49 "People must love themselves first before they can love others"
The fire spread in an instant. He Yu reacted quickly and took Tao Wanjia away.
There was chaos outside. Workers and their families who were off work were in a mess and were squeezed into an alley that was closely connected to the factory area and the family building and ran away.
The black smoke tore a crack in the flames, like a huge monster following behind the people.
In a hurry, Tao Wanji grabbed a familiar uncle and asked, "Is there a fire in the factory?"
"Blast furnace! It's the No. 2 blast furnace that exploded!" The man, sweating profusely, broke free from her and shouted anxiously, "Run!"
The temperature around was even higher, and the sky was like a steamer with a lid on, airtight. Even the exposed skin could not avoid being scorched by the distant flames.
Their world was turned upside down, so fast that they were at a loss and had no time to react. All they could do was run for their lives.
He Yu held her hand tightly and said, "Follow me closely and don't get separated by the crowd."
Tao Wanji nodded and followed him, but there were so many people that he could hardly move forward once he got in.
I moved through the crowd with difficulty, and when I was about to leave, I suddenly saw Huang Zheng.
She walked against the flow of the crowd and headed straight for the fire scene. Tao Wanjia kept trying to stop her.
"You're trying to kill yourself!" She ran forward and grabbed Huang Zheng.
Her eyelashes trembled in the firelight and her voice was hoarse.
"Mom and Dad...Mom and Dad are inside!"
My brain buzzed.
Tao Wanjia was stunned, her heartbeat pounding amidst the chaos. She couldn't think of anything else at that moment, and couldn't figure out why Uncle Huang and Aunt Liu were here. She put her arm around Huang Zheng's shoulders and walked with her into the factory.
The greatest human instinct is self-preservation, but in front of her parents, all instincts are meaningless. She didn't know where her courage came from, and her mind was filled with only one thought.
He Yu watched in shock as the two of them walked inside. After being pushed a long way away by the crowd, he walked in the opposite direction. The fire was approaching, and in a hurry he pulled the people back with force.
"You two are crazy!"
"There's such a raging fire inside that going in would be fatal. Listen to me and get outside first!"
Huang Zheng cried and refused to listen. Tao Wanjia looked up and saw the flames shooting straight into the sky. He seemed to have regained some composure. He and He Yu held Huang Zheng on both sides and ran out.
The brick wall beside him was crumbling in the flames, and just as it was about to fall on Tao Wanjia, He Yu reached out his hand. The fire stream passed through his body, and the bricks and stones hit his arm hard.
The boy's face turned pale. He reluctantly pulled out his bloody hand and sent the two people out.
Fire trucks and police cars arrived one after another, and an evacuation passage was made for the crowded crowd. Emergency medical services also arrived at the scene. For a while, the only sounds around were the long and lingering sirens.
Tao Wanjia looked at the family quarters that had been orderly in the past and now had become a ruin. She was in a trance and was brought back to the time when her parents passed away. There was also a crowd of people gathered on the road that day. She pushed through the crowd and squeezed in, and saw her parents lying in a pool of blood.
As time passed, pain overwhelmed her once again.
This time, the ones who fell into the sea of fire were Huang Zhibiao and Liu Sulan, who had raised her for ten years.
Tao Wanjia didn't know how she and Huang Zheng got there that night. She vaguely remembered fainting, or perhaps being pushed to the ground. She could hear a lot of noises, so she forced herself to get up and go find Huang Zheng. They both knelt beside the stretcher, refusing to leave. They were not taken away by the police until dawn.
The body of an unnatural death must be taken back to the police station, and a death certificate can only be issued after forensic identification and confirmation. Huang Zheng is the only family member, and the body can only be taken back after she signs.
That day, the two of them went to the police station and the funeral home several times, and only returned home with two urns when it was dark.
That day was also the day the college entrance exam results were released, but Tao Wanjia was too distracted to care for anything else. Huang Zheng was all she had left, and she was the only family member Huang Zheng had. She tried to remain calm, staying close to Huang Zheng.
But she was in a trance all day long, and she could find a reason to scold Tao Wanjia for anything she did.
When people are in extreme pain, they will believe all kinds of nonsense. She even used the same excuses as outsiders and said that all these disasters were caused by her and that she had been losing since she came to this family.
When I was a child, I had the love of my parents, but now I have lost even my parents.
She couldn't understand, is life all about constant loss?
After the funeral, the two passed a river on their way back from the mountain. The water level rose in midsummer, and Huang Zheng jumped into it while Tao Wanjia was not paying attention.
The river water was icy cold, and when it flooded over the whole body, it made people forget all the pain. The faces of her parents gradually blurred in her mind, but the voices calling her name in her ears became louder and louder.
Tao Wanjia held her breath and dived into the water, using her hands and feet to pull up Huang Zheng. People become heavier in the water, and she struggled for a long time before she desperately pulled Huang Zheng ashore.
At that moment, he was really angry and raised his hand to hit her face which was covered with her hair.
"Are you doing them justice by abandoning yourself like this?"
"I know you're feeling bad, and I'm feeling bad too..." Tao Wanji's eyes were red as he stared at Huang Zheng and asked, "What else do you want me to do to satisfy you?"
Huang Zheng had said so much these past few days, fretting over her parents' three-year-old wages from the factory before dinner, money that could have gone towards Tao Wanjia's education. In her mind, Huang Zheng had reached a dead end; everything was because of Tao Wanjia.
"Those are my parents! I don't have any parents anymore!"
"If it weren't for you, they wouldn't have died. How else do you want me to face you?"
Huang Zheng's hoarse throat strained, and the water accumulated in her nasal cavity choked her, causing more bloodshot eyes.
The rain had begun to fall at some point, and ripples danced across the river. The sound of the rain was cheerful, but to their ears it sounded more like tens of thousands of needles piercing their skin.
Just like the heavy rain at this moment, it makes people breathless.
Tao Wanjia was crying too. Their world, including themselves, was collapsing. She was powerless to change it, too tired to answer. Under Huang Zheng's gaze, she stared at the gradually turbulent river.
"Will you only be satisfied if I die? Is it enough to give you my life in exchange for mine?"
After she finished speaking, she turned around without looking back, but Huang Zheng held her tightly.
The two men were soaked to the skin, clamping each other down until they were exhausted and fell on the dry rocky beach, gasping for breath.
Tao Wanjia held Huang Zheng in her arms, raised her hand and touched the red mark on the side of her face where she had hit herself. She said sorry again and again in her ear, and finally in return she shed soft tears from Huang Zheng.
"I have no home anymore. I don't know what to do in the future." Huang Zheng buried her head in front of her and cried intermittently. "Where else can I go? I'm all alone."
She was bewildered and terrified. She was two years older than Tao Wanjia, but mentally she was still a child. She knew Tao Wanjia had long wanted to leave Rongcheng, but she didn't want to go anywhere else. This was where all her memories from childhood were, and she couldn't bear to leave.
Tao Wanji stroked her trembling back again and again, and the two of them shivered in the rain as they vented all their emotions.
She raised her hand to wipe away Huang Zheng's tears mixed with the rain, her voice was very soft but very firm, "You are not alone, you still have me."
Two thin figures supported themselves to stand up in the rain and walked towards home step by step.
Huang Zheng fell seriously ill after being caught in the rain.
I had a severe cold so severe that I couldn't get out of bed.
Tao Wanjia took on the responsibility of taking care of her, providing her with three meals a day and medicine, and staying by her side from morning to night.
Although Huang Zheng was in pain, her mental state had improved a lot. The death of a loved one was something that could not be helped, and there was nothing one could do but accept it.
"How is He Yu's injury? Have you asked him?" Huang Zheng suddenly remembered this while taking medicine.
Tao Wanjia shook her head. She had called He Yu, but Aunt Yu always answered. He had been taken to the hospital that night and then transferred to another hospital. He was now in Jingping. She learned over the phone that He Yu had undergone surgery on his hand and was still recovering.
Huang Zheng sighed at her expression, drank the bitter medicine in the bowl, and suggested to her, "You should go to Jingping to see him. I know you are worried, but I can do it alone."
A week had passed since the incident, and Huang Zheng had slowly accepted the reality. Now, as long as Tao Wanji was by her side, she could temporarily stop thinking about the pain.
But she knew she cared about He Yu.
Tao Wanjia was indeed extremely anxious, and Huang Zheng's words made her feel at ease to some extent, so she booked a ticket to Jingping as soon as she recovered.
That was also her first time to leave Rongcheng properly. It was raining when she left the train station. She didn't bring an umbrella, so she randomly picked a taxi from the taxi waiting outside the exit and told the driver the name of the hospital she heard on the phone.
There was traffic jam all the way, and Tao Wanjia was so busy that even his bangs were stuck to his forehead. After arriving at the hospital, he was confused for a long time before he found the inpatient building.
Yu Li was surprised when she saw her in the corridor.
"Wan Jia, why are you here?" Aunt Yu said in a gentle voice. She pulled her to sit on the chair by the wall and wiped the water droplets on her face with a tissue.
Tao Wanji subconsciously grabbed the hand beside him and said, "I want to see Aunt He Yu. Is he okay now? Can you let me in to see him?"
He wanted to be a painter in the future, so his hands were more important than anything else. This was also what Tao Wanjia was worried about.
Yu Li thought for a moment, looked at her and spoke truthfully: "Xiao Tao, you are also a child who was raised by your aunt. I won't hide anything from you."
"He Yu's wrist nerves and ligaments are all broken. The doctor said that even if he recovers, there will be many sequelae, and he can forget about painting."
"Your Uncle He and I plan to send him abroad for treatment, which will be next month."
Tao Wanjia's heart trembled and his eyes immediately turned red.
That night was so chaotic that she didn't know how He Yu finally took her and Huang Zheng out. She would occasionally look up and see the corners of his lips tense, and she thought he must have been in great pain at that time.
"Auntie..." Tao Wanjia cried heavily, "I'll just take a look at him, okay? I won't disturb his rest. I just, I just..."
The corridor outside the intensive care unit was quiet. Yu Li held her hand tightly, her eyes moist.
"Auntie knows that you two are good children, but being good doesn't mean you have to be together. You are still young. Love is about what you two can gain together, not about sacrificing each other. He doesn't even care about his own life for you. You can understand my motherly love, right?"
Tao Wanjia understood the meaning of these words almost instantly. People always have to love themselves before they can love others. She really likes He Yu, but she hopes that he can recover more than being together.
"I understand, Auntie." She stood up and her expression returned to calm.
"Then I'll go back. Please take good care of He Yu and take care of your own health."
Yu Li watched the thin figure leave, feeling sorry for him. After a moment's thought, she decided to chase after him. After calling her back, she called He Jinsheng's secretary and asked him to book a flight and take her to the airport safely.
Tao Wanjia wanted to refuse, but Yu Li did not give her the chance. She sent her away with a kind smile and did not return to the ward until a long time later.
"Why did it take you so long to get the medicine today?"
He Yu was half leaning against the head of the bed, his hand in a cast and unable to move. The only thing he could see all day was the TV on the opposite wall, besides the IV hanging next to him.
But he had little patience. Compared with the pain of the wound and the constraints of size, he still felt that the latter was more difficult to accept.
"Are you hungry?" Yu Li naturally ignored his question and walked to the bedside. "Do you want to eat now?"
"I can't eat."
He Yu's voice was very deep, and he asked persistently: "Is there any message on my phone, a call or something like that?"
Ever since he woke up from surgery, he'd been worried about Tao Wanjia. He wondered how she was doing in Rongcheng, and whether Huang Zheng and the others were still arguing. Before leaving, he'd told Wen Dongyang to check on her from time to time, but there was no news from him.
"I want to go back and see a doctor. The doctor said I can wait a bit after the cast is removed before starting rehabilitation." Seeing his mother didn't respond, he simply stated his stance. Yu Li's words irritated her even more. Her high heels clattered loudly, and the look she gave him was sharp.
"You're in such a bad state now and you still want to go back? Have you forgotten how those people beat you?"
It would have been fine if she hadn't mentioned this. The mention of this made Yu Li even more furious. It was clearly the factory director who cut corners for his own selfish reasons, yet after the accident, the families of the deceased had singled out He Jinsheng, the designer, as the culprit. They had previously held him in high esteem, but now this incident had become a public outcry. He Yu was also implicated, which was why he hadn't received medical treatment so late.
"In short, you are not allowed to go to Rongcheng again." Yu Li said firmly, "And you are not allowed to contact the people there anymore."
He Yu frowned upon hearing this, then he reacted instantly and stood up to retort, "My injury has nothing to do with Jia Jia."
"I can't and can't not contact her. We have an appointment."
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