Chapter 90: Strike of the con man.
The room fell silent, the audience was almost barely breathing as they listened. There was something in the way he talked about it that made them want to hear more while feeling sorry for him at the same time.
Mo Liang adjusted the microphone and he looked out to the many expectant eyes and said, "I never thought that I would be sitting here today. I was sure that my life--my story would end in that fire. Sometimes when I close my eyes at night, I still see those flames. For six years after that day, I could not stomach the smell of any kind of smoke. Even walking past someone smoking would make me vomit. I was plagued with nightmares."
The audience leaned in, breathless. This was the first time they were hearing the details of the fire from the horse’s mouth. Mo Liang had been a child at the time, interviews had been banned by the police. Now, the tap had been opened and they would drink until they burst.
"The big secret nobody realized about the fire is that I didn’t save Jun Meilin." he said and laughed under his breath. He paused deliberately, reeling the audience in and he said, "She saved me."
His words made the audience even more curious. It almost sounded as if there was a secret that had been left out of the story all these years and they were curious to know what it was.
Mo Liang turned his gaze to the cameras and he said in a low voice, "I was so afraid when those flames stretched towards me like a hungry beast. I was cornered with nowhere to run, I closed my eyes and surrendered, listening to the explosions of chemicals and shattering of glass all around.
My shoes burned off, I could feel the hairs on my skin being scorched. I had all but surrendered to the beast when I heard her voice. She was trapped under a shelf, screaming for help." He shook his head and looked at Gao Jiajia. "Something in me pushed me to move, I knew that even if I was too afraid to save myself, I had to save the girl that was crying out, waiting for me to save her. Someone needed me and if I didn’t move, she would die.
So, I walked barefoot on that glass, I gritted my teeth and pushed that shelf off her, breaking three fingers in the process. I punched a glass shelf to retrieve the only fire proof gear in the room.
A hot beam fell on my shoulders, fire licked my back and burned away my clothes and skin. Still, I carried her and stumbled out of that room somehow." He looked at the audience and said slowly, "I don’t know many people that would have done what I did that day. I would like to make it clear that I did not even know whose life I was saving in that fire.