binnovel Chapter 518 Onlookers
Chapter 518 Onlookers
The crowd finally moved, retreating two or three meters, leaving a small area cleared up next to the guardrail.
Several staff members quickly stepped forward, forming a human shield to block the crowd from behind.
Xu Xiaoyan was squeezed in the middle of the crowd, surrounded by people all around her. The air was filled with a mixture of sweat, smoke, and some kind of indescribable anxiety.
She wasn't short, but among these tall, muscular adults, she was completely hidden from view.
You can only see a small patch of the river through the gap between other people's shoulders and heads.
She stood on tiptoe, craning her neck to try and see more clearly what was happening further downstream.
She couldn't see clearly, but she could piece together a general picture from the chatter of the crowd.
"I heard that someone is trapped downstream," a middle-aged man standing to her left said into his phone, his voice low, but Xu Xiaoyan, who was close by, heard him clearly.
"Yes, it's over there at the river bend. There were several people there, but the water rose too quickly, and they didn't have time to escape..."
"Did any officials go?"
"They've gone, they've gone. Two cars just passed by, but the road is bad and the water is too high. They might not be able to rescue them."
"Sigh, these people are really something. The dam releases water, and they go fishing. Aren't they just asking for trouble?"
"Who can argue with that? But then again, who knew we'd release such a huge amount of water today? We've released water before, but never this much."
"Young lady, young lady?" An older woman next to her patted her arm. "You don't look well, are you alright?"
Xu Xiaoyan snapped out of her daze and shook her head: "It's nothing, I'm just tired from walking."
The older woman looked her up and down, her gaze lingering on her mud-covered sweatpants and scraped knees.
His lips moved, as if he wanted to say something but swallowed it back. In the end, he just nodded and turned his gaze back to the river.
She withdrew from the crowd, and on her way back, she kept thinking about one question: Who was spreading false information? Why were the officials only arriving now to evacuate people?
She wasn't the type to question the government all the time; on the contrary, she thought that officials were generally quite reliable.
But she really can't understand what happened today.
Shouldn't such a major event as releasing water from a dam be announced in advance?
Even if the decision to release the floodwaters was made on short notice, there is still at least a few hours of buffer time between the dam and the downstream area of Qing City.
Didn't anyone think that someone was fishing downstream during those few hours?
Well, on second thought, she realized that she couldn't entirely blame the authorities.
The officials never imagined that so many clever people would go to such a far place to fish.
The more Xu Xiaoyan thought about it, the more she felt that the whole thing was absurd at its core.
Before she could even get back into the shop, she suddenly caught a glimpse of someone running across the street.
It wasn't just one person, it was several.
She instinctively turned her head and saw three people running out of the alleyway on the east side, their steps quick and hurried, heading towards the trading center.
The one running in front was a plump woman in her forties.
Wearing a brightly colored apron covered in flour, she looked like she had dropped her spoon and run out while cooking.
She was panting heavily, her face jiggling, but a look on her lips that didn't seem worried at all.
"Quick, quick, quick! There's trouble at the trading center!" The plump woman shouted back as she ran, her voice so loud it could be heard throughout the entire street.
The two people following behind were probably noodle shop employees, dressed in matching white work clothes.
"What's going on?" the noodle shop waiter asked, chasing after them.
"They say their family members were swept away by the flood, and they're demanding compensation from the government!" The plump woman's voice was filled with barely concealed excitement.
Xu Xiaoyan quickly followed.
She quickened her pace and caught up with the group ahead.
There were several times more people on the road than usual, and everyone was walking in the same direction.
An elderly woman, leaning on a cane, stood at her front door, craning her neck to look at the crowd, her face full of confusion: "What's going on? What's happening?"
"There's trouble at the trading center!" A passerby tossed out the comment without even turning his head.
The old lady paused for a moment, then followed along, leaning on her cane and trembling.
Xu Xiaoyan was swept along by the crowd, and the people around her were all talking at once.
"I heard it was washed away by the flood? About the flood discharge today?"
"Yes, yes, that's it. Several people were trapped downstream. The officials went but couldn't rescue many. The water level was too high."
"Oh dear, that's terrible! This could kill someone!"
"Who says otherwise? Look, the family members came and made a scene, demanding that the government pay compensation."
"Loss money? How much?"
"How would I know? I'll just have to go and see for myself."
The speaker was animated, and the listeners were captivated.
Everyone had a similar expression: bright eyes, upturned lips, and hurried steps, as if afraid of being late and missing out on a good spot.
No one showed the slightest sadness or worry, not even a feigned seriousness. Their faces clearly said: "They love to watch the drama unfold."
Xu Xiaoyan felt a little uncomfortable, but she couldn't explain where the discomfort came from.
Is it because these people are treating a potential tragedy as gossip fodder? Or is she unhappy because she herself almost got trapped?
The trading center is located on the main street of Qing City. It is usually the busiest place in the entire city, where rice, flour, cooking oil, daily necessities, and fresh fruits and vegetables are traded.
The mornings are the busiest, the afternoons are less crowded, and by evening there are hardly any people at all.
But today is different.
When Xu Xiaoyan turned the last corner, she saw a scene she had never seen before in the two months she had lived in Qing City.
The plaza in front of the trading center was packed with people, stretching from the steps all the way to the other side of the road, filling the entire plaza to capacity.
Those on the outermost edge were just there to watch the spectacle, standing on tiptoe and craning their necks, unable to see anything but refusing to move.
The middle layer consists of well-informed individuals who are spreading "insider information" that has passed through countless hands to those around them.
The real eye of the storm is at the very back, near the main entrance of the trading center.
With her relatively modest physique, Xu Xiaoyan managed to squeeze through the crowd, making a great effort to move from the outer perimeter to the center.
She chose a slightly elevated spot, the edge of a flower bed, where the view opened up considerably.
She finally saw the scene of the disturbance.
There were seven or eight people standing on the steps in front of the trading center.
The most conspicuous one was a woman at the very front, around forty years old, wearing a dark red cotton-padded jacket, her hair was loose, and her face was flushed red, it was hard to tell whether she was crying or shouting.
She was holding onto the sleeve of a man in a black jacket with one hand, pointing at the entrance of the trading center with the other, and her mouth was moving as if she were saying something.
But the distance was too far, and Xu Xiaoyan couldn't hear the specific content. She could only hear some intermittent syllables and a sudden rise in the volume of her sobs.