Outside, the storm still raged. Wind howled, rain poured, and now and then, lightning flashed across the sky. Even Lan Jin couldn't help feeling uneasy at the sight, though Qiao Qiao and Nana, one child and one dog, seemed totally unbothered. Neither showed a trace of fear.
But with this kind of downpour, there was no way the cafeteria could deliver meals. And now, not only had the power gone out, but the area was flooded too. Even if they wanted to send out a notice, there was no way to reach everyone for the time being.
Still, even if the cafeteria couldn't send food, Lan Jin had plenty of ready-to-eat meals stored in her space. Pulling out just one or two items would be enough to fill the bellies of two people and a dog.
Once their stomachs were full, Qiao Qiao and Nana, both worn out from poor sleep the night before, quickly drifted off.
But food wasn't the real problem here.
Because the rain was falling so hard and fast, drainage couldn't keep up. And with the wind ripping through the neighborhood, many of the drains had been clogged by fallen branches, trash, and debris. Some low-lying areas had already flooded overnight. In Lan Jin's building, after a full day and night of non-stop rain, the first floor was finally swallowed up by water.
No one lived on the first floor of her complex, but the second floor did have residents. If the rain kept falling at this rate, it was only a matter of time before the water reached the second floor too.
They couldn't stay there.
Thankfully, the stairwells were free of poisonous fog. After a quick discussion, the residents on the second floor packed up what they could and moved into the third-floor emergency corridor to wait it out.
But not everyone agreed to leave.
There's always someone who refuses.
When the floodwater hadn't yet reached the second floor, a middle-aged woman flat-out refused to move. She said, "This rain's going to stop soon. I'm not leaving. I'm not sleeping in some hallway."
Since she wouldn't budge, her family didn't want to force her and decided to stay with her a bit longer.
But while they were distracted, tragedy struck.
Forget tornadoes—even those howling winds were strong enough to snap power lines. Although the power had already gone out, those downed cables were now submerged in floodwater, and nobody had been able to cut them off. It might have been safe as long as no one touched the water, but the moment someone did…
The floodwater kept rising.
Clinging to false hope, that family stayed right where they were.
And then, just like that, they collapsed in their home, stiff and silent.
That middle-aged woman had brought disaster on herself through sheer stubbornness, and in the end, she paid the price. But the ones who suffered most were her family. Whether she ever regretted her choice in those final moments, no one would ever know.
By the next night, the water had reached the third-floor corridor.
The neighbors had noticed that the second-floor family still hadn't come upstairs, and by then, no one had any illusions about what that meant.
"This water… do you think it's carrying electricity? Why else wouldn't those people come up?"
"If it is, then that's terrifying. Everything outside's underwater now. There's no way for rescue teams to even get in."
"Come on, what rescue? Use your head. No one's coming right now."
"Even if they wanted to, it's impossible. Look at that storm. You think anyone can stand out there in that? And who knows if the poisonous fog has really gone."
"So what does that mean? We're stuck in this hallway for who knows how long?"
"Worse than that. We might have to move even higher."
Not just them, either. They'd have to convince the third-floor residents to move too.
Sure enough, they hadn't been relocated for long before the water reached the fourth floor later that night. The group had no choice but to join with the fifth-floor residents and head up again.
But the higher they went, the more people joined. The more people, the slower they moved. In the end, they decided to skip the slow climb and just relocate everyone from the tenth floor upward.
From the second to the eighth floor, more than twenty households were packed in from the tenth all the way up to the eighteenth floor. It was only then that everyone was finally out of harm's way.
But as they settled in, people couldn't help worrying aloud.
"The poisonous fog… who knows if it's gone or not. And now all this rain… is this really the end of the world? Our building has 33 floors. You think the water could reach all the way to the top?"
"If it gets to the 33rd floor, what's the point of worrying about getting out? We're all staying here for good."
"So should we just move to the roof already?"
Someone quickly objected. "No use going to the roof. With this kind of storm, I don't believe the top floor isn't flooding too. And there's no cover up there. We still can't go outside. Honestly, I think the middle floors are the safest."
"Yeah. Let's see if the rain stops. If not, we'll go higher."
They weren't wrong.
Up on the top floor, in Huang Jinghe's home, the rain had already started leaking in. All the fresh renovations were basically ruined.
Luckily, his windows had been fitted with double-glazed glass. The seals held up well, and no rain got in through them. But because his apartment came with a little attic—a triangle-shaped space gifted when he bought the place—the slanted windows up there didn't hold up as well.
The storm had finally gotten through.
With nowhere else to go, Huang Jinghe moved into the attic itself. While the leak wasn't ideal, he used it to collect water. It wasn't drinkable, but it would do for flushing toilets.
What he didn't know was that because the rooftop drains were too small, rainwater couldn't drain fast enough. It began seeping through the cracks of the rooftop door.
Soon, everyone sheltering in the stairwells would feel the flood pressing down from both above and below.
Thankfully, after nine straight days of downpour, the rain finally stopped.
By then, the floodwaters had reached just two steps below the eighth floor, which said a lot about how much rain had fallen.
As the skies cleared, the sun broke through the clouds for the first time in three months.
At the sight of that long-lost sunlight, everyone's spirits lifted. But no one dared open the windows just yet. After all, when the poisonous fog had first arrived, those who were careless paid a price for cracking open a window. The others had remembered that lesson well.
Still, the rain stopping was a good sign. If they waited a little longer, help would come.
And just as they hoped, not long after, a drone equipped with a loudspeaker flew above their complex.
The announcement blared from the speaker:
"Residents, please remain calm. Rescue efforts are fully underway. The poisonous fog has dispersed. A bright future awaits. Please stay put and wait for rescue."
As soon as they heard this, the tension that had gripped everyone for days finally began to ease.
But then—
Wait a second.
Did they say the poisonous fog was gone?
Was it really gone?
"Did I hear that right? Did they just say the poisonous fog is gone?"
"They did, they did! The poisonous fog is gone. Does that mean we can go outside now?"
"Yes! We can finally leave! Should we open the windows? I haven't breathed fresh air in forever."
That person didn't wait for a reply and immediately flung open a window in the emergency corridor.