Chapter Nine: Urgent Evacuation of the Villagers!

“What's wrong with Officer Tan? Why is he sweating so much?”

In the livestream chat, viewers also noticed Tan Ping’s unusual state.

“Could he be feeling unwell?”

One viewer sent a message advising, “Officer Tan, if you’re not feeling well, please stop the livestream and see a doctor!”

“Yes! Don’t push yourself to livestream when you’re sick; take care of your health!”

In the studio, Hua Hua, the poised and confident policewoman, saw these comments as well. She carefully observed Tan Ping and indeed noticed the fine beads of sweat on his forehead and his restless, anxious eyes.

Seeing this, Hua Hua said, “Weiwei, Tan Ping doesn’t seem right.”

Li Yuwei, standing nearby, took a look too and nodded. “Yeah! He’s usually so calm. Could he have a fever? Maybe we should advise him to stop streaming for now.”

Tan Ping grew increasingly anxious. There was less than half an hour left, and he still hadn’t identified the cause of the accident.

“I need to check around the village and confirm the exact scope of the incident,” he thought, immediately moving toward another area.

Once the scope was defined, he planned to evacuate the villagers promptly.

“Keep up!”

Veteran traffic officer Wang Xingyun immediately reminded the cameraman.

The young officer in charge of filming quickly quickened his pace to follow.

Tan Ping walked along the stone-paved road, observing everything carefully.

As the police arrived in the village, the villagers came out to watch, whispering among themselves.

“Is that the police? Could there have been a homicide here?”

“Look at the uniform—that’s traffic police. It’s probably a car accident!”

“Who’s so unlucky to get hit by a car right outside their door…”

Tan Ping looked up at the villagers’ heads and saw something chilling: the life countdown timers above every single person read exactly 0.02.

The closer he looked, the more alarmed he became; his heart sank deeply.

After canvassing the area, Tan Ping realized that nearly every household in the village was affected.

“What kind of disaster could cause such a catastrophic destruction of an entire village?”

Sweat drenched his forehead, and his legs trembled.

Faced with such calamity, he was at a loss to find the source of the accident.

“A flash flood wouldn’t be able to submerge the whole village. Could it be an earthquake?”

Tan Ping racked his brains for answers.

This was the worst-case scenario.

If it were an earthquake, no one in the village—or even among the people present—would survive.

“No! It can’t be an earthquake! Because earlier tests showed that if people leave before their life countdown reaches zero, they won’t be in danger,” he quickly dismissed the earthquake theory.

However, with less than thirty minutes left, immediate evacuation was imperative.

“Folks, please take your elderly and children and follow us out of the village temporarily!” Tan Ping urged the villagers.

“Why? What’s going on?” some villagers asked in confusion.

“We’re fine living here!” others protested.

“I haven’t even eaten yet!”

Not only the villagers but also Tan Ping’s colleagues and the livestream viewers were baffled.

“What’s wrong with Officer Tan? Why is he suddenly evacuating the village?”

“Is something big about to happen?”

“Could it be a flood?”

“No, that’s unlikely! Look outside—the sky is clear!”

“Then do you think it could be a controlled water release?”

“That’s possible,” muttered Master Wang Xingyun quietly. “Ping, what exactly is going on? If we don’t explain, these villagers won’t trust us.”

Watching the life countdown above the villagers steadily tick down, Tan Ping had no choice but to lie: “Master, I just received an urgent notice from headquarters—there’s a disaster coming!”

“A disaster?”

Wang Xingyun frowned.

Typically, disasters that require mass evacuation are major earthquakes or floods.

But from his experience, none of these fit.

“Master, there’s less than half an hour left! If we delay, it’ll be too late!” Tan Ping said urgently.

“All right!” Wang Xingyun nodded and immediately began persuading villagers from house to house to evacuate.

He was an old traffic cop with decades of experience. He contacted the village leaders, and with their mobilization, the villagers gradually agreed to move.

Seeing other officers also assisting in the emergency evacuation, viewers in the livestream chat were puzzled:

“Is there really some disaster about to happen?”

“I just checked the earthquake monitoring site—no alerts.”

“I called the weather station—no heavy rain warning either.”

“But judging by how urgent Officer Tan and the others are, this must be serious!”

The evacuation proceeded rapidly. Even villagers who resisted were forcibly led away by Tan Ping and his colleagues.

Some viewers in the chat expressed dissatisfaction:

“Why won’t they say what’s going on? Forcing people to leave like this is too much!”

“Yes! If you ask people to evacuate, you should give a convincing reason!”

“Looks like Officer Tan and the others are no different from the rest—they just put on a show during livestreams!”

Seeing this, Hua Hua stepped forward to explain:

“Friends, please don’t be anxious. Officer Tan is evacuating the villagers because he received an urgent order from higher up.”

Though she didn’t know the full reason either, she chose to reassure the viewers immediately.

Otherwise, if this got twisted and spread out of context, it would surely turn into a story about police bullying defenseless villagers.

Upon hearing Hua Hua’s explanation, some viewers understood and sent messages:

“Officer Tan must be in a real emergency to act like this!”

“A while ago, a place released floodwaters, and some villagers who didn’t evacuate in time got trapped.”

“Saving lives is like fighting a fire—you have to evacuate immediately! There’s no time for careful persuasion now!”

At last, Tan Ping led the villagers out of the village gate.

Seeing their life countdowns return to normal, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Just then, a villager who was building a house suddenly said, “Oh no! I hired a digger operator today to dig the foundation. The machine is charged by the hour and it’s expensive!”

His words sparked a sudden insight in Tan Ping’s mind.

He immediately asked, “When was the digger supposed to arrive?”

“Less than five minutes from the agreed time,” the villager glanced at his phone and replied.

Sure enough, just as he finished speaking, his phone rang.

The villager answered, and the voice of the digger operator came through: “Mr. Li? The digger has arrived at the village entrance. Can you send someone to guide me in?”

“Could the digger have something to do with an underground issue?” Tan Ping suddenly realized the crucial clue.

He quickly told the homeowner, “Tell the digger operator not to enter the village yet.”