Qingmu acted too quickly; by the time Shi Dazhuang tried to stop him, it was too late. Rushing into such a huge fire would either burn him to death or suffocate him. He stamped his foot in frustration, rushed into the hotel, grabbed a fire extinguisher, and tested it, only to find it was broken.
"Damn it!" Shi Dazhuang cursed, quickly grabbed two blankets from the front desk lounge, soaked them in the toilet sink, and went up the stairs to the third floor.
The door to the room on the third floor where the fire started was lying on the other side of the corridor, probably blown off by the shockwave of the explosion. This saved Shi Dazhuang the trouble of breaking down the door.
He rushed into the fire, wrapped in a soaking wet blanket, shouting, " Qingmu! Beauty!... cough... cough... beauty... cough... beauty..."
The smell of smoke made him cough, as if his lungs were stuffed with a wad of tattered cotton. He quickly covered his mouth and nose with a damp blanket, dodging the flames while searching for Qingmu and Yu Meiren.
" Beauty! Beauty..." Shi Dazhuang shouted, trying to suppress the pain in his lungs, hoping for a miracle.
The Beauty won't die! Yu Gang, you must protect her!
Shi Dazhuang rushed through the bright flames in front of him with hope, but he knew the hope was slim, and the further he went in, the heavier his heart became.
He saw a figure crouching motionless on the floor beside the bed.
" Qingmu!" Shi Dazhuang recognized Qingmu. He unfolded a blanket and threw it over Qingmu's head, "Put this wet blanket on, the fire's too big..."
"Let's go," Qingmu said, standing up. " The Beauty isn't here."
Although only two or three minutes had passed since they entered, the hotel room was small, Qingmu could tell that Yu Meiren wasn't there.
"Not here?" Shi Dazhuang somewhat surprised, but his anxiety subsided.
If he's not there, he must still be alive. Whatever happened, as long as he's alive, that's good!
The fire had already spread, and in addition to the rooms next door, the upstairs rooms were also on fire.
Shi Dazhuang knew that if he didn't get out soon, he might never get out again.
He and Qingmu wrapped themselves in blankets and left the room. Once in the hallway, they exchanged a glance and, as if on cue, went their separate ways to opposite sides of the hallway.
The corridor was in chaos; some people were running out with their heads in their hands, while others were shouting that they wanted to go in and rescue people.
Shi Dazhuang finally found a usable fire extinguisher in the fire cabinet at the stairwell. He carried the extinguisher around and searched the area, but couldn't find Beauty. Instead, he found several children huddled together in a room, looking bewildered. After asking them, he learned that they were tourists who had gone out together, leaving their children in the room to play.
He then led the children to the emergency exit, told them to go down the stairs, and instructed them not to wander off and to wait for their parents to come back. He no longer cared whether the children would get separated from their parents in the chaos.
Unable to find it on the third floor, he went up to the fourth floor. The situation on the fourth floor was even more chaotic than on the third floor, because smoke had spread all over the place and the fire had already started to spread. However, not all the people had escaped yet, and they were colliding with people coming down from the fifth floor, making the stairwell a complete mess.
Qingmu and Shi Dazhuang met on the fifth floor and searched down together, but they couldn't find any trace of the Beauty even after searching the lobby. They had no choice but to help evacuate the guests first, and only left the hotel after confirming that there was no one left in the building.
The street outside the hotel was crowded with people; some were sighing, some were crying, and others were gloating and pointing fingers.
Meng Yan was directing everyone to evacuate in an orderly manner. He then pulled a hose from the hotel's only fire hydrant, opened the valve, and sprayed water upstairs.
Neighbors gathered many plastic buckets and basins, filled them with water, but could only watch helplessly as the fire started high up, too afraid to rush inside and climb the stairs to fight it.
When Shi Dazhuang, his face and body were covered in soot, as if he had been rolled in a charcoal oven, and much of his hair on his forehead was singed. Qingmu, on the other hand, although his hair was messy and his clothes were old, was still clean and tidy, as if he had never been inside at all.
Meng Yan handed the water pipe to a burly young man next to him and ran over to ask Shi Dazhuang, " Captain Shi, what's the situation inside?" He didn't ask Yu Meiren directly, for fear of touching a nerve with Shi Dazhuang.
Shi Dazhuang said, "Without a close inspection, it looked like an improvised explosive device."
Meng Yan couldn't help but ask, "Where's the Beauty?"
Shi Dazhuang said, "It's not inside. I don't know where it went."
Meng Yan breathed a sigh of relief and said, "That's good, maybe he went for a stroll by himself."
Shi Dazhuang asked, "Have you notified the fire department? The surrounding buildings are all brick and wood structures; we probably can't put out the fire like this."
Meng Yan said, "We've notified them, but it will be at least afternoon before the fire truck from Ruihekou arrives. There's a water truck in Mangdian; I've already notified them to come over, so we can use it for a while."
A short while later, a water truck arrived, and workers used hoses to spray water upstairs. Although it wasn't as effective as a fire truck, it at least stopped the fire from spreading.
All the available fire extinguishers in Mangdian Town were gathered together, and Meng Yan led the team into the hotel.
As the crowd on the street grew larger, Qingmu suddenly tugged at Shi Dazhuang's sleeve, gesturing for him to look into the crowd.
Shi Dazhuang saw the crazy beggar at the door when they ate yesterday, grinning at them with a mouthful of yellow teeth.
A small head with a braid popped out from beside the beggar, then called out, "Grandpa, Yeye!" and squeezed through the crowd to run over.
" My Beauty!" Shi Dazhuang exclaimed excitedly, rushing forward to pick Yu Meiren up in his arms and pressing his charcoal-blackened face against Beauty cheek with passionate kisses. "You're alright! My Beauty, you scared your grandpa to death!"
Yu Meiren, her face covered in smears by Shi Dazhuang, felt ticklish and giggled. Suddenly noticing the tears in Shi Dazhuang's eyes, she reached out her little hand to wipe them away. "Uncle, what's wrong? Why are you crying?"
Shi Dazhuang said, "Uncle didn't cry, Uncle is happy!"
Yu Meiren said, "You should laugh when you're happy!"
Shi Dazhuang burst into laughter, laughing heartily.
"Why did you go out just now, Beauty?" Shi Dazhuang asked after laughing for a while.
Yu Meiren said, "Someone knocked on the door just now. I thought it was you guys coming back, so I went to open it, but it Yeye that beggar I met yesterday. He said a lot of things I couldn't understand. I thought he was hungry, so I offered him some food, but he refused. He seemed very anxious; something urgent must have happened. But you weren't here, so I couldn't just leave. Then a few security Yeye came, looking very fierce, and tried to chase him away. I felt sorry for him, so I told the Yeye he knew him. The Yeye said beggars weren't allowed in the hotel and told me to take him out, so I brought him outside."
" Yeye beggar?" Shi Dazhuang searched through the crowd. "Is he the one you gave food to yesterday?"
"Yes, that's him. He's right there—" the Beauty pointed with her small hand, "Wait, where is he?"
The mad beggar had long since disappeared from the crowd, and when Shi Dazhuang turned around, Qingmu was gone too.