Wandering in the vast darkness

Chapter 67 was found.

Everyone went up the mountain.

The mountains here are covered with tall pine trees. Unlike the Zhoupu Ecological Cemetery in front, where the roads leading up and down the mountain are made of cement, the roads here are muddy and difficult to find after the rain. After walking a few steps, my shoes were covered in mud and my feet felt heavy.

When you reach the dense canopy overhead, the ground is covered with a layer of pine needles, making it slippery underfoot. From time to time, icy water droplets fall from the branches and leaves, sneaking into your collar and making you shiver.

From near and far, every now and then someone would cry out "Ouch!"—they had slipped and fallen. The instructor shouted at the top of his lungs:

"Everyone be careful and stay safe. We mustn't let more people get injured before we've even found the missing person."

No sooner had he finished speaking than he cried out "Ouch!" and slipped and fell to the ground. Fortunately, Officer Zhou reacted quickly and grabbed him, preventing him from sliding down the hillside.

Everyone was panting and laughing.

The instructor cursed "karma" and then laughed at himself.

The group split up to search; some walked up the mountain path, while others followed a stream. It was the dry season, and the stream was almost dry, with only a small pool every so often. The mountain path was slippery with mud and fallen pine needles after the rain, and the stream was equally slippery with moss-covered pebbles, so everyone walked very carefully.

After searching for more than half an hour, the instructor's phone rang. He answered it, and an excited voice came from the other end:

The four people put the old man down again. They stood there, looking at each other. They hadn't brought a stretcher when they went up the mountain. How were they going to carry him?

"Don't be shy now, can you carry it?" The instructor glared at the old man's son, who stammered, knowing he couldn't.

Everyone quickly ran towards the source of the sound. Lights from all directions converged on one spot, and the beams of light became increasingly dense, illuminating the entire forest.

The instructor carried the elderly man on his back, while the man's son and Officer Zhou followed behind, lending a hand to lighten the man's weight. Like ants carrying food, they huddled around the instructor and the elderly man as they descended the slope.

The instructor shouted, "Come on, put him on my back, I'll carry him down."

"I'll clear the way for you and take you straight to the First Municipal Hospital."

When they reached the foot of the mountain, the instructor was panting heavily and almost collapsed from exhaustion.

Yu Wenhao and Qiqi followed behind them for a while before giving up. They were in a police car, responding to a call. Even if they were caught speeding or running red lights by the camera, it wouldn't matter. But it wasn't like that for him. The old man wasn't in his car, and if he were caught on camera, it would be hard to explain.

Qiqi agreed, took out her phone and added the instructor's WeChat. Officer Zhou smiled beside her. The instructor glanced at him, remembered, and called out:

"Here, here, here!"

"What? Speak louder!" the instructor shouted.

They finally managed to lift the old man from the stream and move him onto the mountain path, but that trick didn't work because the path was too narrow for four people to walk side by side.

Qiqi blushed and said, "I'm from NOCpartyktv."

She draped the down coat over the old man's body, then tied the two sleeves in a knot in front of the instructor's chest, thus securing the old man to the instructor's back.

Yu asked how the instructor was doing. The instructor breathed a sigh of relief: "Thank goodness. The doctor said that his vital signs are still normal and he is not in any danger. He just fainted from the cold. If he hadn't been brought here in time, and had been delayed outside for another hour or two, things might have been very different."

When Yu Wenhao and his team arrived at the First Municipal Hospital, it was already dawn outside the car, around the time Yu Wenhao usually got up to go out and drive. He parked the car next to the two police cars, and the two of them got out and quickly headed towards the emergency room.

"Quickly, carry him down the mountain! Get him to the hospital!"

They saw the instructor and Officer Zhou in the corridor outside the emergency room. Inside the emergency room, the elderly man had been placed on a bed, covered with a blanket, with tubes inserted and an IV drip in place. His son and busy doctors and nurses were surrounding him.

Upon closer inspection, it was a streambank with a huge rock, taller than a person, standing on it. The old man lay unconscious at the base of the rock, his body soaked through by the rain. The place offered no shelter from the rain, but it was sheltered from the wind; that was probably why the old man had taken refuge there.

"I'll do it," Qiqi called out.

They moved the old man onto the spread-out down coat, and two people lifted him up by the two sleeves and two people by the two corners of the coat.

"I'm not cold, I'm just sweating. There are still some clothes in the trunk when we get to the car," Yu Wenhao said. Qiqi took the clothes and put them on.

His hands and feet were already frozen stiff, and his whole body was in a state of low temperature. Officer Zhou pulled the old man's son aside, and the instructor called out:

The instructor looked at Qiqi and asked, "Little girl, which unit are you from?"

The old man's son said, "Instructor, let me do it."

The two police cars quickly disappeared from their sight and were no longer visible.

Yu Wenhao took off his down jacket and gave it to Qiqi. Qiqi asked, "Brother, what about you?"

Unsure of the severity of the elderly man's condition, the instructor hesitated to send him to the small hospitals in Shuangpu Town or Zhuantang. He told Officer Zhou:

"Found it, found it, instructor!"

"Hey, Zhou, you join in too. Isn't NOCpartyktv in your Hubin district? Come on, join in. This girl is pretty good. She did a great job today. What's that saying? Oh, a friend in need is a friend indeed."

"Put him down, put him down! If you do that, his arm will dislocate before you even get him down the mountain!" the instructor shouted.

Yu Wenhao and Qiqi also breathed a sigh of relief.

Officer Zhou said okay.

The instructor paused for a moment, then said, "Not bad, not bad, you're from our Xihu District too. Come on, let's add each other on WeChat. If you ever need anything, just contact me."

The road beneath their feet had widened, and Officer Zhou shouted, "Now we can lift it!"

"This, this, use my coat."

He unbuttoned Qiqi's down coat and spread it on the ground. The group quickly carried the elderly woman inside the coat, and the four of them lifted the coat by the four corners and started jogging down the road. They ran all the way to the police car, then put the elderly woman and Qiqi's down coat together into the back seat of Officer Zhou's car.

The old man's son climbed into the back seat and hugged his father. Officer Zhou and the instructor got into the driver's seat, and the two police cars started immediately. Although the roads were empty at this time, they still flashed their lights and sirens and sped off.

Officer Zhou came over, smiling, and exchanged WeChat contacts with Qiqi. Then they also exchanged WeChat contacts with Yu Wenhao.

Immediately, four people came over. Two of them pulled up the old man's feet, and the other two pulled up his hands, lifting him off the ground.

Qiqi shouted loudly as she took off her down coat and spread it out on the stream bank. Everyone immediately understood that this really would work; they could use the coat as a stretcher.

The group placed the elderly man on the instructor's back, and the instructor supported the man's buttocks with both hands. However, as soon as the instructor stood up, the man fell backward.

Several people rushed over, and the old man's son shouted, "Dad, Dad!" The crowd made way for him. The son picked up his father and shook him, but the old man was already unconscious.

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