The Byoukidere Is Her Sweetie
Chapter 428: 428: Saving the baby, saving everyone, the heroine Xu Fang (second update

Chapter 428: 428: Saving the baby, saving everyone, the heroine Xu Fang (second update

Jiang Zhi encountered Lin Qiunan at the funeral home, outside the mourning hall.

Lin Qiunan was dressed in black, accompanied by Yao Bixi.

“Aren’t you going in?”

Jiang Zhi glanced inside, “I won’t go in.” He feared going in would only add to the distress.

Lin Qiunan knew what he was worried about, “Go offer some incense. The dead are gone, and grudges should not be held onto. She raised you for over twenty years, you should see her off.”

Jiang Zhi hesitated for a moment, then nodded, “Yeah.” Zhou Xufang was alone in the car, and he didn’t feel quite at ease, “Auntie, Xu Fang is waiting for me in the parking lot of the mall next door.”

Yao Bixi understood and responded with a smile, “Got it, I’ll go keep her company.”

“Thank you.”

Yao Bixi said there was no need for thanks, “Mom, I’m going to the parking lot first.”

“Go ahead, I’ll come over with Jiang Zhi in a bit.”

Zhou Xufang’s car was parked only a minute or two away from the elevator entrance, but the old lady walked very slowly because of her bad legs.

When she returned to the car, she didn’t see the other mother back yet. A kid inside the car was clinging to the window, waving his little hand at her and shouting, “Auntie, Auntie!”

Soft and mushy, like a little sticky rice ball.

So cute.

Makes me want to steal.

“Auntie.”

Zhou Xufang responded, tilting her head to look at the kid, really wanting to grab him. She touched her own belly, no need to steal, there was one inside her too.

The child shouted again, “Grandpa.”

Zhou Xufang, “Hmm?” Auntie? Or grandpa?

The little boy didn’t express himself very clearly, but his diction was sharp, “Grandpa’s here.” As he spoke, he hugged his paper cup cake, shoveled a big spoonful into his mouth, and puffed his cheeks, saying, “Grandpa is behind.”

“The car’s behind.”

Zhou Xufang didn’t understand and leaned against the window, looking at the little cutie, “Did your grandpa come?”

The little darling shook his head, his tender fingers pointing at her car, “Your car.” With a mouth full of cream, he said in a milky voice, “Grandpa is behind your car.”

Zhou Xufang looked back but saw no one. Suddenly, she heard a beep.

What sound was that?

She got out of the car and walked to the rear, crouching down, her hand flat on the ground as she looked up from beneath, only stunned for a second before she quickly opened the trunk and took out her backpack.

It was a time bomb, with fifty-five seconds left.

Her backpack in the trunk contained equipment for her missions, but there wasn’t enough time to use any of it. She only took a fire starter, a thin steel wire, and a piece of clothing. Using the wire, she threaded it through the clothing, lit it, and then looked up to find the alarm.

The alarm was overhead.

She walked under the alarm and jumped up to reach it, attempting several times before the thin wire finally hooked onto the recess above.

The clothing was made of leather, so it began to smoke quickly. In no time, the fire alarm started to blare, its sound urgent and piercing.

All the alarms were interlinked; once the one on the lower ground went off, the entire mall’s alarms followed, with the shrill beeps echoing in every corner.

In the women’s restroom, a young girl was touching up her makeup when she suddenly heard the noise, smudging her lipstick, “What’s happening? What is that sound?”

Immediately someone ran out from a stall, “It’s the fire alarm!”

People outside were shouting, “There’s a fire, there’s a fire!”

“Fire, run for it!”

The makeup girl was stunned for a moment, her lipstick falling to the ground as she ran out with wobbly legs.

The corridor was teeming with people, swarming towards the emergency exits. A woman was left behind, pushing against the flow of people, murmuring, “Baby, baby…”

“Baby!”

She ran frantically towards the B1 floor corridor, but the crowd was too dense; she could hardly move an inch, shoving and bumping into an old man.

The old man covered his mouth with a handkerchief, which was black in color; he wore white gloves.

The lady hurriedly apologized and continued to run crazily towards the B1 floor.

Yao Bixi had just arrived at the mall when she saw a swarm of people rushing out; the entrance was full of security guards, with caution tape pulled across.

She approached a guard and asked, “What happened?”

As he maintained order, the guard replied, “The mall’s on fire.”

Yao Bixi’s heart skipped a beat, “Which floor?”

“B1 floor.”

The B1 floor contained only warehouses and a parking lot.

Zhou Xufang was still there!

Yao Bixi panicked for a moment, then quickly stood on a higher spot and started shouting, “Xu Fang!”

“Xu Fang!”

“Xu Fang!”

Not a single person in the rushing crowd responded to her, she searched around but didn’t find Zhou Xufang among the people who’d escaped.

She immediately called Jiang Zhi, “Jiang Zhi, you have to come.”

“What’s wrong?”

“The mall’s on fire, I haven’t found Xu Fang yet, hurry!”

Jiang Zhi hung up and ran out of the funeral parlor.

B1 floor wasn’t too crowded, most had escaped, everyone was only concerned with saving themselves, and no one paid attention to the crying of a child.

“Mom!”

“Mom!”

The alarm blared sharp and piercing; the frightened child was sitting in a stroller crying out for mom, “Wuu wuu wuu… Mom…”

Fearing the fire might actually reach the circuits, Zhou Xufang first grabbed the still-smoking clothes off the fire alarm and extinguished the fire before immediately running to the car where the child was sitting.

The car door was locked by the child’s mother and she could only use brute force, pulling the handle hard twice – the door didn’t open, the handle broke.

The child kept crying, cries that tore at the heart.

Zhou Xufang picked up the leather jacket, wrapped it around her hand, and coaxed the child, “There there, no crying, no crying.”

He lay against the car window, sobbing intermittently, “Auntie… wuu wuu wuu…”

Time was running out, and the mall should have been mostly cleared by now. Zhou Xufang took a deep breath, “Sweetie, be good, protect your head.”

“Wuu wuu wuu wuu wuu…”

She was sweating all over and covered her head with her hands, “Like Auntie, protect your head.”

“Mmm mmm… wuu wuu…”

The child nodded while crying, pudgy little arms hugging his head.

The rear car window was too close to the child, Zhou Xufang estimated the situation and moved to the front, “Hold on tight now.”

“Mmm mmm!”

Zhou Xufang wrapped her hand in the leather jacket and smashed the passenger-side window forcefully with one hit – the glass shattered with a loud crash.

“Wah!”

The child inside the car burst into loud tears.

Zhou Xufang didn’t have time to care, using the jacket to pad slightly, she protected her stomach with one hand and pushed away shattered glass with the other as she squeezed in; her palms bled instantly.

She had only one thought – that bomb was meant for her, she must not let it harm anyone else’s life.