Chapter 9

Shu Fu paused for a moment, then pulled her sleeve up toward her elbow again and showed her wrist to the two of them: “I think I look fine without wearing anything.”

“You’re such a show-off. The point is it’s a waste,” Wu Shaoshan said, reaching over to touch her wrist. Her fingertips clearly brushed past the bracelet, but her expression didn’t change, as if she hadn’t noticed anything unusual.

Shu Fu thought for a moment, then turned and opened her large bag. Using the bag for cover, she took out the small drifting bottle, and then quickly retrieved a bracelet from her hand ring space. She held both items in her palm, then extended her hand from the bag, opening her palm to show them: “I brought a bracelet, I just forgot to put it on.”

As before, the ordinary bracelet was visible to them, and they could touch it. However, the drifting bottle that appeared from the hand ring was invisible and out of reach to them.

Shu Fu confirmed it: they truly couldn’t see or interact with the hand ring or related items.

Not only that, even if they touched it, they wouldn’t feel the presence of the hand ring or its associated objects.

Wait, this feeling—an oddly familiar sensation flashed across her mind. This invisible and untouchable situation—it was exactly like her state before her awakening, wasn’t it?

Before, she always thought that she first awakened, then the hand ring appeared. But was it possible… it was the other way around?

What if the hand ring had always been on her wrist, but because she hadn’t awakened, she thought she was a native and couldn’t see or touch the hand ring?

The sudden thought made her spine tingle. It felt like a butterfly had caught a glimpse of Zhuang Zhou’s dream—a brief, strange sensation of seeing the truth of the world.

It seemed like some more fundamental truth was about to reveal itself, but for now, she was just the “butterfly,” and even if she glimpsed Zhuang Zhou’s dream, she wouldn’t be able to understand it.

She didn’t understand why she suddenly had this feeling. Wasn’t this world her scripted one?

Then how could there be a truth she couldn’t comprehend?

…

Her scattered thoughts and confusion were temporarily interrupted by Zhang Tian’s arrival.

Finally, Zhang Tian showed up. Even though it was raining outside, she was still dressed beautifully, in a short skirt and long boots. As soon as she appeared, she smiled apologetically, saying she was late, and promised to make up for it with a great meal so they could all relax.

“What’s this important news you have to announce in person?” Chen Fa asked while ordering, pinching her cheek.

Zhang Tian grinned and announced, “I’m getting married next month.”

Shu Fu: …?

With those words, she stunned the other three girls at the table.

After lunch, when they were having afternoon tea, they met Zhang Tian’s fiancé. Their encounter was straight out of a novel—he fell in love with her at first sight and did many foolish things for her.

In short, even though they had only known each other for a month, they were deeply in love. She was going to visit his parents next week, and she was marrying him, becoming a fairy-tale bride in the golden autumn.

“The temperature’s dropping quickly. It’ll probably be winter next month,” Wu Shaoshan suddenly said.

“Poof—” Chen Fa sprayed her tea.

Although Wu Shaoshan usually said little, when she did speak, it was often surprising. She was a logical thinker who liked to write novels in college and now worked as an editor at a cultural company.

Zhang Tian was already used to her ways. Leaning against the handsome young man at her side, she smiled and retorted without hesitation.

Among everyone, only Shu Fu had been silent since Zhang Tian’s boyfriend appeared.

She was used to wearing a mask while buying supplies, and she would sometimes change her jacket in the car. During that time, the other person’s attention was entirely on his companion, so Shu Fu thought he probably hadn’t recognized her.

She thought for a moment, then decided not to hold back. “I’m going to the restroom, Chen Fa, come with me.”

Chen Fa: …

After Chen Fa, she messaged Wu Shaoshan. The three girls gathered in the restroom, and after hearing Shu Fu’s words, they were greatly shocked.

The three of them discussed it and agreed that they couldn’t let the scumbag get away with it, especially with him cheating so openly. Although Shu Fu hadn’t taken a photo as evidence since she didn’t know him before, they felt that at the very least, they should reveal the truth to Zhang Tian.

Eventually, Zhang Tian was called into the restroom.

Zhang Tian seemed delicate and gentle, but that was just the persona she chose to present. After all, it wasn’t her first time in a relationship, and she had known Shu Fu and the others for so long that they had no reason to deceive her.

Zhang Tian rushed over to the table, grabbed the milk tea in front of her, and poured it directly onto his face. “Tell me, what’s so special about that new karaoke room upstairs!”

“…”

His expression was utterly stunned, a mix of surprise, anger, and confusion. Then he reacted, saying, “Tian Tian, let me explain… you must have misunderstood!”

Zhang Tian’s sudden accusation caught him off guard, and his expression gave him away. Even though she had clung to the last shred of hope because of their past, she fully understood now.

“Scumbag!” With a clap of thunder and the sudden downpour outside, Zhang Tian swung another cup of coffee at him.

The few customers in the store were all stunned, quickly pulling out their phones to record. Such an exciting scene couldn’t be missed!

By the time the whole situation was over, it had already been an hour. The scumbag finally couldn’t hold back anymore and fought back, but with four against one, especially with Chen Fa, who had practiced women’s self-defense techniques, the scumbag got nowhere. In the end, he angrily retreated in defeat.

Shu Fu finished handling the store’s matters, and when she came out, she found Chen Fa and Wu Shaoshan, who were accompanying Zhang Tian, near the elevator.

Zhang Tian was hunched over the railing, crying loudly towards the glass wall outside.

Her crying was loud, but the rain and thunder outside were even louder, completely drowning out her voice. She screamed a few times but couldn’t overpower the noise from outside. She then became furious and began cursing.

At first, Chen Fa tried to comfort her, but then she found the noise annoying and took out her phone to take a picture of Zhang Tian, showing her how she looked right now.

Wu Shaoshan covered her ears with one hand and, with the other, handed Zhang Tian a tissue to wipe off her smudged mascara. At the same time, she calmly advised her to buy a different brand of mascara next time because this one wasn’t waterproof…

Shu Fu: …

Impressive, truly a talent.

With the scene getting out of hand, afternoon tea was clearly no longer an option. As the weather turned darker and the rain began pouring, the group decided to head home.

With such heavy rain, and with Zhang Tian in this state, Shu Fu offered to give them a ride back instead of everyone taking the subway separately.

“Give us a ride?” Chen Fa asked in confusion.

“I rented a car,” Shu Fu explained.

Chen Fa: “…You really must be getting brainless from working too much.”

In Chen Fa’s view, renting a car was even less cost-effective than renting a house. If you bought a cheap car, the monthly payments and rent were about the same.

That said, the four girls still took the direct elevator down to the -2 floor.

The -2 floor was the lowest level of the entire shopping center. Both the -2 and -1 floors were parking lots, but the -1 floor was smaller, with more space dedicated to the supermarket and food court.

To avoid being seen, Shu Fu parked her car in a relatively hidden corner far from the elevator.

This shopping mall wasn’t large, and the parking lot wasn’t big either. It had been in operation for a while, and with people losing interest, there weren’t many visitors on weekends.

Additionally, the bad weather recently meant that even though it was a Sunday, the parking lot wasn’t crowded.

There wasn’t much in the car, and even the portable oil barrel had already been stored in her hand ring space. She had the other three wait nearby while she opened the car door and began adjusting the back seat so they could sit comfortably.

As she was moving the seat, Shu Fu heard a strange noise.

She turned around, and Chen Fa and the others had stopped talking, also listening attentively.

“What’s that sound? It’s so weird…”

It was indeed strange—rumbling, somewhat muffled, mixed with a cracking noise, like something had collapsed, followed by a swishing impact…

Was that the sound of water crashing?!

Shu Fu’s eyes widened suddenly. This was bad!

“Get in the car!” Shu Fu yelled at the three girls.

Before she even finished speaking, a loud crash followed by the sound of massive collapsing and breaking echoed through the parking lot. The wall at the end of the right side of the parking lot was knocked down by a surge of water, which gushed out like floodwaters breaching a dam, quickly rushing toward the parking lot.

“Get in the car!” Shu Fu had already seated herself in the driver’s seat. Using the car as cover, she quickly pulled four manually inflatable life vests from her hand ring space and put one around her waist.

Outside, Wu Shaoshan was the first to react. She quickly grabbed Zhang Tian and Chen Fa and pushed them into the back seat, then slammed the door shut.

The car had its windows up, and the moment the door closed, it sped off rapidly.

“We’ll have to take a detour to leave the parking lot. Should we head straight for the elevator?” Wu Shaoshan suggested.

“I’d love to!” Shu Fu gripped the steering wheel tightly, quickly glancing over. The elevator was too close to the collapsed wall, and the fast-moving water would be there in no time.

Wu Shaoshan quickly realized the situation and stopped speaking, not wanting to distract Shu Fu.

The three life vests were thrown into the back seat. “Each of you put one on your waist. These are manually inflatable life vests! If we fall into the water, pull the rope on the right side hard!”

“Huh?” Zhang Tian looked confused. “But we’re in the car.”

Chen Fa responded, “I can swim!”

“With the water strong enough to collapse a wall, swimming won’t help!” Wu Shaoshan quickly buckled herself up and told the others, “Hurry up! Don’t just stand there! We’re on the -2 floor, so if anything goes wrong around here, the water will flood this place first!”

As she spoke, the water was already rushing toward them. Shu Fu didn’t slow down as she turned, and the tires skidded across the water, spraying waves more than two meters high, which slapped against the windows, startling the three in the back seat.

Chen Fa and Zhang Tian quickly strapped on their life vests.

“Remember! Pull the cord only after falling into the water, or you’ll get stuck in the car!” This was why Shu Fu hadn’t given them automatic life vests. If the car started flooding, the life vests would inflate within three seconds of contact with water, and they’d likely all be stuck in the back seat together.

“Stop getting distracted! Focus on driving!” Chen Fa gripped the front seat, her heart racing.

Shu Fu didn’t pause, keeping her eyes on the signs and quickly finding the path leading to the -1 floor.

Zhang Tian, who had been checking outside, suddenly gasped, “So much water! It’s coming down! The -1 floor is flooded too!”

“Not yet!” Shu Fu observed the water level and accelerated, driving through water that was halfway up the tires as she headed toward the -1 floor’s entrance.

The underground parking lot’s entrance and exit ramps are spiraled, and when she rushed to the first underground level, she couldn’t see the upper levels clearly and almost collided with another car that suddenly appeared beside her.

There were more cars on this level than the one below, and water was everywhere on the ground. It seemed like a large section of the same side wall had collapsed, and the rushing water immediately flooded in. In the confusion, people in the parking lot couldn’t understand what was happening, and they hurriedly got into their cars and started them, trying to leave immediately.

In the panic, cars couldn’t line up in an orderly manner as usual, driving out one by one along the correct path.

Everyone just wanted to leave as quickly as possible. Some cut in line, some collided and caused traffic jams, and the scene became chaotic with shouting and cursing.

“Don’t turn left, it’s blocked! Go forward and take the next passage!” Wu Shaoshan pressed her face against the car window, her voice tense but with some calmness.

“Okay.” Shu Fu immediately pressed the gas pedal, swerving to the right to avoid the traffic jam on the left side. The space was narrow because the left side was blocked, so the car scraped past the front of two cars parked on the right, making a horrible metal screeching sound that made the three people in the backseat shiver.

The water submerged the entire tire, and just as the car started to take on water, it finally entered the spiral car lane.

At this point, no one cared whether they were going the correct way or not, as long as there was space, they rushed upwards.

The fence at the entrance had already been broken by the cars in front. Shu Fu’s car passed a stalled car that had stalled because it couldn’t climb the slope. The car appeared to be manual, and the people inside were shouting, but the more they shouted, the harder it was for the driver to restart the car.

Shu Fu’s car quickly overtook it and rushed out of the underground parking lot, driving to the roadside to the side of the road. She only stopped once she confirmed that she hadn’t blocked the road.

She wanted to release the steering wheel, but she realized her fingers had stiffened, and she couldn’t let go.

The rain outside was pouring down, so heavy it felt like the sky was leaking, and the sky was as dark as ink. It was only about 3 or 4 pm, but it felt like it was already night.

The four people in the car were still in shock, and before they could speak, a loud thunderclap suddenly struck, creating a deafening explosion-like sound. The people inside the car felt the sudden flash and then sudden darkness. The side of the car hood made crackling sounds.

The girls screamed, and there was the sound of something shattering outside the car. As Zhang Tian cried out in fear, Shu Fu released the brake, shifted the gear, and slammed on the reverse. As the car reversed, a tall tree beside the road fell toward the road surface, almost brushing against the car’s front.

“Thunderstorm? Oh my god… don’t move, don’t use your phones, don’t open the doors or windows!” Chen Fa grabbed Zhang Tian beside her. “You really know how to pick a day for a gathering!”

Wu Shaoshan’s voice came quietly: “…Xiaofu, what did you say before? You were planning to move somewhere to settle down?”

Zhang Tian shouted, “It’s all that bastard’s fault! I’m breaking up! Even if I have to die, I’ll break up!”

“…?” Shu Fu didn’t respond. After Zhang Tian finished speaking, she felt her wristband vibrate.

The mission was over.

In the evening, when Chen Fa called, Shu Fu had just finished showering and was experimenting with the wristband using her phone.

When she filmed or recorded her wrist with the wristband, the gloves, the drift bottle, the black mini notebook, and the raft, she could clearly see all of them through the phone’s camera.

But when she finished shooting and reopened the photos or video, the wristband, gloves, drift bottle, and notebook were no longer visible. The only thing preserved in the footage was the raft.

Did this mean that the camera records like someone else’s eyes, and thus cannot capture the wristband, gloves, drift bottle, and notebook? But the raft was an exception—could it be that others’ eyes could see the raft?

She couldn’t verify this theory yet.

Chen Fa’s voice on the phone was trembling, sounding even more panicked and frightened than when she was in the car: “Did you see the news?”

“News?” Shu Fu opened the TV and tuned to the local news channel while holding her phone.

The news was reporting on the flooding in the underground parking lot of the shopping center.

After a moment, Shu Fu spoke: “I saw it, the entire underground parking lot is flooded. It seems there’s a problem with the water-blocking wall. There may have been a flaw in the initial construction. The exact situation hasn’t been determined, but fortunately, there were no casualties, and rescue work is still underway—”

“No!” Chen Fa interrupted her. “Not the shopping center news, it’s the subway news! A subway near the shopping center got trapped in a tunnel, and water flooded the carriages. Several people died…”

She paused for a moment before continuing, “Xiaofu, that subway was Line 14, the one that Shaoshan and I were supposed to take home!”