Thingyan: My sincere apology for releasing the last extras sooooo slow. I for so reason thought I already did. Really appreciate all your patience and also thanks to all the kofi supporters ??????????
…
Pang Yuqing’s earlier words — Xing Min had heard them all.
Because Yu Xi had co into this world this ti through a different thod, certain fine details about her background hadn’t been crafted by him, so he didn’t know everything in full. He just hadn’t expected soone like Pang Yuqing to exist — or more accurately, he hadn’t expected there to be soone with a shared past with Yu Xi.
The man who jumped onto the opposite raft was tall, not wearing any rain gear. With long legs and clean movent, he dropped down from the broken tree trunk — more than a person’s height — onto the raft, which only swayed slightly beneath him.
The motion also jolted Yu Xi, and her soft little hand nearly slipped away. Pang Yuqing instinctively tightened his grip, reluctant to let go so quickly.
He hadn’t seen Yu Xi in years — especially during the grueling final year of high school when even their ssaging dwindled. He understood that those fuzzy first-love feelings from youth rarely lasted. Under normal circumstances, had they t again, they might have gradually grown apart due to differences in growth, personality shifts, ti spent apart … and peacefully brought that chapter to a close.
But now, under the pressure of a disaster, the past seems more precious and beautiful than ever. This seemingly fated reunion added a dramatic flair, making Pang Yuqing feel like a leading man reuniting with his destined heroine.
He had just said sothing important, was still waiting for Yu Xi’s reply, when soone interrupted — and he couldn’t help feeling annoyed. He turned his head toward the voice, and for a second, was dumbfounded.
Holy ** — this guy’s face was insane. Especially the eyes — were those contacts? Was he mixed race?
While he was still frozen, the man lifted his eyes and glanced back at him. That calm, distant look was like a flash of cold electricity. Just one glance, and Pang Yuqing felt like sothing invisible had jolted through him.
Electricity?
Before he could make sense of it, his body gave an involuntary shudder — and the fingers holding Yu Xi’s hand loosened.
“Sorry,” said the handso blue-eyed man, his tone polite but distant. As he handed his backpack to Yu Xi, he looked back at Pang Yuqing. “We’re on the move — afraid we can’t keep chatting.”
“You’re heading this way — toward Qiu Wang Mountain?” Pang Yuqing pressed again.
Yu Xi nodded. “Yeah.”
“Perfect!” Pang Yuqing’s hesitation vanished in an instant. “That ans even if we hadn’t run into each other here, we might’ve reunited at Qiu Wang Mountain. So why not travel together?”
Xing Min, who had turned away, paused mid-step. He reached out, took the umbrella from Yu Xi’s other hand, and gently reminded her, “The rain’s picking up. We should hurry.” Then he gave her a look and gestured toward the bag — clearly saying: we’ve got everything.
Yu Xi understood imdiately. She looked at his calm face, and for a mont almost thought that the glint of stormy coldness in his eyes earlier had been her imagination.
But she hadn’t missed Pang Yuqing’s hand trembling when he let go. There was no way that had nothing to do with Xing Min.
So, aside from her voluntary affection and initiative, Xing Min clearly had high expectations when it ca to exclusivity and priority.
Yu Xi bit her lip gently. This was tricky. After all, she hadn’t officially broken up with Pang Yuqing. Technically speaking… wasn’t Xing Min the one intervening?
Uh…
She suddenly realized sothing — had she accidentally made Xing Min into… a third party?
For a second, she really felt like she was kind of a jerk. But the thought didn’t weigh on her for long.
What actually troubled her was sothing else entirely. If they hadn’t randomly run into Pang Yuqing here, she might have forgotten about him completely. Why did the mory she had of him feel so disconnected, so foreign, when compared to seeing him in person?
She had felt deja vu from the disaster footage, from so things Yu Zhenzhen had said — but now the people and monts she should’ve rembered clearly… felt like they belonged to soone else’s life.
**
Back on Pang Yuqing’s side, his two inflatable rafts carried not just his parents, but several neighbors and friends from their villa community who had also sought shelter at the shopping mall.
There were also a few classmates who had studied abroad in F Country on the sa flight as him. They’d planned to return to school together before the National Day holiday.
They hadn’t expected to get trapped in the sa place. When Pang’s parents ca to pick him up, there was no way he would have abandoned his friends. Luckily, they’d brought a seven-seater van, and they’d all squeezed in.
Then disaster after disaster struck. Those classmates were all from out of town. Though they had contacted family, they couldn’t leave H City, so they had been following Pang Yuqing’s group ever since.
There were both guys and girls among them — and seeing Pang Yuqing suddenly act so out of character, crossing the water, grabbing onto so girl and refusing to let go… of course they were curious.
After all, Pang Yuqing was a well-known figure at H University — a rich second-gen, handso, kind, and a top student. Plenty of girls liked him, and many had even pursued him, but no one had ever seen him agree to date anyone.
So was it because he already had a girlfriend that he had always ignored the other girls’ confessions?
While the guys were curiously eyeing Yu Xi, the girls were all staring at the man beside her.
With that kind of look, it was simply impossible to ignore him. An outstanding man now appearing beside his long-lost girlfriend — was Pang Yuqing really not worried?
There was electricity, water, and food at the shopping mall, but life in a shelter was terribly boring. Now that there was finally sothing juicy to gossip about, a few of the classmates quietly discussed it the whole way.
Could a first love separated by ti and distance still have a happy ending?
Sure, Pang Yuqing was charming: handso, smart, and wealthy — but that man beside Yu Xi was even better-looking, with a cold, elegant aura and, by appearances, was extrely gentle and considerate to “Xixi.” Did Pang Yuqing still stand a chance?
Or… had he been unknowingly cheated on this whole ti?
Things at the mountain villa were going to be real lively…
…
The two black inflatable rafts trailed behind Yu Xi’s raft. Of course, Yu Xi could hear their gossip.
Gentle and considerate?
Yu Xi glanced at Xing Min’s face. Ever since he returned to the windproof tent, he hadn’t looked at her even once. His expression was calm and distant. When she ntioned the mountain villa, he just gave a flat “mm” and said nothing more.
He might as well have written “I’m in a bad mood, figure it out yourself” across his forehead.
What was she supposed to do?
She couldn’t exactly fix his mood here, could she?
Her sister and Tianbao were both on the raft — wasn’t that asking a bit much of her?
But between Xing Min and her sister, her sister clearly looked more upset. After all, she had been betrayed by Yu Jun herself, and now her little sister seed to be juggling her own little “pond of fish”; of course she wasn’t thrilled.
Yu Xi tried to say sothing several tis but hesitated because of Xing Min’s brooding presence. Yu Zhenzhen just gave her a few hard looks, clearly aning: You wait till we get there. We’re going to have a talk.
Once they left the shopping mall area and continued west, they quickly reached the cultural park.
This park had a massive lake. The shoreline twisted and curved, and all the landscaping was built around it. It focused on natural scenery and had very few man-made buildings, most no higher than three stories tall. A few amusent rides were actually taller.
Now, almost all of the park was flooded. It looked like a vast body of water, with only a few treetops sticking out like aquatic plants. In so places, the water surface was entirely covered by fallen branches and leaves.
The Pang family’s group hadn’t originally planned to take this route. Their initial plan was the sa as Yu Xi’s alternate route: head south first, then take the wider main road westward.
But that would’ve ant a huge detour around the park—and they couldn’t be sure they had enough fuel to make it to Qiu Wang Mountain. They’d hoped to maybe find so fuel along the way.
After hearing Yu Xi’s plan and with Pang Yuqing’s strong endorsent, they changed course at the last minute.
Of course, if the Pang family’s rafts had gone first, the journey would’ve been bumpy with multiple tis getting stuck. Luckily, Xing Min led the way, and after more than an hour, they finally crossed the park and reached the western outskirts.
By then, the rain was coming down harder, pounding on the inflatable rafts. Most of the Pang family’s waterproof material was covering their supplies, so the people were left to sit in the rain. Even with rain ponchos, the wind was picking up, and the rain felt like it was being dumped on them by the bucketful.
Their clothes were soaked, faces wet, eyes stinging — they couldn’t even see clearly. The rain leaked in through their collars no matter how tightly they wrapped up. They were shivering from the cold.
And yet, they had to keep scooping water out of the raft with whatever tools they had — otherwise the boats would quickly fill up and capsize.
They didn’t have the energy to gossip anymore. They just stared at the windproof tent on Yu Xi’s orange raft with envy, fantasizing about how once they reached the villa, they’d imdiately change into dry warm clothes, boil a pot of water on a gas stove, make so hot coffee or milk tea — or even a bowl of instant noodles with a braised egg and so sliced sausage…
In reality, Yu Xi’s raft tent wasn’t as magical as they imagined. It was still a soft structure. Regular rain wasn’t an issue, but in this kind of downpour, the tent would collapse or at least cave in under the weight.
What was truly holding the tent up… was Xing Min’s pale gold barrier.
Fortunately, just ahead, gray land ca into view — that was the Qiuwang Mountain scenic area. They had arrived!
Yu Xi had a car in her space. The original plan was to pretend to search for a bit, then “find” the vehicle and drive it back — just to keep appearances. Now that the Pang family’s group was also here, their plan was similar: send out two or three people to look for a car nearby.
This was a tourist area with lots of parking lots. Though hail and wind had hit the area hard, they weren’t picky — even a car with broken windows would do, as long as it could still run. They have waterproof covers; they just didn’t want to haul supplies through the rain on foot.
But they got lucky. The search party hadn’t gone far when they ran into a convoy.
Several large military pickup trucks appeared. The cargo beds were covered with heavy-duty waterproof tarps, packed full of supply crates. Inflatable rescue boats were tied to the roof. From the look of it, these were soldiers headed into the city to distribute aid.
When they saw the three rafts and the people aboard, the soldiers didn’t look particularly surprised.
This wasn’t the first wave of evacuees they had seen in the past few days.
Although the Qiu Wang Mountain refuge zone was still under construction, the area’s elevation made it a natural gathering point, and many people from the western part of H City had already moved into the official shelters. The soldiers had also learned more about the local situation from residents.
Just as Yu Xi had predicted, most of the people who had been trapped in scenic hotels and hostays had already relocated to the official refuge areas.
There were also quite a few rural households in the surrounding outskirts. So lived at higher elevations and had their own wells in their yards. They reinforced and repaired their hos and stayed put. Others, who lived in lower areas, saw their first floors completely flooded during the storms, with holes punched into their rooftops. When staying in self-built houses beca impossible, soldiers arrived in assault boats. Since the distance was short and the number of people was small, they took them directly to the shelters.
When the soldiers found out that the Pang family had their own hostay in the mountains, they didn’t insist they go to the official shelter. Instead, after unloading the rafts and supplies, they let them ride along in the military trucks, since the route overlapped. They were willing to drop them off at their hostay along the way.
This thrilled everyone — including Yu Xi. She had just surveyed the area and found that although there were vehicles, most had been wrecked by hail. Finding one with intact windows was nearly impossible.
In such a situation, pulling out the car she had stored in her space would be far too suspicious. If it were just Xing Min, fine. But with the Pang family group present, it would definitely raise eyebrows.
With no need to search for vehicles or figure out directions, everyone got to work despite the rain — hauling the inflatable boats ashore, transferring supplies, then securing the boats to the truck roofs.
Yu Xi’s process was simpler thanks to the tented raft. Since the supplies were packed inside, she didn’t need to unload anything—just tie it down and go. Everything could be sorted once they reached the hostay.
Of course, that’s only if there were actual supplies inside.
Yu Xi exchanged a glance with Yu Zhenzhen, who sighed again. The three of them had evacuated without even packing a bag. They could fool outsiders, but not Xing Min.
Still, knowing Xing Min’s unusual nature gave Yu Zhenzhen so comfort. So with Yu Xi’s help, she and Yu Zhenzhen bundled sleeping Tianbao in a raincoat and umbrella shield and were the first to board the military truck.
When Yu Xi turned to help Xing Min move the raft, she noticed it felt noticeably heavier. Peeking through the narrow transparent section, she saw several cardboard boxes inside—it looked like Xing Min had discreetly taken them out of his space to make it look like they had real supplies.
The soldiers didn’t just stand there — others also helped carry the raft. Seeing how tightly sealed Yu Xi’s raft was, they even praised it as a good piece of equipnt.
The military truck was large, and both groups boarded the sa vehicle. As soon as Yu Xi got on, Pang Yuqing called her over to sit.
Yu Zhenzhen was already there, and there were two empty seats beside her.
After calling Yu Xi, Pang Yuqing politely waved to Xing Min as well: “Have your sister’s friend co sit too!”
Xing Min lifted his eyes and glanced at him. Then, after his cool gaze briefly passed over Yu Xi, he went and sat down in the seat next to Yu Zhenzhen.
Yu Xi felt chilled by that look. When she glanced his way again, she caught Yu Zhenzhen watching her with an amused yet disapproving look — equal parts “disappointed in you” and “serves you right.”
Yu Xi: …
Yeah, definitely her biological sister.
On the way to the hostay, Pang Yuqing was enthusiastically showing her pictures and videos from his mom’s phone, introducing the property.
His family’s hostay was a popular internet-famous spot, with six individual units. Each was an A-fra villa nestled among the mountains. They were built on raised foundations and featured viewing platforms. The villas had vaulted ceilings with a second floor — one bedroom downstairs and two upstairs.
In the photos, the hostays looked like deep blue isosceles triangles nestled in the lush green forest.
Each villa had a fireplace and was around six ters high. Along the eaves, they had installed solar panels made of tempered glass. Even if so were damaged, the rooftops underneath should remain intact. At worst, the panels would stop generating power, but they could still serve as a protective layer against further hail.
The only downside was that the southern walls of the villas, designed for lighting and aesthetics, were made entirely of glass — including the sliding doors. Although they had used bulletproof glass, they had never seen hailstorms of that intensity in H City before. Even if the glass hadn’t shattered, it likely didn’t look too great now…
And with villas of that quality, they were practically ideal shelters in the midst of a disaster — everyone was worried that by the ti they arrived, the villas might already be occupied by others, which could easily lead to conflict.
In tis like these, a small group like theirs wouldn’t have much say if that happened.
While Pang Yuqing was speaking, Yu Xi had been closely examining the photos and videos. Each of the A-fra villas was spaced apart from the others, and as long as repairs and reinforcents were done properly, the **security and functionality were actually very good.
But after all, the hostay was still the Pang family’s property. If she moved in directly, it would inevitably tie her to Pang Yuqing in so ambiguous way. However, what he had just said gave her a bit of inspiration.
“If your villas really have been taken over, and the occupants refuse to leave and insist on staying there for free, I might be able to help you regain control of the situation.”
Hearing such words from a young, slender girl made everyone in the Pang family’s group think she was just joking — Pang Yuqing included. Still, not wanting to dampen her spirit, he nodded and thanked her in advance for her help.
“If I really do help,” Yu Xi continued, “I would like to rent one of the A-fra villas on my own. I’ll need the right to modify it, and I want it on a long-term lease — with a proper contract, in black and white.”
She could afford to buy it, sure — but first, the family probably wouldn’t want to sell, and secondly, there was no need.
It would be better to rent it for three to four years and gradually renovate and reinforce it. Even if her predictions turned out to be wrong and the disaster did stabilize, she could always move back to the city later. The villa could remain as a backup refuge.
Pang Yuqing realized from the seriousness in her tone that she wasn’t joking at all. “That’s fine — anyti you want to stay, just co. And even if the place is occupied now, I’m sure we can talk it out. Everyone’s had a hard ti… I don’t think it’ll really turn into sothing that bad.”
Yu Xi nodded. “Of course, that would be ideal.”
If everything could go smoothly with less trouble, that would certainly be best. But based on Pang Yuqing’s earlier descriptions of the A-fra villas, she didn’t think it would be that easy.
Reviews
All reviews (0)