I Run Away with the Earth to Save the World [Unlimited Flow] - Chapter 142

Lu Lingxi shone his flashlight on the map in Jing Qizhen’s hands and, using the rabbit hole sketches, quickly concluded, “Blasting these two spots will contain the explosion within the hospital and won’t cause any casualties.”

Jing Qizhen studied the spots, lost in thought.

Old Xiao leaned over to look too and then nodded. “That one’s under a flowerbed, right? And the other one is under that patch of open space just inside the hospital gate, the one people use as a makeshift bike shed?”

Back in the early ’90s, private cars were rare, so there were no big parking lots. Bike sheds, on the other hand, were well organized.

Lu Lingxi had picked two locations where a ground collapse wouldn’t lead to serious accidents.

Jing Qizhen glanced at the others and then turned back to Lu Lingxi. “How long will it take to set up the explosives?”

Lu Lingxi: “About half an hour, including time for me to evacuate.”

Manman instinctively checked the time and set a silent 30-minute alarm on her phone.

Lu Lingxi added, “I can handle this solo. The rest of you should go up first. Remember to steer clear of the blast zones.”

The others clearly didn’t have Lu Lingxi’s technical expertise, so no one argued. They simply reminded him repeatedly to stay safe.

Jing Qizhen handed over the blueprint to Lu Lingxi and took a photo of it with his phone. “I’ve shared it over Bluetooth.”

Si Jiayang was quick to respond, “Got it.”

They split up. Lu Lingxi stayed behind to set the explosives and the others retraced their steps back up through the March Hare’s tunnel. Luckily, the entrance they had used earlier was pretty well hidden. Even though camera flashes and reporter shouts could still be heard nearby, no one noticed them slipping out.

Since Grandma Fang was older and less agile, the group had rigged a soft ladder for her to climb up instead of using the rope.

Once everyone was topside again, Jin Guijuan couldn’t help but ask, “So, where are we heading now?”

Jing Qizhen scanned their surroundings. “First, we avoid those two blast zones. Then we find a quiet place to wait for Lu Lingxi to come back.”

The hospital wasn’t huge and avoiding the inpatient building where the reporters were while also staying clear of the planned explosions didn’t leave them with many options.

Jing Qizhen opened the map photo on his phone and quickly drew a line connecting the two blast points. He picked a midpoint. “Here should work.”

Yun Shuanghua had just been about to suggest the hospital cafeteria, but seeing how decisively Jing Qizhen acted, he blinked and quietly gave up his idea.

Everyone was familiar enough with the hospital layout now. Once they made their decision, they slipped into the shadows and moved out.

After circling around one building, they saw car silhouettes ahead. Jing Qizhen froze and whispered, “Police cars.”

Wilcox whispered back, “They probably arrived while we were underground.”

Strangely, the police cars weren’t parked together. Two were even parked alongside the reporters’ vehicles.

Jing Qizhen thought for a moment and said, “There are quite a few of them. It looks like they came in two batches.”

Manman analyzed, “After we called the police, the reporters probably saw all the blood in the inpatient building and called the cops again, thinking a major crime had occurred.”

Just then, a flashlight beam suddenly swung toward them and a police officer shouted sternly, “Who’s there?! Identify yourself!”

Without hesitation, Jing Qizhen pulled out his Health Bureau credentials. “Officer, we’re with the bureau!”

The rest of the group was perfectly in sync. Phones were tucked away, earpieces hidden, and IDs produced. Jin Guijuan quickly ducked her head and whispered into the radio, “We ran into the police. There are a lot of them.”

The twisting tunnels disrupted the signal, so Lu Lingxi’s reply came through faintly but just clearly enough. “Copy that.”

Yun Shuanghua, being the only one without a fancy gadget, stood awkwardly for a moment.

Then the Earth quickly spoke up in Jing Qizhen’s mind, “Just say that guy is an intern shadowing you!”

Yun Shuanghua raised an eyebrow slightly and then nodded instinctively.

Jing Qizhen saw Yun Shuanghua’s small motion but didn’t think much of it. In his mind, he said to the Earth, “Babyball, did you forget? The doctors and nurses at the hospital recognize him. He probably has an identity here.”

The Earth finally remembered. “Oh, right!”

Jing Qizhen tugged lightly on Yun Shuanghua’s arm and whispered with a grin, “You’ll have to improvise from here.”

Yun Shuanghua: “…”

He had only latched onto the intern excuse. How was he supposed to build on that now…?

Watching Jing Qizhen and the others move so naturally and smoothly, the real intern Wang Feizhou: “…”

In that short moment, the patrolling police officer had already walked over, flashlight sweeping cautiously.

Jing Qizhen and the others stood still, making no sudden movements.

The officer had looked wary at first, but seeing that they were all dusty yet presentable, with no signs of being criminals, and especially since Jing Qizhen had already called out proactively, he relaxed a little. No one seemed armed, so he lowered his guard and asked, “What’s going on here?”

Jing Qizhen handed over his Health Bureau ID. “Something happened at the hospital and we rushed over as soon as we heard. What a mess!”

The fake ID from the authentic department was, of course, nearly indistinguishable from the real thing.

Besides, the Health Bureau wasn’t exactly a classified agency. The officer glanced at the ID, didn’t find anything suspicious, and handed it back. “So the hospital contacted your office?”

Jing Qizhen shook his head. “The bureau got a strange phone call. The caller was unclear and we couldn’t get a straight answer. Coincidentally, our department was already scheduled to conduct routine inspections at various hospitals, so we came here first.”

Jing Qizhen’s face looked very young, but under the dim nighttime lighting and with his confident nonsense, no one suspected a thing.

Once they walked with the officer under a streetlamp, Jing Qizhen smoothly stepped back and let Old Xiao and Grandma Fang move forward.

He’d already set the tone with his opening remarks and although Old Xiao was nervous and sweating profusely, he followed the cue and sighed with convincing worry, “When we arrived, it was broad daylight, but there wasn’t a soul in the hospital. We were shocked.”

Grandma Fang chimed in right on time, “We even wondered if the Second Municipal Hospital was hosting some kind of event and the staff had all gone there. But no, not only were the doctors and nurses missing, even the patients were all gone. We thought maybe we were at the wrong hospital!”

The police officer frowned, puzzled. “Huh? I just saw a notice on the hospital’s lobby board that said it was on holiday…”

Jing Qizhen: “With so many patients, how could a hospital just be empty? Even if they’re on break, departments rotate shifts. Each one, especially Emergency, should have someone on duty! You can’t just vanish overnight.”

The officer nodded firmly. “Exactly! This is bizarre.”

Everyone started chiming in, chatting casually with the officer.

Taking advantage of the distracted conversation, Jing Qizhen slowly led the officer forward, past the police car, and straight toward the designated safe zone.

The officer, suspecting nothing, followed along and began asking detailed questions about the day’s events. They answered with half-truths and improvisation, with Jing Qizhen tossing in cues now and then to steer the narrative, which the others quickly fleshed out.

Then, through the earpiece, Lu Lingxi’s calm voice came through clearly. “All set. I’m coming back up. Detonation in ten minutes.”

Jing Qizhen didn’t lower his voice at all. He just said directly in front of the officer, “Let’s wait here for a bit. Any farther and we’d be at the hospital gates.”

Lu Lingxi, fully understanding the cue in Jing Qizhen’s words, responded, “On my way up.”

Ten minutes passed quickly.

The night was deep and visibility was low.

Just as Jing Qizhen spotted Lu Lingxi’s figure in the distance, a muffled ‘BOOM’ suddenly erupted from both sides, followed immediately by tremors that shook the ground.

The officer jumped. “An earthquake?!”

Jing Qizhen didn’t hesitate. He shouted, “Earthquake! Run!”

Under normal circumstances, a blast would only produce strong effects nearby. Slightly farther away, one might only hear the sound. But here, the entire underground of Binhai City’s Second Municipal Hospital had already been hollowed out by the March Hare.

The points Lu Lingxi had chosen were cleverly placed. After the initial explosion, the areas directly above collapsed and the interconnected rabbit tunnels below triggered a chain reaction of tremors and collapses. Even those mentally prepared were startled by the sudden shout and instinctively yelled too.

The officer, completely caught off guard, stood frozen, stunned by the tremors underfoot. Once Jing Qizhen’s ‘earthquake’ framing took root in his mind, the officer bolted, shouting “Earthquake!” as he ran toward the inpatient building where his fellow officers were.

Coincidentally, the March Hare had been digging new holes, extending the underground labyrinth it created, and missed crossing paths with Jing Qizhen’s group entirely. But now, following the collapse, the dust-covered giant rabbit suddenly shot straight up through a vertical hole, emerging with a whoosh, completely covered in dirt.

Across the roughly ten-meter distance, Jing Qizhen’s group and the filthy March Hare locked eyes.

Not far away, the officer was still shouting as he dashed around, “Earthquake! Run!”

The March Hare: “…”

Jing Qizhen gave a slight smile. “Hey.”

The March Hare wiped the dust off its furry face, looking thoroughly baffled. “Was there an earthquake?”

Jing Qizhen shook his head. “Earthquake? Not really.”

The March Hare, distraught: “What happened to my rabbit holes? Why did all my lovely holes suddenly collapse?!”

Jing Qizhen, looking completely innocent, calmly replied, “Because the explosives went off! You dug out everything underground and the shockwave from the blast directly caused the soil layers to collapse.”

The March Hare: “…That guy who just ran past was yelling about an earthquake.”

Jing Qizhen: “It’s normal for people to make mistakes when they panic.”

The March Hare: “…”

Sir Rabbit, being smart, didn’t even want to ask how those explosives suddenly appeared…

The March Hare wiped its face again, feeling that the chaos of the scene was beyond description for the moment.