Chapter 258: The Long-Unseen Shen Yuan

"Hold on tight!" Jiang Cheng stared straight ahead, and after reminding the others of this, he floored the gas pedal. Behind the speeding truck, countless buildings collapsed in an instant, dust and smoke billowing up like a phantom, resembling a massive mirage.

Si Rong watched all of this through the rearview mirror.

Her heart felt as if it had been struck by a giant boulder, heavy and suffocating.

There were still people in that city—men, women, children, and the elderly.

Warm tears slid from the corners of her eyes; she thought to herself that it certainly wasn't because she was too kind, just a sense of pity for her own kind.

Humans are so fragile in the face of nature.

The aftershocks of this earthquake were still quite powerful.

The truck shook for over ten minutes before it finally stopped; Si Rong felt like she was about to vomit.

No one in the vehicle spoke for a while; the atmosphere was unbearably oppressive.

On a small road by the county town, a pair of elderly people who had watched the tragedy unfold were both streaming with tears.

"Old woman, if that woman hadn't told us to leave the city to watch the show, we two old things might have been buried inside by now!"

"That definitely wasn't an ordinary woman; she must have been the Bodhisattva Guanyin manifesting in the world!"

"She truly had a kind and benevolent appearance; we forgot to kneel to the Bodhisattva!"

After a long while, Liu Ruxue was the first to make a sound, "Fortunately, fortunately many people in our city were not inside the city."

Otherwise, there would surely have been countless casualties.

As it was, the teachers and students of the school were not in the city; many people had asked for leave or were resting in order to see the concert.

At least her family members were all safe and sound at the performance venue now.

"It's a good thing you were there," although she didn't have any close relatives buried in that city, Liu Ruxue still had eyes full of hot tears, "Otherwise, I don't know what would have happened."

"Teacher, Mistress, you saved so many people; your merit is boundless!"

Xu Jie's eyes were also red; if the teacher hadn't rushed over this time, he might have been crushed under the city as well—that was a feeling that was desperate just to think about.

"We only did our part," Jiang Cheng looked at the dust and noise engulfing the horizon, "There are still some people we couldn't save."

"This is all fate; you must not blame yourselves!"

Liu Ruxue comforted them.

"It is best to keep the matter of us predicting the earthquake in advance a secret, otherwise it might invite disaster."

Jiang Cheng gave a word of caution, then stepped on the gas, and the large truck drove toward the performance venue.

The order at the performance venue had completely fallen into chaos; even in the open space outside the city, they could still feel such intense aftershocks.

Inside the city, I'm afraid...

"My son, my son was still at home taking a nap with his grandparents," a fashionably dressed woman knelt on the ground wailing, "Damn that Guo Fucheng! Why did he have to come here to perform! If I hadn't come here to watch the show, I would definitely still be with my son..."

"How can you blame the Heavenly King for this? If you hadn't come, you might already be..."

"Oh Heavens, what are we going to do? Are our houses and money all buried underneath? Where are we going to live from now on?"

"Why would such a thing happen to us? Could it be that we did something heinous, and Heaven wants to destroy us?"

"I just spent sixty thousand in bride price to marry my wife this year! No, I have to go back! Our family is poor and didn't build a two-story house; it's probably buried shallowly,"

"Right! Let's go back now; we'll save whoever we can!"

The police quickly set up a cordon. Anyone who had experienced an earthquake knew that the aftershocks following the quake were also quite severe; rushing back rashly would only increase casualties.

An old policeman stood on a vehicle and took out a megaphone to shout, "Everyone listen to me! I know everyone is very worried about the situation at home, but it is very dangerous for us to go back now. We have already reported the disaster, and the government will come to support us very soon!"

"Right! Everyone must trust the government; the government will not ignore us common folk, and we common folk must not add to the government's workload!"

"From now on, everyone must take care of the elderly and children around you; I will apply to have supplies brought in."

Si Rong felt a sense of relief in her heart; this was fine too. The supplies in her truck would be too conspicuous if taken out alone; it was better to wait and mix them in with other supply trucks when the time came.

However, before she could consider anything else, she saw a familiar person.

It had been a long time, and Shen Yuan had changed a great deal.

It was a transformation from girl to woman; Shen Yuan held a cigarette between her fingers and was saying something to the man beside her.

Another aftershock hit, and Shen Yuan's body swayed a few times; as she turned, she saw Si Rong.

So, everyone grows old.

A few strands of silver could already be seen at Si Rong's temples, and her crow's feet were more noticeable than before.

That's good.

She had thought that having money meant one could live forever; it was fortunate that Heaven was still fair in this regard.

Only, Si Rong had been doing just fine in Huaiyang, so how did she come here?

Could it be that times had changed, and Si Rong had also taken a liking to watching Guo Fucheng's concerts?

She hadn't forgotten the look on Si Rong's face when she had pushed back and refused to buy her concert tickets back then.

"Oh! What a coincidence!" Shen Yuan walked up to Si Rong, and seeing her eyes land on the cigarette in her hand, she provocatively put it to her lips and took a deep drag.

"Do you think I'm degenerate? Yes, I am degenerate, and you have your share of the sin in that."

She wanted nothing more than to vent all the resentment in her heart, "If I had never seen the sun, I would never have been obsessed with the light. It was you who built me the illusion of a happy castle, and then broke it with your own hands."

"You would surely say that this isn't your fault, that it's all the fault of that stupid and evil Li Xuan, and that you are a victim too—if you say that, you are wrong."

"They deceived you first, but my brother and I knew nothing about this from beginning to end. Ignorance is no crime; it would have been one thing if you had divorced, but you were heartless enough to cut ties with us!"

That she had become like this was all Si Rong's fault!

Si Rong gave a bitter smile, "I don't want to talk about those things. In fact, I want you to stop the nonsense, because everything happening here right now is more innocent than the you of the past."

"And your words today once again prove how wise I was to cut ties with you back then."

Shen Yuan was further enraged by her indifferent attitude, and she cursed viciously, "Why are you still alive? Why weren't you in the city? The earthquake should have wiped out a vicious woman like you!"

Boom—

She was kicked flying onto the ground.

Jiang Cheng coldly shielded Si Rong behind him, casting a warning glance at Shen Yuan, who was clutching her chest on the ground.

Shen Yuan could not catch her breath for a long time after being kicked in the chest, and the man who had just been standing beside her had long since disappeared to who knows where.

This little farce ended, and soon this earthquake in Chuan Shi made the news.

The news reporters set up their cameras, took a few photos from afar, and then rushed to the performance venue, preparing to interview Guo Tianwang and the survivors.