On the terrace, Mrs. Zheng was yelling that it was too hot: "It's making me dizzy! Don't clean up, the firewood is all downstairs, what could catch fire upstairs?"
Zheng Liangying was pulling at the strips of cloth pressed under an abandoned water tank. In her opinion, it was very dangerous to leave these discarded old clothes here. They were dried and brittle in the sun. If a fire broke out, wouldn't they catch fire easily?
"Mom, please go down! I can do it myself!" She was annoyed by what her mother said.
"Let me take a break. I'm really dizzy, cough cough." She went into the attic to rest, but the attic ceiling was low, the air was not circulating, and it was very stuffy.
She fanned herself with her hands, sweat dripping down her face. She looked at her daughter outside and called out, "I'll go downstairs and get you a towel to wipe your face!"
Then she pushed open the door, and a wave of heat and smoke rushed towards her. Mrs. Zheng was caught off guard and started coughing violently.
"Ahem! Why is there so much smoke?"
At this time, Mrs. Zheng hadn't realized anything yet, and was thinking dully in her heart: How come the smoke from the fire over there was blown into the house?
She climbed down the stairs and saw smoke coming out from under the crack of the second bedroom door.
After a moment of silence, Mrs. Zheng finally realized something was wrong!
“Liang Dong! Liang Dong!” She kept knocking on the door and yelling, then looked up and called to her daughter, “Liang Ying, come down quickly! Your brother’s room is on fire! Cough cough! Cough cough cough!”
A few loud shouts caused her to inhale a large amount of smoke, and she coughed non-stop for a while.
"Cough cough cough!" Fortunately, Zheng Liangying heard the noise and came downstairs. She was also stunned when she saw it.
"Brother! Liang Dong! Mom, where are the keys? Where is the spare key!"
"I'll get it! I'll get it!"
Next door, in Room 801, Shao Shengfei was touching the newly grown watermelon seedlings. Shao's mother was burning firewood and boiling water in the kitchen, preparing for her son and daughter-in-law to take a bath when they came back. Qiao Songzhi went to the utility room. The sudden fire in the next building reminded her that she also had a fire extinguisher at home, and she had to find it.
The triple security door blocks the danger from the outside to the greatest extent possible, while also blocking the transmission of key information.
Thick smoke billowed out from bedroom 802 and entered the homes of nearby residents.
Grandma Wang coughed uncomfortably, and her granddaughter-in-law gave her a concerned look.
"It's okay, cough cough."
"The fire next door is so big that the smoke is coming over here."
702, Chen Binggang’s wife looked at the fire next door and said with sympathy: “How can we live like this? All our wealth has been burned down.”
"Mom, please close the window. It's too sunny outside and the air is not good."
"oh oh."
But even with the windows closed, the smell in the room continued to grow stronger, and the child kept coughing.
"Why don't you open the window to get some air circulation?"
"Let me open it. Why is it so choking?" Zheng Xiuyi opened the window and saw smoke in the air. She subconsciously looked up and was almost scared to death!
"Fire! There's a fire upstairs!"
Downstairs, Qiao Qingqing and Shao Shengan just came down to the first floor, and Shao Shengan helped her brush off the black dust on her body.
"Forget it if I can't take it off. I can just change my clothes when I get home."
Shao Shengan touched her hair with concern: "The ends of your hair are burnt." He rubbed it with his fingers, and the burnt ends of her hair were broken.
"It's okay. You can help me cut them when we get home." Qiao Qingqing looked up at Building 3, her eyes full of worry. "This fire may burn the whole building. Our Building 4 is not safe. In this kind of hot weather, even if the two buildings are five or six meters apart, the fire should not be able to burn from the ground. But I'm afraid that when the whole building is on fire, sparks will fly. Even a little spark will fall on our building and cause a fire. No one lives below the seventh floor."
"Go home, let's discuss with the seventh floor and 802. Each household will send two people to patrol the entire building. If any problems are found, they will be eliminated in time."
"That's all we can do."
The two of them were discussing. The sun was shining brightly, making it hard to open one's eyes. But at this moment, for some reason, her heart suddenly started beating wildly. She raised her head towards the sunlight, and her pupils instantly contracted.
What did she see?
What did she see?!
Qiao Qingqing subconsciously turned around to look at Building Three, then turned around to look at Building Four to make sure that she was not mistaken. The top floor of Building Three was on fire, and there was also fire on the top floor of Building Four.
how so!
Shock and panic swept through her heart. At that moment, Qiao Qingqing's feet went weak and she held on to her husband's arm tightly to keep herself steady.
"Qingqing? What's wrong?"
"There's a fire! The eighth floor is on fire!" Qiao Qingqing finally found her voice again. She thought she had shouted loudly to warn people, but in fact her voice was very soft, trembling and full of fear.
But after she shouted, all her fear was expelled from her throat, and strength once again filled her limbs. She pulled the still confused Shao Shengan towards home.
Shao Shengan was pulled by her to run, and he looked up. There was indeed a fire. Thick smoke billowed out from House 802, merging with the thick smoke from the eighth floor of Building 3 in the air, condensing into an ominous black dragon.
Like Qiao Qingqing, he was in disbelief at first, then he thought of his family at home, and his heart was clenched. It was no longer Qiao Qingqing who was pulling him to run, but the two of them were running very fast together.
Father Shao happened to be walking to the first floor. Seeing the two of them running so fast, he was surprised: "Why are you running so fast? Is the fire out over there?"
"Dad! There's a fire upstairs in our house! Go home and put it out!"
"What?!" Father Shao thought he had heard it wrong, so he went downstairs. When he went downstairs, the house was fine.
After hesitating for just two seconds, his son and daughter-in-law had already passed him and ran upstairs.
He hurried to catch up, running out of breath.
When Qiao Qingqing and the others ran to the seventh floor, the two families on the seventh floor had discovered the fire and gathered on the eighth floor. Wang Jiaxin was knocking on the Zheng family's door.
"Open the door quickly! Uncle Zheng! Uncle Zheng! Your house is on fire!"
"Zheng Tiehui! Your house is on fire, open the door!"
Seeing Qiao Qingqing and her husband running up, Uncle Wang hurriedly shouted, "Hey Qingqing! There's a fire next door to your house! But the Zheng family won't open the door! What should I do! Oh my God, there's so much smoke, cough cough!"
Looking towards her door again, Grandma Wang was leaning against the wall of her house, coughing, with her cane on. The door was open.
Looking up, she saw Qiao Qingqing and the others coming back, and she hurriedly said, "Qingqing, your mother answered the door, and I notified her."
Qiao Qingqing was very moved. She took a breath and said, "Grandma Wang, I'll let Sheng An help you downstairs first."
"on fire--"
"You go downstairs first and ask your family to pack up and prepare. The fire in the building next door cannot be put out. The fire is growing very quickly and cannot be controlled. I'm afraid we have to evacuate our building too!"
"No way? Is it that serious?" Grandma Wang was stunned.
"We have to prepare for the worst, Sheng An——"
Shao Shengan immediately carried Grandma Wang downstairs and handed her to the Wang family. Uncle Wang also held the railing and dragged his disabled legs downstairs.
"Qingqing, do we really have to move? But where can we go?" Wang Jiaxin asked. She looked at the sunlight outside as if she was looking at a hopeless future.
"As long as we're alive, there's hope. Let's go downstairs and pack our things." After saying that, Qiao Qingqing went into her house, intending to find tools to pry open the door.
When Shao Shengan went upstairs again, he saw his wife and father banging on the door of Room 802. Black smoke kept coming out of the crack in the door, but no one came to open it.
"Where is Zheng Tiehui? I just saw him downstairs. Why hasn't he come up yet?" Shao Shengan asked.
In the corridor on the first floor of Building 3, the luggage of the family in 801 that was on fire was piled up in a mess. A figure bent over secretly and reached for the bag. He vaguely heard someone talking, saying that the eighth floor was on fire. He didn't take it seriously. He stuffed the bag into his arms and blinked, not letting the sweat block his vision, and reached for another box.
"I didn't see him. I hope he comes back soon." Qiao Qingqing bit her lower lip. She was sweaty all over, but her mind was clearer than ever. She looked at Shao Shengan, "Once the fire starts, there is no way to turn back, unless there is a high-pressure water gun or a lot of water..."
But clean water is so precious in these last days!
And how do we explain to the public that we used a large amount of water to put out the fire?
Hearing the meaning in his wife's tone, Shao Shengan understood: "Then let's pack up and move."
"I've asked mom to pack up and prepare for any possible disasters. We'll try again. If we can't pry open the door of Room 802, we'll leave."
"You go pack up, I'll do it!" Shao Shengan took the tools from Qiao Qingqing's hands, and Qiao Qingqing nodded.
At home, Shao Shengfei was frightened and kept asking, "Is it on fire? Is it on fire?"
Qiao Qingqing tried to comfort him first, holding his shoulders tightly and staring into his eyes: "Brother, can you wait for me at the door? We are going out to play later and need to pack our clothes now. Can you wait for us and not run around?"
"I, I can."
"Brother, can you really stop running around?"
Shao Shengfei nodded seriously.
"Okay, sit at the door now."
Shao Shengfei hurried out, holding onto his small stool. He placed the stool against the wall at the door, sat with his legs together, and placed his hands on his knees.
Shao's mother and Qiao Songzhi followed Qiao Qingqing's instructions and packed their things, but after only a few minutes, they were so flustered that they didn't make any progress.
I don't know how many minutes passed before Shao Shengan and his father came in. They tried to pry the door open but failed, and no one came to open it.
It seems like all the Zheng family members are not at home!
"I have the documents here, don't worry about them." Qiao Qingqing instructed, "Dad, go to the attic and spread the sheets on the bed first. Then take out your, mom's, and big brother's clothes and put them on the sheets, then come down."
"Hey! I'll go right away!"
"Sheng An, go dismantle the solar generator."
Shao Shengan nodded, took out the toolbox and went upstairs. He understood what his wife meant and did not dismantle the solar generator to pieces. Instead, he cut off the circuit so that his wife could put the entire solar generator into the space.
Looking at the air conditioner outdoor unit on the terrace, he felt that it was also a valuable resource and could not be left to be burned, so he began to dismantle the air-conditioning ducts, intending to go downstairs to dismantle the wall-mounted air conditioner and air-conditioning ducts in the room after dismantling them here.
Oh, and there’s also the washing machine, TV…he has to dismantle all the electrical appliances!
Downstairs, Qiao Qingqing walked into the room and saw Shao's mother and Qiao Songzhi packing clothes. She took out two suitcases and gave them to them: "If you can't fit them, wrap them with sheets. Sheng An will use the space to put them in later."
Seeing Mother Shao fall down in a panic, she hurriedly helped her up: "Mom! Don't worry! Don't worry! Sheng An has space to store things, we don't need to worry!"
Mother Shao was so anxious that her eyes turned red: "I know, I know, go pack your things, go ahead!"
Seeing that Qiao Songzhi also took time out of her busy schedule to wave to her, Qiao Qingqing returned to the second bedroom, quickly spread the sheets, took out all the clothes and quilts in the closet, wrapped them in quilts, and stuffed them into the space.
Glancing around the room, she already knew in her heart that this home, which she had worked hard to build after her rebirth, which had given them security and stability and on which they had relied physically and mentally, would become a thing of the past today.
Unprepared!
Qiao Qingqing understood that they would leave here sooner or later, but she thought that it would be at a certain planned time, when they would be able to calmly pack their bags and finally say goodbye to this home, rushing to another battlefield of survival with reluctance and nostalgia.
Rather than being unexpected and catching us off guard like today.
She took a deep breath and shook off the dark memories of being kicked out of this home in her previous life.
It was different, this time was different. In her previous life, she was under their pressure and urging, and she didn't have time to take anything with her. This time, she had her family by her side, and she would try her best to take everything she could take with her. As long as her family was by her side, where was home?
Thinking of this, Qiao Qingqing became calmer and more composed.
The bed, bedside table, curtains...she packed everything she could take away from the second bedroom and put it into the space.
When I went out, Shao Shengan happened to be coming downstairs.
He glanced at the second bedroom and said, "I'll take down the air conditioner and the cabinets too. We won't even take a needle with us."
Qiao Qingqing smiled: "Then we have the same idea."
The couple smiled at each other and both felt much more relaxed.
Father Shao came downstairs: "Qingqing, it's all packed!"
"Dad, help me dismantle the cabinet."
"Hey, okay!"
Qiao Qingqing went up to the attic and first emptied it, then went to the terrace to collect the generator, air conditioner outdoor unit and empty water tank. After going downstairs, she went to the kitchen and bathroom, and in the blink of an eye, she had taken away all the furniture and supplies.
In the second bedroom, Shao's father was dismantling the cabinets vigorously and asked, "You are so fast. You cleaned the second bedroom so clean."
Shao Shengan remained calm: "Qingqing and I are husband and wife, so I can only share this ability with my wife, so I gave Qiao Qingqing the permission, and Qingqing received it."
Father Shao was stunned: "Then your space is quite advanced." He tried to accept this setting with his old and rigid thinking, and then he became happy again, "It's good to let Qingqing take care of it. Qingqing is careful."
Mother Shao also easily accepted this situation. Seeing Qiao Qingqing taking away all the things in the master bedroom, she breathed a sigh of relief: "This way we don't have to worry about sleeping on the street when we go out."
"Mom, you and my mom go downstairs first. Sheng An, Dad and I will finish the work." Qiao Qingqing handed them fire masks, "Put them on before you go out! Big brother, I'll put them on for you."
Shao Shengan and his father were dismantling the security door and neither of them had time to talk.
With the space as a backup, Shao's mother felt much more at ease. She followed the arrangements and retreated first, carrying the suitcase in one hand and holding Shao Shengfei's hand in the other, she went out.
Qiao Songzhi walked slowly, and before leaving, he told Qiao Qingqing not to be too greedy: "Forget about what you can't take away!"
"I know, Mom. Please go downstairs first. That way I can feel at ease."
Qiao Qingqing glanced at the wall. Only twenty-five minutes had passed since she discovered that the building next door was on fire. Looking out from the balcony, the building next door had already burned to the seventh floor and the fire was raging.
"It's been opened. Qingqing, you come and put it away!" Shao Sheng'an didn't even have time to wipe the sweat off his face as he put the hammer and other tools into the toolbox.
After folding up the two security doors, Shao's father locked the outermost security door and then they could leave.
Before going downstairs, Qiao Qingqing looked back at home for the last time, and the bitterness in her eyes could no longer be controlled.
"Qingqing, let's go." Shao Shengan took her hand.
"Um."
No one knew when the door of room 801 next door was opened. Mrs. Zheng was sitting on the ground leaning against the wall, coughing and crying.
"Help, help, please save my child, cough cough!" Seeing Qiao Qingqing and others, her eyes lit up and she called for help in a hoarse voice.
As she called for help, there was the sound of breaking glass in the house, air waves rolled, and more smoke rushed out of the door.
"Liang Dong, Liang Ying!" Mrs. Zheng opened her eyes and tried to go into the house, but she turned back and cried, "Save my son! Save my daughter!"
Shao Shengan looked at Qiao Qingqing, who nodded: "You have to ensure your own safety."
"I will." Shao Shengan rushed into the Zheng family, and Qiao Qingqing stood there with her fists clenched.
Zheng Tiehui finally came back at this time. The weather was hot and everyone was wearing less. Qiao Qingqing saw that his arms and pockets were bulging, obviously stuffed with a lot of things. He ran up anxiously, holding the things in both hands.
"How could there be a fire? How could this happen?" Zheng Tiehui was panicked. He squatted down to help Mrs. Zheng, and the things in his pocket fell to the ground. "Where's Liang Dong? Where's Liang Ying?"
Seeing Mrs. Zheng pointing inside the house with difficulty, Zheng Tiehui's heart was gripped with grief.
"Qiao Qingqing? Why didn't you help put out the fire? Are you so cruel?!" Seeing Qiao Qingqing and Shao's father standing aside, Zheng Tiehui turned his head and asked loudly.
802 caught fire. Qiao Qingqing believed that the Zheng family did not want such a disaster, so even though they were caught off guard and forced to move urgently, she did not blame the Zheng family.
But this did not mean that she was happy to be questioned by Zheng Tiehui. She sneered: "I want to put out the fire. We have been knocking on the door just now. Did they open the door? You are a husband and a father. Where are you making money when there is a fire?"
Mrs. Zheng cried and said, "Liang Dong is in the room. I want to save him, but I can't open the door. I can't open the door! Oh, my Liang Dong!" She and her daughter didn't hear the knock on the door, but they really didn't have the time to open the door. Liang Dong broke the lock of the room. They finally found the spare key but couldn't open the door. The two of them had to go to the attic to find tools to pry the lock. After they finally pried the door open, she fainted. When she woke up, she was already at the door.
Zheng Tiehui was struck by lightning. His son, his son was already?
There was no time to ask more questions. He took out the things he had on him and stuffed them into Mrs. Zheng's arms: "Go downstairs first! Hurry up!" Then he took off his clothes and covered his mouth and nose. Just as he was about to rush in, he saw Shao Shengan coming out holding Zheng Liangying.
"She fainted in the living room." After putting the person down, Shao Shengan stood up and walked towards Qiao Qingqing and the others.
"Are you leaving now? Help put out the fire! Where is my son?" Zheng Tiehui shouted while hugging his daughter.
"Do you think you can put out the fire? It's too late. The second bedroom and the master bedroom are on fire. By the way, your son was also in the living room. Your daughter must have been choked by the thick smoke when she rescued him and walked into the living room. But he is no longer alive." That's why Shao Shengan only brought Zheng Liangying out.
"What did you say?" Zheng Tiehui couldn't believe it, and Mrs. Zheng burst into tears.
After saying those words, Shao Shengan didn't even turn his head. He pushed Shao's father's back and asked him to go downstairs first. He and Qiao Qingqing followed behind.
"Tiehui! Liang Dong! Please save Liang Dong!"
Zheng Tiehui put his daughter down and rushed into the house. Sure enough, he saw his son lying motionless in the living room. The house was filled with thick smoke, as if everything was on fire. The smoke pressed down from the ceiling and flowed on the floor like water.
"Ahem!" Without taking any more time to look, he hurriedly carried his son out.
"Can you walk? Stand up! Hold on to our daughter, let's go downstairs! Quickly!"
Seeing that Mrs. Zheng's legs were too weak to stand up and she looked at him with a wronged look, Zheng Tiehui felt an unprecedented despair at that moment.
"Wait for me!"
He first carried his son downstairs, put him on the fifth floor, then went back upstairs to pick up his daughter, and finally Mrs. Zheng.
"Where are you going?" Seeing that her husband was about to go upstairs, Mrs. Zheng hurriedly grabbed him.
After tearing her hand apart, Zheng Tiehui rushed upstairs tirelessly, but the whole house was completely on fire and he couldn't get in at the door. He had no choice but to go downstairs, and asked Mrs. Zheng to take out a bag, took out half a bottle of turbid water from it, fed it to Zheng Liangdong and Zheng Liangying, and then pinched their philtrum to wake them up.
"Liang Dong!" Mrs. Zheng burst into tears.
His heart sank. It was at this time that he discovered that his son Zheng Liangdong's lower body had been burned black, and his shirt had also been burned. He touched his son's nose with shaking hands, but his son was no longer breathing.
"Liang Dong——" he murmured.
Zheng Liangying inhaled a large amount of smoke and was unconscious. After being fed water, she vomited on one side of her head.
"Liang Dong! Why are you so depressed? How dare you start a fire? What will happen to mom if you leave? Uh--" Mrs. Zheng cried, and the next moment her eyes widened and she struggled.
It turned out that Zheng Tiehui covered her mouth. She turned her head with difficulty, and when she saw her husband's expression, her eyes were filled with horror and she stopped struggling.
Zheng Tiehui lowered his voice and said viciously: "Shut up! Shut up!" He didn't care about the shock of knowing the truth about the fire. He just looked around anxiously and listened to the noises in the corridor. He was relieved when he was sure that no one heard it.
"Stop talking like that, you hear me!"
No one else knew about the dead silence and heavy atmosphere on the fifth floor at this moment.
The people on the seventh floor were still trying to move, so Qiao Songzhi helped carry Grandma Wang down the stairs, and the group temporarily settled on the first floor.
Everyone looked at each other in confusion, thinking it was like a dream.
"Let's go inside. It's too hot here." Qiao Songzhi suggested, "Use a sheet to cover the window to block out the sunlight."
"The room is so dirty and there is no place to stay." Uncle Wang frowned.
"Just sit on the luggage. Come on Feifei, follow Mother Qiao."
Mother Shao nodded quickly: "Fei Fei, follow Mother Qiao and be a good boy."
Shao Shengfei nodded obediently and was arranged by Qiao Songzhi to sit in a corner away from the sun. However, when he saw Qiao Songzhi and Shao's mother moving things, he couldn't help but stand up.
"Fei Fei, be good and sit down." Shao's mother shouted.
He sat down again.
He looked at the small bucket in his arms. This bucket used to hold the fish he caught. When there were no more fish to catch, his sister helped him plant a bunch of shallots in the bucket. Now the shallots have sprouted. He looked at it in a trance, then raised his head to look outside, opened his mouth, and shouted, "Dad, brother, where is my sister?"
No one answered him, everyone was busy.
In Shao Shengfei's simple world, today was a chaotic day. He wiped his face, stretched his neck and looked outside, his eyes full of expectation.
"I never thought 802 would catch fire. How did it catch fire?"
"Who knows? I smelled it when I opened the window, and when I looked up I was almost scared to death!"
"Zheng Tiehui ran so fast just now. How come he just came back? No one opened the door of Room 802 just now!"
"Where can we go next?"
No one spoke. Grandma Wang sighed and was supported by her grandson to sit on the suitcase. She saw Shao Shengfei and the small bucket in his arms.
“Did you grow this?”
Shao Shengfei looked at her and nodded: "My sister planted it, and I raised it."
Looking at Shao Shengfei's neat clothes and clean face, Grandma Wang knew that this child was well raised by his family. Such a family could not be bad people. The house must be gone. As an old woman, she had no ability. The only thing she could do was to help the younger generation in the family and find a few more reliable friends.
She smiled fondly, "I've also grown a lot of things at home, and they're moving them in. I can give you a pot of potatoes."
Shao Shengfei shook his head: "Mom said that we can't take other people's things casually." After thinking for a while, he said, "Thank you for the potatoes, I can't take them."
Grandma Wang looked at him softly: "Okay, then I'll ask your mother if she agrees that you can take it again, okay?"
"OK."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
