After the earthquake ended, the plants around Qiao Mei dissipated into ashes and scattered in the air. Some of these ashes landed on Qiao Mei’s body as she silently planted a wild ginseng seed under her body to slowly induce its growth and absorb its energy. After doing this, she regained some strength but was still too tired to move. In the end, Qiao Mei closed her eyes and fell unconscious.
Soon, the other local governments heard about what had happened at Gushan and the places close by quickly sent troops to help with the rescue. Half an hour later, the first rescue team arrived.
The troops were instructed to divide themselves into various teams to search the entire city for survivors, check for casualties and make arrangements for rescue.
People who were still alive gathered in groups to seek warmth and to comfort one another. There were people who knelt on the ground crying after seeing their homes in ruins. There were also people who lamented that they were really lucky to still be alive, while there were others who spontaneously helped everyone else in whatever way they could.
If not for the small earthquake that happened before the big one, they would have died under the ruins.
Four hours later, the various teams finished checking all the places in the city. The process was much faster than they had expected.
“Report! There are no deaths at the moment. Some of the injured parties have already been transferred to safe areas!” one of the team leaders reported.
Xia Zhe nodded and mentally noted down the number of injured people and the location to carry out the evacuation.
Xia Zhe looked at his brother-in-arms, Zhang Yong, who understood what he meant and said, “Same here. There are no casualties and everyone has been evacuated to a safe area.”
Xia Zhe finally relaxed his serious expression, but there was still a frown between his eyes.
“Everyone, take a ten-minute break and then go back to the city to conduct a full-scale search again. You must not miss a single corner! You must make sure that everyone has been rescued! Do you understand!” Xia Zhe shouted.
“Understood!” all the soldiers replied loudly.
“Everyone, rest on the spot! Zhang Yong, Zhao Wu, Zhuang Hua! Step forward!” Xia Zhe ordered.
“Yes!” the three men replied in unison.
Just as he was about to go to the tent to discuss the subsequent plans, a soldier rushed over.
“Report!”
“Speak.” Xia Zhe looked at the soldier standing in front of him.
“There’s someone in the ruins over there,” the soldier said, pointing to some ruins in the distance.
Xia Zhe followed him and saw that there was indeed someone lying motionless on the ground.
“Quick! Medic! Rescue!” Xia Zhe shouted at the medics in the distance.
Xia Zhe squatted down to check if Qiao Mei was still breathing and if she had a pulse. At this moment, Qiao Mei felt someone touching her. She slowly opened her eyes and saw the face that she had been thinking about day and night.
“Am… am I… dreaming?” Qiao Mei subconsciously reached out to touch the face of the person in front of her.
After confirming that Qiao Mei was alive, Xia Zhe tilted his head slightly to avoid Qiao Mei’s hand and let the medics go forward to rescue her.
“Arrange for treatment immediately and do your best to treat her,” Xia Zhe said, making the arrangements calmly.
Before Qiao Mei could see clearly whether the person was actually her loved one, she was already being carried away on a stretcher. She wanted to get up to ask about it but was pressed down on the stretcher by the medics.
“Let me take a look…” Before Qiao Mei could finish speaking, she was already secured to the stretcher.
“Don’t move around now. We need to see if you are injured. We’re from the medical unit and we’re giving you treatment. Don’t worry, you’ll be fine!” a medic said to Qiao Mei.
Qiao Mei thought to herself, “Of course I know that I’m fine, but I want to see if that person is Xia Zhe. Can you not stop me!”
Xia Zhe had turned away to deal with the danger in the area, so Qiao Mei had no choice but to receive treatment as she was told. She lay on the stretcher and fell asleep again.
The entire troop methodically made arrangements for the rescue and relief efforts. Xia Zhe and his brothers-in-arms were so busy that they did not even have time to eat as they threw themselves into the disaster relief efforts. In the end, they only recalled the main unit after searching the entire city three times. Even then, they still arranged for a small team to take turns to search around and ensure that they did not miss anyone.
Qiao Mei also slowly recovered her strength in her sleep, as the lost energy slowly returned to her body.
