It had been raining the entire way to the border city of Fangquan; they said it had been raining for two days now.
On the windshield, the wipers worked tirelessly, scraping away streaks of water. For a brief moment, the view would clear, only to be reclaimed by tiny, crystalline droplets that clung stubbornly to the glass, almost like a persistent child.
The medical staff inside the bus were listless. The long, winding mountain roads had worn them down until they looked like wilted, frost-bitten eggplants.
Individually, they all offered the same silent prayer: Please, let us arrive soon. Stop the circling.
Suddenly, a thunderous roar pierced the sky and shook the earth, jolting everyone out of their lethargy.
The bus slammed on its brakes, catching everyone off guard.
Su Anxi was thrown forward by the inertia. Her forehead slammed into the back of the seat in front of her with a dull thud. She grimaced in pain, closing her eyes and hissing through her teeth.
By the time she recovered and sat up, clutching her neck, she heard someone shouting loudly nearby, “Something’s happened! Get off the bus! We need to save people!”
The moment she jumped off the bus, she was met with a terrifying sight.
The road ahead had been severed by large boulders, debris, and mud. A car was half-buried under the landslide. Fortunately, people were already tending to it, and there didn’t seem to be any major casualties.
But when she looked to the other side, the situation was nothing short of perilous.
An SUV was perched on the edge of the cliff. It seemed that while trying to avoid the landslide on the slick road, the driver had panicked and lost control of the steering wheel, veering off the path.
At that moment, nearly half the vehicle’s body hung precariously over the precipice. From inside the car came a chorus of desperate wails and frantic screams for help.
“Holy shit,” Su Anxi whispered to herself. Her eyes widened like saucers as she scanned the scene. It was incredibly treacherous; a single misstep, and the car would undoubtedly plummet.
She wiped the rain from her face with the back of her hand and ran toward the edge. Standing at the front, she observed the vehicle’s current state with a grave and focused expression.
The front of the car was almost vertical, pointing toward the bottom of the cliff. It was only because the rear wheels were snagged in a pile of jagged rocks and several small, snapped trees were providing leverage that the vehicle hadn’t fallen straight down.
“Help! Help us!”
The people inside didn’t dare move. Even their cries for help were trembling and thick with tears. “I don’t want to die! Please, I beg you, save us…”
“The police have been notified!” Nurse Wang shouted as she ran over to the group.
Su Anxi looked at the man beside her. Though he was over fifty, he still looked sharp and energetic. “Vice President Zhang,” she said, “if we wait for the rescue team, I’m afraid this car won’t hold out that long.”
Vice President Zhang didn’t speak, but he nodded grimly.
“Then a few of us, plus some of the other men, can try to pull the car up together,” proposed Dr. Liao Zhiping, who was standing next to the Vice President. Several others nodded in agreement.
“No,” Vice President Zhang and Su Anxi said in unison.
Liao Zhiping was baffled, as were the others. They all looked back and forth between the two.
Liao Zhiping asked, “Why? In their current state, if anyone inside so much as moves, the car is going down. It’ll be a total loss of life!”
Vice President Zhang shook his head. “We can’t possibly pull that car up with our bare hands. We wouldn’t even be able to stabilize it. If we’re not careful, we’ll only cause more casualties.”
“Then what are we supposed to do?” someone asked, looking at the group in military uniforms. “You’re soldiers. You can’t just stand by and watch people die, can you?”
Hearing this, Su Anxi looked at the bystander with a faint, amused glint in her eyes. After a moment, she replied, “We are soldiers, not miracle workers.”
Seeing this beautiful but disheveled female soldier rebuff him with such indifference, the man felt a surge of irrational defiance. He immediately turned to shout at his friends.
“If the soldiers won’t save them, we will!” he declared, rolling up his sleeves to show off his bravado as he moved toward the car.
Before he could even touch the vehicle, Vice President Zhang barked a sharp warning: “Young man, don’t move! You’ll kill them!”
As if on cue, the car wedged on the cliff edge shifted slightly. The occupants inside screamed in absolute terror, which succeeded in frightening the man and his friends back to their senses.
“So what now? We just wait?” The man’s eyes fixed squarely on Su Anxi.
Su Anxi didn’t even give him a second glance. Instead, she turned to Vice President Zhang. “I’ve just surveyed the area. They definitely won’t make it until the rescue team arrives. Let me try.”
“A human life is at stake. Are you sure?” Vice President Zhang looked her in the eye, his tone heavy with gravity.
Su Anxi shook her head and let out a faint curl of her lips. “To be honest, I’m not entirely sure.”
This admission left everyone present stunned and exchanging uneasy glances.
Then, the beautiful soldier’s clear voice rang out again: “If we act now, they might have a fifty-percent chance of survival. Even if the rescue team drives like mad, it’ll take them at least half an hour to get here. If they’re lucky, there’s a ten-percent chance the car will still be hanging there when they arrive.”
Just as she finished speaking, one of the small trees snapped and sprang back. The car slid another fraction of an inch. Everyone, inside and out, screamed—a sound more piercing than any before.
“Save us! Save us!” The people inside couldn’t see those outside, but they could hear the discussion. Things were already this bad; rather than waiting to die, they were willing to gamble. “We’ll listen to you! We’ll do whatever you say! I don’t want to die!”
The others in the car echoed the sentiment in a desperate chorus.
Su Anxi looked at Vice President Zhang, saying nothing, waiting for his decision.
There was no other way. Vice President Zhang nodded and said to Su Anxi, “Do what you can.”
Su Anxi then turned to the others. “If no one has a better idea, I’m going to try my way. I hope everyone will cooperate.”
The others nodded silently.
Their reasoning was simple: if the people trapped in the car trusted her, there was no reason for the bystanders to object. If something went wrong, someone would have to take the blame. Since these people were soldiers, it was their duty to save lives; the civilians would just help out.
Seeing that no one objected, Su Anxi began the rescue operation.
“Who has a rescue rope in their car?” she asked.
“I do!” someone called out, raising a hand.
“Bring it here, quickly.”
Su Anxi asked again, “Does anyone have paper and a pen?”
“I have some here,” a young woman said, pulling them from her bag.
Su Anxi took them and immediately began scribbling calculations. She walked to the safest spot on the cliff edge nearest the car and called out to the occupants, “Do not move. Tell me where each of you is sitting, your heights, and your weights…”
As the people inside spoke, Su Anxi’s pen flew across the paper. Moments later, she let out a breath and looked at the men nearby. “Listen for my command. Together, you will help me stabilize the rear of the car as much as possible. Dr. Liao, come with me to pass the rope.”
Liao Zhiping looked horrified, pointing at himself, unable to speak for a long moment.
Su Anxi tossed the paper and pen onto the ground and handed the rope to Liao Zhiping with a sudden, sharp smile. “Dr. Liao, it’s time to show us your heroic side.”