After finishing the team event, Ren Yi took Gong Yingxian and Gong Feilan to sit in the spectator stands, cheering on the firefighters participating in the individual events.
Although many relatives and friends of the participants had come to the venue, the siblings’ looks were so striking that they attracted the most attention.
As they watched, Wang Xuan carried over two cases of ice-cold Coke. Ren Yi took several bottles and handed them to Gong Yingxian and Gong Feilan. Gong Feilan happily accepted hers, while Gong Yingxian simply said, “I don’t drink carbonated beverages.”
“You’re really hard to please.” Ren Yi exchanged it for a bottle of mineral water.
Gong Feilan couldn’t help nodding. “Cousin is really picky about food.”
“Choosing a diet that suits me isn’t called being picky.”
Ren Yi snorted. “Not eating this and not eating that—that’s what people generally call being picky.”
Gong Yingxian shot him a sideways glance. “I never asked you to prepare food for me. What are you complaining about?”
“Who would dare complain?”
Gong Feilan said helplessly, “You two shouldn’t always argue.”
Ren Yi coughed lightly and changed the subject. “What’s the progress on Cai Wan’s case?”
“Following numerous leads, I connected the case to Cai Wan’s older brother. His name is Cai Cheng. He’s been unemployed and idling around for years. He used to come to Tianqi to take odd jobs, working as a security guard, delivering packages, and so on, but never stayed at any job for long. He returned to his hometown last year. There’s evidence showing that he came to Tianqi recently, but he didn’t use the state-run transportation system, so there’s no identity record.”
“He came after the bar fire?” Ren Yi asked. “Then that’s very suspicious.”
“Exactly. He deliberately chose a way of coming to Tianqi that would avoid detection, so he’s difficult to investigate. I asked Captain Qiu to help me contact the local police. After conducting a preliminary investigation, we discovered that he’s recently been making unusually large expenditures. He very likely has an unexplained source of income.”
“Have they arrested him?”
“No. Cash transactions are difficult to use as evidence. We need to obtain concrete evidence before we can arrest him, but it should happen soon.”
“If Cai Wan can be brought to justice, we really have Captain Qiu to thank.” Ren Yi said casually, “Aren’t you the one who calls her Sister Yan?”
“Sister Yan? What happened to her?” Gong Feilan turned her head and asked.
“You know her too?”
“Of course. Our family and Sister Yan’s family have been family friends for generations. We’ve known each other since we were little.”
“…”
At that moment, Gong Yingxian’s phone rang. He got up and walked to the side to answer it.
Ren Yi couldn’t resist asking Gong Feilan, “Feilan, are your cousin and Captain Qiu really childhood sweethearts?”
“Definitely not. They’re seven or eight years apart. How could they have played together?”
Ren Yi nodded.
“But Cousin definitely likes her,” Gong Feilan said with certainty.
Ren Yi froze. “…Does he?”
“Mm. Sister Yan is the only woman Cousin keeps in contact with. And she’s so beautiful and so outstanding. With Cousin’s personality, if he didn’t like her, why would he treat her so well?”
Ren Yi said quietly, “That makes sense. The two of them are quite well matched…”
“Ah!” Gong Feilan suddenly cried out and looked at Ren Yi nervously. “Captain Ren, don’t tell me you’ve fallen for Sister Yan too?”
Ren Yi gave a faint smile. “How could that be? We’ve only met for two minutes in total.”
Gong Feilan looked at Ren Yi suspiciously.
“I saw your cousin chatting and laughing with her, so I was just curious.”
“Oh, good.” Gong Feilan nodded. “It’s true. Cousin really is different only with her.” She shook her head. “It’s a pity that Cousin has been back in the country for so long, yet he still hasn’t made any move. It’s really frustrating.”
Ren Yi couldn’t quite describe what he was feeling. For some reason, he felt a little disappointed, yet also wanted to laugh.
So it turned out Gong Yingxian wasn’t truly indifferent to romance. He simply only had eyes for one person.
Gong Yingxian finished his call and returned. The two of them pretended that nothing had happened. He instinctively sensed that the atmosphere was somewhat strange and asked, “What were you two talking about just now?”
“Nothing. We were cheering for the firefighters,” Ren Yi said.
Gong Feilan merely grinned without saying anything.
Gong Yingxian narrowed his eyes, clearly unconvinced.
At that moment, Ren Yi’s phone rang again. He looked down and saw that it was Xu Jin calling.
“Hello, Chief of Staff.”
“Ren Yi, where are you?”
“I’m at the competition venue.”
“Something happened. A high-rise apartment on Anmin Road is on fire. The fire is severe. Come over immediately.”
Ren Yi shot to his feet. “Wang Xuan, stay here and look after those who are still competing. Everyone else, come with me. We’re responding to the call now.”
Everyone stood up. Cui Yisheng asked, “Captain Ren, what happened? Where’s the emergency?”
“A high-rise apartment on Anmin Road. Chief of Staff Xu just called me.”
As he spoke, Ren Yi led the group toward their fire truck.
Anmin Road was not within his jurisdiction. It belonged to the Aixinqiao Station and was some distance from his jurisdiction, but it happened to be close to where they were now. Major emergencies required several stations, sometimes even several brigades, to work together. Judging from Xu Jin’s tone, the situation was serious.
After Ren Yi changed into his gear and was preparing to get into the truck, Gong Yingxian’s voice came from behind him.
“Captain Ren, can I go with you?”
Ren Yi turned around and only then remembered the two of them. Whenever he encountered an emergency, he would become completely focused on the job. He lifted his chin.
“Get in.”
Gong Yingxian said to Gong Feilan, “Wait here. I’ll have the driver come pick you up.”
“Cousin, can I come too—”
“No. Call me when you get home.”
Gong Yingxian followed Ren Yi into the truck.
Three other fire trucks also left the competition venue together with Ren Yi. Clearly, they had all received the dispatch as well.
Ren Yi sent Gao Ge a WeChat message asking whether his station had received the call. Gao Ge quickly replied that they hadn’t been dispatched. They were probably too far away, and traffic would be extremely congested if they went over at this time.
Inside the truck, Ding Qing asked, “Captain Ren, what’s the situation?”
“I don’t know. Chief of Staff Xu must be very busy right now too. We’ll find out when we reach the scene.” Ren Yi frowned. “A residential building catching fire at this hour is especially troublesome.”
It was five in the afternoon on Wednesday. Based on their experience, at this time of day, most young, able-bodied office workers and students were not at home. Those who were home were mostly retired elderly people, housewives, and children too young to attend school.
The elderly, women, and children were all vulnerable groups in an accident, whether they were trying to save themselves or being rescued.
And this was a high-rise apartment…
Gong Yingxian sat beside him with an ugly expression, not saying a word.
Ren Yi looked at Gong Yingxian and asked softly, “Why did you come?”
He knew Gong Yingxian had absolutely no desire to see fire scenes. After all, he had even vomited after visiting the ruins of a fire.
“As long as it’s a fire-related case within Hongwu District, I may ultimately be responsible for it,” Gong Yingxian said heavily. “I need to go there in advance and understand the situation.”
“A residential building catching fire in broad daylight is most likely an accident.”
“What if it’s arson?” Gong Yingxian stared directly at Ren Yi. “I won’t overlook any possibility.”
Ren Yi sighed inwardly. “When we get there, don’t wander around. Follow my instructions.”
Gong Yingxian nodded.
Before the fire truck had even reached the location, they could already see a towering column of smoke rising into the sky from the high-rise in the distance.
Ren Yi’s heart sank.
When a high-rise catches fire, if smoke is blowing diagonally outward from a particular floor, it proves that the fire has not yet spread on a large scale. But when smoke also begins rising vertically from the rooftop, it means the fire has not been brought under control. Through the stairwells, elevator shafts, ventilation shafts, utility shafts, and other passages, a chimney effect has formed, causing the fire to rapidly climb upward. Every floor above the floor where the fire started is then in danger.
The chimney effect was practically a devil when it came to firefighting in high-rise buildings. Once a fire started, it would help the flames burn violently and spread rapidly. Moreover, because several floors could burn simultaneously in a three-dimensional blaze, such fires were extremely difficult to extinguish. For some super-high-rise buildings, even the water cannons of aerial ladder fire trucks could not reach the flames, leaving firefighters with no choice but to watch them burn.
Their fire trucks arrived at the entrance to the residential complex. The station that had arrived first had already cleared the passage and directed them to their parking positions.
After parking, everyone got out.
The first person Ren Yi saw was Wang Meng, the captain of the Luoxiangkou Station.
“Wang Meng, how’s the situation?”
Wang Meng quickly said, “The fire started on the twenty-second floor. The building has twenty-eight floors in total. Everyone below has been evacuated. There are a large number of people trapped above. The aerial platform truck has already rescued one group, but the fire is getting bigger and bigger. Chief of Staff told you to go find him as soon as you arrived.”
Ren Yi led the firefighters forward at a run. Soon, they saw Xu Jin discussing tactics with the captains of the other stations.
Not far from them were two enormous inflatable rescue cushions. In fact, these things were of little use in a high-rise fire. Once a building was more than six floors high, whether there was something below or not made almost no difference to the outcome.
When Xu Jin saw Ren Yi, he immediately said, “Come over. We need to go up and begin the search and rescue immediately.”
Ren Yi glanced at the billowing smoke overhead, his expression solemn.
Xu Jin pointed at the building plans. “The fires on floors twenty-six, twenty-seven, and twenty-eight are currently under control. The aerial platform truck has already sent two squads up and successfully evacuated everyone from those three floors. We’re searching the remaining four floors for windows we can enter through. At the same time, we’re splitting into two groups. One will search downward from the twenty-sixth floor, and the other will search upward from the twenty-first floor. The twenty-second floor is where the fire started, and the flames are the strongest there. Ren Yi, you and Wang Meng take four squads up. You’ll be in charge of on-site command. If you absolutely can’t get up, report it immediately. Don’t force it.”
“Yes, sir.”
Just then, they heard a group of firefighters nearby shouting at the top of their lungs, “Don’t jump! Don’t jump!”
Ren Yi looked up and saw a person leap from a window spewing flames.
Ren Yi turned his face away, but the sound of the heavy body hitting the ground still reached everyone’s ears through the noisy fire scene.
Some of the onlookers began crying.
Ren Yi shook his head and began preparing his team.
Besides their firefighting suits and SCBA, he and the other officers and commanders each carried 65-caliber fire hoses, fire axes, crowbars, hydraulic cutters, chainsaws, spare air cylinders, and other equipment. Each person was carrying no less than fifty jin of weight, and they were about to climb twenty-two floors of stairs carrying all of it on their backs.
Once everything was ready, Ren Yi led the firefighters forward.
Suddenly, he noticed Gong Yingxian standing to one side, watching him. His face was as pale as paper.
For some inexplicable reason, Ren Yi felt his heart clench.
He removed his glove and gave Gong Yingxian a thumbs-up, mouthing, “Don’t worry.”
Gong Yingxian’s chest rose and fell heavily. He also removed the gloves he never went anywhere without and returned Ren Yi’s thumbs-up.