In the middle of the night, Shen Yanming and Bi Qiaoan were sound asleep when they heard the fire alarm go off in the building.
Waaaaaah~~~ Waaaaah~~~
Bi Qiaoan was dreaming of digging for corals underwater with Shen Yanming when a loud, piercing alarm woke her up. "What's going on?"
When Bi Qiaoan opened her eyes, she was still a little dazed. Shen Yanming pulled Bi Qiaoan up and helped her put on her clothes. "There must be a fire. Quick, get dressed and go downstairs."
Bi Qiaoan's heart skipped a beat, and her hands and feet went weak. She and Shen Yanming were wearing summer pajamas when they went to sleep, and they didn't bother to change out of their pajamas. They put on thermal underwear, wool sweaters and wool pants, and finally wrapped themselves in long down jackets and put on boots before going downstairs.
Before leaving, Shen Yanming picked up Bi Qiaoan's bag, slammed the door shut, hesitated for a moment, then walked to room 1601 and knocked on the door, "Zhang Heping, are you there?"
After waiting for more than ten seconds without anyone coming out, Shen Yanming didn't linger any longer and pulled Bi Qiaoan down the stairs.
The entire building was without power, and the stairwell was pitch black, with only green signs guiding the way. Shen Yanming turned on the flashlight on his phone, and the two of them used the light from the phone to identify the stairs under their feet.
At first, the two of them were quite fast, but since they didn't exercise much, their legs went weak after climbing only four or five floors.
The urgent, piercing alarm was ringing in her ears. Bi Qiaoan was so anxious that her palms were sweating. While Shen Yanming was holding Bi Qiaoan, he also had to free his hands to call Zhang Heping and Ji Kangyong.
Call Zhang Heping first, because Ji Kangyong is the most alert among them.
So, before Zhang Heping could even answer the phone, Shen Yanming ran into Ji Kangyong at the ninth-floor stairwell.
As expected of a police officer, Ji Kangyong dressed as usual and showed no signs of panic.
When Ji Kangyong saw Shen Yanming, he shouted, "Hurry up!" and then continued to knock on the neighbor's door.
Finally, the neighbor opened the door, and Ji Kangyong picked up a three-year-old boy and ran downstairs.
Bi Qiaoan turned her head at the corner and saw that there was an elderly woman in her sixties or seventies. A couple was helping the old woman up the stairs, but the old woman was too slow. In their haste, the man simply carried the old woman on his back, while the woman stood by to protect her.
Bi Qiaoan was so distracted that she almost tumbled down the stairs. Shen Yanming quickly pulled her into his arms, stopped making the phone call, and held Bi Qiaoan's arm tightly as they ran down the stairs.
Along the way, many people came out of their homes and hurriedly ran down the road, all of them disheveled.
When they reached the third floor, Bi Qiaoan felt so weak that she could barely stand. She didn't know if it was from fear or exhaustion. Hearing Bi Qiaoan's heavy breathing, Shen Yanming squatted down and carried her on his back.
Bi Qiaoan felt her eyes stinging, buried her face in the man's back, and a few tears involuntarily streamed down her face.
"Why are you crying? Isn't it good enough that your husband carried you for a while?"
"No, I just feel like I'm holding everyone back a bit."
Shen Yanming chuckled, "I'd be willing to drag you down for the rest of your life, and besides, with such an awesome husband, what are you afraid of? Wipe your tears, we're about to leave."
Shen Yanming did not choose to go down to the underground parking garage; he and Bi Qiaoan came out directly from the main entrance on the first floor.
A large crowd had gathered in front of the building, including residents of Building 6 and people from other buildings who had been woken up by the noise to come out and see what was going on.
Shen Yanming and Bi Qiaoan looked up and, damn it, the next unit was on fire. It looked like it was on the 23rd or 24th floor.
"Honey, what are we going to do? There's no water left, so we can't even put out the fire."
"Even if there is water, it's too high to put out the fire!" Shen Yanming watched as the raging fire devoured everything, and his legs went weak.
"Quick, call Zhang Heping!" Bi Qiaoan remembered that Shen Yanming had put the phone away before she could get through because she had almost fallen in the building.
Shen Yanming nodded, dialed Zhang Heping's number, and learned that Dr. Zhang was on night shift tonight and had fallen asleep, which was why he hadn't answered the phone in time.
Shen Yanming told Zhang Heping that the next unit was on fire and that he was afraid it would spread to their unit, so he asked Zhang Heping to stay in the hospital dormitory for the next two days and then call him home once things stabilized.
After Shen Yanming hung up the phone, Ji Kangyong walked to Shen Yanming's side with the little boy in his arms. "I've already called the fire department, and they've also notified the Qinghe Guard Team. Let's wait a little longer."
Bi Qiaoan's voice trembled slightly, "What a huge loss this is! We don't even know if anyone is still inside the building."
Shen Yanming hugged Bi Qiaoan tightly, "Don't be afraid, I will stay with you, always and always."
Bi Qiaoan hugged Shen Yanming back, her tears once again soaking his clothes. Shen Yanming smiled and wiped away Bi Qiaoan's tears, "Oh dear, you have to be understanding of your dear husband. If you can't stop crying, your husband will have to go to work with your tears and snot on his face!"
I'm not afraid of being laughed at, but I don't know if you mind?
Bi Qiaoan was amused by Shen Yanming and stopped crying. Shen Yanming secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He wasn't worried about Bi Qiaoan getting her clothes dirty; he was just worried about her getting her face chapped.
Bi Qiaoan stopped crying, but the little boy in Ji Kangyong's arms started crying. Ji Kangyong quickly returned the little boy to the neighbor, but the child was probably really frightened and kept crying.
Bi Qiaoan hesitated for a moment, then took out a lollipop from her bag and handed it to the little boy. The little boy was immediately attracted and stopped crying.
Bi Qiaoan breathed a sigh of relief, finally her ears were at peace, but she was a little worried looking at the dancing flames.
Shen Yanming took a mask out of his bag and put it on Bi Qiaoan. "How about we go sit in the car first?"
Bi Qiaoan shook her head, "I'm not cold, I want to watch!"
Shen Yanming sighed and didn't insist. He simply carried Bi Qiaoan to a sheltered spot a few hundred meters away. Ji Kangyong thought for a moment and followed.
As soon as the three of them stood still, Chen Shunwei came over with more than a dozen security guards. "Mr. Chen, it's cold outside. Why don't you go sit in the security room for a while? Wang Lai is watching over there."
Without waiting for a reply, Chen Shunwei ran to the bottom of Building 6 to comfort the residents and then took them to the security guard dormitory to settle them in.
Before they could leave, a helicopter flew over, and two fire trucks arrived at the bottom of the building.
They worked together to spray water at the fire. In fact, the Qinghe Alliance even released a dozen newly developed drones, which flew directly into the burning room with "water balloons" to extinguish the fire.
The fire was finally extinguished more than an hour later, but no one dared to go home for fear it would reignite.
Shen Yanming took Bi Qiaoan and Ji Kangyong to the underground parking garage, deciding to spend the night in the car. Some of the others did the same as Shen Yanming and his group, while others went to the security guard dormitory with Chen Shunwei and his group to make do.
They can go home tomorrow after it's confirmed that they are safe.
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