MMB Chapter 1494 Interlude: Waiting for the City to Fall Asleep Again
Chapter 1494 Interlude: Waiting for the City to Fall Asleep Again
Chapter 1494 Interlude: Waiting for the City to Fall Asleep Again
Midnight is still, until the city falls asleep again.
The vast night sky and the ever-burning lights on the ground depict the expansiveness and prosperity of the capital city.
As the night wind carries the dreams of countless people up into the dark sky, a figure lands on the top of the Starfall Tower as usual.
After everyone had fallen asleep, it quietly flew out of the hut.
Black hair was disheveled in the night, the long, blackened hem of his robe billowed in the night wind, and his figure, seated on the edge of the tower, merged into the darkness beneath the infinitely distant night sky.
Fang Ran gazed quietly into the distance at the entire capital city under the night sky with his dark eyes.
I haven't exercised for the past few nights since returning from North America; I've just been sitting on top of the tower like this. It's not just because my previous injury still needs some rest.
It's also because he has a lot of things to think about.
Thinking about the vigorous night battles, the crises of the underworld, the economic knowledge he didn't understand, the qualifications he lacked as an A-level superior, the impending ignition of the night, and the pros and cons of having or not having abilities.
Thinking about everything he had gained during his trip to North America.
However, besides these things, he was also thinking about something else tonight.
Fang Ran recalled the figure that had emerged from the past during the day, and the various scenes he had spent with Ling, whom he didn't know.
The night breeze lingered atop the tower, crushing countless thoughts into the boundless darkness.
He thought about the last question the other person had asked him.
And then, with that thought in mind, I don't know how much time passed...
He suddenly raised his dark eyes.
The northern part of Beijing, near the suburbs.
In the deep of night, at a construction site where a logistics park is under construction.
The construction site was silent in the dead of night, deserted and dark except for the guardhouse and a few scattered lights. The massive pit in the center, tens of meters deep, was filled with steel reinforcement, resembling the gaping maw of a terrifying beast.
Trucks, piles of concrete, huge stacks of steel, large drilling rigs, and other things were all silent in the darkness.
The night wind tried to pass through the steel frame, but it couldn't make a sound; it was as if even the air itself had stopped moving.
Everything was happening quietly at night during the foundation construction phase.
And then, as this silence continued quietly into the deep of night...
I don't know when it started, without any warning!
On one side of the foundation pit, which is tens of meters in diameter, the inner wall supported by steel bars suddenly began to leak, and piping occurred as groundwater continued to seep out.
In the dead of night, unnoticed by anyone, large amounts of earth were silently and rapidly being lost.
Until a certain critical point is exceeded!
With a large amount of earthwork lost and the supporting structure altered, an overloaded steel bar first buckled and bent, triggering a chain reaction that resulted in the collapse of eight consecutive steel supports in an instant.
The silence was shattered; the transition from stillness to motion took only a second.
boom---!
With a deafening roar, the entire massive foundation pit collapsed in the dead of night!
The sudden, loud noise, along with the alarm that detected leakage in the foundation pit, immediately woke up the people on duty in the control room and those patrolling and guarding the area.
Several figures then rushed in from all directions in a panic.
The leader immediately directed people to turn on the construction site lights, while he himself rushed towards the construction site with a flashlight.
In the darkness, the foundation pit was collapsing, and the crisp sound of breaking steel bars echoed like firecrackers.
The heavy darkness seemed to suffocate him, leaving him only able to hear the pounding of his own chest as he leaned forward, enveloped by a tremendous sense of panic.
As the project manager, that is, the person in charge of this construction site,
He had only stayed overnight in the duty room because he had been supervising the work late into the day, and he never expected to encounter such a situation!
At that moment, another loud 'boom' of collapse was heard.
We've arrived near the foundation pit, and the site lights are all on. In the not-so-large area of the light,
The project manager looked at the east side of the massive foundation pit, where the already collapsed inner walls were undergoing secondary subsidence, and large amounts of excavated soil and silt were being dumped, dragging nearby drilling rigs and dump trucks down into the pit, which was more than ten meters deep.
All the steel and other materials that were originally piled up in the foundation pit were buried!
In the heavy darkness, the muffled thuds of collapsing earth rolled over my feet, mingling with the ominous cawing of crows in the night, creating a scene of utter devastation.
Upon witnessing this scene, the project manager felt his blood run cold.
This suburban area was originally a small quarry backfill area, with unstable backfill soil and abandoned mine tunnels underground.
Because they rushed the construction before the Lunar New Year and didn't conduct sufficient site surveys, the steel reinforcement supports were wider than the standard. In addition, the groundwater level rose due to clogged drainage wells a few days ago, and there may also be other management oversights.
As the site manager, he knew very well that the accident was most likely caused by these reasons. But at this moment, he had no mind to delve into the cause of the accident; the project manager's eyes were glazed over, and only one thought occupied his mind.
It's all over, completely over.
The completed parts are not too expensive, but the two buried rotary drilling rigs alone cost over 300 million yuan each, and the other excavators and dump trucks also added up to a considerable amount of money.
There are also several hundred tons of steel and thousands of cubic meters of concrete in the pit, which will cost another two to three million.
In addition to these direct losses, the subsequent rescue and clearing of the foundation pit, and the transportation of the collapsed soil will definitely cause delays due to the halted construction schedule, resulting in penalties for breach of contract and safety supervision fines.
Tonight's accident will cause at least 2000 million in losses!
The only saving grace is that no one was injured because it happened late at night.
But what he dared not think about was the aftermath. After such a major accident, would the investors withdraw their funding, or would the project be abandoned?
The most pressing matter is that with the year-end approaching, these next few days are the time to pay the workers' wages.
How can he possibly ensure the workers get their wages so they can go home for the New Year in this situation?
"It's over. It's all over."
Staring blankly at the collapsed foundation pit before him, the project manager's legs gave way and he collapsed to his knees, muttering involuntarily as if he had lost his soul.
With such a major accident, he, as the person in charge of the construction site, absolutely cannot escape responsibility.
Then, with another loud 'boom,' another collapse erupted, further exacerbating the already serious situation. Huge amounts of soil, rocks, and mud poured down, seemingly threatening to completely bury half of the foundation pit.
If this happens, the accident will be completely irreversible.
But in that very instant!
As the crows cawed once more in the dead of night, a figure appeared in mid-air, his dark form blending into the darkness. Only the burning night behind him flickered with runes, illuminating along with the brilliant gold in his pupils.
As his dark eyes looked down at the collapsed scene, he calmly stretched out his right hand towards the pit below.
A shadow instantly expanded! As if all the lights were extinguished, the entire construction site was plunged into darkness once more, then, seemingly unseen by anyone, it exuded an irresistible aura of authority.
In mid-air, the dark figure gently raised its right hand.
The next second, the rumbling sound of earth and rocks rang out again, but this time the direction of the collapse was different, as if defying the laws of gravity.
The area that was originally collapsed and buried contained hundreds of tons of steel, soil, rocks, and construction machinery.
In the pitch-black night, everything in the entire foundation pit was suspended in mid-air and floated up!
Then, as if controlled by unseen hands, piles of steel, bags of concrete, rotary drilling rigs, excavators, and everything else that had been buried were all moved to safety.
The tens of millions of yuan in losses that would have otherwise required enormous human and material resources to salvage, and which might not have been recoverable, have now been safely restored.
Finally, amidst the deafening roar of collapsing earth, rocks, and debris falling back to their original positions,...
The dark figure glanced at the kneeling figure below, and at the growing number of people arriving.
He turned and disappeared into the air.
The winter night was cold and clear; the icy night wind once again swept across the spire of the Starfall Tower.
At this moment, it gently descended back to the top of the tower, returning from the pitch-black suburbs to the brightly lit central city. The burning hem of its dress once again fluttered in the night.
Fang Ran then gently exhaled a puff of white breath, and then took out his phone and dialed a number.
“Emma, I just encountered a collapse at a construction site in the suburbs of the North District. I used my abilities to confirm that there were no casualties and no witnesses.”
"I'll need your help with the follow-up work by the relevant departments."
"Okay, participant - Fang Ran."
On the phone, Emma's mechanical doppelganger's calm female voice came through as always.
After reporting the incident and hanging up the phone, Fang Ran sat on the edge of the tower, his bright, golden black eyes gazing into the distance, lost in thought.
He actually knew from the beginning that there were no casualties there.
He actually arrived much earlier.
But it wasn't until the final wave of collapse erupted that he finally made up his mind to take action.
"Even if you do that, it's pointless."
At that moment, a clear and calm female voice suddenly sounded softly from behind.
Upon hearing this voice, Fang Ran turned his head in disbelief, and then he saw Ling's tall figure with her long, light-gold hair fluttering in the night breeze.
Under the vast night sky,
The young man in the long black robe now faced a mature queen who had stepped out of the past.
Ahhh, sorry, I could have finished this chapter a few days ago, but I had a meltdown a few days ago. The reason was that I hadn't seen anyone for a month at the end of the month, and I felt emotionally unfulfilled, lonely, and anxious. So, I was slowly recovering, which delayed me for two days. Also, it's so hard to come up with a plot for the night. Just thinking about how difficult the next chapter will be gives me a headache (sigh). And what was I originally going to say? Ah, my mind is completely blank at this point, and I've forgotten everything. (PS: Why do I get sleepy when I drink coffee?! Is it because I added too much sugar? But it doesn't taste good without sugar. You guys add sugar to your Luckin Coffee, right?)