The rescue work was still very difficult because all the buildings of the Grade A hospital collapsed during the earthquake. The materials under the rubble were stacked layer upon layer and were not solid. It was easy for people to step on empty air and fall into the hole in the rubble when they stepped on the rubble, which put them in danger. Therefore, everyone was very cautious in the rescue.
Today is the seventh day after the earthquake, and the sun is still bright, as if all the sunshine that had been raining and cloudy for nearly a year and a half has come out during this period of time.
The winter sun felt warm and comfortable on his body. Sinan stood on a ruin, feeling dizzy and drowsy.
These days, she accompanied the soldiers and worked hard to move the ruins and building materials in the inpatient area, looking for any trace of Sheng Youqing's family.
However, as fewer and fewer people were willing to participate in the rescue, most people ran to other places to collect supplies after rescuing their relatives and family members.
Originally they had hundreds of people rescuing in the ward area, but now there are less than thirty left. With such a small number of people, they simply cannot keep up with the speed of the rescue.
Si Nan suspected that Sheng Youqing and his family were buried at the bottom. She had almost searched the entire ruins of the inpatient department but couldn't find them. If they were not buried at the deepest place, she should have found them long ago.
Sheng Youqing's family had been trapped for seven days without food or water. Regardless of whether they were injured or not, they would soon starve to death or die of thirst if they were not rescued.
Si Nan was very anxious. He had been following the army soldiers in the rescue work day and night for the past two days. He had endured two nights in a row and could hardly hold on any longer. His head kept drooping.
Dabai, who had been following her not far away and acting as a police dog, noticed that something was wrong with her. He stood on a broken wall, stretched his neck and shouted at her, "You deserve it!"
Master, wake up! It's dangerous to fall asleep!
"Mrs. Cheng, be careful." The soldier named Quan Haochen, who had been protecting her safety, was carrying a large log when he heard Dabai's cry. He turned around and saw that she was about to roll down the ruins. He dropped the log in his hand and ran over to support her.
Si Nan woke up from her dazed state and saw that there were pieces of sharp broken steel bars below her. If she fell from here, she would be pierced into a sieve. She couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat.
Seeing that she had dark circles under her eyes and looked extremely tired, Quan Haochen helped her to lean against the wall where Dabai was. "Mrs. Cheng, you have been participating in the rescue for two consecutive days and two nights without a rest. It will be very dangerous if you continue like this. If you lose your concentration and accidentally fall asleep and fall into the gap in the rubble, saving you will be a small matter, but getting hurt will be a big deal. You can take a nap here for a while. Your gander is watching you. If there is danger or aftershock, it will remind you at the first time. When you have recovered a little, we can continue the rescue."
Four days ago, Sinan brought her pair of geese to the rescue team, saying that she would use them as police dogs and let the two geese help find people trapped under the rubble. Everyone scoffed, thinking that there was no way poultry could beat well-trained and intelligent search and rescue dogs.
As a result, Dabai proved that it was no worse than a search and rescue dog. Every day, it climbed up and down in the ruins with a pair of big goose webbed feet, running around. Occasionally, it ignored the pain and bandages on its wings and flew to the building materials high up in the ruins. It stared at the ruins full of garbage with its pair of goose eyes, held its head high, and listened carefully to distinguish the movements around it.
When it faces a certain direction and makes a loud sound, there must be trapped people who are buried but still alive there.
After Dabai demonstrated his keen hearing for the first time in a ruin, people tried to dig out two trapped people alive from the location where he called. In the next four days, the rescue team saved at least thirty more people alive by relying on his calls.
Now Dabai's status in the rescue team has risen. Not only the families of the rescued people are thinking of ways to save their own rations and feed them to the two geese to repay them for saving their lives.
Captain Li, the captain of their rescue team, also asked Commander Zhou for the same rations as search and rescue dogs for the two geese as a reward.
Now when the big goose cried, the rescue soldiers who were searching nearby turned around and looked at it.
Quan Haochen quickly explained: "It's okay, it's okay. Dabai just saw Mrs. Cheng almost fell asleep and was afraid that she would fall into the rubble, so he spoke up to remind Mrs. Cheng."
But Dabai made another noise at this time, his goose eyes fixed on the place where Sinan had just stood.
Si Nan looked in the direction it was heading, his expression slightly tense: "There's someone down there."
"How is that possible!" Quan Haochen turned his head and said, "We searched and rescued here yesterday and rescued more than a dozen people. There shouldn't be anyone down there. If there was, we would have rescued them long ago."
Si Nan didn't listen at all. He walked back to the top of the ruins, and lay down among a pile of building materials. He listened to the sounds below and shouted loudly: "Is there anyone down there?!"
When the other people who were moving construction materials heard her shout, they all stopped their work, letting the noisy ruins calm down so that they could hear if anyone below was responding.
"Dangdangdang..." A slight metallic striking sound came up from a long sewer pipe right in front of Si Nan. Although the sound was very small, so small that it could not be heard at all if one was not paying attention, Si Nan still heard it, climbed up and shouted to everyone: "Here, there are still people alive here!"
"Didn't we clean up this place yesterday? There are still people buried down there?!" The rescue team members climbed over the various landslide-prone building materials and formed a circle. "Is there really someone still buried down there?"
"It should be correct. The big goose just called at this position, and the black panther also called just now."
Black Panther is the only large search and rescue dog with huge body and shiny black fur in their rescue team. Over the past seven days, it has been following the firefighter who trained it, searching for trapped people buried deep in the ruins and has saved many people.
Black Panther is a Kunming dog with a high IQ. It is an enhanced version of the German Shepherd. It not only has a keen sense of smell and hearing, but most importantly, it has good physical strength and is easy to feed. In the past seven days, except for a few hours of rest at night, it has been working during the day and has not shown any signs of slacking off or being unwilling to work.
Now it is circling around the sewer pipe on top of the ruins, digging the ground with its furry claws and barking, telling everyone that there are indeed people trapped down there.
"Hurry, hurry, move all the stones, bricks and steel bars away!" Captain Li called on everyone to work together.
Everyone gathered around the sewer pipe and hurriedly moved the stacked building materials out of the hole with a diameter of about five meters. Captain Li lay at the hole and shouted again, "Is anyone there?"
Soon, there was another slight metal knocking sound from below, and this time everyone present heard it.
Because of the special nature of building collapse during earthquakes, many ruins were stacked up into an enclosed space with layers of building stones. Without the help of large cranes, forklifts, excavators and other tools, people were unable to move away the building materials piled up like a hill one by one. During rescue, they could only move a hole by hand based on the location where the trapped people sent out the call for help, and then lower the soldiers down with ropes to rescue people.
The ruins here are at least twenty meters high from the real ground. The large materials block the way, so two soldiers can only be lowered in from the cave entrance. They hold a military electric saw in their hands and saw through the materials blocking the way one by one.
This is actually a very dangerous action. They don't know the situation and specific location of the trapped people. Once the building materials are sawed and fall down, they are likely to hit the trapped people and cause secondary injuries.
However, there have been frequent aftershocks in recent days. In order to save people, many soldiers lost their precious lives while hanging ropes and were buried in the rubble by building materials that were knocked down by the aftershocks.
In order to ensure the safety of the soldiers and to rescue the trapped people in the shortest possible time, this rough method had to be used.
Soon the two soldiers were hung down by ropes. From below came the sharp sound of electric saws and the rustling sound of materials falling into the hollow space below.
Everyone was sweating when they heard the sound, hoping that God would be merciful and not cause an aftershock at this time.
Otherwise, if the earthquake was too severe, it would cause a second collapse of the ruins, and shake the two soldiers down, and impaled on the building materials that they had sawed off. That would be more painful than death!
Fortunately, the two soldiers sawed down about fifteen meters and stopped. A young soldier's strong voice came from below: "Captain, there are many large and heavy stones below, each about ten meters long and wide, which fit the entire space tightly. It looks like a concrete floor, with only a sewer pipe stuck in the lower right corner. We tried to saw the stone facing the hole with an electric saw and found someone below calling for help. The trapped person should be below. What should we do?"
Captain Li frowned. No wonder they hadn't noticed that there were people below before. It turned out that they were deceived by those large stone slabs. They thought there was a road below. They searched and rescued thoroughly, but they found that the stone slabs were actually some distance from the ground.
The trapped people were unable to speak and could only knock on things to make noises. It seemed that the situation was very bad.
This created a problem. They didn't know how many people were trapped there, or where exactly they were under the rocks, so they couldn't just use an electric saw to cut them open.
They cannot bear the responsibility if the saw hits the body of the trapped person and kills him/her.
But if we don’t saw open the big rock, how can we rescue the people trapped under it?
Just when Captain Li was at a loss, he heard Si Nan, who was also lying at the entrance of the cave, saying, "Captain Li, move."
Captain Li was stunned: "Move?"
"Yes, move all the construction materials within a ten-meter radius around the sewer pipe! Although it will take some time, it is better than rashly sawing the trapped people to death."
Captain Li took a look at the people surrounding the cave entrance. Among them were soldiers, firefighters, and less than thirty civilians who were participating in the rescue. Everyone looked extremely tired and haggard.
Everyone worked hard for a week straight, moving countless construction materials. Even with gloves, everyone's hands were worn out.
The place had already been moved once yesterday, and it had to be moved again today. Captain Li felt distressed. He felt distressed for his soldiers who fought bloody battles, worked day and night, and risked their lives to rescue the trapped people.
They were so tired that they wanted to lie down on the spot and have a good sleep. However, in order to race against time to save people and not to disappoint the people who were waiting for rescue with great expectation, they could only force themselves to become a state machine that did not know tiredness or pain, and try their best to save people.
However, no matter how sad they were, there were people trapped below and they had to rescue them.
Since there is no better way to rescue the people below, we can only use the most primitive and simplest method.
"Move!" Captain Li gave the order and took the lead in moving a heavy construction stone next to the sewer pipe.
Everyone got busy, and after more than three hours, they finally cleared the area in front of the large stone slab.
This place is very close to the ground, and there are large stone slabs all around, neatly pressed down and covered with thick dust and dirt. It looks no different from the ground. No wonder they didn't find anyone underneath when they rescued here yesterday.
Everyone tried to lift the big rock next to the sewer pipe together. No one knew what was wrong with the big rock. It was very heavy, and it was joined together with the surrounding rocks, making it difficult for everyone to start. They could only use the tip of a hammer to slowly knock a small hole from the four corners of the stone slab. Then everyone found hard iron rods and steel materials, used the principle of leverage, inserted them into the four corners, and slowly pried up the big rock. Others then caught it and lifted it to other places.
The moment the stone slab was lifted, Sinan saw a man who had been dead for a long time. His hands and feet were grayish white with purple and black colors and his body was about to rot. He was pressed tightly against the body of another trapped person. The dead man's figure and clothes looked very familiar.
Si Nan stared blankly at the soldiers lifting up the corpse, revealing a familiar yet somewhat strange face covered in black dust.
"Youqing..." Si Nan saw that face and the slightly rising and falling chest, and suddenly came to his senses. Tears welled up in his eyes like rain. He rushed over and hugged Sheng Youqing, calling her with a trembling voice: "Youqing, I finally found you."
Hot tears fell on Sheng Youqing's face. Sheng Youqing's hollow eyes gradually came back to life. When he recognized who she was, his eyes became slightly moist and he uttered a faint hoarse voice: "Sinan..."
When the rescue team pulled Sheng Youqing's family out and carried them to the tent area for treatment, the sun had already set, leaving behind a sunset glow all over the sky.
Mr. Sheng's body was separated from Sheng Youqing and the others halfway through the journey and was to be carried and placed in an open area behind the tent.
There were rows of corpses piled up there, waiting for their family members to claim them and agree, before they were burned together to prevent the corpses from rotting and spreading the plague.
Sheng's mother and Sheng Youqing both regained consciousness. They lay on the stretcher and watched Sheng's father's body being carried away. Both of them cried in grief.
The stretcher bearer advised, "Please accept my condolences, both of you. You are too weak to move. You should go get medical treatment first. The bodies of the victims are usually kept for more than three days before being cremated. It won't be too late to go and see the victims when you are better."
Si Nan silently accompanied Sheng Youqing and his family into the medical tent, turned around and asked Cheng Suming to open the back door so that they could receive treatment for Sheng Youqing and his family of three without having to wait in line.
Many family members of patients queuing in the patient area were not very happy. Some of them had been queuing here for four or five hours, or even half a day or a whole day, but it was not their turn to be treated. As a result, the treatment started as soon as they arrived. How could they accept this? Several of them stood up and wanted to seek justice and make a fuss.
A family member of a patient who had stayed in the tent for more than seven days said, "What's there to judge? Do you know who the woman who just came in with the two geese is? She is the wife of surgeon Dr. Cheng. She has been moving buildings in the rubble to save people for the past week. Many people in our ward were rescued by her. The three people who were carried in were the relatives and friends she had been looking for. She had a hard time finding them. Her husband is a surgeon, so of course he can go in through the back door and get priority treatment. If you have a temper, you should find a doctor to go in through the back door."
Those who wanted to find fault were silenced after hearing this. Everyone knows how rare doctors are these days. Now that the country has been devastated, less than two-thirds of the people are likely to survive. Those doctors will no longer follow the rules and regulations as they did before the end of the world.
Even if they make a big fuss, no one will pay any attention to them, and they will also offend the doctors, who may not treat them, which would be a waste of time and effort.
Sheng Youbin was hit on the left arm by a heavy piece of steel. His entire arm was severely injured and infected. He was dying and had a chance of survival only if his left arm was amputated.
The problem is that there is no anesthetic now. If Sheng Youbin is given an amputation operation directly, I don’t know if he can withstand it.
When Sheng's mother heard that her son was going to have his limb amputated, she cried and fainted. Before she fainted, she kept shouting, "Oh my God, why did you do this to our family! Youbin's father died, and Youbin also has to have his limb amputated. How will a young man like him survive in the future? Why do you want to leave me, a half-dead patient, in this world to pay with my life so that the father and son can be well!"
Sheng Youqing's tears had dried up in the week after she saw her father being crushed to death by the big stone slab while trying to save her. When the medical staff kept urging her to make a decision on whether to operate on Sheng Youbin, who was already in a semi-comatose state, she closed her eyes and made a decision: "Do it."
If Sheng Youbin has the surgery, he still has a chance of survival. If she doesn't, she will lose her brother Youbin forever.
Although she knew that Youbin had always paid attention to his physical appearance since he was young, and losing an arm would be worse than death for him, as long as he could live, she would take care of everything else.
The person responsible for performing the operation on Sheng Youbin was Cheng Suming. Si Nan believed in his medical skills and knew that there was no anesthetic in the medical tent. Given Sheng Youbin's current physical condition, if he was not given anesthetic, he would probably die from the pain.
While the medical staff were preparing the equipment, Si Nan took out a bottle of anesthetic from the space, secretly stuffed it into Cheng Suming's hand, and winked at him, "Save him."
Cheng Suming:......
It's really stressful to give him such a big problem.
No one knows what method he used to get away with giving Sheng Youbin anesthesia and then perform the operation.
In short, after an hour and a half, Sheng Youbin's operation was successful and he was safely pushed out of the operating area.
Sheng Youqing and her daughter are currently in poor health and have trouble walking, so the task of taking care of Sheng Youbin naturally falls on Si Nan.
Si Nan arranged Sheng Youqing and the other two in a relatively remote and quiet location near the corner of the tent. He pretended to take out a pack of wet wipes from his backpack and carefully wiped off the thick dust and dirt on their faces, necks, hands and feet.
Seeing that it was time for dinner, she took a big bowl and ran to the canteen tent. In the name of Cheng Suming, she brought back a big bowl full of porridge. She held a spoon and fed the whole family mouthful by mouthful, and then gave them water.
They are weak and have not eaten for a long time, so they are not suitable to eat other foods and can only eat light liquid food. Even if Si Nan wants to give them extra meals, he has to wait until they are better.
During this period, Sheng Youbin woke up and saw that he had lost his left arm. As expected, he started yelling.
The reason for screaming was, firstly, that after the anesthetic wore off, the pain from the wound was so severe that he wished he was dying; secondly, he knew that he had become a cripple from then on. As a boy who had always paid more attention to his appearance than other boys, he could not accept it psychologically and was unwilling to eat.
Si Nan fed him several times, but he turned his head away and refused to eat. She did not force him, but just said, "So many people wanted to survive in this earthquake but didn't have the chance. You only lost an arm, but others lost their lives."
Not far away, Cheng Suming, who was taking a break to eat after finishing an operation, heard this:...
This sounds so familiar.
Sheng Youqing watched Si Nan busying around and taking good care of their family. She was so moved that her eyes turned red again. She choked up and said, "Si Nan, thank you, thank you so much."
When Sheng Youbin was undergoing surgery, she lay on a bed made of mats and quilts that the army had dug out from the ruins and laid on the ground. She heard many patients' families tell her how much Si Nan had done to find their family.
After she heard it, she was so shocked and grateful that she was speechless.
When she was trapped under the large stone slab, she struggled desperately and called for help, but the stone slab was too heavy and she could not move. She called for two or three days but no one responded and her voice became hoarse.
Because of excessive hunger and thirst, and because she had no hope of being rescued in that dark, closed and narrow space, she was in a state of collapse and coma. Only when she was awake did she take a small piece of steel bar that she had found before, and stretched out her hand with great effort to knock on the sewer pipe. It happened that she was heard by Sinan's big goose today, and she was saved.
Si Nan saved their family's lives once again. Sheng Youqing's dry eyes could no longer shed tears, but what she wanted to say was to tell Si Nan that having this good friend was enough for her in this life.
Si Nan patted her hands and comforted her: "No need to be so polite, just take good care of your injuries. When you are well, we can talk about other things."
"Okay." Sheng Youqing sniffed, choked, closed his eyes and fell asleep.
Three days later, Sheng Youqing and his family, despite their weak bodies, went to the corpse incineration area behind the tent.
There were at least thousands of corpses piled up there, many of them with broken limbs, and without heads or upper and lower bodies. They were piled up into a mountain of corpses, with broken meat and intestines hanging from the wounds of the bodies. They had turned black and rotted, attracting countless flies and mosquitoes to circle around them. It was visually creepy and uncomfortable.
Some soldiers picked up useless clothes, wood and other things they had dug out from the ruins, piled them under the pile of corpses, and set them on fire.
The fire gradually grew larger, the thick stench of rotten corpses filled the air, and black smoke spread across the sky.
Many people who came to send off the bodies of their relatives and friends were crying and vomiting all over the place.
Sheng's mother stood about fifteen meters in front of the fire and wiped her tears silently, while Sheng Youqing and Sheng Youbin knelt on the ground with red eyes and kowtowed three times towards the volcano.
Sheng Youqing kowtowed for the last time with tears in her eyes. She was reluctant to look up, and rested her forehead on the gravel ground. She cried softly, "Dad, don't worry. Your daughter will live well and take good care of mom and Youbin. From now on, I will be the pillar of the family and let them all live well."
The thick smoke spread out, and under the red sunlight, the slender figure looked extremely lonely and strong.
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