Chapter 117

“Yinsha River is flowing backwards?” Liu Shuang and Cheng Yu both spoke at the same time, turning around to look.

In the next moment, Shu Fu and Yao Ruoyun followed behind Cheng Yu, quickly running towards the cliff.

“How is this possible!?” The others nearby immediately felt a chill run down their spines. “A river this large, how could it suddenly reverse its flow?”

The movement of river water is influenced by various factors, including terrain, flow speed, and water level, and under certain conditions, reverse flow can occur.

For example, due to heavy rainfall—flooding!

Not only was there heavy rainfall, but the continuous snowstorms over the past month had accumulated a large amount of solid water—snow and ice—on the mountains and land.

Afterward, the temperature rose too quickly, causing the ice and snow to melt in one day, turning solid water back into liquid. Adding to this, days of continuous heavy rain resulted in an enormous volume of water pouring into flood-prone and low-altitude areas, triggering—an unprecedented massive flood!

“Flood!” Several voices simultaneously exclaimed.

“Is it a flood coming from downstream?”

As this word was spoken, everyone had the same fearful thought: What kind of flood could reverse the flow of a river like Yinsha River!?

Everyone turned their gaze to the other side of the river. It was pitch black, nothing could be seen, and all that could be heard were the loud sounds of rain and rushing water. It was impossible to tell with the naked eye whether the flood was approaching.

Even if the flood hadn’t reached them yet, the rapid rise in the water level meant that the narrow mountain path they were on would soon be submerged by the rising water of the Yinsha River.

On the other side of the mountain path was a steep cliff, and it was impossible to climb. They were trapped, like animals caught on a lonely island. Whether they ran backward or continued forward, they were still within the flood’s reach and couldn’t escape!

“What should we do?”

“Don’t just stand there, get in the cars, we need to leave this mountain road quickly!”

“Who doesn’t know we should get in the cars? But the problem now is, there aren’t enough vehicles!”

“This is life-threatening! It’s so dark above the river, we can’t see anything!”

“Run!”

“Run? This mountain road is so long, what’s the use of running? It’s the same no matter where we go!”

“Then—climb up?”

“How can we climb? This cliff is so steep, not even the elite team could climb up it!”

“Stop talking, the more you say, the more confused I get…”

In the midst of the panicked voices, a dazzling red arc appeared on the dark water surface, sweeping across the air above the water in the direction they had come from.

It was a distress flare!

Cheng Yu withdrew his hand, loaded another flare into the launcher, and shot it toward a higher trajectory.

Two flares appeared in the dark rainy night sky. The harsh weather caused the light of the flares to flicker and dim, far from as bright as they would have been on a clear night, but still enough to illuminate the dark river and allow the survivors standing on the cliff path to see what was happening on the other side of the river.

The entire wide Yinsha River was still surging and rushing as they had seen when they first departed that morning, but it had completely changed its flow direction. The waves were coming from the downstream direction, the opposite of what they expected.

The reversed flow of the river was like waves, completely overtaking the original river surface. The distant water waves piled up on top of each other. Where the waves passed, the water level surged rapidly, and the waves merged into the river, forcefully changing the river’s flow, repeating over and over again.

Further away, more waves were rising in layers, and this was a flood capable of reversing entire rivers!

This scene meant that the water levels in the entire downstream area were far higher than in the area they were currently in.

In the short time from when they first sensed something was wrong to now, the water level at the bottom of the cliff seemed to have risen even more, and the rate of rise was noticeable to the naked eye.

Almost everyone standing near the cliff instinctively took a few steps back. They had already walked so far, and they were almost at the river, close to crossing to the other side.

But, was this where they would have to stop?

The light from the two flares gradually faded, and everyone stared at the diminishing glow as if seeing their own dwindling chances of survival.

Just as the last glimmer of the flare was about to disappear, another bright light streaked across the pitch-black sky, falling toward the river’s turbulent surface.

In the crowd, someone, unsure who, fired another flare. This time, the flare flickered differently from the previous one. It was a hand-held distress flare.

Such flares were often found in the supply packages dropped into disaster areas, and many people in the team had them in their backpacks as part of their essential gear. However, many had hoped they would never need to use them before reaching the safety zone in Xizhou Province.

Firing this flare meant they were in an inescapable perilous situation, and their only hope was for rescuers to arrive. Yet, at this moment, rescue team members, military personnel, and even members of another elite team were right there beside them.

In such a situation, who could they turn to for help?

A sense of hopelessness suddenly overwhelmed them. Were they really going to have to draw lots to decide who would survive, who would get on the car, and who would leave?

“Draw lots then, whoever can escape, let them go…” someone suddenly spoke up.

But more people shook their heads in refusal.

What’s the point of surviving like this? Even if they escaped death this time, they would live with the knowledge that their lives were bought with the lives of others…

**

While most of the survivors were lost in despair and confusion in the face of life and death, a small group of survivors and rescue personnel had already started moving with the elite team. They reached the rock face on the other side of the mountain path and were considering the possibility of climbing up to higher ground.

As long as one person could climb up, secure a rope, then everyone below could follow!

The problem was, the rock face on this side was not only almost vertical, but it was also smooth and slippery, with rainwater still flowing down. Among all of them, Wen Rou, who had the most climbing ability and experience, attempted to climb. But her shoulder injury had not healed, and she couldn’t exert her full strength. She fell after just two steps, and a few team members caught her.

Wen Rou shook her head. “If we had climbing gear, we could bolt our way up…”

But all her climbing equipment was in the off-road vehicle, which she had left behind in the rush to flee from Yexian. Realizing this, Wen Rou felt guilty and angrily hit herself twice.

“Try again, find something that can replace the bolts!” Cheng Yu walked over, having already instructed Awen to bring the armored vehicle to a nearby rock face.

He tossed his backpack into the driver’s seat, put on his tactical gloves again, and prepared to climb up along the edge of the vehicle door. The armored vehicle had a height of several meters, which would reduce the climbing distance.

Meanwhile, Wen Rou had climbed into the armored vehicle’s cabin, grabbing a coil of rope and hanging it on herself. She started looking for anything that could serve as a replacement for bolts, pitons, or rock plugs. Liu Shuang also entered the cabin, searching and asking Wen Rou questions.

Outside, Han Lan began preparing as well. His climbing ability was good too, and having more people try would give them more time. “Are your arms okay?” he asked Cheng Yu.

“Yes,” Cheng Yu replied briefly, but as he turned around, he noticed Shu Fu standing not far away.

She was standing in the rain, looking up as if she were examining the rock face. The cliff was very high, at least 100 meters, and if it weren’t raining, it might have been possible to climb up, but now…

Cheng Yu saw the furrowed brows on her face. She rarely showed such an expression, solemn and silent, as if there was an invisible weight pressing down on her slender body.

“Wait,” he told Han Lan, then quickly walked over to Shu Fu.

Shu Fu sensed his approach and withdrew her gaze to look at him. “You want to climb up?”

“This is the only way.”

“No, there’s another way.” Shu Fu glanced at the armored vehicle, her expression serious. “You can drive. In times like this, it doesn’t matter how you sit. You can squeeze more people into the vehicle, and some can climb up onto the roof… At least your team members can survive and get away, and you can save some others. As for the rest… they’re not your responsibility. Didn’t Liu Shuang say that? Everyone is a survivor, not a rescuer. You have to save yourselves first, then you can save others.”

Cheng Yu didn’t expect her to say so much all at once. He looked at her, smiled, and placed a hand on her hood. “Don’t worry, everything will be fine. It’s not the final moment yet. Everyone is still trying. We have to give it a shot.”

On the other side, Wen Rou and Liu Shuang climbed out of the vehicle cabin, each carrying ropes and tools.

“Captain!”

“I’m coming!” Cheng Yu responded, patting her head comfortingly, then walked quickly toward his teammates.

“I only found these. I can’t guarantee if they’ll work, but shall we try?” Wen Rou gestured.

“Sure, let’s try.” Cheng Yu removed his hood and climbed up the vehicle door, quickly reaching the roof.

Wen Rou and Liu Shuang followed, starting to prepare climbing gear for Cheng Yu and Han Lan.

Meanwhile, the survivors near the cliff began pulling out hand-held distress flares from their backpacks and firing them into the night sky above the river.

They knew no one would come to save them, but they still held onto a faint hope, sending out distress signals.

One, two… four, five…

The entire pitch-black surface of the Yinsha River was suddenly illuminated by the glow of several flares—red, blue, yellow, white… Amid the flashing lights, they once again saw the waves of water coming from the other side of the river, surging in reverse. The river near them had already risen higher than before, with only less than two meters separating them from the cliff path.

The rain around them was noisy, but they could still hear the roaring of the waves, the flood growing closer and closer.

Yao Ruoyun stood by the cliff, nervously clutching her backpack, waiting. Shu Fu quickly walked over and shook her head in response to Yao’s anxious gaze.

Their eyes met, communicating silently.

—They won’t leave. They are warriors and soldiers; they never abandon the battlefield.

—But if they don’t leave, even if they don’t record me later, there’s no room on the raft for this many people! And the flood is coming so quickly. The raft will be caught up soon, won’t it?

Shu Fu looked at the river illuminated by several flares and gently spoke again. “There’s one more way, but I’ve never tried it before.” Or rather, she had never set it up, so she wasn’t sure how large it would be or which areas would be suitable for people to climb.

But when thinking about it now, everything felt as if it had been destined from the start.

Above the river, the last few flares’ lights gradually dimmed.

Some had already lost hope, sitting down on the mountain path, their heads hanging in despair.

But at that very moment, someone suddenly shouted, pointing at the river in the distance, “Look! What’s that!”

What?

The others, drawn by her shout, looked up at the river once again. Someone, at this moment, fired another flare. The river, illuminated by the flare’s light, revealed a large vessel—no, a house? A villa?

Those who had been sitting on the ground quickly stood up, stretching their necks, constantly wiping the rain from their faces and eyes, as if they could grow four eyes just to better see the rapidly approaching object.

It wasn’t a boat!

Nor a house!

It was a—super-large wooden raft with front and rear armor and a three-story luxury villa on top!

**

Half an hour later, when everyone had boarded the raft and cautiously ascended the smooth, new wooden stairs from both sides of the back deck of the villa, leading to the large glass terraces with sliding doors on the third floor, they still felt dazed, questioning whether they were dreaming.

No one knew when this strange wooden raft had appeared, where it had drifted from, or why it had perfectly docked next to their cliff with the rear deck facing them. They didn’t understand how it could move so smoothly and quickly on the surging waves. It felt as if they weren’t even on water…

What about the cockpit?

What about the power?

Where was the owner of the raft?

Was this the rumored raft of the supernatural beings?

Why was it so completely different from what they had heard?

They had so many questions, but none of them spoke because they knew that everyone around them, just like themselves, was lost in confusion. They all suspected that everything before them was just a figment of their imagination…

But on the lower deck, their weathered ambulance was still parked, and behind it, the armored vehicle was stationed.

The wide rear deck, almost the size of half a basketball court, had a circle of fences that could automatically rise and fall.

The fences were made of wood with glass inlays, about 1.5 meters high, exuding a simple style that didn’t resemble modern electronic products at all.

However, when the first person to try—Wen Yi—walked down the cliff and approached the raft to attempt to climb over the back deck’s fence, the wooden and glass fences on the raft’s side suddenly lowered, neatly disappearing into the thin deck, as if they had shrunk somewhere.

After that, the second, third… one after another, people cautiously stepped onto the raft. No matter how many people boarded, the raft remained steady, neither shaking nor leaving, seemingly quietly waiting for everyone and the vehicles to come aboard.

What was happening quickly caught the attention of the other team members by the cliff. Wen Yi, the first to board the raft, had originally thought that the elite team would hesitate when seeing such a raft, something that defied all logic, at least pausing to investigate before deciding whether to board.

But the tall team leader simply stood on the cliff, staring at the raft for a few seconds, before turning and issuing orders for everyone to board the raft as quickly as possible.

Afterward, all the survivors and team members descended the cliff in a single file, followed by the vehicles, which slowly drove down the slope and directly onto the raft.

Once everyone and the vehicles had boarded the rear deck, the previously stationary raft suddenly started moving, heading away from the floodwaters—toward the upper reaches of the Yinsha River. The fences behind the deck silently rose again, and the entire rear deck became a secure space.

The rear deck was over 100 square meters, but after two vehicles and more than fifty people boarded, it still felt a bit crowded. So, some people took out flashlights to explore the raft.

They weren’t sure if it was because it was dark or because the villa’s owner had locked all the doors and windows, or perhaps these doors and windows had one-way glass, but they couldn’t see inside the villa through the glass walls or doors.

They also found they couldn’t get close to the villa’s door or eaves; it felt as if there were an invisible, cold wall in the air, blocking their way.

The decks on both sides of the villa were narrow, and they couldn’t pass through them to get to the front deck.

Eventually, someone discovered wooden stairs on either side of the rear deck leading to the villa’s top. This time, they successfully climbed up.

The entire glass terrace was about 70 to 80 square meters, with raw wood-colored flooring and wooden fences with glass inlays around the lower half. The top and walls were completely enclosed with glass. The front railing had sliding glass windows, and someone tried them, finding that the windows could be opened.

They crouched by the sliding window, shining a flashlight toward the front deck. They could see the villa’s second-floor balcony with wooden eaves and a glass swimming pool. On the front deck, under the luxurious built-in sofa lounges and on the leftmost side of the deck, were an infinity massage pool, reclining chairs, rocking chairs… Though it was all dim, the flashlight’s light revealed the luxury and comfort of the front deck’s entertainment area.

This didn’t look like a raft at all. It was a floating luxury villa on water!

Someone, with great courage, tried to climb over the terrace and get down to the front deck through the balcony. But as soon as they managed to squeeze through the glass window, they realized they had hit an invisible air wall below, just like the one in front of the villa’s back door. There was a layer of cold, invisible air blocking their movements.

This bizarre, illogical scene made the person panic and scramble back onto the terrace. They hadn’t successfully gone down, but by opening the window, they let the heavy rain pour in, soaking a large part of the floor.

Under the accusing gazes of others, the person clumsily shut the window and retreated to the corner of the terrace, no longer making a fuss. Instead, they lay on the glass and looked out at the raging water.

This entire wooden raft was luxurious and brand-new, yet it was incredibly strange. They didn’t even know if anyone was inside, but from all the limitations they had encountered, they realized they were nothing more than uninvited guests.

The raft had brought them on board, heading upstream away from the floodwaters, but that didn’t mean it was welcoming them into the entire villa, inviting them as guests.

It was simply saving their lives.

But for the survivors, that alone was enough.

The terrace wasn’t empty. There were several fixed wooden benches and long tables that had a very stylish and beautiful design, reminiscent of public facilities in a park, seemingly meant for guests to sit on.

Someone carefully sat down, and after realizing nothing unexpected had happened, let out a long sigh of relief.

Although there were more people than chairs, and everyone was hesitant to sit at the tables, they eventually found corners on the terrace to stand or sit on the floor. As their frantic heartbeats and breathing gradually calmed down, they began speaking softly to each other.

Outside, the water on the river was moving rapidly, and occasionally, in the winding parts of the river, they could see whirlpools where opposing waves collided. But as the raft passed by, it maintained a steady course, moving swiftly, and the floodwaters didn’t catch up to them.

Some people referred to the raft as Noah’s Ark, while others disagreed, feeling that since they were in Huagou, it would be more appropriate to name it Huagou One, or perhaps use names from local myths and legends.

For example: Jade Rabbit One!

Or: Wukong One!

And then: Lotus Lantern One!

Shu Fu, quietly leaning in the corner, thought to herself: …

Yao Ruoyun whispered into Shu Fu’s ear, “Senior, I think Lotus Lantern One not only sounds nice, but it’s also quite fitting. You know, it can grow bigger, smaller, become more beautiful…” She instinctively sang the last part.

Shu Fu: …

Thank you, but I’ll pass.

The two of them stood at the far end of the terrace, where, through the glass, they could see the situation on the rear deck. Several members of the Cheng Yu team were helping the rescue team check the conditions of three seriously injured team members in the ambulance.

Since the ambulance had temporarily shut off, they had restarted the small generator inside, using equipment to sustain the life of the two critically injured unconscious team members.

Liu Shuang approached to inquire about the situation. Wen Yi, stepping out of the ambulance, looked a little serious. “The one who’s awake has been given painkillers and is temporarily sleeping. The other two, if they don’t undergo a second surgery within 48 hours, might be in danger… Can we still get to that rescue station?”

Beside them, Han Lan was using a night-vision binocular to observe the situation across the river. The terrain on that side was slightly higher than the mountain path they were on, but it was flat. If the floodwaters came, it seemed likely that it would not only engulf the riverbank but also submerge the land.

“No, it should have already been submerged,” Cheng Yu, who was leaning against the wooden stairs, suddenly spoke up. He gestured in a direction. “That rescue station is in the direction where the flood is coming from.”

“But it’s quite far from the riverbank.”

Liu Shuang sighed. “Even so, we can’t go back. It’s too risky. And right now, when and where we land isn’t something we can decide…”

As she spoke, she glanced at the luxurious villa behind them.

Cheng Yu also turned and looked at the villa’s back door.

On the terrace, Shu Fu observed the people on the deck and suddenly realized that Cheng Yu’s current position was very similar to where she had seen him last time in the house.

Two different drifting island houses, in two completely different locations, yet at this moment, Cheng Yu’s position unexpectedly overlapped with his position from the last time.

It was as though he had sensed her gaze. Cheng Yu, who had been looking at the back door of the villa, slowly lifted his head, and their eyes met through the glass terrace.

Shu Fu silently praised how sharp he was, and her lips immediately curled into a smile as she waved at him.

He smiled back.

**

Shu Fu sighed and found another corner to sit down on the floor, facing the railing. It seemed as though she was looking at the river outside, but in reality, she was using Yao Ruoyun’s cover to examine the map panel in her hands.

To Yao Ruoyun, it looked like Shu Fu was just drawing on the air in front of her hand. She figured that Shu Fu was operating her own panel, so she became even more cautious, fully protecting her with her embrace.

On the map panel, the area of the water had expanded significantly since the last time they checked, indicating that the flood zone had increased and the water level had risen sharply. A large part of the Yinsha River had disappeared, and only the river between Xizhou Province and Xiangzhou Province remained clearly visible.

If the weather didn’t worsen and the drift bottle shield didn’t automatically activate, the raft could continue to carry them upstream. In that case, she could directly take them to the border of Xizhou Province.

The elevation there was higher, and the great flood wouldn’t reach that area.

By comparing the map distributed by the previous rescue station, they could find the nearest rescue station to the Yinsha River within Xizhou Province. Then, by docking near that location, they could directly reach the rescue station in Xizhou Province, a direct route.

Shu Fu’s thoughts raced quickly, and she soon found the rescue station — Dashi County.