Sudden Accident

Watching Zhuang Mengli’s movement, Su Yang’s gaze sharpened as he thought to himself: ‘High ponytail, Meng?’

‘What the hell?’

Boom!!!

Just as Su Yang was recalling the dream he had earlier at Senhai Manor, a deafening explosion suddenly erupted right above his head.

The sudden blast shook the hot air balloon’s basket violently from side to side, leaving the other three people besides Su Yang with ringing ears for two seconds.

“Ahhhh!” came Jieyi’s scream soon after.

“What’s happening?!” At the same time, Zhuang Mengli quickly grabbed Pan Ning beside her and ducked down.

Boom—boom—boom.

The sounds continued. One of the four gas burners above their heads had exploded for some unknown reason. Flames shot high into the air, and the fire had already reached the balloon envelope.

Fortunately, a thick steel plate separated the burners from the basket, so the people inside weren’t hit by the blast.

“Oh no, oh no!! The burner gas must be leaking—we need to descend quickly,” Jieyi said, panicked. This was the first time she’d encountered such a situation.

As the only pilot who could operate the balloon, she had to step up. Fighting the intense heat above, she reached for the controller to lower the balloon.

Su Yang stood up and tilted his head to look—the exploded burner was still spewing flames.

“Damn!! This won’t work—the other three are too close; we’ll get a secondary explosion.”

Meanwhile, Zhuang Mengli and Pan Ning sat in a corner of the basket, frozen in shock from the sudden accident.

Su Yang shouted, “Are you guys okay?!”

Boom!!

Before they could even answer, another blast rang out.

“Ahhhh!!” Screams pierced the sky.

The basket lurched violently. All four instinctively grabbed the basket with one hand while raising the other to shield their heads.

Whoosh—

As the second burner exploded from the chain reaction, the flames grew fiercer. The fire shot straight to the edge of the balloon envelope, igniting the fabric within seconds.

Thick, dark gray smoke billowed into the sky.

By now, the other hot air balloons floating in the distance had noticed the first explosion. But since everyone was in the air, there was nothing they could do.

Liu Bo’s balloon was the closest to Su Yang’s, still about a hundred meters away. Staring at the distant blue balloon, he shouted with wide eyes, “Brother Yang!!”

“Damn it!! Call the cops—it’s on fire!! Damn it, damn it!!”

The sudden accident threw the group into chaos. Liu Bo’s eyes turned red as he fumbled for his phone to call emergency services, but he couldn’t recall the emergency number in this country. Frustrated, he wished he could fly over to help.

Further away, Meng Wenzhou also noticed the blue balloon’s situation—heavy smoke and raging flames.

“What the hell?! Whose balloon is that?” He quickly asked the others in his basket.

“That’s... Brother Su’s, along with my sister and Mengmeng,” Meng Qianyu said, trembling and panicked as she stared at the burning balloon.

“What?” Hearing that, Meng Wenzhou’s mind went blank. One was his cousin, the other his good brother.

A deep, unfamiliar sense of helplessness and fear rose in his heart.

---

On the other side, a small part of Su Yang’s balloon was already on fire. The hot air balloon swayed relentlessly.

Boom—boom.

Bam!! Another burner exploded from the relentless heat.

By now, Jieyi was completely terrified. She’d been bold enough to try operating the controls earlier, but now she cowered in the basket, shivering in fear.

It was impossible to reach the controller anymore—the heat above was too intense.

With the third burner explosion, the fire spread rapidly, engulfing the other side of the balloon.

The lower part of the balloon was mostly made of fire-resistant fabric, but the inferno was too huge—no fireproof material could withstand it.

Snap—

Two of the special ropes connecting the basket to the envelope snapped, causing the basket to tilt sharply, nearly throwing all four of them out.

Less than a minute had passed since the first explosion. Now, a third of the balloon had been burned; it would be completely consumed in about ten seconds.

At this critical moment, Su Yang steadied himself and looked down.

They were roughly 150 meters above the sea, with the balloon descending quickly.

Below was a vast ocean, but the height was still too great—for an ordinary person, falling from here would be like hitting concrete.

Time was running out. The flames were about to reach the basket. Su Yang turned to Zhuang Mengli and Pan Ning and shouted, “Mengli, take Jieyi and jump. Hand Pan Ning over to me.”

He tried to move toward Pan Ning, but the violent swaying threw him back.

Throughout, Zhuang Mengli had held onto Pan Ning, staying close.

She now grabbed the basket with one hand and clutched the panicked Pan Ning with the other, yelling, “No time—I’ll take Pan Ning. You handle Jieyi.”

“Are you sure?!” Su Yang asked, doubtful.

“Trust me!”

With that, Zhuang Mengli quickly lifted Pan Ning, cradling her in her arms. She then used the basket’s momentum to push off hard, leaping out into the air.

Seeing this, a scene from his earlier dream flashed through Su Yang’s mind. The difference was that in the dream, that person had thrown Pan Ning off alone, while now, Mengli was embracing her to save her. True, dreams were opposites.

In the dream, Mengli...

After half a second of hesitation, there was no more time to think. Su Yang grabbed the terrified Jieyi beside him and leaped out right after.

Boom—

Bang—

Just as he and Jieyi cleared the basket, the flames surged in. The last burner exploded. The steel plate attached by ropes slammed heavily into the basket.

The balloon envelope was now fully burned through. The heavy steel plate weighed the basket down, pulling it into a swift descent with a long trail of black smoke.

Su Yang held Jieyi as they fell in freefall, directly above Zhuang Mengli and Pan Ning.

Splash! The two below hit the water first, sending up a high spray.

Su Yang’s mind was racing. He didn’t know if Zhuang Mengli could take such an impact.

But there was no time to dwell. He turned in midair to face his back toward the sea, still clutching Jieyi.

As he flipped over—splash—the two of them slammed into the water.

For Su Yang, falling from that height felt no worse than a ripple. But an ordinary person might have broken several bones.

Underwater, Su Yang held Jieyi and swam quickly toward the surface.

Seconds later, they emerged. Jieyi finally came to her senses.

Under Su Yang’s protection, she came out completely unharmed.

“Jieyi, can you swim?”

Jieyi nodded, but because the whole ordeal had been so perilous, she couldn’t speak for the moment.

“Then wait here by yourself for now.” Su Yang turned to look around—Zhuang Mengli and Pan Ning had yet to resurface.

He quickly plunged into the water, swimming with all his strength toward the spot where the two had fallen in.

In a matter of seconds, he had descended more than ten meters, and now he could see two blurry figures directly below him.

One of them had already passed out, arms and legs spread wide, slowly sinking face-up toward the sea. The other was swimming rapidly toward her.

By their shapes, Su Yang could already tell who was who—the rescuer was Pan Ning, and the unconscious one was Zhuang Mengli.

Back when they jumped from the hot air balloon, he had noticed that Zhuang Mengli, like him, used her back to hit the water surface in order to protect the other person.

Though Zhuang Mengli’s physical condition was far better than an average person’s, the height of the fall was simply too great. Free-falling over a hundred meters while holding someone was incredibly fast, so the moment she slammed into the water, she couldn’t withstand the impact and lost consciousness.

Once Su Yang spotted them, he immediately kicked harder to go deeper. He quickly caught up to Pan Ning, pointed upward, and signaled for her to go up first.

Seeing that Su Yang had arrived, Pan Ning stopped diving deeper and began swimming back toward the surface.

Su Yang chased after them in a few swift strokes. He grabbed Zhuang Mengli’s hand and pulled her along as he swam upward. As he got close to Pan Ning, he reached out with his other hand, wrapped his arm around her, and, picking up speed, brought both of them up to the surface.