Chapter 355: Six People Trapped, Wang Yun Surrounded by Flames!

“Mine too! Ever since we entered the mountain, we’ve been using our flashlights. The batteries are long dead. My power bank got soaked as well. The water’s getting hotter and hotter. What are we supposed to do?!” the friend beside also shouted.

The six of them instantly panicked.

“Let me hold it for a while. Rest your arm in the water.”

Xiao Qiao’s boyfriend reached out and took the phone, holding it up in the air.

However, his arm was also in terrible shape. Blisters from scalding water covered his skin—clearly burn injuries from the fire.

Yet, he was still helping his girlfriend share the burden.

“What do we do now? This feels just like the boiling frog metaphor!”

“Unless all the trees around us burn down completely, there’s no chance of survival!”

“I don’t want to be cooked alive!”

The six of them cried out in despair. They watched as the water temperature in the stream continued to rise, feeling more hopeless by the second.

There were too many trees around, far too many to burn away completely.

If a forest fire broke out, it wouldn’t be extinguished for days and nights. Moreover, as the fire burned longer, the ground itself would heat up, causing collapses.

The trees around them would eventually fall.

They were trapped in the center of a deadly circle, with no route of escape.

“We can’t just sit here and wait to die!”

At this moment, a girl with long, dyed yellow hair screamed in frustration. Her eyes were bloodshot, likely from the smoke, and she looked utterly disheveled.

After shouting, she immediately turned to glare at one of the men.

“Xiao Zhou! This is all your fault! We were only three kilometers away from the evacuation site, but you had to drag us up this mountain! You kept saying the rocks up here were stable, the trees too, and the roads were unsafe! It’s all because of you! If it weren’t for you, would we be in this mess?!”

The yellow-haired girl broke down, screaming until her voice turned hoarse.

The man she blamed, Xiao Zhou, looked pale and said nothing, head hung low.

But the girl in a short-sleeved shirt beside Xiao Zhou couldn’t stay silent.

“Who are you blaming?! It was your boyfriend who was smoking! This is a forest! Why the hell would he light a cigarette here?! Smoking is one thing, but not even putting it out properly? If we survive this, the environmental damage fines alone will ruin you both for life!”

The short-sleeved girl’s words instantly silenced the yellow-haired girl.

Her face flushed red with anger, and just as she was about to retaliate, Xiao Qiao suddenly roared.

“Enough! Shut the hell up, all of you!”

Xiao Qiao’s outburst instantly quieted everyone. Only the crackling sound of burning wood remained around them.

“You four have been arguing non-stop since we climbed the mountain. If my boyfriend hadn’t pulled you all away earlier, would he have gotten burned by that falling branch? If his arm scars, I’ll never forgive you for the rest of my life! Don’t forget what I do for a living!”

Xiao Qiao’s voice was hoarse from shouting.

Her boyfriend, heart aching for her, tugged gently at her hand under the water.

The other four now didn’t even dare to lift their heads.

Among them, Xiao Qiao had the most powerful background—her entire family were lawyers. Even she herself was the youngest senior lawyer in her firm.

If she truly wanted to pursue accountability, the four of them would be utterly ruined.

“Let’s save our energy. I’ve been observing the wind direction. Right now, it’s blowing north to south. That means the fire will spread along the north-south axis. The southwest side should be relatively safer. Stay alert and keep an eye on the smoke to the southwest. If there’s even the slightest sign of it dying down, we have to get out of here,” Xiao Qiao’s boyfriend spoke up.

Compared to the others, he was slightly older and by far the calmest. The glasses on his nose were already crooked, but he kept them on nonetheless. His demeanor remained gentle and composed.

***

Meanwhile, the fire continued to rage. There was no sign of it weakening.

The small stream they stood in was located in a shallow depression, surrounded by rocks and trees. Even if a helicopter came for rescue, spotting them would be nearly impossible.

To make matters worse, the raging fire nearby further obscured visibility.

Wang Yun’s voice was already hoarse from shouting, yet there was still no response.

“Can you pinpoint their exact location?”

Wang Yun had been running through the flames for almost two minutes. The damp cloth covering his mouth and nose was nearly dry from the heat.

“No signal, none at all. If there were any signal, we’d have locked onto them already,” Li Long said, his voice strained and breathless, clearly running toward the area as fast as he could.

“Alright. Inform me the moment there’s any news!”

Wang Yun stopped wasting words.

He swiftly tore off the almost-dry cloth from his face and pulled out another damp one from his pocket.

His whole body radiated heat, and he was starting to feel faint.

Wang Yun knew that if this continued, he might not make it out alive either.

No! He had to find them, and fast!

With that thought, Wang Yun grabbed a long branch from the ground.

The branch had fallen and was already charred black. But fortunately, it was still solid inside.

“Purchase pole vaulting skill.”