The Villainous Celebrity Wife of the CEO - Chapter 131.2

“What?”

Mu Xiulun’s pupils contracted, and his sleepiness instantly disappeared without a trace.

He glanced out the window —— The resort lodge stood by the coast, with a beautiful and pleasant landscape. He was staying in the most expensive suite among them with the highest terrain, so he had a clear view of the coastline a few hundred meters away.

There should have been a high tide now, but the coastline was contrary to common sense and receded to a kilometer away, leaving the shore full of stranded dead fish pushed up by the tide. Sea birds were flying around in the sky, playing a prelude to a cataclysmic disaster!

It was still early morning, but the beaches were already swarming with people, their backs to the sea and frantically fleeing. This was a natural disaster! An act of God! When the tsunami hit, ‘man can conquer nature’ would just be a comforting lie.

Those who had cars started driving, and so did the motorcyclists…Most tourists, however, had to rely on their own two feet, crying as they ran. They were obviously on a holiday trip. Who could have thought that they would be torn apart by a roaring tsunami? In 2004, a tsunami in Sumatra, Indonesia, killed more than 220,000 people. Would that disaster happen again today?

Secretary Gao spoke fast, “An undersea volcanic eruption triggered this tsunami. The government issued a tsunami warning ten minutes ago, saying that the tsunami will wash up to the coast in 40 minutes at the fastest. Dangerous areas are within five kilometers of the coastline, so we should go up the mountain immediately!” The car had been parked downstairs, and they could set off right away.

“Forty minutes?…It’s enough.” Mu Xiulun squinted, gazing at the tourists and residents fleeing downstairs: “Call the fleet captain. Let them drive the buses over and help evacuate the tourists.”

“What?!!”

In order to facilitate mining and transportation, laterite nickel mines were generally located in mountainous areas about 20 km from the coastline, and Mu Xiulun’s nickel mines were no exception. His mines were vast and employed a lot of workers. A few days ago, he recently bought twenty buses as a shuttle bus for the mine workers, and the buses were temporarily parked in the shore parking lot just because it would take some time to obtain the licenses.

Each bus could load fifty people, but when life was at stake in this kind of situation, a hundred people could definitely squeeze in it! Eight-wheeled buses always could flee faster than two-legged people. With twenty buses, that meant thousands of human lives. Mu Xiulun was not a cold-blooded machine. How could he watch these fresh lives fade away before his eyes, especially when he had the ability to save them?

Secretary Gao shook his head repeatedly: “Impossible, this is impossible! Mr. Mu, even if you want to save people, you have to think about the real scenario! This is a tsunami. The fleet drivers must have fled long ago. Who would drive back to save people just because of a phone call from you?”

“I may not call anybody, but what about my money?” Mu Xiulun looked solemn. “If a driver is willing to save people, he will be rewarded 100,000. If one dies because of me, there will be an additional 500,000.”

The local GDP per capita was extremely low. Even for highly educated white-collar workers, their monthly salary was only 500 to 600. For local lower-class residents, 100,000 was something a family of five people couldn’t earn a lifetime!

There would definitely be brave men under the heavy reward. Ten minutes later, the brand-new and neat buses parked at the shore; twenty, without one less! The doors of the buses were open, and the swarm of tourists quickly crowded the compartments.

With their initiative, many private cars stopped and offered to help tourists! Pickup trucks were prevalent in the local area, which was convenient for transporting goods. But now, more than a dozen people were squeezed in the tail body of pickup trucks. Just a few minutes ago, these people were ashen, thinking they were going to die here. But now, they all had the hope of “life” on their faces!

“—— Drive.”

Inside the SUV, Mu Xiulun looked back at the vast convoy behind him and pressed the talk button on his walkie-talkie.

The convoy set off. They turned their backs on the tide that was about to hit the shore, and sped off with full power towards the inland mountains.

※

“Hold on!”

Seeing that the team’s young PD was about to fall down with her wobbly legs, Su Jishi nimbly grasped her arm.

From the mountainside down to the foot of the mountain, they didn’t know how many somersaults they experienced. There were almost no formed paths under their feet; all of which were treaded on by previous tourists and wild beasts in the jungle. When they climbed the mountain, they suffered a lot. They climbed a steep soil slope with a drop of 30 meters for more than an hour; However, when going down the mountain, they ignored their fears and simply slid down from the top of the slope.

They couldn’t spare a second to clean minor scratches on their hands and faces. Behind them was a volcano that was about to erupt, so who was in the mood to care about little scrapes, ah?

Su Jishi and the tour guide were at the forefront of the team, and they would step up first in case of any danger; whenever Su Jishi encountered any difficulty, she went through first; she stood straight as a ramrod, like a lighthouse guiding the way in the waves. As long as the team saw her back, they felt more at ease.

All of a sudden, the mountain beneath their feet shook. The wave of vibration was not violent, like a head flopping on a soft bed and bouncing gently —— An earthquake!

Everyone’s nerves instantly tensed. Coincidentally, when they turned back for a look, they saw more and more gray smoke atop the towering crater. Moreover, those crackling magma was getting bigger and bigger. The conical body of the mountain seemed to conceal a balloon full of gas. The more it swell, the greater the chances of the surface popping, and the earthquake was akin to a needle point that would prick the surface of the balloon ——

——”Boom!”

They heard a muffled sound, accompanied by a tremor under their feet, then saw a black smoke suddenly soaring high up the crater!

Black smoke instantly soared up to more than a hundred meters in the air, and orange-red magma, visible to the naked eye, spilled out along the crater and rolled down the slope of the mountain. Wherever the magma passed, the hot torrent swept countless vegetation. The summit of the mountain pass was covered with that scorching heat.

…However, the lava only traveled a few hundred meters and abruptly stopped. Thousands of degrees of heat quickly cooled into a black and gray mud.

The group who crawled and rolled in their rush to the foot of the mountain: “…”

“???”

“!!!”

“The…The power of this volcanic eruption is too small.” Chen Gangyu croaked weakly, “A boiling pot of porridge is more than this movement.”

“I think it just burped!” Qin Qiu said, chagrined. His hair was sticking on ends at the top of his head, and his image as a teen idol was completely ruined: “Had I known that the might of the volcanic eruption is this small, there wouldn’t have been the need to rush, ah. I panicked going down without anything in the morning. I even put on my socks wrong.”

The crowd echoed his sentiments. When they heard that the volcano was about to erupt, countless clips in disaster movies instantly flashed in their minds. They thought that they would definitely die here today. Against all odds, this volcanic eruption bore none of the ‘earth-shaking’ signs they had imagined, rendering all their fears like a joke.

The Chief Director nodded at his words. His heart was dripping with blood as he thought of the millions of dollars worth of camera equipment they had left in the camp. A camera weighed twenty pounds, so before they retreated, he asked the cameramen to take all the memory cards. But how could these flimsy little cards be as valuable as the cameras?!

Seeing that the eruption did not cause any substantial danger, the Chief Director proposed, “How about we go back…?”

“What do you mean go back!” Su Jishi sternly shouted, silencing the team once more, “Volcanic eruptions and earthquakes are alike. They don’t end in one wave! Earthquakes have aftershocks, and volcanic eruptions also come in waves! That was just the vanguard. No one knows how big the next wave will be or when it will actually come!”

As if to confirm her words, aftershocks continued to occur underfoot. At the same time, the black smoke on top of the volcano got thicker and thicker, like a black silk blotting out the sky and covering the sun, shading the heavens!

Next came a thunder-clap like sound overhead! Black smoke gushed out from the crater and instantly shot up nearly a thousand meters into the air! This time, the magma appeared to have blown up. It directly splashed out, mixed with volcanic ash and fell on the hillside, forming a terrifying ‘pyroclastic flow’ together with the surging hot gas and rocks!

Pyroclastic flow was definitely the number one killer of volcanic eruptions. It looked like thick mud to the naked eye, but its lethality far exceeded ordinary mudslides. It would come with a devastating force, and in just a few minutes, it could roll from the top of the mountain to the mountainside.

It was not only the debris flow that took the lives of people, but also the volcanic ash that rushed up to the sky, spilled out in all directions, and soon fell back to earth under the gravity’s pull. Its speed was even faster than the former. Looking from afar, you could only see endless smoke sweeping in, like a horrifying mouth, waiting to devour you!

Volcanic ash was just fine dust. A small amount was not lethal, but once inhaled in large quantities into the lungs, it would definitely trigger dust pneumonia and choking. The vast majority of the people of Pompeii, who were historically buried at the foot of the volcano, did not die from the lava, but from asphyxiation due to the excessive inhalation of volcanic ash!

“Run!” Su Jishi shouted, “Behind these woods is the road. The bus is waiting for us there!”

The team was scheduled to return home today, so they had arranged in advance for a shuttle bus to transport everyone back to the nearby airport. Before going down the mountain, Su Jishi specially contacted the driver and promised him a heavy sum of money to stay in place and stand by. On the hillside just now, the crowd had seen the shadow of the bus, so as long as they ran faster, they could escape the clutches of death!

At this moment, the desire to survive overshadowed the body’s exhaustion. Everyone threw off their burdens and ran towards the distance in a sprint.

50 meters,80 meters, 100 meters.

200 meters, 300 meters, 500 meters…

Closer, closer!

They dashed out of the woods and were on their last sprint just a hundred meters away from the bus!

However, they never expected that the last barrier in front of them was actually a man-made ditch about three meters deep! When building the forest road, the ditch was dug on both sides of the road in order to prevent large animals from accidentally crossing the road and causing traffic accidents. And now, this ditch bordered on the wrath of God, blocking their escape!

Fortunately, the guide was familiar with the terrain and pointed out an ‘improvised bridge’ —— A villager cut off several bamboos and tied them together to form a thin and narrow make-do bridge. The guide jumped on it first, and in a few steps scampered across the ditch and reached the highway.

The bus driver opened the door and pressed the horn desperately, urging them to get on the bus as soon as possible.

Although three meters was not deep, a fall would certainly hurt the bones. But at this moment, nobody cared about the deep ditch beneath their feet any longer. All eyes were on the bus —— on the hope of survival!

Everyone jumped onto the bamboo bridge one by one, and quickly ran towards the other side of the bridge.

Su Jishi took the initiative to bring up the rear. Xiao Xia was infinitely loyal and wanted to stay with her. However, Su Jishi pushed her onto the bamboo bridge.

By the time the last person boarded the bus, the black smoke already drew at a close distance. The horrific power of nature was on full display at this moment.

Screams rose and fell as Xiao Xia cried out, “Sister Su, come over here!!! Run over here!!!”

Su Jishi abandoned all distractions and quickly jumped onto the bamboo bridge. However, she was still a step too late —— Before she could stand still, the black smoke that came from behind her opened a giant net and swallowed her whole!

…

The smoke filled the air and blocked all sight.

When Su Jishi fell from the swaying bamboo bridge, she felt as if her spirit had traveled through time and space in just a few seconds, back to ten years ago.

Ten years ago, she finally enrolled in the school of her dreams.

Ten years ago, she picked up the three treasures of geology and embarked on her first field expedition with great excitement.

Ten years ago, as a young girl, she listened attentively to her professor’s sage advice around the campfire.

—— “As a geologist, you should always remember that in front of nature, human beings are ultimately insignificant.”