Chapter 132 Not in Service Area

  "Can't get through to her on the phone?" Ning Fan was momentarily perplexed, Tang Zhiwen wanted to find Ye Rou, but instead found him, did even the people from the municipal government think he and Ye Rou were in that kind of relationship?

  "Can't get through, Ning Fan, please try to contact Mayor Ye first, this matter is very important. If you can't get in touch with him, you must call me back later, it's this phone number, thank you. The situation is urgent." Tang Zhiwen said hastily and then seemed to hear someone calling out "Mayor Tang" from the other end before he hung up the phone.

  "Xiao Fan, is the mayor looking for you?" Seeing Ning Fan's daze, He Zhen couldn't help but ask.

  He asked this because He Zhen had heard Ning Ping say that Ning Fan's girlfriend was a deputy mayor.

  "Sister-in-law, I'll make a phone call first." Ning Fan vaguely felt that something might have gone wrong, but Tang Zhiwen was unclear, and he couldn't figure it out now. After some consideration, he decided to contact Wu Yi first.

  "The number you dialed is out of service..." The voice coming from the phone made Ning Fan's heart skip a beat, and a bad feeling suddenly surged up.

  Not in the service area, it's usually a situation without signal. However, Ning Fan was very clear that a naked phone would definitely be like his phone, which wouldn't lose signal even in places like Qingyun Mountain. So how could Wu Yi's phone possibly have no signal now?

  Ning Fan quickly dialed Ye Rou's number again, but it was also out of service area. This made Ning Fan feel even more uneasy - where could they be that their phones were both out of range?

  More importantly, Ning Fan knew that the two of them were originally going to the provincial city. According to the time calculation, they should both be in the provincial city at this time. In a place like the provincial city, there are almost no areas without mobile phone signal.

  Ning Fan dialed Wu Yi's number again, still out of service area. He kept calling back and forth between Wu Yi and Ye Rou's numbers several times, with the same result each time. After that, Ning Fan called Tang Zhiwen's number.

  "Tang Mayor, I'm Ning Fan. I couldn't get in touch with them, can you tell me what happened?" Ning Fan's sense of unease grew stronger.

  "Ning Fan, you need to be mentally prepared." On the other end of the phone, Tang Zhiwen's voice was somewhat heavy.

  "Mayor Tang, just tell me the truth." Ning Fan was almost certain at this moment that Ye Rou and Wu Yi had an accident.

  "More than two hours ago, a collapse occurred at the Wanzhuling Tunnel. We are not sure how many people were trapped inside, but based on the information we have now, Mayor Ye is likely to be trapped inside." Tang Zhiwen's tone was low and gloomy, but he comforted Ning Fan by saying: "However, don't worry too much, Ning Fan. Mayor Ye may not necessarily be inside, and even if she really is inside, we will definitely be able to rescue her."

  "I'll go as soon as possible." Ning Fan hung up the phone directly and looked at He Zhen: "Brother-in-law, sorry, something urgent happened, I have to go."

  "Go on, hurry up." He Zhen also vaguely knew that something big had happened.

  Ning Fan didn't say anything more, hastily got up, straddled his motorcycle and quickly drove away.

  The night wind brushed against his face, and Ning Fan's heart felt a slight chill. He wasn't as optimistic as Tang Zhiwen, because he knew that Ye Rou and Wu Yi's misfortune wasn't an accident.

  The Harley motorcycle sped along the winding mountain road, which was not narrow but had many sharp turns. On this mountain road with sudden turns everywhere, Ning Fan brought out the best performance of his Harley and his superb driving skills to the extreme. He had to rush to the Wanzhu Ridge Tunnel at the fastest speed possible.

  Wan Zhulian was once a natural barrier between Qingyun City and the outside world. Before the tunnel was opened, to go from Qingyun City to the provincial capital, one had to cross Wan Zhulian first. The road conditions of Wan Zhulian were always very poor, winding for dozens of miles, and the most difficult section of the road would have many accidents every year.

  Until the development of Qingyun Mountain Scenic Area, the government of Qingyun City finally made up its mind to build a tunnel about 2 kilometers long. After the completion of this tunnel, the travel time from Qingyun City to the provincial capital was shortened by one hour, and accidents were greatly reduced thereafter.

  At 7:00, about one kilometer away from the tunnel, Ning Fan's motorcycle was stopped by traffic police, who had set up a cordon here and were blocking anyone trying to pass through or get close to see what was happening.

  "I am Ning Fan, let me in."

  The traffic police were stunned for a moment, then hurriedly let them pass, and Ning Fan drove his motorcycle into the city.

  The scene of enthusiastic rescue efforts was not seen, although several large machinery were parked at the tunnel entrance and many people gathered, but at this moment they all seemed to be inactive, as if the rescue had encountered difficulties.

  Vehicles were mostly stopped outside the warning line, and it was Ning Fan's motorcycle that appeared to be a bit eye-catching. Dozens of pairs of eyes turned this way at once, and soon, a man with a refined temperament walked out of the crowd.

  The man looked over thirty years old, quite tall and well-proportioned in build, wearing a pair of glasses, elegant and refined, with a hint of handsomeness.

  Ning Fan stopped his motorcycle and walked towards the man. At this moment, the elegant man greeted him in advance: "Ning Fan?"

  "Mayor Tang?" Ning Fan had never met Tang Zhiwen before, but he remembered this voice.

  "Ning Fan, how did you arrive so quickly?" Tang Zhiwen walked up to Ning Fan and shook his hand, asking with some surprise.

  It's no wonder that Tang Zhiwen was surprised. From the time he called Ning Fan to now, it hasn't even been an hour, but from downtown to here usually takes at least two hours by car.

  "How is it?" Ning Fan didn't explain and directly asked.

  "I asked the technical personnel from the police department to locate Mayor Ye's cell phone signal, and before it disappeared, their signals were all around this area. Additionally, before the collapse, there were eyewitnesses from nearby villages who saw Mayor Ye's car, but on the other side of the tunnel, I contacted them and no one saw Mayor Ye's vehicle. So we can basically confirm that Mayor Ye is indeed trapped inside." Tang Zhiwen's expression was quite solemn. "Also, apart from Mayor Ye, there may be two or three cars trapped inside as well."

  "Is the tunnel completely collapsed or partially collapsed?" Ning Fan asked aloud.

  "About 500 meters from this end of the tunnel, there was a collapse, and about 1,000 meters from the other end, another collapse occurred. There is still about 400 meters in between, whether there are more collapses or not cannot be confirmed yet. However, we estimate that there should be space inside, and if they're lucky, Mayor Ye and the others might just be trapped, and for now, they shouldn't be in danger." Tang Zhiwen clearly already understood the general situation. "But now the rescue efforts have encountered trouble."

  "Can't operate large machinery?" Ning Fan looked at the machinery parked in the distance and had already vaguely guessed the fact.

  "We used to clear the debris with excavators, but it caused another collapse. Now we can only use manual labor and small tools to dig. We hope to open a passage first, even if we can't rescue people, at least let there be enough air inside, and send in some food and water, so that we can buy more time." Tang Zhiwen looked worried, "The geological conditions here are very complicated. The tunnel was not built because of lack of funds and the complexity of the geology. Now we are contacting the geological experts who were involved in the construction of the tunnel, hoping they can provide more professional advice. However, that expert is currently abroad and has not been contacted yet."

  "It seems that now we can only rely on ourselves." Ning Fan was very calm at this moment, he looked at the entrance of the tunnel and hesitated for a moment, "Mayor Tang, I'll go in first to take a look."

  "I'll go with you." Tang Zhiwen nodded.

  "Mayor Tang, you'd better stay outside, it might be dangerous inside." Ning Fan shook his head.

  Tang Zhiwen shook his head: "I'm the vice mayor, if I don't dare to go in, how can I ask those rescue personnel to go in? Let's go, there are people digging inside now, they can stay there, and so can I."

  "Alright." Ning Fan also didn't say anything else. Regardless of whether Tang Zhiwen was sincere or not, he didn't want to waste any more time on this matter.

  Ning Fan ignored the surprised glances of others and strode into the tunnel, with Tang Zhiwen following closely behind. No one stopped them, but Tang Zhiwen's driver, a man in his forties, hastily followed, clearly worried about Tang Zhiwen's safety.

  There are many emergency lights in the tunnel now, illuminating the entire tunnel. At the other end of the line of sight, seven or eight rescue workers wearing safety helmets are digging with tools. Although they look very hardworking, the effect is quite limited.

  "Excuse me, everyone, can you pause for a moment?" Ning Fan said loudly as he walked over to the rescue personnel.

  The rescuers didn't know Ning Fan, but they knew Tang Zhiwen. Seeing Tang Zhiwen accompanying Ning Fan, they naturally thought Ning Fan was a higher-ranking official and so they all stopped obediently.

  These people thought Ning Fan was going to say something, but they soon discovered that they were wrong. After they stopped, Ning Fan put his ear on the soil and rocks blocking the tunnel, as if listening very carefully.

  After a while, Ning Fan lay on the ground again and listened carefully. Like this, another minute passed, and Ning Fan stuck his ear to the tunnel wall once more.

  A group of rescuers were baffled, wondering if Ning Fan could still hear any sounds. Unless someone was knocking on the tunnel wall over there, but they had listened before and there was no sound at all.

  A few minutes later, Ning Fan left the tunnel wall and let out a soft breath. Ordinary people wouldn't be able to hear any sound, but he wasn't an ordinary person, so he still heard the sound. He not only confirmed that Wu Yi and Ye Rou were inside, but also knew they were still alive, which made him secretly breathe a sigh of relief. At least, he hadn't arrived too late.

  "Mayor Tang, trouble you to prepare some mineral water and food for me. Also, prepare more digging tools for me. And, let all the rescue personnel leave." Ning Fan said to Tang Zhiwen.