RT Chapter 2
by VolareThe driver was startled and slammed on the brakes.
Shu Lin lunged towards the car door. Before the driver could react, he had already rushed out.
Screams rose and fell around him, and the crowd on the street was in turmoil.
“The hospital exploded!”
“Call the police!”
“It must be the opposition again!”
Shu Lin felt his legs weakening, but he forced himself to run.
The night wind blew off his hat. He ripped off his mask and ran forward desperately. His vision began to blur, but he didn’t dare stop to wipe away his tears.
The hospital building was teetering in the flames, and shards of glass fell like raindrops.
He saw people jumping out of windows, their screams and cries merging into one.
“Let me through! I need to get in!” He desperately tried to squeeze through the hospital gate, but was stopped by the police maintaining order.
“It’s too dangerous inside! You can’t go in!”
“My father and sister are inside! They’re on the twelfth floor!” Shu Lin’s voice was already choked with sobs. “Please, let me in…”
The policeman held him back firmly, “The fire brigade will be here soon. Going in now is suicide!”
Shu Lin felt dizzy. He took out his phone and frantically dialed his sister’s number, but no one answered.
He heard the surrounding crowd discussing:
“It’s terrible, the opposition is rebelling…”
“Who told the senior leaders of this hospital to support the current government…”
“What nonsense are you talking about? What does this have to do with the patients?!”
“The opposition is disregarding human life…”
Shu Lin couldn’t hear these voices clearly. His eyes were fixed on the windows on the twelfth floor.
In the thick smoke, he seemed to see figures swaying.
“Dad! Sis!” he shouted hoarsely.
Suddenly, his phone rang. He looked down and saw Shu Jingcheng’s name on the screen.
Shu Lin’s breath caught in his throat. He quickly answered, his voice choked with sobs, “Dad… how are you and my sister?”
Shu Jingcheng’s weak voice slowly came through, “…Xiao Lin, don’t, don’t be afraid. I, your sister and I are temporarily, temporarily okay… Your sister was protecting me and was hit in the arm by falling cement. She’s bleeding… The two of us…”
“Hello, hello, Dad! Dad!”
The other end of the phone went silent, the signal completely cut off.
Shu Lin tried calling several more times, but couldn’t get through.
However, knowing that his father and sister were temporarily out of danger, he gradually calmed down.
Looking around, the harsh searchlights outside the hospital illuminated the night sky as if it were daytime.
The lights of fire trucks, ambulances, and police cars were intertwined, reflecting on Shu Lin’s pale face.
“The detector shows that there are still residual explosives. The top priority is to find these residual explosives, remove them as soon as possible, and prevent secondary or even tertiary explosions!”
The firefighters at the scene shouted into the intercom, “All departments pay attention, now concentrate manpower and resources to search for and remove residual explosives!”
Shu Lin clenched his fists, his nails digging deep into his palms. He quickly walked to the firefighter and pleaded:
“My dad and my sister are in Room 7 on the 12th floor. They’re still alive. Please save them first. My dad just had stomach cancer surgery, and my sister was injured and lost too much blood. I’m afraid they can’t hold on for too long. Please save them first, please.”
The firefighter was stunned for a moment, a look of sympathy in his eyes, “I understand how you feel, but we don’t have enough manpower at the moment, and we don’t have the extra strength to rescue them separately. The hospital may explode again at any time. We have to stop the explosions first, otherwise there will be more casualties. I hope you can understand.”
Shu Lin was about to say something when the firefighter’s intercom rang again. He was busy directing the personnel to search for and remove the residual explosives.
Someone came forward and pulled Shu Lin to a safe area, “Please don’t interfere with our work. It’s dangerous here. Go home as soon as possible.”
Go home?
Without his father and sister, where would he have a home?
Logically, Shu Lin knew that the fire brigade had its own rescue principles and that it was not inappropriate to act in this way.
But, as far as he was concerned, he couldn’t care about so much.
He just wanted to rescue his father and sister as soon as possible.
As night deepened, the ruins of the hospital were cordoned off.
Shu Lin curled up on a bench on the side of the road, his eyes fixed on the rubble.
The rescue work continued, but progress was slow, and the limited rescue forces were concentrated on the lower floors, which were easier to rescue.
“The high floors cannot be broken through for the time being,” he heard the rescuers discussing, “The structure is too dangerous and we need to wait for heavy equipment, unless Minister Shao can issue an order, but he is still dealing with the chemical plant…”
Shu Lin felt his heart clenched by an invisible hand.
The hospital facilities were paralyzed, and the temperature was so low at night. His father had just had surgery and needed continuous medication; his sister had lost too much blood, and if she couldn’t stop the bleeding and get treatment in time…
He didn’t dare to think about it anymore.
The night wind wrapped in the smell of burnt debris brushed his cheeks. Shu Lin buried his face in his palms, and memories flooded back uncontrollably.
Shu Lin had never met his Alpha father. Every time he asked, Shu Jingcheng would hide the bitterness in his eyes and show a gentle smile:
“Xiao Lin has a dad and sister, that’s enough. Don’t be afraid, with us here, no one dares to bully my Xiao Lin.”
Seeing that his Omega father was unwilling to mention this, he stopped asking. It wasn’t until he was ten years old that his sister told him the truth.
Their Alpha father had cheated after marriage. After Shu Jingcheng found out, he divorced him without hesitation and left with his sister.
“After that, Dad realized…” His sister’s voice was gentle and firm, “But he never thought about giving you up. No matter what anyone said, he never wavered. You are a treasure given to us by God, and we just want to give you the most beautiful love in the world.”
Shu Lin cried at that time.
Not because he lacked another father, but because he knew they had done it.
He had always been loved by these two closest people in the world.
For him, they were willing to give everything.
Now, these two people who loved him the most were trapped in the ruins, their lives hanging in the balance.
He remembered his father holding his hand before the surgery and saying:
“Xiao Lin, don’t be afraid, Dad will be fine. I still have a lot of things I haven’t done with the person I love, and I won’t leave like this. Believe in Dad.”
His sister had already seen his unease, touched his head and smiled softly: “Don’t worry, Dad’s surgery will definitely be successful. I’ll be here with you, don’t worry.”
But now neither of them were by his side.
“Dad, Sis…” Shu Lin’s tears fell silently.
A drizzle began to fall in the night sky, and the cold raindrops hit his face, but he couldn’t feel the cold.
His heart was filled with anxiety and fear.
If he lost them…
He couldn’t imagine it.
Suddenly, a violent cough was heard.
Shu Lin looked up and saw an old woman being helped out of the ruins by medical staff. Her family immediately surrounded her and cried in each other’s arms.
This scene stung Shu Lin.
He stood up and paced back and forth outside the cordon.
The rain grew heavier and heavier, soaking his clothes, but he didn’t notice.
“There must be a way…” he muttered to himself, “I can’t just wait like this…”
He took out his phone, tapped the screen, and a news report about the rescue progress at the chemical plant in the suburbs popped up.
Shu Lin stared at the phone screen, his eyes unblinking.
When he looked up again, the sky was already turning fish-belly white.
Taking another look at the ruins, Shu Lin put away his phone and resolutely turned and left.
He was going to rescue his father and sister in his own way.
He needed to be quick.