With Qu Yangbo coordinating everything, the Western Suburb Brigade soon arrived at the scene. A ventilation fan was brought over from the nearest detachment and put into use as well.
The captain of the Western Suburb Brigade was named Yan Jue. He was tall and powerfully built, with a body full of muscle, bronze-colored skin, and a sharply defined, masculine face. He was a typical handsome man from the northwest.
Ren Yi stepped forward to greet him.
Yan Jue gave a wry smile. “So you’re Captain Ren of the Phoenix Brigade. I was wondering who had such a big presence, coming into my jurisdiction to work and even telling me not to ask questions.”
Ren Yi was a brigade captain himself, so he knew that entering someone else’s jurisdiction without a task assignment from headquarters was indeed rather impolite. If it were his own jurisdiction, he would probably be unhappy too.
He smiled. “Captain Yan, I’m sorry. This is related to an important case the police are investigating. I’ll explain everything to you afterward. For now, please help us out.”
Yan Jue’s expression softened. “Come on. Let’s go take a look at the well.”
The group returned to the foundation well, and Yan Jue carefully examined it.
Ren Yi sneezed and tightened his collar.
“Are you coming down with a cold?” Gong Yingxian asked. “Go sit in the truck and warm up.”
Ren Yi waved his hand. “I just had some 999. I’m fine.”
Yan Jue casually pulled out a cigarette and handed it to Ren Yi. “Gotten cold, huh? This is homemade tobacco. It’ll wake you up and warm you up after you smoke it.”
“Thanks.”
Ren Yi took it.
Yan Jue lit it for him. Ren Yi took an unguarded drag and immediately felt a powerful, scorched-grass taste rush straight into his nose. He started coughing.
Yan Jue laughed and patted his back. “How is it? Packs a punch, right?”
“Yeah… cough, cough…” Ren Yi had never smoked anything this strong before. It really was invigorating.
“This is something from my hometown. I only smoke it when I’m responding to calls in the middle of the night.” Yan Jue patted his pockets. “Oh, this is my last one. Give me a drag.”
Yan Jue casually leaned right up beside Ren Yi’s face and took a puff from the cigarette.
Gong Yingxian’s brows drew tightly together.
The sight of Yan Jue’s hand resting on Ren Yi’s back made him even more displeased.
He reached over and snatched the cigarette from Ren Yi’s hand.
“Don’t smoke something that doesn’t even have a filter.”
“A few puffs won’t kill him.” Yan Jue reached out to take it back, only to watch helplessly as Gong Yingxian tossed the cigarette into the well.
Ren Yi immediately felt awkward.
Yan Jue narrowed his eyes.
Gong Yingxian said expressionlessly, “Testing the oxygen concentration.”
There was no way he was going to let Ren Yi touch that thing again.
Qu Yangbo watched the whole exchange with great interest. He pushed his glasses up, and a flash of insight appeared in his eyes.
“Who are you?” Yan Jue asked.
“He’s a criminal investigator from the Hongwu Substation,” Ren Yi quickly said. “Captain Yan, the air replacement should be about done. Let’s work out the plan.”
Yan Jue gave a quiet snort and stopped paying attention to Gong Yingxian. He began discussing the operation with Ren Yi—how to descend, how to rotate personnel, what tools to use to break the ice, and how to ensure everyone’s safety. Every detail was carefully considered.
Once the plan was finalized, Yan Jue let out a long breath.
“Captain Ren, for this kind of filthy, exhausting, dangerous, and completely thankless job, you owe me a big meal.”
Ren Yi laughed. “Absolutely.”
“Come on. Let’s get to work.”
Once everything was ready, it was already almost ten o’clock.
The later it got, the colder it became. There was nothing shielding the construction site from the surrounding area. The freezing wind howled mercilessly, and even wrapped in thick down jackets, everyone was shivering.
Ren Yi decided to be the first one down.
For one thing, he had recovered from his earlier exhaustion. For another, Yan Jue was too big to fit down the well. If Ren Yi didn’t go first, who else would lead the way?
Because the space inside the well was so narrow that he couldn’t bend his body, this time he had to descend headfirst, hanging upside down.
That position made oxygen deprivation and cerebral congestion more likely, making it even more difficult than before. On top of that, he would have to hold tools and break through the ice, accelerating the consumption of the already scarce oxygen.
Under these conditions, even a healthy adult man at peak physical condition could last no more than ten minutes underground.
Ren Yi put his gear back on, covering himself from head to toe with heat patches.
Qu Yangbo somehow produced a bottle of yellow rice wine and held the mouth of the bottle to Ren Yi’s lips.
“Have a drink. I guarantee I won’t report you for drinking on duty.”
Ren Yi laughed and took a hearty gulp.
The spicy liquor burned down his throat like a stream of fire, spreading through his internal organs. His entire body instantly warmed up.
He jumped in place several times and growled, “Lower me!”
Gong Yingxian stared deeply at him.
His handsome face had been chilled pale and almost translucent, while his eyes looked especially bright in the dim light.
Ren Yi pretended not to notice Gong Yingxian’s gaze.
He knew Gong Yingxian cared about him. He also knew Gong Yingxian was a good friend.
But none of that could change the awkward situation between them.
Sometimes avoidance was the only solution—a solution that wasn’t really a solution.
Ren Yi secured the rope, took the tools, and descended into the well upside down.
He had brought a chainsaw, an ice pick, a crowbar, and other tools. His task this time wasn’t to break through the ice. It was to get the tools and lighting in place so that the people who came after him could work more easily.
When he reached the very bottom, he used the ice pick to knock two small holes into the wall of the well and inserted rechargeable work lights into them. Then he swept away the layer of soil covering the ice.
Once the objects beneath the surface layer of ice became clearer, Ren Yi discovered something new.
He leaned downward, bringing his face so close that he could practically kiss the skull frozen beneath the ice.
Although every instinct in him resisted it, he forced himself to press closer just so he could see more clearly.
“Fuck…”
Ren Yi cursed under his breath.
Yan Jue’s voice came through the radio. “What happened? You okay?”
“There isn’t just one body down here.” Ren Yi took a deep breath. “There are at least two. I can see two sets of hand bones of different sizes. One of them might belong to a child, or possibly a small woman.”
“What condition are the bodies in?” Gong Yingxian asked.
“They haven’t completely decomposed. They’ve been burned.”
After all that movement, Ren Yi was once again having difficulty breathing, and his head was beginning to spin.
“Four Fire, it’s been almost ten minutes. You need to come back up,” Qu Yangbo reminded him.
“Wait. Let me take another look.”
Ren Yi ran his hand over the freezing walls and inspected the entire area. He then switched on the chainsaw and cut into the ice, observing how the surrounding walls reacted to the vibration.
Only after confirming that the walls were frozen solid and would not loosen from the vibration did he allow them to pull him back up.
Once he returned to the surface, Ren Yi’s fingers were so frozen they were completely stiff.
He took off his gloves, wrapped both hands around the thermos Qu Yangbo had handed him, and tremblingly drank some hot water.
Yan Jue clapped his hands.
“Come on. One at a time.”
Sun Dingyi was the second person to go down.
Ren Yi reminded him, “Pay attention to two things while you’re cutting. First, try not to damage the bodies as much as possible. Second, keep an eye on your surroundings. If you see any sign of the soil in the walls loosening, report it immediately.”
“Got it.”
Throughout the entire night, more than thirty firefighters from the two brigades wore lightweight clothing that was nowhere near warm enough, enduring temperatures well below freezing.
One after another, they descended headfirst into a well nearly eight stories deep, slowly cutting and chiseling away at the ice.
They worked without stopping for the entire night.
Finally, before dawn, they excavated the bodies from the ice.
There were indeed two.
One of them was a child.
The bodies were immediately placed in bags and loaded into the police vehicle.
The firefighters were exhausted to the point of collapsing wherever they stood. Some curled up inside the fire truck and fell asleep.
Ren Yi was both sleepy and exhausted, his head spinning, but he still insisted on directing the operation until the very last moment.
Only after every task had been completed did he finally climb into the fire truck, lean back against the seat, and drift into a hazy sleep.
After Gong Yingxian finished handing over the evidence, he began searching everywhere for Ren Yi.
Eventually, he found him inside the fire truck.
“Ren Yi?”
As he approached, he immediately noticed something was wrong.
Ren Yi’s cheeks were flushed, and his breathing was extremely heavy.
Ren Yi didn’t respond at all.
Gong Yingxian pressed a hand against his forehead.
It was burning hot.
“…Hmm?”
Ren Yi opened his eyes groggily.
His entire body felt as though it had been filled with lead. He didn’t want to move at all.
“You have a fever.”
Looking at Ren Yi’s listless expression, Gong Yingxian’s heart ached terribly.
“I’ll take you to the hospital.”
“Don’t want to go.”
Ren Yi mumbled, “Doctor Qian said… I’m practically becoming a VIP at their hospital. I’m not going.”
“Then come to my house. We have a doctor at home.”
Ren Yi slowly shook his head.
His mind was foggy, and he was barely capable of thinking.
He whispered, “I want to go home.”
Qu Yangbo also walked over.
“What happened? Are you feeling sick?”
“He has a fever. I’ll take him home and find a doctor for him,” Gong Yingxian said as he reached out to help Ren Yi down.
“Hey.”
Qu Yangbo put a hand on Ren Yi.
“We have government-funded medical care. If he’s not feeling well, he can just go to the hospital. We don’t need to trouble you, Doctor Gong.”
“He said he doesn’t want to go to the hospital. He wants to go home.”
“He’s delirious with fever. Don’t listen to him.”
Gong Yingxian narrowed his eyes and stared coldly at Qu Yangbo.
He had absolutely no intention of backing down.
Qu Yangbo looked back at him calmly.
The two of them remained locked in a standoff for quite some time. The atmosphere became increasingly awkward.
Finally, Qu Yangbo gave a helpless smile.
“Fine, fine. Take him.”
Gong Yingxian helped Ren Yi out of the fire truck and walked toward his own car.
From behind them, Qu Yangbo called out teasingly, “Doctor Gong, just a reminder. If Four Fire gets so delirious from his fever that he does anything inappropriate, you’ll have to be understanding. After all, you’re the one insisting on taking him away.”
Gong Yingxian pretended not to hear him.
Right now, all he wanted was to hide Ren Yi somewhere that only he could see and touch.