Fierce winds drove fine rain straight into their faces, making it almost impossible to keep their eyes open.
Fortunately, the temporary shelter mentioned in the broadcast wasn't far away.
Shen Lian shielded the little girl in front of him. He had no idea how long they had been walking when he heard someone shout, "Grab the rope!!!"
Water rushed down from higher ground. They had escaped the torrent by keeping to the roadside, partly because the drainage systems spaced along it had kicked in, and partly because the road here stood ten centimeters above the water level. Even so, it was still dangerous.
Anyone swept down from the road had almost nowhere to find a foothold.
Fortunately, a large tree had snapped, and the man tossed about like a boat on a raging sea finally managed to grab a branch. But the current dragged viciously at his body, twisting everything below his head out of alignment.
Rescue workers had yet to arrive. Nearby residents had found a rope, but the man in the water couldn't even see it. His ashen face made it clear he wouldn't last much longer.
Shen Lian quickly scanned his surroundings. Luckily, a black car tire hung just inside the entrance to a hardware store.
"Hold her." Shen Lian handed the little girl to Li Yi and strode away.
"Mr. Shen!"
Shen Lian quickly took down the tire and immediately joined the rescue effort.
"The rope's long enough. Here, loop it around me." His voice carried a strangely reassuring power through the wind and rain, because he didn't sound the least bit panicked.
With someone giving directions, everyone immediately did as he said.
Shen Lian tied one end of the rope securely to the tire and handed the other to three men, acting as the "floating log" between them. "Guys, hold on tight!"
"Don't worry! We'll pull you back up no matter what!"
Shen Lian turned and leaped onto the broken tree's stump. Several of the more timid onlookers couldn't help screaming.
The current churned beneath his feet. In weather like this, in a situation like this, it was all too easy to lose your judgment.
Shen Lian was now only four or five meters from the man in the water.
He gauged how much weight the trunk could bear, then edged forward.
Shen Lian roughly wiped the water from his face. Through the wind and rain, he saw that the man had lost his strength and let go with one hand. He acted at once, leaning forward and throwing the tire.
It landed an inch off target. The man tried to reach for it, but he simply had no strength left.
"Hold on tight!" Shen Lian shouted. He quickly hauled the rope back and took another step forward!
The branch bent beneath him, lowering his whole body another notch.
"That's enough, young man! You can't go any farther!" someone shouted behind him.
Shen Lian let out a heavy breath. The man had reached his limit.
The instant the man let go, Shen Lian hurled the tire with all his strength. At the same time, he fell into the water, disappearing almost in unison with the man.
Quite a few people on the bank were so frightened they could barely breathe.
Even Li Yi, a grown man, felt his vision go dark.
But less than two seconds later, Shen Lian surfaced and shouted to the three men, "Pull!"
The resistance was ferocious. The tire had slipped neatly around the man's neck, and driven by his desperate will to live, he finally caught hold of the rope this time. Watching Shen Lian inch toward him and the people on the bank reach out their hands, the man knew he was saved.
If he were swept farther down, one wrong move would send him into the river at the end of the road.
Everyone scrambled to haul Shen Lian up. He rolled over and coughed up two mouthfuls of water, finally breathing a sigh of relief.
All sorts of debris had been mixed into the current, and it had hurt quite a bit when it struck him.
"Young man, you're a star!" One of the men who had pulled the rope, broad-backed and burly, gave Shen Lian a thumbs-up.
Shen Lian's mask had long since been swept away. He smiled, got to his feet with Li Yi's help, and continued toward the shelter.
Meanwhile, Chu Yilan sat in his office, his expression thunderous.
He couldn't get through to Shen Lian, and news that Lin City's torrential rain might trigger flooding had already exploded online.
The Weibo page on his computer was updating in real time. Many local residents living on higher floors, who were in no immediate danger, were reporting on conditions in each district. Everyone prayed that there would be no casualties and that the rescue workers would stay safe.
[Oh my god, is that Shen Lian?]
A post with that single sentence and a video sent the public feed into an uproar.
The video consisted of two clips: one filmed from a high floor, and another shaky close-up that caught Shen Lian's face.
By the time Chu Yilan finished watching, his fingertips were cold.
Especially when Shen Lian fell from the branch and vanished into the water-a ringing had exploded in his ears that instant.
Yang Bin came in and said gravely, "Mr. Chu, the routes into Lin City still haven't reopened. The rainwater's blocking them..."
"Find a way!" Chu Yilan jerked his head up, his eyes bloodshot. "Ask them what exactly they need! Get the roads cleared first!"
The shelter was a large shopping mall still under construction, surrounded by dull gray concrete and steel reinforcement. People sat in small groups, their faces etched with exhaustion and relief at having survived.
Seriously, it felt like a fucking dream.
Something lightly touched his arm, and only then did Shen Lian feel the pain. He hissed softly, and the little girl he had brought all this way immediately drew her hand back. She wasn't crying anymore, just staring at the wound on his arm, worry filling her eyes.
"It's okay," Shen Lian reassured her with a smile. "It doesn't hurt."
The next second, Li Yi and Jiang You both dropped to their knees, gasping for breath.
Shen Lian jumped. "What's wrong with you two?"
Li Yi waved a hand. "Mr. Shen, if you keep this up, we're both going to die young."
Jiang You nodded vigorously.
Shen Lian didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "I knew what I was doing."
"Let me use your phone." Shen Lian hadn't been able to find his earlier. It had probably been swept away while he was saving the man.
Jiang You and Li Yi still had their phones, but unsurprisingly, both were waterlogged, their screens black.
"I'll buy you new ones later." Shen Lian then told Li Yi, "See if you can borrow one. I absolutely have to make this call."
Li Yi politely asked around and soon borrowed a working phone.
Shen Lian took it and immediately entered the number he knew by heart.
Chu Yilan got out of the car, and Yang Bin held an umbrella over him. Ahead, large bags of sand were being pushed into a breach where water plunged down like a cliff.
Chu Yilan's eyes were dark. His phone rang several times before he took it out.
An unfamiliar number appeared on the screen. Amid the cold wind and driving rain, Chu Yilan's heart suddenly began to pound.
He answered and held the phone to his ear without speaking.
With his nerves stretched to their breaking point, even his breathing had frozen.
"Master Chu? I lost my phone." Shen Lian's voice came through, light and smiling. "I'm safe and sound. Don't worry."
Shen Lian thought he had put on a convincing act, but when Chu Yilan didn't respond for a long while, he gradually began to feel uneasy.
"Chu Yilan?"
"Shen Lian." Chu Yilan finally spoke, saying his name without any discernible emotion.
"I'm here, I'm here."
"As soon as the roads are clear, I'm leaving for Lin City."
"You don't have to. There's no need to rush..."
"When I get there, you'd better pray I don't get my hands on you," Chu Yilan said. "I'm going to fucking kill you."
Shen Lian: "..."
Before you continue