I explained the situation to the fire chief and as soon as he heard that I was a former special forces soldier, he immediately gave me a full set of equipment. These firefighters were all conscripts and had more experience in firefighting than I did, but they were considerably less experienced in rescue work.
At this point the fire chief could not wait to kneel down for me, if I could not save Zhao Zichen, there was no need to think about it, and this official hat could be removed from his head.
The scene was jammed with onlookers, and when they saw me start to wear a fire suit, they all pointed at me and whispered, and then when they saw me go into the fire, the whole place resounded with shouts of shock.
Although I was wearing an asbestos fire suit, I felt my eyebrows burning as I approached the thousands of degrees of fire in the heart of the flames, and without taking a step, a waterfall of sweat dripped down from the asbestos fire suit.
It was pitch black in the flaming park and the deep black smoke wrapped around the place like a demon, so I could only judge what I saw by instinct. The smoke alone was thousands of degrees hot, and the rolls of black smoke swept around a magnolia tree, and in a dozen seconds or so the whole thing was set alight.
I don’t know if it was the fear or the heat, but my heart was pounding. I had been on the battlefield so many times, but now it made me feel more terrified than on any other battlefield. Because when the enemy’s guns were raised, I could still raise my hands in surrender, but the fire here would never hear me beg for mercy.
It’s a real hell here.
It was only a few minutes away and I could no longer hear the voices of the people not far away, my ears were filled with the rumbling of the wind and the fury of the fire.
According to the firemen, Zhao Zichen and the others were still alive and should be in the very centre of the park. There used to be a plaza of praise there, where out-of-town circus troupes would come over to perform circus acts. Later, when environmental protection was advocated, the animal circus shows were cancelled, but the few sides of barbed wire used by the circus to block the front of the audience for safety were always still there.
That thing wouldn’t normally be locked up, this time it must be the work of the Green Dragon Gang.
These brutes, they can do anything!
But to get to the very middle of the park, one had to cross a huge field of fire, orange tongues of which looked like the tongues of bloody giants licking at the wounds in the sky, fluttering in the direction of the wind.
Dang it ……
Just as I hesitated, there was a steady banging sound from the fire, as if someone was banging on the metal railings with something.
It was definitely Zhao Zichen! There was no other living thing here but them.
But the fire was so wild that if I pa*sed through the centre of the flames, the possibility of being burnt right through the fireproof suit was all but impossible.
I gritted my teeth and tried several times, but I couldn’t get close to the flames, and even when I got a few steps closer, the huge wave of heat was like a hand that almost slapped me to the ground on the spot.
Zhao Zichen’s distress signal didn’t stop there, one was banging on my bars, I also picked up a stone and knocked twice, and sure enough, the other side heard my signal and immediately changed the rhythm of the banging.
This means that Zhao Zichen is at least alive.
But the smoke was only a few minutes away, so I had to get to them quickly.
Suddenly, I remembered that next to the circus centre in the park was a small ditch that held water all year round, so maybe there was still water in it!
I didn’t dare to delay, so I went around as I remembered, and sure enough, the ditch was still there, and there was still water in it.
The ditch was not deep, but it was about 1.8 metres deep, so I couldn’t walk across it. I had to take off my firefighting suit, leave my gas mask on, and swim across with my bare shoulders.
The moment I took off my fire suit, I felt like a roast chicken that was about to roast. I hurriedly dove into the water, and the water in the ditch was surprisingly warm from the fire.
As expected, as soon as I got out of the water, I saw the square surrounded by iron fences. Probably because they heard the water, the trapped Zhao Zichen’s men also found me and came around in my direction.
“Zhang Chao, how come it’s you?!”
Seeing that it was me, Zhao Zichen was incomparably shocked, and the mouths of the few juniors following behind Zhao Zichen were about to drop to the ground.
I could understand their feelings, such a big fire, if I had changed places with them, I was trapped, Zhao Zichen came to my rescue, I could have kneeled down and kowtowed one to him on the spot. No matter what kind of person they are, they are all fragile and small in front of life and death.
“Too late to say more, the firemen weren’t fast enough, how are your people doing?”
“Erdog pa*sed out, the others are okay. We’re locked up by Jiang Ming’s men.”
Zhao Zichen said, leading me over to where the iron locks were locked, because the smoke was so thick here we all had our noses blocked with our hands all the time, not daring to speak, the smoke was more deadly than the fire.
I looked and F**k, it was a U-shaped lock as thick as a child’s arm.
It’s no wonder the fire brigade had to call in a pneumatic cutter, you can’t pull it off by hand.
I was still carrying some water droplets from above the water earlier, when they evaporated, and all of a sudden I felt hot waves of fire, like barbed tongues, licking viciously at my back.
I gritted my teeth and by now couldn’t tell if my face was still sweaty or watery.
Zhao Zichen took out his phone and typed to me, “They used these locks on purpose, they can’t pick them, they’re going to kill us.”
Just after typing this paragraph, the phone suddenly flashed and then went black, the heat making the electronics malfunction.
I was fully aware of the ruthlessness of this man, Jiang Ming, this time.
Over the years, there have been deaths in the city due to triad firefights, but these incidents and Jiang Ming’s ruthlessness are completely different.
This man was like a scavenging hyena on the gra*slands, making people shudder.
Zhao Zichen had to sign to me again, and I was surprised that this guy could even speak sign language.
“You take a stick and pry.”
Probably at Zhao Zichen’s behest, the few other survivors of the Red Lantern Society didn’t speak, though their noses were blackened, though none of them had life-threatening injuries.
I replied to him in sign language, “Don’t bother, the lock won’t be hard for me.”
Zhao Zichen got anxious and signalled me, “Jiang Ming is determined to kill me, you won’t be able to get this lock.”
I didn’t say anything, I fished a key out of my pocket, then before he got smoky and hot, I quickly broke the small wire in the key string straight and poked it into the U-shaped lock, and after a few random stabs, the lock opened.
When the door opened, Zhao Zichen was still a bit confused and didn’t react.
Only when I greeted them and asked them to go out and say something did these guys react. I led them back the way they came and after swimming across the small ditch, they all walked through the smoke with wet clothes drenched in water.
Soon the gates of the park appeared in front of us and by now the firefighters were fully loaded and ready to come in and rescue us.
There was an amazing roar of approval from the park gates and everyone cheered as people were rescued and none of them seemed to care if the fire would continue to burn.
A few people rushed up to pour water on my body and others handed me water. The chief of the fire brigade was so grateful that he was about to kowtow to me, thanking me profusely, but at that moment, Zhao Zichen let out a low roar, “It’s broken.”
