The Overlord Flower's Guide to Intercepting a Woman's Wife's Death and the Male Lead&

The ground began to twist and tremble violently.

Three high-powered military searchlights swept their thick beams haphazardly across the night sky, eventually locking onto the main urban area of ​​Tang City in the distance.

The vehicle was jolted up and down, with swaying and tearing from side to side. The jeep outside the command post was thrown off the ground and bounced, its tires hitting the ground with a dull thud.

Everyone clung tightly to whatever they could get their hands on, using binoculars to stare at the urban area under the searchlights.

First, the streetlights.

Along Jianguo Road, neat rows of utility poles fell down one after another.

Sparks crackled and exploded in the night sky, then went out after a few short-circuit flashes.

Immediately afterwards, smoke and dust rose up.

Columns of smoke and dust rose from every corner of the city, tumbling and churning in mid-air, rapidly expanding into a continuous gray mushroom cloud.

Snap. Boom.

Dull. Repressive. With a chilling echo.

It lasted for a full twenty-three seconds.

For those twenty-three seconds, no one on Phoenix Mountain spoke; only heavy breathing filled the air.

When the searchlight shone on it, all that remained of the city was a gray wasteland.

There were no screams, no cries for help, no wails.

It was a ghost town.

The heavy precast concrete slab crashed down, but only the furniture and empty beds were smashed.

The workshops of 36 large state-owned factories and mines collapsed, but only the machine tools with their power switches turned off were broken.

Lei Lifeng stood to the left rear of Zhou Bingheng.

He was gripping a thick pine tree next to him tightly.

The bark peeled off under his fingers.

A gust of night wind blew, and he shivered.

"3:42 AM..."

Lei Lifeng stared at the ashes, his voice completely changed, becoming so hoarse it was almost splitting.

"At this time, everyone is asleep. It's the time when they're sleeping the most soundly..."

He swallowed hard and turned to look at Zhou Bingheng in front of him.

"If we don't evacuate... if I really listened to what the higher-ups said these past few days and led the charge to push you back and obstruct the evacuation..."

Lei Lifeng couldn't continue.

He dared not calculate that debt.

More than a million mangled skeletons—even filling the entire North China Military Region with them wouldn't be enough to compensate for them.

His legs buckled, and he collapsed to the ground, completely exhausted.

Stomach acid shot up his throat, and he covered his mouth, bending over and gagging violently.

He was just a hair's breadth away from becoming the sinner who buried millions of people alive.

Zhou Bingheng didn't turn around, but instead grabbed Lei Lifeng's arm and pulled him up to steady him.

……

The third resettlement area outside the city.

Li Shouyi, the general manager of Kailuan Coal Mine, is inspecting outside the No. 5 tent where the coal miners are resting.

He was holding a chipped white enamel mug, and had just brought it to his lips to take a sip of warm water.

A muffled, loud bang suddenly came from afar.

The ground jumped up, and Li Shouyi stumbled, his hand trembled, and half a vat of warm water spilled all over his chest.

The wind carried the sounds from afar.

Then came a series of muffled thuds.

That was the sound of a second collapse.

Li Shouyi stood frozen in place, still holding the empty jar in his hand.

Several advance platoon soldiers responsible for maintaining order ran out of the nearby tent, looked in that direction, and gasped.

Li Shouyi's mind went blank.

Three hundred meters underground, in the west lane of Well No. 7, in the goaf area of ​​Well No. 3... there were originally 1,237 working people working shifts there.

If they hadn't evacuated... that would have meant over a thousand living people being crushed to death in the dark, unbearable coal mine, never to be dug out.

He closed his eyes.

Hot tears welled up in her eyes, flowed down her nasolabial folds, and splashed onto the wet marks on her chest.

The young political commissar of the military region led his soldiers to break down his door and forced him to immediately seal the well and evacuate the people.

He pointed at the other person's nose and cursed their warlord-like behavior.

Looking back now, I realize that I wasn't forcing him at all.

He used a knife to snatch those 1,237 lives back from the clutches of the King of Hell.

With a loud crash, Li Shouyi threw down the enamel mug and wiped his face hard with his sleeve.

He turned around, facing the direction of the Phoenix Mountain Command Post, and put his heels together.

He bent down and gave a deep bow.

……

News of the earthquake was quickly transmitted via radio to six large resettlement areas outside the city.

It was still dark.

Millions of ordinary people were crammed into military tents and makeshift tarpaulin sheds covering the mountains and fields.

When the earthquake struck, the shed shook violently, waking many people from their dreams.

It wasn't until the management officer used a megaphone, his voice hoarse, to announce the news to each region that the situation improved.

"Tang City is gone."

These four words came crashing down.

For a full ten minutes, there was not a single sound from the six resettlement areas.

Millions of people sat on cots and sacks, and no one uttered a sound.

From which tent, a suppressed sob first came.

The sound ripped through everyone's nerves.

The cries spread across the wilderness in waves.

It was the pain of losing all our savings in the ruins, but also the relief that our whole family was still sitting safely beside us.

The resettlement area for the Chengbei Textile Factory.

The septuagenarian woman who, just a few days ago, refused to move and insisted on holding onto her husband's memorial tablet to guard the door.

She climbed out of her cot, clutching the gleaming wooden memorial tablet in her arms.

The old woman walked to the tent entrance, her messy hair blowing in the wind.

Facing the direction of Phoenix Mountain, she bent her knees and knelt on the yellow earth, kowtowing.

He kowtowed three times.

These three heads were kowtowed on behalf of all the survivors in Tang City.

……

The summit of Phoenix Mountain.

Zhao Jianjun's face was covered in mud and ash; he had lost his military cap but didn't bother to pick it up.

Clutching several newly received telegrams in his hand, he strode over to Zhou Bingheng.

"Reporting to the political commissar, the main urban area is completely destroyed, and almost all above-ground buildings are gone."

He paused for a moment, his eyes reddening.

"However, all six resettlement sites and the medical transport convoy sent telegrams confirming their safety. There were zero casualties."

When the data was reported, several staff officers who were recording it turned their heads away to wipe their tears.

Zhou Bingheng nodded.

"Go and call back to each district to calm their emotions. Strictly prohibit anyone from returning to the city center without authorization."

"yes!"

Zhou Bingheng turned around and walked towards the large rock at the edge of the cliff.

Su Xingmian stood there.

The night wind on the mountain was strong, blowing her coat backward.

Zhou Bingheng stopped beside her.

Neither of them spoke.

He simply reached out, wrapped her fingers in his palm, and held them tightly.

Su Xingmian clenched her fist and her fingers dug into his.

The distant ruins were still emitting plumes of dust.

The faint, fish-belly-like dawn on the horizon is gradually pushing open the darkness.

They won their bet.

They saved the lives of millions from the clutches of death.

But the price was too high; a city, the hard work of generations, was turned into a garbage dump in twenty-three seconds.

No one can cheer at this time.

The light of dawn slowly spread across the mountaintop.

Su Xingmian silently sensed it; her meridians were completely empty, without a trace of merit feedback.

This was the most people she had saved and the greatest thing she had done since she became a spirit, yet the laws of Heaven showed no reaction whatsoever.

She frowned slightly.

Sure enough, forcibly defying fate and not suffering a backlash is considered extremely lucky.

The last bit of luck she had extracted from Song Qingqing had vanished without a trace.

Zhou Bingheng noticed her emotional change almost immediately.

He sat down next to her, raised his hand, and gently rubbed her dusty head twice.

"It's worth it."

His voice was low and hoarse from not having slept all night.

Su Xingmian turned to look at him.

Zhou Bingheng gazed at the ruins below the mountain, gradually illuminated by the morning light, and the tents at the resettlement site in the distance.

"The living don't keep accounts."

He looked away and gazed into her eyes.

"The lives of 1,063,712 people. They can continue to breathe and live their lives; they don't need divine judgment. This debt can be settled among humankind."

As Su Xingmian listened, the last layer of gloom in her eyes completely dissipated.

She tilted her head and leaned on Zhou Bingheng's shoulder.

The sun finally rose above the horizon.

It was exactly 9:00 AM.

Without warning, the ground was violently ripped open again!

The first strong aftershock has arrived!

Several staff officers who had lost their footing fell to the ground.

Zhou Bingheng regained his balance in the first second of the tremor and pulled Su Xingmian up.

He reached out and patted his military trousers twice, brushing off the dust, as if brushing away all his fatigue and hesitation.

Zhou Bingheng turned his head and looked at Lei Lifeng behind him.

"Pass down the order: the 1st and 2nd Engineering Regiments are to be moved to resettlement point number 3."

"Clear the ruins and prepare for reconstruction."

He paused, his gaze sweeping over everyone else, and looked toward his homeland, now a ruin.

"Millions of people are still waiting to go home."