“Drip! Drip!!!”
At around one in the morning, Tan Zhizhi was jolted awake from her sleep.
Still groggy, she raised her head and looked toward the source of the sound. Large, dense raindrops pounded against the window like machine-gun fire, producing a series of heavy, muffled impacts.
The torrential rain was accompanied by howling winds. The gale swept fallen leaves through the gaps in the bathroom blinds, slamming the bathroom door shut again and again before blowing it back open. The harsh creaking sounds continued without end.
Sharp and eerie!
Without bothering about anything else, Tan Zhizhi got out of bed, switched on the lights, slipped into her slippers, and hurried toward the window.
Outside, the nearby internet cafés and entertainment venues were still open.
Their dim lights filtered through the fog-covered window, casting vague shadows into the room.
The apocalypse had truly arrived!
And compared to her previous life, it had come earlier and with even greater force.
Tan Zhizhi picked up her fully charged phone and opened the most popular forum. At that moment, however, the entire forum was filled with celebrations.
[It’s finally raining after so many hot days!]
[This hasn’t been easy. I hope the rain lasts a little longer and completely drives away this heat!]
[Wuwuwu, the orange trees in my orchard have been dry for so long. They’re finally saved!]
[Everyone, get dancing! Swing those arms, move those legs, shake those waists, and celebrate this long-awaited rain!]
Everyone believed it was nothing more than an ordinary rainstorm and rejoiced over the long-awaited downpour.
Quite a few people even posted videos of themselves running and kissing in the rain.
After more than a week of temperatures above forty degrees and nearly reaching fifty, people had practically been driven mad by the heat.
No one imagined that this rain could bring anything bad!
By four in the morning, after three consecutive hours of torrential rain, the downpour gradually began to ease. The raindrops were much smaller than they had been at the beginning.
Tan Zhizhi opened the window and looked around.
Many of the bushes outside the hotel had been uprooted, while the accumulated water had already submerged the steps at the hotel entrance.
Even from a distance, she could hear shouting and hurried footsteps coming from the first-floor lobby. The first floor had probably flooded, and the hotel staff were busy moving important items to safety.
While the rain and wind were temporarily weaker, Tan Zhizhi decided to seal the bathroom blinds first so that she would not be caught off guard when the stronger storm arrived.
She took a thick sheet of metal, more than a dozen long nails, and a hammer from her supply-hoarding space.
After dragging over a tall stool, Tan Zhizhi got to work.
Half an hour later, everything was finished.
Holding a sweet strawberry milkshake, Tan Zhizhi stood by the window. Just as she was about to relax, she suddenly noticed something moving beneath the floodwater.
Ripples spread outward in widening circles. Before she could see what it was, a powerful gust of wind swept in, pushing the waves forward and lifting a dark, indistinct mass more than a meter above the water.
“What a strong wind! It has to be at least Force 9!”
“That’s strange. What is that thing being swept around in the water?”
“It’s a person!”
“Holy shit! It really is a person, and she’s a young woman!”
“Call the police! Maybe she can still be saved!”
The hotel guests who had been awakened by the storm gathered by their windows. Using raincoats and umbrellas to shield their heads and the upper halves of their bodies as they leaned outside, they shone powerful flashlights toward the scene below.
For a while, screams, phone calls, and the wailing sirens of police cars and ambulances rose one after another.
The young woman was taken away by the ambulance that arrived in a hurry.
Because the ground floor was flooded and the wind was so strong, no one dared to go downstairs despite their curiosity.
However, with the light from countless powerful flashlights, Tan Zhizhi was still able to make out the young woman’s general figure and clothing.
When her gaze fell on the strange, large red flower pattern that covered most of the woman’s white shirt, Tan Zhizhi froze slightly.
That pattern looked familiar!
She just could not remember where she had seen it before.
The rain outside soon grew heavier again, even more violent than the downpour at one in the morning.
By eight in the morning, Tan Zhizhi was sitting in the living room and eating breakfast taken from her supply-hoarding space. The floodwater had already submerged the first-floor windows, while stones and broken bricks carried by the storm had smashed through the windows of many rooms on the second floor, allowing rainwater to pour inside.
Early that morning, curses and cries could already be heard coming from the second floor.
“Knock! Knock! Knock!!!”
A knock sounded at the door. Tan Zhizhi quickly placed the empty yogurt carton from the table into the item-cleaning section of her supply-hoarding space.
Then she walked over and opened the door.
The visitor was the hotel’s lobby manager. Apart from informing the guests that breakfast was ready, he had also come to ask everyone to gather and discuss accommodation arrangements for the guests from the second floor.
…
“I’m not staying on the fourth floor. I want Room 803 on the eighth floor!”
The moment Tan Zhizhi stepped into the fifth-floor restaurant, she heard Wu Yuejiao’s arrogant and shrill voice.
Wu Yuejiao stood at the front of the crowd, her clothes soaked through by the rain and clinging tightly to her body.
Her carefully curled, waist-length golden hair was covered in mud and hung around her in a tangled mess. Her makeup had melted into a smeared disaster, with black and red blotches covering her face. She looked even more like Sadako than Sadako herself.
Liang Shuo held her in his arms, while her slender shoulders trembled uncontrollably.
She had clearly been terrified by the storm the previous night.
But Tan Zhizhi did not feel the slightest bit of sympathy for her.
After surviving such a disaster, the first thing that woman thought about was stealing her room.
She could dream on.
“Miss Wu, Room 803 is currently occupied by another guest. I’m afraid we cannot meet your request,” the hotel’s room manager refused in a low voice, barely concealing the anger on his face.
Everyone staying at this hotel was either wealthy or influential. What was the point of causing such a scene here?
There were so many guests from the second floor who had been affected by the flooding, yet Wu Yuejiao was the only one behaving like a street thug and refusing to accept the hotel’s arrangements. She insisted on staying in Room 803, and no one could persuade her otherwise.
“Someone’s staying there? Then tell her to move out.”
As Wu Yuejiao spoke, she happened to spot Tan Zhizhi entering through the restaurant entrance.
Her eyes immediately lit up, and she pointed imperiously at her.
“Well, the person staying in Room 803 is here now. You can just tell her to vacate the room.”