Chapter 835 567: Overwhelmed
They had to wait until the fire inside had mostly burned out before they could extinguish it, then clean up the scene inside. As soon as Xia Liang came out of the mall, a lot of reporters surrounded him, wanting to interview him.
After all, this time, Xia Liang directly saved more than ninety people from the sea of fire, effectively saving ninety families. His deeds were destined to be remembered by people.
But Xia Liang's mood was very heavy now, and he didn't want to stay here any longer.
He just wanted to leave quickly, because he had seen too much tragedy today. Many people died inside, and along the way, he saw too many bodies. He wanted to save these people, but his Work Points were simply not enough.
This big fire claimed at least hundreds of lives, making it quite a disaster.
Back home, Xia Liang fell asleep as soon as he lay down.
In the days that followed, Xia Liang did not go out again. Instead, he stayed at home with Xi Yiqian, as she was the only one who could ease his oppressive mood and help him forget what happened inside the mall fire.
If you haven't experienced it firsthand, you simply can't understand that kind of pain.
Now he also somewhat understood why many soldiers returning from war suffered from PTSD.
The feeling of watching life die in front of you is truly not something an ordinary person can bear.
However, the impact of this incident did not end. The Qingyun Protectors entered the mall the day after the fire was extinguished to collect evidence and brought out the buried bodies or survivors.
But, after a week-long search and rescue, not a single living person was found. They found more than 300 bodies inside the mall.
According to the Protectors' investigation, the fire was caused by a teenager smoking inside a clothing store.
This incident shook the entire Qingyun City. With hundreds of lives lost, all the mall's responsible personnel were taken into custody.
Hundreds of families were shattered, with countless property losses, but no one could have imagined that it all stemmed from something a teenager did.
Xia Liang only learned about this later. He understood that the child's family was done for.
The enormous loss and guilt they had to bear were far beyond what ordinary people could handle. They would never rise from this in their lifetime.
As for Xia Liang, because of this incident, he decided to go out and relax. He told Liu Tongtong his idea. After thinking it over, she decided to join Xia Liang for the journey.
Actually, Liu Tongtong was also greatly affected last time. Even though she was an anchor and had faced many situations, gaining a lot of courage, she was still a girl, and such a scene was not something she could accept.
So, the two hit it off and decided to travel outside. They chose to take the train, bought two hard sleeper tickets, and set off.
The atmosphere on the train was lively, full of the bustle of life.
Although it was the off-season, the train was still full of passengers.
Because this train traveled more than two thousand kilometers, heading to a very beautiful scenic area.
As the train headed south, Xia Liang and Liu Tongtong looked at the scenery outside and the coming and going travelers, and their mood relaxed a lot.
"Brother Xia, why did you decide to go to Zhaigou for a trip? Our country has many tourist destinations. Qingyun also has quite a few. Although Baogou's scenery is quite nice, it's still some distance from Electric City."
Liu Tongtong asked with a smile.
"I usually see the scenery there online, which looks pretty good, especially the forests in the mountains, the water, the waterfalls, and other attractions, which are quite fun, so I wanted to see them."
Xia Liang replied with a slight smile.
"Oh, it's my first time going too."
Liu Tongtong nodded, then took out some food from her backpack and handed it to Xia Liang.
"Brother Xia, here, have something to eat."
Xia Liang took the snacks from Liu Tongtong's hand and started eating. You have to admit, girls really have a knack for food. The snacks Liu Tongtong picked, both sweet and spicy, perfectly suited Xia Liang's taste.
The two chatted while eating.
Before they knew it, night had fallen.
The scenery on both sides gradually turned into wilderness.
The train traveled through the wilds, and the scenery outside was quite soothing to look at.
In the middle of the night, just after Xia Liang had fallen asleep, he suddenly felt the whole train shake violently, followed by the screeching sound of brakes.
Before he could react, panicked screams erupted in the carriage, followed by people running chaotically and luggage falling from the racks.
In short, everything turned into chaos.
Liu Tongtong was also frightened by the scene and rushed to Xia Liang, saying:
"What's happening, Brother Xia?"
Xia Liang shook his head and said.
"I don't know either, but if we wait a bit, we should find out."
He was still a little groggy from sleep and didn't know what was happening at all.
Soon, Xia Liang saw a man quickly grab his luggage from the rack.
That man was anxious when he saw Xia Liang still sitting in his seat.
"Why aren't you two running? Run quickly, if you don't, it'll be too late. There's an accident here."
Xia Liang frowned and asked.
"What happened?"
The man quickly replied.
"It seems the tunnel was unstable due to the continuous rain in recent days, causing a collapse. The front of the train is buried, and everyone is running outside."
The man said and then rushed off.
Xia Liang and Liu Tongtong were also shocked by this sudden news.
The tunnel actually collapsed; it's simply too outrageous.
But they didn't have time to think about whether it was true or false, they could only grab their luggage and run towards the outside of the carriage. But just as they reached the door, the whole carriage suddenly shook violently.
Then, the carriage was hit with a massive force that tossed it around, Xia Liang and Liu Tongtong quickly stabilized themselves and didn't leave.
Boom!
A massive force hit, flipping the carriage over.
Countless people screamed in agony.
Fortunately, the abnormality ended quickly, and when everyone regained consciousness, they saw that the lights inside the carriage were out—there was a power outage.
In the pitch-black carriage, someone took out a phone and turned on the flashlight, shining it outside the carriage.
The sight startled everyone greatly.