Cave Refuge

Looking at Dong Tianyu's energetic figure in front of him, the middle-aged man patted the young man next to him on the shoulder: "Xiao Li, you see, he can climb ten to twenty floors without a hitch. Look at your current state. You both are young, but how come there's such a big gap?"

Although Xiao Li had a mind to rebuff his colleague's mocking, his body was not allowing him to do so after climbing for more than ten floors. He hemmed and hawed, trying to keep up with the other person.

If it were simply climbing the stairs, they wouldn't appear so ragged. However, to keep Dong Tianyu in their sight, they had to stick closely to him.

But Dong Tianyu didn't want to waste too much time on the stairs, so he ascended quickly, which accelerated their exhaustion. Therefore, they were panting heavily.

Luckily they were about to reach their destination on the thirtieth floor, so they held their breath, earnestly following Dong Tianyu.

When the three arrived at the thirtieth floor, the original emergency exit door had been dismantled. The exit had been mounted with two railings made of arm-thick steel rebars.

The young and old who had followed Dong Tianyu up the stairs saw the renovated doors and guessed that people must be living inside.

Dong Tianyu pulled a thin cord leading into the room, triggering a ringing bell inside.

Not long after, Mr. Thompson came to the iron gate. He showed a delighted expression when he saw Dong Tianyu, but was immediately puzzled when he saw the two men behind him.

Noticing his father's expression, Dong Tianyu quickly explained: "The officials plan to transform this building into their command center in the West District. These two doubted me when I mentioned that people lived here, so they came up here to see for themselves."

After saying this, Dong Tianyu gave his father a look, leaving the two behind clueless.

Upon seeing Dong Tianyu's signal, father and son understood each other. Mr. Thompson remained indifferent and simply opened the door.

To prevent children from running around, the door opening procedure was not only complex but also laborious. It took a while before Mr. Thompson managed to open the double doors.

Once the three were inside, Mr. Thompson closed the gate again without any hassle.

The two didn't feel afraid of Mr. Thompson's actions since many people below had seen them climb up, and thus, they were not overly worried about their safety.

Even though disaster had struck, order hadn't collapsed, and the officials had never left the leading position.

After entering, the two followed behind Mr. Thompson and Dong Tianyu, never stopping their observation of the surrounding environment, hoping to learn more.

Mr. Thompson and Dong Tianyu understood the two's intentions quite clearly, but neither of them said anything.

Mr. Thompson led the three to a separate guest room before saying, "Tianyu, you stay here and keep these two guests company. I'll go get your uncle and Er Ge." Then he turned and left.

After Dong Tianyu invited the two to sit, he naturally fetched two cups of water from the water dispenser in the guest room and handed them over.

Upon seeing the clear and pure water in their cups, they then looked at the water jug on top of the dispenser. The middle-aged man had a sip, found it to be pure water, and gave the young man a look which hinted that it was safe to drink.

Seeing his colleague's expression, the young man also briefly tasted it. After confirming it was pure water, put his cup down.

But before Dong Tianyu could speak, Mr. Thompson came back to the conference room with Hǎi Fǔ, Hai Yang, and Er Ge.

After seeing the individuals that came in, the two visitors could guess the number of inhabitants on this floor. According to the household registration estimation, at least ten people lived on this floor.

Even though they didn't know the exact number, based on Mr. Thompson's actions when entering the door, the middle-aged man guessed that there weren't many people living here, but they had good relationships as relatives.

Once everyone was seated, the middle-aged man started to introduce himself: "My name is Wryden, and I'm a member of the Third Squad of the West City Command Headquarters. This is my colleague, Emily Jefferson.

The Command Headquarters has decided to transform this building into the West City Command Center, and we ran into Dong Tianyu just as we were about to enter the building. He told us people were living here, but we found it a little hard to believe. Hence, we took the liberty visit and would like to understand the specific situation."

Upon hearing this, Mr. Thompson and the other heads of households exchanged glances, and finally, Hai Fu spoke, "I wonder what information you would like to obtain."

"Are there survivors living in the other floors of this building apart from the floor you live in?"

Upon hearing Wryden's question, Hai Fu replied gently, "We're actually not very sure about this. Since we moved here, we've been sealed off on this floor and have never been outside, so we don't really know whether survivors are living on the other floors."

After hearing Hai Fu's answer, Emily Jefferson asked next, "If it's convenient, could you tell us when did you move here, and why you chose to live in this building? And why did you choose this floor, in particular?"

Hearing Emily's questioning, which was almost like an interrogation, the faces of the Thompson family in the room darkened. But they didn't show any aggression, considering she was an official.

Seeing that the atmosphere had become awkward, Wryden quickly intervened, "Emily, mind your manners."

Despite one playing good cop and one bad cop, everyone in the room was well aware of their ruse. But they all kept silent, not wanting to burst their bubble.

It was a case where 'I know you're pretending, and you know that I know you're pretending.' But both sides tacitly avoided mentioning it outright.

In the face of such a situation, Hai Fu, having experienced this kind of scene regularly in Pengcheng Industries, was able to keep a straight face. He pretended to stop Wryden, giving everyone a chance to ease tension.

Seeing Hai Fu's gesture, Wryden observed how the Thompson family hadn't budged from their seats, their expression remaining calm, and guessing the family's intention, he no longer kept up the act after seeing Hai Fu's gestured stop.

"We're close relatives and we lived nearby. When we bought our homes we were soon to retire. We bought lower floors for their convenience. Not long after the downpour, our homes were struck by disaster.

As we had just come out of the Refuge Center and feared a similar incident, we had packed up everything unnecessary at home, ready to evacuate at any moment.

When our houses started to flood, we suspected that it might worsen, as was the case during the cold snap, and so we all decided to move here together.

As to why we chose this location, it's because my son rented some spaces on the third floor for his business. Initially, we sheltered in his office, but who would've thought the third floor would also flood.

So we decided to move up to the thirtieth floor directly. If the water reaches this level, we'll move further up."