The group returned to Sheng Youqing's home. Cheng Suming first performed simple debridement and hemostasis on their family's wounds before they changed into clean clothes.
Of course Sheng Youqing did not forget to find two sets of clean clothes for Si Nan and the other person to change into. They were all very cold in the water, and only after they changed into clean clothes did they feel warm.
Of the nine robbers in the house, three were knocked down during the resistance of Sheng Youqing's family. Of the remaining six, one was killed by Cheng Suming directly in the neck, and the remaining five all had wounds cut on their limbs with a scalpel. They lay in the living room of the Sheng family, bleeding profusely.
The Sheng family has experienced many vicious people and thefts and robberies in the past two years, but this is the first time they have been treated so cruelly.
Seeing the blood all over the living room floor and the body lying at the door with dilated pupils and blood in the throat, Sheng's mother covered her chest, which was already in poor condition, and turned her face palely to ask Sheng's father: "What should we do with these people?"
"Sinan and I will take them to the police station." The speaker was Cheng Suming. He held a dry towel in his hand and wiped Sinan's hair as he sat on the chair. "We have a spare deflated raft in our bag. Don't worry about what's happening here. You are seriously injured and need to go to the hospital for treatment immediately. It just so happens that the supplies on the raft are what Sinan wants to give you. You can use the raft to go to the hospital to pay for the medical expenses."
Father Sheng and the other two were injured to varying degrees in the fight with the bandits. Mother Sheng was better off with only minor bruises. However, even so, Cheng Suming had no way of getting Si Nandang to take out the surgical tools and medicines from the space to perform surgery on them, so he could only let them go to the hospital for treatment.
"Thank you so much." Father Sheng covered his stomach which was stabbed twice, and endured the pain to thank Cheng Suming and the others: "I'll leave this place to you. When we go to the hospital and get treated, we will be fine and repay you for saving our lives."
"Uncle Sheng, you are too polite." Si Nan waved at them and said, "Just go and recuperate. Be careful on the road. When you get to the hospital, keep the supplies safe so that no one will snatch them away."
Sheng Youqing carried a large empty backpack and was supported by her mother as she limped out of the house. Before leaving, she looked at Sinan and said with red eyes, "Sinan, thank you. From now on, my life belongs to you! If you let me live, I will not die. If you tell me to go east, I will never go west. I will do whatever you tell me to do and I will never break my promise."
Si Nan was stunned for a moment. "What nonsense are you talking about? What's the matter with life and death? We are best friends. You have always been by my side to help me and comfort me when I was in the most difficult time. If you are in trouble, I should do my best to help you, otherwise, how can we be considered friends."
"Yes, you are right, we are best friends." Sheng Youqing smiled at her, "It is my blessing to have you as a friend."
After they left, Cheng Su Ming first found some ropes in the Sheng family and tied up the bandits. Then he turned around and took Si Nan into the room where Sheng You Qing lived, motioning her to take out several antiseptic tablets, as well as medicines for dysentery and diarrhea from the space and take them, to prevent her from swallowing too much dirty water full of bacteria, which would make her feel unwell and cause vomiting and diarrhea.
Sinan obediently took the medicine, and cooperated with Cheng Suming to put the injured and dead robbers onto the inflated raft. The two of them paddled the raft to the nearest police station.
The police bureau today is no longer the same as it was before. Take the police bureau in front of us for example. Because the accumulated water submerged the police bureau office area, they had to move to an office in a small business building nearby.
Normally there are only three or five civilian police officers on duty there. One third of the others died in natural disasters and in maintaining public order in the past two years. The rest went to temporary shelters to maintain order, and some stayed in the city to solve criminal cases.
When Cheng Suming and his companion came to report the case with a group of robbers tied with ropes, and stated that they had killed three people in self-defense during the fight, the police officer who was in charge of receiving them was not surprised at all, but simply took their statements according to the procedure.
After learning that Cheng Suming was a surgeon, the police officer with a poker face finally showed some expression. "According to the current public security management, for cases like yours, we need you to cooperate with our evidence collection work in the police station. But you are a doctor, so you should be very busy. How about this? Leave your home address, and don't go anywhere except your workplace in the near future. Cooperate with our investigation at any time."
This was a misunderstanding that Cheng Suming worked in the hospital. Cheng Suming did not explain and said calmly, "Thank you for your help, officer."
"Don't bother, just go and do your thing."
"Thanks."
"I didn't expect the current public security laws to be so lax." Si Nan came out of the police station and rowed with Cheng Su Ming to the hospital to visit Sheng Youqing's family. "Under the previous laws, if someone killed someone in self-defense, they would have been arrested by the police and locked up in the police station pending evidence collection and investigation. They would never let people go home."
Cheng Suming identified the direction of progress: "The natural disaster environment is harsh, and it is difficult for people to survive. These police officers are just ordinary people when they take off their uniforms. With their current police force, it is difficult to maintain normal order, and they don't have that much energy to deal with the endless criminal incidents. As long as it is not intentional homicide and someone reports it to the police station, they will turn a blind eye if it is not out of line."
Si Nan sighed: "The public security is so chaotic now, I'm afraid it will be even more chaotic in the future, right?"
"Not necessarily. Once the water recedes and a country builds a base to take over, maybe we can be stable for a while."
“When will the water recede?”
"It's almost time. How long will it take until the day of our dream."
"Do you think the next natural disaster will come on time?"
"It's uncertain, but seeing as the rain is stopping now, the water should recede in the near future."
"That's troublesome. Considering the extent of the injuries suffered by Youqing and his family, they will have to stay in the hospital for at least half a month to a month. If the water recedes during this period and another natural disaster occurs, I'm worried that their lives will be in danger. No, I have to go and warn them."
.....
The couple chatted as they paddled and soon arrived at the hospital and found Sheng Youqing's family.
Sheng's father and Sheng Youbin were seriously injured and are still in surgery. Sheng Youqing injured his legs and arms and only underwent simple suture surgery.
At that time, the robbers saw that Sheng Youqing was good-looking and became sexually attracted to her. She fought back desperately, and Sheng's father, mother and Sheng Youbin all tried their best to protect her, which angered the robbers and made them want to kill her.
Before the operation, they had already handed in most of the supplies and medicines in advance, and the remaining supplies were packed in a backpack carried by Sheng's mother.
In order to protect the supplies in her bag, Sheng's mother, who had always been weak and sickly, held the fruit knife she brought from home in her hand and looked at the people around her vigilantly. While Sheng Youqing and others were undergoing surgery, she used three boxes of milk to exchange for a bed in a ward.
Sheng Youqing is now sitting on the hospital bed. Her mother is still waiting for her husband and son outside the operating room. Seeing Si Nan and Cheng Su Ming coming to see her, Sheng Youqing seems very happy: "Si Nan, you are here."
"How do you feel?" Si Nan squeezed past the many patients beside the bed, sat down beside the bed and asked her.
Sheng Youqing lifted her legs slightly, moved to the side, and asked Si Nan and Cheng Suming to sit closer. "Fortunately, my injury is not serious. The doctor said I can be discharged after staying in the hospital for more than a week. But my dad and Youbin broke their bones, so they will have to stay in the hospital for at least a month."
"What takes so long?" Si Nan frowned and whispered in her ear, "Do you still remember the dream I told you about before?"
"I remember." Sheng Youqing looked serious and lowered his voice as he said, "After you told me about it two years ago, I went online to look up relevant posts and found that the natural disasters described online were roughly the same as the dreams you described. After experiencing the natural disasters over the past two years, I have come to believe what you said. According to the time calculation, the accumulated water will recede this month at the latest, and then the next natural disaster will begin."
Si Nan: "You should understand what I mean by asking this question."
Sheng Youqing nodded: "I will try my best to get our dad and my brother out of the hospital after the water recedes, and find a wide area to avoid the disaster."
"I'm glad you understand. The order of natural disasters is unstable. Just in case, I will come to see you every week. When your father and his family recover from their injuries and are discharged from the hospital, you and your family can live in my house. Then everyone will be able to take care of each other."
Letting Sheng Youqing's family live together after they recovered from their injuries was a decision that Si Nan and Cheng Suming discussed.
Si Nan felt that the environment where Sheng Youqing lived was more dangerous than Shenxianyuan, mainly because most of the people in their community had moved out, and the few remaining families were naturally fat meat in the eyes of others.
If Sheng Youqing's family could be murdered for money once, it could happen a second time. She couldn't just watch her friend's family be in danger.
The next natural disaster was getting closer and closer. She wanted to avoid casualties among her friend's family to the best of her ability and let them live with her temporarily.
Cheng Suming had no objection to this.
Si Nan talked to Sheng Youqing for a while and then left. Before leaving, he stuffed the backpack on his back into her hands and said, "Take it."
Sheng Youqing felt the backpack and knew it was full of food and water, so he quickly refused: "You gave our family so many supplies before, and now you are taking more. Do you want to live on your own? I can't accept it."
Si Nan held her hand and whispered in her ear about the robbers' base. Then he said, "Don't worry. Su Ming and I have enough food and drink. Your family is inconvenienced in the hospital. It won't hurt to get more food and drink."
Sheng Youqing knew that she was doing this for her own good, so she stopped refusing.
After Si Nan returned home, the first thing he did was to boil water and take a bath, for fear of catching a cold.
However, even though she took medicine and took a bath, she still got sick that night and suffered from vomiting and diarrhea, and her face turned blue from diarrhea.
A week later, Sinan finally recovered and was full of energy.
She was worried about the situation of Sheng Youqing's family, so she took out some convenient foods such as compressed biscuits, chocolate, pork soup, and eight-treasure porridge from the space the night before, filled a backpack with them, and planned to visit her the next day.
At about five o'clock in the morning of that day, Si Nan, who was sleeping, suddenly heard the loud cries of Dabai and his wife who were locked outside the door of the master bedroom.
Cheng Suming, who always had a light sleep and was more alert than her, woke up immediately. He didn't even put on his coat and rushed to the door to open it.
Dabai flapped its wings and flew into the room, holding Sinan's sleeve in its mouth, looking very anxious.
"What's wrong?" Si Nan was startled by its abnormal behavior and his sleepiness disappeared immediately.
"The livestock are acting abnormally, and there are strange phenomena in the sky." Cheng Suming went to the balcony to check the situation outside, and came back soon with a heavy face: "Anan, the water has receded, pack up all the important things, I will go downstairs immediately."
"Has the water receded? How much has it receded?" Si Nan pulled open the curtains of the master bedroom and saw a shocking scene.
The water that was originally ten stories high receded overnight, revealing a vast expanse of yellow mud and garbage that stretched as far as the eye could see, as if one was in a quagmire.
Si Nan rubbed his eyes to make sure he was not dreaming. He realized the seriousness of the situation. The accumulated water in the dream was clearly receding slowly, at least for half a month, but now it had receded overnight, revealing the bottom floors of the building that had been soaked in sewage for two years and were crumbling. This was obviously not a good sign!
Si Nan turned around and quickly packed up the various condiments in the kitchen, rice noodles, the refrigerator, the various vegetable pots planted in the balcony and living room, as well as her mobile phone, clothes and other things, and threw them into the space.
Cheng Suming gave his computer to Si Nan and put it in the space for safekeeping. He then focused on packing the instruments he would need for surgery, a first aid kit for daily necessities, and some food and water into a large-capacity backpack. He reminded Si Nan, "Put on your backpack, pack more food and water, and follow me!"
It was the first time that Si Nan saw him in such a hurry, and he also became nervous. He put on his backpack, squatted down, and ran out the door with Cheng Su Ming, holding the slow-moving Dabai couple on his left and right.
"Open the door! Open the door quickly! An earthquake is coming! Get up quickly!" Cheng Suming knocked on the door of 1503 frantically.
"Brother, what earthquake?!"
When Cheng Wei woke up and opened the door, Si Nan hugged Da Bai and his wife and kicked the doors of 1502/1504, shouting, "Get up, an earthquake is coming!"
"There's no time to explain, go downstairs first!" Cheng Suming pointed at Yang Wentao: "I'll leave her to you." He turned around and went downstairs to knock on Yu Yong's door.
Province S is located in an earthquake zone. People in Xingcheng have been plagued by earthquakes below magnitude 5 for many years, and have basically developed a very keen sense of earthquakes.
Si Nan and the others' shouting not only woke up the residents on the 14th and 15th floors, but also the residents of the entire building were awakened by the noise from the floors above and below. They packed up their things in panic and prepared to run away.
In fact, two years ago, the people of Xingcheng were mostly prone to lying down. Most of them believed that they could not escape a big earthquake, but did not need to run away from a small earthquake. So when the earthquake came, many people were unwilling to run.
But after two years of strange natural disasters and witnessing the large number of people who died in the disasters, people are now like frightened birds. No matter whether they believe that an earthquake is coming or not, the most important thing is to run downstairs first and find a flat place to hide and save their lives.
Not long after a group of people ran down the stairs, they felt the world spinning and the ground was shaking violently. At the same time, they heard the creaking sound of the building shaking, accompanied by the screams of people being awakened and terrified.
Everyone who ran down had a blank mind. They did not expect the earthquake to come so suddenly. They all fell to the ground with their heads heavy.
There was more than one meter high of silt and garbage on the ground. After people fell into the silt uncontrollably, they had no time to struggle. The ground was like being hit hard by a hammer. Amid the violent shaking, the ground began to crack and fissures appeared. The silt flowed into these cracks at the fastest speed, revealing piles of white bones and corpses, abandoned vehicles, sharp building garbage and so on.
These things fluttered around rapidly as the ground shook. The people who were already unable to keep their feet steady and fell to the ground either had their limbs broken by the rapidly shaking abandoned vehicles, or had their bodies pierced by the sharp wooden structures, causing them to scream in pain.
Whether upstairs or downstairs, it was a scene of purgatory.
Large blocks of water-soaked buildings collapsed like dominoes. Countless people who had just woken up from their dreams screamed and fell from the damaged high-rise buildings. Most of them died on the spot, while a few suffered bloody heads and broken limbs. They did not have time to get up before they were crushed under the collapsed buildings.
Some newly built buildings with high quality have not collapsed yet. People are unable to keep steady and run downstairs due to the violent shaking. Families can only huddle together and hide in the toilet, hoping that the earthquake will stop soon.
Some people who lived on the lower floors rushed downstairs as fast as they could when the earthquake struck. Before they even touched the ground, they stepped into the increasingly large cracks, without even a chance to run back.
There were screams, cries, and people running desperately everywhere.
Outside a high-rise window that was shaking and tilting violently, a little girl no more than four years old was hanging upside down outside the window, dangling with her tender white hands holding a shaky curtain.
The little girl looked at the dizzy height above the ground, tears all over her tender face, and she shouted to her mother in panic: "Mom, I'm so scared, wuwuwu..."
Her mother, with blood all over her head, lay by the window and reached out to pull her up, "Beibei, don't be afraid, hold on to the curtains, mom will pull you up."
The woman comforted the little girl while carefully pulling the curtains, trying to pull the little girl up as quickly as possible.
But at this moment, the ground shook even more violently, and the tall building shook violently as it went down. The little girl only had one hand holding the curtain, and the shaking caused her hand to slip away. Her small body fell downward at a high speed, and she cried out in fear before her death: "Mom——!"
"Beibei!" The woman cried out in a heart-wrenching cry. Without any hesitation, she jumped down and tried to grab her daughter's small hand.
"Beibei! Wife!" The young man, whose head was broken and bleeding after being hit by a large piece of roofing material and leaning upside down in another corner of the room, saw this and tried to push the material that was holding him down like crazy, but he couldn't move it. He could only look towards the window, tears streaming down his face, and cried helplessly, "Ah——"
And a man on the ground was lucky enough to run to an open area on the ground during the earthquake. He lay on the ground and waited quietly for the earthquake to pass.
Just as he was feeling the aftermath of running down the stairs at an unprecedented speed to avoid falling to his death, he suddenly heard a strange creaking sound above his head. He looked up in panic and suddenly realized that he was lying under the light of a large billboard.
When he looked up, the huge signboard with the words "Lucky Star Amusement Park" on it, which had faded and it was impossible to tell which amusement park it belonged to, weighed tons and fell straight from the sky, smashing him into a pulp and causing the people nearby who had witnessed the scene to scream.
A certain tertiary hospital woke up all its patients the moment the earthquake started.
"Oh shit, there's an earthquake! Run!"
I don't know who shouted, but everyone, no matter if they had broken legs or arms, or were seriously ill, got up immediately and rushed to the safety stairs and ran downstairs.
The existing wards of this hospital are above the eleventh floor, and there are at least hundreds of thousands of patients' families gathered inside. With so many people going downstairs at the same time, a stampede soon occurred.
Countless wounded were squeezed to the ground and trampled to death by the people who were fleeing in panic. Some of the wounded's relatives were crying loudly, wanting everyone to stop and rescue their relatives and friends.
But under the threat of the violent shaking earthquake, the desire to survive occupied everyone's mind. No one stopped and they crawled down, stepping on the piles of corpses.
However, this hospital is an old hospital. The building was built more than fifteen years ago. The floors below the tenth floor had been soaked in water for two years. Those people ran less than five floors before the entire building collapsed.
The building broke apart in the middle and collapsed to both sides. The original safety staircase turned into a cliff ladder. Countless people desperately grabbed the railings of the ladder to avoid falling.
But in the end, they were no match for gravity and the power of nature, and they fell down the stairs like dumplings, screaming and wailing one after another.
Sheng Youqing's family was crowded on a bed in a ward. When the earthquake struck, they wanted to run away, but both Sheng's father and Sheng Youbin had undergone surgery, and their wounds would burst if they moved.
Sheng Youqing has difficulty walking, and his mother has heart disease. The whole family is sick and can only watch others run away. They climb down from the bed with great effort and hide under the bed. Sheng's father and mother hugged the two children tightly and protected them under their bodies.
Sheng Youqing and her brother tried to hug them from behind and shield them under their bodies, but Sheng's father and mother found the strength to hold them tightly and not let them move.
The building was shaking too violently and tilting too quickly. They were unable to move and could only fall to the ground with the building, stirring up a cloud of dust. Then they were buried layer by layer by countless messy construction materials.
"Ah!" Sheng Youqing was hit on the head by a cracked brick. The pain made her see stars and blood flowed. Countless debris rustled all over her face.
She closed her eyes involuntarily, and when she opened them again, she saw a huge building stone slab falling from the sky, pressing heavily on Sheng's father who was protecting her.
She and Sheng's father were knocked down one meter deep. Sheng's father spat out a mouthful of blood, his face covered in blood. He called out to her with tears in his eyes: "Qingqing, live well." After that, he closed his eyes and drooped his head heavily.
"dad--!"
Silenced cries echoed among the ruins.
Today is a rare sunny day!
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