CSGM - Chapter 70
Chapter 70: Eight Screens
The police captain was taken aback. He had seen people volunteer before, but never like this.
It was too… too confident, too composed, too certain of absolute success.
Alright, to put it bluntly, Chu Xi's words were a bit cocky.
The police captain made a swift decision. "Then let's not waste any more time. Since you're confident you can help, we'll do it your way."
Besides, maintaining constant contact with the colleagues searching in the forest was also a way to ensure their safety.
Firefighters, police officers, and staff from the sub-district office joined forces. They formed four search teams of five to six people each. Keeping their video calls connected with the colleagues who stayed behind, they switched on their flashlights, pointed their front-facing cameras ahead, and entered the woods.
Chu Xi looked at the four people holding the phones for the video calls. They were from different departments and clearly didn't know each other, standing scattered all over the place.
She was exasperated.
She called the four of them over to her. "Come closer, stand next to me."
Only then did the four of them gather around, with two phones appearing in her peripheral vision on each side.
Each rescue team moved forward in their designated direction-two teams to the due north, one to the northwest, and one to the northeast. Yet, looking at the four camera feeds, it was impossible to tell any difference between them.
There were trees ahead, trees to the left, and trees to the right-nothing but trees. The ground beneath their feet was the same dirt path. What was worse, the sky was gradually dimming. The sun's afterglow was faint, and the rescue teams could now only rely on their flashlights to illuminate the path forward.
The liaisons at the base were all cheering on their respective colleagues, adding a few words of concern about staying safe.
After worrying about their colleagues in the forest, they turned their attention to Chu Xi.
"Miss, can you keep up with so many camera feeds?"
"Miss? Hello? Miss…? Are you watching?"
Chu Xi's gaze shifted only between the four phone screens. Without turning her head, she answered the person who had questioned her.
"My surname is Chu. Are four feeds a lot?"
The next second, she suddenly looked at one of the phones, leaning her face close to the screen.
"Team Two, keep moving forward. No need to search here. This area is clear."
The loudspeaker on the other end fell silent. The person in charge asked her, "Are you sure?"
Chu Xi: "Positive."
She had been through that area during the day. None of the four video clips sent by the people who were still missing showed anyone in this vicinity. This area could be completely ruled out.
Chu Xi gave directions, "There's a thicket of bushes to your right. Use it as a landmark and walk forward for five hundred meters. Continue your search once the bushes start to thin out."
The camera on the other side of the video call shook.
Chu Xi asked, "Do you see it?"
The person on the other end replied in disbelief, "I see it, I see it! Okay!"
Chu Xi noticed something in her peripheral vision. Her brow furrowed slightly, and she immediately turned to another phone screen-
"Team Three, you're going the wrong way. Stop and don't move."
In a forest, without objective landmarks or a strong subjective sense of direction, it's often difficult for people to even walk in a straight line in densely wooded areas.
Watching their video feed, Chu Xi could tell that this team had clearly gotten themselves turned around.
She said, "You've veered off course. Turn ninety degrees to your left on the spot to get back on a straight path."
The liaison for Team Three instinctively questioned her, "How do you know we've gone off course?"
At the same time, a colleague behind him who had taken out a compass answered the question for Chu Xi in the next second.
"I think she's right!"
Everyone gathered around the wildly spinning compass for a look, then turned back to ask Chu Xi:
"So which way do we go?"
"Pan the camera a little to the left. See that shortest tree with the plastic bottle at its base? That's in a straight line from you. Head towards it."
"Okay, okay…"
The sub-district office staff member holding the phone glanced at Chu Xi in shock-she even saw the plastic bottle. What sharp eyes!
The first four trainees Chu Xi had led back to the main road had now returned to the assembly point on their bikes. They excitedly pushed through their classmates and ran towards Chu Xi.
"Sister Xi!! We're back!!!"
Chu Xi-their training camp's very own GPS!
The "GPS" raised a hand to cut off their enthusiasm. "Quiet."
Chu Xi was staring intently at the four phones, completely absorbed in thought.
There happened to be someone behind her. She reached back without looking, grabbed a trainee's shirt, and commanded, "Do you have a pen and paper? Get them for me."
The person she grabbed nodded repeatedly. "I'll go find them right now!"
In a situation like this, if they still couldn't figure out who to listen to, they'd be complete idiots.
The lost classmates had all found their way back by following Chu Xi's directions. They believed Chu Xi also had the ability to help the rescue personnel bring back the remaining students!
As for them, since they were already here, they would just help Chu Xi and follow her instructions!
Although they couldn't for the life of them figure out how Chu Xi recognized the paths…
A reporter from the local TV station stood in front of the camera, explaining the situation while interviewing the personnel on site.
The female reporter first spoke with the director to report the situation for the broadcast-it turned out a team-building event had been organized here, and during the free activity period, some people got lost in the woods and were only discovered to be missing when they failed to return.
Next, the female reporter interviewed the firefighters, police officers, and sub-district office leaders one by one, and all their perspectives were broadcast to the front lines.
It wasn't just the local evening news channel broadcasting this story; the regional disaster prevention and control public account was also live-streaming the female reporter's on-site report.
Some viewers eating dinner at home kept their TVs on the channel, watching as the sky grew darker, wondering if the people in the woods would be found.
Other middle-aged and elderly netizens who followed the public account saw the live stream and quickly forwarded it to their family group chats and social media feeds.
Makeup tutorials, gaming, and dancing weren't the kind of live content they enjoyed, but local news and current events like this definitely were!
Seeing the police cars and fire trucks parked behind the reporter, the middle-aged and elderly netizens left concerned comments in the live stream chat:
【How many people are missing?】
【Good thing it's warm now. It would be even more dangerous on an autumn or winter night!】
【Thank you for your hard work, police officers and firefighters. Thumbs up for you!/[Strong]】
【Hope the hikers are safe and the missing people are found soon./[Praying Hands]】
【You serve the people, you are the best!/[Strong]/[Strong]/[Strong]】
The netizens in their fifties, sixties, and even seventies watched nervously on the public account, but when they shared it in their family group chats, the younger generation showed no interest at all, not even bothering to reply.
Oh well, they'd just watch by themselves.
The female reporter soon noticed a group of people gathered around Chu Xi in the open area.
She wasn't wearing a special uniform, so she wasn't a public official, but a crowd was surrounding her, holding up several phones for her to see.
Chu Xi was directing them from in front of the phones-
"Team Three, you're overlapping with Team One's search area. Don't go any further forward. Turn left."
A member of Team Three grumbled and muttered a few things under his breath. To put it plainly, he was still very skeptical about whether Chu Xi was right.
After all, they hadn't found a single person yet.
The person on the other end of this phone's video call said, "We're not going in the same direction as Team One. How could we be overlapping? Are you mistaken?"
Just then, the trainee Chu Xi had sent to find a pen and paper returned with what she had asked for.
"Here! Chu Xi! I found them for you!"
A sheet of white paper and a black rollerball pen. Chu Xi took them and quickly dotted the paper with numerous small points.
In an instant, the paper looked like a white sky filled with black stars.
-The trainee behind her watched, dumbfounded. He used to make dots just like that when he scribbled on drawing paper as a child.
Who would have thought that in the next moment, Chu Xi would flip the paper over, hold it up to the video call, turn the pen around in her hand, and gesture on the paper while speaking:
"Team One took this route, and you took this route. They've already searched this point. If you keep going forward, you'll just reach this same point again. Change direction. This side hasn't been searched."
The end of the rollerball pen moved between the cluster of black dots, controlled by Chu Xi's hand.
With a nimble movement of her fingers, she flipped the pen again and connected some of the dots on the paper into two lines-
"Team One's route, your route. Got it?"
The trainee who brought the pen and paper: "…"
Huh? So she wasn't just scribbling randomly?
The staff members nearby: "…"
How did she draw that?
The people on the other side of the video call: "…"
What was she saying? They were lost.
Chu Xi frowned. "If you don't get it, just do as I say. You're so bad…" and yet you ask so many questions.
Suddenly, a hand reached around from behind her and covered her mouth, preventing her from even fully pronouncing the word "bad."
Ren Zhi stepped over with a smile and explained, "She's quite skilled at spatial modeling. She's likely memorized the directions and routes you've taken to avoid duplicating search areas."
Ren Zhi turned to ask Chu Xi, "You said the point Team One just searched-does it have any distinguishing features?" Only after asking did she lower her hand.
Chu Xi replied, "Yes. There's a crooked-neck willow tree in that area, and several nearby trees have mycelium growing on them."
After she said that, someone on the other end of the video call ran forward a few steps to look. It was true!
He immediately ran back, reporting breathlessly that what Chu Xi said was correct, that's what it looked like, he had seen the crooked-neck willow tree.
The expressions on the faces of the other members of Team Three softened, and they quickly said to Chu Xi, "Okay, thank you. We'll change direction now as you said."
It seemed Chu Xi was right, and only then did they feel at ease.
The search by the four teams continued. Ren Zhi whispered a reminder, "Speak nicely."
She believed in Chu Xi, and others did too, but that didn't mean everyone did. Communication shouldn't be so blunt and direct.
Someone in the back sighed softly, "This forest is huge… I'm so glad I didn't go too deep this afternoon…"
It was a bit too big.
Chu Xi looked at the dots drawn on the paper. In her mind, these black dots automatically connected into lines and divided into different regions. This was the map of the mountain forest, pieced together from the current perspectives of the four rescue teams and the areas she had walked through that morning.
With a photographic memory and sufficient spatial construction ability in her brain, this wasn't difficult for her.
The difficulty lay in the objective environment; there were still many blank spots on the map.
She knitted her brows in thought, then once again asked the crowd behind her:
"Can someone bring four more phones? Let's make video calls to all the groups that are lost."
"You can borrow mine." Ren Zhi, who was beside her, was the first to take out her phone.
The trainees, teachers, and film crew staff behind them, including the director, all came forward, eager to help and contribute to the effort for their fellow training camp members.
It was as if this were a great honor. Not only did they rush to be first, but they also started introducing their phones-
"Mine has a great signal and a full battery. Use it as much as you want!"
"I just bought mine, it's super smooth. Who should I call? I have all their contacts!"
"I also just bought the new 'leading' model, super clear imaging, 12-megapixel camera!"
"Mine not only has optical zoom, but the screen is 6.7 inches. It's huge!!!"
The sun had set, and the sky was dark. There was no more light coming from behind the mountain; the sky was like a gray curtain.
But on the ground, there was a field of jumping and swaying lights.
It was like a concert for some celebrity, with everyone holding up their phones, using the light from their screens as a show of support. Gathered together, they resembled a swarm of fireflies in the night, rising and falling.
The director silently lowered his hand, pressing the corner of his eye as it passed-getting old really makes one sentimental. It seemed the three months they had all spent together hadn't been for nothing…
Chu Xi had no time to be picky. She just chose three phones with large, new screens, plus Ren Zhi's, and told them to make the video calls.
She beckoned to the other three people responsible for making the calls. "Come here, stand in front of me."
A moment later, eight phone screens were placed before Chu Xi, double the number from before.
This was starting to look like a few too many…
A staff member from the sub-district office asked her, "Teacher Chu, can you handle all of them?"
She could handle them perfectly fine, but she couldn't hear any other sounds. Chu Xi was once again immersed in her own world, now starting to direct the lost trainees to move around their vicinity so she could see the terrain.
The female reporter and her cameraman squeezed through the crowd, reporting to the camera.
"Take a look, it seems the personnel stationed here are currently on video calls with the front-line rescue teams. Let's check in on the progress of the rescue effort at this moment…"
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