Chapter 1065 Fushan Town

Ye Qingya laughed, “Whenever there’s a major disaster in the country, when haven’t you donated?”

Elder Ye replied, “The little money I have doesn’t mean much. My achievements today are all thanks to the ordinary people. Money is useless to me, it only has significance when used to help others. Now that I’m retired, this is the only way I can still do something for the people.”

Ye Qingya said, “Grandpa, go to sleep. Maybe by tomorrow morning, Dad will call you.”

Elder Ye said, “He has never broken a promise to me, Qingya, why don’t you give him a call?”

Ye Qingya nodded and called her father, but the call couldn’t get through. She then tried calling his secretary, but it was the same.

Ye Qingya also felt that something was amiss, but she didn’t show too much concern in front of her grandfather, not wanting to add to his anxiety.

Since her grandfather refused to sleep, Ye Qingya had no choice but to let him be. After returning to her room, she pondered for a long time before deciding to contact her mother.

Lin Sijin, before receiving her daughter’s call, was verifying the situation. What she could now confirm was that the helicopter Ye Changyuan was on had crashed, and reportedly, no one inside survived. Lin Sijin still had a glimmer of hope, but later she heard that the person risking their life to climb down the cliff for rescue was her godson, Xu Chunliang, and during the attempt, a mudslide tragically occurred in the Chaotic Stone Valley.

Lin Sijin was heartbroken over her husband’s death and worried about Xu Chunliang’s fate.

Lin Sijin certainly hoped Xu Chunliang could escape safely with her husband, but according to the situation from the scene, it was Xu Chunliang who confirmed that everyone in the helicopter had perished. All she could do now was pray.

The professional rescue team had also arrived at Hundred Feet Cliff, and when they saw the conditions in the Chaotic Stone Valley, they indicated that there were no disagreements about the rescue operation now, as the mudslide had swallowed the helicopter. According to the rescue personnel who had gone down earlier, everyone in the helicopter died when it crashed.

Given the victims’ special identities, the rescue team leader didn’t dare to officially declare the abandonment of the rescue, but tactfully expressed that rescue conditions were not met at the moment and they could only wait.

Everyone on site knew that not only had everyone inside the helicopter perished, but it was likely that even the rescue person who ventured down was buried in the mudslide.

While the rescue team leader was reporting the situation to superiors, someone saw a figure moving on the cliff and exclaimed, “He’s alive, Xu Chunliang is alive!”

On the steep cliff, Xu Chunliang was climbing towards the top with someone on his back. He not only escaped the mudslide but also rescued someone from the crashed helicopter.

The rescue personnel at the top of the cliff immediately became excited. They hurriedly prepared tools to help. When the lifeline was lowered, Xu Chunliang had already reached the cliff top with Ye Changyuan’s body on his back.

Everyone rushed over to assist Xu Chunliang in unstrapping Ye Changyuan’s body, and two medical personnel stepped forward, feigning to perform CPR.

Xu Chunliang wiped the rain from his face and said despondently, “Don’t waste your efforts; he’s already gone.”

The two medical personnel seemed not to hear him and continued their efforts. One even took out an automated external defibrillator, aware of Ye Changyuan’s extremely important identity and knowing their protocol. Even though they understood the symbolic rescue was futile, they still had to go through the motions, showing they had tried, for the peace of mind of the deceased’s family.

Xu Chunliang stepped up and kicked one of them to the ground, shouting angrily, “Are you all deaf? He’s already dead, stop this act in front of me.”

At that moment, the rescue team leader, Qiu Zicheng, approached, looked at Ye Changyuan’s body, pursed his lips, and said to Xu Chunliang, “You’re Xu Chunliang.”

Xu Chunliang nodded, too disheartened to speak. The death of Ye Changyuan left him confused and troubled. He hadn’t figured out how to face it or how to convey this terrible news to the Ye Family.

Qiu Zicheng handed him a satellite phone, “Your call.”

Xu Chunliang took the phone.

On the other end, Lin Sijin’s voice came through, “Chunliang, did you find your godfather?” Although Lin Sijin tried to remain calm, her voice inevitably trembled.

Xu Chunliang realized that Lin Sijin must have heard the bad news; otherwise, she wouldn’t specifically call about Ye Changyuan.

After a moment of hesitation, Xu Chunliang still chose to tell her the truth. With Lin Sijin’s wisdom, he simply couldn’t hide it from her, and he believed that Lin Sijin was a strong person.

Xu Chunliang said, “He was found, but I arrived too late.”

The worst scenario in Lin Sijin’s heart had been confirmed. She gripped the phone tightly, struggling to control her inner sorrow: “I understand, thank you, Chunliang. You… you also need to be careful…”

She quickly hung up the phone because, if she waited any longer, she might not be able to control her inner grief. Lin Sijin’s eyes turned red. She furiously pulled at her hair, unable to comprehend how such a thing could happen. She and Ye Changyuan had been separated for years, and Ye Changyuan had consistently made efforts to mend their relationship. Finally, she and her daughter had reconciled and resolved their differences, and their family was about to reunite. But now Ye Changyuan was suddenly gone, never to return. Her daughter lost her father, she lost her husband, and Elder Ye lost his most beloved son.

Even in the worst of predictions, a glimmer of hope remains. Now, all hope was gone, and Lin Sijin’s heart fell into darkness, unable to see a ray of light. She didn’t know how to tell her daughter; in her view, her daughter’s feelings for her father exceeded her own.

Before heading to the disaster reduction office, Ye Changyuan had always had a smooth path in the system. Elder Ye held high hopes for him. This was his first trip to the new position, and unexpectedly, it became his life’s swan song.

After much thought, Lin Sijin first called Ye Changquan, who was far away in Neon, to inform him of the tragic news. Upon hearing the news, Ye Changquan immediately stated he would return to the country as soon as possible to handle the matter.

Lin Sijin hoped he would be the one to tell Elder Ye the news, and she decided to head to the disaster area as soon as possible.

Ye Changquan first called Ye Qingya. Receiving a call from her uncle so late, Ye Qingya already understood what had happened. When the worst suspicion in her heart was finally confirmed, Ye Qingya covered her lips and cried for fear of alarming her grandfather. Her immense internal grief waged a struggle against her physical control, making her body tremble involuntarily.

The rain poured heavily over Capital City that night. Elder Ye sat by the window, gazing into the indistinct darkness despite his efforts to see clearly, listening to the relentless sound of rain. His heart was as dark and damp as the night itself.

The site processed Ye Changyuan’s remains, deciding to leave a team to continue searching for other victims’ remains, while others were instructed to bring his remains down the mountain as soon as possible. Due to partial landslides and sudden mudslides, the original path up the mountain was destroyed, leaving them with only the relatively steep northern slope to descend.

Considering the difficulty of bringing a stretcher down the mountain, the rescue team proposed that everyone take turns carrying the body down. Xu Chunliang, worried about any mishaps along the way, insisted on carrying the body himself.

Every movement he made was witnessed by everyone participating in the rescue tonight, and they silently admired Xu Chunliang’s abilities. None of them could have done what he did, let alone scale the Hundred Feet Cliff unaided in a short time while carrying a body.

They reached the foot of the mountain and delivered Ye Changyuan’s body to a nearby temporary rescue point. The staff from Juzhou Funeral Home and several leaders from Juzhou were already waiting to receive his remains. The heavy rain continued unabated, as did the aftershocks.

All rescue personnel disbanded on the spot, returning to their respective rescue points to continue their missions, as more people were awaiting rescue.

Xu Chunliang took a moment to check his phone and found a distress message from Su Qing. The situation on her side was dire, with no professional rescue personnel in sight. A colleague had died in an aftershock, and two others were injured. Currently, all efforts were reliant on civilian self-rescue.

They were trapped in the center of Fushan Town, and she sent the message with a try-it-and-see mentality, uncertain if Xu Chunliang would even receive it.

Xu Chunliang had been occupied with rescuing Ye Changyuan and overlooked the message. He sought out the head of the rescue point, hoping he could allocate some personnel to head to Fushan Town for rescue.

The rescue point leader stated they were already short-handed and couldn’t afford to allocate any more personnel to go with him for rescue. All they could do was report the matter to their superiors and let the command center dispatch personnel.

In fact, it wasn’t a deliberate refusal; the need for rescue was high, but there weren’t enough professional rescue personnel. Without coordination from the command center, they couldn’t leave their posts.

Xu Chunliang understood that convincing the command center to dispatch a team for rescue based solely on a personal message was difficult. He decided to go himself. Having already lost someone very important to him tonight, he didn’t want to lose another.

Fushan Town was eleven kilometers in a straight line from the rescue point. Xu Chunliang decided to head there himself. The sidecar motorcycle he had ridden was washed away by a mudslide, leaving him to seek assistance from the rescue point. Though there were no extra vehicles, they still helped him find an electric bike.

Xu Chunliang sympathized with the other’s difficulties and rode the electric bike towards Fushan Town. Throughout the journey, he had no mobile signal. On the way to Fushan Town, he crossed several bridges, severely damaged by the earthquake. When he was three kilometers from Fushan Town, he found the bridge ahead was broken and impassable, forcing him to abandon the electric bike and cross the river alone.

Continuous heavy rain caused the water levels to rise, making the currents swift. For ordinary people, crossing the river was too dangerous—they might be swept away by the floodwaters.

With a leap, Xu Chunliang cleared the six-meter-wide river without stopping, heading on foot towards Fushan Town.

Fushan Town lay in a low-lying area, and the continuous rainfall had turned the small town into a watery expanse. Buildings made unstable by repeated earthquakes had suffered further collapses from the rain’s erosion and the flood’s saturation.