nucmednet Chapter 417 Avoiding Danger
Chapter 417 Avoiding Danger
The loud noise from the mountaintop made her heart skip a beat. Before she could listen carefully, the car suddenly began to shake violently, as if it were about to fall apart.
Ignoring the pain, she struggled to push open the curtain latch with her elbow, and the cold, damp wind mixed with rain rushed in instantly.
"Cui Jiu! What happened? Has a mudslide occurred?"
Her voice was filled with pain, yet she remained unusually calm. Her gaze swept quickly across the surging, turbid current ahead, and her expression turned serious.
Modern knowledge about geological disasters flooded her mind instantly; she understood the horror of mudslides better than these ancient people.
Before he could finish speaking, a boulder the size of a millstone rolled down the mountain, grazed the edge of the carriage, and crashed into the mud, splashing mud all over him.
Cui Jiu exclaimed in surprise, instinctively shrinking his neck. He then snapped back to his senses, gripping the reins tightly and shouting incessantly to guide the horse away from the constantly rolling pebbles.
"Miss Shi, go inside quickly! It's dangerous!"
Upon seeing this, Cui Yu'an immediately shoved the reins in his hand into the hands of a servant boy beside him, whose face had turned pale with fright.
"Keep an eye on the horses, and follow them up the left slope!"
After saying that, he rushed to the carriage and reached out to push Shi Wanxia back into the carriage.
Shi Wanxia grabbed his wrist. Her hand was icy cold, but her strength was considerable: "Don't go that way! Look at the direction of the water flow. There's a depression at the bottom of the slope on the left, which will create a backflow!"
"Quickly, get the convoy to the pine forest on the right. The pine roots are deep and can help them gain a foothold for now!"
Cui Yu'an was taken aback. He only knew to stay away from the high places in the ravine, but he never thought that the water could flow back.
But he had no time to hesitate. Shi Wanxia's eyes were unusually firm, not incoherent words of panic.
He immediately turned around and roared, "Everyone move to the right pine forest! Quick! Don't crowd together!"
The convoy was instantly thrown into chaos, with frightened horses neighing, people crying out, and the sounds of rain and mudslides mingling together.
Cui Jiu gritted his teeth and desperately tried to control the carriage's direction. The wheels rolled over a loose stone, causing the carriage to tilt violently and nearly overturn.
"Hurry up!" Cui Jiu roared.
Inside the carriage, Shi Wanxia was jolted against the side wall. The pain in her ribs made her vision blur, but she gritted her teeth and didn't utter a sound.
She knew this was not the time to show weakness; she had to remain calm.
She remembered that modern disaster relief manuals said that when encountering a mudslide, one should escape to higher ground perpendicular to the direction of the mudslide. Pine forests are indeed a relatively safe choice, but not an absolute one.
"Cui Jiu! Slow down the horse when we get close to the woods. Don't rush straight in, or you might get hit by falling trees!"
She shouted out of the car.
Although Cui Jiu didn't understand why he couldn't charge, he subconsciously followed the advice and suddenly pulled on the reins when he was close to the edge of the woods. The horse reared up and stopped just in front of a few leaning pine trees.
Just then, a shrill scream came from behind.
Cui Yu'an looked back and saw a horse-drawn carriage loaded with goods stuck in the mud, unable to move. The mudslide had caught up with it, and the turbid mud, like a greedy giant mouth, instantly swallowed half of the carriage. The driver's desperate cries for help were quickly drowned out by the roar.
"Erzhu!" A guard, his eyes wide with fury, was about to rush over to save the man.
"Don't go! He can't be saved!"
Cui Yu'an, her eyes bloodshot, grabbed him.
"Save the rest!" This is the cruelest choice, but also the only way.
As Shi Wanxia watched the carriage being swallowed by mud, her heart clenched; death was so close.
She took a deep breath, forced herself to look away, and shouted to Cui Yu'an, "Have everyone find a sturdy pine tree, squat down with their backs against the trunk, stand with their feet apart, and hold on to the roots! Quickly!"
Cui Yu'an immediately relayed her words, and the survivors scattered in panic, each looking for a tree to lean on.
The rain blurred the vision, and it was impossible to tell whether the water on everyone's face was rain or tears.
Cui Yu'an led Wang Jinqian and Shi Wanxia to an old pine tree that required two people to hug, and protected them behind him: "Lean against the tree and don't move around."
Shi Wanxia and the other person nodded and squatted down as instructed, gripping the exposed, thick tree roots tightly with both hands.
She watched as Cui Yu'an turned to direct the others. Rainwater soaked his profile, and his usually gentle eyes were now filled with determination and anxiety. Even in dire straits, he did not only think of his own escape.
"Young Master! Uncle Li has been hit by a rock!"
Cui Jiu's voice came through, trembling with sobs.
Cui Yu'an's heart sank. He looked in the direction of the sound and saw an old guard lying in the mud. His left leg was pinned down by a rock, and blood mixed with rainwater spread across the mud.
He rushed over immediately and tried to move the stone with Cui Jiu, but the stone was extremely heavy, and the two of them could only move it a fraction of an inch despite using all their strength.
"I can't move it! Young Master, what should we do?" Cui Jiu was sweating profusely with anxiety.
Seeing this, Shi Wanxia endured the pain and struggled to stand up: "Use a wooden stick! Find a thicker wooden stick to use as a crowbar!"
She remembered the lever principle, a fundamental concept in physics, which might come in handy in this situation.
Cui Yu'an's eyes lit up, and he immediately shouted to a servant beside him, "Quickly break off a thick, sturdy branch! It has to be solid!"
The servant responded and left, soon bringing back a broken branch as thick as a bowl.
Cui Yu'an inserted one end of the branch under the rock, while Cui Jiu held down the other end tightly, and the two of them pressed down together.
"Lift!" With a low shout, the stone was finally pried open, creating a crack.
"Quickly pull Uncle Li out!" Cui Yu'an shouted.
The two guards immediately stepped forward and carefully pulled Uncle Li out from under the rock.
Uncle Li's face was deathly pale and his lips were blue; he was clearly badly injured.
"Quickly, find some strips of cloth to stop his bleeding!"
"Shi Wanxia shouted, while looking around.
"The mudslide hasn't passed yet, we need to find a way to reinforce this place!"
"Cui Yu'an, have everyone gather the dead branches and leaves around the pine tree and pile them up to block the mud and water a little!"
This was another unfamiliar approach, but Cui Yu'an didn't hesitate at all: "I heard you all! Gather dry branches and pile them up next to the tree! Hurry up!"
Everyone sprang into action immediately, and under the threat of life and death, no one complained about being tired.
Looking at everyone's busy figures, and then at the still roaring mudslide, Shi Wanxia knew in her heart that this was only a temporary safety.
She told Cui Yu'an, "Once the mudslide slows down a bit, we must leave here as soon as possible, as aftershocks and secondary landslides could occur at any time."
Cui Jiu nodded, looking at her with a complicated expression: "Miss Shi knows so much."
Before this, he only thought of her as a delicate little girl.
Unexpectedly, she remained so calm in the face of danger and even knew these life-saving methods.
Shi Wanxia gave a bitter smile and offered no explanation.
This modern knowledge is the only thing she can rely on at this moment.
She watched the people supporting each other in the rain, watched Cui Yu'an's composed figure giving instructions, and watched Cui Jiu, who, despite his fear, remained steadfast in his post. A warm feeling welled up in her heart.