Chapter 261: That’s A Shark

Zeyu stayed on his feet as the water spread across the roof.

The fallen man caught the edge of a raised concrete footing and pulled himself onto it, but the people behind him had nowhere to go.

They pressed against the stairwell wall while someone tried to climb onto its narrow roof.

A woman reached up to help him. Once he had found his footing, he turned and pulled her after him, leaving two others lifting their hands below.

Shichen moved the camera closer, though the rain made it difficult to follow individual faces.

"There’s a ladder against the far side," Zeyu said, pointing toward the screen. He had seen it earlier, half hidden beneath the sheet. "Behind those boxes."

Nobody outside could hear him. One of the boxes floated free, struck the ladder, and knocked it flat before a man wading toward it could reach the rungs.

Zeyu lowered his hand.

The next surge washed across the roof from the street side. For several seconds, the screen showed only broken furniture and white water.

When the stairwell appeared again, three people were crouched on top of it. A fourth clung to a pipe while the woman above him tried to catch his wrist.

Zeyu watched until she had both hands around his arm.

Then the camera went dark.

"Did we lose power?" Hanchuan asked, leaning forward as Shichen checked the other views.

"Just that camera," Shichen replied. He changed to a wider angle, but another building blocked the rooftop. "Something must have hit it."

Zeyu sat down slowly. The room hadn’t moved, yet he found himself bracing his feet against the floor.

Somewhere behind him, the cooling system started, sending a familiar breath of air across the back of his neck.

He had spent years working on a vehicle that could float. Their boats waited upstairs, ready to launch.

Looking at the trees turning in the water below, he knew he couldn’t have brought either one alongside that roof.

Zhiyi sat beside him and rested her hand over his. "Come eat something with me," she said. "You’ve been standing here since breakfast."

Zeyu looked toward the screen once more before turning his hand beneath hers. "I don’t think I’m hungry," he admitted.

"Then sit with me while I eat." Zhiyi stood, keeping hold of his fingers. "I’d like your company."

With a bright smile on his face, he went with her, basking in her attention.

By evening, the surge had eased, though the water remained far higher than it had been that morning.

Parts of the city they had watched from the windows were simply gone. Zeyu caught himself searching for a familiar rooftop sign before remembering that it was beneath the surface now.

Their rooms stayed dry. The lights worked, the water from the taps ran clear, and Shichen found no damage inside the protected floors.

Zeyu helped him finish the checks, then went back to the kitchen and heated the meal he had barely touched earlier.

Over the following two weeks, they learned how to live with the shutters down.

They opened the protected views when Jingwei judged it safe, but most evenings the apartment glowed under its own lamps while rain drummed against the metal outside.

The boats that had attacked them didn’t return. Other boats passed through the neighborhood, usually keeping close to buildings and moving on when nobody answered their calls.

Below, the tower’s residents settled on higher public floors. Several levels still separated them from the private entrance.

They carried water upstairs, argued over sleeping spaces, and eventually stopped sending anyone to look at the blood outside the barrier.

Inside, Zeyu moved the game controllers into a drawer that Zhiyi could reach from the sofa.

She noticed that before she noticed the blanket he had folded beside them. "Are you planning to keep me here all afternoon?" she asked, lifting the blanket while he connected the laptop.

"I was hoping for most of it." Zeyu sat beside her and took one corner to spread over their legs. "Unless you’ve already promised someone else."

Zhiyi placed her controller on his thigh and leaned across him to reach the water on the table.

"Shichen wants me to sit for him tomorrow," she said. "Today, I’m here."

Zeyu kissed her while she was still close. She laughed softly against his mouth, careful to hold the glass away from his shirt, and he took it from her before drawing her nearer.

Their game remained on its opening screen for some time.

He liked those afternoons almost as much as the nights she stayed with him.

She had stopped asking where he kept things and now complained when he moved them.

Sometimes he woke to find her reading beside him. Sometimes she slept with a hand tucked beneath his shirt, making him lie still long after he needed to get up.

One morning, he found her examining the marks his pillow had left on his cheek.

"Don’t tell me I look terrible," Zeyu mumbled, catching her hand and pulling it beneath the blanket. "I haven’t had coffee."

"I was wondering how you slept on your own hand for that long," Zhiyi replied. She kissed the corner of his mouth before adding, "You can let go of mine. I’m only getting dressed."

He released her with a reluctant smile.

Later that day, Zeyu went to the security room to take over from Jingwei.

A camera near the old boat landing showed greenish water moving through an abandoned office.

The picture had been almost useless after the surge, but the suspended mud had begun clearing enough to reveal desks and the dark outline of a doorway.

Something flashed silver between two chair legs.

Zeyu leaned closer. Several small fish moved past the camera, turning together when a strip of loose fabric drifted toward them.

"Zhiyi," Zeyu called through the open door. "Come look at this."

She arrived with Qinghe, carrying the book they had been reading. Zeyu moved his chair so she could sit beside him and pointed toward the submerged desk.

The fish emerged again, passing through a space where he remembered seeing someone’s bedding.

"They’ve found their way inside," Qinghe said, leaning over the back of Zhiyi’s chair.

Zhiyi watched one pause near the camera, its fins moving against the current. For the first time in days, Zeyu found himself studying an outside view without searching it for a weapon.

Then the fish scattered.

A pale shape passed beyond the doorway, large enough to hide most of the frame. Zeyu reached for the controls, following it as it turned between the submerged furniture.

Its side brushed a chair and sent it rocking across the floor.

Zhiyi put the book down. On the screen, a blunt head came into view, followed by a dark eye and the slow sweep of a powerful tail.

"That’s a shark," Zeyu said, his hand still on the controls as it circled back toward the camera. "And it’s inside the tower."