"It’s bad, the factory is on fire!" On the other end of the phone, Cao Yufei’s voice was noticeably anxious.
"On fire?" Qi Yun’s heart tightened suddenly, and his eye twitched involuntarily. He quickly asked, "Is it serious? Are you alright?"
"I’m fine. The warehouse... the warehouse caught fire. The fire trucks have arrived, but we don’t know the extent of the damage to the herbs yet. You should come over if you can." Cao Yufei replied quickly.
"Alright, I’ll come over right now!"
After hanging up the phone, Qi Yun’s expression instantly became grave.
He quickly threw on his clothes, not even bothering to say goodbye to Zhao Qing, and hurried out the door, started the car, and drove towards the pharmaceutical factory.
Half an hour later, just as the car turned the corner, he saw lights flashing in the direction of the pharmaceutical factory, accompanied by billowing thick smoke rising into the sky.
Qi Yun quickly parked the car by the roadside and ran anxiously toward the factory gate.
There stood Cao Yufei, looking anxiously around, his face full of unease.
Inside the factory area, the water jets from the fire trucks continually sprayed towards the warehouse. The fire seemed to be under some degree of control, but there were still visible flames, and thick smoke filled the air, making it hard to breathe due to the acrid smell.
"How’s the situation?" Qi Yun shouted, his voice drowned by the roar of the firetrucks and the surrounding crowd’s noise.
Cao Yufei turned his head, seeing it was Qi Yun, and shouted back: "The fire’s not completely out yet, and we still don’t know the damage to the herbs in the warehouse."
Qi Yun nodded slightly and gently patted his shoulder; this was not the time to ask more questions.
After waiting for over ten minutes, finally, a weary firefighter walked out from inside the factory.
Cao Yufei hurried to meet him and asked anxiously, "Thank you for your hard work, comrade. I am the person in charge of the pharmaceutical factory; what’s the situation inside?"
The firefighter took off his helmet, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and his expression was slightly grave: "The fire in the two burning warehouses has been put out, but the situation inside is not promising. The fire area is large, and the things inside are likely hard to preserve."
"You can wait a while to check it yourself after confirming it’s safe inside."
Upon hearing this, Cao Yufei’s face turned pale, and he trembled slightly.
The pharmaceutical factory has a total of three large warehouses. The one on the left stored the leftover herbs from the factory, which is the last asset of the factory.
The right warehouse was just cleared out this afternoon, holding the 7 tons of Tufuling worth over a hundred thousand. Orıginal content can be found at 𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭•𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘦•𝘯𝘦𝘵
No matter which warehouse caught fire, it means a huge loss.
The middle warehouse was used for storing some miscellaneous items.
He was sleeping in the dormitory facing the middle warehouse.
When the fire broke out, he was about to fall asleep but suddenly smelled a thick smoke. As he got up to check, he saw smoke billowing from the top of the warehouse storing miscellaneous items.
He quickly ran to the warehouse, grabbing a fire extinguisher, ready to go in and put out the fire. But as he got closer, he saw the fire was already blazing, and a small fire extinguisher was of no use, so he hurriedly called the fire department.
"Alright, thank you, comrade, for your hard work." The sentence almost exhausted all of Cao Yufei’s energy.
The firefighter patted his shoulder and comforted him: "Don’t be too anxious. Go in and take a careful look; maybe it’s not as bad as imagined." After saying that, the firefighter turned to attend to other tasks.
Seeing Cao Yufei’s demeanor, Qi Yun felt a pang in his heart and comforted him: "Lao Cao, as long as we’re alright, we’ll check inside first before considering further."
Cao Yufei nodded bitterly, said no more, and anxiously paced back and forth in the same place, waiting for the situation in the warehouse to be confirmed safe.
Finally, a firefighter came out to inform them they could go in and check.
The two quickly walked into the factory; the two warehouses on the right had been burned beyond recognition, with a pungent smell of combustion and moisture hitting them, making it hard to keep their eyes open.
"You can take a look from outside; we need to conduct further inspections inside." A firefighter stopped them in their tracks.
The two nodded, standing at the entrance, looking inside. The warehouse was a complete mess; the neatly stacked Tufuling was now either burned to ashes or soaked beyond recognition by water.
The air was filled with a pungent mix of scorched scent and Tufuling’s unique medicinal smell.
Looking at the devastation inside the warehouse, Cao Yufei’s legs went weak, almost collapsing to the ground, but fortunately, Qi Yun was quick-eyed and quick-handed, supporting him upright.
Cao Yufei’s eyes turned red instantly, his voice trembling as he said, "What are we going to do?"
Goods worth over a hundred and sixty thousand were almost entirely gone.
In this already difficult situation, it was now a double blow. He didn’t know how to explain himself to Qi Yun.
Qi Yun pulled him up, patted his shoulder, and said, "Stay strong, this is not the time to fall. Let’s go check the other warehouse."
Cao Yufei nodded with difficulty, regained his composure, and the two headed toward the left warehouses.
The middle warehouse storing miscellaneous items was completely burned to the ground, with only a steel frame left standing.
The situation in the leftmost warehouse was much better; the herbs inside were mostly unaffected.
After coming out of the warehouse, Qi Yun looked at Cao Yufei with a solemn expression and asked: "Do you know the cause of the fire?"
Cao Yufei stared blankly and shook his head: "I’m not sure. I was about to fall asleep when I suddenly smelled the pungent smoke, got up to look, and realized it was on fire."