Countdown: Humanity's struggle to survive against yesterday

Chapter 7, First Impression

Jiang Ning forced himself to suppress his nausea and avoided looking at the deformed or missing corpses, trying to focus his gaze on those who were still groaning.

These survivors were covered in dust and blood, their faces contorted in pain. Some were wailing, others looked terrified and blank, and still others were shouting, "Doctor, doctor, save me!"

There were only a dozen or so medical personnel on site, but at a rough glance, there were already no fewer than a hundred injured people lying on the ground.

These medical staff had expressionless faces, yet they possessed a professional demeanor, remaining calm and composed no matter how much the injured cried out in pain.

The scene was very noisy, with women wailing, children crying, police shouting, rescuers' urgent calls, and the sirens of cars involved in accidents on the roadside. All sorts of sounds rose and fell, and Jiang Ning felt a buzzing in his ears. He stood there blankly, his hands clenched into fists.

After a long time, Jiang Ning couldn't help but jump out of the car and help a nurse hold down an injured person.

"Thanks!"

After bandaging the injured man, the nurse pointed ahead and said wearily, "Sir, if you really want to help, go assist that young lady and give her this pair of scissors for me."

Jiang Ning looked in the direction the nurse was pointing and saw a woman who clearly did not look like a professional medical worker. She had short hair, a delicate profile, and was wearing a white coat. She was trying her best to comfort a male patient.

Jiang Ning nodded, took the scissors, and quickly walked towards the short-haired woman. Without saying anything, he handed her the scissors.

The short-haired woman looked up at Jiang Ning, then at the scissors in his hand, and was clearly taken aback.

"Stop the bleeding..." Jiang Ning said calmly.

"How do we stop it?" the short-haired woman asked.

Jiang Ning stopped talking, turned the scissors around and quickly started cutting from the injured man's ankle and trouser leg, all the way up to his thigh, until the white, broken bone was exposed, before carefully stopping.

Jiang Ning didn't know what the short-haired woman thought when she saw the half-section of human bone with muscles sticking out. He only felt nauseous and disgusted, and wanted to escape from there immediately.

However, he held back!

This might be because they had seen many more injured people along the way, which made them more able to endure it.

It could also be because, having decided to step in and help, as a man, he had no choice but to endure it.

Jiang Ning didn't have time to think about what the short-haired woman would do, and continued, "Hold him down!"

The short-haired woman immediately stepped forward, bent down, and pressed down on the man's shoulders.

Jiang Ning carefully pulled the drawstring from the man's cotton trousers, then slowly threaded it through the man's broken thigh. After taking a deep breath, he tied a knot in the drawstring with both hands and pulled hard, creating a makeshift knot.

"Ahhh..."

The man screamed in pain, but the short-haired woman was decisive. She gave up trying to control his struggles and let him pound the ground with his hands. Instead, she used her hands to pinch his mouth tightly to prevent him from biting his tongue. She only stopped when the man was in so much pain that he fell into a semi-conscious state.

After stopping, she looked at Jiang Ning: "Is this what you meant by stopping the bleeding?"

Jiang Ning did not refute, and continued to hand the scissors to the short-haired woman.

The short-haired woman showed no dissatisfaction with Jiang Ning's attitude. She took the scissors, got up, and went to the next injured person. Jiang Ning looked at her back, hesitated for a moment, and then chose to follow her.

He could roughly understand the emotions in the other person's tone just now, and that they probably felt the same way he did.

It's impossible to truly stop the bleeding, and there's no way to do so!

Perhaps all the two of them can do is to fulfill their humanitarian obligations, alleviate the pain of the wounded, and provide some psychological comfort.

The short-haired woman clearly realized this as well, and just did the same.

But Jiang Ning felt that since he had decided to help, he should also help with physical means!

There was another point that neither of them explicitly stated, but Jiang Ning knew that the short-haired woman certainly understood as well: if the world continued to regress, there was no need to save her; she would definitely be perfectly fine tomorrow.

However, the two of them tacitly remained silent.

Jiang Ning likes people who are not talkative but intelligent, both in the past and during the past year when she locked herself at home.

As Jiang Ning followed along, Lin Wei's face flashed through his mind. She used to be just like that—not talkative, but very intelligent.

Since they got together, the two have hardly ever argued, because when a smart person speaks or acts, it makes the other person feel that they are even smarter.

This is a very comfortable way of getting along, intimate yet respectful of boundaries...

However, I seem to have let that trust down...

The moment the thought crossed Jiang Ning's mind, he felt a tearing pain in his heart, his face turned deathly pale, as if all the blood in his body had frozen, and he couldn't help but sway.

He quickly stopped himself from thinking about it, and only after he had steadied himself did he hurry to catch up with the short-haired woman.

The two quickly walked to the next injured person. This person was relatively lucky; he had only suffered a cut on his forehead and was otherwise unharmed. The short-haired woman comforted him while Jiang Jing quietly observed him and stopped the bleeding as needed.

During the conversation, Jiang Ning roughly understood the cause of the incident from the injured person.

The accident occurred on Metro Line 7. After a new round of "world regression" phenomena, the entire train stopped suddenly for unknown reasons, then overturned in the tunnel and crashed all the way to the platform.

Jiang Ning roughly estimated the time in his mind. It was around 9:30 a.m., during the morning rush hour. This kind of rollover accident would definitely cause a lot of casualties.

After treating the wounded soldier, the two did not exchange words and went to visit the next wounded soldier. What was quite tacit was that the short-haired woman did not choose any more seriously injured soldiers this time, and the scissors became useless. Jiang Ning also pretended not to see them.

One by one, the two did their best to comfort the injured and bandage any wounds they could. They worked from noon until almost dark, until a group of teachers and students from Dawn University came to help, and then they slowly withdrew from the crowd.

The two drank the water delivered by Dawn University and leaned quietly against a car door with relatively minor scratches. Neither of them spoke, but they listened and watched the wails and busy activity at the scene.

After a long silence, Jiang Ning spoke first: "Have I seen you somewhere before?"

The short-haired woman paused for a moment upon hearing this, then said wearily, "Brother, your way of picking up girls is so outdated! If you want to know my name, you can just ask."

Jiang Ning shook his head apologetically, "Then I must have remembered wrong. I should go home now, I'm leaving..."

"Tch," the short-haired woman waved her hand, "If you're shy, don't try to hit on people."

Jiang Ning gave a wry smile, offering no explanation. But after turning and taking a few steps, he heard a voice behind him: "Hey, what's your name? My name is Su Mian..."

Jiang Ning turned around and said calmly, "Jiang Ning."

"Jiang Ning, you seem very calm..."

Jiang Ning nodded, not intending to continue the conversation, turned around and waved his hand, "You're very calm too."

On the way back, Jiang Ning couldn't help but chuckle. It wasn't because of his last conversation with the short-haired woman, but because he was truly certain that the world wasn't playing him, and that he wasn't mentally deranged and hallucinating.

The world has truly changed!

More importantly, he discovered that when he concentrated on doing something, small gray dots would flash before his eyes.

He didn't know what it meant, but he didn't object.

"I'm really looking forward to it going backwards again tomorrow!"

Jiang Ning muttered to himself.

He wondered if his year-long self-isolation had ruined him, leading to these thoughts. Especially after spending an afternoon helping with the rescue, witnessing so much tragedy, he felt no compassion, but rather even more anticipation.

But it doesn't matter!

"Lin Wei, wait for me, there are still 364 days..."