Compared to the woman’s trembling and the shopkeeper’s despair, Song Yue was as calm as a machine executing a pre-programmed routine, showing no trace of panic.
Under their helpless gazes, they watched Song Yue first glance out the window, then circle the room as if searching for something.
“Do you have a plastic tub?” she asked before they could even process her movements.
The shopkeeper froze for a moment. “Yes… yes, I do.”
“How big is it?”
The shopkeeper raised a plump hand and gestured the dimensions. “Roughly… this wide and this deep.”
That’s enough.
With her plan set, Song Yue instructed him to bring the tub over. Though utterly confused, the shopkeeper complied, trusting her competence and carrying the tub from the bathroom into the living room.
“What… what are you doing?” The woman’s face twisted in disbelief as she gradually grasped Song Yue’s intention.
Song Yue didn’t look up, pulling a length of rope from her backpack. “I’m going to sit in the tub and slide along the second-story exterior wall to the hypermarket next door.”
What?! Using a tub?
The shopkeeper stared at her in disbelief. “Are you insane?! You saw what’s happening out there! Even boats are getting flipped over. A tub will be impossible to balance!”
Song Yue slowly raised her eyelids. “And what’s the alternative? You want us to sit here and wait to die?”
The shopkeeper fell silent.
“We’re trapped animals in a cage,” Song Yue continued, her tone so matter-of-fact it sounded like she was discussing the weather rather than life and death. “Either we wait for the end or we find our own way out.”
Of course, she could afford to be this calm for a reason.
Her space still held an inflatable kayak. If all else failed, she would bring it out. But that was a last resort; she wouldn’t reveal her space until the very last moment. That was why she had come up with this plan to use the plastic tub.
“The flood has already reached the upper half of the first floor. It’ll be pouring into the second floor soon. I’m going to tie myself and the tub’s handle with this rope. Once I’m in, you two just need to hold the rope and lower me out bit by bit.”
As she spoke, she tied a secure knot around herself and the tub’s handle, then handed the other end of the rope to the shopkeeper and the woman.
Knowing this was their only chance to escape, the shopkeeper and the woman still trembled violently.
What raged outside wasn’t a stream or a river, but a chaotic, churning torrent. The torrential rain lashed down, sending waves crashing across the water’s surface. How safe could a small plastic tub possibly be?
They watched Song Yue with anxious eyes, but she remained as calm as ever.
Song Yue lowered the tied tub, then swung her legs over the windowsill. She sat on the ledge, gripping the frame with both hands as she faced the room, slowly lowering herself down.
Below, the floodwaters roared. Broken branches and plastic sheeting swept past in the current, nearly knocking the tub away.
Fortunately, the shopkeeper held the rope firm. Song Yue peered down, timing her move, then dropped one leg into the tub and slid the rest of her body inside.
A dull thud echoed as she landed.
“Once I’m across, I’ll find an inflatable boat and come back for you.”
“Alright, let out the rope.”
This wasn’t Song Yue’s first time facing such a crisis. In her previous life, while scavenging with the Residential Area Search Squad, she’d been trapped on a second floor by a flash flood.
With the water line rising and their lives on the line, Song Yue had been forced to retrieve a plastic tub and rope from her space, providing the squad with their only means of escape.
Though the ordeal looked terrifying, Song Yue remained composed. She had done this before. By clinging to the building’s exterior wall, she could reach the adjacent Hypermarket.
Minutes later, battling the gale and torrential rain, Song Yue successfully climbed onto the Hypermarket’s second floor.
The floor was crowded. As she pulled herself inside, she spotted three students from the Academy of Fine Arts—the same ones who had mocked her as a “plastic surgery freak” by the river.
Their faces were grim as they pleaded for help, but everyone turned them away with cold indifference.
“How can they be so cruel? Not a single person will help us.”
“They’re heartless,” another spat. “Forget it. We’ll have to figure this out ourselves.”
“But Sister Mei… Nannan is on the other side of the street,” one of the girls said, her face etched with worry. “The flood is too wide, and we don’t have a boat. How are we supposed to save her?”
Sister Mei’s gaze swept frantically across the second floor, searching for anything useful. But this level of the Hypermarket was dedicated to clothing; there wasn’t a single rope or piece of equipment that could be used for a rescue.
After her search turned up nothing, Sister Mei’s eyes finally landed on Song Yue, who was just climbing through the west window.
“Song Yue?!” Sister Mei’s eyes widened in shock. “How did she get up here?”
The other two girls noticed her too, their expressions equally stunned.
As their eyes adjusted, they saw the pack on Song Yue’s back and the rope tied around her waist. The realization dawned on them: Song Yue had the equipment, the strength, and the courage to make it across.
She was their only hope of saving Nannan.
“Song Yue…” Sister Mei, usually so arrogant, lowered her head for the first time. “Could you… could you please help us?”
Help you? Song Yue thought, untying the rope from her waist. This isn’t just ‘helping.’ This could cost me my life.
Still, Song Yue had nine more rescues to complete for her optional mission. She didn’t mind listening to Sister Mei.
“Alright,” Song Yue said, meeting her gaze. “What is it?”
Sister Mei blinked, surprised by the sudden compliance. She’d already tried begging the men, only to be met with cold sneers or threats to stay out of their way.
To think that the very person they’d all mocked—Song Yue—was the only one willing to listen.
Sister Mei’s face flushed, a mix of shame and conflict. She bit her lower lip and lowered her voice. “Our roommate, Nannan… she’s trapped on the roof of the first-floor supermarket across the street. The floodwaters are almost at her ankles. We… we want you to save her.”
Her voice grew weaker with every word. Everyone knew the immense courage and risk involved in leaving the safety of a building to rescue someone in this chaos. Even if it were the three of them, they would have hesitated to cross that raging street.
To their utter astonishment, Song Yue didn’t even hesitate.
“Right. Got it,” she said with a nod.
Sister Mei and the other two women stared.
She agreed? Just like that?
Is she joking? Is this some kind of cruel prank?
Sister Mei licked her dry lips, unable to believe it. “Um… do you understand what we just asked?”
She needed to be absolutely sure.
Song Yue looked up, her gaze sweeping over them with suspicion. “I heard you. I’m not deaf.”
She set the rope she’d just untied by the window and headed for the stairs to the second-floor rooftop, leaving the three women to exchange bewildered glances.
Song Yue’s actual plan had been to use the rooftop to launch her kayak. With the torrential downpour outside, no one would be up there. If anyone ever asked where she’d gotten it, she’d simply say she found it on the roof. No one would be foolish enough to double-check.
She slipped into her Space and dragged out the deflated kayak, along with the outdoor electric pump and paddles that had come with it.
Song Yue inserted the nozzle into the kayak’s valve and pressed the button. The lead-acid battery-powered pump hummed to life, inflating the boat rapidly. This high-pressure model was far faster than a standard pump; within minutes, the kayak was fully inflated. Song Yue switched it off, pulled out the nozzle, and stowed the pump back in her Space.
The floodwaters had already completely submerged the first floor and were still rising. Song Yue had deduced this by watching Nannan, Sister Mei’s roommate, who was trapped in the water across the street. Just minutes ago, the water had only reached Nannan’s ankles; now, it was already up to her calves.
Time was running out. She had to get into the water and save them immediately.
Song Yue threw the kayak off the second-floor rooftop and jumped down after it. Landing steadily in the seat, she gripped the paddles and began rowing backward with practiced ease. Her experience from her past life made handling the kayak feel second nature.
Her plan was to head to the hardware store first, rescue the owner and the woman there, and then go back for Nannan.
Meanwhile, the woman and the store owner, who had been waiting anxiously by the window, were beginning to realize they’d been tricked. Go find a boat? I’ll definitely come back for you? It was all a lie.
In a disaster like this, everyone was fighting for their own survival. Who would have the heart or the means to save them?
They were fools for believing that little girl. She had probably already escaped to safety, leaving them behind like abandoned ants to wait for death.
The woman closed her eyes and stroked her daughter’s head in despair. The store owner leaned his forehead against the wall, his shoulders shaking with silent sobs.
Suddenly, the girl cried out in surprise. “Mama, look! It’s the big sister!”
The woman’s eyes snapped open. A yellow kayak, nearly twenty-five feet long, was floating right outside their window.
“What are you waiting for?” Song Yue called out when the woman didn’t react. “Hurry up and get in!”
The woman finally shook herself awake. She hurriedly passed the child out the window before climbing over the sill and into the boat with Song Yue’s help. The store owner followed, scrambling to find a spot beside them.
“Sit tight. The current is unsteady here,” Song Yue said before she began to row.
The man and woman sat behind her, staring at her back in stunned silence.
She hadn’t lied to them. She hadn’t abandoned them.
Just as she’d promised, Song Yue had come back with a boat to save them.
Song Yue, of course, was oblivious to their thoughts. After picking up the pair, she quickly scanned the current for debris before rowing toward the small supermarket on the opposite shore.
The supermarket was already completely submerged, its entire ground floor lost beneath the floodwaters. Song Yue used Nannan, who was floating in the water, as her only landmark, steering the kayak straight toward her.
“Is that… Song Yue?”
Nannan stared in disbelief as Song Yue appeared before her, seemingly riding a seven-colored auspicious cloud. The very person she and her sisters had once taken turns ridiculing—and here she was, saving her.
Nannan’s eyes welled with tears.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
Song Yue knew what Nannan was feeling guilty about, but she wasn’t the original owner of this body. Such old grudges didn’t affect her. Her primary mission was to complete the task in this world; everything else was secondary.
She gave a faint smile. “It’s nothing. We’re classmates, after all.”
Song Yue then safely transported them to the hypermarket.
Sister Mei and the other two women threw their arms around Nannan, weeping with relief.
“Thank goodness, Nannan! You’re safe!”
“We were scared to death,” another sobbed. “I thought we’d never see you again.”
“Shh, don’t say such things! We’re all here now, aren’t we?”
Nannan wiped her eyes and nodded vigorously. “You’re right. Thank God for Song Yue. Without her, I’d have been swept away by the flood.”
“Yes, we really owe her.”
“She was the only one who agreed to help us, risking her own life to save you.”
“Speaking of which, where did she go? I just saw her a moment ago.”