After the bus passed, Shinnshiow walked at a quick pace towards Jongharng Subway Station. When he got there, he immediately headed to the platform to catch a train that went to the nearest station from the housing estate where Yinqyueh's relatives lived.
"Have you heard of the fire incident in the elite housing complex?" A train passenger asked the person next to him. It seemed they were friends.
"Of course I have. My father has been making a lot of noise since this morning. He was worried that a customer might cancel an order because his house caught fire."
His friend answered with a serious face. "Your father has a lot of customers from there?"
"Not really! But there are some who live in the housing complex. They usually order enormous quantities of goods. If something like this happens, they will definitely focus on thinking about things related to their house, rather than ordering things which aren't really that urgent."
"That's strange, isn't it? There had been more than one fire in such a short time!"
<
"More than once? What do you mean?"
"You don't know? Around one o'clock at midnight, there was a fire in one house there. However, the fire was quickly extinguished. Maybe in less than an hour, everything was done. All the fire engines had left the scene. Apparently, at around half-past five in the morning, a fire broke out in a location very close to the location of the first fire. This time, the fire quickly spread in all directions, so there was a big fire."
"I don't know about that. No news of the first fire."
"That's the oddity. Even when someone asked about the news, the police said they didn't know."
"Then how do you know?"
"One of my neighbors is a firefighter. Last night he was supposed to go home. But before he could go home, a fire broke out. He was one of the personnel assigned to extinguish the fire in the first fire. After returning to the fire department, he called his house and told his family about it. I don't know why his boss forbade him from coming home. Then there was a second fire. He had to go back to the housing complex."
"Did you hear this from his family?"
"That's right! They are indeed people who like to tell stories."
"It's strange that all the news on television only reported one fire." The friend shook his head.
<>
The journey does not take long because there is only one station between Jongharng station and Shinnshiow's destination station. As soon as he got off the carriage, he directly rose to the surface. Unlike Yinqyueh and Tsaehorng, who took the car, Shannchyuan and Yihshyong took the train like Shinnshiow had. So, it was very possible that Shannchyuan and Yihshyong had not yet arrived at their destination. Shinnshiow hoped that if he walked even faster, there was still hope that he would still be able to catch up with Shannchyuan and Yihshyong. But as he walked along the highway directly above the subway station, Shinnshiow saw neither Shannchyuan nor Yihshyong.
<>
After almost arriving at the intersection, he could see the pedestrian bridge located right at the intersection. Just at that moment, there was someone who stopped his steps.
"Excuse me, do you know this address?" The person asked Shinnshiow. He handed a paper to Shinnshiow. On that piece of paper, the complete address of a house was neatly written. Shinnshiow was dumbfounded to read the address. The house, coincidentally, was also within the housing complex that was Shinnshiow's destination.
"Ah, you just follow this path." Shinnshiow pointed to the road to the right of the intersection. "After about five hundred meters, you turn left. From there, you just go straight."
The person looked confused at Shinnshiow's explanation. Shinnshiow guessed that the man didn't understand what he was saying. Shinnshiow's accent was far different from that of most people in the city. However, during the one year, Shinnshiow lived in that gigantic city, there was never a person who didn't understand his words when Shinnshiow explained something.
"Could you take me there? That's if you have some free time!"
Shinnshiow hesitated for a moment. But then, he saw behind them was a sedan that had stopped. The man pointed to the car. Their destination is the same. By car, of course, Shinnshiow would get there faster. But Shinnshiow realized he had to be very careful. He didn't know the person. After all, Shinnshiow and company were in an unusual situation. They must always increase their vigilance. Shinnshiow must not fall into the trap of bad people.
The car door opened. Quickly, Shinnshiow turned his head. A child got out of the car. He was a boy about seven or eight years old.
"When do we arrive?" The boy looked at the man who was conversing with Shinnshiow. His gaze was hopeful. But that wasn't what caught Shinnshiow's attention. The child's accent was unfamiliar. Shinnshiow had never heard of such an accent. Maybe the child was from a place so far away.
"Wait a minute, Young Master! I'm asking this gentleman!"
"All right! I'll take you there." Shinnshiow nodded.
<
"Thank you, sir." The man nodded respectfully.
Without further ado, Shinnshiow got into the person's car.
Car running. Because the vehicle had stopped earlier, they were in the far left lane. From there, the car couldn't go straight, let alone turn right. At the intersection, they had to turn left first. After a few hundred meters, the vehicle could only turn around after finding a U-turn.
Shinnshiow sat in the front seat next to the driver. The person who had spoken to Shinnshiow earlier was sitting in the back with the child who had gotten out of the car. The driver looked so careful. He ran the car at a low speed. Several times they were honked by the vehicles behind them because they were going too slow.
The place to turn around was not only a few hundred meters but almost a kilometer from the intersection. When he finally saw the U-turn, Shinnshiow was very relieved. When the car turned around, it turned out that the flow of vehicles passing through the highway was so abundant. It made the car was forced to wait for the opportunity to turn around. By that time, the car was already halfway around. The position of the car was stuck on the U-turn.
After about thirty seconds, there was a gap. Enough for the car to go forward. Shinnshiow could see an SUV traveling at high speed from the left. But the car was still quite far from them. Just as the car started to continue to make a U-turn, which had previously been stopped, the SUV suddenly picked up speed. The driver of the car that Shinnshiow was riding in seemed hesitant. Maybe he thought that if he stepped on the gas, the SUV would most likely hit the sedan's back door. It happened so fast. The SUV continued to drive at high speed. Inevitably, the vehicle hit the front door of the car Shinnshiow was riding in. Pounding right at the door beside Shinnshiow's seat.
Kaaabooom...
The SUV hit the car Shinnshiow was traveling in.
Even though Shinnshiow was wearing a seat belt, his body was hit hard against the car door. Shinnshiow was still conscious. Although his body and head ached badly, he could still move his arms and legs. He looked to the left. The SUV that had just hit them was still running. The car retreated about two meters. Rapidly, Shinnshiow turned his head to the right. The driver was unconscious. It looked like his head had hit a hard part of the car's dashboard. In the back seat, the situation was the same. The boy and the person who had asked Shinnshiow earlier seemed to have bumped into each other. The two of them were still conscious, but it seemed they couldn't immediately move their body parts freely.
Several people got out of the SUV. Several other cars also stopped. Two people, out of nowhere, tried to open the vehicle's front door. Shinnshiow didn't know if they were trying to help him or not. One of them then broke the car window. He stuck his hand in. The man's hand opened the car door from the inside. Shinnshiow was too weak to resist. After the door opened, the other person untied the seat belt Shinnshiow was wearing. They then got Shinnshiow out of the car. Apart from the two, another person arrived, who quickly led Shinnshiow away from the vehicle.
Behind the SUV that had crashed, there was another SUV. The three people brought Shinnshiow into the car. After that, the car speedily walked away from the place. The entire chain of events, from the collision to the men taking Shinnshiow away from the scene, was so quick, less than two minutes.
Inside the car, Shinnshiow groaned. One man who brought Shinnshiow there began to cover Shinnshiow's mouth and nose with a wet white cloth. The liquid stuck to the fabric was inhaled by Shinnshiow in a flash. It is fragrant and slightly sweet. Similar to the smell of acetone liquid. Shinnshiow felt the scent was only almost identical because it didn't smell exactly like the smell of acetone. It was more like a mixture of acetone and hospital disinfectant. Shinnshiow was still conscious at that time. But a few seconds after smelling the liquid, he drooped. Shinnshiow was unconscious.