Chapter 109: Shadows Everywhere

A sense of panic and unease began to spread through the crowd.

“Let’s wait a little longer! The authorities said they would never abandon any citizen, no matter what! Let’s just wait!” someone jumped out to calm everyone down.

“Yeah, yeah, maybe they’re just picking up people from other places first. Let’s wait a bit more!”

“Come on, Old Liu, stop lying to yourself at a time like this!” someone nearby sneered.

“Exactly!”

“I’m just trying to comfort everyone! Why the sarcasm?”

“At a time like this, who needs your so-called comfort?”

“...”

Soon, the sounds of arguing and shoving filled the air.

Often, the distance from hope to despair is just a single moment.

And the shift from unity and peace to tearing each other apart can happen in the blink of an eye.

Jiang Yan listened for a while, then glanced at the water’s surface, deciding it was best to head home for now.

To her surprise, the line of people waiting for boats in the stairwell hadn’t gotten any shorter—in fact, it had grown longer.

She struggled for quite a while before finally squeezing her way out of the packed crowd.

The line in the stairwell snaked all the way up to the 23rd floor.

Just as Jiang Yan stepped onto the stairs to the 24th floor, she saw Sun Jingtao and Su Dai, the couple, pushing open the fire door on the 24th floor.

Walking with them was a scholarly-looking middle-aged man wearing black-rimmed glasses.

“Jiang Yan!” Su Dai spotted Jiang Yan, who was fully geared up, and excitedly waved at her.

Sun Jingtao and the middle-aged man realized who it was a moment later.

Both men were carrying something heavy on their shoulders, wrapped in dirty cement sacks—it looked quite heavy.

“Jiang Yan.”

“Jiang Yan.”

Sun Jingtao and Tian Jiliang both greeted her.

Jiang Yan didn’t know Tian Jiliang, but she politely replied, “Hello.”

“You two take your time, we’ll head up first,” the two men said, then carried their bags upstairs.

Jiang Yan nodded, then turned to Su Dai and asked, “Why did you come downstairs?”

Su Dai smiled mysteriously. “Let me tell you, we just found something good.”

Jiang Yan was puzzled.

“We found two bags of leftover cement and a pile of bricks in the property management’s electrical room,” Su Dai said, pinching her nose. “Jiang Yan, it stinks in the stairwell. Let’s wait till we’re upstairs, and I’ll tell you all about it.”

She’d forgotten to wear a mask when she came down.

Even though it was cold, the smell in the stairwell was indescribable.

Jiang Yan nodded.

The two of them climbed the stairs in silence.

When they reached the landing between the 31st and 32nd floors, Su Dai was struggling, standing there with her hands on her waist, gasping for breath.

Jiang Yan’s body had been strengthened by the space, but maybe because she’d been standing for so long earlier, her lower abdomen was starting to ache.

She stopped to rest for a moment too.

Su Dai glanced at the closed fire door on the 32nd floor and whispered, “We’re planning to use the cement and bricks to build a simple stove at home.”

Jiang Yan: “A stove?”

The mention of a stove reminded her of the time she’d visited the beekeeping base and seen a half-collapsed country-style restaurant on the mountainside, destroyed by a mudslide.

Their signature dish was chicken cooked over a wood fire, similar to the northern style of stewing goose in a big iron pot.

It had been quite popular in Anming for a while.

Basically, it was a big earthen stove with a large iron pot on top, burning charcoal or firewood underneath.

You could use it to cook, make braised chicken, dry pot duck, dry pot goose, and so on.

After stir-frying the meat, you’d add lotus root, celtuce, mushrooms, and other ingredients to stew together. Usually, you’d stick some corn cakes to the side of the pot and cover it with a big lid.

By the time the meat was done, the corn cakes would be cooked too.

When you lifted the lid, the aroma was mouthwatering—absolutely delicious.

Best of all, the leftover embers could be used for warmth in winter.

It was a great thing.

But back then, her family didn’t lack heating, and she was used to living in the south, so she never thought about it.

Otherwise, she might have salvaged one or two of those stoves.

“Yeah. Xiao Ye and my husband said this heavy rain isn’t going to stop anytime soon, and the temperature keeps dropping. It might even snow or the water could freeze over. The alcohol stove is too small, and we don’t have enough fuel to last, so we thought we’d build a stove in the living room. That way, we can burn wood to heat food, keep warm, and raise the temperature in the apartment.

If the water really does freeze, we can go out and find more things to burn. If we grit our teeth, we might be able to get through this awful weather.”

Jiang Yan nodded in agreement. “Sounds good—three birds with one stone!”

“We probably won’t use up all the materials. If we save some cement, we can build one in your living room too,” Su Dai said, watching Jiang Yan’s expression.

It sounded like she was just sharing, but also as if she was seeking Jiang Yan’s opinion.

After all, building a stove in someone’s home was a private matter.

Sun Jingtao had specifically reminded her to be mindful of boundaries with Jiang Yan.

But right now, with both fire doors above and below closed and the stairwell so dark, Jiang Yan’s face was hidden behind her mask.

She couldn’t read Jiang Yan’s expression at all.

“No need. My place is decorated in a Western style, and there’s a fireplace in the living room. You keep the materials for yourselves. Just make sure to ventilate and handle the smoke properly when you use the stove,” Jiang Yan replied honestly, even giving a reminder.

Su Dai didn’t know if a fireplace could be used for cooking, but it was clear Jiang Yan had politely declined.

“Oh, okay,” Su Dai replied.

“Let’s go,” Jiang Yan suggested, seeing Su Dai’s breathing had calmed down.

“Alright.”

They went upstairs and pushed open the fire door.

The door to apartment 3203 was half open, and the sounds of a woman and child crying drifted out.

Jiang Yan remembered the scars on Wen Wanli’s hands and frowned slightly.

Su Dai glanced at the crack in the door and whispered, “Jiang Yan, I forgot to tell you earlier—two families have moved into 3203.”

Jiang Yan nodded calmly. “Yeah.”

“You knew?” This time Su Dai was surprised, but then she changed the subject: “Did you hear them breaking the lock with a police battering ram in the middle of the night?”

Jiang Yan shook her head. “No, but I ran into Wen Wanli when I was going downstairs earlier.”

Her expression was completely calm, which left Su Dai a bit at a loss.

“Alright, I’ll head home now,” Jiang Yan said lightly, turning to leave.

Her stomach still felt a bit uncomfortable. She needed to go home, drink some motherwort, and take care of a few things.

“Oh, right, Jiang Yan, come over for dinner tonight. We’re grilling fish. You have no idea—Xiao Ye’s cooking is amazing. And, since the neighbors just moved in, we wanted to hear your thoughts on it,” Su Dai suddenly remembered.

Jiang Yan nodded this time and didn’t refuse.

She could more or less guess what Su Dai was thinking.

In times like these, you really can’t have the intention to harm others, but you can’t be too trusting either.

But there was no need to be suspicious of everything.

For now, Jiang Yan kept her thoughts to herself."