Chapter 276 — Grim Prospects
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
"Xiao Song, what is it? Something the matter? I'm at a conference in the provincial capital." Yang Huaijun picked up the call and asked.
"Mm? Chief Yang—you're not at the bureau?" Qiu Lingshan was taken aback in turn, never having guessed that today of all days he would be away. "You haven't heard what happened at the amusement park?"
"What happened at the amusement park?" Yang Huaijun genuinely had no idea. His phone had been switched off during the session; now, in the recess, he had turned it on to see whether any urgent messages had come in from his subordinates, and he had barely booted the thing up when Qiu Lingshan's call came through.
"Shen Yushu—and your friend Wei Zhao—were bungee jumping when the rope suddenly snapped, and the two of them fell into the sea together..." Qiu Lingshan reported. "We've already asked the coast guard to help sweep a kilometer of the surface, but there's no sign of either of them. The coast guard are asking whether to widen the search radius, or... But in my own opinion, with the two of them tied together by the bungee cord when they hit the water, even if they could swim they would hardly come through—prospects are grim..."
"Grim prospects?" Yang Huaijun echoed the words with an odd, half-amused air, at a loss for what to say.
When he had first caught the name Shen Yushu, his heart had lurched—Chen Yuxuan's own sister in trouble, and this was no small matter by any reckoning. But on hearing that she had fallen into the sea together with Wei Zhao, his heart dropped straight back down into his chest. In a situation like that, he himself would hardly die—let alone Wei Zhao. With Wei Zhao there, Shen Yushu was certain to come through unharmed, and Qiu Lingshan was thinking far, far too much.
"No sign of them within a kilometer. Either the sea carried them farther out, or they've already gone to the bottom," Qiu Lingshan said. "Either way, there's no hope of survival."
"Xiao Song, you can have the coast guard stand down," Yang Huaijun said.
"Oh? Director Yang, you mean to call off the search?" Qiu Lingshan had been thinking the same thing herself, but since Shen Yushu was involved, the matter still gave her a bit of a headache.
She did not have the best impression of Shen Yushu's brother, Chen Yuxuan, but work and personal life were two entirely different matters.
"Call it off? Who said anything about calling it off?" Yang Huaijun laughed.
"But Director Yang, weren't you the one who told the coast guard to stand down?" Qiu Lingshan was taken aback.
"Standing down doesn't mean giving up the search," Yang Huaijun said. "I never told your people to stand down."
"But we..." Qiu Lingshan did not quite follow him. "If even the coast guard can't find them, how are we supposed to search?"
"Who said anything about searching the sea? Have your people take a speedboat and comb the coastline nearby—you may well find them there." Yang Huaijun pointed her down a shortcut.
"The coastline? Director Yang, you mean to look for their bodies washed ashore?" Qiu Lingshan would never believe that the two of them could have survived under such circumstances.