Waves of scorching heat rolled toward them. The dim corridor had not yet been completely consumed by the fire. Flames flickered only in the areas where the walls and doors appeared to have been blown apart by the explosion, while doors were still temporarily containing the flames in the other rooms.
But the crimson fire was already reaching outward, thrusting its tongues through windows, door cracks, and gaps in the ceiling. It was like a dragon baring its jaws, breathing, gathering strength, building toward the moment when it would unleash a torrent of flames capable of devouring everything in its path.
Cheng Mao glanced at the flames curling across the ceiling.
“The fire has already spread into the ceiling cavity. We estimate a flashover could occur within five minutes at most. Speed up the search. When I order you to withdraw, you get out immediately. No arguments.”
“Yes, sir!”
Two firefighters connected a hose to the fire hydrant inside the building and suppressed the flames in the corridor. The others pressed deeper inside, spreading out to search room by room for anyone trapped.
Ren Yi headed straight for his father’s room.
The corridor stretched deep into the building. The closer they got to the fire, the thicker the smoke became. Beyond two meters, visibility dropped to almost nothing, making it extraordinarily difficult even to read the room numbers. Ren Yi kept one hand against the wall and moved forward in a crouch, relying on his memory to find his father’s room.
Suddenly, he heard the brief burst of static that signaled a change in the radio channel. Then Cheng Mao’s voice sounded in his ear.
“Ren Yi, letting you in here has already violated regulations. If anything happens to you, my career is finished. But we’re brothers, and I accept that risk. Now I’m ordering you, no matter what happens, you damn well make it back alive. Not because I’m trying to protect myself, but because I don’t want to lose a brother. Understand?”
Ren Yi’s eyes burned.
“Thank you, Brother Mao.”
As he passed a dormitory room, Ren Yi suddenly heard several metallic knocks coming from inside.
He froze for a moment. He knew what that sound meant.
And in that instant, he was torn.
Rescuing people from a fire was a race against time. A few seconds earlier or later could be the difference between life and death. He should be moving as quickly as possible to find his father and Gong Yingxian. Every second he wasted could cost them their lives.
But someone was calling for help right beside him.
Ren Yi simply could not force himself to take another step.
He slammed his fist against the wall, biting down so hard that he nearly broke the skin of his lip. Then he straightened up and opened the door.
An elderly woman was lying feebly beneath the bed. She was covering her mouth and nose with one hand and striking the bed frame with a metal lunchbox in the other. Thick, swirling smoke hung overhead. It had not yet descended completely to the floor, but the woman was already struggling to breathe, her consciousness growing hazy. In conditions like these, a person could succumb to smoke poisoning in less than three minutes.
Ren Yi rushed over, shoved the metal bed frame aside, and lifted the woman horizontally into his arms. He turned and charged out of the room, shouting as he went.
“Someone’s in here! Someone needs help!”
He ran back along the corridor for a short distance when a firefighter suddenly emerged from the smoky haze.
It was Qu Yangbo.
Without hesitation, Qu Yangbo took the elderly woman from his arms.
“Leave her to me. Go find them!”
Ren Yi said nothing. The two men exchanged a brief, resolute look of mutual trust. Then Ren Yi turned and ran deeper into the corridor.
The farther he went, the more sharply the temperature rose. The seat of the fire was just ahead. It wasn’t his father’s room, but it had to be very close, because the flames were raging fiercely here.
There was no way the fire hose could reach this far. If they dragged it through such a long stretch of corridor, it would burn through before it ever got here.
Ren Yi had lost the protection of the water curtain. From this point on, he could rely only on himself.
Even his flame-resistant suit couldn’t keep out the relentless thermal radiation. The horrifying heat seemed capable of melting a person alive, searing every pore in Ren Yi’s body. He could feel sweat pouring down him as the extreme temperature continuously drained moisture from his body, to say nothing of the excruciating pain, as though his flesh were being flayed alive.
But Ren Yi’s daily training was designed to teach him to endure precisely this kind of pain.
Out of professional habit, whenever he entered a place, Ren Yi always took note of its fire-safety equipment. He knew there was a fire hydrant not far from here.
He doubled back, feeling along the wall until his hand found it. He pulled out two dry-powder fire extinguishers and used them to carve out a path he would have to traverse quickly.
Enduring conditions that would have been hell for an ordinary person, he finally reached his father’s room.
The door had warped out of shape and wouldn’t open. Ren Yi stepped back two paces, then drove a powerful kick into it.
The door burst open, and a wave of fire surged toward him like a savage beast.
He had anticipated this possibility. The moment he kicked the door, he had thrown himself to the floor. Even so, the flames licked across his back and arms.
His flame-resistant suit could protect him for only a short time. He rolled desperately across the floor, beating at the flames until they were extinguished. But his clothing had already been burned through in several places, and the intense heat seared painful marks into his body like a branding iron pressed against his skin.
Ren Yi had no time to care.
He scrambled to his feet and rushed inside.
More than half the room was already engulfed in flames. There was scarcely anywhere to dodge or even place his feet. It was almost impossible to enter, let alone see what was inside.
Terror hollowed out his chest, as though his heart were about to be ripped from his body.
“Dad! Gong Yingxian! Dad!”
No one answered.
Ren Yi sprayed the extinguisher ahead of him to clear a path, forcing his way inside. The room was tightly enclosed and burning fiercely; the temperature must have been approaching a thousand degrees. A single extra second in here could cost someone their life.
Ren Yi felt as though his flesh would melt into blood and run off his body with every step he took.
Yet through sheer, almost inhuman force of will, he kept going.
The room was small. Without the smoke and flames obscuring everything, he could have taken in the whole place at a glance. There was no one beneath the bed, by the window, or in the bathroom—all the usual places someone might hide.
The room was empty.
And his father’s wheelchair was gone.
Ren Yi turned and ran back out. For those few seconds, it felt as though he had died and returned to life.
His father could barely walk. Without anyone to help him, he couldn’t have gone far. He had to be somewhere nearby.
But what about Gong Yingxian? Where was Gong Yingxian?
Ren Yi kicked open the door of the room next door and screamed until his throat hurt.
“Dad! Gong Yingxian!”
His heart was still inside his chest, but the pain felt as though it had been thrown into the flames and left to burn. He was so desperate that tears spilled from his eyes. But tears had no place in this hell. They evaporated instantly, leaving only two dirty streaks across his soot-blackened face.
Where are you? Where are you?
No. You have to calm down. Calm down!
Ren Yi screamed at himself inwardly.
Both his father and Gong Yingxian had considerable experience with fire-scene survival—one from real-world experience, the other from books. In a situation like this, how would they try to save themselves?
It was impossible to evacuate through a smoke-filled, burning corridor while pushing an elderly man in a wheelchair. Jumping from a third-floor window was out of the question, too. And simply waiting to die was not an option.
So what could they do?
Suddenly, Ren Yi remembered.
There was a public restroom at the end of the corridor!
He spun around and sprinted toward the far end, dodging the flames spreading along the hallway. At last, he found the restroom. The women’s door stood wide open, but the men’s door was tightly shut.
A small piece of fabric protruded through the gap beneath it.
Someone had to be inside.
The intense heat had warped most of the doors and their frames. Ren Yi rammed his shoulder into the men’s restroom door, but it wouldn’t budge. He pounded on it with all his strength.
“Dad! Gong Yingxian! Can you hear me? Open the door! Open it!”
There was no response.
Ren Yi kicked the door and threw his entire body against it. He managed to force it open a crack, then pulled the pry bar from his waist and used it to lever the doorframe away from the jammed door.
After a violent struggle, he finally opened a gap wide enough for someone to squeeze through.
Ren Yi forced his way inside.
His heart nearly stopped.
The restroom was in slightly better condition than the corridor, but poisonous smoke had already filled the space.
Ren Xiangrong sat in his wheelchair wearing a mask and wrapped in a fire blanket. His hands hung limply at his sides.
Gong Yingxian lay collapsed on the floor.
Neither man was conscious.
Gong Yingxian was wearing nothing but his pants. His clothes had disintegrated into soaked strips of fabric, which he had used to seal the gaps around the door and try to keep the deadly smoke out.
There were obvious burns on his legs.
Ren Yi rushed over and immediately removed his own mask, fastening it over Gong Yingxian’s face. At the same time, he checked for a pulse.
It was weak, but it was still beating—stubbornly holding on.
Gong Yingxian suddenly twitched. Then he slowly opened his eyes and stared blankly at Ren Yi, apparently struggling to see him clearly. Gradually, his gaze lost focus.
“Yingxian. Yingxian!”
Ren Yi cupped Gong Yingxian’s burning-hot face. Tears filled his eyes as he spoke.
“Don’t be afraid. I’m here to save you.”
Gong Yingxian couldn’t hear Ren Yi clearly. In his dazed state, he seemed unable to understand what was happening, his eyes instinctively searching for something to focus on.
Through his blurred vision, a figure moved in front of him. Gradually, he made out a face—anxious, anguished, streaked with soot.
Little by little, he noticed a tiny black mole on that face.
His gaze finally settled there.
Memories and reality collided, overlapping before Gong Yingxian’s eyes.
In the hopeless hell of a world consumed by flames, he saw a man walking toward him with unwavering determination, reaching out a strong hand and drawing him into a broad, protective embrace. Above a smile formed by cracked lips was a tiny black mole, permanently etched into his memory within that narrow field of vision.
The man had said, “Don’t be afraid. I’m here to save you.”
Gong Yingxian weakly murmured, his strength failing him.
“Uncle… please save me…”
The words tore at Ren Yi’s heart as though someone were carving it out of his chest.
He forced himself to wipe away his tears, then turned to check on his father.
But when his fingers pressed against Ren Xiangrong’s carotid artery, there was no response.
Ren Yi froze.
“Dad…” he whispered, his voice barely audible.
Frantically, Ren Yi searched for his father’s pulse and checked for breath. There was nothing.
A deathlike wail rose from his throat.
He laid Ren Xiangrong flat on the floor, tilted his head back to open his airway, interlocked his hands, and began cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
“Dad, wake up! Dad, please! I’m begging you, wake up!”
Tears streamed down Ren Yi’s face, blurring his vision. He repeatedly compressed his father’s chest, alternating with rescue breaths, but he couldn’t elicit even the slightest response.
“DAD!”
Ren Yi screamed in unbearable anguish.
“Captain Ren!” someone shouted from outside the window.
Ren Yi heard nothing. He continued CPR, pressing down again and again. Even when he was utterly exhausted, even when his arms grew weak and numb, he refused to stop.
A fire company that arrived later raised an aerial ladder along the opposite side of the building. Through an open window, they spotted Ren Yi inside. The firefighters climbed in, dragged the nearly collapsed Ren Yi away, and carried Ren Xiangrong and Gong Yingxian out through the window.
People were saying things to Ren Yi from every direction. Their voices were urgent, anxious, and distressed, but he couldn’t understand a single word.
“Dad… Dad…”
He reached out helplessly, trying to grab hold of his father, but there was nothing in his blurred field of vision.
The entire world seemed to erupt and collapse before his eyes. Dust and debris surged everywhere, blotting out every last trace of light and leaving behind a darkness that felt as though it would never lift.
Ren Yi forgot how to think. He forgot how to act.
In a daze, he felt people supporting him and carrying him away. The infernal heat gradually receded, and the foul air around him was replaced by cleaner air. He could hear shouting, brakes screeching, sirens wailing, and hurried footsteps—all the sounds tangled together in a chaotic jumble.
It was as though he had been transported from one world to another.
But he had already given up on perceiving any of it.
He didn’t know how much time had passed before someone approached him and crouched down in front of him.
Ren Yi stared blankly ahead. His eyes were unfocused, and he couldn’t make out the person’s face.
In a voice strained by the apparent difficulty of finding the right words, the person slowly began to speak.
“Old Company Commander… he suffered a sudden cardiac arrest…”
The speaker seemed to have lost the ability to talk. For a long time, he couldn’t force out another word. Eventually, he managed to say, “He didn’t suffer.”
Ren Yi remained dazed, seemingly unable to understand.
The person placed something slightly warm into his palm. His voice choked with emotion.
“This has Old Company Commander’s final words on it.”
With that, he stood and walked away.
Ren Yi lowered his head and recognized a phone.
He stared at the blood-red play button on the screen, then gently touched it with his limp fingers.
After a brief pause, a woman’s voice spoke quickly.
“Hello, 119 emergency dispatch. How can I help you?”
“Cough… cough, cough… Young lady, there’s a fire here.”
“Please provide your exact address—”
“Listen to me. Don’t say a single word… Cough, cough… Just listen, then remember everything clearly.”
The noisy background only made Ren Xiangrong’s voice sound even calmer and more composed.
“I’m a retired firefighter. I’m currently at Shoukang Nursing Home, No. 8 Yantian Road. The nearest station is the Bali Fire Station. Don’t take Sunshine Road. The lane narrows where the traffic merges, and it gets congested easily.
“There are municipal fire hydrants to the left of the main gate outside the nursing home and at the southeast gate. Each floor of the building has two fire hydrants.
“The fire started in the pantry, the fifth room from the end on the west side of the third floor. A gas cylinder exploded and started the fire. Much of the furniture and decorative materials here are made of polyurethane. By the time the fire engines arrive, the fire will probably already be out of control.
“The priority during rescue is to prevent the fire from spreading. The water jets need to seal off the rooms above, below, and on both sides of the fire. Once you arrive, set up the aerial ladder on the southwest side first. The elderly people living on that side have difficulty walking or can’t care for themselves, so they won’t be able to evacuate on their own.”
“Sir… I… I’ve already notified the Bali Fire Station to head to the scene. Can you tell me your current condition? Are you able to evacuate on your own? Has the fire spread to the area around you?”
Ren Xiangrong coughed violently twice, then spoke softly.
“My legs don’t work well. I can’t get out. I… cough, cough… I have something I want to say to my son. He’s a firefighter, too. He’s a company commander.”
The dispatcher fell silent for a moment.
“Go ahead, sir.”
“Ren Yi, I don’t know if I’ll get to see you again after this. If I don’t, then what I’m saying now will be my last words.”
Ren Xiangrong chuckled, followed by another fit of coughing.
“You always think I’ve had a raw deal. I finally retired, only to fall ill. But I don’t see it that way. I really don’t. I’ve told you before, being alive until now feels like I’ve stolen this good fortune from fate itself. I’m satisfied.
“But at the same time, I don’t want to spend the rest of my life trapped in this wheelchair, trapped inside this sick body. So I have no regrets.
“Fire… It’s an old adversary, but it’s also an old friend. I’ve spent my life going into fires and coming back out of them. I’ve beaten fire so many times. It’s only fair to let it beat me once.”
He coughed again.
“Ren Yi, having you as my son is the thing I’m proudest of in my entire life. There’s nothing wrong with you. You’re wonderful, truly.”
Ren Yi trembled, choking back sobs.
“And I know why you don’t want to get married. Hahaha! Did you really think you could hide it from your old man? I know everything. I’m not going to force you. As long as you’re happy, as long as you can find someone to take care of you and keep you company, that’s all that matters. It doesn’t matter how.
“Officer Gong is a good man.
“As for me… I’m going to find your mother now.
“My son, you have to take good care of yourself. I’m going to find your mother.”
The recording stopped abruptly.
The phone slipped from Ren Yi’s hand and fell to the ground.
He clutched his head and broke down, sobbing uncontrollably.