novelraw Chapter 1137 - 583: Tears and Light
Chapter 1137 - 583: Tears and Light
Perhaps leaving the factory was a mistake.
When Ji Jue wanted to escape the cries and left the factory, he found that amidst the roar of the torrential rain, he could no longer hear any other sound besides the cries and wails.
The surging muddy water roared through the slums, carrying with it a massive amount of debris, pouring into the re-opened riverbed, rolling continuously, surging incessantly.
Tables, doors, bricks, grass, and even corpses...
In the howling gale, things were continuously flung up from the violent rain curtain, then fell, crashing onto the windows of the colt and horse.
Everything in sight was now completely submerged in the torrent.
A patch of darkness, no lights could be seen, only the sporadic glow of flashlights flickered dimly, unable to illuminate beyond a few meters. All that could be seen was a world distorted by rain—a blurred world.
The shantytown that once lay outside the city was now a vast expanse of water.
In fact, countless houses had been built directly on the former riverbed!
After the dike was breached, the torrent surged fiercely along the old riverbed that once was, uprooting countless shoddy houses without foundations and sweeping them away with the current.
Once again, winding ditches emerged, the turbid mud spread and raged in the storm...
And when he finally reached the place Elder Longge had mentioned, it was already too late.
Even on the high ground by the riverbank, the rising floodwater had begun to pour into the dilapidated factory.
In the darkness, only the spreading fire was visible, with thick smoke and flames engulfing the entire illicit drug factory.
Corpses were everywhere...
All were bodies, incomplete and broken.
It was as if a brutal storm had swept through, tearing apart all who resisted, cooling shell casings in the blood-red mud, no smell of gunpowder detectable amidst the rainstorm.
Ji Jue was momentarily stunned.
Lifting his head, he looked into the factory, toward the deepest part of the fire, at that blurry figure stepping forward.
The man with a stubbly beard was covered in blood, kicked open the scorching iron door, stepping over the bodies of the drug lord's underlings, and came out.
In his arms, on his shoulders, he carried three critically wounded victims.
Seeing Ji Jue at the door, his steps suddenly halted.
He took a step back.
On that bloodstained face, immediately within those shadowy eyes, a fierce look appeared, as if ready to devour someone.
In the brief silence of death, Ji Jue didn't speak, but merely stepped back.
Then, he raised his hand, pressed against the door frame.
The door that was about to collapse from the fire was propped up once more.
"I'm looking for a person named Jachujia, his mother is waiting for him to come home, have you seen him?"
The man was silent for a moment, seemingly incredulous, but still said nothing, remaining wary, only whispering a question to the victim on his shoulder. After receiving an answer, he shook his head.
"Dead."
"... I see."
Ji Jue nodded, no longer persisting, and voluntarily stepped aside to make way.
At the moment of passing by, the man couldn't help but look at him once more.
In the end, he said nothing and withdrew his gaze.
Soon, he disappeared into the rain with the victims.
Gone.
Not long after, amidst the spreading flames, the entire factory along with the surrounding chaotic shanty houses collapsed into the floodwaters.
The turbid torrents surged.
Boom!!!
After the flash of lightning, another bolt of thunder streaked across, illuminating the panicked faces on the rooftops, shivering and curling figures in the rain.
Even the cries and wails lacked strength.
Yet, in such a storm, one fire after another ignited, billowing smoke and fierce flames danced wildly within the burning houses, rising upward.
The colt and horse waded through the mud, ignoring the onslaught of the currents, moving swiftly.
Along the way, countless times, the tail of the mechanical beast stretched out, scooping up the victims drifting in the flood, placing them on rooftops or higher ground.
But they couldn't be saved.
There wasn't enough time.
Before Ji Jue's eyes, another house collapsed into the flood.
The few boats brought along had long since been given away. No matter how he exerted himself, how many could he possibly save? Countless hands reached toward him, but his own hands couldn't grasp them all.
He couldn't even decide.
Even if he could fish them out from the muddy water one by one, there wasn't much left he could do, only repeatedly telling them: "Go to the factory on the coast, the northern industrial district, wherever you see lights... at least, no one will shoot to drive you away there."
No matter how many times he repeated it, all he received were skeptical looks. Gratitude dissipated, leaving only vigilance.
Instinctive resistance.
Suspicion that he was merely someone from a sweatshop randomly capturing slaves.
Countless turned around and fled, only a few actually went in the direction Ji Jue pointed. Even when Ji Jue displayed the emblem of the church on the colt and horse, there was continued doubt.
Once noticing Ji Jue's black hair and black eyes, resistance intensified, even turning into hatred and loathing.
Too many disasters, too much bad news and brutal reality—although escape routes were close at hand, who could entrust everything their life depended on to such tenuous goodwill?
Thus, Ji Jue ceased to speak.
He silently sent every reachable victim to higher ground, continuing forward, yet not knowing where he should actually go.