茶杯狐 -CUPFOX

If all the passengers on the bus had been wearing their seatbelts, the injuries caused by the accident would have been significantly less severe.

Unfortunately, most people do not wear seatbelts when they ride the bus.

The real world doesn’t have “what ifs”, and life doesn’t give second chances.

All the passengers in the bus were thrown to one side. Many people had already been flung from their seats when the bus began to swerve, and were utterly out of control when the bus flipped, just like the glass balls in an iron box, some were even flung through the windows.

In the space that Xiang Kun had steadfastly created with his own body, the little boy did not suffer any collision or compression injuries, nor was he crushed by anyone else. Besides being frightened and feeling a bit dizzy, his physical condition should still be okay.

After the bus stopped moving, Xiang Kun didn’t attempt to immediately extricate himself from under the two passengers. He worried that his movements would hurt them. In fact, he had deliberately put himself in that position when the bus flipped over to help cushion their impact.

Xiang Kun first helped one of them move a bit, then slowly pushed himself up before helping the other passenger move aside to allow the little boy to get up.

“My leg, I think my leg is broken!!”

“Help me, somebody help me!”

“I… I can’t breathe…”

“Help! Save me!”

“Aaaaaah…”

At first, there were various screams of panic and terror, followed by desperate pleas and wailing cries for help.

Some passengers were already unconscious, having been thrown out when the bus started to skid. Those seated on the side where the bus flipped not only suffered impact on one side but were also hit by other passengers and falling luggage due to the bus’s inertia towards the ceiling. The collisions between people, between people and the bus, and between people and their luggage all caused numerous injuries. Shattered window glass scattered all around, becoming terrifying “weapons”.

Once Xiang Kun managed to stand up, he first made sure he had not suffered fractures or other injuries, then he rushed to open the two emergency escape windows on the roof—the bus’s doors were now facing the ground.

First, he carried the boy, who he had protected, out through the emergency escape window. Then he also climbed out and carried the boy to a safe area on the roadside.

They were still on the highway, and Xiang Kun couldn’t guarantee that the cars behind him would remain alert. He didn’t want to risk a second collision, so he did not let the boy stay too close.

Although the boy didn’t seem to be physically injured, he seemed stunned by fright. His eyes were wide open, and he was utterly speechless.

Xiang Kun didn’t have the luxury to communicate with him. After he climbed over the road barrier and placed him in a safe area, he prepared to go back and continue helping others.

Feeling a tug on his shirt, Xiang Kun stopped and turned around to see the boy, who seemed to have finally snapped out of his daze, quietly say: “Daddy…”

“Ah?” Xiang Kun was a bit taken aback, but he quickly understood. The boy wanted his help to find his dad. The boy had been seated next to a somewhat skinny man on the bus. That must be his father.

“Stay here. Don’t move. I’ll go back to rescue your father.” Xiang Kun, holding his shoulders, said solemnly.

Xiang Kun climbed back over the guard rail and returned to the emergency lane of the highway.

The car pairing that had crashed through the median onto our lane had already broken apart, a tragic sight.

The damage wasn’t just to the bus that Xiang Kun and the others were on. Several other vehicles were either hit directly or crashed in an attempt to avoid the accident. At least eight cars were disabled on the road.

Also, on the emergency lane, many vehicles had stopped. Some people were getting out of their cars, either calling emergency services or looking to lend a hand.

Instead of immediately returning to the bus, Xiang Kun swiftly asked two private car owner for their emergency signs from their car trunks. He ran more than 200 meters to set up the signs, reminding and alerting upcoming vehicles to avoid secondary or even tertiary accidents.

Then Xiang Kun returned to the side of the bus, helping a passenger get out through the emergency window; the people who came to assist from the emergency vehicle parking lane led the passenger to the side of the road.

Xiang Kun climbed back into the bus. The situation inside was harrowing. He switched to infrared thermographic vision mode, quickly building a cognitive model to assess the passengers’ injuries.

Many people were pleading for his help. People close by or those trapped under others were even reaching out to grab him.

While telling them that he had called the police and ambulance, and help would arrive soon, so they shouldn’t panic, Xiang Kun started taking action according to the plan he had calculated in his head.

First, he helped the passengers who were not heavily injured but were stuck and unable to move. Carefully, without causing secondary injuries to other wounded passengers nearby, he assisted them in leaving through the emergency window.

As for those severely injured, even though they cried out in agony, repeatedly pleading for help, Xiang Kun merely offered them words of comfort, not attempting to move them. He had observed earlier that the bus wouldn’t explode or catch fire; they could wait for professional medical rescuers.

Xiang Kun also found the thin man from his memory, the one sitting next to the little boy, but with just one look, he knew the man was already dead.

After helping several passengers who could still move get out of the bus, Xiang Kun helped to lift an SUV that had overturned on the road’s barrier, enabling the rescuers to extract the female passenger trapped inside.

Since there were several people helping to lift the vehicle, he wasn’t holding back while exerting his strength.

Only when he faintly heard the sounds of ambulances and police cars did Xiang Kun stop his rescue efforts. With his backpack on, he stood beside the still somewhat dazed little boy.

However, when it came to the boy’s quiet request to find his dad, Xiang Kun didn’t know how to respond. In his cognitive model, he couldn’t find an answer that was most appropriate and wouldn’t affect the child’s psychology, so he chose to remain silent.

Luckily, the boy didn’t continue to fuss, merely standing by Xiang Kun, his eyes fixated on the overturned bus on the ground.

Police officers, first responders, and firemen had all arrived, urgently dealing with the scene, treating the injured, and managing the traffic.

Kun observed the rescue workers, then he chose a female medical worker, handed the boy over to her, and told her that the boy’s parents were still inside the bus.

Noticing the bloodstains on him, the medical worker asked, “Are you also a passenger of that bus? Come over here for a check-up to see where you’re hurt.”

“No need, I’m fine. I was lucky; I wasn’t hurt. This blood is from other people,” Kun naturally refused.

However, when he tried to step aside, he found that the hem of his clothes had been tugged on again. The boy was looking up at him, eyes wide with fear, not saying a word, yet the fear in his eyes was palpable.

The medical worker glanced at Kun and said, “You stay here with him. I have to go over there to help. I probably can’t look after him. When his parents are rescued, we can see about contacting his relatives to come over. You both can come with us in our vehicle to the city later.”

Resigned, Kun squatted next to the ambulance with the boy. He could feel that the boy had an inexplicable trust in him now, possibly because he remembered how Kun had protected him during the accident.

Seeing a child of this age reminded him of Liu Shiling. Thus, he took out a fifty-cent coin from his pocket and placed it in the boy’s palm.

“Do you know what this is?” he pointed to the coin in the boy’s palm.

“Money,” the boy softly replied, somewhat at a loss.

“What about the symbols on it?”

Using the light from inside the nearby vehicle, the boy scrutinized the coin for a while before answering quietly, “Five-pointed star.”

“This is our national emblem. Both the police and soldiers have it on their caps. As long as you hold this, you can think of them and you won’t be scared anymore,” Kun said seriously, then helped the boy grip the coin in his hand.

He really wished he could use his ability of “Emotional Assimilation” at this moment, so the injured and the rescue workers around him would all stop being scared and calm down.

But unfortunately, he couldn’t enter that emotional state at the moment, nor did he have a suitable emotional prop on him.