My Child and I Married a Billionaire

"I have one!"

Lee was usually a joker and could be a bit unreliable, so people were often wary of trusting him.

Who would’ve thought he’d be the one to save them at a time like this?

Just as everyone finished speaking in despair, Lee scrambled up from the floor.

"When the school was first built, I snuck in to play on my phone. I stuffed a lighter under the teacher’s desk on the podium."

He climbed onto the podium and felt around. Sure enough, it was still there.

Everyone cheered. Forgetting their exhaustion, they started smashing and tearing apart the desks and chairs.

Soon, over thirty desks and chairs were broken to pieces and, with a pile of waste paper, set ablaze.

They finally saw a glimmer of hope for survival. But with only enough room for a few of them to warm themselves by the fire, what about their other colleagues?

Cecelia Archer held Grandma King in her arms, desperately rubbing her freezing limbs. She told Lee to go check if the school’s loudspeaker still worked so they could call the rest of their colleagues over.

Otherwise, if even one person had an accident, it wouldn’t just be the company’s reputation on the line. The project they had worked on for over a month might be for nothing, and they could forget about their year-end bonuses.

Hearing how serious the consequences were, Lee hurried to check the loudspeaker.

Luckily, to save money, President Miller had bought an old-fashioned, battery-powered model. It wasn’t affected by the power outage, hadn’t gotten wet, and was still usable.

Soon, Lee’s voice echoed through every corner of the village.

"Everyone who can hear my voice, get to the second floor of the school immediately! We have a fire here! Forget about all that other stuff, stay safe, and get over here now!"

Gradually, people started gathering in the classroom.

The party secretary did a headcount. Thank God. Forty-eight people, every single one accounted for.

The group sat in a large circle around the fire. The party secretary’s face was clouded with worry.

"The village is completely ruined. The houses are all gone, the grain is lost, and the livestock have all drowned. It’s like the heavens are trying to kill us. And with the New Year just around the corner... Sigh!"

Someone interrupted him, "Stop talking about that. At this rate, the water could reach the second floor by tomorrow morning. We don’t even know if we’ll survive the night. Party Secretary, you have to think of something, quickly!"

"What am I supposed to do?" The party secretary was worried sick.

His phone was waterlogged and completely useless.

Just now, he’d had someone else try to call the police, but there was no signal at all.

"Then what do we do? We can’t just sit here and wait to die, can we?"

Hearing the party secretary say such a thing, everyone panicked and started shouting over one another. With a sense of helplessness, Cecelia Archer had no choice but to step up and take control.

"We are not going to wait to die. The rain might stop tomorrow. And even if it doesn’t, there’s no way the Vaughn Group would abandon us. They will definitely come to our rescue. Don’t worry."

"Miss Archer, are you sure? Are you sure someone will come rescue us even if the rain doesn’t stop tomorrow? Have you contacted your company?"

Cecelia hadn’t been able to make contact.

She didn’t even know if it was raining in Veridia.

But she had this confidence.

There was no way Damien Vaughn would ignore dozens of lives. As long as he knew they were in danger here, he would definitely come.

In the hotel, Ryan stared at the silent Windmount project group chat, his heart pounding with fear as he made a suggestion to Damien Vaughn.

"President Vaughn, maybe we should call the police. I just saw the latest weather alert from the Oakhaven news. The rainfall has reached 50 millimeters per minute. There’s severe flooding in many areas, and residents are stranded on their rooftops. The situation is critical, a forty-year record high for rainfall..."

Damien Vaughn’s expression was grim. His shirt was unbuttoned, and he stared out at the lashing curtain of rain, taking another drag from his cigarette.

"Still no contact?"

"None. The signal is bad there even on a good day, let alone now."

’The signal is bad even on a good day?’

Damien Vaughn shot him a cold glare. "Why didn’t you tell me sooner?"

Ryan: "..."

’I wanted to tell you, but you never asked, and I didn’t have the nerve!’

This wasn’t the time for blame. Taking his anger out on Ryan was pointless. Damien Vaughn tossed away his cigarette butt.

"Get the nearest police station on the line."

Ryan made the call and managed to get through, but the officer on the other end told him...

...that the flooding was severe throughout Oakhaven. They were critically short-staffed and had already dispatched all their officers to rescue nearby residents. Windmount was too far away, and it was dark. They could only wait until morning.

It was already past 3:00 AM. Other than waiting, Damien Vaughn had no better options.

’I hope they’re okay.’

"You go get some rest. Report back to me at 7:00 AM sharp."

’Looks like President Vaughn is in for another sleepless night.’

Ryan didn’t dare abandon the president and go to sleep, but in this situation, there was nothing they could do. If he hung around, he would only disturb President Vaughn’s thoughts.

"Alright. You should also get some rest, President Vaughn. I’ll be on standby in the next room."

After Ryan left, Damien Vaughn unlocked his phone and began personally searching for news about the typhoon.

The more he read, the deeper his brows furrowed.

’It’s this bad?’

In just a few short hours, transportation was completely paralyzed. Even many old, dilapidated residential buildings had been washed away by the floodwaters.

How could Damien Vaughn possibly have any thought of sleeping? He immediately called his contacts in the Oakhaven administration.

If concrete buildings in the city could be washed away, what chance did the simple structures in the small mountain village where Cecelia Archer and her team were staying have?

He couldn’t let Vaughn Group employees get hurt on his watch.

The official was in the middle of coordinating the emergency rescue operations for all of Oakhaven and was quite surprised to receive a call from Damien Vaughn at such a time.

"President Vaughn, why are you still up at this hour? Is something wrong?"

Damien Vaughn explained that he had sent his engineering department on a charity project and asked the official to immediately dispatch people to Windmount to check on the situation. The man was hesitant but agreed.

"The situation out there is tense right now. Transportation is extremely difficult—you either need an excavator, a heavy truck, or a boat to get around. Plus, we’re short on manpower. It’s not that I don’t want to go, it’s just that getting to Windmount is incredibly hard... But we will do our best to ensure the safety of every resident and their property. Don’t worry, President Vaughn. I’ll pull some people for this right away and get back to you as soon as I have news."

After hanging up, Damien Vaughn sat by the window, waiting, as the seconds and minutes ticked by.

He waited from the dead of night, through the first hint of dawn, until the sky was fully bright.

Ryan, having caught a little sleep, came to find him at seven o’clock sharp.

"President Vaughn, you’re still sitting here? You didn’t sleep at all, did you? You should rest for a bit. I’ll go get you some breakfast."

"No need."

Damien Vaughn was growing increasingly agitated from the wait, glancing at his phone for the umpteenth time. The official still hadn’t called him back.

’Looks like I can’t count on them.’ He had already made his decision.

"Get me the Municipal Meteorological Bureau. Ask about the weather forecast for the next four hours and whether it’s possible to request a helicopter."

"What?" Ryan jumped in shock.

"Can’t the people in Oakhaven handle it? Are Miss Archer and the others really in trouble? You’re going to send your own helicopter to rescue them?"

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