"I..." After hearing that, the man shook his head.

"Go ahead!" The man in sunglasses immediately spoke up.

Then, the two brought out lighters, lit them, and quickly threw them to the side.

Boom...

Immediately, two flames erupted, and the fire dragon rapidly spread along the wooden surface everywhere. The floor and walls had already been doused with gasoline, which ignited upon contact with fire, turning the scene into a complete chaos.

"Let's go!" The man in sunglasses yelled. The two ran down from the drum tower quickly.

The fire started from the inside, and it couldn't be noticed from the outside for a while.

Tang Yumeng and the others were still inspecting the fifth floor, and Xiao Xue felt that something was wrong. She sniffed and said, "Why is there a burning smell?"

"Maybe someone nearby is burning wood!" Tang Yumeng laughed and said, "We should be leaving soon too."

Xiao Xue frowned, and Luo Guoqing next to her also felt that something was off.

"This is bad." An official from the reception office said in a panic, "Downstairs, there's a fire downstairs!"

"What?" Xiao Xue exclaimed in shock, "A fire? No, we have to hurry out!"

Pale with fright, she quickly pulled Tang Yumeng and started heading downstairs. Normally a timid girl, she bravely dragged Tang Yumeng to escape. But as soon as they reached the fourth floor, the fire had already begun moving upwards.

Thick smoke billowed out from the surrounding windows. Tang Yumeng panicked, "No good, we can't go down anymore."

"What should we do?" Xiao Xue urgently asked.

"Run upstairs!" Tang Yumeng urgently shouted.

Luo Guoqing was also stunned, never expecting a fire in this place. He had a bad premonition in his mind. This fire was definitely not simple. Also, seeing how fiercely the fire was burning, it was clear that it was arson. If it wasn't intentional arson, the fire would never have spread so quickly. It was truly shocking.

"Quick, run upstairs!" Luo Guoqing urgently called out.

After the group ran upstairs, Luo Guoqing immediately closed the door to the fifth floor. Although it was a wooden door and he knew it wouldn't hold for long, they still placed all their hope on this wooden door, hoping it could give them a glimpse of hope.

"Quick, call the police!" Tang Yumeng urgently shouted.

"Yes, yes!" Two officials from the reception office were in panic and hurriedly took out their phones.

Due to being overly nervous, both of their phones simultaneously fell to the ground; one shattered on impact, and the other's screen cracked. Both phones were immediately rendered unusable. Luo Guoqing hurriedly said, "Let me do it!"

Probably among all, only Luo Guoqing was slightly calmer than the others.

He quickly dialed the number. The fire department, upon receiving the call, immediately started to move. However, the fire brigade of Western City District had to cross several streets to arrive at the scene. The journey would take at least fifteen minutes, and that was if there was no traffic jam. Once there was a jam, it would be even more indefinite.

On top of the drum tower, the fire raged like an angry fire dragon, continuously devouring the space for Tang Yumeng and the others' survival. Huge flames surged upwards from the third floor; the fourth floor was completely engulfed in flames, making the drum tower extremely precarious. Once the main beam on the third floor was burned, the fourth and fifth floors would soon collapse. Thus, the situation was extremely dangerous. Time was life, and if the fire trucks arrived too late, the floors would quickly collapse.

A group of people were trapped on the rooftop, including Tang Yumeng, two officials from the reception office, and over ten tourists who had run up from the fourth floor; more than ten people were trapped on the rooftop.

"What do we do? Why haven't the firefighters arrived yet?"

"Are we going to die? I'm so scared…"

Those who were brave were sweating profusely, and those who were timid had already started crying. The group tried to move towards the outer space as much as possible. Because the thick smoke rising from below meant there was barely any fresh air upstairs, they had no choice but to move towards the periphery of the fifth floor.

Below the drum tower, the crowd swelled with onlookers densely packing the area, seemingly encircling the entire drum tower.

"Oh my, the drum tower is on fire…"

"Such a huge fire. Is the drum tower going to be destroyed?"

"It must be those who want to demolish it, they have always wanted to tear down this drum tower."

Among the crowd, those opposed to the demolition cried out, blaming the fire on the demolition office. They believed it was surely the work of someone from the demolition office behind the scenes. Deliberately setting the drum tower on fire so it could subsequently be demolished officially.

Tang Yumeng was extremely anxious, and Xiao Xue next to her turned pale with fear. Holding onto Tang Yumeng's arm, Xiao Xue's hands trembled, her eyes wide with panic, her face fearful. Seeing how scared Xiao Xue was, Tang Yumeng asked, "Xiao Xue, are you scared?"

"Secretary Tang, I... I don't want to turn into roast chicken!" Xiao Xue bit her red lips, her tears nearly spilling out.

The door in front of them seemed like a lifesaver, but outside, it seemed as if a ferocious beast was imprisoned. It could break through the door at any moment and devour everyone at the scene. Everyone shivered as they stared at the door.

Soon, the fire squeezed itself from the gap. Before long, the door was immediately consumed by flames.

Crackling sounds...

The flames burned the wood, that century-old dried wood which had already lost all its moisture, incinerating upon contact. The wood burst into flames at once, and thick smoke squeezed out of the gap. Thick smoke also started emerging under people's feet, making the scalding wooden boards send shivers of horror through them.

"It's over, it's over, the fire has started below us," someone screamed.

"Why... why hasn't the fire truck arrived yet?" A panic-stricken scream echoed through the crowd.

Tang Yumeng's hands also trembled, with the fire reaching the fifth floor in just over ten minutes, it was unimaginable how fiercely the third floor was burning. Once the third floor was completely burnt, then what survival could there be under a collapsed nest?

This was something, perhaps, nobody had expected.

Luo Guoqing thought of it and hurriedly approached, saying, "Secretary Tang, it looks like we can't escape this disaster today."

"Do you have a solution?" Tang Yumeng asked anxiously.

"I've checked the surroundings; the fire on the fourth floor has already surrounded us," Luo Guoqing awkwardly said: "It's impossible to climb down with bare hands now, the height between the third and fourth floor is five to six meters, and the smog has shrouded these two levels, I'm afraid..."

"Lin Chuan, quickly call Lin Chuan!" Xiao Xue exclaimed.

In the midst of darkness, a glimmer of dawn flashed. Xiao Xue's exclamation instilled a glimpse of hope for survival in Luo Guoqing and Tang Yumeng. Luo Guoqing swiftly dialed Lin Chuan.

At that moment, the siren of fire trucks blared as they approached.

Two fire trucks rushed to the scene quickly, but the crowd of onlookers, which was too large, blocked the usual fire lanes. Despite the fire trucks blaring their horns on the side, the crowd moved torturously slow, instead of quickly dispersing.

"Damn it, these people still have the mood to spectate!" a firefighter cursed: "Don't they have any sense of civic duty? Don't they know this is a fire scene?"

It took several more minutes to get through the crowd. The two fire trucks hurriedly crossed a road and then rode up a set of steps. Once they reached a platform about three meters high, the fire trucks stopped immediately, and the firefighters decisively jumped down from the vehicle, swiftly coordinating among themselves to manage the water, extinguish the fire, and connect the hoses.

Squirt...

When the high water pressure sent a column of water spraying upstairs, the crowd of onlookers burst into roaring applause like thunder.

Transport market.

At 6:30 PM, Lin Chuan suddenly received a call from Luo Guoqing.

When he hung up the phone, Lin Chuan's complexion turned pale. He dropped what he was doing and dashed franticly towards outside.

"Brother Chuan, what happened?" Zhou Kai urgently asked.

"The car keys, give me the car keys!" Lin Chuan suddenly remembered his jeep was impounded by traffic police.

Snap...

Zhou Kai immediately tossed them over, and Lin Chuan grabbed the keys and ran out. The GOLDEN CUP van was driven by Lin Chuan as though it was a jeep, the body violently trembling during sharp turns. The tires scraped a black mark on the road.

Watching Lin Chuan rapidly disappearing into the distance, Zhou Kai wore a puzzled expression: "Weird, what exactly happened? Why is Brother Chuan so agitated?"

"Who knows." Lu Dapao held a lunch box, stirring it with his chopsticks haphazardly.

After learning that Tang Yumeng was trapped atop the Drum Tower, Lin Chuan was frantic with anxiety, wishing he could fly to Tang Yumeng's side immediately, wishing he could rescue her from the building that very moment. However, it was precisely during the peak of rush hour at 6:30 PM, and the traffic on the roads crawled at a snail's pace, leaving Lin Chuan all the more impatient.

Screech...

The car lurched as he maneuvered it into a non-motorized vehicle lane, then proceeded at high speed. Bicycle and electric scooter riders in the lane were frightened by this giant vehicle suddenly invading their space, quickly pulling over to the edges of the lane.

"Damn, what the hell is this, doesn't he have any sense of public manners?!"

"Exactly, this is a non-motorized vehicle lane, and here comes a motorized vehicle barging in."

Many owners of non-motorized vehicles started cursing.

The GOLDEN CUP van crisscrossed through several intersections.

Old Liu had been stewing about that morning's incident all day; though Li Jiangping had mediated the situation later, he clearly knew that Lin Chuan, this young man, would most likely not face detention, at most just be brought in for a question and then let go with a cup of tea.

Old Liu was an upright and honorable traffic policeman, who detested dishonest practices. However, having been with the traffic police for many years, he'd also learned to sometimes turn a blind eye as a form of self-tolerance.

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