"I guess so. I wonder what the flood’s like for the rest of the people in the zone. We’re only this comfortable because of you."
Qingran didn’t answer imdiately. Her hand traced the rim of her bowl. It was empty now, still stained with broth and oil.
A simple al to eat with all the delicacies on the table.
"I didn’t do much..." she said at last.
Yu Song scoffed lightly. "You saved sixty people. If that’s not ’much’ I don’t know what is."
She tilted her head, eyes unfocused. "And how many won’t be saved?"
He stilled and placed his chopsticks down.
She could hear the water even now, miles off, churning through buildings, eating away lives. So she told him nothing more. Instead, she leaned back against the chair and closed her eyes, her fists tightening.
The world out this place, was like hell.
When the flood reached C-14, the west part of the zone, it ca without warning.
A tremor in the ground. A humming beneath the soles of their feet. Then a gust of cold, wet wind slamd against the cracked windows of a sixth-floor apartnt.
Inside, a man nad Zhu Zheng had just finished boiling water for his daughter.
"Careful.." he said, handing over the tin cup. "Blow first..."
Ten-year-old Lili smiled at him, her hands wrapped around the tal. "It slls like rice!"
"It’s barley. Better for your stomach." He ruffled her hair and glanced at the small pot on the stove. Barely anything left. Two more als if they stretched it.
A crash outside with full force.
He turned toward the window. And froze.
The street below, usually full of rubble and the occasional scavenger, was gone. In its place was a violent current of water, thick and brown.
Cars floated like trash. Trees bent sideways. And then, from far down the avenue, he saw it, a second wave, taller than the buildings, barreling through the zone like a demon.
"Get your shoes on," he said instantly, voice clipped. "Now."
Lili didn’t ask why. She could feel it too, the fear that grabbed your throat and refused to let go.
He ran to the next room, where his wife, ilin, was tying up the ergency bag.
"I saw it..." she said before he spoke. "We need to go up."
"There’s no roof access here. The stairs are blocked, rember?"
She looked at him, eyes wide. "Then what, what do we do?"
"We’ll cross to the east wing. That building’s newer, the top floor might still have the stairs intact."
A rumble shook the floor.
"No ti to argue. Get Lili."
They didn’t make it far before the flood reached their building.
A roar like thunder echoed through the stairwell as the first wave smashed through the lower floors.
Windows burst inward. Walls cracked like dry bones. The building trembled as the water broke in.
"Go, go!!" Zhu Zheng pushed ilin and Lili forward as water surged behind them.
By the ti they reached the fourth floor, the stairwell was already gone.
Swallowed up with water.
He turned back just in ti to see the corpse of a neighbor float by, eyes wide, mouth open, one hand still clutching a soaked journal.
Lili scread, feeling chills by the site.
"Don’t look.." ilin whispered, pulling her close. "Don’t look, baby."
They slamd into the door of a random apartnt.
It was locked.
"Step back..." Zhu Zheng raised his foot and kicked hard. Once. Twice. On the third try, the door snapped open, the fra breaking from the soaked hinges.
They stumbled inside.
The apartnt was dark, half-packed, abandoned long ago. Mold lined along the walls.
They shut the door and jamd it with a chair. The water was already seeping in under the crack.
"There’s a balcony.." ilin whispered, pointing.
Zhu Zheng led the way. They stepped outside into the storm, rain falling sideways, the wind shrieking like it was alive.
The city below was no longer a city. It was a lake, littered with broken furniture and twisted bodies.
"Oh God..." ilin said. Her voice was so small.
"We have to climb.." Li Zheng said, pointing at the next balcony above. "If we can get to the top..."
She nodded. She didn’t ask how but she knew they had to climb.
Because the water was rising faster now.
He climbed first, barefoot on the slick railing, then pulled Lili up, her small fingers trembling in his grip.
"Don’t let go, sweetie. Papa’s got you."
ilin ca last, slipping once, her scream torn by the wind. He caught her arm just in ti and hauled her over.
They climbed again. And again.
Three more floors. It took less than ten minutes, but the water was right behind them every step.
When they reached the rooftop, the wind nearly knocked them back. The door was rusted shut. Zhu Zheng used a crowbar from the ergency pack, wrenching and pounding until the hinges gave way.
They stumbled out into the open sky, and for one breathless second, there was silence.
Then ca the screams. Distant, warbling.
Too far away but sohow close enough to hear.
Lili clung to her mother. "Is it over?"
Her voice was hoarse.
Zhu Zheng looked out across the city.
He saw them. On other rooftops, other survivors.
A woman holding an infant wrapped in plastic sheets. An old man on his knees, shouting sothing to the sky that no one could hear. A teen crying from a billboard where he had sohow climbed.
But no rescue boats. There was no hope.
Only the rain, and the steady rise of filthy water below.
Hours passed.
Lili cried until she fell asleep, face pressed into her mother’s chest.
ilin stared at the sky.
Zhu Zheng stood at the edge of the roof, eyes scanning the horizon, searching for any sign of hope.
"I should’ve moved us..." he said quietly.
ilin looked up.
"Weeks ago. When we heard about the flood risk. I should’ve found us a safer place. I thought we’d be okay."
"You didn’t know."
"I knew..." His hands clenched into fists. "I thought... I thought it would pass us by."
She didn’t argue. She only reached out and held his hand.
"It’s okay."
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