Chapter 450: Eternity 11.

the door to the storage area and still leave enough space for two people

to pass. Bai measured the opening, moved the heaviest piece herself, and

showed the residents how to arrange the rest. The job took only a few

minutes, but it changed the shape of the stairwell from a trap into a

usable route.

When they reached the ground floor, Bai checked the main entrance and

the side access doors. One had been secured from the inside with a

chain, but the chain had been attached to a weak bracket. Another door

had a lock that looked solid but could be pushed open if someone applied

enough force near the handle. She reinforced both. The rear service exit

had a gap at the bottom, where a small infected animal might crawl in,

so she sealed it with a metal strip. Yan recorded the changes and marked

the points that would need checking again.

They found no large group of zombies on the ground floor, but the

loading area contained signs of recent movement. There were dark smears

along one wall, scattered bits of broken glass, and a set of footprints

that could have belonged to a living person or something that had once

been human. Bai followed the marks into a storage space and found a dead

zombie wedged behind a stack of plastic bins. It had likely wandered in

during the earlier breach and become trapped when the bins fell. She

removed the body, checked the space beyond it, and made sure there was

no opening to the outside.

By the time they finished, Yan’s notes covered several pages. Bai’s

toolbox had gained a few empty wrappers, some loose screws, and a metal

latch that needed to be replaced later. The building was not perfect,

but every entrance they had inspected was more secure than it had been

that morning. The corridors were clear, the stairwells could be used

quickly, and the residents knew where the remaining weak points were.

Bai stood near the main entrance and looked up through the stairwell.

"That should do for now."

Yan glanced at the notes. "For now."

"Don’t sound so pleased about saying that."

"I’m not pleased. I’m realistic. You’ll be back here tomorrow checking

the same doors."

"Only if something changes."

Yan looked at her.

Bai sighed. "I’ll check the main doors tomorrow. Not every door."

"I’ll write that down so we can hold you to it."

"You wouldn’t dare."

"I absolutely would."

They returned to the twentieth floor late enough that Mother Yan had

begun keeping their lunch warm. Lili ran to the door when she heard

them, then stopped several steps short because Bai had told her not to

run into the corridor until an adult confirmed it was clear. The child

held herself back with visible effort, her hands clenched at her sides.

Bai noticed and praised her for remembering the rule before bending down

to greet her properly.

"We found a few more zombies," Bai told her, keeping the description

simple. "They’re gone now, and we fixed the doors they came through."

"Did you win?"

"Yes."

Lili looked relieved. "I knew you would."

Bai’s expression grew gentle. "You should still be careful, even when

you think we’re going to win. Being careful is how we make sure we come

back."

Lili nodded as though she were storing the lesson somewhere important.

Then she grabbed Bai’s hand and led her toward the table, announcing

that lunch was ready and Mother Yan had said everyone had to eat

together. Bai let herself be led, which Yan privately considered another

small victory for the household’s ongoing campaign to persuade Bai that

taking care of herself was also a practical responsibility.

The Days That Followed

Over the twelve days that followed the cleanup, life did not become

peaceful in any complete sense, but it became predictable enough for the

family to establish a rhythm. The first day after the corridor cleanup,

Bai returned to the ground floor to inspect the reinforced doors and

found no sign of new damage. On the second day, she checked the service

passage with Yan and found that the seal they had placed was holding. On

the third, she repaired a damaged section of pipe near the laundry room

and helped a resident recover a small box of medicine that had been left

in a room with a broken latch. Every task was ordinary, but each one

removed another possible problem from the building’s list of dangers.

The days after that followed the same steady pattern, though no two were

exactly alike. A loose window frame needed attention after a night of

strong wind, a resident reported a strange noise that turned out to be a

fallen storage bin, and a backup light failed just as Bai had finished

telling Yan that they could probably go one whole day without finding

another repair. By the end of the second week, the residents had learned

the new routines well enough to manage many small problems themselves,

and Bai had finally stopped inspecting every single door each morning.

She still checked the important entrances, but now she trusted the notes

and the people who had taken responsibility for the other floors. The

apartment had become more than a place to hide. It was a home that could

keep working even when everyone was tired, worried, or forced to pay

attention to something beyond the next meal.

Yan helped Bai create a more useful maintenance schedule. Rather than

checking everything every morning, they divided the building into

sections and assigned each section a regular inspection day. The most

vulnerable entrances were checked more often, while areas that had

remained stable could be inspected less frequently. Bai resisted the

plan at first because she preferred to see things herself, but she

eventually admitted that the schedule would let her spend more time on

the larger repairs that could not be done by the residents alone.

Mother Yan encouraged the residents to participate.

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TO BE CONTINUED.