Chapter 243: The Group Began Climbing

Jingwei watched the first man reach the service gate and pull at the bars.

Others crowded behind him, trying to see past the loading yard to the shutter. The woman who had fetched them pointed toward it, her wet sleeve clinging to her arm as she explained what she had seen.

"They opened it for that truck," the woman shouted. "There are lights in there. I saw them."

Jingwei turned up the sound long enough to hear the man at the gate ask whether anyone was inside, then reached for the speaker.

Beside him, Zeyu remained in the driver’s seat, watching the crowd gather where they had been parked only minutes earlier.

"This is a private entrance," Jingwei told them. "It isn’t being opened. Keep clear of the gate."

The man looked up at the camera and shook water from his face. He wore a raincoat that had split along one shoulder, leaving the shirt beneath it soaked.

"We don’t need to go upstairs," the man called. "Let us stand in the garage until this passes."

Jingwei could see the front canopy on another screen.

There was still room beneath it, although the people coming around the building had left their containers scattered across the steps.

They wanted the lit room they had glimpsed through the shutter, and he understood why. He also knew that letting them into the garage would bring them to the next door.

"There’s cover at the front of the building," Jingwei replied. He kept his voice clear enough to carry over the rain. "You need to go back there."

Someone behind the man shouted that they had already been there.

Another person reached through the bars, feeling for the lock, while the woman with the handcart began pulling her belongings closer.

Jingwei watched them for another moment before lowering the volume. They could hear the refusal, whether they chose to accept it or not.

"Take the bags up," Jingwei told the others. "I’ll stay here until you’ve checked the rooms."

Hanchuan had opened the mobile base’s door after confirming that the vehicle bay was empty. He stood at the bottom of the steps now, looking back toward Jingwei.

"We’ll check them together," Hanchuan replied. "Bring the tablet. You can watch the entrance from upstairs."

Jingwei glanced at the crowd again, then transferred the feeds and stood.

The gates and shutter were locked, and standing beside a screen in the cabin wouldn’t make them stronger. He took his bag from the compartment behind his seat and followed the others into the bay.

Water dripped from the mobile base onto the floor. In the bright overhead light, Jingwei could see streaks of mud along its sides and a wet leaf caught beside one of the wheels.

The vehicle had carried them away from Xiling with everything they had chosen to bring, and now it looked oddly out of place beneath the clean ceiling.

Shichen led them through the private access door. Jingwei waited until everyone was inside before locking it behind them, then checked the handle once and followed.

Their elevator still worked.

Zeyu looked at the illuminated buttons when the doors opened, smiling faintly as he shifted the bags in his hands.

"I’ve spent so long climbing in and out of the driver’s seat that I forgot we could just stand here," Zeyu said. He moved to the back to make room for Qinghe. "Someone else can choose the floor."

Zhiyi pressed the button and stepped beside Jingwei.

Her shoulder brushed his arm as the others settled around them, and he adjusted his bag so its buckle wouldn’t catch her sleeve. She noticed and gave him a brief smile before looking down at the tablet.

The man in the torn raincoat was still at the gate. He had found a length of metal somewhere and was pushing it between the bars.

"He won’t reach the latch from there," Zhiyi said quietly.

"I know," Jingwei replied, holding the screen where she could see it. "I’m watching what he does when he works that out."

The elevator doors opened before she answered. Hanchuan stepped out first, followed by Shichen, and Jingwei looked up from the screen as the corridor lights came on ahead of them.

He remembered walking through here before the Heat, checking locks while workers carried away the last of their tools.

Back then, the rooms had seemed like a place they might never use. Now Qinghe was setting down a bag beside the same wall, and Zhiyi had gone ahead to open the living-room door.

Jingwei followed her into a room that smelled faintly of wood and closed cupboards.

The furniture stood where they had left it, with folded covers protecting the sofa and chairs. Beyond the windows, the city was almost entirely dark.

Rain struck the glass hard enough to make him turn toward it.

Zhiyi stood near the window without touching it, looking down at the streets. Jingwei joined her, keeping the tablet in one hand.

From this height, the people below were small shapes moving between buildings, their flashlights reflected in the water.

"I’d forgotten what it sounded like against a window," Zhiyi said. She glanced toward him as another gust drove rain across the glass. "At Xiling, we mostly heard it through the microphones."

Jingwei remembered the quiet rooms beneath the hill, where they could go hours without hearing anything from outside.

Here, even with the windows closed, the weather had come upstairs with them.

He set his bag down when Zhiyi turned to help with it. Before she could reach for the strap, he took her hand instead.

She looked at their joined fingers, then back at him.

Jingwei had spent years letting her decide how close to sit, how long to leave her hand beside his, whether to reach for him at all. He was tired, and the rain was loud, and he wanted her to stay near him without having to guess.

"Leave the bag," Jingwei told her. His thumb moved once over her knuckles. "It can wait."

Zhiyi stepped closer, resting her free hand lightly against his sleeve while they looked down at the street.

On the tablet, the man at the gate finally gave up with the metal bar. He called to the others and pointed around the building.

Jingwei watched them leave the loading yard, expecting them to return to the canopy.

Then the public stairwell camera changed.

The woman with the handcart came through the lower door carrying two bags. Behind her, the man in the raincoat helped lift the cart over the threshold.

More people followed, bringing the bedding and containers they had left outside.

Jingwei picked up the tablet and enlarged the image.

Zhiyi stayed beside him as the man looked up the stairwell, then pointed toward the floors above.

The group began climbing.