Chapter 83: “Casting a Wide Net”

After Ye Qing picked the right spot, she raised her hand to shield her face, then swung the hammer in her hand at the glass—fast, precise, and hard.

Crash! The glass shattered all over the floor.

Boom!

A gust of cold wind, mixed with raindrops and the stench of dead fish and rotten shrimp, rushed into the corridor.

Jiang Yan and Su Dai instinctively turned away and pulled up the hoods of their windbreakers.

Once the glass was cleared, Sun Jingtao stepped forward to help Ye Qing bang away at the metal window frame.

It was lucky their apartment complex had wide corridors between buildings.

If it were a more traditional complex, they might have had to smash part of the wall just to get the inflatable raft outside.

On the other side, Su Dai rummaged through her backpack and pulled out some disposable raincoats she’d once bought online, handing two to Jiang Yan:

“Jiang Yan, these raincoats are a bit thin, but they’ll have to do.”

Jiang Yan thanked her and took one.

“Later, you—” Su Dai glanced at the inflatable raft behind her, hesitating.

Jiang Yan knew what she was about to say and spoke up, “I probably won’t be going the same way as you guys.”

“Why not?” Su Dai was puzzled.

Wouldn’t it be safer for the four of them to stick together?

The whole world outside was a flood, and who knew if the rain would get even worse. If something happened, at least they could look out for each other.

“Think about it. We’re heading out to look for food. After all this heat and rain, there’s not much left to find. If we all stick together, there’s a high chance we’ll come up empty, and even if we do find something, there’ll be less to go around.

But if we split up, aren’t our chances better? You know, don’t put all your eggs in one basket.”

Jiang Yan’s excuse was a bit of a stretch, but it wasn’t entirely unreasonable.

Su Dai looked disappointed, but quickly convinced herself, “You’re right—cast a wide net, focus on catching fish! Well, Jiang Yan, just be careful out there.”

Jiang Yan’s lips curled up slightly under her mask. “Mm.”

Sun Jingtao and Ye Qing worked quickly. The window frame was soon smashed out.

What they were doing was actually pretty dangerous.

To get at the top of the frame, they had to stand on the narrow windowsill, with nothing to protect them.

It looked like water below, but they were actually sixteen stories up.

Luckily, both of them seemed to be good swimmers—bold because they had the skills.

Still, the water was full of floating corpses, dead rats, and trash.

If they really fell in, it’d be a nightmare.

“All done. Jiang Yan, should I toss your raft down first?”

Sun Jingtao jumped off the windowsill, put the hammers away in his backpack, and walked over to Jiang Yan and Su Dai.

Jiang Yan smiled, “Thanks, I appreciate it.”

“No problem.” Sun Jingtao hoisted Jiang Yan’s raft and handed it up to Ye Qing on the windowsill.

Ye Qing frowned, glanced at the water, and asked, “Jiang Yan, are you sure you dare jump from this height?”

The water level was already up to the sixteenth floor, only about a meter and a half below the windowsill—not high at all.

But the raft was just floating on the water, with nothing solid underneath. Jumping down and landing steadily would take some skill.

Jiang Yan nodded. “Don’t worry.”

Ye Qing lifted the raft with one hand and carefully slid it out along the windowsill.

He moved slowly and skillfully, but still—splash!—the raft hit the water, sending up a huge spray.

The noise drew people from the floors above, who opened their windows and stuck their heads out.

They’d already noticed the commotion when Sun Jingtao and Ye Qing were smashing the window.

And not just from the opposite building—people in the other towers were poking their heads out too.

“Mom, there’s a boat downstairs!”

“Oh my god, an inflatable raft! I can’t believe someone in our complex had one—amazing!”

“Wow, seriously, whose is that? Can they take us with them?”

“Hello! We’ll pay you—can you give us a ride?” someone shouted, waving frantically.

“Hurry, Lao Liu, go downstairs and stop them!”

Jiang Yan ignored the crowd of heads and voices. She grabbed the wall, stepped lightly onto the windowsill, and—under Su Dai’s stunned gaze—leapt down, landing steadily on the raft.

“Wow! Jiang Yan, your core strength is insane!” Su Dai exclaimed, with the admiration of a fitness coach.

Ye Qing looked at her. “Jiang Yan, are you sure you don’t want to wait for us?”

“No, I’m heading in a different direction.”

Jiang Yan picked up the paddle, waved at the three of them, and said, “I’ll go ahead. You guys be careful too.”

The three replied:

“Yeah, you too—stay safe!”

“Safe travels.”

“See you.”

After saying goodbye, Jiang Yan started paddling hard.

With so many eyes watching, she didn’t dare take out her compass or map yet.

Not that she needed to.

Several familiar high-rises were still poking out of the water nearby—enough to use as landmarks.

First things first, she needed to get out of the Shallow Bay area.

The window in Building A’s corridor wasn’t far from the complex wall, so Jiang Yan barely had to paddle before she was outside the neighborhood.

She guessed that once she was a good distance away, Ye Qing would toss down their own raft.

By the time the three of them had put on their raincoats and settled into their raft, Jiang Yan and her boat were already just a tiny black dot in the distance.

The rain was still falling in a steady drizzle.

The cold wind howled.

Luckily, Jiang Yan’s clothes were windproof, waterproof, and warm, and her body had been enhanced by the space, so she didn’t feel much.

Her first stop today was the city center.

That area had a lot of high-rises and lots of people, but it was also packed with malls and jewelry stores.

The kind of place where, if you scored, you’d be set for years—so it was her top choice.

She figured she’d set out early, and there probably weren’t many people in the city with inflatable rafts.

Along the way, she didn’t run into any living people.

But she did see plenty of dead ones.

Adults, children—there were even babies with umbilical cords still attached, floating like wisps in the water.

All of them were pale, swollen, and unrecognizable from soaking so long.

The corpses were crawling with aquatic bugs, wriggling maggots, and those shiny black mutant leeches—enough to make anyone’s skin crawl.

To avoid the high-rises, Jiang Yan had to take a roundabout route.

Once she was out of sight of the tall buildings, she summoned a speedboat from her space.

The speedboat looked similar to her raft in color and style, but it had a motor.

She’d be scavenging underwater all day, which would take a lot of energy.

Besides, paddling was too slow—the speedboat would be much faster.

But the motor was loud and would attract attention.

So she kept avoiding areas with lots of high-rises, planning to switch back to the low-profile raft when she got close to the city center.

pk4 is over, still waiting for a recommendation. Sigh. Please, dear readers, keep following and reading whenever you have time!"