strictlysupreme Chapter 382 The Beloved Little Sister 17
Chapter 382 The Beloved Little Sister 17
The firelight tore through the tranquil night sky;
Thick smoke, carrying the smell of burning, hit us in the face.
Ji Xiaosong grabbed the wooden bucket behind the door and rushed out of the courtyard. Her cloth shoes splashed water as she stepped on the muddy path.
Ji Jianguo picked up a shovel and followed closely behind, veins bulging on his thick arms.
"The clinic's pharmacy has alcohol canisters!" Ji Xiaosong's shout was broken in the wind.
She saw more than a dozen dark figures rushing towards the fire from all directions, the sounds of clattering iron barrels, shouts, and crackling flames all mixed together.
The commune secretary, carrying a gong, ran and banged it as he went, his aged voice piercing through the thick smoke: "Grab the surgical instruments first! Dr. Li's penicillin is in the iron cabinet!"
Flames had already licked the cedar lintel of the clinic.
Ji Xiaosong kicked open the crooked door of the clinic, and a wave of heat, mixed with sparks, rushed towards her.
Squinting, she groped through the thick smoke, and just as her fingertips touched the cold metal instrument case, a burning rafter suddenly crashed down from the roof.
"Watch out!" Zhang Hongmei, the barefoot doctor who rushed in, suddenly pulled her away, but her own braid was singed by the sparks.
"You carry the smaller items, I'll go to the pharmacy!"
Ji Xiaosong handed the equipment case to Zhang Hongmei and turned to plunge into the deepest part of the thick smoke.
The pharmacy cabinet was scorching hot. She took off her headscarf to cover her hands, but heard a "clicking" sound from the cabinet door latch deforming in the high temperature.
In a moment of desperation, she gathered a wisp of spiritual energy at her fingertips and touched the keyhole, causing the bronze lock to snap open.
Twenty boxes of penicillin gleamed a cold blue in the firelight. She pulled down the curtain to cover the boxes, and when she turned around, she found that the fire had already blocked the doorway.
Outside the courtyard, gasps of surprise rose and fell.
Ji Xiaosong saw the villagers line up in a long queue, passing buckets of water from the riverbank, while Wang Xiuhua led the women's team to beat out the spreading flames with wet cotton quilts.
She took a deep breath, made a hand seal in her sleeve to activate the earth's moisture, and suddenly a string of unusual water droplets dripped from the eaves.
Taking advantage of the brief moment when the fire subsided, she climbed out of the window with her medicine box in her arms, and was caught steadily by a pair of rough, large hands as she landed.
"Are you out of your mind?" Ji Jianguo's face was covered in soot, and his voice was hoarse and incoherent.
Behind him, Dr. Li was trembling as he counted the medicines that had been rescued, the commune accountant was lying on the millstone registering supplies, and even a six-year-old child was carrying water in an enamel basin.
The director of the supply and marketing cooperative, along with three young men, carried in newly arrived fire-fighting sand. The dust they kicked up was so thick that it was impossible for people to open their eyes.
"There's another X-ray machine in the east wing!" Dr. Li suddenly shouted.
This priceless piece of equipment is the only treasure in the entire county commune.
Several young men tried to rush inside upon hearing this, but their path was blocked by the collapsing roof beams.
Ji Xiaosong wiped the dust off her face and suddenly snatched the wet quilt from Wang Xiuhua's hand and draped it over herself.
"Are you crazy?" Ji Jianguo grabbed his sister's wrist tightly, but saw a strange clarity flash in her eyes.
The next moment, the girl slipped free from his grasp like a fish, her wet back plunging straight into the sea of fire.
Amid the gasps of the crowd, a sickening cracking sound came from the roof, but the slender figure leaped onto the roof beam by stepping on the burning window frame, the outline of a square instrument vaguely visible in his arms.
"Catch!" With a clear shout, the X-ray machine, wrapped in a cotton blanket, flew out of the thick smoke.
The militia company commander darted forward to catch it and tossed it to the waiting crowd behind him.
The equipment was smoothly passed between a dozen pairs of arms and finally landed safely on a haystack in the threshing ground.
It was only then that people realized that Ji Xiaosong had not come out with them.
Deep within the fire, Ji Xiaosong was using her spiritual power to create a barrier to protect the last two boxes of medical records.
The high temperature depleted her magic very quickly, and the stray hairs on her forehead were already scorched and curled.
Just as she was exhausted, three crisscrossing jets of water suddenly shot in through the window.
It turned out that the county fire brigade's water pump truck had arrived.
She took the opportunity to bite her fingertip, drew a fire-repelling talisman, and then carried the medical record box towards the gap in the outer wall.
“They’re out!” Zhang Hongmei, who was waiting outside, called out in a tearful voice.
All that could be seen was a fiery figure emerging from the smoke and dust, the medical record box clutched tightly in its arms perfectly clean.
Ji Jianguo rushed over and used well water to extinguish the sparks on his sister's back, only to find that her palms were covered in scalded blisters.
At three o'clock in the morning, the last flame was extinguished by the crowd.
The waning moon shone on the charred roof frames, where villagers sat or lay panting heavily.
The supply and marketing cooperative staff brought brown sugar and ginger soup, and the barefoot doctors treated the wounded one by one.
After the commune secretary finished counting the supplies, he suddenly bowed deeply to the crowd: "Thanks to everyone, all the important equipment has been saved!"
The crowd spontaneously parted to make way for Ji Xiaosong, who was bandaging Zhang Hongmei's wounds at the end of the path.
The girl's blue blouse had several holes burned in it, and her hair still smelled burnt, but she remained as steady as a rock as she wrapped the gauze around her neck.
People started clapping, and the scattered applause quickly turned into a torrent, startling the sparrows in the morning light.
"Girl." Doctor Li squeezed in front of her, his trembling hands holding a well-preserved vial of penicillin. "This is a prize from last year's county-wide skills competition. Here you go."
The glass medicine bottle glowed with a bluish hue in the dawn light, reflecting countless bright, sparkling eyes around it.
"Dr. Li, I used to be a sickly person. If it weren't for you, I don't know if I would still be alive today. This firefighting was just what I could do. I absolutely cannot accept something as important as penicillin. You should take it back."
After much persuasion from Ji Xiaosong, Doctor Li finally took the medicine back.
It was very significant, she knew, but she really couldn't use it.
When Ji Xiaosong returned to the Ji family courtyard surrounded by everyone, the sky was already beginning to lighten.
She was covered in soot, and although the blisters on her palms had been secretly treated with spiritual spring water, she still wrapped them in gauze to avoid arousing suspicion.
As soon as she entered the door, Wang Xiuhua's eyes reddened, and she hugged her tightly, saying, "You silly girl, how can you be so reckless! If something happens to you, how can your mother live!"
Ji Tiezhu stood to the side, patted his daughter's shoulder with his rough hand, and said in a deep voice, "Well done, worthy of being my Ji family's daughter."
But those calloused hands were trembling slightly.
Ji Jianguo brought over hot water and knelt down to wipe her face.
This usually taciturn older brother was now handling things as gently as if they were fragile porcelain: "Does it hurt?"
"It doesn't hurt." Ji Xiaosong shook her head, but couldn't help but hiss.
It turned out that part of her hair had been singed by the fire, and it would break off with the slightest touch.
"Don't move!" Wang Xiuhua quickly grabbed some scissors and carefully trimmed the burnt ends of her hair, muttering, "You've always been resourceful, but this was too risky..."
Ji Jianjun brought out a steaming bowl of brown sugar and eggs from the kitchen and handed it to her: "Eat quickly, it will replenish your qi and blood."
Ji Xiaosong held the bowl, watching her family bustling around her, feeling both warm and bittersweet.
She knew she had acted impulsively this time;
But if we don't do that, all the clinic's precious medicines and equipment will be lost.
She had a way to ensure her survival, which is why she dared to do it.