“Can you give me this chance?”
Fu Erdie’s heart raced wildly.
He wanted to stay, and she needed his abilities. If they could work together seamlessly, that would be ideal!
“I’ll try to trust you.” Meeting Sang Wenhao’s serious gaze, Fu Erdie spoke her true thoughts. “I hope we can be long-term partners.”
Sang Wenhao replied firmly, “We will be.”
Fu Erdie smiled and extended her hand. “I hope we have a successful collaboration.”
—
After dinner, Fu Erdie finished washing up and returned to 15-1 to prepare for bed.
It was late November, and the temperature was in the twenties. Wearing long-sleeved pyjamas and covered with a blanket, she could sleep comfortably.
That night, Fu Erdie didn’t need to look at her dog or Green Ivy to ease her stress. She fell asleep easily.
—
The next morning, she woke up and did her usual routine of going up and down the building to exercise and inspect.
After completing her circuit, at 5:30 AM, the sky was still dark. Fu Erdie went to check on the seeds.
One by one, she checked Green Ivy’s seeds to confirm that the experimental group hadn’t changed.
However, two seeds in the control group, which were placed in the domain of the 16th-floor house, had mutated.
One was rice. Once it grew into rice plants and bore grains, she would have rice to enjoy!
The other was a bamboo seed.
Fu Erdie thought she could plant it in the community garden.
After the apocalypse, the soil had been contaminated. Half of the plants had withered, and the remaining half looked sickly. Planting bamboo would make the community look less desolate and would occasionally yield bamboo shoots to eat.
With this, she came to an initial conclusion about the seed mutations: they depended on the house, not her.
Fu Erdie didn’t stop the experiment immediately. The current temperature was in the twenties, so carrying seeds in her hoodie pocket every day wasn’t a bother. She planned to persist for a while longer—she just needed to avoid bringing the seeds back up to the 16th floor while washing up or eating.
At 7:00 AM, Zhang Dongxuan woke up to make breakfast. Fu Erdie handed the rice seeds to her, leaving the subsequent planting work to her.
Sang Wenhao, who needed to go out, woke up early as well, waiting for daylight.
—
Near the Senyu residential area, there were two roads.
One road was the city’s main road, leading in one direction to the city centre and the other to the university town. It was from this road that Sang Wenhao had originally come.
The other road was a long, uphill side road. After passing a stretch of barren, desolate mountain paths, it led to Qingfan Town—a large residential area halfway up the mountain.
Qingfan Town had everything: residential areas, restaurants, hotels, supermarkets, and shops. There was also a villa zone, not the luxurious kind but small standalone villas.
Many farmers like Zhang Dongxuan, who had lost their fields, had taken to farming the barren land between Senyu and Qingfan Town.
Fu Erdie planned to first inspect the farmland near the residential area.
On November 21st, for the first time in half a year, she left the residential area.
The air outside was no different from the air inside, yet psychologically, it felt harsh and unpleasant, reminding her of the early apocalypse when she had been forced to look at rotting corpses.
She walked forward expressionlessly when someone grabbed her wrist.
Turning her head, she saw Sang Wenhao pick up a large piece of broken iron from the ground. In no time, the iron melted, reshaped, and turned into a long, smooth-edged metal ribbon.
He wrapped one end of the metal ribbon around his wrist and the other around Fu Erdie’s, connecting them like two linked wrist guards.
“Keep walking. If there’s danger, I’ll pull you back.”
Fu Erdie nodded, and the tension in her heart inexplicably eased.
—
There weren’t many people in the barren land. The few farmers who had turned into zombies were taken care of by Sang Wenhao’s flying metal spikes before they could get close.
Feeling the faint pull of the metal ribbon on her wrist, Fu Erdie walked towards the places in her memory where chickens, ducks, and geese used to be.
After ten minutes, they passed two enclosures, but there were no signs of the chickens or ducks.
They continued forward until they reached a turning point halfway up the mountain.
From this spot, they could see the main road. There were many zombies wandering aimlessly like elderly men, moving without purpose.
Farther in the distance were scattered buildings and factories.
Even farther beyond that was the well-known Li River.
…Wait. Why was the water level of the Li River so high?!
Fu Erdie took out her binoculars and carefully observed. Comparing the familiar buildings from the past with the current scene, she suddenly realized that the small teahouses and restaurants where she used to idle by the river were now reduced to rooftops sticking out of the water!
Sang Wenhao remarked, “The water has indeed risen. Back in the university town, I would go to the river to fetch water every now and then. Each time, the water level would rise noticeably along the banks.”
Fu Erdie: …
She knew that the prolonged summer heat would cause ice to melt and sea levels to rise. But at home, her view had always been obstructed, and she hadn’t grasped it intuitively.
It wasn’t until now, seeing the exaggerated water rise, that she understood the seriousness of the situation.
C City had a lot of mountains, and while the rivers didn’t look as expansive as those downstream, they were deep and carried a huge volume of water.
In such conditions, even a one-meter rise in the water level would mean massive flooding downstream.
Fu Erdie’s brows furrowed tightly.
Her parents were in H City, not downstream of the Li River, but downstream of the Ning River!
Flooding wouldn’t just stop at the Li River—the Ning River was also in danger.
Fu Erdie suddenly felt faint.
She had always assumed her family had escaped safely and that their home was the safest place. Yet here she was, indulging in her plans to farm and raise chickens, while her parents might already…!
Calm down. Stay calm…
Fu Erdie took a deep breath.
What could she do now?
Would her parents think of coming to find her if they encountered a flood?
No. Their rented villa might have been flooded, and they wouldn’t have the energy or time to travel this far.
The closest mountain to their plain was Ting Mountain. But Ting Mountain was a tourist attraction—it would already be swarming with zombies. Her parents wouldn’t go there.
Apart from Ting Mountain, there were a few scattered hills nearby. But they were small, and it was too risky to bet on them surviving once all the ice melted.
Did her parents have a kayak? A rescue boat? If they managed to escape the flooded area and make it to land, could they even find a vehicle?
Fu Erdie’s arms began to tremble, Goosebumps covering her skin.
Wait. The map!
When communication had briefly been restored at the start of the apocalypse, her mother had her save the route to their rented villa in H City on her phone and tablet. She had even printed a backup copy. And her parents had saved the exact same route!
Maybe her parents were somewhere along that route on one of the hills!
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