Chapter 6 Chapter Six

April 1.Sunday.Night, 22:25. Yutian Zhengtai raised his head from his mother's arms, but he couldn't see the almost destroyed world. Darkness, half a minute after the earthquake erupted, began to envelope these people who were abandoned underground. Nearly an hour ago, Yoko Tamada walked out of the house with her son.She has been working at home for several days, and she may run out of food tomorrow. The more important reason is that her son can only go out at night. As a mother, she has already developed the habit of going out at night.Looking at the pouring thunderstorm outside the window, the seven-year-old boy felt uneasy.Although Yoko was young, she was a patient mother who managed to calm her son down.

In the various supermarkets, the boy had a strange feeling again—a tide full of salty taste slowly but unstoppably surged up to his feet, submerged his knees and waist, overflowed his chest and neck, poured into his throat and nose, making him Can't breathe... Zhengtai was arguing frantically, running around wildly, and my mother followed behind like catching a chick, and had to take various items from the shelves by the way.Seeing her son acting uncharacteristically for no reason, Yoko Tamada began to tremble, and her mind flashed back to that fatal afternoon in Japan a year ago... No, there can be no third time!

In the boundless darkness like the extreme night, she crawled out from under the collapsed cash register, holding her son tightly with both hands.And when the premonition became a reality, Zhengtai has turned back into a docile and smart little boy. Suddenly, someone turned on the flashlight, and the faint beam of light shone through Masata and then onto Yoko's face.The boy couldn't see the person's appearance clearly, but heard a slightly trembling Chinese: "You... are you okay?" Shota has lived in China since he was two years old, and was taken by a Chinese nanny since he was a child. He only returned to Japan for three months last year. He speaks Chinese better than Japanese.

"Thank you! We're all fine!" Mom remained polite, bowing to the staff member with the flashlight while touching the face of her son, who appeared to be unharmed. "Please wait!" He took out a flashlight and handed it to Yoko Tamada. "Thank you!" Yoko bowed again, turned on the flashlight, and illuminated the other person's face. It turned out to be the young man who caught Zhengtai before the earthquake. The other party disappeared in a blink of an eye, and there were chaotic footsteps, cries and cries for help all around.Only then did Yoko Tamada think of taking out her mobile phone, but found that the signal was cut off.

Zhengtai felt his face was wet, he knew it was his mother's tears. The ground was still shaking a little, there was a continuous noise from above, and some kind of palpitating sound sounded from the ground.Some lights lit up in the corner of the supermarket and gradually spread to various places on the second basement floor.Zhengtai's eyesight was exceptionally good, and he saw a white light in the distance vaguely illuminating the man in overalls. It turned out that this young man turned on all the electrical appliances in the supermarket that could be installed with dry batteries. Although every bit of light was very weak, it was distributed like stars in the sky. After a little adaptation, he could see most of the supermarket.

The seven-year-old Zhengtai rubbed her eyes, and looked at the supermarket after the catastrophe in her mother's arms—the pipes were almost broken and fallen from the top of her head, most of the shelves fell to the ground, broken glass and ceramics were everywhere, and melons and fruits rolled all over the floor. .Some corpses were lying on the ground, with blood flowing all over the ground.Some people hid in the corner and wept, while others scurried like headless flies. No matter how young children are, they have a natural sense of fear, and they will feel afraid when it gets dark.However, Zhengtai, who was crying and fussing before the earthquake, suddenly saw this shocking scene, but showed a calmness beyond his age. He broke free from his mother's arms and stood on a floor covered with chewing gum, as if he had long been used to facing to disaster.He looked back to see his mother kneeling on the ground, her hair disheveled, her hands covering her beautiful face.

This is the second time Tamada Shota has seen his mother look so desperate. Last time, in Japan on the other side of the sea, in a hospital flooded by sudden seawater, Yoko Tamada looked at the turbulent and boundless cold water, filled with all kinds of garbage, furniture, electrical appliances, cars and even the torn apart roofs, but again There was no sign of that person either... She climbed to the highest roof of the hospital, and the sea water almost reached her knees.Before the helicopter flew overhead to save them, she was so desperate, for her six-year-old son, but also for her young self.

The ensuing nuclear power plant leakage accident made Yoko Tamada no longer dare to stay in Japan.Although there are dangers such as problematic food, poisoned milk powder and so on in that vast continent, Zhengtai has lived in China for several years, and this child is more adapted to the Chinese environment.And her fluent Chinese is enough to find a job to support her family.Finally, on the night of April Fool's Day——at this very moment a year ago, she boarded a flight out of Tokyo and bid farewell to the hometown full of volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, and nuclear leaks. Finally, she came to this flat and vast river alluvial plain along the eastern coast of China, thousands of kilometers away from all the surrounding volcanic and seismic belts. This huge city with the highest earthquake record in history is only 4.8 magnitude.She thought that she would be able to get rid of the disasters that destroyed her life twice in this life and even in the future.

Zhengtai returned to the crying mother, like a mature man, hugged her trembling shoulders from behind, comforted softly: "Mom, we will escape soon." She held her son in her arms and wiped away tears: "Let's go quickly! Come on!" The mother and son walked through the horrific exit of the cash register, stepping over a man who had been hit by a lampshade and died tragically.They had no choice but to step over and bow to the corpse with clasped palms. The first and second basement floors of the Future Dream Building belong to Carlford Supermarket, and the escalator between the two floors has broken during the earthquake.Yoko Yutian took a picture with a flashlight and found an escape route among the ruins that seemed to have been bombed. I am afraid that all the survivors fled to it.

Go through the dust everywhere and come to the basement floor.Before Zhengtai could see the chaotic world clearly, a big dog rushed towards him. The seven-year-old boy didn't panic at all—under the beam of his mother's flashlight, he found that it was a Russian Caucasian mastiff the size of a bear. It was only then that Yoko Yuta remembered that there was a brand chain pet store at the entrance of the basement level of Calford Supermarket.She wanted to go to the store to see if there were any pets trapped in it, but she thought that many people were still alive and dead, and now was not the time to take care of dogs.She walked away from the terrible dog with her son in her arms, and there was a mournful bark behind her.

On the basement level, which was also badly damaged, Yoko Tamada forced herself to calm down when she saw a wide escalator.Zhengtai faintly saw a dead person lying beside him, and her mother blocked her son's sight and rushed up quickly. On the ground floor of the Future Dream Building, there is a huge atrium plaza connected to several elevators and escalators, which is the hub for entering and exiting shopping malls and supermarkets.There is a sports car booth in the center of the mall, which is sometimes turned into an event stage to hold luxury brand launches or celebrity meetings.At this moment, there is only a piece of chaotic blackness, filled with various strange and pungent smells.Dozens of faint beams of light flashed back and forth, and the voices of people were noisy.People on the two basement floors escaped up, and many people also escaped from the upper floors. They all wanted to escape through the gate on the ground floor. This was their survival instinct. Yoko Tamada arrived at the crowd gathering area, and the flashlight illuminated many panicked faces.Why don't you escape?There was still no signal on the mobile phone, and no one came to maintain order. They must have fainted from fright, and they just ran for their lives. Zhengtai saw a place getting brighter and brighter, and the lights in everyone's hands were shining there.Someone turned on the emergency lights with dry batteries, presumably staff.Under the hazy yellow light, the "Welcome" billboard, as well as the bronze plate marking the floor and the location of the merchant clearly stated that this is the gate of the Future Dream Mall, the most convenient and direct escape exit. However, this wide gate has been sealed by the collapsed outer wall! Some people brought tools such as shovels, trying to dig up the ruins and open a way of life.Yoko Yutian shook her head, thinking that they were wasting their efforts, maybe the burial outside was even thicker.She also has a strong feeling: Although it is on the first floor of the building, it may not be on the ground, maybe it is deep underground? Zhengtai was dragged back into the darkness by his mother, away from the noisy and anxious crowd.More and more people crowded towards the sealed gate. It was impossible to count how many people gathered, and it was even more unclear whether the ruins had been dug through. Yoko Yutian didn't expect them to find a way to escape, so she held a flashlight and walked deep into the ground floor of the shopping mall. The ground was covered with cement fragments and various commodities.Finally, she found a corner that had not been damaged by the earthquake, and there was no glass or lamps around it, and it was far away from the atrium, so she didn't have to worry about being hit by falling objects from upstairs. April 1.Sunday.Night, 22:40. Zheng was so sleepy that he squinted his eyes and fell into his mother's arms.Yoko Tamada sat at the base of the wall, holding her son in her arms, and turned off the flashlight to save battery.Across the ruins, she looked at the crowd tens of meters away who wanted to escape. Before the seven-year-old boy lost consciousness, there was a faint sentence in his ear: "Zhengtai, mom is by your side..."