Seeing their cautious reactions, Yao Tang added, “I grew up in the mountains. I have experience with these things.”
Thankfully, this helped put everyone at ease. They quickly formed a single file behind her and followed her down the mountain.
Despite the landslide and the original trail being destroyed, Yao Tangmanaged to lead them on asmoothand relatively safe path.
She practically knew the landscape like the back of her hand.
When they were halfway to the foot of the mountain, a helicopter appeared above them and hovered over the peak.
The sight made them relax even further, and some of them even had smiles on their faces as they waved at the helicopter.
At that same moment, the rescue team had also pinpointed their location. Their salvation was as good as guaranteed.
Just as they were about to celebrate, they heard Yao Tangyell urgently, “Everyone, spread out!”
Even though they all wondered at her words, their bodies immediately responded and did as she instructed.
It was as if some mysterious force had propelled them to act before their minds could even comprehend what was happening.
The next thing they knew, the helicopter was diving straight into the ground.
A rumbling sound filled the air.
The main pilot looked surprised and terrified at the same time. He struggled to regain control of the helicopter, but to no avail.
He could only brace himself for the inevitable impact.
Putting their survival aside, he was painfully aware that there were students below them. If they crashed into those poor kids…
He couldn’t even bear to think of the magnitude of the damage and the number of casualties.
He could almost imagine how brutal the media would be.
“Unfortunate students experience one catastrophe after another in a single day.”
“The earthquake didn’t claim many lives, but the rescue team did cause a lot of fatal injuries.”
“Rescue team’s helicopter engine failed mid-flight. Who will bear responsibility for the disaster that followed?”
Taking a deep breath, the pilot yelled at his team to follow standard emergency procedures and hitch up their parachutes.
Even so, he didn’t have much hope for their survival.
The helicopter was going down, fast.
There was a chance that they would be hitting the ground before they even managed to jump out of the helicopter.
But muscle memory was an incredible skill to possess.
Despite the gravity of the situation, they were able to keep to the rigorous training they had been practicing all these years.
He and his team floated in the air as the helicopter made impact. They landed safely around its ruins.
Despite being safe themselves, the men’s hearts were heavy as they thought of the poor students who might have been squashed by the helicopter.
The pilot himself didn’t care about his aching body and dragged himself to the site to inspect the casualties.
Upon closer inspection, however, he was pleasantly surprised to find that no one was hurt.
The students were all spread out a few feet away from the crash, and they were lying on the ground like a bunch of turnips.
But he wanted to make sure.
“Is everyone okay?” he asked. “Did anyone fail to run away in time?”
At this point, the teachers got back to their feet and approached the helicopter to make sure that there were no casualties.
After taking the roll call, they finally heaved a collective sigh of relief.
Everybody was still there.
Some had incurred minor injuries when they fled the spot, but they were otherwise all right.
If the students had been harmed by the accident, the teachers didn’t know how they would be able to cope with the situation.
Fortunately, despite their miserable state, no one had lost a life.
All in all, it might even be considered a miracle.