Chapter 15

[Congratulations on winning the third prize: Drift Bottle Protector (24-hour experience card, Note: This is a level 3 raft feature, the experience card can be used on any level raft)]

[Do you want to claim the prize?]

[Yes/No]

A small golden card fell into her hand, similar to the green electric card she had received before. There was a line of small text on it: Drift Bottle Protector (24-hour experience card), please swipe the card on the raft display screen to use.

Drift Bottle?

Shu Fu recalled the “bottle” icon on her wristband. So, is the drift bottle part of the raft setup?

Level 3 raft feature—does this mean that once she upgrades the raft to level 3, she can fully unlock the drift bottle protector?

But she remembered that the raft already had protective features built-in, with the “owner mode” for the wooden house area: disaster resistance, constant temperature, and anti-intrusion. Since the drift bottle protector is a feature unlocked at level 3, it likely wouldn’t overlap with the current protection of the level 1 raft. So, what kind of protection would this be?

Curiosity sparked in Shu Fu, but she didn’t want to waste the card just because she was curious. After flipping it over several times, she carefully stored it in the wristband’s space.

The night was as dark as ink, and the rain outside continued without stopping.

In the past couple of days, people who had originally been happy about the suspension of work and school were no longer so joyful. More and more areas in Suicheng were flooded, windows were leaking, and water was entering homes. The difficulty in traveling was the least of their worries now; the flooding had started to affect their normal home lives, and more people couldn’t just sit by and watch.

“We raised the gate to block the rain, but today the drainage started to back up. Oh my god, the water really smells terrible!”

“What should we do? The water has already reached our doorstep, but the rescue workers haven’t come yet. Several families nearby have formed their own groups to evacuate, seems like they’re heading to the school across the street. It’s empty there, the floors are high, and the classrooms are spacious. They had opened it up for people affected by the flood. But we have elderly people at home, and with the water up to our thighs, it’s really inconvenient to go out in this cold weather! Is it really necessary?”

“You should move as soon as possible, the water is up to your thighs but you can still walk. Carry the elderly, just grit your teeth and go! Our water is already over our chest, and if someone who can’t swim trips, they’ll be submerged instantly!”

“This is really frustrating, at least you can still breathe above the water. Our water is over two meters deep, and there are strong currents. Even those who can swim need to hold onto life rings! Our house is flooded, and now we’re crouching in a neighbor’s house waiting for rescue. It’s really awful!”

“My family lives on the third floor. From the balcony, the community is already like a lake. I’m shivering, is this really not the apocalypse?”

“We live on the seventh floor. Apart from the windows leaking a bit, everything else is fine. I just don’t know how much longer this rain will last. Once we run out of food, how are we going to go out and buy more? And what about the trash? Every household in the hallway outside has piled up several bags of garbage…”

“We live on the eleventh floor. There’s a supermarket downstairs. I just put on a diving suit and waded through the water to grab a bunch of instant noodles and chocolates. The private supermarket raised the prices so much, it’s outrageous! The diving suit is thick enough, so it wasn’t too cold. When I got back, I wanted to take a shower and change clothes, but damn, the power’s out! What a hassle!”

“My whole family just evacuated. We’re staying at a hotel at the intersection. It’s ten floors high and has a generator, so we’re not worried about power outages. The room rate is 50% off, thank you so much to the rescue team for arriving with speedboats. We’re really grateful. The only problem is that my mom brought a bunch of rice, vegetables, and meat with her, but when we got here, we found out the room only had an electric kettle…awkward.”

“Room rate 50% off? We also evacuated to a nearby hotel, but why wasn’t there a discount, and the price was double what it usually is? I’m going to expose this hotel that’s profiting off the disaster!”

…

You could see all kinds of messages online. The range of the rainstorm was so vast, and the situation in coastal cities was even worse than in Suicheng. Unexpected disasters had struck, and rescue work was more difficult than anticipated.

Huaguo’s rescue aid was currently focused on coastal cities, where there were many buildings and a dense population. Many cities that had never experienced typhoon attacks were now facing continuous storms, building damage, flooding, and large-scale evacuations. Compared to that, Suicheng’s situation wasn’t as urgent. It was still in a self-rescue stage.

At dawn, Shu Fu was woken by the vibration of her wristband.

The wristband’s vibration wasn’t as obvious as a phone’s, but since it was tightly attached to her wrist, every time it vibrated, it felt like a faint electric current flowing through her skin, which was very distinct.

She unlocked the wristband and tapped the “notebook” icon. A small black notebook appeared in her palm, glowing faintly in the dark, and the text was clearly visible.

[View the latest disaster warning to earn 5% progress on the level 2 raft progress bar. (Current progress: 65%)]

The tasks seemed to be getting easier. Shu Fu put the notebook away and reached for her phone on the bedside table.

Turning off the silent mode, she saw a series of disaster warning messages on the phone screen, with bright yellow triangular warning signs that made her heart tighten.

Attention all citizens! Suicheng, Jiangcheng, Wucheng… Zhongzhang County, Dong County, Shangqi County… and many other areas have upgraded from orange rainstorm warnings to red rainstorm warnings! The rainfall in the next 24 hours will exceed 250mm!

Suicheng citizens, please note! Suicheng has started traffic control… Flood control and evacuation work in low-lying waterlogged areas is still ongoing… Please take all necessary precautions against heavy rain…

Shu Fu glanced at the time, just past four in the morning. The rain outside was still pouring heavily, and she could hear voices from downstairs mixed in with the sound of the rain.

The wristband did not vibrate, meaning the task was not completed.

After thinking for a moment, she wrapped herself in a thick fleece robe at the foot of her bed and left the room.

As she exited the bedroom, the voices downstairs became clearer. There were several voices, some high and low, sounding somewhat chaotic, with emotional tones of agitation.

The soundproofing of the residential building was poor, and since the corridors on each floor were semi-open, any noise could be heard by the residents in the hallway. If it had been someone on the fifth or fourth floor, she would have been woken up much earlier.

Now, she could tell the noise was coming from the second or third floor.

The voices gradually grew louder and turned into an argument, mixed with some crying sounds, becoming increasingly harsh. She even heard things being thrown.

She left the bathroom, tightened her robe, and walked to the small north-facing window in the kitchen. The window faced the corridor, and standing there, the noise outside became even clearer. She cracked the window slightly and happened to hear the sound of the door opening from the neighboring unit.

Some people don’t like to get involved, like her—if she wasn’t on a wristband task, she would have just turned over in bed and gone back to sleep, even if woken by the noise.

But some people, by nature, love to get involved, like the young couple next door. They don’t have children, and with the work stoppage recently, they’ve been cooped up at home and getting bored. Now, hearing the noise downstairs, they rushed to put on their pajamas and join in the commotion.

“It sounds like the couple on the second floor, Xiao Li’s family. Are they fighting with the family of Mr. Fang on the first floor again?” a female voice came, with a bit of urgency.

The young couple next door probably knew the couple on the second floor, as they were similar in age and family situation. She had seen them chatting in the stairwell—one complaining about her husband, the other about their downstairs neighbor.

“They’ve fought before, what’s the rush?” came the male voice, unconcerned.

“What do you know? The first floor is almost submerged! We’re in an apartment building, and the rescue team hasn’t come yet. I told the people on the first floor to go upstairs for now and wait until tomorrow. At dinner, that old lady from the first floor took a feather duster and ran to Xiao Li’s house saying it was an order from the higher-ups, demanding that her family stay there! When they refused to let her in, she said it was illegal! Xiao Li’s husband almost slapped her!”

“Well, if the first floor is flooded, it is true that the rescue team arranged for them to stay upstairs. Not just this one family, but the entire first floor needs to move. It’s pretty bad, but what’s the harm in letting them stay for one night?” The man sounded resigned, after being scolded by his wife. “How do you know all this?”

“Xiao Li filmed a video and posted it online! Now there’s a crowd of people watching, and many are leaving comments criticizing her… Didn’t I ask you to watch it before bed? You were too busy with your game and didn’t even look.”

“Exposing others like this isn’t really right. In the end, it was the Zhong family’s bad habits that startled the Fang family’s old lady—”

“Hey, who are you even helping?”

…

As the voices outside continued, the noise downstairs became louder, with shouting and angry yelling from the man and piercing screams from the woman.

The young couple next door seemed to freeze for a moment, then quickly locked the door and ran down the hallway, the sound of their footsteps echoing on the wet floor as they headed toward the stairwell.

Shu Fu had a rough idea of what was happening downstairs.

Indeed, in this apartment building, those whose homes were flooded could temporarily take refuge upstairs, where it would be safe for the time being. If they had neighbors with whom they had a good relationship, they could even stay without needing to evacuate, and there would be plenty of time to move important belongings and supplies upstairs.

With the city flooded, many areas with single-story houses were nearly submerged, and the rescue teams had to prioritize more urgent situations.

But this wasn’t something that could be resolved with moral pressure—it had to be mutual.

The argument between the first and second floors at this time was likely due to the first floor discovering the video, and with the rainstorm warning upgraded from orange to red, the situation had worsened. Under all this pressure, emotions were bound to boil over.

The noise downstairs became even louder, with six people from two households involved, and their neighbors joined in, taking sides. The racket was even bigger than when they were blocking the stairwell earlier.

This was something Shu Fu couldn’t intervene with. After a brief hesitation, she closed the window that she had cracked open and decided to go back to sleep.

However, just as she turned around, a strange sound came from the front door.

—Screech…

Shu Fu froze. There was no movement outside the door, just the argument from the second floor.

She thought she had misheard and was about to take another step.

—Screech, screech…

Her feet stopped. A chill crept up her spine.

This time, she could clearly hear it. There was indeed a sound, coming from just outside her door.

**

Outside Shu Fu’s front door, a metal gate had been installed, but the gate was hollow. A normal person could still knock on her door.

She frowned, and a bottle of pepper spray appeared in her palm. She glanced at the door panel and lowered her breathing.

The noise outside stopped, but only for a moment, before coming back as faint sounds again: Screech, screech, screech…

Shu Fu’s head buzzed, and a cold shiver ran down her back.

It was just past 4 AM. Everyone was drawn to the noise from the second floor. If someone was coming to find her at this hour, they should be knocking normally.

What was this about? Trying to be mysterious?

She had never encountered something like this before, and she felt both scared and angry. In the end, she quietly tiptoed to the door and carefully peered through the peephole.

She had seen many similar incidents, and as a screenwriter, her mind was filled with a whirlwind of terrifying scenarios…

Outside, the heavy rain was pouring, and the night was dark. There was a habit of leaving night lights near the bathroom wall, so she hadn’t turned on any lights since getting up. Her eyes had adjusted to the darkness, and now she could clearly see the hallway outside.

There was no one outside.

There was no one in the hallway.

She stood frozen for a moment, ready to give up when the strange noise sounded again, the same subtle, eerie scratching noise.

Now, she was genuinely irritated. She kicked her door with her foot.

With a loud thud, the slight noise that had made her skin crawl was suppressed.

However, soon after, she heard a new sound outside, accompanied by that same scratching noise: “Meow… meow…”

She was about to be startled into the sky but was now so angry she could explode. She pulled open the door, and the metal gate was properly closed, but at the bottom of the gate, a round cat’s head was wedged between two bars. It seemed unsure if it wanted to come in but couldn’t, or if it was stuck trying to get out.

Soon, she realized, as the door opened, that the blue tabby’s body nimbly slipped through the metal bars and directly entered her home.

“Meow…” The blue tabby mewed in a coquettish tone, but before it could fully enter, someone grabbed it by the scruff of its neck and lifted it up.

Shu Fu snickered, looking at the cat she had once rescued. She felt like a malicious witch at that moment, letting out a series of strange laughs. “Little one, trying to scam me?”

“Meow…” It seemed uncomfortable being lifted and wiggled its paws.

“What’s with the cuteness?” Shu Fu’s voice was harsh, but she adjusted her grip and held it in front of her, gently shaking it. “Tell me, what are you doing here instead of sleeping? Don’t think that because you look cute, I’ll keep sending you back home. I’m not a cat slave, I prefer dogs, got it? Oh, you’re a little male cat!”

It retracted its claws, looking at her with its big blue eyes, seemingly stunned by her.

Shu Fu felt a little bored. It was an awkward time. Normally, she would temporarily keep the cat and send it downstairs in the morning.

But judging from the noise downstairs, it seemed the family on the fourth floor had also been awakened. The cat might have slipped out to play again after they opened their door.

Since it could come upstairs, it could surely go back downstairs on its own.

So, Shu Fu, without sympathy, opened the metal gate and pushed the blue tabby outside. “Go home. I don’t like cats. Come back when you’re a dog, hurry up and go back!”

She reached out and tapped its little behind. It turned its head and gave a small meow, seemingly dissatisfied.

She had been scared enough by it today. But regardless of its displeasure, she sent the cat outside, closed the gate, and shut the door.

Shu Fu locked the door, washed her hands, and ignored the scratching sound that resumed outside. Wrapped in her robe, she went back to her bedroom.

The bracelet on her wrist vibrated gently as she snuggled back into the soft blanket.

---

【View latest disaster warning task completed, earning Raft Level 2 with a 5% progress bar (Raft Level 2 current progress: 70%)】

Shu Fu sighed while brushing her teeth.

Well, after getting the golden reward, this time there was not even a consolation prize.

She vaguely felt that the key point might be related to the families on the second and first floors, but it could also be the family with the blue tabby on the fourth floor.

So, did she have to go out in the early hours and get involved in the neighbors’ commotion in order to earn extra bonuses and a lottery chance?

But in this situation, not engaging in the conflict felt almost instinctual for her. While she was indeed eager for the raft’s progress, she always preferred a steady approach and didn’t want to act rashly against her instincts.

After washing up, she took some lotion from the cabinet to apply to her face when the light in the bathroom suddenly went out with a pop.

On rainy days, the daylight was dim, and she had to keep the lights on at home. She walked out of the bathroom, and the lights in the corridor and living room, which had been on before, also dimmed. She realized something and turned to the kitchen to open the fridge.

As expected, when she opened the fridge door, the light inside didn’t turn on.

The power was out.

---

A moment later, voices from the neighbors echoed in the hallway as they inquired about the power. Everyone hoped that it was just their own circuit breaker, but when they found out that others had lost power too, they had to accept that the whole complex was out.

The rain poured outside, the house felt cold and damp, and there were still bags of trash piled up on the walkway that had nowhere to be disposed of. With the power out, it was even more frustrating!

Shu Fu’s neighbors, the young couple, came out again. They asked a few people on the other side and then came to knock on Shu Fu’s door.

She was still wrapped in her robe, her hair untidy, and she opened the door. She shook her head at them through the metal gate, indicating that her power was also out.

“Do you know when the power will come back on?” The woman asked anxiously, and when she got no answer, she sighed and nodded. She knew she was grasping at straws; after all, how would a younger girl like Shu Fu know about this?

Her husband urged her to go back and cook, which made her roll her eyes and curse at him for being a hungry idiot, only thinking about food even though the power was out.

“What do you know? Hurry up and cook the vegetables, meat, rice, and noodles. With the current situation, it’s not just the power, even the gas might go out at any moment! We can manage without power, but without gas, what are you going to do?” he urged, pulling her back.

Shu Fu closed the door, tidied herself up, and as usual, went to the kitchen.

She had a lot of raw food in her storage space. For the past few days, since there wasn’t much to do at home, she had been washing vegetables, fish, and meat, cutting them up, and either packing them raw or cooking them and packing them in brown paper containers, stacking them in her space.

She had a generator, a butane stove, and a kerosene stove, but those all used up fuel, and they weren’t as convenient for cooking in the kitchen. Since she still had water and gas, she figured she should save as much as possible.

Today, she planned to make lamb soup. The weather was cold and damp, and a hot bowl of lamb soup was just what she needed.

She took out a big bag of lamb ribs from her space, boiled water to blanch the ribs, then lightly fried them in the pot to release the fragrance. After that, she added scallions and ginger, stir-fried, and then added hot water as per the recipe. Once the large pot of soup came to a boil, she reduced the heat to the lowest setting, covered the pot, and let it simmer.

For breakfast, she took out a portion of little wontons she had packed earlier from Yao Ji. The wontons had been packed with seasoned bone broth and raw wontons. Later, she made time to cook all the wontons in batches, then put them into the packed bone broth bowls and stored them in her space.

The time-stopped space was great. No matter how long the food had been stored there, when taken out, it still looked as fresh as when it was just cooked. The bone broth was warm, and the little wontons floated in the broth sprinkled with scallions, looking both adorable and delicious.

The glass windows were still wet with rain, and on this chilly morning with the power out, being able to sit in a safe room, listening to the rain outside, and peacefully eating a bowl of freshly made wontons was truly a very happy thing.

In the neighborhood help group, there were hundreds of messages posted in the morning. Besides the collective complaints about the power outage, everyone was discussing the commotion that happened in the early hours, and as expected, different people had different opinions.

Some believed it was wrong for the family on the first floor to provoke the family on the second floor, using the rescue team’s name to forcefully ask to stay in their house. However, the issue was that the second floor didn’t let them stay, yet they secretly filmed the video and posted it online to shame them. This was the problem with the second floor.

Others felt the second floor was justified; they were just minding their own business at home when someone tried to force their way in with an arrogant attitude. It was correct for them to film the process and expose it. They wanted to let those who liked to moralize know that they weren’t easy targets.

The aftermath of the incident was that the elderly woman from the Fang family stayed in front of the second-floor couple’s door, clutching her chest and playing the victim. A fight broke out between the young men from both families, and since the first-floor family had more people, the second floor suffered, and they called the police.

However, with the ongoing water disaster, heavy rain outside, and traffic controls throughout Suicheng, a rehabilitation center located in the suburbs had encountered a landslide, causing part of the building to collapse, and evacuation was necessary. Additionally, several power outages had occurred in nearby areas, and repairs were underway…

There were multiple crises across the city, and many people were struggling to survive. Who would have time to pay attention to such neighborhood conflicts?

This matter would likely be dealt with after the rescue team arrived later in the day, but these two families would undoubtedly have a grudge against each other.

Aside from this, there were other requests for help from residents in lower floors. The first floor of a building had been completely flooded. Normally, this wouldn’t be such a big deal in summer, but in this cold weather, it was impossible for people to live in water. As a result, they were begging familiar neighbors on the same floor to temporarily take them in.

However, few responded to these calls for help.

People were happy to chat and gossip in the group, but opening their doors to take in neighbors was a different matter.

Shu Fu saw that Lu Zheng was the first to respond, taking in a family from the same building. They had two young children.

Later, the community service station sent a message, stating that the rescue team would likely arrive after noon to evacuate residents from the lower floors of the neighborhood. They would also distribute supplies, mainly life jackets and water, to residents on the higher floors. If anyone on the higher floors had special needs, like elderly or sick family members, they could also be evacuated.

Since the time for housing neighbors wasn’t long, eventually, more people started to open their doors to accept neighbors from the same building.

The families who had fought in the early hours weren’t in this group, and Shu Fu had no idea what the situation was with them.

---

Around noon, the power came back on in the neighborhood, and Shu Fu heard cheers from outside. She immediately plugged in the two power banks she had used, along with three tablets and two phones that hadn’t reached 100% battery, and started brewing herself a cup of fresh coconut latte with the coffee machine—espresso with coconut milk.

Although her space contained many different flavors of ready-made coffee bought from outside shops, those were all single-use cups with straws, convenient but wasteful. When she had the time and conditions, she still preferred to make her own coffee.

She drank her coffee while watching a variety show on her tablet, her hands never stopping. She blanched the sliced white radish in water, then added it to the rich lamb soup she had made earlier. She peeled and cleaned two stalks of Chinese yam, cut them into sections, and added them to the pot. After simmering on medium heat for about ten minutes, she sprinkled garlic leaves and black pepper on top. A large pot of fragrant, rich, and nutritious yam, radish, and clear lamb soup was ready.

She served herself the lamb soup for lunch and stored the rest of the large pot in her space. Looking around, she suddenly realized a new problem: she was running out of pots…

And as the cooked foods in her space—soups, takeout, and drinks—accumulated, she began to feel the clutter. Even though time was frozen and things could be left anywhere without spilling, it was easy to make a mess when taking them out!

She thought it might be time to assemble a few simple storage cabinets she had bought online, to categorize and store the cooked food, takeout, and beverages that were easy to spill.

After noon, several rescue team inflatable boats entered the neighborhood despite the heavy rain, prompting excited shouts from the residents.

The boats were lightly manned but carried a lot of supplies. They docked beside the first-floor hallway, climbed over the fence, and began unloading the supplies while assisting with evacuations and documenting the process.

The supplies were distributed according to the number of people in each household. Each person received a life jacket or an uninflated life ring, along with a portion of emergency food: instant noodles, self-heating rice, bottled water, ham sausages, and other similar items.

The first-floor hallway was already flooded, so the distribution took place on the second-floor stairwell. Some residents from higher floors received their supplies but were reluctant to leave, crowding around the rescue team members to ask about the situation outside.

For example: Where are the people being evacuated to? Why are only the lower floors being evacuated? Aren’t the higher floors being evacuated too?

Another question: Suicheng has issued a red warning for heavy rain. How long will it continue to rain? When can everyone return to normal life?

There were many such questions, and the rescue team members were being bombarded. These residents treated them as lifelines, but aside from answering the evacuation location, the team couldn’t provide any answers.

Some of the team members hadn’t slept for one or two nights. Many of them were volunteers selected from those evacuated earlier because they were young and good swimmers. They had been temporarily assigned to assist in the rescue efforts.

Exhausted both physically and mentally, they had no time to answer all the questions. At first, they would explain, but after repeated inquiries, they simply answered with the temporary evacuation location and explained that only lower-floor residents and those with special needs were being evacuated. For all other residents, they advised them to take their supplies and wait for further instructions, asking them not to block the hallway and hinder others from receiving supplies.

Some residents, while dissatisfied with the answers, were still happy to receive the supplies since they got a life jacket for free.

Some, after receiving the supplies, discussed with their families whether to move to a nearby hotel or supermarket. These two places were designated as temporary shelters for residents from the flooded floors of the neighborhood.

The hotel and supermarket were located at the intersection of the street where the neighborhood was situated. The supermarket was a bit further, about 200 meters from the intersection. Currently, the water had flooded up to the first floor, covering it by about 20 centimeters, with a depth of around 2 to 2.5 meters.

However, the hotel had over ten floors, with plenty of rooms, so the living conditions wouldn’t be much worse than at home.

As for the supermarket, the land around the major road was higher than the neighborhood, and although it was only one or two floors for shopping, the building had four more floors of shopping areas and a connected office building with over ten floors. The single-floor supermarket was quite spacious, equivalent to two or three floors of a regular home. It had a variety of goods, and even if it wasn’t open for business, being close to supplies provided some reassurance.

Moreover, public buildings like this generally had diesel generators, so if the area experienced another power outage, they still had backup power.

The family members had different reactions. Some, seeing the water already flooding the stairs between the first and second floors and hearing the constant rain, were worried that the water level might rise further. They seriously considered moving to a nearby hotel or supermarket.

“I thought they were evacuating to a place farther away, one that was completely free from flooding, but this is just a temporary shelter…”

“Who knows? But is there anywhere in Suicheng that isn’t flooded now?”

“There must be!” replied one person uncertainly, then changed their tone, “There should be, right? Aren’t there a few scenic areas with hot spring hotels in the suburbs, up in the mountains?”

“With this heavy rain, the mountains are even more dangerous! Landslides and mudslides could happen at any moment! Didn’t you see the news about the rehab center in the suburbs being buried by a mudslide? Besides, there’s flooding everywhere in the city, and too many people are being evacuated. There’s no way those places can accommodate more people…”

“But this isn’t right. The rescue team is here; can’t we just borrow their boats? It would only take a little while to get from here to the intersection and the supermarket by boat. It’s so cold outside; if we walk, how are we supposed to carry all our things? Plus, it’s wet and cold over there, and we don’t even know if we’ll be able to shower. What about cooking? How will we manage to cook? Are we supposed to eat instant noodles every day?”

They were considering it, but the idea of leaving their warm and comfortable home for an unknown situation raised many concerns.

“You think I don’t want to use their boat to evacuate? But there are limited people and resources. Look at how many people live in our neighborhood. If you want to move with your things comfortably, don’t you think others want that too? There are only a few boats, and once they’re done here, they need to rush to the next location. If they take you, what will happen to everyone else? People will see you safely staying here—how could they be willing to waste time taking you?”

“Well, this isn’t right either. They give us some supplies and then just leave us?”

“This isn’t the only neighborhood facing flooding. Evacuation definitely follows a protocol. If you don’t want to evacuate on your own, just wait for the notice. If they have to evacuate the second and third floors, they will come back for sure…”

In several households, the conversation was similar. For them, the best solution was, of course, for the rescue team to take them and the necessary supplies to a safe location, but at this stage, that was clearly impossible.

Evacuating on their own would require wading through water, and they couldn’t take much with them. After thinking it over, they were conflicted.

Some, upon hearing about the need to wade through water, immediately shook their heads without a second thought.

These were residents from the fourth floor and above. In their minds, the fourth and fifth floors were absolutely safe areas. They lived in a big city, not a small county, and historically, there had never been a flood that reached past the third floor.

It seemed almost impossible for a flood to reach the fourth floor in a big city. If the water in Suicheng reached the fourth floor, then other cities with similar elevations would be flooded to the third or fourth floor too. Was that even reasonable?

Such a thing was simply unthinkable!

The only concern was the power outage. There had already been a few hours of power failure in the morning, but the power company had managed to restore it. However, this situation might happen again before the rain ended. They also hoped that the water supply and gas wouldn’t be affected.

As long as those three things were fine, the fourth floor and above would definitely be safe.

Some people, although they hadn’t considered evacuating, raised another question.

“You think those rescue team members don’t know us. How can they be sure who lives on the first floor and who just came to take supplies? What if someone pretends to be a first-floor resident and sneaks onto the boat?”

“That’s impossible. The people being evacuated are those who can’t stay at home. If they had any choice, who wouldn’t want to stay in their own home? Who would be so bored as to pretend to be a flood victim?”

It turned out, however, that it was possible.

---

Huang Jun and Zhong Li were called out by name and exposed as not being residents from the first floor, despite wearing masks and tightly wrapping their raincoats. They had boarded one of the rescue boats for evacuation.

They weren’t first-floor residents at all. They actually lived on the second floor, but after weighing the pros and cons, they decided to pretend to be first-floor residents and join the evacuation team.

They knew that the couple at the farthest end of the first floor—1012—wasn’t home, as they had gone back to their hometown with their child due to some family matters.

So, Huang Jun and Zhong Li collected their supplies and quickly packed their bags, then went up to the third floor through the central stairwell. From there, they made their way across the hallway to an external emergency staircase at the other end of the building. They descended to the first floor and waded through the water to reach the rescue boat stationed outside the first-floor hallway.

The building was very long, and with a stairwell blocking the middle, there were boats at both ends of the building.

When the rescue team evacuated residents, they only recorded the building numbers. Huang Jun and Zhong Li pretended to be from 1012, as there had been no duplicate reports, and were allowed onto the boat.

The rain was still falling, and the boats weren’t very large. Every family was carrying their supplies while wearing raincoats, which made the scene chaotic and messy. No one really bothered to scrutinize whether the people around them were actually from the first floor.

The boat had even turned around, ready to leave, but at the same time, another boat was evacuating from the other end of the stairwell and passed by.

Among the people who had been on the second floor, someone recognized Huang Jun. Although he had his raincoat hood pulled tight and was wearing a mask, there was a bruise near his eye, a mark from when he had fought with someone earlier.

He immediately realized that Huang Jun and Zhong Li weren’t from the second floor. How had they ended up evacuating with everyone else?

Normally, he wouldn’t have been able to make such a quick connection, but now, thinking of the second-floor family, he turned into a detective. As he passed them, he figured out what was going on and shouted loudly.

The boat carrying Huang Jun and Zhong Li stopped, and after some questioning, they were found out and sent back to the first-floor hallway in front of everyone.

As they looked at the triumphant expressions of the real first-floor residents, Huang Jun and Zhong Li were furious.

“Fang Daguang! Are you sick? What have we done to bother you? How twisted do you have to be to do something so harmful and pointless!” Huang Jun shouted angrily from the cold water in the first-floor corridor, almost up to his knees, at the people on the rescue boat.

They were still laughing, clearly enjoying their malicious act, as if they were taking pleasure in causing harm.

If it weren’t for the rescue team being present, Huang Jun would have charged at them by now, but for the moment, he had to suppress his fury.

“This is really unlucky! And now we’re all wet!” Zhong Li was equally furious. The water was so deep that even with rain boots, it had soaked her pants and socks, making her feel icy and uncomfortable. “We’re just moving to the intersection, not even to another city where it’s not raining. We still have to pay for the hotel ourselves, and they’re acting so smug. Let’s go, let’s go, hurry back and change into dry clothes!”

Huang Jun took Zhong Li’s backpack and, guiding her through the water, headed for the stairwell. As he looked at the murky floodwater beneath his feet, his thoughts turned grim.

The rescue team managed to evacuate the first-floor residents in time, but when it’s the second floor’s turn, will they really be able to get here in time?

Something came to his mind, and he suddenly said, “By the way, don’t you have a friend and her husband living in this building?”

“Yeah.”

“What floor?”

“They’re safe, the top floor.”

---

Shu Fu locked her door and stepped out onto the wet corridor, passing by the neighboring apartment. She heard laughter and two women talking from the small kitchen window.

“…What money? We’re friends, just stay here!”

“How can we accept? Actually, the second floor is still fine, but I just feel uneasy…”

“Don’t overthink it. Think of it as a visit, and it’ll be more lively…”

---

Guests during such times?

She didn’t linger on it, looking down at the blue tabby cat in her arms.

It was snuggled against her raincoat, clearly not liking the cold, hard sensation, and it looked up at her. When it noticed her gaze, it meowed softly.

Shu Fu smiled. “Right, even the cat’s bored enough to run outside every day in weather like this. What about people?”

She reached down and tapped the cat on the head, smiling but not with much tenderness. “Pity, I’m too busy to entertain you. After I send you back this time, if you come again, I won’t even open the door for you.”

She knew the tabby couldn’t understand, but the words were more for herself.

Spending too much time at home wasn’t good either. It was fine to go out for a stroll at an appropriate time, but she didn’t want to keep leaving the house just for this cat. After all, she could sense that, except for the young boy, the rest of the people on the fourth floor didn’t welcome her returning the cat.

It was evening, and just before dinner, everyone was cooking. The smells of food filled the air, and she thought she might get some inspiration from them to decide what to have for dinner.

She made sure to walk along the left side of the corridor, avoiding the heavy rain pouring in from the side, and walked past the fifth-floor corridor, following the scent of food until she entered the stairwell.

The stairwell was enclosed, unlike the open corridor, so it was dry. Many residents had chosen to store their trash tightly tied in the corners of the stairwell during these days.

Luckily, the temperature was low, and the bags were tightly sealed, so the trash hadn’t started to smell despite a few days of accumulation.

She went down to the fourth floor. Since it was daytime, it was easier to notice that the cat was missing. The boy from the fourth floor was still searching for it, and she saw him before she even left the stairwell.

“Here, your cat,” Shu Fu said simply, handing the tabby straight into the boy’s arms.

“Xiao Guai!” The boy happily hugged the tabby cat, rubbing his fingers on its fluffy head. “Xiao Guai, how did you run outside again?”

While he was petting the cat, he thanked Shu Fu. Before she could respond, his mother, in an apron and hurriedly holding a trash bag, appeared in the stairwell.

It seemed like she was coming to throw out the trash, but the bag was light and appeared to be empty.

“Mom, look! Xiao Guai’s back! That sister helped me bring Xiao Guai back again.”

Just like the last time, the boy’s mother didn’t show any gratitude towards Shu Fu for returning the cat. Her gaze quickly passed over Shu Fu without pausing, landing directly on the cat in the boy’s arms.

Shu Fu wasn’t sure if she was imagining it, but it seemed like there was a brief flicker of fear in the woman’s eyes.

Fear?

What was she afraid of? The cat?

Wasn’t that a bit strange?

As Shu Fu turned to go upstairs, she overheard part of their conversation below.

“…Mom, why are you throwing out trash again? Didn’t you just throw some out earlier?”

“Dinner’s ready. Hurry up and come home to eat. I’ll carry the cat, you go wash your hands and eat…”

“Don’t… ah, it doesn’t like you holding it…”

---

After dinner that evening, Shu Fu moved the four floor-to-ceiling storage racks she had assembled earlier that afternoon into her space in the bracelet.

The four racks were all the same style—aluminum alloy storage shelves, five tiers, about the height of a person, two meters wide, with a depth of 25 cm. They were similar to supermarket shelves but much cheaper and of average quality.

If placed in a regular space, the shelves could collapse under too many heavy items, but in the time-stopped space, she didn’t have to worry about that. The things she placed on the shelves had no weight, and she only needed the shelves to help her organize and separate cookware, cups, dishes, ready-to-eat meals, drinks, and takeout, making it easier to count and access them.

The process of sorting and moving items from the current supplies in the bracelet space to the storage racks was incredibly soothing, almost like playing some kind of organizing game.

She started with the takeout meals, stacking them one by one according to their type—spicy hot pot, pizza, burgers, curry rice, beef soup noodles, sushi, fried chicken, small wontons, spicy soup, bread, cakes, noodle soup…

Then came the various takeout drinks and marinated dishes…

Next, she organized her homemade dishes.

She had initially planned to arrange snacks and fruits as well, but after placing all the takeout, she realized that all four storage racks were nearly full. The homemade dishes and soup pots were barely squeezed onto the racks. Thankfully, with time frozen, gravity didn’t apply, so she didn’t need to worry about the weight. Otherwise, these four racks wouldn’t even fit half the takeout.

It turned out she had unknowingly stocked up so much takeout!

Shu Fu once again sensed the space, feeling like she had built a small food supermarket inside. She felt a sense of accomplishment and security.

In the remaining five hours of the day, after taking a bath, she placed the clean clothes into the sterilizing and drying machine, set a two-hour timer, and then released the wooden raft again.

Currently, she didn’t want to waste even a single minute of the five-hour daily usage of the raft. She saved it for later in the evening just in case something unexpected happened during the day.

Inside the small wooden cabin, the temperature was comfortable. Shu Fu, barefoot, stepped onto the wooden floor, took off her thick fleece robe and hung it on the small rack by the door. She then crossed her legs and sat down on the large, soft single sofa. She turned on her tablet and selected a movie, opened a box of mildly spicy duck feet, and poured herself a bottle of cocoa milk, enjoying her time lying down.

At five minutes to midnight, she wrapped herself in the thick fleece robe and stepped out of the small cabin, immediately shivering from the temperature difference between the two spaces.

The room temperature in the living room was only about five or six degrees, and the rain outside was much heavier than in the evening. After the raft was retracted, she reached to turn on the floor lamp, but it didn’t light up—there was a power outage.

She took out a fleece blanket from the space, draped it over the duvet, and then retrieved a fully charged hot water bottle, finally feeling warmth in the bed.

That night, she still didn’t sleep very soundly. The rain was so heavy that the sound of it hitting the windows was deafening. Just before dawn, as Shu Fu was drifting in and out of sleep, the chaotic noise of the rain outside was joined by many other sounds.

“Not good! There’s water coming into the house—”

“Oh my god! What happened? Why is the water rising so quickly?”

“Mom, I’m scared—”

“Be careful! The toilet’s flooded, it’s all stinky water, don’t go over there!”

“I told you to block the drain before you went to bed! You kept procrastinating! Now look what’s happened, oh my god!”

“Go upstairs! Hurry, go upstairs!”

“No, it’s too cold, we can’t wade through the water like this, drag the chairs! And the sofa, ferry it out!”

“Put on clothes! The lights aren’t working! Still no power!”

“Where’s your phone? Turn on the flashlight! Don’t forget the food in the kitchen, bring it with you, grab the power bank! Put on more clothes, wear something warm! And put on your lifejacket!”

…

It was the sound of the residents’ cries, the heavy noise of objects moving, and the chaotic footsteps.

Shu Fu woke up immediately, a chill ran through her as she climbed out of bed. The room temperature outside the blanket was so cold it made her teeth chatter. She wrapped herself in the robe, but from the bedroom, she couldn’t see outside clearly. She hurriedly ran to the small balcony and looked outside through the tempered glass.

It was very dark outside. On the small road near the community, streetlights standing in the water were still lit, probably because of a different power supply.

In the afternoon, the streetlights had clearly had two-thirds of their poles above the water, but now only the lampshades and a short section of the lamp posts were visible above the water.

Under the dim yellow light, she could already see the shimmering dark water right in front of her.

In just one night, the water level had surged by nearly three meters!