Chapter 453: Not Distinguishing Between Right And
Wrong
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
After the door was kicked down, the people in the inn quickly swarmed out.
Thick smoke billowed from the inn, and even Su Ying, who was wearing a protective suit, found it difficult to see clearly what was inside the moment she
entered.
The scorching heat from the big fire made her skin tense up even though she
was shielded by the protective suit.
Su Ying immediately rushed to the second floor, but as soon as she stepped forward, she almost tripped over someone. She squatted down and saw that it was Zhou Qing, who was carrying a child.
Su Ying didn’t delay at all. She picked up Zhou Qing and the child in her arms, turned around, and ran downstairs.
The moment she rushed out of the inn, a thunderous sound rang out from
behind her.
Rumble!
The entire wooden building collapsed!
Su Ying hugged the two of them and stood rooted to the ground. However, she did not have much time to process her emotions. She immediately found a place with good ventilation and placed the two of them on the ground to perform emergency treatment.
Both of them were still breathing, but they had passed out from the smoke.
“Cough, cough, cough!”
Zhou Qing coughed a few times and regained consciousness. “Young Master…”
Su Ying had just finished giving the child first aid. When she saw that Zhou Qing had regained consciousness, she asked, “How are you feeling? Are you feeling unwell anywhere?”
Zhou ding found that her throat felt dry and painful even when she swallowed.
“My throat is a little painful and I feel a bit dizzy.”
“Mm-hmm. This isn’t a big problem. These are the symptoms of smoke inhalation. You’ll be fine after a while.”
Not long after that, the child also regained consciousness. The moment he saw
Su Ying, he started crying loudly.
“Grandma, Grandma! Boo hoo hoo… I want Grandma!”
The corners of Su Ying’s eyes tensed up, and her lips were tightly pursed.
Zhou Qing’s expression was also very unsightly. “I… I wanted to save the two of them, but the smoke was too thick. I couldn’t bring both of them out…” Su Ying patted her shoulder reassuringly, indicating that she shouldn’t blame herself. “Before you can save other people, you have to be able to protect yourself. You don’t have to blame yourself.
“You guys stay here. I’ll go over and take a look.
Zhou Qing held the child and nodded.
The commotion here had already attracted a lot of onlookers, but very few people went to put out the fire. It was not that everyone was indifferent to the lives of others, but now was a time when they were short of water. It was very hard to get drinking water under normal circumstances. Who could possibly have the means to put out the fire for them?
“Use soil and ash. These can put out the fire too. Everyone, move. The weather is too dry now. If we don’t put out the fire in time, when the wind blows, the sparks may fall on the other houses. At that point, when the fire turns into a sea of flames, no one can escape.” Su Ying took out a loud hailer and shouted at
the crowd.
If there was no water to extinguish the fire, then they would use something else. At the very least, they had to use the fastest speed to stop the fire.
When those people heard Su Ying’s words, they were all extremely worried. If the fire spread to other places, their shops and houses would all suffer.
Su Ying entered her interspatial store and took out a carbon dioxide fire extinguisher. She rushed to the front of the inn and discharged the fire extinguisher wildly. The flames that shot into the sky formed a sharp contrast with the snow-white fire-extinguishing foam in the air.
The fire lit up Su Ying’s protective suit. Around the bright yellow fire, commoners were running back and forth to extinguish the fire. Some were beating the flames with brooms while others were burying the flames with soil and ash from their homes. They simply used whatever they could think of.
Su Ying avoided the crowd to enter the interspatial store time and again to take out fire extinguishers to put out the fire. It was only when the sky turned white that the big fire was finally put out.
Everyone sat on the ground in exhaustion, looking at the ruins illuminated by the rays of golden light.
Previously, just as the fire was about to be extinguished, Su Ying took off her mask and protective suit.
The entire inn was made of wood. Even the backyard was not spared.
Everything was burned to ashes.
Innkeeper Li watched as half of his life’s hard work went up in smoke. He knelt
on the ground and cried in despair.
The government officials finally arrived at this late hour.
“What’s going on? Why is there a fire out of the blue?” The leading official stood in front of the ruined inn with a reproachful expression.
When he saw that the official had arrived, Innkeeper Li staggered to get up and go over However, he could not stand up because of his excessive grief. He could only kneel on the ground and sob in despair, “Sir, you must seek justice for this commoner. It’s obvious that someone set fire to the inn. Last night, there was no fire except for a few oil lamps in the guest room and the lobby. There was no other fire lit in other places. But last night, the inn started burning from the backyard. Please seek justice for me, Sir.”
After the official heard this, he said, “How do you know that someone deliberately set fire when you don’t have any evidence? The weather is already dry, and it’s obvious that you guys were careless when using fire, which caused the fire to kill so many people. Men, arrest this person and bring him to the government office for His Lordship to pass judgment!”
The officials wanted to arrest Innkeeper Li without another word.
Innkeeper Li had lost the inn he spent half his life working hard to build. Now, the official was arresting people without distinguishing right from wrong. He became furious at once. “My inn was burned down. What did I do wrong? Yet you guys still want to arrest me? You guys did not come here to save people, and you didn’t want to investigate the cause of the fire. What are you arresting me for? I think you’re clearly trying to cover up for the real culprit!”
When the official heard this, he went forward and gave Innkeeper Li a big slap. “You unruly commoner. You caused the deaths of so many people, yet you still dare to slander government officials. What are you guys still standing there for? Take him away quickly.”
A few officials went forward to arrest Innkeeper Li at once. Innkeeper Li was so angry that his face became all contorted.
“It’s you guys. You guys started the fire. It’s you guys who burned down my inn!”
The official used a rag to cover his mouth and tried to take him away.
Su Ying didn’t take any notice of those officials. Instead, she took a big hook and put on gloves as she walked into the ruins. When she rescued Zhou Qing and the others, there were still many people in the inn.
Although the possibility of those people surviving was very low, she should at least dig up all the corpses.
She used the big hook to drag out the charred wood blocks and put them aside. Then, she began to sift through the debris for human bodies.
The official turned around and saw Su Ying rummaging through the ruins. He shouted with displeasure, “What are you doing? No one is allowed to go in. The government officials will handle this matter. The rest of you go back to what you should be doing.”
At night, the commoners who helped put out the fire all got up and left when they saw the officials chasing them away. The commoners would never fight with the officials. At this juncture, no one wanted to cause trouble.
When most of the people had dispersed, the official discovered that Su Ying was still digging out the corpses buried under the rubble one by one. He couldn’t help getting angry. “Are you deaf? I told you to leave quickly. Did you hear me?”
“Someone I know is buried down there. I want to look for her,” Su Ying said without turning her head.
The official didn’t care why she was staying back. He walked up to Su Ying and glared at her fiercely. “We’ll clean this place up. Get out now.”
Su Ying stopped what she was doing. “The moment you guys arrived, you made things difficult for the innkeeper. You didn’t even think that there might be survivors in the ruins, nor did you immediately send people in to save them.. What are you cleaning up? To cover up the truth for the arsonist?”