Chapter 96: I’ll Help You

Latest update: Torrential rain in the South Capital region has caused flooding and waterlogged disaster. The heavy downpour is still continuing, and the public is urged to take precautions and stay safe. The South Capital armed forces are carrying out rescue and relief operations.

What followed in rapid succession were landslides, blocked roads, and river embankments washed away by the floodwaters.

Disaster had struck almost everywhere.

“Captain, the rain’s getting heavy, and a lot of places along the road have caved in,” Lu Fifteen said as he drove. The windshield wipers swayed in the wind, while the surrounding world was swept by the storm until the road ahead was almost impossible to make out.

Even so, it was still clear that a section of the mountainside beside the highway had collapsed, the earth turned soft and treacherous.

The storm had come too suddenly.

There had been no warning.

More than half the road was already submerged.

Nearly all the armed forces in South Capital had been mobilized.

Disaster relief could not wait.

After half an hour on the road, they still had not reached the designated destination.

They were stopped along the way by people crying out in the rain.

“Is anyone there?”

“Can you help us?”

“We had just driven here when the mountain came down!”

“Someone’s trapped underneath!”

On the road, anxious civilians hurried back and forth, trying to save lives.

And it was obvious that more than one person had been caught in the collapse.

The rain had not let up, and water pooled across the ground, making the conditions perilous.

After being stopped, several military vehicles came to a halt in the storm. With a landslide ahead, Lu Yunzhou’s cold voice called several soldiers over.

“Go help.”

“Yes, Captain!”

“Shen Zhaoxi, stay in the car.”

His voice was low and cool. The situation was too dangerous.

He turned his head and glanced at the girl sitting in the back seat, her face pale, and pressed his thin lips together.

Then Lu Yunzhou opened the door and got out to inspect the landslide ahead.

The sky was dark, rain hammering the ground.

A passerby told them, “Four or five people are buried underneath.”

When the mountainside gave way, they had gotten out of their vehicles to check the blockage.

They had wanted to see whether cars could still get through, but disaster struck all at once.

Out of nowhere.

Seven or eight people had been buried in the collapse.

A few had only been lightly covered by the soil and were rescued.

The others were buried deep beneath the filthy, heavy earth.

“Rescue them!”

Lu Yunzhou immediately led several dozen soldiers from the vehicles behind him and ordered them to get out.

The soldiers quickly used iron shovels to dig through the mound that was burying lives.

They hoped they could save the four or five people trapped below.

The scene was chaotic.

In the pitch-black curtain of rain, windshield wipers beat on.

It was still not night, yet there was no light at all.

Only the dim, blurred silhouettes of people racing about in the rain to save others could be seen, along with cries and shouts.

Seated in the car, Shen Zhaoxi’s brow furrowed slightly.

Her cool, clear eyes rested beyond the window.

She looked toward the tall, upright figure in a straight military uniform, standing in the muddy downpour before the collapse, helping those people.

He did not care that he was drenched through. Bending low with all his strength, he reached out with both hands and pulled the first girl who had broken through the dirt to the surface from beneath the weight of the earth, then handed her off to the others nearby.

The girl was badly hurt, blood streaming from her forehead. By the time she was rescued, her condition was not good.

But she was conscious, and medics were already at hand, hurrying to examine her injuries.

It was hard to imagine what condition the other people buried below were in now.

“Keep going!” Lu Yunzhou ordered.

His brows were tightly drawn, his expression grave.

The landslide had been there for some time.

But people were still buried underneath.

They could only keep digging deeper and deeper.

Rain soaked them through, but no one had time to care about themselves.

On top of that, they had to be careful not to injure the people still buried below.

After all, trained soldiers were far more professional than ordinary civilians when it came to rescue work.

Shen Zhaoxi’s gaze fell on the man drenched by the rain in the storm.

Lu Yunzhou.

Aside from his ice-cold face, and the harm he had once done to her in Eastern Province, leaving aside the grievances between them for the moment—

In truth, he should be a very good man.

The crown prince of the Lu family in the imperial capital.

A favored son of heaven.

With a distinguished family background and extraordinary status, yet still steadfast in his own principles.

He could serve in the military, could care for the people.

Ignoring his own safety, he could personally lead the men under him to help.

He did not care about the danger of the collapse.

His hands were covered in mud and blood as he pulled the people buried deep below out to safety.

His refined and handsome face, veiled by rain and mist, looked tense, filled with concern for those beneath the earth.

Blood was washed away by the rain.

Then, suddenly, another young man was rescued from the buried earth, grievously injured.

And at that moment, a slender figure appeared behind Lu Yunzhou.

In the next instant, a fair hand gently supported the man, moving quickly.

Shen Zhaoxi stepped in to help with the person trapped below, whose breathing had grown faint.

Those brought up from the wreckage were helped over and laid on a medical stretcher nearby.

“Shen Zhaoxi?”

Hearing the voice, Lu Yunzhou looked up abruptly and saw the girl working in the rain, joining the others to take the rescued person and move them to a safe place.

“What are you doing here?”

Hadn’t he told her to stay in the car?

Why had she come down?

“I’m here to help you.”

The girl’s voice was faint in the rain, yet it was enough to support half the burden of the injured.

She turned back, brows knit, and said to the man crouched in the landslide, digging people out, “I know a little first aid.”

Lu Yunzhou’s brows tightened.

His dark eyes fixed on her, surprise and puzzlement flickering across his features, concern showing in the depths of his gaze.

But he could not spare attention for it now and could only continue digging for the people buried below.

Shen Zhaoxi knelt beside the stretcher. By the time the trapped person was brought up, his condition had already worsened beyond measure.

Her expression turned cold. She placed both hands on the man’s chest and began chest compressions.

Her movements were swift and precise, so standard that the rescuer beside her looked up in shock, clearly surprised.

Before long, the heart-stopped man had begun breathing again.

“He’s breathing! He’s breathing!” people by the roadside cried out in delight.

The girl remained focused, her features cool and composed, nothing like the soft, gentle girl who had sat in the car with her eyes lowered.

Lu Fifteen had followed her out of the vehicle. When he helped carry a patient over, his expression changed, and he looked at the girl beside the stretcher.

Her fair skin had been washed pale by the rain, as though she were a fragile spirit.

She was beautiful, with a pair of shimmering peach-blossom eyes held low, a face as luminous as fresh lotus and as naturally fine as carved jade.

She stood in stark contrast to the disaster scene of yellow earth, blocked roads, and mud everywhere.

And yet it was her hands that were carrying out emergency rescue for the trapped.

She had pulled a person back from the brink of death.

There were more than a few injured, but the medical staff were limited.

That she could help was something Lu Fifteen had never expected.

Even the look he cast at her then was filled with surprise.

Lu Fifteen frowned and continued helping with the rescue.

The scene was truly chaotic.

If not for running into them, it was still unknown whether the people buried beneath the landslide would have survived.

Lu Yunzhou led his men on, digging through the thick earth.

The heavy rain did not stop.

It came pouring down.

Everyone was doing their utmost to save the buried lives.

But in truth, they had not yet even reached the worst of the flood zone.

They had already encountered such a scene halfway there.

What kind of disaster would await them farther ahead?

Half an hour later, everyone buried beneath the landslide had been dug out.

Two more ambulances arrived.

The injured were rushed to the nearest hospital.

After everyone trapped beneath the collapse had been brought up, Lu Yunzhou still directed his men to help clear the road, while the girl on the other side returned to the vehicle.

Shen Zhaoxi’s hands were stained with blood from the trapped victims.

She frowned.

In truth, she had always been the one with the cleanest habits.

She had lived and fought through blood and gore for so many years, and still had not fully overcome the reaction in her mind.

She had simply endured it.

No one else could tell.

Otherwise, how would Sheng Ting have said that her endurance was extraordinary?

Just then, the car door opened.

Rain and cold wind surged in together.

Shen Zhaoxi shivered from the gust.

Her pale face trembled beneath her long lashes.

She looked up.

Lu Yunzhou’s eyes darkened. He closed the door and then sat in the front passenger seat.

He took a coat from inside the car and handed it to Shen Zhaoxi.

“Drive.”

“Yes!”

At the command, Lu Fifteen continued driving.

The worst flooding in South Capital was in the southeastern part of South Capital City.

Along the way, Lu Yunzhou turned back and glanced at the girl in the back seat.

His voice was low and hoarse.

“Put it on.”