
"Okay, I'll check right away." Yang Min's fingers flew across the keyboard, and after a moment she looked up, "I found it. There's a flight to City C at 1 a.m., which is the last one tonight."
"I'll order this one."
Cui Xiao grabbed her suit jacket from the back of the chair and strode towards the office door. "I'm going home to get my luggage. Send the flight information directly to my phone."
——
At six o'clock in the morning, the flight finally landed at City C airport.
The problem is that the highway from City C to South Bay was destroyed, and the national highway also collapsed in many places, so even taxis dare not go there.
Cui Xiao gritted her teeth, flagged down a pickup truck with local license plates outside the airport, and offered the driver three times the fare, saying, "Sir, I'm going to South China Sea to rescue people. Money is no problem as long as you get there as soon as possible."
Seeing her smart suit but anxious expression, and noticing the rescue contact information saved on her phone, the driver finally nodded. "Miss, the road is rough, you might get stuck at any moment, so hold on tight."
The pickup truck carrying the two men bumped along the muddy road. The scene outside the window became increasingly shocking: the once straight utility poles lay crookedly by the roadside, and the power lines were tangled like a tangled mess on the tree branches.
The crops in the farmland were blackened by the seawater, and large areas of houses had only their broken roofs exposed above the water. Occasionally, floating furniture and debris could be seen swirling in the flood.
As we passed through a small town, we could hear cries for help coming from afar. Several villagers were standing on the windowsill of a second-floor apartment, waving for help, while the floodwaters below were already waist-deep.
The driver parked the car on a higher slope and pointed to a vast expanse of water ahead, saying, "That's the boundary of the South China Sea. The water gets even deeper further ahead, and my car can't get through."
Cui Xiao looked in the direction he pointed. The once bustling suburban industrial area had now become a swamp, with only a few tall steel factory buildings standing forlornly in the water. That was the direction of their company's survey team's location.
The air was filled with the salty smell of the sea and the stench of rotting matter. The mud underfoot was slippery and soft, and one could easily sink into it if one was not careful.
The roar of giant waves crashing against the shore could still be heard from time to time on the distant sea. The turbid seawater, mixed with pebbles and branches, crashed wildly on the street, making a loud "splashing" sound.
What's even more worrying is that it started to drizzle again, and the weather forecast says there will be heavy rainfall in the next 24 hours. If the water level rises again, the situation of the trapped people will be even more dangerous.
As soon as Cui Xiao got out of the car, he saw several firefighters in orange rescue suits carrying an inflatable boat into the water.
She quickly stepped forward, took out her work ID to identify herself, and said, "Hello, I am Cui Xiao from Dongya Group. We have more than 20 employees and surveying experts trapped in the industrial area ahead. What is the current situation?"
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