Police officer Chen Shu

Chapter 428 The Dead Middle-Aged Woman

In the corridor.

With a fire axe he'd grabbed from the property management office in his left hand and a wet towel covering his mouth and nose in his right, Chen Shu crouched low as he ran upstairs. Thick black smoke billowed towards his face, and the sizzling sound of the fire constantly assaulted his ears.

Starting from the second floor, residents piled up all sorts of odds and ends in the hallways, including huge cardboard boxes, plastic buckets, old bicycles, and even a rather large electric scooter with what appeared to be a power cord that was still charging.

Chen Shu, who had been looking serious, felt a pang of surprise when he saw the electric scooter. He couldn't help but admire the guy who was carrying it upstairs.

Considering that clutter blocking the stairwell would slow down the firefighters who would arrive later, Chen Shu kicked things aside one by one as he went upstairs, clearing a small passage and ensuring that the subsequent rescue forces could move freely.

On the west side of the third-floor stairwell, Chen Shu saw two men in police uniforms kneeling over a middle-aged woman who had collapsed, attempting to resuscitate her. Behind the woman was a half-open door.

"How is it?" Chen Shu squatted down to the side, glanced at the policeman wearing two epaulets and a red armband that read "Police Officer on Duty" on his right arm, and asked urgently.

The young police officer who was performing emergency chest compressions glanced back, his eyes blank. Seeing that it was his colleague in a SWAT training uniform, he silently shook his head and continued performing mechanical compressions.

"Wake up! Wake up!" Chen Shu shouted as he slapped the middle-aged woman's cheek hard.

Seeing no response, Chen Shu reached out and felt the woman's neck for a moment, realizing that she had no pulse.

He stopped the two police officers, who were still performing CPR, saying, "She might be dead. You need to get her out of the way and into the ambulance right now; there might still be a chance!"

"Huh? Oh!" The young police officer was completely unaware, and his hands continued to move.

A young man in a police auxiliary uniform, squatting nearby, said with a pained expression, "His leg is still trapped, we can't move him. Officer Ma, he insists on staying to rescue him."

Chen Shu squeezed in for a closer look and saw an extremely thick pipe pressing down on the woman's right thigh. When he first saw the woman's deformed and twisted thigh, the hairs on his entire body stood on end.

Although we've had our share of crime scenes before, this is the first time we've encountered such a close-up, vivid accident. The tubes and the woman's thigh were covered in blood, which is presumably the main cause of her death.

Chen Shu was worried about the old woman and her grandson in apartment 402 upstairs, but the trainee officer Ma was still fixated on the middle-aged woman who was completely dead.

With a long sigh, Chen Shu got up and, with the other two, tried to move the steel pipe that was pressing down on the woman's thighs. However, because the huge pipe was connected to the ceiling, no matter how hard the three of them tried, they couldn't budge it.

Chen Shu squatted down and began a rapid re-examination of the middle-aged woman's physical characteristics. The conclusion was still the same: dead.

He stood up, deciding not to waste any more time, and urged the two police officers, "There's an old man and a young child upstairs. We need to get upstairs immediately to rescue them."

The two police officers knelt beside the middle-aged woman who had fallen to the ground. After hesitating for a long time, they finally said, unable to bear it any longer, "I think we should get this person downstairs first."

The auxiliary police officer next to him chimed in, "Officer, the fire has already reached the top of the stairs, we can't go any further, the fire has completely blocked the way! Why don't we carry this woman downstairs first?"

Officer Ma bent down again to perform first aid, pressing on the woman's chest repeatedly, his movements stiff and mechanical.

Chen Shu pointed at the woman, wanting to say something, but then realized that these two police officers were not under his jurisdiction and had their own ideas. Even if he thought Officer Ma was doing useless work, it was none of his business as someone from another unit to interfere.

Swallowing hard, Chen Shu glanced at Officer Ma's blank stare, realizing this was probably the first time he'd encountered such a horrific scene. At that moment, his only thought was to save the person before him; everything else had to wait.

This was an obsession, but it was also his own decision.

If Chen Shu had insisted on taking Officer Ma upstairs to provide assistance at that moment, the man would have been psychologically traumatized after the middle-aged woman's death was confirmed, and would likely have felt considerable regret and remorse throughout his long police career.

"Then I'll leave this place to you. Remember to be careful. If the fire starts, they should run! There's no need to stay behind!" Chen Shu lowered his arm, gave the two policemen a heads-up, and continued running upstairs without looking back.

The auxiliary police officer looked up at the figure rushing upstairs without hesitation, and his mind went blank for a moment.

How could this SWAT officer have the mind to give instructions to the two people left behind? He was the one who was going into the fire!
Fourth floor!

Upon reaching the fourth floor, Chen Shu immediately felt wave after wave of intense heat emanating from the air. The raging fire before him seemed like a ferocious beast that had lost its control, lunging menacingly at Chen Shu.

This startled Chen Shu so much that he even forgot to breathe.

The scorching heat in the air made it impossible for him to lift his feet.

"Shu! What are you standing there for! Hurry up and save people!" A loud shout came from behind. Chen Shu turned around and saw Chen Chuan standing on the stairs not far below him, squinting his eyes and shouting at him.

"Why are you here!" Chen Shu asked anxiously.

"What are you asking? The person is already up here! Let's hurry up and save them! There's no time!" Chen Chuan strode over to Chen Shu's side and answered loudly.

"Yes! Help! Room 402, the old man and the child are in room 402!"

Chen Shu craned his neck to peer into the corridor, hoping to spot some useful signs.

"There!" He pointed to a gate to the west where a small fire was gradually spreading towards it.

Although the flames hadn't reached the main door yet, the scorching heat prevented Chen Shu and the others from approaching the door of room 402.

Chen Shu stomped his foot and threw the fire axe in his hand toward the door of room 402. He then turned around and ran down the third floor with Chen Chuan. Under the puzzled gaze of the auxiliary police officer on duty, he jumped over the body of the woman who had fallen to the ground and the two police officers on crutches who were mechanically performing first aid and rushed into the room behind them with the door open.

Upon entering the house, Chen Shu went straight to the bedroom, quickly rummaged through the closet, pulled out a quilt and bedding, tossed the bedding to Chen Chuan, and quickly shouted, "Go to the kitchen and add water to the quilt!"

After saying that, he quickly ran into the bathroom, turned on the shower, rinsed the blanket in his hand with water, and then sprayed himself with the showerhead haphazardly.

About ten seconds later, Chen Shu led Chen Chuan, who was also wrapped in a wet blanket, back up to the fourth floor.

With the fire contained by the wet blankets, the two of them made it to the door of room 402 without incident. But they had only taken a few steps when they heard a thud behind them. Chen Shu turned around in confusion and found that Chen Chuan had fallen face down on the ground.

"Uh, it's nothing. I just suddenly lost strength in my legs. I can get up, I can do it myself," Chen Chuan explained as he struggled to his feet.

Only then did Chen Shu realize that Chen Chuan hadn't brought anything with him and had followed him up to the fourth floor empty-handed. He was now gripping the bedding hanging on his body, panting heavily.

Chen Shu shoved the damp towel in his hand into Chen Chuan's hand and commanded in an unquestionable tone, "Take this and cover your nose!"

Then he turned around and started banging on the door of room 402.

"Clap clap clap!"

"Clap clap clap!"

"Open the door! Open the door! Is anyone inside?!"

There was no reaction from inside the room.

Chen Shu threw off the air-conditioning blanket, picked up the fire axe that had been thrown to him earlier, and began to smash the security door of room 402 repeatedly.

"Bang bang bang!"

After being hammered more than a dozen times with full force, the security door showed no signs of being forcibly opened, except for some dents on its exterior.

"Over here! Smash the window!"

Chen Chuan grabbed Chen Shu, who was still banging on the door, and pointed to a window facing the corridor not far away: "Shu! Smash the window! Take a gamble!"

Chen Shu understood what the other party meant. This window might be the window of room 403 next door, but the security door of room 402 couldn't be broken open right now, so they had no choice but to take a gamble.

Without hesitation, Chen Shu ran to the window that was sealed off by stainless steel security bars and smashed it open with a few loud bangs. Then, he and Chen Chuan tried to pull the security bars down from either side, but even with all their might, they couldn't remove the stainless steel bars that were firmly stuck to the wall.

Chen Chuan glanced back at the slowly spreading fire in horror and said urgently, "Book, quick! Quick! Quick!"

As for what he needed to do quickly, Chen Chuan ultimately didn't say it in his haste.

Chen Shu hung his arms at his sides, feeling the pain from the torn tiger's mouth, and remained silent with a sullen face.

(End of this chapter)