The aftershocks were equally powerful. Almost immediately after another violent earthquake, another side room of the huge ancient temple collapsed, and other places that had already collapsed became a complete ruin.
The abbot and other monks saw this scene and just closed their eyes silently, as if they could not bear to watch any more. They could only put their hands together and recite Buddhist scriptures in a low voice.
This added a bit of solemnity to the already desolate scene.
The peaceful Buddhist scriptures cleansed the hearts of the people who had just experienced the disaster. Many people were gradually calmed down from fear and restlessness, but then they couldn't help crying.
Everyone hugged each other, wives hugged their husbands, parents hugged their children, children hugged their elders, and friends encouraged and celebrated each other.
Full of gratitude, just because they all survived.
Ou Qing held up his mobile phone and walked around, looking for traces of signal.
Fortunately, the earthquake did not destroy the signal tower. He could feel a weak signal near the cliff.
He was immediately ecstatic and quickly called the fire department, the police, and the emergency number.
But the earthquake affected not only the ancient temple, but the entire G city, and even the places outside G city, all of which suffered the destruction of natural disasters.
Although the incident happened no more than an hour ago, these state agencies must have been in chaos.
They may be too busy to take care of themselves, or they may have rushed out to rescue the victims, and no one has the mind to answer this call for help.
Just when Ou Qing was about to give up in disappointment, the fire department phone that he had been calling was connected. A panting voice came from the phone. The background was very noisy. It was not difficult to guess that the other party had hurriedly answered the call while rescuing people.
The other party did not greet him at all, but only gave a crisp and clear order: "Hey, tell me your specific address, how many people are around, and are there any injured? Don't waste your words, report everything to me carefully!"
At this time, a delay of one more second could result in the loss of a life that should have been saved.
Ou Qing cooperated very well, and told the other party the situation on their side in a clear and extremely calm manner.
"We are in the open space in front of the Boshan Ancient Temple. There are 354 trapped people, 90 of whom are slightly injured, 26 are seriously injured, and no one has died. Please help."
"So many people?" The firefighter on the other end of the phone was so shocked that he cried out, and then instinctively breathed a sigh of relief: "That's great."
The next moment he immediately became serious: "The aftershocks haven't ended yet, and the mountain road is dangerous. Don't go down the mountain without permission. Please wait and we will definitely send rescuers to save you."
"
Okay..." This word could not be sent out because the weak signal was interrupted.
Putting away the phone, Ou Qing turned around and saw a lot of people surrounding him.
As early as the moment they found that he had answered the phone, many people immediately surrounded him, hoping to listen to the response of the rescuers on the other side.
When they heard each other say they would come to rescue them, everyone's tense faces relaxed instantly, followed by uncontrollable joy.
"That's great, Dad, we can go home in a while."
"Mommy, hang in there, you'll be at the hospital soon!"
"I must take a good shower when I get home, it's so uncomfortable to be covered in dust."
"Hiss, don't touch my hand, I got hurt when I was digging rocks just now."
...
Everyone started to chatter, and with hope, the originally depressing atmosphere became much more relaxed.
The most obvious change was that the snacks around Qingqing were piled up even more.
No one was stupid, and of course they knew that they could stay here safely and no one died, all thanks to Qingqing and the others.
Several men were too aggressive, and one of them looked cold and looked like someone who was not easy to deal with. Many people didn't have the courage to approach them to thank them, so they simply changed their target and gave all the "thank you gifts" to Qingqing, who seemed to be the easiest to talk to.
Some people thanked them verbally, some gave them snacks and drinks, some gave them valuable jewelry, and some even picked up their phones to transfer money directly to Qingqing.
All these people were rejected by Qingqing, and only the verbal thanks and a small part of the snacks were left by Qingqing.
Saving people is an obligation, and there should be no reward.
If Qingqing wasn't hungry and didn't want to eat the hard compressed biscuits that Wang Shuzhi brought, she wouldn't have taken other people's snacks.
"Phew, so tired!" After bandaging all the wounded, Wang Shuzhi sat beside Qingqing, sweating all over, too tired to straighten his back.
"Here you are." Qingqing handed a bag of spicy strips to Wang Shuzhi.
"Thank you, sister." Wang Shuzhi was suddenly very touched. He didn't expect that Qingqing knew that he liked spicy strips after knowing each other for less than two days.
In fact, Qingqing didn't know anything at all, just a blind cat catching a dead mouse: "..."
The two sat together and shared snacks, blowing the mountain breeze, not caring about their gray and black cheeks and messy hair.
"It's a bit cold." Rubbing his hands, Wang Shuzhi shivered.
He was left with only a beige sweater for seniors. His light and warm down jacket was donated. It was the end of the year, and even though G City was in the south, the temperature was very cold.
"I'm cold too."
Gu Lan, who had been sitting on the other side of Qingqing for some time, stretched out his frozen and stiff hands.
A pair of warm little hands reached out and held Gu Lan's cold hands.
Gu Lan frowned and wanted to break away from the hands: "My hands are cold, don't freeze you."
"It doesn't matter, Qingqing will warm up my brother."
He blew a breath on Gu Lan's big hands, and poked and poked them like he was rubbing wood to make fire. After a while, he really warmed up Gu Lan's big hands.
"All right." Holding Qingqing's hand, Gu Lan pulled back his own, subconsciously lowered his head to take a look, and then his pupils shrank slightly.
He suddenly grabbed Qingqing's hands, and saw that they were covered with dust and blood, and none of the ten fingers were intact.
These were the scars left when they were digging stones to save people just now. Not only Qingqing, but also Gu Lan and Ou Qing were injured, but Qingqing's hands were whiter and more delicate, which made these injuries even more shocking.
Just looking at them makes people feel irritated.
"Do you have any mineral water and disinfectant?"
"There's a little left."
Wang Shuzhi also saw Qingqing's hand. He regretted his carelessness just now, and quickly took out a bottle of unopened mineral water and several packs of alcohol cotton pads from his bag.
These cotton pads were originally used by Wang Shuzhi to clean earrings, but now they are used for another purpose.
He didn't bring many with him, and other people brought some common medicines with disinfectant effects, so he didn't take out these pads.
Now it's just right for Qingqing to use.
"Can this be used on others?"
"Yes, it's all medical alcohol, universal for human organs."
Take two pieces of clean paper, pour clean water on them, and then clean Qingqing's hands bit by bit, especially the wounds. There must not be any sand left, otherwise it will easily get infected.
"It hurts..." Qingqing is not someone who can bear pain.
Her hand was numb just now and she didn't feel much, but now her hand was held and the wound was touched again and again. Even though Gu Lan was very careful and gentle, Qingqing still burst into tears because of the pain.
Especially when she had to disinfect it with an alcohol cotton pad afterwards, the stimulation... made Qingqing cry directly.
She burst into tears and struggled to pull her hand back, but was held tightly and couldn't pull it back. In the end, she could only sob and endure until a hemostatic patch was applied.
"Don't cry." Gu Lan helplessly took the remaining dry tissue to wipe her tears.
"I...hiccup, I want my uncle." It seemed like she was back to the time when she was three years old. Qingqing, who had suffered a great injustice, only wanted to find Fu Heng.
It would be best if she could throw herself into his arms and seek comfort. She
needed
a kiss, a hug and a lift up high to stop crying.
But she was wronged.
Rubbing Qingqing's head, making her messy long hair even more messy, Gu Lan looked at the road leading down the mountain absent-mindedly, and whispered in a voice that only he could hear: "I don't know if we can meet again."
As long as they were not transferred to an absolutely safe place, their danger would always exist.
He was afraid that they were too unlucky and could not return home alive.
Feeling warm on his neck, Gu Lan turned his head subconsciously and saw that there were still traces of tears in Qingqing's eyes, the tip of her straight nose was red, and her tightly bandaged hands were still clumsily wrapping a scarf around herself.
Wang Shuzhi pulled Ou Qing and poked his head out from behind Qingqing, and they could see that they both had a circle of pink plush scarves around their necks.
It was obvious at first glance that it was the same scarf.
Now after wrapping around three people, the remaining end of the scarf also fell on his neck.
Among the few of them, only Qingqing wore a long scarf. Qingqing didn't want to wear it at first, but Gu Lan was worried that she would be cold, so he forced her to wear it.
And now this scarf has become a warm connection between them. Even Gu Lan couldn't help but marvel at the magic of fate.
He didn't reject Qingqing's kindness, but was worried that the scarf was not long enough.
Gu Lan tilted his upper body to get closer to Qingqing, and lowered his head to make it easier for her to put it on him.
The plush scarf was very warm, carrying the temperature of Qingqing's body, mixed with a hint of light floral and fruity fragrance, which was the scent of Qingqing's favorite shower gel.
It smelled good and soothing, and it made people's tense emotions relax.
Time passed by, and the sky, which was already late, gradually darkened.
The cold wind was howling in the night, and everyone was shivering uncontrollably. Low sobs could be heard, and someone couldn't help crying.
This couldn't go on.
Gu Lan knew this very well. He stood up, stretched his stiff hands and feet, and walked to the abbot.
"We have to go to the temple to get some supplies. Even if we don't take anything else, we have to bring out some cold-proof items like quilts or curtains, otherwise no one can bear it."
"But the aftermath hasn't passed yet."
Before the abbot could say anything, a young monk sitting next to him spoke weakly.
He looked very young and had not experienced much, but now he was severely frightened by the earthquake and had lost his courage.
Even if his hands and feet were numb from the cold, he refused to step into the temple again.
Aftershocks will last for several days. If there is another aftershock after entering the temple, the house will collapse...
The little monk's face is pale and his whole body is shaking. I don't know if it's because of fear or cold.
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