The next day, before dawn.
Just as Lin Wei was about to come out and light the stove to cook, several rescue vehicles drove down from above and stopped near their tent.
"Quickly, move the injured down and settle them in."
Seeing the soldiers busy at work, Lin Wei quickly called everyone in the tent to wake up.
"Get up quickly, it seems that many wounded people have been moved down."
Wang Ying squinted, "Transfer the injured down? There's no medical care here, what's the point of transferring the injured here?"
Not long after, Shen Jize, who had heard the news, ran over. "Oh no! Yesterday's aftershock buried the road below, and the situation down there is even more serious than up there. We're trapped here."
"However, the higher-ups have surveyed the area and found that this is the safest place in the area. We are not in any immediate danger. As long as there are no strong aftershocks, the only problem is that the road below is blocked and has not been cleared yet. The injured may not be able to be sent down quickly and will have to be temporarily placed here."
"How long will it take for the road below to be open?" Lin Wei asked hurriedly. "Is there anything we can do?"
"The people above are already setting up tents. After settling the less seriously injured, some children may need our help."
"no problem."
They hadn't seen the patients with minor injuries yet, but the already cold skeletons were already being carried down in batches.
Seeing this scene, An Jing couldn't help but shed tears. "I already felt so bad seeing this, how much must those fighting on the front lines be struggling inside?"
“During the rescue phase, I’m afraid we can’t think about that much right now. What I’m worried about is the psychological problems that will follow.” Zhang Yanyan comforted her, “Alright, let’s go. Let’s settle them in first. Since they said they wanted us to take care of the children and the lightly injured patients, the next batch should be arriving soon.”
"Ah, I want to find my dad, I want to find my dad."
The sound of a child crying could be heard from not far away.
"What's wrong?" Wang Ying hurried over and, glancing at the little girl's family, asked, "Aren't you her family?"
The couple said awkwardly, "No, we are neighbors. The child's mother died in childbirth. The child's father was working away from home, but he just came back a few days ago. He happened to be home at the time..."
An earthquake struck, the house collapsed, and the little girl's father was buried inside.
The little girl witnessed it firsthand and simply couldn't accept it.
"I had a fever for the first two days because I was frightened, and I was in a daze. That scared me, but I started acting up last night, and it's gotten even worse now."
The middle-aged woman quickly coaxed, "Your father is working away from home, please stop making a fuss."
"No, Dad is back. I saw Dad come back with my own eyes. Is my dad dead?"
The little girl is 7 years old this year. Having left her parents at such a young age, there is nothing she doesn't understand.
"Wait a minute, the rescue work isn't over yet. Maybe your dad is just buried. What if they dig the house open and your dad is alright? Many people have had their houses dug up and they've all come back to life."
The middle-aged woman shook her head. "Our area is prone to mudslides."
The entire village was buried. They only survived because their child was mischievous outside, and the couple searched desperately for him. Otherwise—
This left Lin Wei speechless.
"Don't rush, what if?"
The little girl looked at her, even though she already had a definite answer in her heart, she still hoped that the "what if" would actually happen.
"Well, what if Dad is still alive? I have no other family members left, only Dad."
-
The little girl quieted down, but her gaze remained fixed on the direction of her home, unwilling to look away for a long time.
Lin Wei and the others claimed they were helping to settle patients, but in reality, they had not received any training and had never participated in similar work, so they were basically of no help.
But Lin Wei cooked the food quickly and deliciously, right on time. Her superior said, "Cook the food first. We can't let the disaster victims go hungry. There are also relief supplies. The New Year is just a few days away. We can't let everyone freeze. Distribute them quickly."
But after she finished cooking the porridge and put the rice in the pot, her superior called her aside.
“We only eat two meals a day now, just porridge. How many bags of rice do we need every day?”
Lin Wei was taken aback and hurriedly said, "Because two pots were taken away, we only have two pots left. If there is no shortage of water, we can barely cook four pots of porridge per meal. Four pots of porridge are two bags of rice, so two meals a day is four bags of rice. Leader, what's wrong? Is there a shortage of supplies? No way, the subsequent relief supplies should be arriving by now."
"The road is blocked. We just asked and it will take about two days to clear it. That's the fastest we can do. If it takes longer, it could take three days."
However, the rice stored in their tents was running low; it would only last for three days at most.
It's not that Lin Wei brought few supplies; it's just that a large amount of supplies were sent to the front lines.
Those on the front lines are doing hard labor; no one else should be allowed to go hungry, but they should be.
Everyone was thinking that the rest of the supplies would arrive soon.
But no one expected that before the supplies arrived, aftershocks would block the road first.
"This is really... how many days will that food last?"
"Eat more if you have food, eat less if you don't. Make the porridge a little thinner, as long as there's still water. It's too cold. Nobody can stand not having something hot when it's below minus ten degrees Celsius. I also have a box of noodles that can help out, but cooking noodles takes much more water than cooking porridge because you have to keep adding water while cooking them."
"Let's start working on it first, and see if we can make a small path to transport some supplies up." After hesitating for a while, the leader said, "Reduce our quantity; we can't let the disaster-stricken people go hungry."
“That won’t do. You’re doing physical labor, and your bodies won’t be able to take it if you’re hungry. In this cold weather, even if we’re going to reduce something, it should be our rations.”
Everything was fine on the first day.
Lin Wei and her group consciously reduced their food intake, serving only half a bowl of porridge.
The same thing happened the next day.
By the third day, the road was still impassable, and even the narrow path had not been dug through.
Left with no other choice, Lin Wei didn't touch the noodles, but reduced the amount of porridge instead.
I thought that reducing it a little wouldn't be noticed by everyone.
Perhaps because everyone was hungry and the weather was cold, everyone was looking forward to this meal.
Before the porridge even boiled, some people noticed it as soon as it was put into the pot and raised objections.
"No, why is there so little rice today? We're already starving every day. If we reduce the amount of rice again, we'll starve to death!"
Lin Wei paused in stirring the rice. "I'm sorry, the supplies are distributed per person. You think there's not enough because it hasn't boiled yet. It'll be fine once it's boiled."
"Nonsense. The rice is usually a layer higher than this, but it's been reduced so much now. Do you think they've taken a cut from our relief supplies?"
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