Chapter 30

The sky, which had been clear for three days, was once again filled with dark clouds. Even after dawn, the surrounding area remained gloomy, and the temperature dropped back to around thirteen or fourteen degrees. Refugees, who had originally taken off their heavy coats and switched to lighter ones, cursed as they put their coats back on.

However, these matters didn’t concern Shu Fu much. She only had a backpack with her, which was packed with a single sleeping bag, a moisture-proof mat, a blanket, and a raincoat, so there was no space left for other clothes.

After all, it was deep winter, and no one had expected the temperature to swing from zero degrees to nearly thirty and then drop again in just two or three days. Many people at the shelter had no spare clothes and had only removed their outer coats. Shu Fu’s underclothes were clean, so she’d rather endure the heat than undress. She had been wearing her old home cotton clothes for the past few days.

The conditions at the shelter were poor, with limited water usage hours, and people started lining up to use water well before the scheduled time. Some would have their relatives or friends save spots for them, others would sneak into the line, and some, frustrated by the slow pace of those ahead, would end up arguing or even fighting.

More often than not, as the water-use time was about to expire, a rush of people would swarm toward the open faucets, making the bathrooms overcrowded. Some who had filled their buckets would get bumped and spill the water, while others would grab water from others’ buckets and run off. The scene was chaotic, and it was impossible for anyone to control it.

The only thing the rescue team focused on controlling at this point was the distribution of food and drinking water.

In this situation, Shu Fu naturally didn’t bother fighting over the water usage. After picking up her daily food and water rations, she quietly stayed in her assigned area. The amount of drinking water distributed was small, and she didn’t use her backpack to take more from her space. Instead, she drank as little as possible because that meant fewer trips to the bathroom.

The bathrooms only had water available at specific times each day, and the conditions inside could be easily imagined.

At first, Shu Fu had been worried that her facial and hand disguises would fall off due to the heat, but after two days of not washing her face, brushing her teeth, washing her hands, showering, or even changing her clothes or underwear, she no longer needed any extra disguise.

She had transformed from a fake refugee to a real one.

The most uncomfortable part was her hair. The heat and sweat had made her hair greasy, and now she had a full head of oil-soaked hair.

Because her hands were dirty, she also tried to resist rubbing her eyes, which led to the accumulation of eye discharge. Every morning, she felt like she couldn’t open her eyes.

Perhaps it was because of her appearance, blending into the refugee crowd, that Cheng Yu, upon seeing her for the first time that morning, didn’t recognize her at all. He turned and bypassed her to discuss rescue work with Liu Shuang.

Shu Fu, of course, recognized him. The camouflage waterproof suit worn by the rescue team, along with his familiar, delicate brows and sharp temperament, and his height—there was no way to ignore him.

Liu Shuang had come over to talk to her about taking a boat into the city at noon. She had been working outside the walls for several days and had planned to return to the city in the evening.

Cheng Yu was the team leader who had been in charge of the handover with her. He was supposed to come in the afternoon, but for some reason, he had arrived in the morning.

“There’s something I need to check, so I came to see a few shelters around here…” Cheng Yu said, looking around the area.

This was the second shelter outside No. 1 Dam that he was inspecting. With the sudden surge in the number of refugees, scanning the area felt like looking for a needle in a haystack.

A couple of days ago, he had noticed that several messages he had sent to Shu Fu, which had previously failed to deliver, now showed as successfully sent. He called her phone, and although it rang, she didn’t pick up.

It was hard for him to accept that she had disappeared from Suicheng, as if vanishing without a trace, and after that, he lost all contact with her.

He hadn’t been close to her—she was just the classmate of his nephew—but the whole situation puzzled him, and he couldn’t help but think about it.

When her phone suddenly connected this time, strange thoughts crossed his mind. He felt that her disappearance last time had been abrupt and mysterious. Could it be that she would appear again out of nowhere?

But he kept it to himself. After all, the chance was slim—Suicheng was a thousand kilometers away from Lou Yuncheng.

His thoughts were interrupted as he turned his gaze back toward the figure he had bypassed earlier. His eyebrows furrowed instantly, and his voice was filled with astonishment: “Shu Fu?”

Shu Fu greeted him politely, her tone as casual as if the two months of disappearance had never happened: “Mm, long time no see, Captain Cheng.”

Cheng Yu: …

Liu Shuang looked over in surprise. She glanced at Cheng Yu, then at Shu Fu, scrutinizing her face again, and suddenly clapped her hands: “Oh! The Suicheng Library!”

Liu Shuang had indeed seen Shu Fu before, but Shu Fu didn’t recognize her. Now that Cheng Yu was here, everything started to make sense.

Cheng Yu had once taken Shu Fu to the rescue team’s rest area and arranged for her to sleep with the female team members. Liu Shuang must have seen her back then but hadn’t spoken to her, so Shu Fu didn’t remember her.

Cheng Yu looked at her with a complex expression, as if there were many things he wanted to ask. But after a few moments of studying her, he seemed to swallow his questions, his gaze softening.

Shu Fu felt like he was struggling to suppress something, and in the end, he simply said, “…You should call your worried friend back.”

Over the past two months, he had been on the receiving end of many complaints from Xun Huiming—complaints about him losing track of her, and most of all, about his female classmate who had been worried and upset for a long time…

Cheng Yu never contradicted her; he actually agreed with her thoughts. However, he had initially believed that she left with some kind of plan, perhaps related to waiting for her boyfriend. He thought she knew exactly what she was doing, that even if she lost contact, she could take care of herself and was living well.

But now, here she was, reappearing in such a downcast and pitiful state, and many things he had planned to ask seemed too painful to bring up.

Cheng Yu turned to ask Liu Shuang something, but after taking a few steps, he quickly turned back toward Shu Fu. “Wait for me, don’t go.”

“I won’t go,” Shu Fu replied, shrugging innocently.

With the two possible targets of this mission right here, where could she go?

She guessed that Cheng Yu must have been feeling a bit upset, especially since she had turned on her phone before but didn’t reply to his messages or answer his calls. She had clearly made it look like she was “dead and unavailable,” but now, just a couple of days later, she had suddenly reappeared—alive and well, acting as if nothing had happened. It was obvious that her disappearance had been an act, and she simply didn’t want to deal with him.

If she were Cheng Yu, she would have asked several questions, at least to figure out how she had left the boat last time.

But he had quietly held back, and upon reflection, it seemed that his temperament wasn’t so bad after all.

Cheng Yu spoke with Liu Shuang for a moment, discussing Shu Fu’s situation and learning more about her current state. He deliberately avoided looking at her, not wanting to ask too many questions in case it triggered painful memories for her.

Shu Fu didn’t know what the two had discussed, but she was certain the conversation took a wrong turn. When they finished talking and returned to her, Cheng Yu’s gaze softened even more, and he offered to take her back to the city at noon.

“Don’t you have work?” she asked.

“It’s fine,” he replied. “I’m here for the handover. It’s raining heavily, and I’ll stay here tonight. Any tasks will have to wait until tomorrow morning.” He glanced at Liu Shuang. “I’ll finish your work with you this afternoon. When I take her back to the city, you can come along too.”

“Okay, I’ll take her back to my dorm first. Let her shower and change clothes. Is that okay?” Liu Shuang asked, turning to Shu Fu as if worried she might not agree.

Shu Fu’s wristband remained quiet. She nodded and thanked them once again.

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By the time Cheng Yu and Liu Shuang returned, it was already 3 p.m. Something had happened, and Cheng Yu had been injured—there was a long cut on his forearm, which he had only bandaged roughly to stop the bleeding.

Shu Fu was startled by his bloodstained sleeve. He didn’t seem concerned about his wound, walking briskly as he returned, and upon seeing her still there, he seemed to relax a bit.

Since the mission wasn’t finished, Shu Fu wouldn’t “disappear” just yet. She had initially planned to stitch up Cheng Yu’s wound for him, but the few medical staff available were too busy to help.

“Let’s go back to the city. When we get back, you can go to the clinic and treat your wound first,” Liu Shuang said, glancing out the window. “The wind is really strong, and it’s about to turn into a heavy rain. We need to hurry.”

Shu Fu was quick, pulling her backpack to the front and pulling out a raincoat. She quickly slipped it on while following behind the two of them, soon boarding the inflatable boat.

It was similar to the boat from before, just a bit smaller. The seats had life vests, and a rain cover and zippered roof had been added. However, when traveling in heavy rain, water still splashed into the boat with the wind.

Other refugees were also on the boat, and they could see other boats headed toward the dam in both the front and rear water channels.

The wind was picking up, the waves were rising, and the heavy rain blurred Shu Fu’s vision. As they drew closer to the dam, its immense size became more and more apparent. It was hard to imagine that such a massive waterproof structure had been built in just one or two months.

According to the online information she had found, the safety wall was expected to reach a height of 120 meters, with a thickness of 20 meters at the base, and it was still being reinforced. Once completed, the dam would not only prevent the rising water levels but also lessen the impact of storms on the safe cities.

At the current rate of water level rise, these inland cities would eventually become coastal cities. While many areas of the city were built on higher ground, the safety wall would also protect suburban areas with lower elevations.

Farmland, orchards, animal husbandry factories, and water purification plants… these were the most crucial things in the current situation.

The usual route for civilians to enter the city was through the hills near the dam. Boats would take them to the end of the waterway, where they would disembark and switch to buses to enter the city via mountain paths.

There were no accessible gates at the bottom of the dam yet, but several embedded elevators led to the upper safety passages of the dam, reserved for military and rescue personnel for emergencies.

As Shu Fu was observing the dam, she suddenly heard someone shout from the bow of the boat, “Hold on!” Her heart tightened, and she gripped the metal bar on the boat even tighter.

A large wave hit, tearing open the boat’s rain cover. Heavy rain poured in, and the boat rocked violently, like a leaf floating on water.

The other refugees aboard screamed in panic as waves continued to crash against them. The heavy rain had arrived.

Some people began to complain, frustrated that after a couple of days of dry weather, it had started pouring down just as they were heading to the city. They felt like they were terribly unlucky.

Someone loudly asked the rescue team members if they should turn back to the shelter’s factory and wait out the heavy rain before heading to the city. After all, once the boat reached the hill, they would need to switch to buses and travel on mountain roads.

As soon as the person spoke, others on the boat immediately started agreeing, and some began looking around, trying to assess the situation with the other boats through the heavy rain.

Soon, they noticed that the boats that had been trailing behind were starting to turn back one by one.

At this, the passengers could no longer hold back, shouting for the rescue personnel to turn the boat around, wishing they could personally steer the boat back to the factory.

The position of the boat Shu Fu was on was a bit awkward. The inflatable boat ahead of them was almost at the hills, and they would soon be able to disembark and board a bus. The boats behind them had not traveled far from the shelter, and the way back was much shorter than continuing toward the hills, so they immediately decided to turn around.

Amid the heavy rain, a cacophony of voices filled the air, but at that moment, the intercom at the front of the boat crackled to life. It seemed to be from another boat nearby. Liu Shuang picked it up, but after listening for a long time, she couldn’t make out what the person on the other end was saying.

Frowning, Liu Shuang took the tool knife from her waist and knocked on the metal bar on the boat, ordering everyone to be quiet: “If you keep making noise, get off and swim over!”

Seeing she was serious, the others immediately quieted down, and Liu Shuang was finally able to hear the voice on the intercom.

It was indeed from the rescue team on the nearby boat, asking whether they should turn back or continue forward. If they chose to continue toward the hills, there was still a long way to go, and with the wind and waves this strong, there was a risk of capsizing at any moment.

But turning back wasn’t ideal either, as they had already traveled halfway, and returning would mean battling the storm once more.

Moreover, this wasn’t the first time there had been such a heavy downpour in Muzhou Province. The last time there was a storm like this, the water levels hadn’t risen as much, and everyone had traveled on land, so there hadn’t been a concern about capsizing.

The boat had slowed down due to the uncertainty about whether to turn around, but even at the slowest speed, the boat rocked violently from side to side with every wave. Each time a wave crashed against them, the boat would jolt heavily.

The jolting felt like riding a rollercoaster, tossed high up by the waves and then crashing back down. Every time, the passengers on the boat couldn’t help but scream.

Cheng Yu, who had been near the back of the boat, reached out to hold onto the roof, struggling to move toward the back of the boat to assess the situation with the other boats nearby. The back of the boat didn’t have a roof, and with the heavy rain, the hood of his raincoat was blown off, drenching his face in water.

Beside him, Shu Fu, who was also sitting near the back, lifted her hand and extended a pair of binoculars from under her raincoat sleeve.

“Thank you,” Cheng Yu said as he took the binoculars and turned back to check.

The sky above the water was dark and overcast, with clouds hanging low as if they might collapse at any moment. He wiped his face again and continued scanning the area, noticing that the other two boats, which had been in roughly the same position as theirs, had also turned around.

In this situation, he had to be responsible for everyone on the boat, so he couldn’t act recklessly. Just as he was about to signal Liu Shuang at the front of the boat to turn around, his body suddenly stiffened, and he quickly turned to look back.

The binoculars Shu Fu had given him weren’t large, but the clarity of the view was excellent. When he had scanned the surrounding boats earlier, he had briefly glimpsed something, but he had assumed it was just distant clouds, similar to the ones above them.

But—something was wrong!

If it were clouds, why were they moving so fast?!

It was—Cheng Yu’s pupils contracted suddenly. That wasn’t cloud cover. It was a massive wave!

A gigantic wave, higher than a building!