Chapter 54

Although the cave restaurant faced west, with its back to the direction the tsunami had come from, it had likely been submerged over a week ago.

The restaurant’s entrance faced east and had long since been destroyed. Broken trees partially blocked the shattered doorway, and the surrounding area was littered with decaying leaves and mud, giving it the appearance of a place abandoned for years.

Shu Fu activated her protective shield again, took out her flashlight, and strode inside, quickly inspecting the entire restaurant before turning off the shield.

Her main concern was to check for any human or animal corpses. The temperature was rising day by day, and if there were any bodies left unattended—whether human or animal—they would eventually decompose, attract maggots, and stink, ruining her living environment.

Inside, it was filthy, and the air was unpleasant. Piles of garbage, mud, and leaves were everywhere, and even some dead fish were scattered around, likely swept into the cave by the tsunami.

When the water receded, the fish remained. The low temperatures had prevented them from rotting, but they still gave off a fishy odor.

Fortunately, there were no human corpses.

The place was quite sturdy. The entire hillside had probably been a scenic area before, offering various recreational activities, but the terrain wasn’t suitable for building guesthouses.

A few months ago, when the giant waves began ravaging Muzhou Province, even though the height here was safe from the dozens of meters high waves, the people who had temporarily taken refuge would have been frightened and proactive, likely finding ways to evacuate.

Due to the natural constraints of the cave, the restaurant had a wide, low, circular layout. The ceiling and surrounding walls retained their original rocky appearance. The restaurant wasn’t very large, divided into a main hall and several private rooms, aside from the kitchen and storage area. These were the dining areas for guests.

The cave and the sunset were the restaurant’s main attractions, so all the guest areas featured large openings to enjoy the view outside. The main hall even had an external rock platform with an iron railing around it.

Outside the railing had originally been a cliff, but now it was an expanse of water. However, with the water level having receded significantly, Shu Fu looked down and estimated that there was still a conservative 120 to 150 meters between the platform and the water surface.

Stone steps had been carved into the rock wall, going straight up and down, with iron handrails installed for safety. However, the steps didn’t lead all the way to the bottom. Near the water, there was a small platform where the steps turned inward toward the hillside.

She guessed this was another route to the restaurant. The steps were slightly narrow but not steep, with anti-slip stone strips installed.

Shu Fu estimated the distance between the stone platform and the water, compared it to the length of the rope ladder in her survival gear, and realized she had found a shortcut to move between the cave restaurant and the water.

The private rooms were small, oddly-shaped caves, all facing west. Smaller openings were fitted with glass, while larger ones had iron railings like balconies.

However, the glass had now been shattered by the waves. The railings were still intact, but they were covered with debris and rotting leaves.

Overall, Shu Fu was very satisfied with the place. It was far enough from the water to buy her some time before the water levels rose completely. The main hall was spacious enough to accommodate her raft, and the shortcut to the water was convenient.

Of course, there were downsides—the most obvious being the amount of time required to clean the place.

She planned to focus on cleaning the main hall and one of the private rooms. Naturally, all the dead fish in the restaurant had to be cleared out, but the leaves and debris in other areas didn’t matter as much. She couldn’t repair the front door, but she could move large cabinets to block the entrance, preventing strong winds from blowing in more debris.

Shu Fu removed her raincoat and stored it away, assembled a multifunctional shovel, put on rubber non-slip gloves, and swapped her waterproof boots for old rain boots with better grip, ready to start working.

She pulled out a thick, empty cardboard box she didn’t need and began shoveling the dead fish from every corner into it. Then, she dragged the box to the platform by the railing and dumped the fish into the water below.

Next, she started cleaning the trash and leaves in the main hall and the selected private room. It seemed some survivors had stayed in the main hall for a while, as the original tables and chairs had been moved and piled to one side, along with household trash. After the giant waves hit, the mess of furniture became even worse, with some corners filled with debris that was impossible to clean out entirely.

Shu Fu picked through the mess, keeping the cleanest table and dragging the rest of the unwanted furniture to the pile. She completely cleared out the side of the hall near the private rooms.

The private room she chose was L-shaped, with the opening on the shorter side. It had never been fitted with glass, only an iron railing. To prevent people from falling, a low stone wall had been built outside the railing. On rainy days like this, as long as she stayed on the longer side of the L-shape, she wouldn’t get wet at all.

Not only would she stay dry, but she wouldn’t have to worry about hail or thunderstorms either.

Unless another several-hundred-meter-high tsunami came and flooded the place again…

Since this would be the space where she spent four hours every day, she cleaned it meticulously, clearing out every bit of trash, mud, and leaves from every corner. Finally, she took out a disinfectant spray and sprayed everywhere, even the ceiling of the rock cave.

In the end, she rummaged through her storage space and found a small office desk she had taken from an office building in Suicheng and a foldable round lounge chair. She took them out and arranged them in the private room, confirming they fit perfectly.

She swapped her rain boots back for waterproof boots, then carried the boots and the multifunctional shovel to the main hall. Near the pile of tables and chairs, she found an iron bucket, filled it with water, and started cleaning the rain boots and shovel.

Since she had shoveled garbage and dead fish, Shu Fu cleaned meticulously, adding disinfectant to the water. She even washed her rubber gloves and the table she had set aside, leaving everything to air-dry on the table.

After finishing everything, Shu Fu returned to the small cave suite, slumped into the recliner, and felt utterly exhausted.

She checked her phone, which had started a four-hour countdown after stowing away the raft, and found only 30 minutes remaining. That meant three and a half hours had passed since she came ashore, yet she hadn’t felt the time slip by.

Life with just four working hours a day was indeed easy to get used to.

Feeling pleased, Shu Fu pulled out her collapsible water cup, drank deeply, and planned to play a few single-player games before “clocking out” to return to her drifting island house for lunch.

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The raft was placed on one side of the main hall, with the front door facing the western cave platform. Positioned at this angle, she could easily check the weather from the front of the raft. However, due to the cave’s low ceiling, neither passing boats nor helicopters overhead could spot the raft inside.

Even if someone did see it, it wouldn’t matter. A wooden platform in an old restaurant wasn’t exactly unusual.

The underwater bedroom was indeed a compressed space. From the outside, it appeared only about thirty centimeters high. Unlike the frosted glass of the drifting island house’s windows, the underwater bedroom’s walls looked like tempered metal. No matter how close you got, whether there was light inside or not, you couldn’t see anything from the outside.

The entire underwater bedroom looked like a flat metal box attached to the bottom of the raft, matching the size of the drifting island house.

Having the raft indoors had clear advantages: she could safely accumulate the four-hour protective shield time each day and wouldn’t need to climb up and down the hill to clock in her hours.

The downside? She lost out on 100 liters of purified water daily. Plus, the raft was meant to drift—only on the water could she move freely and enjoy different scenery.

Being stuck on land felt a bit disappointing.

She still needed to work hard to upgrade, aiming to extend her usage time to 24 hours. Floating on the water every day, even with limited areas to explore, would be far more pleasant and freeing than her current situation.

That day, after returning to the drifting island house, Shu Fu didn’t bother exploring the shortcut to the water. She’d had enough exercise for the day, and with plenty of time ahead, she could afford to take things slow.

The next day brought a storm with hail, so Shu Fu spent four hours in the cave suite watching variety shows before heading back to her cabin to relax.

On the third day, it rained and thundered all day, though the wind wasn’t as fierce as the day before, and the cave’s main hall stayed dry.

Shu Fu found an old curtain from her apartment in Suicheng and spread it across the cave hall floor. She then set up a rowing machine on it, exercised for thirty minutes, lounged on a folding sofa to watch movies for three hours, and finished the day practicing self-defense techniques Han Lan had taught her for another thirty minutes before clocking out and returning to the island house.

By the fourth day, the rain had lightened by morning and stopped entirely around noon. Shu Fu seized the opportunity, put on waterproof, non-slip boots and gloves, and carefully descended the stone steps beside the cave platform.

Though the rain had paused, everything was still slick. She gripped the railing and treaded carefully.

Upon reaching the lower platform, she discovered that the passage leading toward the hillside was actually another cave, with an iron door fitted to its entrance. The door matched the cave’s dimensions, sealing off the platform from the tunnel inside.

Shu Fu figured that during the restaurant’s operating days, this passage was likely open as part of a scenic cliffside path. After the disaster struck and the restaurant closed, the door had been locked. Any refugees who’d come here likely wouldn’t have bothered with this path, focusing instead on prying open the main door.

Shu Fu shined her flashlight inside, revealing that the cave extended only five or six meters before opening up again. The next exit had no door, and in the good light, she could faintly see green foliage on the other side.

Was that a forest? Based on the direction and elevation, this path might connect to the trail she’d climbed the previous day.

Shu Fu put away her flashlight, deciding to investigate the iron door later.

She pulled out a rope ladder from her storage, secured it to the iron railing, and tugged firmly to test its strength. Once satisfied, she tossed the ladder over the edge. Though it didn’t reach the water, it was enough for her needs.

Using her wristband, she summoned the raft to the water below, positioning it within a 50-meter range—wherever she wanted.

Climbing over the railing, she gripped the rope ladder. Years of rowing had given her excellent upper body and core strength, far surpassing her former self.

Rope ladders without solid footholds were notoriously difficult to climb, but she felt her arms easily supporting her weight, anchoring her securely.

In no time, she covered the 20-meter distance, her feet landing on the roof of the drifting island house. The small roof, surrounded halfway by the raft’s railing, now resembled a cozy second-story terrace.

She took off her boots, stepped over the back door eaves, climbed down, and smoothly entered the cabin.

Shu Fu manually drained the wastewater tank and then realized there was nothing else to do.

When the raft is on the water, any leftover purified water automatically gets stored in the tank daily, but since the day wasn’t over yet, this feature hadn’t kicked in.

Now that she was on the water and her four-hour “workday” was done, she could let the raft drift back to the signal-covered waters for the night, check the latest news, and return the next day. But—

Shu Fu stepped out under the eaves and looked up at the rope ladder hanging above. Wouldn’t that clearly tell anyone passing by that someone was living in the cave?

Even though the chances of boats passing nearby were low, she couldn’t be 100% sure it wouldn’t happen.

She had a personal protective shield and a nail gun, both for defense and offense, but she really didn’t want anyone barging into the place she’d painstakingly cleaned, turning it back into a mess!

Cleaning is exhausting…

After some hesitation, Shu Fu climbed back onto the raft, put on her waterproof boots, and climbed back up the rope ladder.

Climbing up was harder than climbing down. It took her twice as long to get back to the platform, and by then she was drenched in sweat. The temperature must have been over twenty degrees, and just a bit of movement made her feel hot.

She retrieved the raft, packed up the rope ladder, and pulled out a crowbar.

This was something she’d found in Suicheng with the automatic fishing rod. She figured it’d be a good weapon and didn’t take up much space, so she kept it.

Using the crowbar, she pried open the lock on the iron door, took out her flashlight, and cautiously stepped into the cave, quickly reaching the other side.

The cave was damp both inside and out. Outside, there was a small path through the woods. Seeing the fallen tree nearby, she recognized the area. A turn here and a bit of downhill walking would lead her to the cove where she had previously docked the raft.

She pulled out her phone to check the electronic map and confirmed her memory was correct.

After turning the corner and walking down the stairs for about two or three minutes, she reached the cove.

It seemed this path was the real shortcut up the mountain. Even in the rain, she could use this route to go directly up and down from the cave restaurant.

Shu Fu returned to the iron door, took out a thick iron chain and a large matching lock from her storage, and securely locked the door along with the stone steps. These were also spoils from Suicheng, cleaned and disinfected by the automatic fishing rod to look brand new, so she had kept them. Now, they were finally useful.

With this setup, no one else could use the cave restaurant shortcut, and the front door above was already blocked with cabinets. That area was now a relatively safe, private home for her.

When she went out drifting on the raft, she no longer had to worry about unexpected intruders.

Shu Fu returned to the cove, released the raft, and happily threw herself into her “little cutie’s” embrace.

She set the destination, manually activated the protective shield, installed the power card, and then went to the bathroom to fill a tub with hot water, ready for a “floating aromatic bubble bath.”

She also found a bathtub caddy in her storage. After sinking into the water, she placed the caddy across the tub and set up her tablet, a snow-topped oolong bubble tea, and a portion of takoyaki.

The raft automatically avoided floating debris in the water as it headed toward its destination. Behind the bathroom’s floor-to-ceiling windows, Shu Fu soaked in the bath, watching variety shows while enjoying her lunch.

Indeed, a raft only had soul when it was drifting on the water.

Shu Fu finished the snow topping with a spoon, took a sip of bubble tea through the straw, and felt like she was at the peak of life.

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Shu Fu stayed in the signal-covered waters for a night and returned to the cave restaurant the following afternoon.

According to the weather forecast she checked in the signal area, a big thunderstorm was expected that night. Taking advantage of the light rain in the afternoon, she had the raft return to the cove, passed through the forest path to the cave shortcut, unlocked the platform, locked it again after going up, and then climbed the stone steps back to the cave restaurant.

After spending a day and night out on the water, she felt ready to settle back into the cave for a few more days.

From then on, this became her routine.

When the weather was bad, she stayed holed up in the cave.

For her daily four-hour shifts, she’d read books, watch variety shows or movies, listen to music in the cave compartment, or spread out curtain fabric in the cave hall to practice self-defense or work out on the manual rowing machine. Sometimes, she’d even set up a traditional charcoal grill in the cave for a barbecue feast.

When the weather improved slightly—no strong winds or thunderstorms, and the rain eased up—she’d pass through the stone step shortcut, head to the cove, release the raft, and drift to the signal area waters for a day or two.

Fortunately, the aftershocks of the super tsunami seemed to have completely passed. Although there were two more hurricanes and giant waves in the nearby waters afterward, the highest waves only reached thirty to forty meters, nowhere near halfway between the water’s surface and the cave.

Moreover, since the waves came from the east, Shu Fu, standing in the west-facing cave, didn’t even need to hide in the floating house. She could watch the roaring waves below and feel the deep, humming vibrations as the waves struck the mountainside.

Unfortunately, after those giant waves, the water level noticeably rose. When the weather cleared and she went down to the cove again, she found that part of the rock wall that had previously been above the waterline had now disappeared beneath it.

She felt that, in a little while, she wouldn’t even need to use the shortcut through the platform cave to reach the mountain hollow and release the raft. She could just deploy it directly from the stone platform, and with a simple climb over the railing, she’d land right on the raft.

By early April, three weeks had passed since Lou Yuncheng disappeared. Shu Fu had been intermittently learning online about the gradual rescue of disaster victims. Feeling like she had finally crossed a mental hurdle, she restarted the automatic water fishing rod three times a day while drifting on the water.

Being in the suburbs, most of her haul was still various types of fish—regular freshwater species, with the occasional shrimp or crab.

The quantity of fish caught at one time wasn’t as large as before, but the size and species were the same as always, all lively and familiar, with nothing seeming out of the ordinary.

She had seen some unfamiliar fish species underwater, but despite numerous attempts with the automatic rod—including two times she intentionally fished in areas where she saw those strange fish—it never caught any of them. It was as if the rod automatically filtered out certain types, giving off a “better safe than sorry” vibe.

Beyond that, she speculated that the decrease in fish numbers might be related to the larger size of some fish in the waters. Now that she had the underwater bedroom, she sometimes used the rowing machine for physical training and took the opportunity to observe the underwater environment.

The frequency of freshwater fish larger than half a meter had increased, but the metal basket of the automatic rod was only so big—larger fish simply wouldn’t fit.

However, she hadn’t seen any more of those gigantic fish like the one from that extreme weather night. She wondered if it was because she’d been hiding in the cave more often, spending less time drifting on the water.

She even thought that the giant fish over six meters long she had seen back then was likely a sea fish brought in by the tsunami from the ocean. Fish that big probably either died from not adapting to freshwater or found a way to return to the sea.

The picky behavior of the automatic fishing rod gave her a strange sense of reassurance. Plus, the seafood she caught sometimes looked incredibly fresh, and that slowly eased her mental barriers.

Of course, another factor was that the fresh seafood was piling up, and she was worried about running out of storage space.

So sometimes, she’d cook some fresh seafood on the spot.

Shrimp and crabs were the easiest. River and king prawns could be boiled with scallions and ginger, then dipped in soy sauce, or stir-fried with hot pot seasoning, celery, and potatoes to make a dry, spicy shrimp dish.

Crabs could be steamed with a ginger-vinegar dipping sauce. Just half an hour in the steamer, and she could enjoy the freshest flavors.

Aside from fish, the rod occasionally reeled in shiny objects—gold jewelry, diamond accessories, crystal ornaments. Though rare, they were all intact, and after a quick sterilization, they looked brand new and sparkled brilliantly.

She also occasionally found useful tools like sturdy ropes and new, packaged knives—likely things left behind from the guesthouse area.

As time went on, the internet signal in that water zone started to weaken. Videos became impossible to watch, images often failed to load, but thankfully, all she wanted was to get a sense of the outside world through the news and guess which city she might head to next based on flood reports from various provinces and cities.

Two weeks later, after a massive hailstorm, the last bit of signal disappeared. She tried staying in various nearby waters but couldn’t reconnect to the internet.

Disconnected again, Shu Fu had to return to her offline life.

Not long after, the stone platform was submerged as well. Releasing the raft became even easier—she just had to walk to a spot by the stone railing, deploy the raft, and climb right on.

So now, apart from the required four hours a day, she spent the rest of her time floating on the water.

By early May, she hadn’t felt much of spring yet, but the temperature kept climbing, consistently above 30°C during the day, as if summer had fully arrived.

She noticed that insects seemed to multiply around her. The cave floor corners were crawling with bugs—flies, mosquitoes, centipedes, cockroaches, caterpillars, and other unidentifiable little flying insects, gathering in clusters that were impossible to drive away.

In the hillside woods, insects had always ruled, but with the daily rain and rising temperatures, the wet mud and rotting leaves created the perfect breeding ground.

Shu Fu felt that as the temperature continued to rise, there would be even more mosquitoes and crawling bugs nearby.

This cave, staying cool and refreshing at around 20°C even when it was over 30°C outside, would soon become a paradise for snakes, insects, mice, and ants due to its damp, dark corners.

Even though she only had to spend four hours outside daily, she was afraid of all these creatures.

She felt like she wouldn’t be able to tough it out here much longer.

With the increasing insects, even her four hours in the cave became less leisurely. No matter how hot it got, she insisted on wearing long-sleeved sun protection clothing, layered with cooling sleeves. She sprayed mosquito repellent and essential oils, covered her face with a mask and clear goggles to fend off bites.

She had tried once before to endure a mosquito bite, but the spot swelled into a huge welt that took several days to subside.

Sometimes, when she stepped from the stone platform into the cave and found that bugs had gathered again on the floor she had just cleaned the day before, she could only grit her teeth, pull out the insecticide, spray them down thoroughly, and clean out a fresh patch of ground.

That day, as dusk approached, the raft was quietly moored outside the stone railing as usual. Inside the floating island house, Shu Fu began studying the waterway maps and electronic maps again, preparing to find several backup landing points for herself.

As she repeatedly checked what kind of land the dark green icons on the waterway map corresponded to on the electronic map, she suddenly felt the water around her churning.

It was raining outside, but it wasn’t a heavy downpour. There was no hurricane today, nor any hail or thunderstorms. So why was the surrounding water making such a commotion?

Shu Fu quickly reacted, opened the sliding floor door, and descended the spiral staircase to the underwater bedroom.

She kept her eyes closed the entire way down to let them adjust better to the darkness.

It wasn’t completely dark yet. When she opened her eyes, using the dim light filtering through the water at dusk, she saw countless fish swaying past outside the glass walls and floor.

A school of fish!

And not just one!

They were mostly gray and brown freshwater fish, but the sizes and shapes of the schools varied. Some of the species were ones she had never seen before, with unusually large heads and small tails, giving them a particularly odd appearance.

She didn’t know which school of fish had stirred up the water initially, but now it seemed like all sorts of different schools were being swept along together.

They skillfully avoided the underwater bedroom, swimming past the raft and heading toward the other side of the waterway.

The schools were so densely packed that anyone with trypophobia wouldn’t have been able to bear the sight. Their sheer numbers and the noise they made caused the entire water surface to ripple, as if the whole underwater world were boiling.

In her entire life, Shu Fu had never seen such a spectacular sight.

She stood there, stunned, watching the fish come and go, passing through her entire world. Then, all of a sudden, her wristband, which had been silent for nearly two months, vibrated gently.