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墨書 Inktalez
The smoke from the explosion at Train Station Square had yet to dissipate. The entrance was still shrouded in swirling dust, and the ground was littered with shattered stones and bricks. The vehicles left behind had long since become scrap metal, and any further damage from the shockwaves posed little threat; at most, it added to the chaos without hindering Luo Yu and her companions in their search and rescue efforts. The main structure of the building showed no signs of collapse, suggesting that there might still be survivors inside. Luo Yu and Fang Fei wore serious expressions, suppressing their anxiety as they illuminated the thick smoke with their flashlights.
The two women shared some similarities, particularly in the men they followed.
Song Jiu and Jin Bo were of similar age, both possessing a tough demeanor. However, Song Jiu leaned towards being reserved and cunning, while Jin Bo was more overtly aggressive. Both were exceptionally capable individuals, but they lacked a bit in leadership when it came to guiding their team. They were the soul of the group, yet it was often the second-in-command who managed to unify the team. Luo Yu was Song Jiu's reliable right-hand, just as Fang Fei was for Jin Bo.
When Song Yao teased Jin Bo in the cave, she assumed there was a deep bond between them. In reality, they did not share a romantic relationship, but their connection surpassed that of ordinary friends. This was evident; Luo Yu shared a similar understanding with Song Jiu. It wasn't just Song Yao who had been curious about this; Chef Jia had also expressed doubts.
This kind of relationship is easy to understand but difficult to explain. To put it poetically, they shared an unspoken understanding that outsiders could not comprehend.
Thus, Luo Yu understood Song Jiu better than most people did, just as Fang Fei understood Jin Bo.
All this is to convey one thing: both women had an almost blind trust in their respective men. Despite having witnessed them rush into the waiting hall, they clung to an inexplicable confidence that Song Jiu and Jin Bo would not perish so easily. This somewhat obsessive trust empowered them; even when faced with the precarious situation of the waiting hall, they showed no signs of retreat.
However, search and rescue was not a simple task—especially in a post-explosion environment like this one. They were not professionals; looking at what seemed like a war-torn scene, despite their determination, they were unsure where to direct their efforts.
Upon entering the station's entrance, they found themselves in a spacious waiting hall on the first floor. The marble floor formed a wide path marked by signs indicating various functional areas. The central escalator led to the second floor, while access to the platform housing the Steam Locomotive required entering through ticket gates on the second floor before descending into the platform area.
The entire hall was dim and gloomy; Luo Yu's scattered flashlight beams could hardly penetrate the thick smoke, forcing them to feel their way forward. Based on the timing of the explosion, Luo Yu estimated that the second team had likely not yet reached ground zero. If they had moved any slower, they might have missed boarding the escalator altogether.
Of course, this was merely wishful thinking; knowing both men meant understanding their style of action. Wu Wentao had signaled for advancement; neither would be idle or complacent—especially considering potential ambushers lurking in the shadows. Quick movement was essential.
The search squad cautiously made their way through smoke and darkness until they finally approached the destroyed escalator. The twenty-meter-long escalator was severed in half, with one section dangling precariously above them while its conveyor belt continued to sway ominously. Below it lay debris scattered everywhere; marble flooring bore numerous dents from falling rubble, while cracks spider-webbed across concrete walls. Twisted rebar jutted out like snakes seeking prey.
"Be careful." Luo Yu heard a strange noise overhead and quickly reached out to grab Fang Fei as she attempted to cross over obstacles toward the escalator below in search of something. Just as she spoke, a loud rumble echoed—a large chunk of wall with metal seating collapsed heavily before them, sending shards flying.
"Jin Bo," Fang Fei murmured her thanks but felt alarmed; it was clear that the hall remained unsafe. Flames still flickered above them, and after an explosion like this one, small collapses were inevitable. If they did not search now, re-entering later would be difficult.
Luo Yu felt equally anxious; for now, zombies outside were not her concern. She instructed several young men to spread out as they moved forward while calling out names in hopes of hearing a response. With the escalator destroyed, ascending would require using the staircase at the end of the hall. After searching around the escalator area, she discovered a body beneath a pile of rubble—by its attire, it appeared to belong to one of Jin Bo's men.
Several people attempted to move the collapsed floorboard, but the massive debris was too heavy for just a few to shift. Judging by the direction of the fall, it seemed that someone had been thrown down from above. The upper body was severely crushed, and blood flowed through the gaps. A flashlight beam illuminated the area, revealing no one else.
"They must have gone up," Fang Fei said, brushing back her disheveled hair, her restless heart showing signs of losing control.
"Let's check upstairs," Luo Yu nodded, patiently searching around the elevator once more but finding nothing else. Following the signs, he quickly made his way toward the end of the corridor.
There were no obvious signs of collapse in the hallway, but it was still filled with the acrid smoke from the explosion. Turning around the corner of the stairs, they came upon the severely damaged second-floor lobby. The waiting room on the west side had been reduced to ruins, with a massive hole blown in the roof, allowing glimpses of the cold moonlight and the dark starry sky.
"There," Fang Fei's expression changed as she swept her flashlight across the edge of the escalator, illuminating several scattered figures lying haphazardly.
They looked down at their feet; cracks appeared in the floor tiles, and each step seemed to tremble beneath them. Maintaining their speed while trying to conserve energy, Luo Yu stepped on something and looked down to find a Steel Saw Blade. His heart tightened suddenly, and his legs involuntarily trembled.
The closer they got to the figures, the more glass shards littered the ground, and bloodstains became clearer. A young man beside Luo Yu gasped as he approached one figure and turned it over. Several beams of flashlight converged on Jin Bo's person. The young man checked for breath and shook his head in disappointment. The rescue team spread out to examine the fallen figures; only one young man still showed signs of life, but given his injuries, it was unlikely he would last much longer.
After searching around, hope ignited in Luo Yu's heart—there was no sign of Song Jiu, Jin Bo, or Lin Daozhang. Including the corpse downstairs, they had found six people so far out of a total of seventeen who had entered with them. This meant that eleven others might still be alive.
However, if they were alive, why was there no sign of movement? Both Luo Yu and Fang Fei felt a bit lightheaded from lack of oxygen and couldn't think clearly. The second-floor lobby was quite spacious; if they had been up there facing such a sudden explosion, would they have had time to react?
"They went inside," a young man said after searching on the ground for a moment. He stood up and murmured as he directed his flashlight beam toward an entrance leading further into the building.
They followed his gaze to see that it was indeed the waiting room that had been blasted open from above. The remnants of walls lay scattered about; concrete slabs and waiting chairs resembled an abstract masterpiece created by a chaotic artist. The shockwave from the explosion had pushed metal and concrete outward over ten meters, forming a makeshift barrier that blocked access to the waiting room.
Luo Yu's brow furrowed as he leaned on his flashlight and walked over, immediately understanding what the young man meant. On top of the disordered rubble lay a clear trail of blood, alongside a single shoe that had fallen.
Fang Fei also noticed something unusual; she redirected her beam back to the elevator entrance and crouched down for a closer look. "There are bloodstains here too," she said after examining carefully. "But they're covered by dust; it looks like they encountered an explosion just as they came up."
"But Brother Jiu and the others didn't die—they ran into the waiting room," Luo Yu interjected, closing his eyes as he simulated what must have happened at that moment. Song Jiu and his group must have reached the waiting room just as a deafening blast occurred—the elevator exploded behind them, sending shockwaves toward those following behind while they were positioned in the waiting room. Luo Yu opened his eyes again and crouched down to examine one of the seats that had been pushed away by the blast wave; his pupils instantly constricted.
"Luo Yu!" a startled shout broke the silence as he quickly called for help. The beam of the flashlight pierced through the gaps in the concrete floor, illuminating a corner of clothing.
Fang Fei and the others, disregarding the falling debris above them, used their guns as makeshift crowbars, prying open the topmost slab of stone with sheer force. They moved aside the twisted and deformed chairs and dug through the rubble to pull someone out.
"Old Lin..." Luo Yu's lips moved, his throat feeling dry.
Fang Fei sighed and continued searching through the fallen debris with the others.
Wiping the dust from his face with his sleeve, Luo Yu realized that this skilled talker, the Fake Taoist, had ultimately not escaped the calamity. When his body was pulled out, it was completely limp. In the face of the explosive force and collapsing floor above him, even extraordinary martial skills were of no use. It must have happened quickly; looking at his calm expression, there was no pain or grimace—he seemed merely to be asleep, as if waking up from a dream, still that incessant chatterbox.
Luo Yu took off his jacket and covered his face, forcing his exhausted body to stand up. Fang Fei and the others had already entered the waiting room. Learning from Lin Daozhang's fate, they left no corner unchecked as they searched through the collapsed areas one by one. To their surprise, they unearthed several more people from beneath the fallen floorboards. Among them was Dapeng, who had been with Ying Dou Dou and was still alive.
He was trapped between rows of seats, with the fallen floor barely pinning down the stacked chairs that confined him inside. Perhaps due to the shockwave, this man who had always been timid had fainted. As soon as he was pulled out, he sat up suddenly like a corpse coming back to life, screaming in terror until he realized he was among friends and immediately burst into tears.
"Dapeng, calm down!" Fang Fei exclaimed, both anxious and relieved. Worried about his injuries, she dared not move him and squatted in front of him urgently asking, "Where's Akin? What about the others?"
Dapeng's emotions were somewhat out of control as he laughed and cried for a while. Gradually regaining some clarity in his eyes, he stared blankly at Fang Fei's questions. After a long pause, he said, "I don't know. They ran ahead; I tripped and then... I don't remember anything."
Fang Fei and her companions continued to encourage him to recall what had happened earlier. Luo Yu sighed in disappointment, his gaze fixed on a massive hole blasted into one side of the waiting room's broken wall. The exposed rebar twisted grotesquely under immense force, creating a striking shape. Luo Yu couldn't fathom how the explosives had detonated but looking at this level of destruction made any hope for other survivors seem bleak.
Steeling himself, Luo Yu stepped over the rubble intending to go inside when he caught sight of a moving shadow out of the corner of his eye. Startled by what he saw in the flickering firelight, he hurriedly retreated back into the hall and ran towards the VIP Waiting Room. He had been so focused on finding Song Jiu that he had forgotten about Liu Yan and Xiao Wei; they had climbed through a pipe into a window and considering the timing, they should have been on this floor when the explosion occurred.
Fang Fei didn't notice Luo Yu's disappearance as several youths continued searching near the ticket gate. The downward passage had completely collapsed; beams of light from their flashlights could not penetrate it anymore. Above them, falling rocks became increasingly frequent, hinting at another potential collapse.
Luo Yu rushed toward the shadow; the VIP Waiting Room was beside where the ordinary waiting area had collapsed. The impact from the explosion here was less severe; although it had also collapsed somewhat, swirling flames did not reach this area—only weak beams from flashlights provided minimal visibility.
Luo Yu paused for a moment when he recognized what lay before him—a half-body.
His mind raced as he questioned whether he was hallucinating. Gritting his teeth, he approached cautiously; under his flashlight’s beam lay indeed half a body below the waist that was writhing on its own. In that moment of daze, Luo Yu recalled something—the long trail of blood dragged across the marble floor—and hurriedly pursued it through scattered entrails and flesh until he found Liu Yan.
Liu Yan lay on the ground, his upper body sprawled out, his internal organs and blood nearly drained away. Despite this, his short body still struggled to move forward.
Luo Yu's head buzzed, and his nose felt a bit sour. He hurriedly called out Liu Yan's name and rushed over.
Liu Yan stopped struggling as Luo Yu trembled and turned him over, revealing a pale and delicate face.
" Brother Jiu, Xiao Wei," Liu Yan's mouth and nose were covered in blood, and his gold-rimmed glasses were nowhere to be found. The moment he saw Luo Yu, a flash of immense joy sparkled in his eyes.
Luo Yu was at a loss for what to do. In a panic, he grabbed the intestines that were hanging out of Liu Yan's abdomen, trying to push them back in. They felt wet and warm to the touch, slippery and difficult to manage.
Liu Yan spoke with difficulty, his words unclear as he weakly waved his hand, signaling Luo Yu not to worry about him. His charred arm pointed toward the dimly lit VIP Waiting Room as he struggled to say, " Brother Jiu, Xiao Wei."
Luo Yu's eyes brightened at this. He quickly looked in the direction Liu Yan was pointing. In the chaotic waiting room, there seemed to be faint sounds that were barely audible.
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