Chapter 397: Chapter 325: This Place Is Too Small for Someone So Outstanding (Part 2)
Tian Kui had perfectly completed the task of locating the victims, but Shen Xin wasn’t done yet.
Shen Xin figured he could use Tian Kui’s sense of smell to determine how deep the buried victims were.
It was a simple principle: the stronger the scent, the closer they were.
Tian Kui might not be able to tell the exact distance in meters, but he knew if something was near or far.
This way, the small excavator they had urgently borrowed from the next village could be put to use.
After all, a machine was much more efficient than digging by hand.
After a few scoops from the excavator, Shen Xin would lead Tian Kui over to confirm the proximity.
If they were very close, they would switch to digging by hand.
This method really improved their efficiency.
Qian Si Hai’s eyes went wide as he listened, and he subconsciously glanced at Tian Kui.
Shiyao didn’t have police dogs, let alone rescue dogs.
But the city had them, and so did the provincial capital.
Qian Si Hai had seen them before and knew the huge role search and rescue dogs played in rescue operations, but Tian Kui’s performance still stunned him.
It took them ages just to get a reading with the life detector.
Yet Tian Kui could even determine proximity.
Zhou Zhuo brought over the radar life detector and scanned the spot. He nodded in shock, saying someone was right below—and there was even a faint heartbeat.
Qian Si Hai said no more. He quickly had his subordinates spread out and directed the people at the scene to dig exactly where Tian Kui had indicated.
Even with the life detector, Shen Xin didn’t stay idle.
The detector needed to be recalibrated for different materials, but Tian Kui only needed to take one sniff with his nose to confirm.
So Shen Xin rushed back and forth, helping to confirm distances and pinpoint the buried victims’ locations more accurately.
More people kept arriving.
The saying "many hands make light work" was perfectly illustrated at that moment.
One by one, people were dug out.
Being trapped in a collapsed house was actually much better than being completely buried under rocks and earth.
A collapsed house has voids, which means pockets of air can remain.
Even if they were crushed, as long as it wasn’t a vital area, they might fall unconscious for a short time but wouldn’t die.
But without air, they definitely wouldn’t have survived this long.
The most important factor was time.
Only a little over two hours had passed since the disaster struck.
For some seriously injured people, just getting to the hospital and prepped for the operating table would take that long.
Therefore, to everyone’s elation, every person they pulled out showed signs of life.
"This is a miracle," Qian Si Hai couldn’t help but say as he watched a villager being carried out.
Beside him, Zhou Zhuo nodded. "They were the first to arrive after it happened, and they immediately confirmed the victims’ locations and organized people to start digging."
"It’s only been a few hours. This is the true golden window for rescue."
In a situation like this, forget the 24-hour golden window. Rescuing people within six hours is truly the most critical time, drastically increasing the chances of survival.
But in reality, that’s incredibly difficult to achieve.
Just getting rescue teams to the scene takes time, let alone assessing the situation, devising a rescue plan, locating the victims, and then starting to dig. Getting people out within six hours is practically impossible.
But the appearance of one police dog happened to solve all those problems.
Thinking of this, Zhou Zhuo couldn’t help but say, "Old Qian, maybe we should get a search and rescue dog. They’re just too useful."
Qian Si Hai nodded in profound agreement.
It wasn’t that he hadn’t wanted one before, or that he lacked the funds. The problem was that professional search and rescue dogs were extremely rare and incredibly difficult to train.
A dog as well-trained as Tian Kui was a once-in-a-lifetime find.
The disaster struck just before 8:00 PM. The last person was pulled from the rubble after midnight.
The person was unconscious and was rushed away in an ambulance.
At that point, Shen Xin’s legs finally gave out. He collapsed to a sitting position, then fell back and lay flat on the ground.
The day had felt impossibly long.
And he had pulled an all-nighter yesterday, too.
"Don’t just lie there. Let’s get out of here first." Li Xiaowen came to his side and pulled Shen Xin up.
Shen Xin asked for the details of the situation; it had been too chaotic for him to pay attention.
Li Xiaowen, also covered in mud, thought for a moment and said, "We did our best. That’s what matters."
Shen Xin nodded and called for Tian Kui to leave with him.
But Tian Kui didn’t move.
He’d been working nonstop for over four hours, running all over the muddy terrain. He must have been exhausted.
But when Shen Xin took a closer look, he realized it wasn’t just exhaustion.
"Holy shit, Tian Kui, what happened to your paw?"
Shen Xin quickly knelt down.
Only then did he notice that Tian Kui, caked in mud, had red seeping through the dirt on his right front paw.
He lifted it up to see that one of his claws had been torn off at some point. The wound was a bloody, mangled mess, caked with mud.
Li Xiaowen was startled too and quickly asked when he’d gotten injured.
"I don’t know." Shen Xin had no idea.
The dog had been running like the wind and hadn’t even whimpered once.
Tian Kui panted heavily, his tongue lolling out, but his head was still held high.
’It doesn’t hurt.’
It was as if he were saying a small injury like this was nothing to mention.
Shen Xin exasperatedly tugged his ear.
’So we’re playing "minor injuries don’t take you off the front line," are we?’
’The point is, this is all mud. Aren’t you afraid of getting an infection?’
Shen Xin quickly scooped Tian Kui up and started walking out.
When they heard Tian Kui was injured, all the leaders at the scene, big and small, swarmed over.
Shen Xin used bottled water to rinse Tian Kui’s paw.
And now that they had stopped and were looking closely, they discovered this wasn’t Tian Kui’s only injury.
There were several gashes on his body.
Jagged rocks, building debris, sharp branches—there were too many dangerous things around. Shen Xin himself had numerous cuts on his own hands and feet.
One of the leaders on site told Shen Xin to stop rinsing it. "You can do that on the way! Get him in the ambulance, to the hospital, find a vet!"
Given the situation today, Tian Kui had truly saved a lot of people.
Or rather, he had saved a lot of careers.
Shen Xin quickly carried Tian Kui into an ambulance. Guo Jin insisted on squeezing in and rode along with them.
He was, after all, technically Tian Kui’s owner.
In the ambulance, the onboard medic helped rinse Tian Kui’s paw and tried to disinfect it.
Guo Jin nervously asked if there would be any permanent damage.
Only after being repeatedly assured that there wouldn’t be did he relax a little, his heart aching as he stroked Tian Kui’s head.
Tian Kui let him pet him for a moment, then looked directly at Shen Xin and barked twice.
’Wasn’t I awesome?’
Shen Xin was taken aback.
’This guy...’
"Awesome."
Shen Xin grinned and gave him a thumbs-up.
Not just awesome, but freaking incredible.
At that moment, seeing how Tian Kui kept staring at Shen Xin, Guo Jin hesitated for a moment before suddenly speaking up. "Shen Xin, why don’t you just take Tian Kui with you?"
Shen Xin was stunned and asked Guo Jin what he meant.
Guo Jin looked at Tian Kui, thought about all the missions Tian Kui had accomplished recently, and then thought about his performance today. His resolve hardened.
"Shen Xin, I really like Tian Kui, and I really want him."
"But he’s just too exceptional. When I’m with him, I can feel his... hm, his ambition?"
"Honestly, keeping him here with us is a waste."
"But with you, he might be able to achieve even greater things."
"This place is too small for him. It can’t contain someone so outstanding. So I really think you should take him, take him somewhere he can truly use his abilities."
Guo Jin’s face was covered in mud. His eyes crinkled as he gazed at Tian Kui with a fond, doting smile.
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