He looked only seventeen or eighteen years old, with the youthful vigor of a newborn calf. He immediately pushed his way to the front of the crowd, shouting as he did so:
"Move aside, let me try!"
He crouched down and wiped the ice on the steps with his gloves: "It's okay, it's not wet, so it's not very slippery!"
Two daring siblings, whose family of four was running out of food, were determined not to return empty-handed and also stepped forward to give it a try:
"Maybe there's only ice on the bottom few floors, and not on the upper floors. We'll go up with you."
So the three of them formed a vanguard team to scout ahead.
They lined up in a row, holding onto the handrails tightly, and carefully and slowly climbed up.
To keep his center of gravity low enough, he held onto the railing with his right hand, lowered his body, and stretched his left hand forward to hold onto the high steps, making him look like he was half-prone from a distance.
With two more points of support for my hands, it was indeed much more stable.
They were very careful with every step, and finally managed to climb to the third floor.
"Look, we've climbed up, haven't we?" The naive young man turned to his companions behind him and said happily.
"Hey, you guys come on up too. Just walk slowly, it's not hard."
The remaining people mustered their courage and followed their example, lining up one by one to go up.
Zhao Qian hadn't planned to go up, but seeing this, he had no choice but to remove the skates from his shoes and follow at the back of the group.
He treasured these ice skates very much; he didn't want to put the disassembled skates down, so he strung them together with a rope and hung them around his neck.
When they climbed to the eighth floor, they found it getting colder and colder as they went up. All the windows in the stairwell were open and frozen shut, and they couldn't close them.
The wind and snow poured straight in, making everyone shiver. Now even the handrails are covered with a thin layer of ice, and the ice on the steps is getting thicker and thicker, leaving less and less space for feet.
To make matters worse, tiny ice chips were embedded in the soles of everyone's shoes, making them increasingly slippery...
"Bang—"
Zhao Qian heard several muffled thuds from above, followed by a commotion. He saw a large, dark mass of people piled up and then slid down the stairs all at once.
It turned out that the young man leading the team was a bit of a hothead. He had run out of patience climbing and was in a hurry to take the next step before he could even get a firm footing. Despite his weight, he fell hard on the steps, hitting his chin on the ice and breaking his front teeth.
He tried to struggle to his feet, but just as he was about to stand up, "Holy crap!" his foot slipped again, and he slid straight down the slope, unable to stop himself...
It tripped up the brother and sister who were following behind.
The brother and sister also fell badly and slid down together. At one point, the brother's hand was holding onto the railing, but it couldn't support the weight of the three of them, and he eventually slid down.
The people behind them all tripped and fell down one by one like bowling balls.
Zhao Qian, who was at the very back, couldn't dodge in time and watched as the dark mass of people engulfed him...
After a few seconds of silence, various curses and wails began to emanate from the crowd.
"Ouch...ouch!"
"He was crushed!"
"Who the hell stabbed me with a knife?!"
"Ouch……"
"It hurts so much! Someone help me!"
As the crowd slowly parted, only two people remained on the ground. The person on top cried out, "Ouch...ouch..." with a deathly pale face, while the person below remained silent.
There was a large patch of blood on the ground!
"Ouch...who is it that stabbed me in the back with a knife!" The person above was dragged away by the crowd, and he cursed as he groaned in pain.
Only after getting up did he realize that Zhao Qian was the one lying underneath him.
Zhao Qian lay there with his eyes closed, a bloody ice blade still stuck in his chest!
"My God! Why is he carrying a knife?"
"It's not a knife, it's an ice skate from his shoe."
"Is he dead? He's bleeding so much."
Blood was still flowing from the wound; the ice blade was piercing an inch below his heart, and he seemed to have lost consciousness.
The hot-headed young man, with his thick "cushion," was the least injured. He pushed Zhao Qian, who was on the ground:
"Hey, wake up, you're not dead, are you?"
Zhao Qian remained motionless.
"Quickly, help me check the injury on my back!" The man, who had just gotten up from the ground, was terrified when he saw Zhao Qian's condition. He felt a sharp pain and a chill on his back.
"You're alright, you're not badly hurt."
"What about him? Should we go up again?" The brother and sister who had been leading the way were also at a loss.
"I'm not going. This isn't about seeking justice, it's practically suicide!" The older brother made his decision and pulled his younger sister away.
"If you ask me, whoever wants to go can go. We're not going. They came prepared. Who knows what traps await us if we go any further up."
This statement made everyone back down, and with Zhao Qian lying there covered in blood in front of them, even the few brave men fell silent.
"Forget it, let's go back!" The oldest man, having assessed the situation, spoke up:
"If we keep dragging this out, we'll just go back empty-handed anyway."
"What about him?" the neighbor asked, pointing at Zhao Qian.
"He's not dead, let's send him back."
After saying that, they dragged the barely breathing Zhao Qian away, looking disheveled and dejected.
When Wang Xiuli saw the lively Zhao Qian being dragged back, his life hanging in the balance, she went completely insane!
The first thing Zhao Qian said when he woke up was: Sister Wang, you must avenge me!
Wang Xiuli could no longer bear it, and she shouted angrily out the window:
"You bitch! You just wait, I'll make you pay with your life!"
After shouting, a lot of foul language was also sent in the group. Wang Feifei turned off her phone. These people deserved it. They brought this on themselves!
In her eyes, no matter what the neighbors did, they couldn't cause any more trouble; it was Han Bing who was truly worrying her.
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