Chapter 57: Taking Him to the Hospital

"How can we put out a fire like this? With a blaze this massive, who would dare to go?"

Qin Feng gritted his teeth, snatched a firewood chopper from a nearby villager, and made to charge up the mountain, but the village party secretary grabbed him by the arm.

"Director Qin, what are you doing? You absolutely cannot go up there; people will die!"

"I have to go. If we don't put out this fire, all the houses at the foot of the mountain will burn down. Besides, these mountains are all connected; if the fire continues to spread, the consequences will be unimaginable," Qin Feng said.

"I'll go with you! Everyone, if you don't want to be left homeless, follow me and Director Qin to fight the fire..." the village secretary shouted.

"You can't go!" Qin Feng yelled back.

"With a fire this big, running in there means death. I'll go in first to check out the exact situation. None of you are allowed to follow, do you hear me?" Roaring, Qin Feng once again grabbed the chopper and rushed straight in, faster than the village secretary could stop him.

A dozen minutes later, Qin Feng burst out from the sea of fire. His clothes were burned full of holes, his hair was charred, and several bleeding gasps marred his skin, making him look utterly disheveled.

"Director Qin, are you alright? You need to get to the hospital immediately..."

"No need, I'm fine."

"What's the situation?"

"The fire is too fierce, and the winds are too strong. It's impossible to put it out with human labor alone."

"Then what do we do? Didn't you report it? Why haven't people from the government arrived yet?"

Qin Feng looked around; not a single person from the inspection team had arrived yet. He sneered, "By the time they get here, everything will be over."

"Listen to me, everyone. I just went in to take a look. The fire has already spread; higher up are large trees, but lower down near the houses are mostly brushwood and grass. We can't extinguish the fire head-on, but we can clear a firebreak. By cutting a path several meters wide a dozen meters away from the residential area, we can stop the fire from crossing over and protect the houses first." Qin Feng made his decision based on what he had just observed inside the burning zone.

"Old Secretary, organize everyone immediately. Gather all able-bodied people and get them to start cutting trees and clearing brush. We must clear this firebreak before the flames spread down," Qin Feng told the old secretary.

"Alright, alright, I'll go organize them right now, but what about the fire on the mountain?" The old secretary worried aloud.

"Leave that for now, I'll figure something out. Just clear the firebreak near the houses first to keep them safe. Go quickly, time is of the essence."

The old secretary nodded and immediately set off to gather everyone in the village who could still move.

Qin Feng picked up his phone again and called the cadres of the neighboring villages, urging them to mobilize the young and strong men in their communities to rush over and help fight the fire.

If anyone else had made this call, those village cadres would have completely ignored it, and even if they agreed, the villagers would never have come. The fire wasn't burning their village; who would wake up in the middle of the night to fight a fire for free? But the moment they heard it was Qin Feng asking for their help, every single villager grabbed their tools from home and rushed over without a second thought.

Villagers are the most honest and simple-minded of people, and they hold the purest sense of gratitude. Qin Feng had helped them so much and handled so many matters for them in the past; now that he was asking for a favor, they would naturally give it their all.

Before long, over a hundred people had gathered. Holding various tools, they ran up to Qin Feng and asked what he needed them to do.

Qin Feng was deeply moved, but he didn't have much time for sentimentality, especially since the fire had already turned half the sky red.

Qin Feng immediately issued his instructions: everyone was to first help clear the firebreak near the houses, and then, depending on the fire's movement, clear a containment perimeter around the source of the fire to completely control the blaze and prevent it from spreading further.

With those orders given, Qin Feng picked up his chopper and rushed into the fire for the third time.

Qin Feng charged forward, and everyone followed closely behind. More people continued to arrive in waves, joining the battlefield.

At that moment, Li Dejun rushed anxiously to the scene. Seeing the raging inferno filled him with burning panic, and he started making calls to summon more personnel, but he knew it was already too late for reinforcements.

Yet, looking at the hundred-plus volunteers Qin Feng had already rallied into a firefighting army, he was deeply shocked. Such rallying power was something neither Wang Yunshan nor even he himself could ever achieve.

Over an hour later, the fire was finally extinguished—or more accurately, it had burned itself out within the designated mountain sector. A ten-meter-wide isolation belt had been carved out near the edge, completely trapping the fire within bounds.

When Li Dejun finally laid eyes on Qin Feng, the latter's clothes had been shredded into rags by tree branches. Most horrifying of all was that his entire body was covered in cuts, many of which were still bleeding.

Crucially, Qin Feng had to be carried out of the burning zone by several villagers. While fighting the fire, he had missed his footing and plummeted down the mountainside, leaving him completely unable to move his legs. If a villager hadn't spotted him, Qin Feng would have been burned alive in the flames.

Seeing Qin Feng's condition, Li Dejun asked no questions. He roared at the others to rush Qin Feng to the county people's hospital immediately, vowing to hold the fort here himself.

The villagers hoisted Qin Feng into the van Li Dejun had arrived in. Not daring to waste a single second, the driver sped toward Shannan County as if piloting an airplane.

No sooner had Qin Feng been evacuated than Wang Yunfei arrived in a "hurry." Upon seeing the devastation, he flew into a towering rage, berating Qin Feng for his irresponsibility and demanding strict accountability, insisting that Qin Feng bear full responsibility for the disaster.

Hearing Wang Yunfei show up not to inquire about Qin Feng's injuries, but rather to immediately pin blame, Li Dejun instantly started shouting at him. Had people not physically held him back, Li Dejun would have thrown punches at Wang Yunfei. Li Dejun had a notoriously fiery temper, and when his anger flared, he cared not a whit whether Wang Yunfei was the township head or not.

After arriving at the scene, Wang Yunfei held his ground, personally leading a detail to stand guard and prevent any resurgence of the fire. At the same time, he immediately reported the wildfire to the county authorities—a calculated move on his part. He knew that with Xu Guoli protecting Qin Feng, the matter would simply be swept under the rug if handled at the township level. Reporting it to the county immediately was something he had planned all along.