Chapter 250: People On The Roof

Shichen watched Zeyu lift the binoculars, then turned back to the window.

The little shed roof had caught against a streetlight below them.

Water pushed beneath it, lifting one edge until the whole thing rolled over and broke apart. Pieces of wood swept between the parked cars and disappeared around the corner of the tower.

Yesterday, people had stood in that street with buckets raised toward the rain.

Now a man struggled across it with a suitcase held above his head, feeling for each step while a woman waited in a doorway with both hands stretched toward him.

"Look past the white building," Shichen told Zeyu, pointing toward the gap between two towers. "You could still see the road there when I got up. It’s covered now."

Zeyu adjusted the binoculars without answering.

Beside him, Zhiyi tucked her hair behind her ear and leaned forward to follow Shichen’s hand. She had come out wearing yesterday’s trousers and a shirt he recognized as Zeyu’s. One sleeve hung over her fingers until she folded it back.

Shichen looked away before she caught him staring.

He had known where she was spending the night. Seeing her arrive beside Zeyu, comfortable enough to wear his clothes, made him think about the afternoons he had let end because he couldn’t find the courage to ask her to stay.

Below them, the man with the suitcase lost his footing.

His raised arms vanished first.

Shichen stepped closer to the glass as the woman in the doorway lunged forward, catching a handful of his shirt.

She dropped to her knees with the effort of holding him, and someone behind her reached around to help. Between them, they dragged him over the threshold while his suitcase drifted away.

Qinghe let out a breath beside the sofa. He had brought breakfast on a tray, but nobody had moved toward it.

"They got him inside," Qinghe said, setting the tray down. "Come and eat while we can still see what’s happening from the table."

Hanchuan touched Zhiyi’s back as she turned from the window. She leaned briefly against him, and Shichen saw her reach for his hand before they crossed the room together.

Zeyu stayed long enough to check the next intersection, then lowered the binoculars and followed them.

Shichen took the seat nearest the window.

The eggs were still warm, and he realized he was hungry as soon as he began eating. Across the table, Jingwei watched the lower cameras on his tablet. People were carrying wet bedding upstairs, leaving dark trails across the landings.

"The ground-floor entrance is filling," Jingwei told them.

He turned the tablet so Hanchuan could see a cupboard drifting against the reception desk. "Nobody’s near our barriers. They’re stopping wherever they find an open room."

"There are several empty floors beneath the closed section," Shichen said, reaching for his tea. "They can keep moving without reaching our storage rooms."

He had checked those doors himself yesterday, walking the protected floors with Hanchuan while the others unpacked.

The distance between their home and the occupied parts of the tower had mattered on the drawings.

After hearing strangers trying to break into the garage, he had been glad to walk it and feel each lock hold beneath his hand.

When breakfast was over, they returned to the equipment bay.

Zeyu and Hanchuan finished checking the boats while Jingwei worked through the diving gear with Qinghe.

Shichen tested the launch equipment, listening as the motor took the weight of an empty cradle and lowered it a short distance before bringing it back.

The steady movement pleased him more than he had expected.

Four years ago, he had watched a crew install this while worrying about everything they still needed to finish. Now Zhiyi stood at the controls beside him, and the boat waiting behind them was stocked for all six.

She released the button when the cradle reached its resting place.

"That sounds the same as it did yesterday," Zhiyi observed. She leaned toward the opening to see where the cradle had settled, then stepped back. "What do you want to check next?"

"The other side, then the spare controls." Shichen took the handset she offered him, their fingers brushing as he did. "After that, I’d like to stop hearing machinery for a while."

Zhiyi smiled and began gathering the tools. She knew where each one belonged, although she had only used this workbench once.

Shichen watched her put his screwdriver beside the open case and found himself remembering another room, another afternoon, her fingers wiping pencil dust from his cheek.

He had been close enough to kiss her then. They had shared so much time since that day that sometimes he could almost convince himself he hadn’t left anything unfinished.

"Will you come upstairs with me when we’re done?" Shichen asked. He rested the handset on the bench rather than finding another reason to keep working. "I’ve got something of yours in my bag."

Zhiyi looked up from the tools. "My portrait?"

"I packed it between the sketchbooks so it wouldn’t bend," Shichen explained. He smiled when she came closer. "I thought you might want to choose where it goes."

She rested her hand on his arm, just above his rolled sleeve.

"I’d like that," Zhiyi told him. "And I’d like you to show me what you’ve drawn since the last time you let me look."

Shichen covered her hand with his. "You can look at all of it. I’m not hiding the book from you."

"You close it when I come into the room," Zhiyi pointed out, watching his face. "I assumed that meant there were things you weren’t ready to show me."

He almost denied it, then remembered doing exactly that while she brought him tea at Xiling. The drawing had been of her asleep against Qinghe, her hand curled loosely around his wrist.

"Come and look," Shichen said, giving her hand a gentle squeeze. "I’d rather you asked me about the pictures than kept wondering."

They finished everything before lunch.

By the time Shichen carried his sketchbook into the sitting room, the rain had hidden the far side of the river completely. Zhiyi sat near the window, waiting with a clear space beside her, but she stood before he reached her.

"Shichen, bring the binoculars," Zhiyi said. Her hand pressed against the glass as she looked toward the white building across the street. "There are people on that roof."

He set the book down and joined her.

The building was only a few stories high, its ground floor already lost beneath the brown water. People crowded around a small rooftop doorway while a man pulled a ladder up after them.

Then Shichen saw why they were hurrying.

A long crack ran down the wall beneath the roof.

As he watched, a section of brickwork fell into the street, and the people above it stumbled sideways together.