Fengcheng fliegender General

Kapitel 25

At the entrance of Tianyuan Apartment, only Qiqi remained.

Qiqi sat in her Beetle, feeling lost and confused.

All she knew was that she had to wait for Gao Jinze to come back; she had promised him.

I was in a daze, and I don't know how much time had passed.

All she knew was that midnight on August 12th should have already passed.

She was relieved that Gao Jinze was in the police station, not in apartment A, 8th floor, Block C of Tianyuan Apartment.

She suddenly prayed that Gao Jinze could stay at the police station a little longer, preferably after 3 a.m., because by then it would be the hour of Yin (3-5 a.m.), and if Building C hadn't collapsed, it probably wouldn't.

In her daze, she heard someone knocking on the car window.

Gao Jinze.

Gao Jinze bent over, pressed his face against the car window, and smiled at her.

As she opened the car door, she heard Gao Jinze say, "We've finally arrived at the August 12th you mentioned. It's one o'clock in the morning now."

Qi Qi nearly fainted, exclaiming, "Only a little? You—can you sit with me in the car for a while?"

Gao Jinze nodded.

The two got into the car.

Qi Qi asked with concern, "What exactly happened to that corpse? Are you alright?"

"fine."

Gao Jinze said casually, "It was just a minor accident. Many construction sites unearth skeletons, antiques, and the like. It's not unusual."

"The question is, at what depth was this body dug out?"

Gao Jinze frowned and said, "It doesn't seem very deep, maybe three meters or so... Hmm, something's not right, it shouldn't be the original underground..."

Qi Qi said, "You remember, right? When I came to check the feng shui that time, an old woman who collects scraps barged in. She was looking for her missing son, as Vice President Lin said..."

"Really?" Gao Jinze tried hard to recall, saying, "I don't quite remember. But if it was a worker who died during construction, then it has nothing to do with Qianqiu. The construction of Tianyuan Apartments was outsourced... Anyway, Linzai will fly back from Guangzhou tomorrow night. We can ask him and maybe he'll know. After all, he knows the whole construction process of Tianyuan Apartments. Qiqi, shall we go upstairs and talk?"

Qiqi immediately said, "I want to sit a little longer—just two hours!"

"Two hours?" Gao Jinze said in surprise, "Let's go upstairs and sit down. There's no food or drink here, and the place is small..."

Qi Qi said urgently, "Just listen to me this once—also, could you at least get the residents of the building to move out between 1 a.m. and 3 p.m.?"

Gao Jinze sighed and said, "I can listen to you, but those homeowners are convinced that Qianqiu invited you to be the first to spread rumors so they could get less compensation and force them to move out—wait, Qiqi, something's not right. Is something going to happen between 1 and 3 o'clock? Tell me quickly!"

Qiqi said helplessly, "My mom reminded me that the most dangerous time on August 12th—that is, the time when the building is most likely to collapse—is from 1 a.m. to 3 a.m."

Gao Jinze was stunned. He suddenly opened the car door and jumped out.

Qiqi then followed her out.

However, she couldn't keep up with Gao Jinze's pace.

It's already 1:30 a.m.

Building C of Tianyuan Apartment could collapse at any moment...

Around Building C, there were rubble and debris everywhere. The once magnificent lobby was also completely destroyed, with rubble scattered all over the place.

"Jinze, please don't go in!"

Qiqi, from a great distance, shouted with all her might.

Gao Jinze, who had already reached the lobby entrance, seemed to have heard this. He turned around and then rushed into the lobby.

Qiqi's eyes were blurred with tears.

She stopped, and through her blurry, tear-filled eyes, she seemed to see that Tianyuan Apartment was already swaying.

She took another step forward, one step at a time, toward the lobby of Tianyuan Apartment.

Just as she was about to step into the mound of earth in the lobby—she heard an extremely piercing sound—

Fire alarm!

Qi Qi was startled, then delighted.

She immediately grabbed and kicked the cement bags and scaffolding at the entrance of the lobby to the side.

The piercing fire alarms blared incessantly.

Qiqi moved aside to clear the exit from the lobby.

Within three minutes, the hallway was filled with noisy footsteps and terrified cries.

Then, a large number of men, women, and children, dressed in pajamas, vests, or shorts, or even shirtless, poured out.

In the square, the crowd gathered, yawning and greeting each other, asking which floor was on fire, why there was no smoke, and why the fire department hadn't arrived yet.

Qiqi looked at each person in the crowd one by one.

Gao Jinze is not included.

Qi Qi's heart clenched. She got up and walked towards the lobby.

Someone in the crowd shouted, "Little girl, don't go in! There's a fire inside, it's very dangerous!"

Qiqi seemed not to hear and rushed into the lobby of Building C of Tianyuan Apartment.

She went up the stairs to the second floor, but no one was there.

I went up to the third floor, but there was still no one there.

Qiqi continued walking upwards with her head down.

She must find Gao Jinze!

Qiqi heard a noise on the seventh floor. She quickened her pace.

Qiqi suddenly opened the door to Room B on the seventh floor.

Gao Jinze turned around.

“If you keep checking each room like this, the two of us might be the only ones buried in Building C of Tianyuan Apartment.”

Without a word, Gao Jinze grabbed Qiqi and ran down the stairs. Then, fearing that Qiqi was too slow, he turned around, hoisted the petite and light Qiqi onto his back, and strode down the stairs.

After rushing out of the lobby, Gao Jinze loudly directed the residents to move towards the center of the plaza.

Qiqi shyly reminded him, "Put me down quickly, it'll be embarrassing if someone sees us!"

Gao Jinze then remembered that he was still carrying Qiqi on his shoulder, so he squatted down and put her down.

Qiqi smiled and said, "You're really strong. This is a clever tactic. No matter how stubborn the residents are, they won't dare disbelieve the fire alarm. As long as we stall until three o'clock..."

Two fire trucks arrived with sirens blaring.

Gao Jinze quickly went up to him, pulled the fire chief aside, and whispered something to him.

The fire chief, who had been forced out in the middle of the night, was initially furious and lashed out at Gao Jinze. However, he gradually calmed down and started chatting with Gao Jinze. Gao Jinze offered him a cigarette and then gave one to each of the other firefighters.

The fire chief loudly ordered everyone to "stay put."

And so, time slipped away, little by little.

Qiqi nervously checked the time on her phone while staring at Building C of Tianyuan Apartment.

When the time indicated 3:01 AM on August 12, 2009.

Qi Qi breathed a long sigh of relief!

The fire chief was clearly also constantly checking his watch.

Almost as soon as Qi Qi let out a long sigh of relief, he jumped into the car and directed the two fire trucks to drive away.

Gao Jinze announced to the homeowners that the fire alarm had been deactivated.

The homeowners shouted complaints as they rushed into Building C of Tianyuan Apartment.

Gao Jinze smiled.

Qiqi smiled too.

They smiled and clasped hands together.

"I really don't dare to go into Tianyuan Apartment again. Let's sit in the pavilion on the artificial hill."

"I'm still shaken," Qiqi said.

Gao Jinze nodded, took her hand, and walked up the artificial hill.

The two sat side by side on the same wooden bench they had sat on before.

Suddenly, Gao Jinze remembered something, pulled a crumpled Orion egg yolk pie from the back pocket of his jeans, and handed it to Qiqi, saying, "It looks like it's broken... I went back to my room to get it when I passed by apartment A on the 8th floor. I figured I'd be busy all night, you must be hungry..."

Qi Qi was deeply moved, but she retorted, "You still have time to make pie?! The building could have collapsed every second!"

Gao Jinze chuckled.

Qiqi tore open the pie... and it was already reduced to crumbs...

Qiqi shook the pie crumbs into her palm and ate them carefully, bite by bite. She felt a sweet warmth in her heart.

After she finished eating, Gao Jinze took the pie wrapper from her hand, got up, and threw it into the trash can outside the pavilion.

Qiqi sat on the wooden stool with her knees drawn up to her chest.

Gao Jinze sat down close to her, and the two of them remained silent for a moment.

A burst of American black rap music broke the silence, and Gao Jinze took out his phone.

He hummed and hawed for a while, and finally said, "It's 'Tiangong' Construction Company. Please contact their Manager Xiao to verify."

After hanging up the phone, I said to Qiqi, "The autopsy results from the forensic doctor at the Public Security Bureau are in. The deceased was a man, around forty years old. The cause of death is preliminarily determined to be scalding and suffocation from hot mud. It has been preliminarily classified as a criminal case, and the investigation has begun."

Gao Jinze's phone then became a hotline.

The police station was receiving a constant stream of calls.

Gao Jinze claimed ignorance about many things, telling everyone to ask Vice President Lin when he returned. He then proceeded to give Lin's phone number to the police.

Qiqi suddenly remembered that Xiaowei, the security guard at Tianyuan Apartment, said that he was Awu's good friend. If the body was the missing Awu, Xiaowei might be able to recognize it.

So Qiqi suggested to Gao Jinze that the police should go and verify with the security guard Xiaowei.