Long absent sunlight finally broke through the thick layers of clouds, spilling softly across the handsome, refined face of the young man.
His skin was cold and fair, his black hair fine, soft, and neatly tousled. When his eyes met Tan Zhizhi’s gaze, his deep, gloomy black eyes were filled with wariness.
Tan Zhizhi found it strange. The young man’s white shirt and spotless, immaculate face looked nothing like those of someone who was starving and had come searching for food in the floodwaters.
“Clang!”
The sound of something heavy hitting the ground broke her concentration. Tan Zhizhi frowned in displeasure as she looked down at the shot that had rolled to her feet from somewhere nearby.
When she raised her head again, there was no sign of the young man.
Both he and the bamboo raft had disappeared in the blink of an eye.
If not for the ripples spreading across the surface of the water, Tan Zhizhi would have suspected that everything she had just seen had merely been an illusion.
……
Because the rain had finally stopped and the sun had come out, quite a few hotel guests had gone to urge the guest services manager to contact the disaster relief command center and have them send rescue teams over as soon as possible.
“Everyone, please be patient and wait. The rescue teams will definitely come.”
The guest services manager, Liu Xiaomei, dragged her exhausted body around, using an almost hoarse voice to soothe everyone’s frayed nerves.
The situation outside was already a complete mess, and the disaster relief command center’s phone lines had been overwhelmed with calls.
Rescue operations were not something that could simply happen whenever someone demanded them.
The Xiping District was considered one of the least severely affected areas in the entire S City. The terrain was relatively high, and there were fewer people here.
Many low lying residential communities outside had already been flooded up to the fourth or fifth floor, leaving countless residents displaced.
“They said three days ago that the situation had already been reported and that rescue teams would arrive soon. Yet here we are today, and we haven’t even seen a single rescue boat. What exactly is this hotel playing at?”
Someone protested angrily.
“Exactly. If we wait any longer, the water will reach the third floor.”
“That’s right. You refuse to move the guests from the third floor up to the eighth floor, yet you also demand that we keep quiet and stay here waiting. What’s the difference between that and expecting a horse to run while refusing to let it eat?”
“If you can’t give us an explanation, then this hotel might as well close down. We should just smash the place up.”
For a moment, the crowd became furious.
Some people even used the excuse of demanding an explanation to try to pry open the hotel’s storeroom.
These successful people, who before the disaster had been dressed in suits, drinking coffee, and driving luxury cars, had been transformed after several days of torrential rain.
One by one, they had become as fierce as wolves and tigers.
The guest services manager and more than a dozen employees from the department kept trying to persuade everyone not to lose their tempers. The rain had stopped, the sun had come out, and the floodwaters should begin receding within the next day or two.
Unfortunately, no one was willing to listen.
Everyone was already consumed by anger. They grabbed brooms and sticks and charged furiously toward the hotel staff.
Just as the staff were about to be overwhelmed, a middle aged man of around forty, dressed in blue work clothes, stepped out from among the crowd. He gently patted the guest services manager on the shoulder and said,
“Manager Liu, why don’t we listen to the guests on the third floor and let them squeeze in with the guests on the eighth floor for now? Once the floodwaters recede, we can figure out what to do next. In times of disaster, people should help one another.”
The man speaking was Old Hu from the hotel’s engineering department. He was widely known as a good natured man, and his favorite thing to do was step in as a mediator whenever people were arguing so fiercely that they could not come to an agreement, trying to smooth things over.
This time was no exception.
Guest services manager Liu Xiaomei furrowed her brows tightly, hesitating.
The eighth floor was already completely full. If they wanted to force more people in, they would have to obtain the consent of all the guests staying there.
That would inevitably offend quite a few people.
To be honest, she did not want to offend the guests on either floor.
However, when she saw the several trembling elderly people and children among the crowd, she unexpectedly felt a trace of compassion.
Almost instinctively, her gaze turned toward Tan Zhizhi, who was staying in Room 803 on the eighth floor.
Her reasoning was simple. Out of everyone on the eighth floor, Tan Zhizhi was undoubtedly the hardest person to deal with.
Not only was her temper strange, but she was also incredibly good at beating people up.
As long as she could persuade Tan Zhizhi, she would not have to worry about getting the other guests on the eighth floor to agree.
“Miss Tan Zhizhi, Granny Chen injured her leg many years ago, so she has great difficulty going up and down the stairs. If she continues staying on the third floor, she could lose her life if another flood comes. Would you be willing to let her temporarily share your room with you until the floodwaters recede, and then she can move back out?”
As she spoke, Liu Xiaomei pointed toward Granny Chen, who stood behind her with white hair, a hunched back, and a cane in her hand.