Chapter 85

It was still raining heavily outside, so Shu Fu had no choice but to put on a warm knitted cardigan, slip on plastic sandals, and take an umbrella as she moved the meeting location to Chen Fa’s raft. She also put away her own raft, which conveniently helped her pass some of the four hours during which she couldn’t use it.

As soon as she stepped into Chen Fa’s cabin, she noticed the difference. In just one day, the place had already been set up.

The cabin was rectangular, wider from side to side and slightly narrower from front to back. The roughly ten-square-meter space was divided into two sections. One side had moisture-proof mats and inflatable camping mattresses—two sets, likely meant for Chen Fa and Chen Yuezhen.

Beside the bedding were two brightly colored, low tables, which held daily necessities and camping tools. The tables served as both storage and a partition separating the other half of the cabin.

On the other side were the camping table and chairs Shu Fu had left behind earlier. Against the wall stood two low cabinets containing camping cookware.

Some of these items had come from their luggage, while others had been taken from the pizza restaurant they had rested at before. Chen Fa had moved quickly—Shu Fu hadn’t even noticed when she gathered these things.

That restaurant had been a family-friendly establishment, and the furniture was clearly child-sized, which was probably why she had been able to fit them into her inventory.

The three of them sat around the camping table, and Shu Fu began placing items on it: two cups of hot lattes, two cups of hot milk tea, a box of lychees, two servings of preserved egg and lean meat congee, and a box of fried chicken wings…

But there was so much food in her storage space, and the camping table was so small that it filled up after just a few items.

“We already had breakfast—stop taking things out,” Lu Zheng said, stopping her.

“Alright then, let’s save some room for grilled meat at lunch!”

“I’d love some grilled meat too, but not today,” Chen Fa shook her head regretfully. “Today is the trading day at the shelter. Everyone is waiting for us to return and go to the sports arena for the exchange. We came here now just to check on you. If you’re planning to stay, we can come back tomorrow or the day after.”

“Yeah, I’ll be staying here for now. How are things at the school?”

Aside from checking on her, Chen Fa and Lu Zheng had come to update her on the situation at their end. The place was indeed a shelter, with a significant number of people, just as they had suspected. A small military unit had led civilians there during the evacuation.

The reason for their retreat was as expected—cases of the gray scab disease had increased, and the medical team was powerless to stop it. Meanwhile, the water levels in the river were rising, the current growing stronger. On the other side of the river, a dangerous faction lurked, waiting for an opportunity. The number of healthy civilians in the southern part of the city had dwindled, so they had all withdrawn to the military academy.

At the time of the evacuation, the group had numbered over 20,000. Later, some had fallen ill, while others had formed their own groups and continued south toward Xiangzhou Province. Currently, around 5,000 people remained at the school, including about 200 surviving soldiers.

Since their numbers had dwindled, many dormitories were left vacant, so accommodations weren’t an issue.

When Chen Fa and Lu Zheng arrived at the school at noon yesterday, the patrolling soldiers were startled. They were the first people to appear in the southern outskirts of Youcheng in a long time. At first, the soldiers thought they might be from the northern faction.

But upon noticing that their group included the elderly, children, and even a cat—as well as wounded individuals—the soldiers became less suspicious. They also found no firearms on them, so they finally believed that they were just refugees.

“They were shocked that we managed to make it across from the northern side,” Lu Zheng continued. “They don’t know the exact situation there, but they’re well aware of the river conditions. The water level has risen, the river has widened, and the current is stronger than ever. Ordinary boats can hardly make it across anymore. No one has come from the north in a long time…”

The military organized regular expeditions into the city for two reasons: one, to search for supplies like vehicles, everyday necessities, and fuel; and two, to leave food for the gray scab patients abandoned in the city. Even though those people were sick, their consciousness was unclear, and they became aggressive at night, they were still human. When starving, they would scavenge for anything edible—cooked or raw.

As for drinking water, the school had emergency supplies stored away. Combined with what was left in the southern part of the city, they were managing for now.

About a month ago, they established contact with the main military force in Xiangzhou Province. Although reinforcements weren’t available, supply drops were being carried out regularly.

“That’s also why they had to withdraw from the city and establish the shelter in the southern outskirts. Being farther from the northern part of the city and with the right terrain, the supply drops here remain undetected by the northern faction…”

Lu Zheng explained everything in detail. In addition to receiving updates from the military, their group had also provided the soldiers with new information.

For instance, details about the gray scab patients—and more importantly, the strange fish.

The military had only recently learned about the strange fish, and the survivors from Lucheng were the ones who spread the news. Things in Lucheng weren’t looking good—the fish landed frequently, taking lives. Some people had fled, but others still held their ground.

After settling into their dormitory, the group had attended a meeting. Having all encountered the strange fish and suffered because of them, they unanimously decided to hand over two bottles of red liquid each for the military to study. The military could either research it themselves or send it to the main force in Xiangzhou Province via the next drone delivery.

It wasn’t just their own personal disaster. They didn’t have the ability to research and analyze the composition of the red liquid, but there were surely people in the official research teams who could. After all, even a heartless person like Tang Ping had managed to conduct research, so there was no reason the government’s scientific teams couldn’t do the same.

At first, the military personnel didn’t believe them. After all, they hadn’t seen the mutated fish with their own eyes, nor had they witnessed the power of the red liquid.

Then, Chen Fa pulled out her phone and played a short video showing how the red liquid repelled and countered the mutant fish. The video had been filmed in Lucheng—how she had managed to fight the fish while also recording was anyone’s guess.

The video didn’t show the user’s face, but it clearly documented the liquid’s effects on the mutant fish.

It was because of this video and the bottle of red liquid that they received preferential treatment from the military. Not only did they obtain an old jeep and some fuel, but they were also given some survival credits.

These credits could be used at the trading market today to exchange for necessary supplies—essentially, they were given shopping vouchers in disguise.

After explaining everything, Chen Fa took an old satellite phone out of her backpack compartment and handed it to Shu Fu. Aside from the jeep, the military had also rewarded them with two satellite phones. She suggested that Shu Fu keep one so that no matter where they were, as long as the satellites were still operational, they would never lose contact.

Seeing the satellite phone in Chen Fa’s hand, Shu Fu suddenly remembered—she had bought two satellite phones herself. They were already activated, but she had never used them… because she had forgotten about them.

Chen Fa stared at the brand-new, completely unused satellite phones Shu Fu pulled out: …

Why was she suddenly feeling the urge to punch someone?

After exchanging numbers, Shu Fu’s face was still pinched by Chen Fa. Shu Fu swatted her hand away and turned to see Lu Zheng watching her face. Alarmed, she immediately covered both her cheeks. “You’re not thinking of pinching me too, are you?”

Lu Zheng: …

Chen Fa glanced at Lu Zheng’s slightly lowered lashes, which flickered in nervousness. It reminded her of the time when they had to split up in the northern part of Youcheng to search for the missing Yue Dong and Xu Tingfeng. Before they parted ways, he had tightly hugged Shu Fu.

She had originally thought the two of them had known each other for a while and that something had already developed between them. But now, seeing how flustered he was over Shu Fu’s casual remark, it was obvious that nothing had happened between them yet.

Ah… so it was a one-sided crush.

The trading hours at the military academy’s shelter started at noon, and they still needed to prepare before heading back. They planned to leave around 11:30, meaning they had about an hour left here.

With her original plan for a barbecue lunch ruined and the floating island cabin inaccessible, the only thing left to do was drink coffee, wander around the rafts, and check if there was anything in their cabins they might need—items she could provide.

Their backpack compartments had a storage limit of one cubic meter, which meant large items like vehicles or bulky furniture couldn’t be stored directly unless they set up their rafts on-site and manually moved things into the cabins.

However, the rafts were too big to fit inside an ordinary room, making it difficult to furnish them with large pieces of furniture.

Luckily, Shu Fu had collected some office desks, chairs, and sofas from abandoned office buildings in Suicheng. Some of the furniture was practically brand-new, well-designed, and functional. Since she had space in her storage at the time, she couldn’t resist grabbing them.

But in reality, there were quite a few desks, chairs, and sofas she had never even used and probably never would. So she quickly took out a few pieces for them to choose from. Once they made their selections, she put the rest away and placed the chosen items inside their cabins, positioning everything exactly where it needed to go.

Chen Fa first took out two appropriately thick quilts and placed them on their sleeping pads. At the other end of their sleeping area, she set up a two-seater sofa, a wooden office coffee table, and a small standing cabinet with a built-in water dispenser. She also retrieved a 19L jug of purified water from the same collection, fitting it onto the dispenser for easy access.

Since purified water had a shelf life, only one additional jug could be kept in the cabin, with the rest stored in the backpack compartment.

Shu Fu planned to take out ten jugs of the same size for Chen Fa to store, but Chen Fa declined, explaining that they were heading to the trading market today and needed to keep their storage space empty. Plus, they had a water filtration system, so water supply wasn’t a concern. Once the jugs were empty, they could be refilled.

In the end, Shu Fu simply stocked the cabinet with some instant noodles, instant vermicelli, self-heating rice meals, and luosifen.

“You already gave me plenty of food last time. If you give me all this, what will you eat?” Chen Fa quickly stopped her. “Besides, you’re the one stuck here in Lankou Province, not us! You should keep these for yourself. The whole province is in chaos, and you might not find food so easily later.”

“I have more than enough to eat. I won’t put these back. We’ll talk about the rest after you return from the trading market. This is a shelter, after all—if the food you exchange for isn’t enough, just let me know.” Then, she went to check on Lu Zheng’s cabin.

His setup was even simpler. He only had a camping mat, a few travel bags in the corner with rarely used items, and a soft pad in another corner, which looked like Lan Lan’s bed.

Following the same routine, she placed a two-seater sofa against the wall. Then, she took out a large office desk and set it in the center of the cabin, which could act as both a dining table and a divider.

The desk had large drawers on both sides, allowing for plenty of storage space. The surface could be used for eating or organizing supplies. She also added a few chairs—though they were all different styles, making the setup look like a mismatched but oddly amusing collection.

Similarly, Shu Fu also placed a standing cabinet with a water dispenser for him and set a barrel of purified water on top.

Chen Fa was speechless. “How did you end up storing two identical water dispenser cabinets?”

“…” Shu Fu looked at her, wanting to say that she actually had four or five more in her storage, and in different styles too. These things weren’t that big and didn’t take up much space. They were all from high-end 5A office buildings, brand new and pristine. She figured she’d need a replacement when her current standing water bar wore out, so it wouldn’t make sense to leave them behind…

As she kept pulling out supplies, she suddenly remembered a past purchase she considered a lifesaver. She then took out two foldable bath buckets.

Both were brand new and unused. Back in Lou Yuncheng, she had bought four of them, each measuring 70×100 cm. When opened, they could store a large amount of purified water. They could be placed in a separate section to accumulate the filtered water, making it more convenient for daily use—whether for cleaning or boiling for drinking.

“Thanks,” Lu Zheng said, looking at her with a smile in his eyes.

Shu Fu suddenly remembered something from that night in Youcheng. “Oh right, that night you said you had something to tell me—what was it?”

Being caught off guard, Lu Zheng was momentarily stunned. In reality, that night, he had wanted to say a lot to her, but clearly, now wasn’t the right atmosphere for those words. He smiled gently at her. “Next time, when we have a chance to sit down, we’ll talk.”

Shu Fu was momentarily dazed—Lu Zheng’s smile had unexpectedly dazzled her for a second.

It wasn’t that she suddenly had feelings for him, but rather, in all the time she had known him, this was the first time she had ever seen him smile like that.

For some reason, it reminded her of her old work environment in her original world. There weren’t many naturally good-smiling entertainers. Many new actors would get criticized for awkward smiles and even end up on trending hate lists. They had to go through intense facial expression training before they could master the most camera-friendly smiles.

Lu Zheng had always had a delicate and refined appearance, and his smile had always been pleasant. But just now, the way the corners of his lips curled up was slightly different—it gave off a feeling of warm spring flowers blooming in a gentle breeze.

He had once mentioned that he had seen her at a film crew banquet. Could he have been an actor in that world?

Once Shu Fu was done with her “tiny house decorating game,” the three of them returned to Chen Fa’s place, drinking coffee and continuing their conversation. Chen Fa even told her to put away the milk tea.

“You’ve already got coffee, milk tea, fruit, porridge, and fried chicken… We don’t have five mouths to eat all of this at once.”

“Didn’t you say you wanted hot milk tea while watching the stars last time?” Shu Fu propped her chin up and looked at her. “I’m just fulfilling your wish. Besides, if you’re not drinking it now, just store it in the food box and drink it later!”

Chen Fa glanced at Lu Zheng. “I already have some—just put it away. Lu Ce will probably like it too.”

Shu Fu nodded, took out an empty cardboard box, and packed some instant food and drinks for Lu Zheng. Since the box wasn’t too big, she didn’t pack as much as she had for Chen Fa—only about half as much.

Even though they were all companions, treating a close sisterly friend and a male friend was different. Sisters deserved to be spoiled more, while guys could just get a casual selection.

Two boxes of fried chicken, a few portions of Sichuan dishes with meat and vegetables paired with rice, some hamburgers and sandwiches, a few frozen pizzas and dumplings, two bags of fruit candies, a bag of dehydrated vegetables, basic seasonings like salt, sugar, oil, and chicken essence, apples, pears, oranges, and other fruits, along with some boxed milk, coconut juice, carbonated drinks, a few cups of American coffee, a few bars of soap, and some tissues.

Even though it was just a casual selection, Lu Zheng was completely stunned. “You… you look just like Doraemon pulling things out of nowhere.”

Shu Fu: …

After finishing their coffee and eating some fruit, it was time to leave.

Chen Fa sighed. They had come mainly to deliver the satellite phone so they could stay in touch, but in the end, they didn’t even give the phone away—instead, they ate and took a bunch of supplies.

Standing at the front of Chen Fa’s raft, Shu Fu opened her umbrella while summoning her own raft. She smiled, “You just don’t get it—I’m securing my future favors in advance. If I need help from you guys later, you won’t be able to refuse me!”

Her raft reappeared across from Chen Fa’s. She had done this countless times, and even while chatting with them, she was able to position it precisely where she wanted, with no margin for error.

Chen Fa pulled up the hood of her waterproof jacket and followed Shu Fu onto her raft. Though Shu Fu’s raft was small, compared to theirs, it was actually more refined. It had an upper deck with a terrace, floor-to-ceiling windows on both sides, and a sleek, modern interior. It also somehow seemed much larger inside than its actual dimensions.

Her earlier comment about Shu Fu’s raft lacking functionality had clearly been a joke. While their rafts were similar in structure, Shu Fu’s was clearly more advanced.

After glancing around, Chen Fa turned to Shu Fu and suddenly said, “You know, this reminds me of a computer term—‘backward compatibility.’”

Shu Fu nodded. The term had many meanings now, but it originally came from computing.

It referred to how, when a program was updated to a newer version, files or systems created in the older version could still be operated or used normally.

Chen Fa pointed to her own and Lu Zheng’s rafts. “Our rafts are like old-version files. Yours is like an updated, advanced-version file. That’s why you can use our rafts—you can enter our cabins freely. But we can’t use yours, and we can’t enter your cabin.”

She spoke again, looking at Shu Fu: “If I’m not mistaken, Shu Fu, there must be others in this world like Lu Zheng and me. And you—you can be compatible with all of us. That means you can enter everyone’s small cabin, just like… a manager!”

**

Chen Fa’s words before leaving that day lingered in Shu Fu’s mind for a long time.

If she was the manager of Chen Fa, Lu Zheng, and other awakened individuals she had yet to meet, then in this world… who was managing her?

On the afternoon of the third day, Chen Fa and Lu Zheng came again—this time to bring her tires.

The trade market here was more resourceful than they had expected. Likely due to the continuous airdrops from the southern troops, they were able to purchase a lot of essential food and supplies. They even found two tires matching the off-road vehicle and bought both, asking Shu Fu to store them as spares.

They also returned a boat motor to her, explaining that they had acquired a new one and now had enough, so they wanted to give one back.

In addition, they brought her some fuel and engine oil.

Shu Fu was about to mention that she already had plenty, but seeing the expectant look in their eyes as they handed over the gifts, she swallowed her words. Instead, she put on a joyful expression and said she really needed these supplies. Then, she immediately invited them to stay for dinner.

Since Chen Yuezhen and Lu Ce had come along this time, it would be a shame not to have a barbecue together!

However, they mentioned that the shelter had a curfew, and they had to return before dark.

“Then let’s have afternoon tea instead.” Shu Fu said, taking out a four-flavor cake—Tiramisu, Marble Cheesecake, Chocolate Cheesecake, and Lemon Milk Cheesecake—along with two refreshing fruit teas and three cups of milk tea.

Lu Ce was instantly captivated. “Wow…”

“No wonder they came back the other day and told me you have a new nickname—Doraemon.” Chen Yuezhen looked at the desserts in amazement, then told Shu Fu to keep most of them stored away. Everyone could have a small taste, but they shouldn’t waste food. The same went for the drinks—one large cup was enough to be shared between two people.

Shu Fu, who had been about to take out fruit and a full tea set for a traditional tea ceremony, silently put her hands down.

The afternoon tea was peaceful and pleasant. The five of them chatted while nibbling on snacks. Meanwhile, the tabby cat curled up in the corner of the small cabin, dozing off quietly.

By around four in the afternoon, the rain outside grew heavier. The wind picked up, carrying the rain in waves toward the door. Chen Fa had to get up and close both doors.

Once the doors were shut, the wind and rain were blocked out, making the interior feel much calmer.

On a regular boat, being out on the water during such a storm would mean relentless rocking. But here in the small cabin, it felt surprisingly stable—almost like sitting inside a parked car on a rainy day.

They could hear the howling wind and the raindrops pounding against the roof, but inside, the storm’s impact was minimal.

Shu Fu, Chen Fa, and Lu Zheng all noticed the same thing: “It seems that closing both doors reduces the impact of extreme weather inside the cabin.”

“Yeah, but I wonder if this reduction has a limit. Will it scale with the severity of disasters?” Lu Zheng pondered. If the disaster level was currently at 5, then with the doors open, they had felt it at around 3 or 4. But with the doors closed, it had dropped to almost 1.

That meant a reduction of 4 points—a total mitigation of 80%.

But if the disaster level increased to 10, would it still reduce by just 4 points? Or would it mitigate 80% of 10 as well?

“It looks like we’ll have to wait until the next extreme weather event while we’re on the raft to find out,” Lu Ce said as he scooped his cake in small bites, glancing at the only grid window in the cabin.

The window wasn’t large to begin with, and now it was completely blurred by slanting rain.

Maybe it was just bad luck, or maybe Lu Ce jinxed it, but they had planned to wait until the rain eased before leaving. Yet an hour later, it was nearly dark, and the storm had only worsened.

Suddenly, a loud pitter-patter noise echoed from the top of the cabin as the storm raged on.