Chapter 1 The Dragon City Rises

It was around 6:20 AM.

In a high-end apartment in Dragon City, Yang Decheng, the deputy general manager of a mining company, had just finished showering and was preparing to have a cup of coffee to clear his head before heading to the Baolong Group headquarters to report on the situation.

About half an hour earlier, Yang Decheng had finished giving his statement at the police station and returned home by car.

Lao Pang's (Old Pang) kidnapping wasn't good news for Yang Decheng, because he and the former were in a mutually beneficial relationship. As the top two executives in the mining company, they cooperated very well. Now that the top guy was in trouble, Yang Decheng's seniority wasn't enough to get him the general manager's position. The group would likely parachute in a new general manager.

Yang Decheng wasn't sure who this person would be, so he was very afraid that the higher-ups would send a new face, or a European CEO. If that happened, Yang Decheng's illicit profits from the mine would be affected, and he might even be targeted. Because in large commercial groups, internal strife was no lighter than within the system.

In the kitchen, a young and beautiful woman carried coffee and breakfast into the living room, bent down and sat, saying, "Then you're in a precarious situation."

"Yeah, I was at the scene when the shots were fired. Don't even mention it, that meal almost cost me my life..." Yang Decheng sighed.

"If something happens to Lao Pang, will it affect your company's internal decisions? Last time Lao Pang said...?" The woman tentatively asked.

"Dilingling!"

Just then, the phone rang. Yang Decheng picked up his phone and answered, "Hello, what's wrong?"

"Yang, the mine had an accident, a cave-in!"

"...!" Hearing the shout on the phone, Yang Decheng almost jumped off the sofa. "A cave-in?! What's the situation? How many people are down there...?"

...

Half an hour later.

A helicopter belonging to the mining company's engineering department transported Yang Decheng and four or five other executives to the accident site at Mine No. 1.

In the pouring rain, the helicopter landed carefully. Yang Decheng jumped off the plane without even putting on a raincoat, and yelled at the person picking him up, "What's the current situation?!"

"We can't contact the people in the deep well, but the communication signal is still there. Lao Wang (Old Wang) from the monitoring department is studying the rescue plan. The city rescue team and the fire brigade have already received our notification and are preparing to organize people to enter the site. But it's relatively far from the city, and it's raining heavily, so it may take some time..." The mine manager who was picking up Yang Decheng shouted back.

Yang Decheng wiped the rain from his face and immediately ordered, "Call Lao Wang from the monitoring department over here, and notify our own mine rescue team. Don't rush to rescue them. With such heavy rain, it's likely to cause a second cave-in, understand?"

"Understood!"

After the two finished communicating, a group of people quickly rushed to the mine's office building.

...

About five minutes later.

The head of the monitoring department rushed into the room where Yang Decheng was, soaked to the bone. "Yang, I discussed the rescue plan with the rescue team, and we can do this..."

The head of the monitoring department spread out the mine's construction drawings on the table, pointed to Mine No. 03 where the cave-in occurred, and said, "The cave-in situation at the entrance of the well is relatively serious. With our current capabilities, there is definitely no way to clear the collapsed area. But I just took a look, the cave-in range at the spare escape exit is not large, we can take explosives down and blast open the tunnel wall from this side and enter directly..."

Yang Decheng waved his hand halfway through and said to the people from the rescue team, "You guys go out first, I have a few words with Lao Wang."

After everyone nodded and left, only Yang Decheng, Lao Wang from the monitoring department, and two mining company managers were left in the room.

Yang Decheng looked at Lao Wang and said to him in a solemn tone, "You need to do two things now: first, immediately connect with the city's rescue team; second, tell the city's rescue team that, based on the mine's own judgment, it can be basically determined that all the workers in the collapsed area have been killed."

Lao Wang was stunned: "Yang, what does this mean?"

"It's raining heavily outside and the environment is so bad. Our rescue team can't take any more risks, and we can't organize our own rescue, understand what I mean?" Yang Decheng asked in a low voice.

Lao Wang paused for two seconds and immediately argued, "Yang, there is still a communication signal in the mine, which means that the cave-in did not destroy all the mine tunnels at once. That is to say, there is a high probability that there are still survivors. If we miss the rescue time, people will be suffocated inside. Yang, I...!"

"This is just your unilateral judgment, understand?" Yang Decheng pointed at the ground and shouted, "Have the miners below contacted you? Have they asked for help?! So many people had an accident, the rescue work should be done by the municipal government, do you understand?!"

"If the spare escape tunnel is not completely blocked, then we may be able to rescue many workers." Lao Wang argued with reason: "Those are human lives, Yang...!"

"Rescue?? It's easy for you to say, the mine is nearly four hundred meters deep, can you judge the situation below just by looking at it from above? Can you?! If you take the rescue team down and a second cave-in occurs, burying the rescuers inside as well, what will you do then?" Yang Decheng pointed at the other party and shouted: "Do as I say, understand?!"

"The rescue team is supposed to deal with emergencies, otherwise what is the point of establishing it? There are more than a hundred people in the mine, if you don't save them, they may all die!"

"You're so stubborn!" Yang Decheng's mentality exploded, pointing at the other party and shouting: "Save?! The cave-in is so serious, if you bring up thirty disabled people, are you going to take care of them for the rest of their lives, or am I? If there are subsequent compensation disputes, and these people sue the company one by one, who will respond? How many years will you have to fight lawsuits with them? Also, if the city knows that there are survivors below, then I tell you, if one person can't be found or goes missing, you have to continue digging, continue digging! You have to organize hundreds or even thousands of people for endless rescue until the body is found. Is this loss to be borne by you or by me? Are you out of your mind?!"

Lao Wang was completely stunned when he heard this.

"Commercial companies must have commercial considerations, understand?!" Yang Decheng pointed at Lao Wang and said, "Do as I say, don't argue!"

Listening to Yang Decheng's words, Lao Wang only concluded that even if there really were survivors in the mine tunnel, Yang Decheng would not want them to live.

This was the most悲哀 (bēi āi - tragic) and the most terrible thing.

A car was driving on the road and hit a pedestrian because of speeding. The driver got out of the car to check and found that there was no one around. The pedestrian was not dead, but was seriously injured.

Two situations might occur: one, the victim of the accident dies, and if the perpetrator has money, he will pay compensation in one lump sum, and if he does not have money, he will bear certain legal responsibilities. If the case details do not include hit-and-run, then the matter will be over after a few years in prison. Second, the victim is seriously injured, the insurance compensation amount is fixed, and the rest of his life's eating, drinking, and defecating, as well as legal procedures, are related to the perpetrator...

In the above two situations, out of a hundred drivers, ninety-nine would panic and then immediately treat the victim, but there might be one person who would choose to back up the car again, causing the victim to die directly.

The evil of human nature, and the selfish psychology of people, are sometimes too terrible.

...

In the mine tunnel, the accumulated water had submerged everything. In order to save his son, Uncle Jiu (Ninth Uncle) struggled to swim to the vicinity of the communication station and picked up the microphone. But before he could dial the number and speak, he found that the communication light that had been on all the time suddenly went out...

The water rolled in, and Uncle Jiu, who was in his fifties, stared with wide eyes and struggled, drowning in the water.