This theory may have a considerable market abroad, but the locals don't believe in it. While a middle-aged woman argues with a sophisticated man about seeking compensation from the government, Liu Kai and Zhang Li discuss their concerns about receiving this month's salary among a few other colleagues who are on duty. Bai Wenwen tries to make a phone call but there's no signal, and a sense of worry colors her gaze.
Hai Baihe tugged at Liang Xiao's sleeve. "Let's go rest," she said, choosing a room and pushing him inside before clicking the lock.
Liang Xiao raised an eyebrow. "What's going on?"
"Go to the window and take a look," Hai Baihe said. "Let me give you a heads-up; things are getting pretty bad."
Liang Xiao approached the window, and as the ancient poem goes, "Spring river flows and the sea is calm, a bright moon rises above the sea."
Hmm, a bright moon above the sea.
Below, as far as the eye could see, was an expanse of boundless water. Yes, the ocean, entirely water.
Liang Xiao was completely bewildered. "A tsunami?"
"As you can see," Hai Baihe quickly stripped off her wet clothes, put on a hotel bathrobe, and pulled out a few hangers to hang her clothes. "Although Haicheng is not in an earthquake zone, the chances of triggering a tsunami are too high. We might be unlucky enough to experience it."
Liang Xiao observed her carefully. "Aren't you worried about your family?"
"My father is a sailor, an old hand." If there really is a tsunami, Hai Baihe would have long swum back home to find her dad and her tail. "There's nothing to worry about. We can take care of ourselves."
"And you're not afraid?"
Hai Baihe glanced at him and made a heart gesture. "I have a boyfriend, you know."
Of course, that wasn't the truth.
"Is that so? Why do I feel like you're used to saying that?" Liang Xiao didn't know why he had such a question, but he trusted his intuition.
Hai Baihe lazily replied, "Well, I have something I haven't told you, and you have your secrets too. Let's just leave it at that, no need for more questions, right?"
Neither of them were the kind of people who could bridge the distance between their hearts through physical intimacy. Besides having sex, their relationship didn't delve into deeper understanding.
In the end, they weren't truly lovers, lacking the love that serves as a bridge between hearts. They couldn't be completely honest with each other.
Liang Xiao fell silent for a moment, then nodded slightly. "You're right."
Hai Baihe shrugged and handed him a bathrobe. Liang Xiao took it and changed his clothes. Hai Baihe watched him without blinking, and Liang Xiao chuckled as he walked over and held her hand against his waist. "Will you help me?"
"If you had asked a little further, I would have told you," Hai Baihe poked his oblique muscles. "But I can give you another chance. If you've made up your mind, you can ask me."
Liang Xiao somehow felt that her fingertip wasn't touching his waist but his heart. It tickled. He remained silent for a moment and then nodded softly. "Okay."
Hai Baihe heard that he didn't outright refuse and breathed a sigh of relief, joy welling up within her. "Then let's sleep, I'm exhausted."
Encountering a flood even when buying groceries, their luck was truly something. But familiarity breeds calmness, and this was the third
time. They had grown accustomed to it.
They slept relatively peacefully, until the next day when the sunlight shining on their eyelids woke them up. Before she even opened her eyes, Hai Baihe was surprised. Did it really end so peacefully this time?
As she opened her eyes, she realized something was wrong. It was still sunlight, but she didn't wake up at home as she had imagined. They were still in that hotel, and outside, the sunlight was perfect, with the golden waves shimmering over the azure sea.
"Wait, what?" Hai Baihe was puzzled. How was this different from before? The first time in Huyang Township, it never truly became bright outside. The second time, when they left the underground, it was also nighttime. She thought every time they crossed, it would be in darkness.
But now, it was clearly daytime, a bright sunny day. All her previous speculations were wrong.
She opened the window, and the salty sea breeze blew in. If it weren't for the submerged city below, it would feel like a seaside resort.
The door clicked open, and Liang Xiao walked in, smiling as he saw her awake. "Awake?"
"What's happening outside?" She took down the clothes she had hung up yesterday. They had been exposed to direct sunlight for so long that they were already dry, but traces of salt residue remained on the surface. "Is there trouble?"
Liang Xiao sighed. "The situation isn't good."
Hai Baihe had woken up late today, and before she woke up, someone had already noticed that something was amiss outside. The entire city was mostly submerged, and even shorter buildings couldn't be seen.
The locals were extremely crisis-conscious, as evidenced by the salt and vinegar frenzy during the SARS outbreak in 2003.
The entire city was flooded, with no signal and no prospects of rescue. In such circumstances, the first conflict erupted downstairs that morning, over food rations.
On the eighth floor, there was an automated vending machine with some beverages and instant noodles. Hungry and desperate, the people woke up the next morning wanting to find something to eat.
However, the vending machine had been broken into, and all the food had been taken. Not only that, but the bottled water in the other rooms had also disappeared.
In the situation where drinking seawater was not an option, the importance of those bottles of purified water was self-evident.
So, who was the culprit?
The first to discover the scene were Liu Kai, Zhang Li, and Bai Wenwen. Liu Kai knocked on Zhang Li and Bai Wenwen's door early in the morning, and the three of them went to search for food together. They were the ones who discovered the scene.
Less than five minutes later, Liang Xiao also came down and saw the dismal state of the vending machine. At that time, however, no one realized what had happened. They simply lamented their misfortune.
After discovering the lack of food, Liu Kai suggested looking for bottled water. That was when they entered the other rooms and found that the bottled water had vanished from each unoccupied room.
Not only water, but the tea and coffee sachets were also gone.
Now they realized that someone had already taken the water ahead of time. And every unoccupied room was the same.
With no food and no water, everyone's mood was far from good. Zhang Li was the first to speak up. "It must be that woman who took it! Miss Bai and I were together yesterday, and we didn't leave the room!"
Liu Kai also said, "Charlie and I didn't leave either. His leg isn't in good shape, and he's still in the room."
Liang Xiao
also stated that he had been with Hai Baihe all along. However, his viewpoint was, "Regardless of who took the supplies, there's no reason to blame anyone. Let's focus on finding something to eat."
He was right. Although the person who took the supplies was despicable and selfish, if they put themselves in their shoes, wouldn't they have thought ahead for their own survival? After all, no one knew when rescue would arrive.
They went downstairs to the eighth floor to search for food, but unfortunately, only light items were floating on the water's surface. They managed to retrieve a few packets of potato chips and biscuits.
As they returned with their findings, they encountered the middle-aged woman. She stared at the food in their hands and said, "Are you all going to eat alone? Don't you think you should take care of us older folks too?"
"You have hands and feet, go find your own," Zhang Li burst with anger, like a powder keg ignited, she exploded.
The middle-aged woman was also furious. "Don't you know how to respect the elderly? I'm older than you, and I've experienced more than you can imagine. If you don't feed me, are you trying to starve me? Do you know that killing someone is a crime?"
Liu Kai tried to calm Zhang Li. "Don't argue with her."
"She's being unreasonable! Why should we give her our food? Can't she find something to eat herself?" Zhang Li said angrily. "I definitely won't give her any."
The argument ended when Liu Kai shared his biscuits with the middle-aged woman.
Originally, Liu Kai only intended to give her half, but the middle-aged woman stared straight at the biscuits in his hand. "Young man, Auntie has low blood sugar. If I don't eat enough, I'll feel dizzy and unwell. You, as a grown man, surely won't compete with me over food, right? Give all of it to me, and you can find something else."
Liu Kai had no choice but to give her the whole pack of biscuits. The middle-aged woman didn't give up and looked at Liang Xiao. "Young man, you look handsome and kind-hearted..."
Before she could finish her sentence, Liang Xiao interrupted her. "I have a girlfriend, sorry."
In times of crisis, helping others is the right thing to do, but being capable and refusing to help oneself is a bit excessive. Even Bai Wenwen chimed in, "There's some stuff floating over there on the water. You can find your own way to get it."
She couldn't swim either and had managed to grab a bag of QQ soft candy by reaching outside the railing. Later, Liang Xiao couldn't bear to watch and gave her some food.
Hai Baihe took a few bites of the biscuits with the remaining purified water. She asked curiously, "Isn't this alright? It should last for a while. Why are you frowning? Not handsome anymore, huh?"
"Only a few things drifted here, and besides..." Liang Xiao said, "There are other survivors."
The other survivors came from the other end, running up the safe stairs. There were six of them in total—a plump middle-aged woman and her pregnant daughter, three young people, and a supermarket employee.
"The plump middle-aged woman?" Hai Baihe recollected and was extremely surprised. "Could it be the woman I kicked before?"
Liang Xiao shrugged. "Sounds like her voice."
"That's incredible," Hai Baihe exclaimed. "She managed to survive."
Liang Xiao corrected her. "It's good that she survived."
Hai Baihe looked at him, smiled, and said, "You're
a good person." She felt that she had a different kind of feeling towards Liang Xiao, perhaps because his inner self seemed different from his appearance.
In terms of looks, he was excessively handsome, but not reliable. However, in reality, Liang Xiao was truly a good person. In Huyang Township, he protected the others, whether it was diverting the zombies or venturing into the mine alone. He protected them, despite being strangers.
And the second time, in the subway station, he stayed behind and gave others a chance to survive.
Hai Baihe couldn't do that.
She couldn't sacrifice herself for a loved one like Diya did, nor could she sacrifice herself for strangers like Liang Xiao did. Perhaps it was because she couldn't do it herself that she found such people particularly precious and wanted to possess and protect them?
But Liang Xiao fell silent for a moment and said, "I'm not." Those three words seemed to touch a part of his inner world that he didn't want others to see. In just three words, he expended all his courage.
Hai Baihe was surprised. She thought that maybe, in the past, he also had things he didn't want others to know.
"Only good people feel guilt and regret, not bad people. Like me," she smiled candidly. "I'm a selfish person."
She didn't want morality to become the shackles that bound her. For people she liked and got along with, if she could help, she would help willingly. It was purely because she wanted to. If she couldn't help, she would be regretful but not guilty. She couldn't do it, and that was that. Doing her best was enough righteousness. As for people she didn't like or didn't get along with, she wouldn't feel burdened watching them die.
Each person was responsible for their own life. Entrusting one's life to others was simply foolish.