Chapter 89: Chapter 89: Fire (4th Update)
"Director Nalan?"
That surname wasn’t common, and Yang Xiao’s first impression was that it must be a woman. He didn’t mind having a female boss, but what did she mean by keeping a low profile? There were many people who kept a low profile—Yang Xiao himself was one of them. Was there really a need to emphasize it specifically?
He sent an inquiry message to Kuang Hongyi, but there was still no reply.
Turning on his laptop and connecting to the internet, he began to search for information and did find some related introductions to the Patrol Defense Bureau, but unfortunately, the information was sparse and consisted mostly of incomprehensible official jargon.
As usual, Yang Xiao turned to an online forum for information, where he found much more about the Patrol Defense Bureau. It had only changed its name in recent years; it used to be known as the Emergency Hazard Control Bureau and had a wide jurisdiction over natural disasters, special criminal cases, and some major accidents; they were always on the scene.
Yang Xiao also found a picture showing a blaze engulfing an old-style residential building. Aside from a dozen fire engines, there were a few police SUVs marked with the Emergency Hazard Control Bureau insignia, nearly identical to the one Kuang Hongyi drove, and the area was cordoned off with police tape at quite a distance.
The posting was old, made on a forum discussing the supernatural. At first glance, Yang Xiao saw nothing amiss with the photo, but then he read the comments below and realized the issue was not so simple.
"Guys, take notice of the flag behind the fire engines, and then compare it to the direction of the fire!"
"Holy shit, holy shit! The flag is blowing to the right, which means the wind was blowing right at the time. But look at the flames in the windows of the building; the flames are leaping to the left!"
Scrolling down, another comment quickly appeared with a few hundred likes, "Fellas, I’m gonna say something I really didn’t want to because I’m scared of trouble—for obvious reasons—but today I’m at my cousin’s place, he’s out chasing girls and didn’t take me with him. If he can be ruthless, don’t blame me for being disloyal. Using his account, let me lay it out for you."
"This fire happened in Trumpetflower Village, Wutong Town. The building alight was an old residential one, inhabited largely by retired workers. It’s been standing for years. My grandpa’s home wasn’t far from there, and he could see the burning building from his window. What I’m about to share is all what my grandpa told me, so allow me to pass it on to you."
"Hey, upstairs! Don’t think I can’t hear you trying to take advantage of us. If you don’t make it clear today, don’t blame me for being rude to our grandpa!"
"Don’t interrupt, brother. Grandfather, go on, I love to hear about these things! The craving for this kind of stuff is real!"
"To be honest, speaking of it now still scares me. The elderly need less sleep and get up early. My grandpa probably got up around 5 a.m. that day. He’d just taken a sip of water when—boom—a loud noise erupted. By the time he rushed to the window, he saw that one of the apartments on the 4th floor of the building’s second block had exploded. The balcony windows were blown out, and fire was spewing outwards."
"Back in those days, it wasn’t like now. Each household had one of those old-style gas cylinders that were replaced with new ones when they were empty. Right away, my grandpa knew it must have been a gas cylinder explosion because nothing else could have caused such force; plus, the explosion’s location matched up, as each family’s kitchen was on the balcony."
"My grandpa rushed to call the fire department, and then he kept his eyes fixed on that building. But as he watched, he realized something was off—how could there be such a huge explosion without a single person running out?"
"The residents of the first block had all run out, but not a single person from the second block, where the explosion occurred."
"It wasn’t mid-morning when people would be out shopping or going to work. The sky was just beginning to lighten beyond 5 a.m., and most people should have been sleeping in their beds."
"The fire spread quickly, and within minutes, the 5th floor above and the 3rd floor below were also aflame, even spreading to adjacent buildings."
"At this point, the spectators could no longer sit idly by. My grandpa saw two people voluntarily rush into the second block’s stairwell, probably to break down doors and warn people to run."
"Soon after, another gas cylinder was set off. The power of this explosion was even greater than the first, collapsing the balcony and shooting flames over a meter high."
"By this time, the fire engines had arrived and started fighting the fire. My grandpa saw clear as day that their water cannon had no effect on the fire. It just kept growing, blazing out from the broken windows!"
"Then... not long after, a few police cars arrived, like the ones in the picture, with ’Emergency Hazard Control’ written on them. These people weren’t in uniform, about five or six of them. After surveying the scene for a while, they started donning equipment, which was different from the firefighters’, and quite odd. One of them even carried a big metal box. Soon, they all entered the building."
"Not long after they went in, the fire seemed gradually brought under control, and then the firefighters resumed their efforts, this time successfully extinguishing the blaze."
"But even then, the incident wasn’t over. Something I later found out from my grandpa: one of the two who had gone in to knock on doors had disappeared, and the remaining one, it was said, had inhaled too much toxic gas. He became delirious, often speaking nonsense. He kept saying that in the thick smoke, he saw his third uncle’s mother, standing in the corner of the stairwell, waving at him repeatedly, beckoning him upstairs."
"He had just thought of going over when someone knocked him out from behind. When he woke up, he was in the hospital. It was then that he suddenly realized his third uncle’s mother had died in a car accident 20 years ago."
"He also remembered frantically pounding on doors, but the strange thing was that there was no response from behind any door, as if the homes were empty. But how could that be? These were neighbors who had lived here for so many years. He had just seen them the night before. How could they all be silent all of a sudden?"
"Alright, let me just tell you the outcome directly. According to the last reports, all the residents of the second block, except for one family who had taken their granddaughter to the hospital the previous night due to a fever, and another household that was rarely there, had all died."
"But this is nonsensical, right? Let’s be real, how could this happen? Never mind the rest, but couldn’t even the two households on the first floor escape?"
"For a while, the community was restless, everyone knew something was off, and it felt wicked."
"Later, I heard someone paid for a local shaman to check things out. The shaman hadn’t even reached the building before refusing to go any further, mumbling that it wasn’t over, it was only temporarily suppressed, and that trouble would resurface sooner or later."
"A few days later, the shaman was invited for a ’tea’ session with authorities. Apparently, it was because the shaman’s bicycle was improperly parked. After two days of ’tea’, the shaman came out a staunch materialist, washed his hands of his old ways, vowing to never engage in such deceptive affairs again."
