Chapter 49

Chapter 49

Yan Shiqi and Yan Shiying sat in the same car, while Yi Wuyi and Xie Yunshen sat opposite the brothers.

The tech forum lecture was held at the B City Municipal Building, which required passing through a short stretch of mountain road near Nongbao Mountain.

What's more, several of A City's family heads were making the trip to B City today.

A terrifying worry suddenly struck Xie Yunshen: the road collapse and the transport team being overweight might not have been the main causes!

It had been raining in A City for days, making the mountain roads slippery and the soil loose. He looked up and saw cracks on the rock face.

He hoped the events from the original novel wouldn't happen!

But just his luck, what he feared most came to pass.

Just then, the car, which had been moving smoothly, suddenly jolted, and the driver immediately slammed on the brakes.

A tremendous noise followed, clear even to those inside the vehicle.

"It looks like there's been an accident on the road ahead!"

Several cars in front had also come to a halt.

A massive hole had opened up on the mountain road, with the surrounding area rapidly collapsing and swallowing several vehicles. Some cars had their front halves stuck in the pit, teetering precariously.

Xie Yunshen's heart sank. It had happened after all—the landslide!

Their vehicle was about twenty meters away from the collapsed section.

A private car ahead panicked and tried to make a U-turn into oncoming traffic, but collided head-on with an approaching car, sending it into the pit and triggering a pile-up behind it. Not only that, the shock of the impact caused the already unstable rocks on the mountainside to tumble down.

It was like a domino effect; more and more rocks rolled down the slope, heading straight for the vehicles below.

Chaos erupted on the narrow mountain road. Cars trapped in this section were stuck, unable to move forward or backward, and were helplessly struck by falling rocks.

Fortunately, the Yan family's car was some distance away and was not hit.

The group quickly got out of the car and took shelter in a safe spot nearby.

However, some people still tried to reverse their cars on the narrow road, refusing to get out.

Xie Yunshen stepped forward and shouted, "Get out of the cars and run further away!"

"Get out now!"

Suddenly, another voice rang out almost simultaneously.

Xie Yunshen turned and saw Lin Jin across the way, who had also just emerged from his car.

The two exchanged a brief glance.

At that moment, more rocks came rolling down the slope menacingly.

That's when people finally started scrambling out of their cars. A woman emerged holding a two-year-old child, and Xie Yunshen took the child from her arms.

Seeing this, Lin Jin hoisted an elderly couple onto his back and started running.

Xie Yunshen: "..." This show-off, really, enough already.

While most people managed to retreat to safety, some were trapped in their cars, unable to escape in time, and were eventually buried by mud.

Fortunately, the landslide wasn't severe and the mud wasn't thick. Those inside the cars still had the metal frames protecting them. The real danger was for those in the vehicles that had fallen into the pit; their lives were at stake.

"Is there a doctor!? My child is injured!!" A desperate voice suddenly cried out.

Everyone looked over to see a child with a pale, bluish face, covered in blood. He had likely been hit by a rock while fleeing.

Xie Yunshen wanted to go over and check.

"A-Shen, don't go," a voice said.

Turning around, he saw Yan Shiqi giving him a look that said to stay put.

Xie Yunshen did not step forward.

Sure enough, Lin Jin emerged from the crowd. "Let me take a look!"

The man saw Lin Jin, glared with hatred, and grabbed his collar. "It's all your fault! You hurt my son! Why did you suddenly yell for us to get out?! If we hadn't, nothing would have happened!"

Lin Jin was stunned.

"It's not your son who's injured! I'd rather have stayed in the car; there was at least a chance of survival inside. Now my son is hurt! Who's going to save him?!"

The father's eyes were bloodshot, veins bulging on his forehead.

Lin Jin said calmly, "Stop arguing. If you want your son to live, shut up. I am a doctor!"

Someone recognized Lin Jin and shouted, "It's him, the miracle doctor who treated Yang Zhongxu."

"Pah! What kind of good person would treat Yang Zhongxu?!"

Others joined in: "Yeah, who knows if this guy is in cahoots with that demon Yang Zhongxu! Don't trust him."

Lin Jin stood there, looking at the faces of everyone condemning him, and suddenly let out a cold laugh. "Fine."

Reputation could sometimes be a harmful thing.

Xie Yunshen thought, given the protagonist's personality of refusing to tolerate any slight, he was truly angry this time.

Lin Jin turned to leave but suddenly saw Xie Yunshen watching him. A defiant fire ignited in his eyes!

In that moment of turning, his fighting spirit soared, blood boiling: "If I make his condition worse, I'll pay ten million!"

Xie Yunshen: "?"

Wait! Is this protagonist picking a fight with thin air?

Does he think I'm waiting to see him fail, so he suddenly got all fired up?!

As soon as Lin Jin finished speaking, someone immediately dragged their elderly father forward. "Miracle doctor! Please check my dad! He's had coronary heart disease for years!"

Then, using his extraordinary acupuncture skills, Lin Jin successfully stabilized the two children within ten minutes.

The son of the man from earlier was among them.

"The child was only hit on the shoulder by a rock, injuring the bone. But the life-threatening issues are his persistent high fever and fulminant myocarditis," Lin Jin explained with a complex expression.

Listening, the father hung his head and knelt down in remorse, tears streaming down his face. "I'm sorry. Can you save him?"

Lin Jin shook his head. "I'm sorry, I can only do my best to stall for time. Unless we can get to a hospital..."

Since the entrance to the mountain road had also been blocked by a landslide, ambulances were completely blocked for now.

The municipal authorities dispatched rescue helicopters from the city center, but it would take at least forty minutes, meaning a round trip would delay things for over an hour.

The father's shoulders slumped instantly.

Looking at the unconscious child, Lin Jin, as a doctor, felt powerless for the first time, almost suffocated by the feeling.

Yi Wuyi stepped forward. "The Yan family's helicopters are nearby. They'll be here soon."

As soon as he finished speaking, the whirring of rotor blades came from the sky, and two rescue helicopters landed on the mountain road.

People recognized the Yan family logo on them and looked toward the Patriarch of the Yan family not far away, thinking, *So the Yan family patriarch is also trapped here with us.* Instantly, they felt immensely reassured.

Being in the same boat as such an important figure meant they were equally important.

Xie Yunshen turned sharply to look at Yan Shiqi behind him. "Mr. Yan... do you always carry two helicopters with you when you go out?"

Yan Shiying, hearing this, almost rolled his eyes.

*What does he mean, 'carry helicopters'?*

Yi Wuyi explained, "A couple of days ago, you said you dreamed about the mountain road at Nongbao Mountain collapsing. I told Mr. Yan about this, and he instructed me to set up a temporary rescue helicopter station near Nongbao Mountain, just in case."

Xie Yunshen put his hands on Yi Wuyi's head. "Old Wu, when did you become such a blabbermouth?"

But thank goodness. Without you—no, to be precise, if not for both Old Wu and Mr. Yan believing him so much—he would have felt guilty about this for a long time.

After all, he should have been able to foresee the consequences of such an event much earlier.

The boy was successfully loaded onto the Yan family's rescue helicopter, which was equipped with emergency medical equipment. Several other injured adults were also evacuated on it.

Yan Shiqi did not leave with the helicopter but stayed at the scene with the others who were unharmed.

Before leaving, Lin Jin glanced at Yan Shiqi, the hostility in his eyes subtly shifting.

The other helicopter carried professional rescue equipment and personnel.

Not long after, several cars buried under the mud and sand were extracted.

Later, government rescue teams arrived and worked tirelessly to rescue those trapped in the large pit.

They waited until late at night when the rocks and mud on the mountain road had been cleared. The Yan family's car started up again, taking a detour via a longer route to City B to attend the technology forum.

It was said that the subsequent accident investigation, almost as if on a hunch, specifically examined all the large trucks that had passed through Nongbao Mountain that day, including those from the Yan family's transport fleet.

The Yan family was one of the few that had not overloaded their vehicles.

In contrast, the Huang family, one of the five major families, was identified as the main culprit of the accident because their fleet of trucks transporting steel pipes for engineering projects was severely overloaded and had been using the Nongbao Mountain road frequently.

The Huang family was thrust into the spotlight. Despite apologizing and offering compensation immediately, they struggled to quell public anger.

"Because of this incident, several of the Huang family's listed companies saw their stock prices plummet starting this morning."

At the time, Yan Shiqi was preparing to attend the technology forum when his assistant reported this to him.

He still felt a lingering fear. If not for Xie Yunshen's warning, the Huang family's fate today would have fallen on the Yan family.

Moreover, due to Top Star Gate's targeting, the Yan family would undoubtedly have paid an even heavier price than the Huang family.

"Currently, online sentiment toward the Yan family is very positive. Here are reports from several official media outlets on the incident. They mention the vital assistance provided by the Yan family's rescue helicopters and our spirit of selflessly aiding the public."

The assistant sent him screenshots of those news reports.

Yan Shiqi glanced at them. "You mean many marketing accounts are spreading this?"

"Yes."

Yan Shiqi frowned and handed the tablet back. "Control this. Don't let people spread it indiscriminately, especially certain media outlets that deliberately exaggerate."

"Understood." The assistant nodded.

Yan Shiying, standing nearby, asked, "Big brother, why shouldn't the Yan family take advantage of this free publicity?"

After all, many companies spend huge sums on positive marketing and advertising without achieving such results.

Yan Shiqi looked at him seriously. "Second brother, remember this: any publicity detached from the products and industries themselves is not substantive publicity. I can't let the Yan family be placed on a moral pedestal with no way down."

Yan Shiying recalled the incident with the yacht carrying tourists and felt renewed admiration for his elder brother, though he didn't show it.

Xie Yunshen directly offered admiring puppy-dog eyes. "Mr. Yan! As expected of you."

He was standing too close. Yan Shiqi should have instinctively backed away, but he froze there, only offering a slight smile.

Yan Shiying said to Xie Yunshen, exasperated, "Do you even have any sense of boundaries?"

Xie Yunshen put an arm around Yan Shiqi, their two handsome faces side by side, looking at Yan Shiying.

"Mr. Yan said I don't need things like that."

Yan Shiying: "..."

Yi Wuyi laughed.