Chapter 302

I don't know if it's because she became a mother, but Shen Man's sympathy and patience toward children are now noticeably stronger.

As dusk fell, bonfires were lit inside the temporary camp.

The rescue soldiers had been busy for a long time; the survivors they saved could be counted on one's fingers.

They had still hoped to see classmates, but the teacher's two little friends, in a dazed manner, seemed to have understood something.

Maybe it's a chick imprint, but they are especially dependent on the soldier uncle they first met and the pretty older sister.

Wherever Shen Man goes, two little tails follow close behind.

But Shen Man didn't send them away; she could sense that the two children felt insecure.

Then she gave them a job—adding firewood—to keep the bonfire from dying.

This diverted their attention and lessened their fear.

But some things, if not concealed, the children would notice.

For example, the pervasive strange smell in the air.

The two little friends are classmates; the taller one is Wang Xingguo, the shorter one Xu Huimin.

After learning about them, Shen Man found they are both eight years old, in second grade.

Their Teacher Ge is their Chinese teacher and also the school's vice principal.

When Teacher Ge was mentioned, both children's eyes lit up.

But the two children have already realized something; they no longer ask the soldier uncle where Teacher Ge is.

Overnight, they seemed to have grown up.

No longer innocent and carefree, they have become silent and reticent.

Inside the simple tent, the facilities are rudimentary.

They practically sit and sleep on the ground.

But although the aftershocks are small, they are incessant.

No one can truly sleep soundly; they are just exhausted, exchange greetings with colleagues, then close their eyes to rest a bit.

It's hard to endure, but endure they must.

The medical staff are relatively okay, but the soldiers have no respite, continuously rushing to the ruins, staggering as they carry out corpse after corpse.

Sweat, blood from wounds, and tears from emotional breakdown mingle together, forming memories impossible to forget in a lifetime.

A school of several hundred people yielded several hundred corpses, mainly young children, with severed limbs and gruesome deaths.......

There are frightened children clinging together, children who almost escaped the classroom, and teachers who opened their arms to shield the children beneath them......

When tallying the survivors' list, everyone choked up, unable to bear it.

Except for the two little boys Wang Xingguo and Xu Huimin, only a fifth-grade girl survived.

Compared to the boys' luck, the girl's right arm was crushed by a falling beam and had to be amputated.

After waking, the little girl's first words were:

"My desk mate—is he still alive?"

No one could answer that question; they could only remain silent.

The fifth-grade girl is already twelve; she has become sensible, she understands what life and death separation means.

She had already guessed from the adults' silence that her desk mate, with whom she had promised to leave the mountains together, go to college together, and see Tiananmen together, lies forever buried in the classroom.......

"Live on, no matter what difficulties you encounter, you must live on."

"Your lives, from now on, are not just yours; you carry the dreams of other classmates and the hopes of teachers—live well."

"For them, and for yourself, you must bravely live on."

The female reporter holding the microphone, while interviewing the survivors, burst into tears.

In the face of natural disaster, human life is so fragile.

In just a few days, the death toll in Hong Shan exceeded 200,000, with 50–60,000 missing and 150–160,000 affected—and this is still an incomplete count!

Because some families were wiped out in an instant by the earthquake.

The living survivors escaped by various reasons.

But for the Chinese people, who cherish family, love, and friendship in their bones, living alone is the most agonizing beginning.......

After a full half month, the search and rescue mission ended.

Having gone without rest for half a month, even an iron man would be exhausted.

But no one lightly said they would give up; they all relied on a breath of determination to keep going.

But the reality is, once an earthquake—this natural disaster—occurs, the optimal rescue window is twenty-four hours.

Three days, seven days, ten days, fourteen days—by then they were successively announcing that those buried in the ruins were already.......

The death toll finally settled at 242,769, with 164,000 seriously injured; the missing could not be fully counted.

After the news reports, the whole nation mourned.

People from all provinces spontaneously donated money and supplies to the government to support Hong Shan's reconstruction and resettle the disaster victims.

Troops were gradually recalled to their stations; Shen Man and her team were also on the recall list.

In just half a month, each of them had lost a lot of weight.

In their eyes lay repressed emotion, pity, and a sense of helplessness.......

If they were sent straight to the battlefield to face mountains of enemy corpses, they would only grow braver with each fight!

But this time is different.

But this mission is to collect the corpses of our own people.

And it's a ten-thousand-person pit.

It was impossible to set up individual tombstones; hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands were buried together on the spot.......

Even though half a month has passed, the air still carries that same lingering strange smell.

Even Lu Xiu Bai, who usually grins and jokes, could no longer laugh in the face of this human tragedy.

Sometimes they dug up a small clump, and upon inspection it had already lost all signs of life, and he couldn't help but cry.

Why, why does this natural disaster not visit its harm upon Little Japan?

He no longer wants a physique that turns misfortune into blessing; he only wants future geological disasters to be diverted to Little Japan!

Those survivors who have moved on from that time and accepted reality dried their tears and came to say goodbye.

In the crowd, Shen Man saw the little girl with a broken arm; she forced a smile and waved at him with her good left arm to say goodbye.......

"Goodbye, military uncle!"

"Goodbye, beautiful sister!"

"Goodbye."

Shen Man silently prayed in her heart, hoping that when they met again, these children would emerge from the shadow and start anew.

"Waa—"

The warship sailed on the sea surface, the travelers far from home, on their way back......

Although the warship's supplies were ample, those who had endured this half month of training would often startle awake even in their sleep.

Eating, they could barely swallow their food.

It wasn't that the cook's food was bad; it was that, whenever they closed their eyes, an unforgettable scene filled their minds.......

Such a bone-deep memory will accompany those who participated in the rescue for their whole lives.