The next day.
At the break of dawn, the four of them met in the stairwell. Honestly, aside from the inflatable kayak, they hadn't brought any real rain gear. They each just wore a baseball cap—hardly enough protection against the downpour.
Ling Jiang explained, "I do have umbrellas at home, but with the kind of rain outside, an umbrella would just get in the way. A hat is easier."
Huang Jinghe and Lao Gao nodded repeatedly. "Yeah, none of us have raincoats either."
Lan Jin glanced at the three of them. Since she was the only one in proper rain gear, it felt a little off.
"Wait here. I've got some extra raincoats at home," Lan Jin said.
She turned and went back upstairs, returning shortly with three unused raincoats.
"The men's one belonged to my ex-husband," Lan Jin explained. "This one's mine. Neither of them have ever been worn. Try to take care of them. If this supply run goes well, I think we'll be using these for a while."
Of course, raincoats only did so much. Once they were in the kayak, the upper body might be protected, but the pants were still going to get soaked. Still, wearing them was obviously better than not wearing anything at all. Getting drenched in this kind of downpour, even a body made of iron would struggle to stay healthy.
…
Once they were geared up, the four of them officially headed downstairs.
To avoid drawing too much attention, they set out at 7 a.m. The building was quiet except for a few faint sounds here and there, but no one was up and moving yet.
As they descended, Lan Jin noticed something that made her heart sink. The floodwaters had already reached halfway up the second floor. That was just from a single night's rain. The rainfall must have been even heavier than she had expected.
They reached the corridor, found a suitable spot, and gently lowered the kayak into the water one by one before climbing in.
Using the kayak was surprisingly straightforward. Except for Lao Gao, none of them had any real experience, but it wasn't too different from paddling around in a park lake. Once they got the hang of it, the others quickly managed to control it properly.
However, something didn't go quite as expected.
Even though they had left early, and even though they hadn't seen a single person in the emergency stairwell on the way down, that didn't mean no one was paying attention.
They hadn't gotten very far when voices started rising from balconies and windows above.
"Look, a kayak! They've got a kayak! They must be heading out for supplies. Hey, take me with you! Bring me too!"
"Hey, don't leave! Come on, don't go! Let me come! We've got no food left at home! Please!"
Within moments, their shouts roused everyone who had stayed in. More and more people appeared, all watching from above as the four of them paddled slowly out of the community courtyard.
Out of all those watching, no one looked more shocked than Su Han.
Su Han had no idea they owned a kayak.
In fact, no one in the building had any idea they had a kayak. During yesterday's meeting, they hadn't mentioned it at all. Thinking back, they must have planned this supply run well in advance.
Of course, Su Han wasn't angry. What was there to be angry about? They were strangers to each other—who would tell strangers what they had at home? He hadn't told them everything either. And more importantly, there had never been any conflict between them.
As the building representative, he figured it wouldn't be unreasonable to ask to borrow the kayak later for the sake of everyone's survival.
If they refused, then it wouldn't just be Su Han they were offending—it would be the entire building.
Su Han was already deep in his own thoughts, too preoccupied to consider whether these four would actually follow his plan.
As they paddled through the flooded courtyard, voices continued shouting from windows and balconies.
"Which building are you from? Can you lend us the kayak later? We'll trade supplies for it!"
"Yeah, we'll trade too! Hey, at least say something!"
But how were they supposed to respond to that?
They couldn't wait to get out of there and find supplies. There was no time to answer anyone.
Once they finally passed through the neighborhood gates, Huang Jinghe let out a long sigh of relief.
"That was insane. You think they'll storm our building later and try to steal the kayak?"
"Only if they know how to swim, and even then, they'd have to beat us in a fight," Ling Jiang said, half-joking. "But Su Han will definitely ask to borrow it. And once we come back dragging supplies, everyone will see it."
At that point, saying no would be more trouble than it was worth.
Ling Jiang felt a wave of frustration. Just thinking about it made him angry.
Sure, things were still calm now, but if anyone stirred up trouble, it wouldn't just be about borrowing anymore.
But for the moment, no matter how loud the shouting got, they finally made it out of the complex.
Once outside, they immediately changed direction and headed toward the supermarket.
It was almost a given that the supermarket, being only one story tall, had been completely swallowed by the flood. But a supermarket was still a building. Even if the water was high, it wasn't particularly fast inside. If any supplies were still trapped within, there was a chance they could salvage something.
Everyone agreed on this plan, but the question remained: who would dive in?
All four of them could swim, but Lan Jin could only manage a basic dog paddle. Diving was completely out of the question for her.
Surprisingly, it was Lao Gao who stood out.
Ling Jiang said, "Of course Lao Gao's the one for this. Aside from actual schoolwork, he can do just about everything else."
He wasn't exaggerating. Lao Gao knew a bit about wilderness survival, practiced martial arts, even managed to open his own shop and turn a profit. As for diving, rumor had it he had a proper diving license. For this outing, he had even brought along a small oxygen tank.
When they arrived near where the supermarket used to be, Lao Gao stripped off his outer clothes to reveal a wetsuit underneath. He handed the line of his small kayak over to them and dove straight into the water.
Ling Jiang watched eagerly, expecting good news, but soon saw Lao Gao swimming back.
"What happened? Did we get the wrong spot? I could've sworn it was right here."
Lao Gao leaned against the kayak, panting. "No, this is the place. But there's nothing left. I should've figured. I was stupid not to think of it earlier."
Once he was back in his kayak, he finally explained.
Back when they built the cafeteria and supermarket quickly, they had used lightweight steel panels. But those panels were no match for the acid rain. When Lao Gao dove down, he didn't even see a trace of the panels—much less any supplies.