Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
During the millennium, in the winter.
The sky was cold and the earth was frozen, all of Qinshan was covered in snow.
Qinshan Tunnel was the only way which from Qinshan to Tongyang. The tunnel was about 6.7 kilometers, which was the longest tunnel on the highway. The tunnel used to be packed with cars going back and forth, but at that moment, there was fire shooting out, bombs thundering, and rocks were falling, creating piles of debris.
In the midst of the chaos, a travel bus hit one side of the tunnel wall! Then, a huge rock fell and flattened the top of the bus while the other falling rocks buried the bus!
“Cough cough cough…”
“Cough cough cough…”
“Ah…”
“Mm…”
The air was filled with smoke and dust. There were people coughing viciously, groaning in pain and crying helplessly…
“Cough cough cough…” The driver, Zhang Hongran’s face was covered in blood when he climbed out through the front door and shouted at all the passengers, “Everyone… Cough cough… Everyone don’t move, don’t panic! There was an explosion earlier that led to the tunnel collapsing. Stay tough everyone. The rescue team should be here to save us soon!”
“My dear wife! Dear!! Wake up, wake up… No…” Shao Zhengjiang was shaking a woman who was stuck in between the seats. The woman’s body was being pinned by seats that had collapsed on top of eachother. She had stopped breathing long ago.
“Son, son?! Ah…” Just when Shao Zhenjiang looked around, he saw that his son was had been thrown from the bus, and was crushed under a huge rock!
“Ahh!” Shao Zhenjiang was trying to climb out through the window, but suddenly there was a burning debris everywhere. With the roar of the scorching hot fire, Shao Zhenjiang was pulled back into the bus.
“Mom! Ah! Ahhhhhh…. Mom…” On the other side of the bus, there was a little girl named Tong Yun, shouting her lungs out. But, similarly, her mother did not respond.
“Girl, girl, stop looking, don’t look!” Tong Yun’s grandmother covered her eyes and wiped away the fresh blood and dust on her forehead.
“Old man, you…are you okay…” The damage to the middle of the bus was the most minimal. Gong Xiuzhen pulled her partner, relaxed when she finally saw that Duan Dacheng was unharmed.
“What is it? What is going on?” In the back of the bus, Sun Yihan was asking, “Why did the tunnel collapse? Was it because of earthquake? Cellphone, cellphone, my cellphone…” Then, Sun Yihan quickly took out her cellphone and made a call. The phone successfully connected, she called 110 to explain the situation inside the tunnel.
“Son… Son…” While Sun Yihan was making the call, there was the soft fragile voice of a woman coming from the back of the bus. Trying to find the source, she saw a woman covered in dust, hugging a little boy tightly.
“Mom…I’m okay, I’m okay!” The little boy was hugging his mother tightly as well. Just as he looked up, he was shocked to see a metal pipe impaling his mother’s back!! As their seats were in the back, the huge rock had crushed the back of the bus making it bent out of shape. Although they were still alive, they were stuck in their seats.
“Mom! Your…your back…” The little boy was traumatized. his face was pale and he was trembling in fear.
“Xinyang, don’t be scared! My dear Xinyang, mommy is okay, I’m okay…” His mother knew that she was severely injured but she suppressed the pain and comforted her son.
“Okay! Okay!” Sun Yihan finished call and then comforted all the passengers on the bus. “110 said that they are aware of the accident and that they are sending help immediately! Stay strong, everyone!”
“That’s great, mom!” Qiu Xinyang said worriedly, “You must hold on!”
“Mm…” His mother nodded with difficulty but the pain from her back worried her.
…
Everyone was confident that they would be rescued from the suffocating bus in no time, but for seven days straight, they did not hear anything from the outside. Then, via phone communication, they realized that the roads were badly damaged due to the severe explosion. It was difficult for the construction team to clean up the road, and they might need to stay put for a little longer!
Then, Zhang Hongran tried to break through the bus to look for a way to escape, but the conditions outside were very serious and he could not find any exit. Although it was in the dead of winter, the dead bodies in the bus started to smell. Worse still, there was a problem for survival. In the remaining days, what were they going to eat or drink?
At the beginning, as most of the people had been on their way back to Tongyang to celebrate the New Year, they brought their New Year purchases with them. But they had not expected to be trapped for so long, so they had finished most of their food in the first few days! That very moment, everyone’s stomach was rumbling with hunger and it was getting difficult to go on.
“Mommy…mommy…” Qiu Xinyang’s tender voice broke the silence of the quiet bus. He was holding a bottle of milk for his mother. “Drink some! You have my little brother in your stomach! Mommy…”
As her child called her softly, the mother opened her eyes. The wound on her back was getting more severe, and her situation was not good. But when she saw her son offer her the milk, she exerted great effort just to bite on the straw and take a sip.
“Grandma…” Then, Tongyun, who was looking at the milk, told her grandma, “Grandma…I feel like drinking too…I’m hungry…”
Hearing what Tong Yun said, the other passengers could not help but bite their lips too. Everyone’s eyes were fixed on the packet of milk in Qiu Xinyang’s hands.
Due to her severe wound, Qiu Xinyang’s mother was nearing her end. She only managed to drink a few sips. She shook her head and looked at Qiu Xinyang, wanting to say something but she did not have enough strength.
“Mommy…listen to me, drink some more. We will be saved soon…” Qiu Xinyang did not believe that his mother was dying and continued to try and persuade her.
“Kid, kid…” Finally, Tong Yun’s grandmother said, “Your mother is tired, let her rest for a while! Kid, look at this little girl here,” the old lady pointed at Tong Yun. “She hasn’t eaten anything for awhile, can you let her take a sip? Just one sip, okay? Please!”
“Mm…” Qiu Xinyang was hesitant, but when he looked at his mother, she nodded gently even though she dying. Qiu Xinyang then passed the milk to Tong Yun’s grandmother.
“Thank you! Thank you! Woo… You’re such a good kid…” The old grandma took the milk and passed it to Tong Yun as she had already burst into a flood of tears. But Tong Yun was only an eleven-year-old kid that was starving. When she took a sip of the delicious milk, she could not stop.
“Don’t…don’t! Don’t drink so much. This belongs to that kind boy. Yun, stop drinking…stop drinking!” The old grandma tried to grab it but Tong Yun had already almost finished the whole bottle of milk.
“Please, give me, give me some!” Sun Yihan, who had made the call earlier, said, “I am pregnant. I have a baby in my stomach! Please!”
Tong Yun’s grandmother saw and passed the leftover milk to Sun Yihan, but when there was barely a few drops of milk left when she squeezed the box.
“Woo…” Acute hunger and thirst made Sun Yihan cry silently.
Suddenly, a whiff of death suffused the entire bus.
“Auntie! Don’t cry, don’t cry…” The young Qiu Xinyang did not feel bitter over losing that bottle of milk, but bent down to get another one out from the bag next to his mother’s feet. “Auntie, you drink it. I know it is very exhausting having a baby in your stomach! My mom has a baby too…”
“Huh?” Sun Yihan crawled over to Qiu Xinyang’s side, took the milk, and said with tears on her face, “Thanks…thank you, kid…”
While Sun Yihan was crying, another pair of eyes fixed upon the bag next to Qiu Xinyang. Just when Sun Yihan opened the bottle to drink the milk, Duan Dacheng, from the other side, dashed over and extended his hand of sin towards the bag…