Chapter 779 - 509: You’re here again?_2

As they were speaking, two stretcher-bearers arrived and, without hesitation, placed him on the stretcher.

"I... Commander Chang, I can walk!" Fang Huai really wanted to struggle.

Commander Chang also looked speechless and whispered beside the stretcher:

"Lie down! The reporters are all above. We’ve reported to the senior leadership that you haven’t slept for days and are unconscious. If you come out jumping around, and the reporters capture it on camera, how are we supposed to explain that to the leadership? Let me tell you, when you go out later, act a bit weak! The whole nation is waiting to see a hero!"

Fang Huai cursed inwardly.

Shit, what does their report have to do with me?

Does a hero have to be carried out on a stretcher?

But Commander Chang wasn’t finished.

"Let me tell you, kid, you’ve hit the jackpot this time. The leadership personally announced it: you, my boy, are guaranteed a promotion and rank advancement! 20 years old, a 20-year-old Lieutenant Colonel! I’ve never seen it before! When I was your age, I hadn’t even become a platoon leader yet!"

In an instant, Fang Huai just gave in.

While lying down, he coughed as if he had tuberculosis.

When he was brought out, Fang Huai’s feeble gaze met numerous beams of light, and the noises surrounding him were extremely loud.

"This is Chongqing Television, we see..."

"I am a reporter from the Voice of China, Liu..."

The miners who had previously emerged were in good condition, and several of them were already being interviewed.

But most of the cameras were focused on the stretcher-borne patient, Fang Huai.

An elderly man, with his just-rescued son, was kowtowing to the surrounding excavators. Upon seeing Fang Huai come out, he immediately pulled his son over.

"Blessed be, it was you who traded your life for my son’s, you saved my son! I bow to you!"

And with that, he knelt several meters away from Fang Huai’s stretcher.

Fang Huai was about to burst out, but Commander Chang promptly held him down and yelled at a few soldiers:

"What are you staring at? Hurry up and help the old man to his feet!"

As the soldiers helped the old man up, the miner’s son, who had seen Commander Fang strolling the mine tunnel with his hands behind his back just ten minutes ago, suddenly lying down, was momentarily stunned.

The old man became angry, jerked his hand free from the soldiers trying to assist him, and angrily looked at his son: "Aren’t you going to kneel down?"

"But, Commander Fang he..."

"Kneel down!"

The miner knelt down and bowed his head three times before the old man shakily stood up, his tears flowing freely as he looked at Fang Huai’s stretcher.

"A living Bodhisattva, a living Bodhisattva..."

Those villagers who had been waiting at the site for their relatives had seen Commander Fang’s endless efforts day and night. Now, having seen him energetic before descending into the mine, and being carried out, they all assumed he had been injured below, and they came over to look and sigh.

"That’s the leadership of the local forces there! They went down personally to rescue people and got buried inside..."

"You don’t understand, he’s been down there for so long! He was fine before! It was f*cking Old Li Three who, with one kick, brought the mine down!"

"He’s very capable! The scene was a total mess that day, but as soon as he arrived, in just an hour or two, he began organizing the rescue!"

"Yesterday I heard it myself! They didn’t want to let him go down, but he just led a group of young men straight into the mine. If it weren’t for him, who knows how long it would have taken these people to come out..."

Some family members of the rescued miners stood in a line on the path where Fang Huai emerged. As he approached, they collectively knelt down with a thump.

This touching scene was recorded by the surrounding reporters.

Fang Huai, with his eyes slightly closed, was touched by everything around him, his nose a little sour.

As someone who had participated in several rescues, he had long been immune to these gestures. Every time he was dispatched, when people wanted to thank him, he would just wave and move on.

Only now, he couldn’t move. Lying on the stretcher, his mind had time to wander, and for the second time since his rebirth, he remembered the moment years ago when he fell in love with firefighting:

An elderly woman he had carried out of a fire scene insisted on kneeling to him, and his wild child’s soul felt for the first time what it meant to be noble.

That was many years ago.

He was moved that so many years had passed, yet he had another chance to return to this scene of rescuing people from fire and water.

And now, he no longer worked for that respect but for a reverence of life.

...

Fang Huai was hospitalized.

It was a state-sponsored hospital stay.

For the convenience of the leaders’ visits, he was placed in the same hospital where the miners were being treated.

Psychiatric ward.

The diagnosing doctors were put in a tough spot.

Fang Huai was too energetic, couldn’t settle down in the hospital, insisting on going to the consulting room to learn how the doctors diagnosed and treated patients, and after two days, actually picked up quite a lot, even engaging in discussions with them.

When leaders came and asked the doctor what illness Hero Fang had, the doctor hemmed and hawed, feeling that diagnosing a hero with "sleep disorder" didn’t seem right, and could only conclude: he might have an anxiety disorder.

Fang Huai was quite pleased with this diagnosis.

Right, I’m very anxious right now.

It’s only been a few years since the firefighting forces were restructured, and you’re keeping me in the hospital for several days.

However, when the mayor came to visit Fang Huai, he was quite well-behaved and even took the initiative to discuss the development of firefighting with the mayor.

It wasn’t to flatter the local authority but because Fang Huai had overheard at the Command that the mayor might partially retire and go to the People’s Congress.

Of course, it wasn’t the local congress.

The local People’s Congress was a power institution, while that congress was a legislative body.

And that was an opportunity.

He dared not count on support from the top leadership, but with the mayor, later on, when it came to the "Fire Protection Law," he could at least seek guidance, asking the mayor to show him the way in.

...

June 14th.

The rescue operation at Jiwei Mountain continued.

Since the underground miners had been rescued, the Command went all-out to carry out search operations in the mine and the overlying strata, unearthing many bodies, allowing their souls to return to the earth.