Chapter 120: The Strange Inflatable Boat

3201.

After lying on her chaise lounge and watching two full animated movies back to back, Jiang Yan finally took off her headphones.

Her room was well soundproofed, but just to be safe, she always wore headphones when watching movies or listening to music indoors.

Of course, it also made for a more immersive experience.

She glanced at the time—it was already ten o’clock at night.

Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, the world was pitch black.

The torrential rain was still pouring down, as if it meant to drown the entire world.

She set down her tablet, closed her eyes, and massaged her brow. Then, after adding some firewood to the fireplace, she went straight to bed.

She felt inexplicably tired today, and after spending the whole evening by the fire, she was drowsy and lethargic.

She decided to skip her nightly routine, turned off the lights, and climbed straight into bed.

“Shhhhhh!”

“Shhhhhh!”

The sound of rain outside became the perfect white noise to lull her to sleep.

“Plop!”

“Plop!”

Half-awake, half-asleep, Jiang Yan vaguely heard the sound of something heavy falling into water next door.

She frowned instinctively.

Then she remembered that 3202 next door was supposed to be vacant, and her own windows were soundproof, so it was probably just her imagination. She didn’t get up to check.

She rolled over, curled up, and drifted into a deep sleep.

*

Jiang Yan woke up before eight the next morning.

It was barely light outside.

The rain was still falling, making everything feel even more oppressive.

The official rescue boats had never come, and probably never would.

She got out of bed and, as usual, headed to the master bedroom.

She pulled back the blackout curtains and picked up her binoculars for a look.

After a night, the water level had already reached the edge of the 19th floor.

Across the way, people were bustling in the corridors and apartments—another day of moving and arguing had begun.

She suddenly had a bad feeling: maybe this time, the rain wouldn’t stop even after reaching the 20th floor.

If that was the case, then Building A, with its 32 floors, would likely become everyone’s final refuge.

But it would probably turn into a living hell as well.

Like a strategic battleground, fierce conflict would be inevitable.

After all, there were still a thousand or two residents left in the four remaining buildings of Shallow Water Bay.

And that’s not even counting Ma Longbiao’s gang, lurking in the shadows.

On the surface of the central garden’s water, she could just make out a dozen or so fresh corpses—probably casualties from yesterday’s fighting.

But the fact that there were still bodies floating meant things hadn’t gotten truly desperate yet.

If the situation had reached its worst, those fresh corpses would have been fished out long ago.

At least the temperature hadn’t dropped any further.

She wasn’t sure if that counted as good news.

Jiang Yan swept her gaze around casually and was about to put down the binoculars when she saw a red-and-yellow striped inflatable boat churning up white spray as it sped away from Building A with a roar through the rain.

The boat was covered with a colorful plastic tarp, concealing its cargo.

Three young men in transparent raincoats were aboard.

The one at the helm was steering while scanning the surroundings.

The other two sat at the bow and stern, each gripping a fire axe, apparently on guard.

But instead of scanning left and right as usual, their eyes were fixed intently on the plastic tarp in the middle of the boat.

One of the men’s lips moved, as if he was muttering a warning.

Jiang Yan narrowed her eyes.

If these three and this boat were part of Ma Longbiao’s crew, then she had clearly underestimated them.

Come to think of it, she’d only ever heard of Ma Longbiao’s gang, never seen them in person.

They were quite the mystery.

When she’d run into Scarface and his group before, she’d thought their morals and discipline were much lower than Liu Dahong’s gang.

But now, watching these three on the boat, she felt Ma Longbiao’s crew was far more disciplined and well-trained than Liu Dahong’s.

That was not a good sign.

She was also curious about what they were transporting.

Normally, if it was supplies, they’d be bringing them in, not out.

If it was trash or something else, people would just toss it in the water these days.

It was hard to imagine what could be so important that they’d risk the rain and guard it so closely.

The mysterious boat soon left the compound, vanishing into the white curtain of rain in the distance.

Jiang Yan pulled her thoughts back.

With the rain pouring down outside, she had no reason to go out, so she decided to stay home for the time being.

Because she’d been out searching for gold and dealing with her period, she’d put her daily training on hold for several days.

Now that she was feeling better, she decided to get back to firearms practice.

She’d already mastered the various handguns she’d bought earlier—she was a quick learner and could pretty much shoot wherever she aimed.

She’d even learned to disassemble and reassemble them.

Now she needed to focus on the larger guns, like machine guns and submachine guns.

These packed a punch, but the recoil was much stronger.

If you didn’t control them well, a slight shake of the hand or shoulder would throw your aim off.

She’d need some time to get used to them and practice carefully.

With that in mind, Jiang Yan entered her space.

The progress bar above the little stream hadn’t changed—it was still stuck at 89%.

There was no sign of Huabao.

She reached out with her mind—yep, still asleep.

It was still early, after all.

Jiang Yan didn’t bother waking it. She headed straight to the bathroom.

After washing up and drying her hair, she decided to cook herself a fragrant bowl of rice noodles for breakfast.

She’d been craving it for a while.

She took out the rice noodles, freshly ground meat, bean sprouts, chives, pea shoots, and pickled greens.

She picked and washed the bean sprouts, chives, and pea shoots, setting them aside.

Then she grabbed a small copper pot, about the size of a noodle bowl, put it on the stove, and filled it halfway with water to boil.

Once the water was boiling, she added the rice noodles.

Next came a few drops of walnut oil, some salt, chicken bouillon, chili bean paste, two spoonfuls of ground meat, two small spoons of seafood soy sauce, and a bit of pickled greens.

When the water boiled again, she added the bean sprouts, pea shoots, and chives.

After the pea shoots changed color, she let it simmer for another minute or two.

A bowl of fresh, fragrant, and silky rice noodles was ready.

After devouring her breakfast, Jiang Yan went to the pool to feed the fish and shrimp, then made her rounds in the vegetable patch and garden before heading upstairs for firearms practice.

Time passed leisurely, and several days went by quickly.

During these days, Jiang Yan spent most of her daylight hours in her space, studying and practicing, only returning to the safehouse around ten or eleven at night to sleep.

She also planted a bunch of idle fruit saplings and used the nursery fences she’d collected to divide up the black soil.

She partitioned the land into vegetable, orchard, and flower sections with different colored fences.

It all looked neat and orderly.

The once pitch-black soil was gradually being covered with colorful flowers, vegetables, and fruits.

Her space was now bursting with life."