My hometown is far away in Moscow.

Chapter 125 The sky is dim

Stepping outside, the heavy curtains billowed, and a gust of cold wind sent a shiver down Hu Yi's spine. A team of medical personnel hurried along, carrying stretchers and first-aid supplies. Hu Yi made way for them and strolled towards Building 6.

He took only a few steps before stopping again. What should he do now? Where could he find Xiang Nan?

It was still dark, and the snow had lessened slightly. With the combined efforts of several fire trucks, the fire on both sides of the building had been brought under control. Rescue workers were still trying to search for survivors using the fire truck lifts and ladders, but with little success.

"Old Hu!" Wang Shen called out from not far behind, "Did you find him?"

"without!"

"Come here!" Wang Shen waved vigorously, "I just saw a group of people go into the restaurant!"

Hu Yi hurriedly turned around and ran over. It turned out that the Shandong boy and HLJ lad who had been drinking with him the night before had opened Brother Liu's restaurant and temporarily housed some of the injured students there.

There were only about twenty people in the restaurant, and they all seemed to have minor injuries. Hu Yi went in and looked around, but didn't find Xiang Nan. He then turned around and went out, plopping down on the steps by the door, lost in thought.

Xia Yan and Caihua also returned, but their search also yielded no results. The group stood around Hu Yi, looking around with a sense of foreboding in their hearts.

"Where's your coat?" Xia Yan looked down at Hu Yi. "Don't catch a cold."

"I gave it to someone else." Hu Yi subconsciously rubbed his hands and ears, only then feeling a chill run down his spine.

"Why don't you... go back and rest for a while?" Caihua said softly. "The fire trucks and ambulances are here now. If... if... we can definitely rescue Nannan. You don't need to worry too much."

Hu Yi remained staring blankly at Building 6, as if he hadn't heard Caihua's words.

The young man from HLJ chatted with Wang Shen for a few moments to find out what was going on, then squatted down next to Hu Yi and gently advised, "Don't sit outside anymore. It's so dark, you can't see anything. If you don't want to go back, come sit in the shop for a while. I'll call you as soon as I find Xiang Nan."

"Okay." Hu Yi replied in a hoarse voice, then turned to Xia Yan and Caihua and said, "You two go back and rest."

The two didn't move. Hu Yi didn't say anything more, dragging his heavy steps into the restaurant and casually pulling up a chair to sit down.

I'm exhausted. Yesterday was a busy day, I drank some alcohol last night, and just now I spent the most anxious two hours of my life under extreme tension, constantly screaming, searching, and running.

He was utterly exhausted, both physically and mentally. Hu Yi was still thinking about Xiang Nan's whereabouts, but his eyes were too heavy to keep open, and he slumped down and dozed off.

He slept for about half an hour, but it felt like he had just closed his eyes when he woke up. HLJ was on the phone, and it seemed like the ringing of the phone had woken him up.

Hu Yi stretched his shoulders and stood up, noticing that there were fewer injured people in the store, probably having been taken to the hospital one after another.

"What's wrong?" he asked the young man from HLJ. "Is there a problem?"

"It's alright, Sixth Brother is here." The young man from HLJ hurriedly went out: "You continue to rest, I'll let you know if there's any news about Xiang Nan."

Hu Yi didn't want to sit there waiting idly. Although he felt unwell all over, his short nap had effectively replenished his energy. He followed the young man out the door and saw Xia Yan standing at the door talking to Wang Shen, holding one of his own coats in her arms.

"Here, I went back and got another one." Xia Yan handed the coat to Hu Yi: "Caihua couldn't hold on any longer and went to sleep."

"Okay, thanks." Hu Yi patted him lightly on the back twice. "You should go back to sleep too, you've been up all night."

Xia Yan rubbed his eyes: "Okay, I'm going to take a nap. Call me if anything happens."

Hu Yi turned to look at Building 6. The fire had just been extinguished, and wisps of smoke were still rising from the building. It was smoke, but not the deadly black smoke.

Before the sun had risen, the lingering smoke and the vast expanse of white snow reflected the headlights of various vehicles, creating a stark and ghastly light around the area.

The police had already set up a cordon downstairs. Hu Yi vaguely saw Sixth Brother standing far away outside the cordon, with the Shandong boy next to him recounting what had happened last night.

Sixth Brother went to an event hosted by the embassy last night and got completely drunk. He slept so soundly that he didn't hear any phone calls and only woke up in the early morning when he needed to urinate, so he rushed over. Several embassy staff members arrived around the same time as him.

After getting off the bus, Sixth Brother's legs went weak. Supported by the Shandong boy, he staggered to the charred remains of Building No. 6 and stood speechless for a long time, staring at the devastation before him. Most of the Chinese students living in the building had come to study at the university through his agency, so you can imagine how he felt at that moment.

"Mom!" After a long while, Sixth Brother finally managed to utter his first words, trembling. His Tianjin accent grew even stronger with grief: "What happened? What happened? What are we doing?! God! How are we going to explain this to the children's parents?!"

The embassy staff who came with them were also stunned, and one of the girls covered her face and burst into tears on the spot.

After a long silence, Sixth Brother recovered from his shock and began to discuss the next steps with the embassy staff.

Because the fire occurred late at night, and there were many people in the building and the fire was extremely serious, the Moscow Emergency Medical Center began to dispatch medical resources on a large scale after receiving the call.

Most hospitals in the area surrounding the university dispatched ambulances for rescue. In the chaos, people hurriedly carried away any injured people they saw. No one could say for sure which student was sent to which hospital.

Therefore, the most urgent task at hand is to find out the situation of all the Chinese students in the building: whether they are safe, which hospital they are in, and the extent of their injuries. Before that, we need to obtain a list of the hospitals that dispatched ambulances tonight so that we can search for them in a targeted manner.

Sixth Brother and the embassy staff were frantically making phone calls to get information. Hu Yi listened anxiously and quickly walked to the roadside to look. He saw that there were far fewer ambulances on the roadside than at night. Medical staff were helping students with minor injuries into the vehicles, and ambulances were still driving towards them from time to time in the distance.

He walked slowly along the road, carefully observing the last group of wounded.

Still nothing.

As dawn broke, Hu Yi dragged his feet forward on the snow, circling around behind Building 5, but did not see any more injured students along the way.

We slowly walked around Building 5 and arrived at the west side of Building 6, which is the side where the building entrance is located. A police cordon had been set up in front of the building, and several police officers were standing inside the cordon.

Looking up, one could see people moving around inside the charred building; several firefighters were inspecting the scene.

Hu Yi strode towards the gate and gestured to the police officers inside the cordon: "Can I go in and take a look?"

(End of this chapter)