Lin Zhixia squatted beside a newly cracked ground seam, holding a brush in her hand and sweeping away the gravel covering the soil surface little by little.
The crack in the ground was caused by the 5:00 second-level aftershock yesterday afternoon. It crossed the place where the school playground was originally. On both sides of the section, obvious layers of artificial rammed soil were exposed - the color, texture, and inclusions were all different from the modern backfill soil above. She had conducted a survey last night and came here before dawn today with a tool kit to make a preliminary age determination before the construction team came in to clean up the ruins.
The brush swept it a third time, revealing half of the pottery shard. Reddish brown, with sand in it, the edge of the mouth is slightly curled, like a fragment of some kind of water reservoir. Lin Zhixia cleared another two centimeters of soil around it, and gently rubbed the cross section with her fingertips - it was handmade, not wheel-made, and it should be no later than the Roman period. She took out her phone and took a close-up, then took out a piece of label paper and wrote down the coordinates and depth.
That's when the roar of the helicopter came. The air flow picked up gravel and hit the back of her neck, causing a small sting. She didn't look up immediately. She wrapped the half of the pottery in gauze and put it in a sealed bag, then put the brush into the tool bag, then stood up and turned around.
What came into view was a pair of hands - slender, with distinct knuckles, and the roots of the fingers were wrapped with medical tape. The palms were upward, the four fingers were slightly joined, and they were reaching towards her.
"This place may collapse again at any time." The voice was low, with a neat ending like a British accent, "Follow me."
Lin Zhixia looked up along the hands. The zipper of the orange rescue suit was open to the second button, revealing a honey-tanned neck. The Adam's apple was not big and would move when swallowing. Further up, the jawline was tightened, the lips were slightly pursed, the dark hair was lifted up and fell down by the airflow, and the broken hair was stuck to the cheekbones. He raised his hand to push it away, and at that moment she saw those eyes.
Green. There is a light amber halo around the pupils in the backlight.
"Which team are you from?" Lin Zhixia did not take his hand, but bent down to zip up the tool bag at her feet.
Intention: Thirty thousand feet