Chapter 242: We’re In

Zeyu kept the mobile base moving while Jingwei warned the people beside the stairwell.

Through the side camera, he saw the man with the roofing sheet look up, water running from his hair into his eyes.

He listened long enough to glance down the steps, then turned back toward the rooms below.

"Take them upstairs," Jingwei called through the speaker. "The road drains toward that entrance. It’s going to fill."

The man shouted something over his shoulder.

A woman appeared beneath the makeshift cover, carrying a basin against her stomach, and looked from the water to the mobile base.

Zeyu lost sight of them as he completed the turn, but on the rear display he saw her set down the basin and hurry back inside.

He hoped she had understood. He kept driving.

The road beside the railway climbed above the underpass, giving him a clear view of the water spreading across the intersection below.

Bottles and scraps of plastic floated toward the steps. After years of seeing rubbish lie where people dropped it, the movement caught his attention almost as much as the rain.

Shichen checked the next turn on the map, then leaned forward to look through the windshield.

"Stay on this road until we pass the station," Shichen said. "The street beside Jinhai is lower, but we can reach the service entrance from the north."

Zeyu nodded and eased around a fallen sign. Water hid its broken supports, leaving only the metal face above the surface.

He gave it more room than he would have on a dry road, watching the trailer follow before bringing the vehicle back toward the center.

Behind him, someone opened a bottle. The small sound reminded him that they had been driving for hours, though the rain made it difficult to judge how far into the night they had gone.

"Do you want me to take over?" Hanchuan asked. He stood behind Jingwei’s seat, one hand braced against it as they crossed a rough patch.

"I’m all right until we reach the tower," Zeyu replied. He rolled his shoulders while they waited for two people carrying a sheet of plastic to cross. "I know how she feels on this road. I’d rather finish the drive."

Hanchuan accepted that and returned to his seat.

Zeyu caught Zhiyi watching him in the mirror. She lifted his water bottle slightly, checking whether he wanted it, and he held out his hand while they were still stopped.

She leaned forward to pass it to him, her fingers brushing his wrist.

"There’s no hurry while they’re in front of us," Zhiyi said. "Have a drink."

Zeyu took several mouthfuls before returning the bottle.

The people with the plastic had reached the far sidewalk and were struggling to tie it above a doorway.

A boy stood beneath it, holding up a broom to keep the middle from sagging.

When Zeyu moved again, he did so slowly enough that the water barely stirred beside the tires.

They first saw Jinhai through a break between two buildings.

Its upper floors disappeared into the rain, but the pale stone around the lower entrance caught their headlights as they turned.

Zeyu remembered arriving there before the Heat, when someone had hurried outside to take his keys and another employee had offered him coffee.

Now the broad front steps were crowded with containers. People sheltered beneath the canopy, shifting their buckets whenever water spilled from a different part of the roof.

Zeyu took the northern approach instead.

The service entrance stood beyond a loading yard enclosed by a high fence.

Their shutter was closed, its surface streaked with years of dust that the rain had begun washing away. A handcart rested beside it, piled with bedding beneath a blue plastic sheet.

"Someone’s sleeping there," Zeyu said, slowing before the gate.

Jingwei enlarged the camera view.

Two figures sat against the wall beside the cart, their legs covered by another sheet. One lifted his head at the sound of the engine and shook the shoulder of the person beside him.

Hanchuan moved toward the controls.

"Stay inside while we check the yard," Hanchuan told the others. He looked at Zhiyi, who already had Jinhai’s cameras open on her tablet. "Can you see the whole loading area?"

Zhiyi brought the images onto the cabin display.

The yard behind the fence was empty apart from an overturned bin and a drift of rubbish near the drain. Inside the private vehicle bay, the floor remained dry.

Zeyu felt some of the strain leave his shoulders. They had checked those cameras before departing, but seeing the space while sitting outside it made the journey feel nearly finished.

The man beside the handcart stood and approached the fence. He held the plastic sheet over his head, rain spilling from its corners.

"Are you opening this?" the man called. "We’ve been trying to find someone who works here."

"We need you and the cart clear of the entrance," Jingwei replied through the speaker. "Move beside the wall, away from the gate."

The man looked back at his companion. She had risen more slowly, pulling a bag from beneath the bedding. Neither moved the cart.

"There’s room under there for us," the man said, pointing through the fence toward the shutter. "We only need somewhere dry."

Zeyu watched him wait.

Four years ago, he would have started explaining why the space wasn’t available, searching for words that made the refusal easier to hear. He had learned how little those explanations helped once someone decided the door should open for them.

"The entrance has to stay clear," Jingwei repeated. His voice remained calm. "Take your cart with you."

The woman caught the man’s sleeve and said something close to his ear. He pulled away at first, then looked at the mobile base again.

After a moment, he went back and took the cart’s handles while she gathered the loose bags.

Zeyu waited until they had moved beyond the gate’s path. Only then did Zhiyi open it.

He brought the mobile base into the yard while Jingwei watched the two strangers.

The gate closed behind the trailer before the shutter began rising, revealing a strip of clean floor that widened beneath the lights.

Zeyu drove inside and stopped where Shichen directed. Rain hammered the roof until the shutter reached the ground, then faded to a steady drumming somewhere beyond the walls.

For a moment, Zeyu left both hands on the wheel and listened.

"We’re in," Zeyu said, looking back at the others. "Give me a minute to shut everything down."

Zhiyi smiled at him, but Jingwei was still watching the exterior feed. The woman had left the cart and hurried out of the camera’s view, carrying none of her bags.

On the next screen, she appeared beneath the front canopy. She pointed toward the loading yard while people rose around her, abandoning their half-filled containers.

Zeyu turned off the engine as the first of them began running toward the service gate.