Auntie Wang’s son kept crying out in pain. The situation was complicated, and Father Shen didn’t have professional equipment on hand, so he couldn’t give a definite diagnosis.

All he could do was tell them to stay still and wait for the water to recede, then go to the hospital for imaging.

Auntie Wang was unsatisfied and shouted anxiously, “Doctor Shen, you’re a professional! How can you not even see something like this? What kind of doctor are you?”

At once, Father Shen’s expression turned cold.

“If you don’t trust me, you can find someone else.”

Auntie Wang pouted. “There’s no one else available. Who doesn’t want to go to a hospital?”

The neighbors she’d brought to help couldn’t stand it. “Auntie Wang, how can you say that? Doctor Shen went through the trouble of coming downstairs to see your son. If you can’t thank him, fine, but stop being so unreasonable.”

Auntie Wang finally fell silent.

But the rain didn’t stop that night.

Rainfall increased rather than eased. The city’s drainage system completely failed, and water couldn’t drain, causing flooding in low-lying areas.

Shen Xiaoxiao’s community happened to be in such a low-lying zone. On the first day, the rain had already flooded the basement and garage. The first floor was submerged, and water levels rose to the second floor.

Residents on the second floor began to panic. They weren’t worried about the first floor or garage flooding, but the second floor was their home. If that got submerged, what would they do? So, they shamelessly went upstairs to ask higher-floor neighbors if they could stay the night and return after the water receded.

Naturally, Auntie Wang panicked too. The first people she thought of were Shen Xiaoxiao’s family. Being two generations of doctors, they were naturally easier to approach for help. She hurried upstairs with her daughter-in-law.

Once again, it was Father Shen who opened the door. Auntie Wang immediately explained her purpose and added, “Doctor Shen, you’re a good person—please, let us stay here just for one night.”

Shen Xiaoxiao, hearing the commotion, feared her father would give in.

She rushed up in slippers. “I remember your eldest son lives in this building too. Why don’t you go to his place instead of coming to ours?”

Auntie Wang awkwardly said, “Well… I’ve had a falling out with my eldest son, so it’s awkward to meet him.”

Father Shen realized it too. Auntie Wang’s eldest son did indeed live in the same building. But because she favored the younger son, she had fallen out with the eldest son and his wife and hadn’t spoken to them for half a year.

Still, as the saying goes, “bones may break, but tendons remain”—in terms of relatives, the eldest son was closer. It wasn’t right to stay at Shen’s home.

So he refused decisively.

This angered Auntie Wang. Failing to get what she wanted, she immediately turned furious and began cursing.

Shen Xiaoxiao quickly shut the security door, and the noise outside subsided as she stomped down the stairs.

Only then did she breathe a sigh of relief, returning to the sofa. “That scared me! I was worried you’d let them stay.”

Father Shen said, “Why would I? I know her eldest son lives upstairs. How could I possibly agree in a situation like this?”

Shen Xiaoxiao smiled. “If you think that way, I feel relieved.”

Father Shen sighed. “I’ve seen plenty of people like her, even at the hospital. They turn on you after you help them. I won’t fall for that.”

Shen Xiaoxiao laughed. Clearly, her father had learned from past experiences.

With Auntie Wang’s temperament, as long as the water didn’t recede, she would stay in their home with her son, daughter-in-law, and grandchild, maybe even morally guilt-tripping them into letting her dominate the house. They couldn’t afford that.

Sure enough, that night, Auntie Wang started ranting in the group chat. She called the property management useless and unhelpful, complaining that they couldn’t even provide a kayak, forcing her injured son to lie in bed, screaming in pain.

She also mocked the famous Doctor Shen on the 12th floor, claiming he had no real skills and could see nothing without instruments or test reports.

Her family was on the second floor, where water had reached knee-deep. In the middle of the night, she and her son and daughter-in-law could only hide in the stairwell. Her son was injured, and surrounding neighbors, she said, were heartless and refused to help.

She managed to offend the entire building, both openly and behind the scenes.

Someone immediately mocked her in the chat: “If you had good relations, wouldn’t you get help? Are you the only ones on the second floor? Others got help, didn’t they?”

This made Auntie Wang even angrier. “Exactly! Neighbors got help, why didn’t we?”

Everyone else in the building knew she was unreasonable and stopped paying attention, continuing to discuss the storm.

Only a newly arrived young couple, unfamiliar with the situation, let Auntie Wang bring people into their home.

Shen Xiaoxiao held her breath for that couple but couldn’t stop them from saving people. That’s just the way of the world—everyone has their fate.

By the next morning, the rain finally eased. The low-lying community was completely flooded up to the second floor.

Third-floor residents felt relieved the water hadn’t reached them but worried about whether the rain would continue, how long it would last, and if they had enough food—or if they should go out to buy more.

Auntie Wang finally got through to emergency services, and the hospital sent a rapid response boat to rescue her injured younger son.

The rain had been so intense that emergency calls never stopped. The city’s rescue system was under maximum load. Responders worked through the night without drinking, their voices hoarse from shouting.

Yet the rain came so fast and heavy that many still lost their lives.

No one could have predicted such a sudden downpour in broad daylight, with water accumulating rapidly and rising quickly.

Floodwaters rushed through streets, strong currents carrying debris and washing away many pedestrians seeking shelter.

Cars that had stalled waiting for a tow were soon submerged past the roof.

Dislodged manholes, flooded streets with lampposts and high-voltage boxes, swallowed passersby.

Not to mention the underground subway stations and the basements of shopping malls and supermarkets.

It had been a Saturday, with many people out shopping—who could have imagined a once-in-a-century downpour like this?

Hospitals were in chaos.

But rescue teams arrived quickly, pumped out the first-floor water, and placed sandbags and flood barriers at the entrances, ensuring hospital operations could continue.

Now, the hospitals were packed.

Wards were full, and hallways and lobbies were crowded with injured people brought from all over.

On-duty doctors rushed tirelessly between patients, barely touching the ground as they prescribed treatment.

With water this deep, even their rotating shifts couldn’t keep up—they had to push through and keep working.