Chapter 796 — Kang Jingming's Misfortune

The next instant, an even greater tremor struck, and Kang Jingming felt as though a meteor had smashed into the house; the whole building shook so violently that he staggered and nearly lost his footing.

Instinctively he rushed to the window, only to see, to his horror, several excavators and front-end loaders furiously shoving at the building he was in.

"Hey! There's someone in here!" Panic seized Kang Jingming, and he leaned out the window and shouted at the top of his lungs.

But with the excavators and bulldozers in full swing, the din was immense; his voice was swallowed by the noise before anyone could possibly have heard it.

"Don't tear it down! There's a person inside! Hey, hey, hey!" Kang Jingming was so frightened he nearly wet himself. "There's someone in here!"

No one paid him any mind. In fact, there was no one who could possibly have heard him.

"Screw your whole ancestral line! I'm still inside the house!" Kang Jingming was frantic now, screaming himself hoarse.

Yet still no one heard him. With no other option, Kang Jingming had to think of something himself. Jumping from the third floor would likely mean death, or at best crippling injury; that was a fool's move, and Kang Jingming was not about to make it.

But taking the stairs down now was already too late; the bulldozers below had shoved the entire unit doorway flat.

Kang Jingming thought and thought, but could not come up with any good plan. He had never imagined he could be so unlucky; how was it that waiting at Xiaofen's place for her to come home, he had run straight into a forced demolition? Born into a wealthy family, he had never experienced anything like this, nor ever dreamed such misfortune could befall him.

There was nothing for it. Fearing he would be crushed to death, he could only crawl under the bed; he had heard that during an earthquake, being under a bed was relatively safe.

In an instant, the three-story red-brick building was reduced to a heap of rubble. Zhu Xiaozhang and Wang Shubin waited a while, and when Kang Jingming still did not return, they grew anxious and dialed his number.

The phone rang more than ten times with no answer, and even after it hung up automatically, still no one answered.

Wang Shubin grew alarmed and called again. After a wait, someone finally picked up.

Kang Jingming was at that moment buried in a pile of rubble, kept alive only by a broken bed. He had survived stubbornly, thanks in part to Xiaofen's home being on the top floor; had it been the first or second floor, even the sturdiest bed board would likely have buckled under the immense pressure.

Earlier, when the house had collapsed completely, Kang Jingming had felt a sudden lurch, and before he knew what his head had struck, he blacked out.

When he came to again, it was the ringing of his cell phone that roused him. As he instinctively reached for it, a sharp, searing pain shot through both his legs, as though they had been crushed and broken.

Even so, Kang Jingming counted himself lucky: he had actually survived.

"Hey! Wang Shubin, come get me, quick! Xiaofen's house has been torn down by someone, and I'm in the rubble right now. My legs feel broken, the pain is killing me!" Kang Jingming answered the phone with a wail.

"What? Young Master Ming, hang on, we're on our way!" Wang Shubin was startled by what he heard. What did he mean, Xiaofen's house had been demolished and Kang Jingming was still inside, unable to get out?

Wang Shubin and Zhu Xiaozhang called the police and an ambulance at the same time, then ran to the demolition office, where they found Li Cihua in the middle of negotiating compensation with the homeowners.

"Our boss has been buried in the building you tore down! Who's in charge here?" Zhu Xiaozhang stormed in and bellowed arrogantly.

Li Cihua had assumed it was someone of consequence, but when he looked up and saw Zhu Xiaozhang, his brow knitted at once.

He knew this Zhu Xiaozhang, one of the hangers-on around Kang Jingming, son of the renowned Doctor Kang. When the Qibing Building had been completed, Kang Jingming had even brought Zhu Xiaozhang and Wang Shubin along to the ceremony.

"Zhu Xiaozhang, what is the meaning of this racket?" Li Cihua was not afraid of him. However famous the Kang family of physicians might be, the Zhao family he served was far more formidable than the Kangs.

"Ah? Brother Cihua?" Zhu Xiaozhang knew that the shantytown demolition project was Zhao Qibing's responsibility, but he had assumed only some minor underling was in charge here. He had never expected it to be Li Cihua himself. Still, even if it was Li Cihua, he had to speak up: "Brother Cihua, my boss Kang Jingming is in that three-section red-brick building over there right now, and you're demolishing it!"

Li Cihua's head instantly went numb with a buzz. Kang Jingming was still in that building? What was Kang Jingming doing there?

The Zhao family might not fear the Kang family, but if Kang Jingming of the Kang family were crushed to death, an explanation would absolutely have to be given. This was not like crushing some ordinary person; the Kang family's influence was considerable, so much so that the Zhao family purchased a batch of wound medicine from the Kang family every year.

"What? Kang Jingming is still in there?" Li Cihua asked urgently.

"Yes, we've already called the police and an ambulance. Hurry and tell those demolition workers to stop — my boss is still alive, just his legs are broken!" Zhu Xiaozhang said.

Hearing that Kang Jingming was not dead, Li Cihua immediately breathed a sigh of relief. As long as he was alive, things would be easy to handle! A broken leg could be settled with a payment of compensation, and the Kang family presumably would not say anything more.

"Gubang, Fabai, you two stay here and handle the compensation agreements with the displaced households. I'll go take a look!" Li Cihua felt that this day had truly been a case of misfortunes never coming singly. Wei Zhao's matter had only just been settled when, over on the other side, Kang Jingming of the Kang family had been crushed!

After giving his instructions on this side, Li Cihua ran off toward the three-section red-brick building together with Wang Shubin and Zhu Xiaozhang. Fortunately, Li Cihua's earlier order had been only to demolish the red-brick building, so after the excavators and bulldozers pushed the building down, they had taken no further action!

Otherwise, a couple more pushes and Kang Jingming would likely have been dead outright!

The police rescue was quite timely. Soon Kang Jingming was carried out of the rubble by firefighters. At that moment his face was covered in blood. A preliminary examination showed that only his head had been cut open and his legs were fractured; there were no other problems. It could be counted as a blessing in misfortune!

Li Cihua stayed behind to cooperate with the police investigation, while Wang Shubin and Zhu Xiaozhang followed the ambulance and took Kang Jingming to the First People's Hospital.

By now Li Cihua was not afraid of anything. He had already reached demolition agreements with the residents of the building, so even if the police investigated, it did not matter. As for the matter of Kang Jingming, it could only be counted as an accident!

Kang Jingming lay on the ambulance with a bitter look on his face, howling in agony. He had never suffered such hardship in his life, and now both his legs were broken — what kind of pain was that!

"Damn you, Li Cihua, I will never let you off!" Kang Jingming said viciously.

"Young Master Ming, Li Cihua is Zhao Qibing's man. We can't afford to provoke him!" Wang Shubin knew Kang Jingming was furious, but Zhao Qibing was indeed someone the Kang family could not afford to provoke.