Chapter 399: Chapter 327: Photo
When they arrived at the county, people were there to see them off.
When they reached the city, it was the same—people were there to see them off.
And when they got to the provincial capital, Ju Yang, there were still people to see them off.
On the way there, the two had traveled in second class, but now, they had been upgraded to business class.
The train sped along.
"Sir, is there anything else you need?" the business class attendant walked over again, asking softly with a warm smile.
And why "again"? Because since boarding the train, she had already come by a full seven times.
And she only ever came to his seat.
Shen Xin shook his head again, indicating he didn’t need anything.
But she didn’t leave. Instead, she pointed to Tian Kui, who was lying beside Shen Xin, and asked if *he* needed anything.
Like milk or beef jerky, which she said they had on the train.
At the mention of beef jerky, Tian Kui, who had been dozing with his eyes narrowed, suddenly perked up and opened them wide.
At that, Shen Xin understood.
She was here for Tian Kui all along.
Shen Xin sized up the young woman. ’An animal lover, huh?’
Seeing Tian Kui staring at him with such expectant eyes, how could Shen Xin possibly say no?
"Haven’t you had enough already?"
Shen Xin gave him a light tap on the head.
All along the way, Tian Kui had been fed by all sorts of people.
Everyone who came to see them off had made special arrangements, buying huge amounts of dog treats.
This time, the thing they were bringing back the most of from Ma Chang Town wasn’t local specialties, but treats for Tian Kui.
The attendant left with a smile and quickly returned with a whole box of beef jerky.
Shen Xin tore one open, stuffed it in Tian Kui’s mouth, and turned to ask He Wen Yu across the aisle if he wanted any.
He was on his laptop, editing the footage he had shot.
Just then, a man with glasses sitting diagonally across from them suddenly turned his head, pointed at Tian Kui, and said, "Excuse me, isn’t that the police dog they reported on TV?"
The man had gotten on two stops earlier.
After he’d boarded, Shen Xin had noticed him turning to look his way from time to time.
Shen Xin had even been a little wary, but now he realized the man wasn’t looking at him at all, but at Tian Kui.
’And what’s this about being on TV?’
Shen Xin knew that after the landslide, some local media had come for interviews and had taken pictures of Tian Kui.
’But it was all local media. How far could that story have really spread?’
After a moment’s hesitation, Shen Xin nodded, saying it was probably the one the man meant.
The man’s eyes lit up. "I knew it!" he said hurriedly. "The more I looked, the more I thought so. It really is him! Officer, this police dog is so handsome!"
As he spoke, he stood up, moved into the aisle, and crouched down to ask Shen Xin if he could take a picture with Tian Kui.
Shen Xin didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, but he nodded.
But his movement drew the attention of the other passengers in the car, and they all hurried over.
Including the attendant.
One by one, they lined up, waiting to have their picture taken with Tian Kui.
"What’s going on?" Shen Xin asked He Wen Yu in a low voice.
Tian Kui was famous.
He Wen Yu countered with a question of his own, "Didn’t you watch the seven o’clock news?"
’What a question,’ Shen Xin thought. ’Who even watches the seven o’clock news these days?’
A flicker of embarrassment crossed He Wen Yu’s face before he lowered his voice. "Last night, the seven o’clock news did a follow-up on the 4/16 landslide. They did a special feature on Tian Kui."
"You might not watch the seven o’clock news, but other people do. It even became a trending topic. You don’t watch TV, but you don’t look at your phone either?"
Shen Xin shook his head. "I really haven’t."
His phone had gotten water damaged and was broken.
Of course, he couldn’t just throw it away. He was planning to ask Cai Zhe and the others to help him save the data when he got back.
Then, as if Shiyao County knew his phone was water-damaged, they had specially arranged for a new phone to be bought for him as a reward.
But he really hadn’t had time to look at any trending topics or news.
Shen Xin sat back down and searched for the relevant news on his phone.
After reading, Shen Xin began to understand why even his fellow passengers on the train knew about Tian Kui.
There was no other reason. It was because he was just that cool.
The seven o’clock news was a national broadcast, after all. Their report was relatively formal, so they only showed two photos.
They reported the sequence of events, explaining that because of Tian Kui, the locations of the buried victims were confirmed within the golden hour, allowing a large number of people to be rescued and survive.
They also interviewed some rescue experts to reconstruct the situation at the scene.
In the end, they concluded that Tian Kui’s actions had minimized the losses from the disaster.
The story alone was moving enough.
But the real reason Tian Kui went viral wasn’t just what he did, but the photos.
One was a head-on shot of Tian Kui after he had been cleaned up.
Shen Xin remembered this photo; he thought it was taken by a local reporter from Ju Province.
The other photo was the key.
Even Shen Xin’s first thought upon seeing it was, ’That’s so cool.’
In the dark of night, with only the dim light of flashlights in the background and rain falling, Tian Kui was captured with a red-and-blue flashing shoulder lamp in his mouth, his body covered in mud.
The photo had clearly been edited to perfectly capture Tian Kui’s posture as he dashed forward.
Combined with the story behind it, the photo was instantly elevated.
The flashing red-and-blue police light signified Tian Kui’s identity.
And the shoulder lamp in his mouth represented the hope of survival for those who were buried.
At the dangerous scene, he pierced the darkness, dashing through the mud and bringing hope to the buried victims.
Most importantly, it was just plain cool.
The photo itself—the angle, the play of light and shadow—was absolutely perfect.
No wonder it immediately broke out of its niche and started trending.
The severe rainstorms were already a hot topic, with multiple villages in Ma Chang Town affected and the entire internet paying close attention.
Add to that the seven o’clock news report and such a cool photo, and it was only natural that Tian Kui went viral.
"Wait a minute."
A question suddenly struck Shen Xin: who took that photo?
When Tian Kui was carrying the shoulder lamp and searching everywhere, there weren’t any reporters at the scene.
In fact, no reporters made it to the site that night.
Besides, everyone was busy with the rescue. Who would have been worried about taking a photo as a souvenir?
Shen Xin whipped his head around to look at He Wen Yu. "Old He, don’t tell me you’re the one who took that picture?"
Tian Kui had come with Miao Dingqiang and the others as reinforcements, but Shen Xin had been busy digging people out and hadn’t noticed who arrived.
He Wen Yu had stayed in town, so it was possible he’d come along with them.
He Wen Yu nodded. "Yeah, I took it. I’ve got video, too."
He had gone to the scene with Miao Dingqiang, and knowing Tian Kui was going to help with the rescue, he brought his camera equipment.
After all, that was his job: to film what kind of help Tian Kui provided to the local police after he was assigned to them.
A rescue mission—what great material!
Shen Xin quickly leaned over, wanting to see the video he shot.
Sure enough, as soon as the guy had arrived on site, he’d picked up his camera and started filming.
He had perfectly recorded the footage of Tian Kui searching for survivors with the shoulder lamp in his mouth.
Shen Xin gave him a light smack. "You sneaky devil," he joked. "While we were working ourselves to death, you were just busy filming."
He Wen Yu quickly explained, "I helped out later! It’s just that when Tian Kui was locating people, there was no need for me to get hands-on. Besides, this was such a meaningful event, I really felt it was necessary to record it so everyone could know what Tian Kui did."
He was defending himself so earnestly that Shen Xin waved his hand, telling him he was just kidding.
Under the circumstances, there were plenty of people, so one person more or less wouldn’t have made a difference.
"By the way, can you delete all the shots of me?" Shen Xin said, pointing at the screen.
He had appeared quite a few times in the video He Wen Yu shot.
If his mom saw him at such a tragic scene, she’d start nagging him again.
Wait.
Shen Xin sucked in a sharp breath. His mom probably already knew.
Zeng Wenxi knew he was on a business trip to Huaiyi; she had even asked him to bring back some gastrodia root for their dad to infuse in his liquor.
With everything that had happened over there, how could she not know?
But she hadn’t bombarded him with calls. Could it be that the news hadn’t spread?
It was possible.
Right now, the reports online were only about Tian Kui, with no mention of him. It would be normal for Zeng Wenxi not to know.
Thinking of this, Shen Xin sent his older sister, Shen Shuang, a WeChat message, asking her about Zeng Wenxi’s mood.
Her mood would tell him whether she knew about the incident or not.
A few minutes later, Shen Shuang replied.
[You’re so dead.]
She even attached a clapping emoji.
Then she sent a video link.
Shen Xin cursed inwardly and opened the video.
It was a link to a short video on Kuaishou. When Shen Xin opened it, his vision went black.
In the darkness, rain poured down in sheets. At the foot of a mountain, a three-wheeled vehicle sped along a village road.
In the vehicle’s cargo bed, he himself was standing, grabbing Dai Yaping’s shoulder and telling him to drive faster.
Beside the three-wheeler, Dian Dian was running for its life.
Most importantly, behind the three-wheeler, a mudslide was giving chase, unstoppably swallowing one house after another.
Shen Xin could tell at a glance that this must have been filmed by a villager who had evacuated to the mountain.
Because of the distance and the dark night, the footage wasn’t very clear.
But the three-wheeler’s headlights, along with the occasional flashes of lightning that lit up the sky, sometimes illuminated the people clearly enough.
The most crucial part was the scene itself—with the mudslide right behind them. Just imagining it was enough to know how dangerous it was.
At the end of the video, the three-wheeler burst out of the mudslide’s path. At that point, the camera was very close and panned across the faces of Shen Xin and Dai Yajun.
Anyone familiar with Shen Xin would definitely be able to recognize him.
This video was hugely popular, piggybacking on the buzz from the rainstorm disaster.
The comments below were all saying how lucky the three of them were to be alive.
[If that three-wheeler had been even a little bit slower, they would’ve been goners.]
[The three-wheeler company better pay up. You can’t get a more badass ad than this.]
[Nature is terrifying.]
[In that moment, their ancestors probably called in every favor they had in the underworld.]
[You bet. Eighteen generations of ancestors were probably running around down there with their hair on fire.]
[They brought it on themselves. Everyone had clearly evacuated, but they had to wait until the mudslide was on top of them to run. What were they doing earlier?]
Reading further down, he saw there were even skeptical comments.
And quite a few of them.
They said things like, "They could have run earlier but didn’t, waiting until the last second and causing trouble for everyone."
And, "Serves them right, only running after they knew it was dangerous."
Shen Xin frowned as he read.
But then there were people who knew the real story.
[What do you all know? I’m from nearby, I know what happened. The driver is the village party secretary. He’s the one who organized the evacuation, and he was the last one to leave. If you don’t know, then don’t talk nonsense.]
And there was more than one person who knew.
[That’s right, isn’t there another person in the vehicle? He had gone up the mountain and only ran out at the last minute. The one standing is a police officer. He rushed back to save someone at the very end, which is why they fell behind. I have a relative from that village who saw it all from the mountain.]
Seeing this, Shen Xin thought, ’I’m screwed.’
No wonder Shen Shuang had said he was a dead man.
Just then, Shen Shuang sent another message.
[Okay, okay, Dad managed to calm Mom down. As long as you came back safely, nothing else matters.]
Another one followed quickly after.
[I still want to beat you up though.]
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