lcionline Chapter 280
Chapter 280
The charity volunteering had been going on for a week.A large designated area of the desert was now planted with saxaul saplings. Their tender green leaves swayed gently in the wind, displaying an astonishing vitality.
An irreplaceable sense of accomplishment swelled in the hearts of the four of them.
Just then, a strange buzzing sound came from the distance, like millions of bees flapping their wings at the same time. Si Lin looked up and saw the western skyline suddenly darken.
"What is that?" Zhou Shiyu squinted her eyes.
Tang Mi followed her gaze, her face suddenly changing. "My God, it looks like a sandstorm! But the weather forecast didn't say there would be one today..."
Her words were scattered by a sudden gust of fierce wind.
In almost an instant.
The mild sunset in the distance was swallowed by a rolling wall of sand. The sky turned a muddy brownish-yellow, and the sky full of yellow sand rushed toward them like a tsunami.
"Everyone evacuate immediately!" Hai Chang'an was the quickest to react. He grabbed a megaphone and shouted, "Volunteers, get in the vehicles according to your assigned groups! Do not panic!"
Everyone was terrified, and the scene instantly descended into chaos.
Volunteers dropped their tools and ran toward the vehicles. The fierce wind blew over the registration tent, sending papers flying wildly in the air. Tang Mi and Zhou Shiyu ran across the sand, using their walkie-talkies to call the group leaders to do a headcount.
"Group three is missing two people!" Hai Chang'an roared in the wind, sand filling his mouth.
Si Lin climbed onto the roof of an off-road vehicle against the wind and sand, shouting loudly, "Women and the elderly get in the cars with the staff first!"
Soon, the off-road vehicles fully loaded with volunteers drove away from the camp.
The vanguard of the sandstorm had arrived. Fine grains of sand hit the vehicles like bullets, making a terrifying crackling sound.
"We need to leave too!" Si Lin pulled open the car door, but Hai Chang'an grabbed him.
Hai Chang'an pointed to the other side. "Look..."
Following his finger, the four saw a team of staff members in base uniforms walking against the flow of the crowd. Holding windbreak cloths and securing ropes, they struggled in the sandstorm with less than five meters of visibility to build protective barriers for the newly planted saplings.
Lao Ma led a group of sand control workers, their backs hunched, almost being pushed along by the wind, yet they still clung tightly to the securing stakes.
"Are they crazy?" Zhou Shiyu exclaimed. "People could die!"
Si Lin's hand froze on the car door handle.
Through the sky full of yellow sand, he saw Rong Yu's figure. She had appeared here at some unknown time, and along with the sand control workers, she was using her body to press down the windbreak cloth that the wind was trying to lift.
"I have the volunteer roster," Tang Mi suddenly said. "Everyone has been confirmed to be safely evacuated, so?"
"It's time to make sure these saplings are safe." Zhou Shiyu looked up. "I'm staying. What about you?"
Hai Chang'an rolled his shoulders. "I'm strong. I can drive in the securing stakes."
Si Lin said nothing. He simply tore off his inner lining, ripped it into four strips, and handed them to everyone to cover their mouths and noses.
When the four rushed toward the sapling area against the wind and sand.
Rong Yu was kneeling on the ground securing a rope. She looked up and saw four blurry figures coming through the curtain of sand, thinking they were volunteers scattered by the wind.
She quickly spoke, "Leave here immediately! It's dangerous!"
Si Lin was the first to rush over, taking the rope from her hands that was dancing wildly in the wind. "Miss Rong, we are also staff members of the base!"
Tang Mi snorted, "Who says temporary workers aren't staff members?"
Hai Chang'an wiped the sand off his face. "The base's sand control workers are experienced. Since they can stay, it means the sandstorm is within a controllable range."
Zhou Shiyu and Tang Mi started tying windbreak cloths to the outermost saplings. Their previously exquisite curly hair was casually tied into ponytails, their beautiful manicures were long gone, and their hands tied professional knots extremely nimbly.
Si Lin and Hai Chang'an did the heavy lifting, protecting the seedlings together with Lao Ma.
Rong Yu couldn't help but smile.
These kids had grown up faster than she had imagined.
However!
At this moment, Lao Ma's voice rang out: "The sand dunes are moving! Hurry! Everyone, fall back! If we don't leave now, we'll all be buried here!"
Rong Yu looked up, her heart almost skipping a beat. In the distance, a three-story-high wave of sand was pressing down on them at a visible speed. That was no ordinary wind and sand; it was the desert breathing, devouring.
She stood up decisively. "Don't just stand there, go!"
Tang Mi was still holding tightly to the securing rope of a small sapling.
Hai Chang'an wanted to help her, but was knocked to the ground by a fierce gust of wind.
Zhou Shiyu was crying and shouting something incomprehensible.
Si Lin was still charging into the sand.
Lao Ma kicked him and pulled Si Lin up like grabbing a kitten. "Stop being so stubborn, get in the car, hurry up!"
Rong Yu said coldly, "Only if you stay alive can you plant more trees!"
As the four stumbled toward the windproof warehouse, the wave of sand behind them had already swallowed the edge of the sapling area.
Rong Yu was the last to enter. In the moment she looked back, she saw the large patch of saxaul saplings they had just planted being uprooted like matchsticks, disappearing into the dim, yellow curtain of sand.
The moment the warehouse door closed.
Tang Mi cried.
Zhou Shiyu broke down and sobbed loudly.
The wind and sand struck outside, sand crackling against the exterior walls of the warehouse, drowning out the crying inside.
Rong Yu went in and rummaged for a medical kit, bringing it out. "Tang Mi, give me your hand."
Tang Mi finally noticed that the back of her hand had been slashed by something unknown. It was a very deep cut, bleeding profusely, yet she hadn't felt any pain.
She stammered a little, "Rong Yu... no, Miss Rong, I'm not crying because of this..."
"I know." Rong Yu poured alcohol to clean her wound. "It's going to hurt a little, bear with it."
After treating Tang Mi, she went on to clean the wounds of Zhou Shiyu, Hai Chang'an, and Si Lin, one by one.
Holding Rong Yu's hand, Si Lin didn't feel any romantic tension at all. He opened his mouth blankly, "Is... is it all gone?"
Sitting to the side, Lao Ma blew a smoke ring. "The sandstorm moved from that end to this end. Yeah, it's all gone."
Hai Chang'an punched the wall. "Then what was the point of all our hard work these past few days?"
"The point is," Rong Yu closed the medical kit, "tomorrow, after the sandstorm passes, we can start over."
Tang Mi's tears welled up again. "We gathered so many people and spent so many days just to plant those saplings, and now we have to start all over again?"
"My first year here, I planted three thousand saplings. One sandstorm, and overnight, less than ten were left." Lao Ma's voice rang out.
Zhou Shiyu looked up. "And then?"
"I was only sixteen at the time. Of course, just like you guys, I cried." Lao Ma shrugged. "After crying, I kept planting trees. Just like that, I persisted for over thirty years... Over these years, countless saplings have died, and there are also people who were buried in the sand. My master gave his life to the desert..."
Lao Ma's nose was a little stuffed; he couldn't go on speaking and lit another cigarette.
Rong Yu took over the conversation. "The desert is just like this. You just plant it, and it might take it away. That's why it takes generation after generation of people, advancing wave upon wave, to guard this place."
She looked at the four kids. "You all did very well today."
At such a simple sentence, Si Lin suddenly felt his eyes grow hot with tears.
Hai Chang'an hastily tilted his head back to stare at the ceiling, pretending that something up there had caught his attention.
"Tomorrow..." Tang Mi began, her voice still thick from crying. "Will we still be able to get new saplings tomorrow?"
Rong Yu met the gaze of four pairs of eyes looking back at her. They were red and swollen, brimming with tears, yet filled with a resolute and burning eagerness.
A smile graced her lips as she replied, "Of course."