Chapter 28

No, that’s not it!

Shu Fu quickly rejected her previous thought. Tornadoes usually occur on land, and the area she was in was completely submerged in water. The water was deep, so it wasn’t much different from rivers, lakes, or seas.

Furthermore, from the way the clouds and wind were moving in the distance, it seemed like a cyclone was forming. It looked more like a hurricane, a type of storm that forms over the sea.

But these kinds of storms generally form in tropical seas. How could one appear here?

In her set main storyline, she had indeed mentioned typhoons as a disaster—typhoons of apocalyptic scale, which were much worse than regular ones. But such storms should have already occurred in Huaguo’s coastal regions. Why was one still coming?

At least during the two months she had been living alone in the waters of Suicheng, she had never encountered such a hurricane.

While deep in thought, Shu Fu quickly tidied up the items inside, stowing them away in her space.

Regardless of whether it was a tornado, hurricane, or typhoon, the situation was clearly bad.

Although the elevator test tower she was in was sturdy, it was only built to withstand heavy rain and hail. A superstorm like a hurricane, with a vast coverage area and wind speeds around level 12 at its center, was far beyond what she had confidence in surviving without damage.

Within half a minute, everything was stowed away in her space. She checked her phone: it was 6:50 a.m. There were still five hours left until the time she had originally planned to use the raft, but now she couldn’t afford to worry about that. Escape was the priority.

She didn’t have time to put her old home cotton clothes back on. Instead, she quickly opened the door to the safety stairwell, grabbed a flashlight, and ran down while pulling out a raincoat from her space, quickly putting it on. She headed for the floor where the window had been broken.

Overnight, the water had not reached this floor, but since the window had been shattered, the wind and rain had blown in all night, making the entire stairwell damp.

She quickly deployed the raft, bracing herself against the increasingly fierce winds, and carefully climbed out of the window, slowly lowering herself onto the raft.

The sky outside had lightened a bit. In the distance, the dense clouds and the rising, surging waves were gradually spreading and moving.

The entire world was filled with the roaring wind and rain. Blinding lightning slashed through the gray clouds like silver snakes, with waves crashing relentlessly, hitting the raft and sending water splashing up over a meter high.

The icy rain poured down directly on her. Even the raincoat couldn’t fully shield her. From the moment she climbed through the window to the time she reached the safety zone under the wooden house eaves, the strong wind ripped off her rain hat, and rainwater poured into her raincoat through the collar.

When Shu Fu steadied herself against the eaves pillar, her hair was soaked and stuck to her face, her home clothes inside the raincoat were completely wet, and she felt a little disoriented from the heavy rain.

She took off the raincoat and hung it under the eaves, grabbing a large bath towel to wrap around herself. Barefoot, she entered the wooden house, quickly started the raft, and set her next destination to the second transfer point as planned.

With the hurricane approaching, although there were no other boats in this area, she remembered that the raft was sturdier than the drifting island house, but only at a beginner level. She wasn’t sure how well the beginner-level defense would hold up against the storm, so after a moment’s thought, she activated the drifting bottle’s protective shield.

Once the protective shield was activated, the roar of the wind and rain outside was reduced by half in volume. The raft was completely unaffected by the waves and automatically began drifting along the new course.

Shu Fu thought for a moment and then retrieved her electric card gear. She needed to take a hot shower to warm up and get rid of the wet, cold feeling on her body, or she might catch a cold.

Although she had stockpiled plenty of medicine, she preferred to avoid getting sick, especially since she was still in the midst of her mission.

She also planned to make some ginger soup to drink later.

Before entering the bathroom, she opened the back door of the wooden house to check. At the far end of the waterway, the waves were as tall as buildings, and dark clouds loomed over the area, with lightning flashing. Several spiraling water columns shot straight into the sky. The terrifying scene was far more intense than any disaster movie she had ever seen.

Without the drifting island house and protective shield, such a hurricane and the surging waves could easily destroy all the boats and ships on this waterway…

Shu Fu let out a long breath and confirmed once more that there was plenty of time left on the drifting bottle’s protective shield before she closed the door and entered the bathroom.

At 10 a.m., after catching up on a little over two hours of sleep, Shu Fu compared the map again and reset her destination. The transfer point she had set earlier was only eight hours away from the elevator test tower. She had originally planned to leave at noon and arrive at the shore by nightfall.

However, now her departure time had been moved up to 7 a.m., meaning even with 11 hours of continuous drifting, she would only reach the shore by 6 p.m. She didn’t want to waste any more time on the raft today, nor did she want to rest too early, subconsciously trying to get as far from the storm as possible.

At 5:45 p.m., she docked the raft at the northern outskirts of Shanyang City. This was already close to the border of the three-mouth province. Heading further west would bring her into Muzhou Province, where Lou Yuncheng was located.

She had already completed most of the journey. For the remaining distance, she checked the destination building shown on the waterway map and estimated it would take another 11 hours, which meant a full day of travel.

The building she had chosen to dock at was a large commercial area in the suburbs of the city. Although it was far from the downtown, it was well-developed and close to an elevated highway. There were small high-rise buildings and commercial structures, many of which were about 30 stories tall, providing her with many choices for where to land.

When she reached this location, the raft had only about an hour left of usage, so there wasn’t much time to change destinations. Fortunately, there were more exposed buildings around the area, and selecting a landing site here wouldn’t lead to a mishap.

She still chose a solid building with a simple internal structure from among the many buildings. She had no plans to spend the night there. After witnessing the storm this morning, she knew she wouldn’t be able to sleep anywhere outside the drifting island house. She just wanted to find a safe floor to stay on and wait out the rest of the day.

Fortunately, because the raft had drifted for a full eleven hours today, it was now far enough from the hurricane zone, and everything was safe until midnight.

Once midnight passed, the raft’s usage time reset. She boarded the raft again, set the final destination, and when activating the drifting bottle’s protective shield, she found that the first drifting bottle card only had 5 and a half hours of usage time left. To ensure a peaceful rest, she used another brand-new drifting bottle card.

After that, she cleaned up briefly, changed into home clothes, and went to sleep with peace of mind.

Before 7 a.m., the alarm hadn’t even gone off yet, but she woke up automatically.

She sensed something unusual outside. Without even brushing her teeth, she slipped into slippers and opened the door to the wooden house.

Stepping outside the eaves, the bright morning sunlight gently fell on her through the invisible protective shield. She looked up and saw the long-missed light blue sky.

This blue was very faint, with quite a few clouds still hanging in the air, but the rain had stopped.

This was the fourth time she had seen a rainless sky since the rain started in Suicheng.

The light blue sky, tinged with golden morning light, was truly, incredibly beautiful.

Though the weather had temporarily cleared, Shu Fu dared not turn off the drifting bottle’s protective shield. In the half-hour from when she woke up to when she had breakfast, two helicopters flew overhead.

One came from south to north, and the other from west to east.

She was now in Muzhou Province, which had a completely different landscape from the three-mouth province. The suburbs had many hills, and the waterways wound around these hills, passing through the lowest altitude areas. However, in the waters near the hills, she occasionally saw one or two boats.

Some of them were speedboats with rain canopies, and others were rubber boats with motors, moving near the hills.

Shu Fu took out binoculars and observed for a while, quickly understanding the situation. The elevated hills in this area had parts exposed above the water with large safety areas. Some buildings, resembling homestays, were present.

A large portion of Huaguo’s southeastern land had been flooded, and countless people had moved west, inevitably squeezing the living space in inland cities.

The homestay buildings on the hillsides were generally equipped with water and electricity, as well as planting and farming areas, and even basements for storing supplies. As long as there were sufficient supplies and the buildings were reinforced, the storms wouldn’t have much impact on them, and the living conditions might even be better than in the cities.

Of course, since the area below the hills had become a waterway, logistics were cut off, and after some time, there would be shortages of supplies. So, while it was beneficial to take refuge in these areas, it also had its drawbacks.

Under the eaves, Shu Fu checked for a while, then continued to look down and eat her breakfast.

On the camping table was a bowl of small dumplings soaked in bone broth and sprinkled with fresh green onions, a basket of thumb-sized pan-fried dumplings, a fried egg, and a plate of cold cucumber salad.

The raft would reach the end of the waterway around 11 a.m. Based on her previous experience with the library check-in task, she knew she might have to endure a period of eating biscuits and instant noodles. This was her last moment of leisure for the time being, so she made sure to eat a proper breakfast.

She didn’t waste time either, eating while comparing the waterway map and the digital map on her tablet, planning how to discreetly reach the shelter while ensuring safety.

At this moment, her phone, which had been placed aside, suddenly began making a series of message notification sounds, similar to the noise when a phone powers up after a flight.

It was a series of text messages, all from the time her phone had been turned off, including messages from the communications company and weather forecasts welcoming her arrival at a new city.

This phone, along with its number, was newly purchased. After setting it up, she topped up the call credit. After removing the original SIM card, she had been using this new phone to browse the internet and receive external information, occasionally checking WeChat.

This phone number was known to no one, and since she had been in Suicheng before the signal was completely cut off, she had never received so many messages at once. After the communication cut-off in Suicheng, the phone had gone completely silent.

Now, one message after another indicated that she had entered an area with signal coverage.

She quickly unlocked the screen to check, and as expected, the messages were from the communications company and weather forecasts.

Among them, the messages from the communications company were particularly eye-catching.

“Welcome to Guanyu County, Muzhou Province! Stay updated on disaster information by logging into XXXXX (click to jump to the website) for real-time alerts in your area!”

“Urgent notice! Guanyu County has reached the warning water level. Residents who have not yet evacuated should move quickly to the dam’s safe zone!”

“Dear Huaguo XX communications customer, welcome to Muzhou Province. You can call our exclusive provincial emergency number, 1888808, for 24-hour rescue and search assistance! Natural disasters strike with no mercy, but we are here to help. We wish you a safe journey to the city and reunion with your family!”

…

Shu Fu: …

As expected, they’ve kept up with the times.

---

Having internet was like returning from the isolated wilderness back into civilized society.

Shu Fu spent over half an hour browsing various websites, downloading several new disaster news apps, and bookmarking several news sites from Muzhou Province. She quickly sifted through a large pile of news to find the missing and crucial information she needed.

After comparing the waterway map with the regular digital map, she devised two methods to check in at the Lou Yuncheng shelter.

First, the so-called shelter is actually a refuge, but in Lou Yuncheng—or rather, in all inland cities that are at a higher altitude and not affected by flooding—whether it’s a civilian-established refuge or an official shelter, the people here refer to them as “shelters.”

The shelters house refugees—people who have fled from other cities, overwhelming the living space of the original citizens, seizing their resources, causing skyrocketing prices, congested cities, and a sharp rise in crime rates.

For the people of these safe cities, based on normal goodwill and sympathy, they can tolerate their presence for a day, two days… even a week.

But after more than two months, when they realize that these evacuees are not going to leave their cities, they start to view them as unwelcome refugees.

The same goes for Lou Yuncheng. Heavy rain and occasional hailstorms and thunderstorms have hindered transportation, with planes grounded for extended periods, trains and buses restricted, and tickets hard to come by.

Many people want to leave, but simply can’t.

The massive influx of refugees has led to soaring prices, the devaluation of currency, water supply restrictions, and limits on the purchase of drinking water—quality of life has plummeted.

Large supermarkets and farmer’s markets have abundant fresh produce, but they are under strict regulation, with unified control over supply channels, the cancellation of private stalls, and comprehensive purchase limits.

Private small supermarkets, markets, and street vendors, on the other hand, have no purchase limits, but their quality cannot be guaranteed, prices vary widely, and the supply is incomplete.

Especially for fresh food, since the entire supply chain is under control, goods are often delayed, and these places have very limited varieties. Bartering for goods is common.

Unlike the large supermarkets under official supervision, these places lack enough staff to maintain public order, leading to frequent chaos. Some people are scammed, others are robbed and assaulted…

If you manage to buy expired or spoiled food at a high price, you can consider yourself lucky. Those less fortunate might end up with contaminated food from flood-affected areas.

However, Lou Yuncheng’s officials strictly regulate food contamination from flood zones. Once identified and reported, not only can a single stall be shut down, but entire markets or supermarkets may also be closed.

So, anyone who still wants to live decently in Lou Yuncheng—especially the locals—would never dare to cross this line.

In the southeastern and northeastern outskirts of Lou Yuncheng, several shelters for refugees have been built, making these areas particularly chaotic. The original residents who had the means to move have long since relocated to other areas, while a small number of those who couldn’t move have been forced to live alongside the refugees, constantly complaining, and conflicts and brawls are common.

However, these shelters are not Shu Fu’s target for the mission, as they are located outside the water zone, quite far from the waterway. Most importantly, there is a large dam between her and these shelters.

This was the second crucial piece of information she obtained—the flood-blocking dam!