Xia Zhe lowered his head and thought for a moment before saying in a muffled voice, “If you… if you like them… no! You can’t like them! You can’t go anywhere!”
Xia Zhe originally thought that if Qiao Mei really fancied any of his brothers-in-arms, he would give them his blessings. After all, Qiao Mei was somewhat forced to marry him back then, but now, Xia Zhe did not want anyone else to touch Qiao Mei.
Qiao Mei could only be his and she must be his. Any thoughts that Qiao Mei might have of leaving him must be nipped in the bud.
“Hahahahahaha, what are you thinking about, I’m already yours. Our child is about to be born, so who else should I be looking for when I only want the child’s father.” Qiao Mei giggled as she looked at the jealous Xia Zhe.
Only then did Xia Zhe realize that he had been tricked by Qiao Mei again. It seemed that he was going to be played by this little girl for the rest of his life.
Even after the two of them bantered for such a long time, there was still no sign of the search and rescue team. Xia Zhe touched the wall next to him to get a sense of the structure between the stone slabs. He gave the wall a hard push and realized that they were trapped. They would not be able to get out of danger by themselves.
Generally speaking, all the houses here were quite old and the frames of the houses were mostly not sturdy. However, there were also buildings that had been rebuilt during a later period and it seemed that they had unexpectedly encountered one of these buildings.
He did not know whether to be happy or unhappy.
“Sigh.” Xia Zhe sighed softly.
“What’s wrong?” Qiao Mei asked.
Earlier, Qiao Mei had already used plants to do some scouting. Although they were trapped under the stone slabs, as long as there was movement outside, they would still be heard if they called for help. It was not as bad as they had imagined.
“It’s nothing. They’ll be here to rescue us in a while,” Xia Zhe said and took out a pack of hardtack from his pocket.
“Here, this is military ration and it’s very hard. We don’t have water now, eat it slowly so you don’t get choked,” Xia Zhe said to Qiao Mei.
Qiao Mei put the hardtack back into Xia Zhe’s pocket. This is a life-saving ration and she could not eat it just like that. After all, they did not know how long they would have to stay here.
“Put it away first. We can eat it when we’re hungry. I’m not hungry now, so don’t waste it,” Qiao Mei said.
Xia Zhe nodded and put away the hardtack. Fortunately, the two of them were able to move around slightly within this space and there was nothing directly pressing on them.
Qiao Mei gently shifted her position and used the vines to burrow into the ground to sense the location of the search and rescue team. Then, she gently made a soft sound to attract the rescue dogs.
For humans, such sounds were too soft to be heard, but animals had sharper senses and could distinguish small changes in their environments.
When the rescue dogs heard the sound, they barked loudly and broke free from the ropes to search for Qiao Mei’s location.
After sniffing the areas one after another, a rescue dog stood on top of the ruins above Qiao Mei and Xia Zhe and kept barking.
“Woof! Woof!”
“Mei Mei! It’s a rescue dog!” Xia Zhe said in surprise.
“Help!” Qiao Mei shouted loudly.
“Help! We’re here! Zhuang Hua! Zhang Yong! Zhao Wu! We’re here!” Xia Zhe kept calling out.
When Zhang Yong and the other two men heard the voices, they immediately rushed over.
“Boss! We’re coming!” Zhang Yong said.
“Big brother! Are you okay!” Zhao Wu asked.
“We are holding up!” Xia Zhe replied.
“Be gentle! Don’t let too many people go up and cause a second collapse! Carry out the rescue carefully! There can’t be any accidents!” Zhuang Hua said to the search and rescue soldiers beside him.
“Yes!”
The soldiers carried out the search and rescue operation nervously. They cleared the stone slabs bit by bit and tried to find out more about the structure. Through the gaps, they observed the position and situation of Xia Zhe and Qiao Mei. No one dared to make a wrong move, afraid that they would encounter a second collapse.
Xia Zhe hugged Qiao Mei tightly and tried his best to shield her with his body to protect her from harm.
Qiao Mei hugged Xia Zhe quietly. She watched Xia Zhe’s every move and remembered all of them well. She came to understand that Xia Zhe really cared about her.
After 50 minutes, the last stone slab was lifted and Xia Zhe and Qiao Mei were rescued.
Everyone did not think too much about it when they saw Xia Zhe hugging Qiao Mei tightly. After all, their role was to protect the public from harm and ensure that nothing went wrong.