Is This the Damn Wind

The moment he stepped out of the car, Su Yang was instantly drenched by the heavy rain.

The wind pressed against him like an invisible wall, making it incredibly difficult to move.

Su Yang didn’t care. He braced himself against the fierce gale and rushed to the door of a house on the left side of the car. Once he reached the door, he knocked.

But through the floor-to-ceiling windows beside the house, everything inside was pitch black—nothing could be seen. He knocked and shouted for help in Japanese, calling out as loudly as he could.

After knocking dozens of times, no one came to the door. Reluctantly, he gave up and turned to run toward the house across the street.

He repeated the same words, knocking and shouting.

Another dozen or so attempts, and still no one opened the door.

“Damn it!” Su Yang was tempted to just break the door down, but he thought better of it. Doing that would be illegal breaking and entering.

He tried another house for help. This time, he got lucky—when he ran over, the owner happened to be sitting by the window and saw him.

“Kind soul! We’re from the land of the East… I mean, we’re tourists from China, trapped on the street by the typhoon. Could you please take us in and help us? Please?”

“If you’re willing to help us, I’ll give you five million Japanese yen as a thank-you!” Su Yang shouted as he knocked.

Another dozen seconds passed. Seeing no one open the door, he was about to move on to the next house when a faint female voice came from inside: “Who are you?”

Hearing the voice, Su Yang pressed himself against the door and shouted, “Hello! Hello! We’re Chinese tourists visiting Japan. This typhoon came out of nowhere, and we were still out sightseeing, so we couldn’t make it back to Tokyo and got stuck here. Could you please help us? Don’t worry, we’re all good people!”

He shouted as loudly as he could, afraid the person wouldn’t hear.

After he finished, the room fell silent for a few seconds. He thought she hadn’t heard and was about to shout again when—click—the door quietly opened a crack.

Su Yang quickly slipped to the side of the door and stepped back two paces. Half a woman’s face appeared in the doorway, with another woman about her age standing behind her.

He didn’t have time to look closely. He immediately spoke up: “Hello, you two beautiful ladies! Please don’t worry, we’re definitely not bad people. It’s just that the typhoon caught us off guard. We happened to pass by here and have nowhere to go. I sincerely hope you can help us out. Once this storm passes, I’ll give you a huge red envelope of five million yen as thanks!”

The woman at the door didn’t seem to care about the red envelope or money. She stared at Su Yang for a moment and asked, “You said ‘we,’ but aren’t you alone right now?”

“My friends are waiting in the car, parked by the roadside diagonal across from here.” Su Yang turned and pointed toward the car.

The woman didn’t bother to look. She asked further, “How many of you are there?”

“Fifteen in total, including me. Most are women. There are only three men. Four of the women are also Japanese—they’re the tour guides and driver who brought us out.”

“Well… okay then.” The woman had a kind heart and was about to open the door.

Su Yang quickly smiled. “Thank you, miss! But don’t open the door yet. Let me go get my friends first, and then you can open it.”

“Alright, go ahead.”

Su Yang nodded slightly and turned to run back to the car.

But just before he reached the car, whoosh—a sudden strong blast of wind hit him head-on, blowing him backward two meters before he crashed heavily to the ground.

“Son of a bitch! Damn wind!”

Su Yang cursed, scrambled to his feet, and tried to keep running. But another, even stronger gust hit him. He quickly dropped to the ground to lower his center of gravity and avoid it.

He was fine, but the car not far ahead wasn’t so lucky. Because one car was parked right behind the other, the car Meng Wenzhou and the others were in got pushed by the wind and slammed—bang—into the rear of the car in front.

The people inside screamed in terror from the impact.

Whoosh! Another gust of wind lifted the rear of the back car off the ground for a moment before slamming it heavily back down.

Just as the car landed, the front car’s door swung open, and Zhuang Mengli leaped out.

The moment she got out, she quickly closed the door behind her.

The typhoon’s winds came in bursts now—blowing hard for a while, then easing up.

Taking advantage of the lull, Su Yang scrambled to his feet and rushed over.

“Why did you get out?” he shouted at Zhuang Mengli.

“It suddenly hit me—I’m pretty tough after all. How could I just hide in the car? I came out to help you ask around.”

“Ask about what? I already found someone willing to take us in. We should go now.”

“Really? That’s great! Let’s get everyone moving.”

“Yeah, while we can.” Su Yang reached for the car door.

Rumble!

Suddenly, a peal of thunder exploded in the night sky. All sorts of clothes, pants, straps, underwear, trash—every kind of junk—were being whipped around in the wind, flying everywhere.

Before Su Yang could grab the door handle, another ultra-strong blast of wind slammed in from behind the car.

Boom! Both cars were swept forward a significant distance again.

The relentless gale continued, shoving the rear car sideways until it was stuck in the middle of the road, while the front car’s rear end lifted high off the ground. Su Yang dashed over, yanked the door handle, and with a hard pull, dragged the car back down to the pavement.

“You need to get over to that car and tell everyone to get out!”

“Got it.” Zhuang Mengli hurried to the car blocking the road and pounded on the windows, signaling everyone to evacuate.

But the wind was already too fierce. Without anyone noticing, the wind speed had silently jumped from Force 12 to Force 13, meaning the typhoon’s eye was closing in on Dayue City.

Zhuang Mengli gripped the door handle and felt like she was about to be lifted off her feet.

“Get out now!!” she shouted, slapping the window.

The door flew open, and a crowd of people jumped out, instantly drenched like drowned rats.

“Holy crap!! Is this even wind?!” Meng Wenzhou cursed.

“Screw this!!” Liu Bo raised an arm to shield his face.

Everyone lined up one after another, hands on each other’s shoulders, bending low to lower their center of gravity, and stumbled quickly toward Su Yang.

By then, everyone from Su Yang’s car had also gotten out.

“Hurry, hurry, hurry! It’s just ahead!! Follow me!!” Su Yang waved and shouted.

The wind had been blowing from behind them, but now it shifted to come from the front.

“Fatty, Old Meng, come up here. The three of us will block the wind up front.”

“On it!” The two sprinted over to Su Yang’s side.

The three formed a human wall at the front, while the girls huddled behind them, struggling forward step by step.

Luckily, the two girls Su Yang had asked earlier lived close by—just a dozen meters or so to the right and slightly ahead.

But the wind was so brutal that it took them a full minute to cover those ten meters and reach the door.

Su Yang hurried up and knocked hard.

Thump, thump, thump!

“Ladies! Please open the door!”

A few seconds later, the door swung open. Su Yang stepped aside, gesturing for the others to go in.

“Quick, quick, quick!!” he yelled, reaching out to herd everyone inside.

Then suddenly, an absolutely insane gust of wind slammed in.

Crack!

A fairly slender roadside tree was snapped clean in half by the blast.

Seeing this, Su Yang’s heart jumped. The entrance behind the door was a cramped little hallway.

With over a dozen people needing to file in one by one, Pan Ning and Zhuang Mengli were still stuck outside.

Zhuang Mengli was in front of Pan Ning. She spun around and grabbed Pan Ning’s wrist, tugging her toward the door.

Whoosh!!

The rampaging wind surged straight at where Su Yang and the others stood. Without a second thought, Su Yang lunged forward and shoved hard against Pan Ning’s back.

The force sent both girls tumbling into the house, but he himself couldn’t make it in.

Whoosh!

The wind struck him sideways, hurling him into the air. He slammed hard into a utility pole, hit the ground, and was swept up again, rolling farther away.

“Su Yang!!” Pan Ning’s eyes turned red, and she spun around to run after him.

Zhuang Mengli grabbed her firmly. The wind and rain had turned the doorstep into a puddle. The girl who had opened the door had no other choice—she rushed forward and yanked the door shut.

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