86: Chapter 86 Family Members Kneel and Kowtow

The siren of the fire truck was sharp and piercing.

Two heavy red water tanker trucks blocked the alley entrance, one after the other, dragging thick canvas hoses along the ground, leaving several long white lines.

Black smoke was still billowing out from the sixth-floor window, but the Firefighters had already stormed in.

The hissing sound of high-pressure water hoses smashed down through the floors, accompanied by the crackling noise of water vapor roasting charred remains.

Li Li leaned against the locust tree, looking up at the sixth floor.

Three minutes.

The water hoses focused their spray, turning the thick black smoke gray-white, until finally, only large billows of water vapor were emerging.

The fire in 602 was extinguished.

Fast.

Professionals are just different.

The crowd of onlookers surged forward.

Over two hundred people were jammed into the narrow alley, the light from their phone screens creating a sea of brightness.

Some were discussing the fire, while others were asking about casualties.

Li Li's gaze cut through the crowd, locked onto the building entrance.

Two Firefighters walked out of the unit door.

The captain in the lead removed his mask; his face was covered in black ash, and his lips were pressed tightly into a line.

The second Firefighter was holding a person in his arms.

It looked like a rescued person.

"Phew."

The back of Li Li's head hit the tree trunk hard.

He stared at the figure being held as it was laid flat on the ground—as long as there was still breath, it was fine—and then he looked away.

He smiled happily.

The captain walked to the edge of the police line and raised a hand to stop the neighbors rushing forward.

"The preliminary judgment for the cause of the fire is that the kitchen stove was not turned off; the oil pan caught fire, igniting the range hood duct, which spread to the entire house."

He paused for a moment.

"The trapped person in the master bedroom of 602 was passed out from smoke inhalation when we searched, thanks to the timely information provided by that young man just now. They need to go to the hospital for an examination."

That short auntie—Yaya's grandmother—stood at the very front of the crowd.

She was holding Yaya, who had just been rescued, and her legs were shaking like a sieve.

She stared straight at the unconscious state of her daughter.

Her lips parted and closed twice, but she didn't make a sound.

Tears flowed straight down.

"Slap."

She slapped herself, and then slapped herself again.

Then, her whole body fell backward stiffly.

"Catch her!" A neighbor nearby was quick and caught her.

The old lady's eyes rolled back, and she had become a pile of mush.

Yaya slid from her arms and was quickly caught by another auntie.

"Big sister! Big sister, wake up!"

"Call an ambulance, quickly!"

"The ambulance is behind! Make way!"

Rapid footsteps came from the alley entrance.

A middle-aged man in a gray suit squeezed in from outside the crowd.

His leather shoes stepped into a puddle, and muddy water splashed onto his pant legs.

He rushed to the edge of the crowd and immediately saw the old lady slumped on the ground.

"Mom!"

His voice cracked.

The middle-aged man lunged over, dropped to one knee, and reached out with shaking hands to help her up.

The old lady's eyelids twitched.

She was awake.

She saw her son-in-law's face.

She raised her right hand and slapped herself hard across the face.

Slap.

"Minister Xu Jianguo, it's my fault..."

Another slap.

Slap.

"I went downstairs to dance while the soup was stewing on the stove... I almost killed my daughter..."

The middle-aged man gripped her wrist tightly.

"Mom! Stop hitting yourself!"

The old lady couldn't break free, so she switched to her other hand.

Slap.

The third slap landed, and half her face visibly swelled up.

The middle-aged man pressed both her hands to the ground, his teeth grinding audibly.

He looked at his unconscious wife lying nearby.

His body was shaking.

He was shaking all over.

He turned his head, a broken word squeezing out of his throat.

"Where is Yaya?"

The surroundings went silent for a moment.

The auntie holding Yaya quickly stepped forward and handed the child over.

"Yaya is fine... She was rescued by a young man. He climbed in from the balcony and carried the child out strapped to his back."

Several neighbors nearby chimed in.

"It was that young man in the white T-shirt! He climbed in from the balcony next door!"

"The sixth floor! He almost fell! The railing even broke!"

"He hung from the outside of the balcony with one hand and pulled himself up, just like in a movie!"

The middle-aged man took Yaya.

The three-year-old girl's face was covered in gray dust, one of her pigtails was crooked, and there were two dried trails of snot under her nose.

But her chest was rising and falling, her breathing steady.

She was alive.

The middle-aged man hugged Yaya tightly, burying his head in the child's small shoulder, his shoulders heaving violently a few times.

He made no sound.

Three seconds.

He raised his head.

"Who saved her? Where are they?"

Several hands pointed simultaneously toward the base of the locust tree.

The middle-aged man walked over while holding Yaya.

Under the locust tree, a young man wearing a soaked white T-shirt sat on the ground, leaning against the trunk.

His hair was plastered to his forehead, his face covered in gray stains, his knee torn, with blood and dirty water seeping into his pant leg.

His left hand rested on his knee, and a large patch of scalded, red skin on the back of his hand was peeling back.

Li Li looked up.

The middle-aged man walked up to him.

He stood there for a second.

Then, he bent his knees and knelt straight down.

Yaya was protected against his chest and didn't hit the ground.

"Brother—"

His voice was stuck in his throat.

"Thank you."

He bowed his head, the fabric of his suit rubbing against the rough cement ground with a rustling sound.

Li Li moved.

He braced himself against the tree trunk to stand up, bent over, and reached out to grab the middle-aged man's arm.

"Get up."

The middle-aged man didn't move.

Li Li exerted force from his wrist and pulled him up forcibly.

Then, he extended his uninjured right hand and gently touched Yaya's dusty little face.

The little girl blinked.

Those black eyes were covered in dust, but they were still bright.

Li Li withdrew his hand.

"I'm sorry."

The middle-aged man was stunned.

"I couldn't save your wife directly at the time, leaving her unconscious."

The middle-aged man's Adam's apple bobbed up and down.

He shifted Yaya to a different position and freed up a hand to wipe his face hard.

"There is no need to apologize.

You have already... you saved my daughter, and my wife should be alright."

His voice was so hoarse it was falling apart.

"My name is Minister Xu Jianguo.

Brother, if you need anything in the future, just ask.

Whatever Minister Xu Jianguo can do, I will do it for you, even if it costs me my life."

Li Li shook his head.

"Take Yaya and your wife to the hospital for a check-up; they inhaled quite a bit of smoke."

Minister Xu Jianguo nodded, backed away two steps while holding Yaya, and then looked back at him one more time.

His lips moved, but in the end, he didn't say anything else.

He turned around and walked quickly toward the old lady.

Li Li leaned back against the locust tree.

His left wrist was throbbing with pain.

It reminded him of what this body had been through.

His modification still had eleven months left; the system would reshape his bones, muscles, and nerves, but the priority for repairing old injuries was clearly lower.

A fire boot with a gray, dusty logo stepped into his field of vision.

The captain stood in front of him, taking off his helmet and tucking it under his arm.

He was in his early thirties, with a square face and an old scar on his chin.

He squatted down to look at Li Li at eye level.

"Brother, what's your name?"

"Li Li."

"You were the one who reported the news downstairs just now, right?"

"Yeah."

"And that child was also rescued by you from 602?"

"Yeah."

The captain didn't speak.

"Without protective gear, you climbed over from the sixth-floor balcony and carried the child out on your back."

He stood up and patted the dust off his pant legs.

"Awesome!

That's fucking awesome!

I've been a Firefighter for twelve years, and I've never seen a civilian do something like this."

He paused.

"You are the hero of the day."

Li Li stood up, supporting himself with the tree.

"Don't label me; I'm just a passerby."

The captain glanced at his scalded hand and slightly trembling left wrist, not responding to his remark.

He turned around and waved to the people behind him.

"Xiao Liu! Get the ambulance to drive over here!"

He turned back.

"Come with me to the hospital for a full check-up.

Respiratory tract, burns, bones—check everything."

"No need, I—"

"The Fire Department will cover the costs."

The captain patted his shoulder, with a force that was neither too light nor too heavy.

"Don't be stubborn.

Inhaling too much smoke doesn't always cause immediate symptoms, and it's more troublesome if problems arise later."

The ambulance backed into the alley, its orange flashing lights sweeping across the mottled walls on both sides.

The back door opened, and a female medic in a white coat leaned out.

"Where is the patient?"

The captain pointed at Li Li.

"This one.

He carried the child out of the sixth-floor fire today.

Please check him thoroughly, doctor, especially his respiratory tract and limbs."

The female medic swept a glance over Li Li's condition—soaked white T-shirt, face covered in gray stains, scalded hand, and bleeding knee.

"Get on."

Just as Li Li stepped onto the ambulance footboard, the phone in his pocket vibrated.

He took it out.

A WeChat message.

Jiang Rumu: "Where did you go?

Everyone in the stream is saying Sanyuan Bridge is on fire."

A second message popped up immediately after, along with a screenshot.

It was a screen capture from a TikTok stream, showing a man with a face so covered in dirt and ash that his features were unrecognizable, pulling himself up onto the sixth-floor balcony with one hand.

Jiang Rumu: "Is that you?"

Li Li replied: "No, I'm not that ugly."

He flipped the phone over, face down on the edge of the stretcher.

The ambulance doors closed.

The siren wailed, and the vehicle drove out of the alley.

He sat leaning back in the ambulance compartment, and the female medic came over with a cotton ball soaked in saline to clean the wound on the back of his hand.

A stinging pain arrived.

Li Li didn't dodge; he just leaned his head back, took one last look at the increasingly blurry entrance of the residential complex, and closed his eyes.