Chapter 74: Ye Qing’s Discovery

Jiang Yan knew Ye Qing’s name.

The two of them could be considered acquaintances who had met once and exchanged nods.

Previously, Su Dai had specially introduced him to her, but she hadn’t known he had moved upstairs.

In her eyes, judging by Ye Qing’s appearance and age, he should have just started university not long ago, and most likely still lived with his parents.

Ye Qing’s Adam’s apple bobbed again as he said, “Are you heading down?”

Jiang Yan nodded and replied, “Mm.”

She was just about to continue down the stairs when she heard the sound of somewhat heavy footsteps and labored breathing coming from below.

The next second, Su Dai’s slender figure appeared at the landing.

She was wearing a waterproof apron covered in little chrysanthemum patterns, holding a rather large white porcelain flowerpot filled with soil in her arms. Her cheeks were flushed red.

“Jiang Xia—Yan!” When she saw Jiang Yan, her eyes lit up and a beautiful smile unconsciously curved her lips.

“Hi.” Jiang Yan politely smiled, her eyes crinkling.

“Are you going downstairs?” Su Dai walked to the landing, set down the flowerpot, put her hands on her hips, and stood next to Ye Qing, panting.

Jiang Yan gave a soft “Mm.”

Su Dai wiped the sweat from her forehead, glanced downstairs, and lowered her voice:

“Jiang Yan, it’s a good thing you had the foresight to wear a mask. Let me tell you, the smell and the scene down there… words can’t describe it.”

Jiang Yan smiled, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.

Actually, the scene on the 32nd floor was also hard to describe.

Although no one lived in this hallway, the dark red, long-dried bloodstains on both walls told the story of what had happened here.

Combined with the damp air, the corridor was always filled with a strong, metallic, rusty stench.

But since they’d been living here for a while, their sense of smell had probably gotten used to it.

The others didn’t dare move up to the 32nd floor—partly because they were wary of them, and partly because of the bloodstains covering the walls.

Still, Jiang Yan guessed that before long, once the water level rose sharply again, this place would be packed with people too.

Even that leaky apartment, 3202, wouldn’t be spared.

The only reason people weren’t coming up now was that they still had some options and escape routes left.

After Su Dai finished speaking, she bent down to pick up the flowerpot and said to Jiang Yan:

“Oh right, Jiang Yan, don’t go down yet. We’ve made a new discovery! Wait until we tell you, then you can go.”

Jiang Yan paused. “A new discovery?”

“Yeah. But this isn’t a good place to talk. Let’s go upstairs.” Su Dai glanced cautiously downstairs, then hurried up the stairs with the flowerpot.

Jiang Yan wasn’t in a rush to go down, so she turned back and helped push open the fire door.

Ye Qing followed behind her, carrying a gasoline can.

“What did you find?” Jiang Yan asked once Su Dai set the flowerpot down.

Su Dai peeked through the crack in the fire door into the hallway, then turned back and lowered her voice:

“Xiao Ye discovered that the rate at which the water level outside has been rising these past couple of days has slowed down. He says it’s very likely that the heavy rain will ease up in a few days.”

She actually wanted to invite Jiang Yan over to her place to sit and talk about it.

But her home was a complete mess right now, with barely any space to stand, so she felt a bit embarrassed.

Besides, after she’d delivered supplies to Jiang Yan, Sun Jingtao had specially reminded her that, in times like these, everyone was extra cautious and protective of their boundaries.

He told her that if she ran into Jiang Yan again, she shouldn’t overstep.

What Sun Jingtao called “boundaries” actually referred to the psychological safe distance between ordinary people.

The closest is the “intimate zone,” which is about 20–50 centimeters—usually reserved for lovers and close friends, for things like hugging and touching.

Next is the “personal zone,” also about 20–50 centimeters. If someone you’re not close to enters this space, it can feel threatening or uncomfortable.

So he’d advised his wife not to get too close to Jiang Yan.

After all, he could sense that his wife’s admiration and respect for Miss Jiang was unusually strong.

But Jiang Yan clearly wasn’t someone who liked others getting too close.

“Oh?”

Listening to Su Dai, Jiang Yan glanced at Ye Qing with interest.

Only then did Su Dai remember Ye Qing was right there. She reached out and patted him, saying,

“Xiao Ye, you’re the smart one—why don’t you tell Sister Yan about your discovery?”

Ye Qing shot her a look and set down the gasoline can.

But instead of talking about his discovery, he looked at Jiang Yan and said,

“Thank you for helping me find out who really killed my grandparents with those blood mosquitoes.”

He’d actually wanted to apologize to her, since he’d once had the urge to kill her.

But it didn’t seem appropriate, so he kept it to himself.

Su Dai didn’t know why he suddenly brought this up, and sighed silently,

“Jiang Yan, Xiao Ye is a deeply loyal and sentimental kid. He grew up with his grandparents, so he was especially close to them.”

Actually, she’d learned from her husband that Ye Qing had probably grown up in a family of police officers, and with his parents having died tragically at the hands of criminals, he had a deep-seated hatred of evil.

It made for a somewhat contradictory personality, but all those traits seemed to coexist in him.

Sun Jingtao was a bit similar in nature, but he was much smoother in dealing with people.

He just lacked Ye Qing’s decisiveness.

But these were Ye Qing’s personal matters, and not really hers to judge.

Jiang Yan listened to Su Dai’s explanation with little expression, and simply said to Ye Qing, “It was nothing.”

Then she added, “My condolences.”

Ye Qing’s eyes flickered. “Thank you.”

“Xiao Ye, why don’t you tell us about your discovery now?” Su Dai rubbed her sore arm and prompted him.

Ye Qing paused for a second, then spoke:

“My discovery is that since the heavy rain started, the daily rise in water level had been increasing step by step. But in the past two days, the rate of increase has clearly slowed down. This suggests that the rainfall outside is gradually decreasing. If this trend continues, it’s very likely that within the next week, this superstorm will turn into light rain, or even stop altogether.”

Jiang Yan raised her eyebrows slightly after hearing this. “So—?”

Ye Qing replied, “So that will be our window to go out and search for supplies. It might also be our only chance to survive the next disaster.”

Jiang Yan, of course, already understood this logic.

But hearing it from Ye Qing still surprised her a little.

Because lately, the torrential rain had seemed endless, as if the sky itself had opened up.

It was genuinely hard to tell if it was getting heavier or lighter—every day’s rainfall seemed about the same.

The fact that he’d thought to judge the rainfall by observing the water level, and had the crisis awareness to use the window to go out and look for supplies, was honestly beyond her expectations.

But it was clear he couldn’t possibly be a reborn person like her."