124: Chapter 124 The house was raided

The reinforcement fire trucks came with their sirens blaring from two kilometers away.

Two vehicles, bearing the identification numbers of the Futian Station.

The doors popped open, and six people in full gear stepped out. The leader was a third-level commander in his early thirties, carrying a water gun nozzle on his shoulder. He trotted across the road and arrived in front of the residential building.

He stopped.

Three fire hoses were laid out neatly on the ground, and the hydrant water divider was connected correctly. The fire on the first floor was basically extinguished, and there were no open flames on the second floor; only residual smoke drifted out from the gaps in the window frames.

Onlookers were kept more than thirty meters away.

Both directions of the road were cleared.

He turned his head to look at the gate of the Fire Station, then looked at the fire scene, his expression changing from serious to confused.

"Your Luohu Station gate is on fire, and you still had to make us from Futian run over here?"

Li Li squeezed out from the ruins on the first floor, his mask pushed up to his forehead, and the scorched outer layer of his firefighting suit was still steaming.

"All the Firefighters in the station are out on calls, so we had to call for outside help."

The other man looked him up and down. His firefighting suit was worn correctly, the hoses were laid out professionally, and the on-site command lines were clear; he looked like a veteran no matter how you looked at him.

"You have so many people, yet you still need outside help?"

He gestured with his chin toward the Fire Station.

A row of people stood at the entrance. Shen Jue was slumped on the curb, his arms hanging limp, and his helmet tilted to the back of his head; Gu Zeyan was panting while holding his knees, the collar button of his firefighting suit fastened incorrectly; Jiang Shiyu and Tao Qianzhi stood at the edge of the sidewalk maintaining order, their fireproof suits two sizes too big; Ji Shen was squatting beside the water gun, covered in sweat, his hands still trembling.

The three female guests stood behind. Su Nianzhi's fireproof suit sleeves were rolled up three times and still too long; He Manzhou was helping Qi Wanyin comfort the rescued little boy.

The cameraman, Lao Zhou, was carrying his equipment, the red light blinking, recording the whole process.

Li Li swept a glance over this group of people.

"The Firefighters are all out on calls. We aren't professional Firefighters; we're here to film a variety show."

The other man's feet were nailed to the spot.

He scanned them again from left to right.

"A variety show?"

"A variety show."

There was silence for three seconds.

"People filming a variety show put out this fire?"

"We connected three fire hoses from the hydrant immediately, focused on suppressing the fire on the first floor, and used the windows on the second floor to pour water in and cool it down."

The other man's mouth opened, then closed. Then it opened again.

"Impressive."

He gave a thumbs up, a genuine one.

Li Li didn't stand on ceremony and tilted his head toward the ruins on the first floor.

"Come in and take a look."

The two men squeezed through the gap in the rolling shutter, bypassed the overturned dining table and the shattered kitchen partition, and walked to the wreckage of the white SUV.

The driver's side door had been torn open by the shockwave.

The driver's seat was empty, the passenger seat was empty, and the back seat was empty.

The other man leaned in to look for two seconds, then suddenly took a step back.

"Holy crap—where are the people? Were they burned away?"

Li Li shook his head.

"There are no remains, no signs that seatbelts were fastened; there was no one in the car to begin with."

The other man stood stunned in place. His mind raced for a moment, arriving at a conclusion he dared not voice.

"The situation is a bit complicated. Let's wait for the traffic police and criminal investigation team to arrive."

He turned and walked out.

The other man followed him out and muttered.

"Is your variety show filming firefighting or criminal investigation?"

Li Li also wanted to know the answer to that question.

Coming out of the first-floor wreckage, Li Li took off his helmet and tucked it under his arm.

His firefighting suit was covered in dust and scorch marks, the tear in his left sleeve was still hanging with tattered fabric, and half of his face was smeared with black soot.

The onlookers gathered thirty meters away, a row of phones held up.

As soon as he stepped over the frame of the rolling shutter wreckage, applause erupted.

It wasn't the polite, scattered kind. Over a hundred people clapped at once; the whole street echoed with it.

Some whistled, some shouted "Well done," and some were holding phones, livestreaming, shouting while filming: "Brothers, this is real! It's not an act!"

Li Li raised his hand to signal them not to get too excited, but didn't stop walking.

Then, a large, heavy man weighing one hundred and eighty jin rushed out from the crowd.

Behind him followed a five or six-year-old boy—the one from the third-floor window. His face had been washed, but there were still streaks of black soot, and he was clutching the big man's belt tightly with his hand.

The big man ran up to Li Li and fell to his knees with a thud.

His knees hit the asphalt, shaking the ground.

"Benefactor!!!"

He grabbed Li Li's forearm with both hands and pulled down.

"Thank you for saving my son!!!"

Li Li stepped back half a step, but couldn't budge.

This man weighed two hundred and thirty jin kneeling on the ground; his center of gravity was locked in, and he didn't move an inch.

He tried to pull him back, but wow, he couldn't move him.

Li Li had to react even faster.

"Thud."

He dropped to one knee. He was now a head shorter than the man, looking up at him.

"Brother, get up, don't kneel. Let's talk standing up."

The big man's eyes reddened, and snot almost flew out.

"You saved my child! If you hadn't rushed in, my child, I..."

"As long as the child is fine, get up first."

"I won't get up!"

"If you don't get up, I won't either."

"Then don't kneel either! You are my lifesaver!"

"If you're kneeling and I'm standing, what would that make me? Get up."

The two men knelt in the middle of the road, pulling at each other; the scene was chaotic and almost out of control.

The little boy stood to the side, clutching the back of his father's clothes with both hands, eyes watery, but he didn't cry out.

In the end, Jiang Shiyu and Ji Shen each took one side and hauled the man up from the ground.

The man stood up and wanted to bow again, but Li Li caught his arm.

"Brother, the child is watching."

The big man looked down at his son, wiped his face hard, and nodded several times.

The little boy let go of his father's clothes, walked to Li Li, and looked up at him for two seconds.

Then he extended a small, blackened hand and gave a thumbs up.

The exact same gesture as the Firefighter from Futian Station just now.

The onlookers erupted once more.

This whole segment—from the man rushing out, to both sides kneeling and pulling at each other, to the little boy giving a thumbs up—was recorded by at least thirty mobile phones simultaneously.

Twenty minutes later.

TikTok trending #1: #VarietyShowGuestsReallyFightFire#.

Weibo trending top three: #LiLiFightsFire#, #BraveBlueFriendsGuestsExtinguishFire#, #FireStationGateOnFire#.

The comment section was a battlefield between two sides.

"So handsome! This is what a real man is!"

"People filming a variety show putting out a fire? This script is too fake, right? Hype knows no bounds."

"Look, that cameraman was filming the whole time; wasn't this arranged in advance?"

"Here's a fun fact: the special effects cost for a new energy vehicle battery explosion is about twenty million."

"Wake up, the people in that building have already posted on Weibo, and the police records are verifiable. Special effects, my foot?"

"I don't believe it, the Production Team bought them off."

Some people's logic, you just can't figure it out.

The reinforcement fire trucks took over the subsequent handling of the scene; the traffic police arrived, the criminal investigation team arrived, and the fire investigation team arrived as well.

Li Li took off his firefighting suit, draped it over his arm, and walked back to the Fire Station gate.

Shen Jue was still slumped on the curb.

"Brother Li... my arms are no longer mine..."

"Tomorrow at training, Captain Cheng will help you confirm whether they are still there."

Shen Jue's face fell.

Gu Zeyan was sitting on the steps of the Fire Station entrance, leaning against the wall, his hands resting on his knees.

The misaligned button on his firefighting suit collar hadn't been fixed yet.

Li Li walked past him, paused, and held out his hand.

"You did well today."

Gu Zeyan looked up.

He opened his mouth. His first reaction was that standard smile he'd practiced for three years, but he bit it back halfway, switched to an unnatural nod, and slapped Li Li's hand with his own.

It wasn't that he refused to shake hands; it was just too tiring to lift his arm.

"...Good work."

Three words, dry and simple.

But more genuine than any professional PR script.

Twenty-five minutes later.

Dense siren sounds came from the distance.

Two fire trucks turned in from the main road in a line, their red lights flashing all the way to the Fire Station gate.

Captain Cheng's vehicle was in the lead.

The door pushed open, and Captain Cheng jumped out, seeing at a glance two Futian Station fire trucks parked at his own Fire Station gate.

The first floor of the residential building across the street was in a mess.

Three fire hoses were laid out on the ground, connecting from their own hydrant all the way across the road.

The onlookers hadn't dispersed yet, and two layers of caution tape had been pulled up.

He froze in his tracks.

The cars behind stopped one after another, and Han Su jumped down from the third vehicle, still clutching a safety rope in his hand.

"Captain Cheng, it's just a community kitchen fire, did you need to send two of our trucks? By the time we arrived, they had already put it out..."

He stopped mid-sentence.

He saw the scene at his own gate.

His mouth wouldn't close.

Qin Xiaoshan got out of the car with a piece of bread in his mouth; he was too hungry from the call and had been eating dinner in the car on the way back.

Half the bread was bitten off, his cheeks puffed out, and he hadn't had time to chew.

Seeing what was in front of him, his chewing stopped.

Zhong Ji was the last to get out, hands in his pockets, scanning the battlefield remains at the Fire Station gate: hoses, water guns, water stains on the ground, the charred residential building opposite, and the two fire trucks from another station.

Then he spat out four words.

"Home base got infiltrated."

Captain Cheng turned his head to look at Li Li, who was standing on the steps at the entrance.

Li Li had that scorched firefighting suit draped over him, the tear in his left sleeve still unaddressed, and half the soot on his face wiped away.

"Report, Captain Cheng."

"A vehicle crashed into the community restaurant directly opposite the Fire Station, causing an explosion and fire, which has been extinguished. All rooms on the second floor have been cleared, and one trapped person was rescued. One trapped child was rescued from the third floor. Floors four through seven have been fully cleared; no one was found. Reinforcements have arrived and taken over."

He paused for a beat.

"There is one situation."

Captain Cheng stared at him.

"There was no one in that car; from beginning to end, the driver's seat was empty."

The Fire Station gate went quiet for three seconds.

The safety rope in Han Su's hand slipped to the ground with a thud.

Captain Cheng furrowed his brows and looked toward the residential building across the street—the traffic police and criminal investigation team were pulling up caution tape around the wreckage.

He turned back.

"Four fires, occurring almost simultaneously, drawing my entire station's personnel out."

Li Li nodded.

"And then the place opposite the station exploded."

Captain Cheng's Adam's apple bobbed.

He looked down at the walkie-talkie in his hand, looked up at the criminal investigation personnel, turned, and walked toward the opposite side, his steps getting faster and faster.

Zhong Ji watched his back and pulled his hands out of his pockets.

"This variety show script has gone a bit overboard."

The bread in Qin Xiaoshan's mouth was finally swallowed.

"Brother Li, is there still food in the canteen tonight?"

"Ask Zhong Ji."

"Brother Ji!"

"Don't call me that; I'm not the canteen lady."

Li Li turned and walked into the Fire Station. His phone screen lit up for a second, and there was a WeChat message from Jiang Rumu in the notification bar.

"Just saw TikTok. Are you hurt?"

Just as he was about to reply, a second message followed.

"I saw that cut on your left arm. Don't tell me you're fine. Take a picture."

A third message.

"Take it."

Li Li looked down at the tear in his left sleeve.

The firefighting suit was torn, and the quick-dry shirt underneath had scraped a layer of skin, oozing a shallow bloody scratch.

It really wasn't anything serious.

But this woman's tone didn't sound like she was negotiating.

He raised his phone, took a picture of his left arm, and sent it.

Three seconds later, a voice message came back.

He tapped it.

Jiang Rumu's voice squeezed out of the earpiece, gritting her teeth.

"Are you acting up again, insisting on being the first to charge forward? If you dare to do this again, I won't help you manage this welfare home anymore!"

Li Li originally wanted to reply by saying if he didn't go, who would? Gu Zeyan or Shen Yu, or Su Nianzhi or Qi Wanyin?

But in the end, he typed two words.

"Yes, ma'am."

She replied instantly with an emoji—a husky holding a band-aid, with the caption: "Watching you."

Li Li locked the screen and put his phone back in his pocket.

Captain Cheng walked back quickly from across the road, his face looking grim, followed by two police officers.

He stood at the Fire Station gate and scanned everyone.

His gaze fell on Li Li.

"You come with me, and tell me what happened earlier from beginning to end."

Li Li followed.

After walking two steps, he turned back to look at the outline of the SUV wreckage across the street, illuminated by the criminal investigation lights.

The criminal investigation team should already be checking the owner information of that SUV.

But what Li Li wanted to know more was—who knew that everyone at the Fire Station would be out today?