Wu Quan came back to his senses and crazily climbed out of the ruins, rushing to rescue the others in the small dormitory.
By the time the frail Wu Quan gritted his teeth and carried the heavy Old Man Liu onto the open ground, he was drenched in sweat. Without taking time to rest, he quickly checked the other children's vital signs.
There had been four children in the fire: two ten-year-olds, a three-year-old, and a four-year-old.
Of those four children, two had survived, and two had died.
Strangely, the older Li Xiaoyan and Qian Cheng had failed to survive the disaster. The three-year-old and four-year-old were the ones who lived.
Wu Quan pried open Li Xiaoyan and Qian Cheng's mouths. Their mouths and noses were clogged with soot and smoke particles. He had seen this kind of death back when he was with the begging gang—they had been choked to death by thick smoke in the fire.
Wu Quan's gaze then swept over the faces of the two surviving children. Each of them had a damp towel covering their face.
Children that young would not know such things. If Wu Quan had guessed correctly, Li Xiaoyan and Qian Cheng must have done it in desperation after the fire broke out. At the brink of life and death, they had still chosen to protect their younger siblings first.
Old Man Liu must have rushed into the small dormitory only after the fire began. He had inhaled the least smoke, which was why he had survived, though he had temporarily fallen unconscious.
Ash drifted through the dark courtyard. Wu Quan silently looked at the corpses of Li Xiaoyan and Qian Cheng, as well as the unconscious Shen Qingzhu and Old Man Liu beside them, his fists clenched tight.
The scene of