The ground shook again.
This time it took longer than the last, like something slowly turning over on the seabed. Chen Hao was bending over, dragging an I-beam towards the south wall, when his foot slipped and he almost fell. He didn't stop; instead, he quickened his pace.
“Never mind the shaking,” he said, panting. “That wave was just an appetizer; the kitchen is just getting started.”
A worker nearby looked up at the sky; the dark clouds hung low, but the wind had stopped. This silence made it even more unsettling.
You said you'd come back?
"Yes." Chen Hao propped the steel beam against the wall. "Tsunamis aren't charged per incident; they come more than once."
Nana stood inside the waterproof door, her fingers inserted into the control panel interface, her blue-light eyes flashing rapidly. She had just retrieved a set of data from the deep-sea array, and the model was running in the background.
Three minutes later, she looked up.
"The aftershocks are expected to arrive in six hours," she said. "The impact direction has shifted by twelve degrees, and the main impact surface is the south wall."
Chen Hao nodded, as if he had known this would happen all along.
"In other words, the place we spent half a day repairing still needs to be repaired again."
“To be precise—” Nana paused, “it needs to be rebuilt.”
Susan walked over, holding a walkie-talkie and a list. Her hair was completely wet and plastered to her face, and she spoke with a nasal tone.
"The third shift has arrived, two sets of lighting equipment have been supplied, and the water in the generator room has been cleared."
"That's good." Chen Hao wiped his face. "Then go and make the arrangements. Everyone should work in shifts, changing every thirty minutes. Don't wait until you're exhausted to rest."
"And you?"
"I'm going to look at the wall."
The south wall is the oldest section of the entire site, built ten years ago, and has only undergone surface repairs since. Chen Hao shone his flashlight over it and found that the previously welded seams had cracked again in several places; they weren't long, but they were quite deep.
He tapped the concrete with his knuckles; the sound was hollow.
“This wall is failing,” he said. “It won’t hold up against a second wave.”
At that moment, Carl and his men pushed the first abandoned shipping container over. The metal was badly rusted, and the wheels were stuck in a crack in the ground. Several men kicked it a few times before it came loose.
"Will this thing even work?" he asked.
"Nana said it's okay," Chen Hao called out, turning around. "What's the plan again?"
Nana had reached the edge of the construction area. The projection module on her back activated, and a structural diagram appeared in the air. The lines were clear, and the diagram was marked with numbers and sequence.
"We use a staggered stacking method," she said. "The first layer of containers is placed horizontally, and the second layer is staggered vertically to form a buffer matrix. The interlayer is filled with a mixture of crushed stone and coagulant to enhance the overall compressive strength."
“I don’t understand,” Carl said. “Simplify it.”
“It’s like building with blocks,” Nana said, “but each layer has to block the power transmission path of the layer above.”
"Oh." Karl nodded. "I understand. We won't let the force travel all the way through."
"right."
"Let's do it."
The first batch of containers arrived quickly, four placed side by side horizontally, about two meters away from the wall. Then came the second batch, stacked vertically on top, leaving a gap in the middle. Workers began pouring gravel into the interlayer, tamping it down as they poured.
Susan and her team brought three buckets of a hardening agent, a white powder, similar to cement but finer. After pouring it in, water was added and stirred; it began to heat up and harden within minutes.
"How long does it take for this to set?" someone asked.
"It will initially harden in forty minutes," Nana said. "It will take two hours to fully bear the weight."
“That’s enough,” Chen Hao said. “We have five hours and fifty minutes left.”
Time has started moving again.
The lights weren't bright enough, so everyone used flashlights to work. Some people, even wearing gloves, cut their hands on the sheet metal, bandaged them, and continued moving materials. Chen Hao's wound on his right arm bled, dripping with muddy water, but he ignored it, simply rolling up his sleeve even higher.
"Aren't you really going to do anything about it?" Susan asked as she passed by.
"Let it scab over on its own," Chen Hao said. "Anyway, it's not the first time it's bled."
"You're really lazy."
“I really hate trouble.” He grinned. “Disinfecting, bandaging, changing dressings, the whole process takes half an hour, and I can carry six bags of sand.”
Susan shook her head and turned to allocate the next batch of supplies.
Nana remained standing still, her eyes fixed on the data stream flowing across the sea. Her machine was connected to three monitoring nodes, which refreshed the readings every five minutes.
Suddenly, she moved slightly.
“Changes in the underwater topography have been detected,” she said. “There are signs of secondary slippage in the seabed fault.”
Chen Hao stopped what he was doing.
"How significant is the impact?"
“The peak energy level of the aftershocks has been increased by 18 percent,” Nana said. “The current defense system’s limit is 103 percent of the current pressure, which is insufficient.”
"That means it was very close to collapsing."
"precise."
"Then it can't be any worse!" Chen Hao shouted, turning around. "Listen up, everyone! Add a third layer to the container! Originally planned for two layers, now it's three! Fill all the interlayers with coagulant!"
No one asked why, and no one complained. People moved what needed to be moved, welded what needed to be welded, and the team got moving.
Carl climbed to the top of the second container and used a welding torch to reinforce the joints. Sparks fell on his shoulders, burning a few small holes, but he shook his clothes and continued working.
"Couldn't you have hidden yourself?" someone shouted from below.
"Why are you hiding?" Karl asked without turning his head. "I'm not made of paper."
Susan organized a team to clear the transport route. Half of the debris that had been piled up due to the landslide had been moved, leaving only a few broken steel bars and a cement slab.
“Take a detour,” she said. “Use the pipe on the east side as a slide to send the rest of the materials over there.”
Two workers responded and went to check the inside of the pipe. There was some water inside, but there was enough space.
“You can go,” one of them shouted, turning around, “but we have to remove the first bend.”
"Tear it down," Susan said. "It has to be open within ten minutes."
Time is slowly pressing down.
The installation of the third layer of containers began, and their positioning was more difficult than the first two layers. Workers erected temporary scaffolding and used ropes to pull them up. One container got stuck halfway through and swayed for a while before finally settling down.
"Slow down!" Chen Hao directed from below, "We don't have spares if it gets damaged."
"Got it!" the man upstairs shouted. "It's just that this thing is too heavy!"
"It's your own fault for not training in weightlifting back then."
A burst of laughter rang out in the crowd, but quickly faded away. Everyone was too tired.
Nana's projection was still in the air, the countdown numbers kept jumping: 5 hours 12 minutes, 5 hours 11 minutes, 5 hours 10 minutes...
She suddenly raised her hand, turned off some background data, and focused on the stress analysis of the south wall.
“The current structural fatigue index is 7.9,” she said. “The critical value is 8.5.”
“There’s still room,” Chen Hao said.
"not much."
That's enough.
He walked to the wall and reached out to touch the edge of the crack. The concrete was rough and damp. He pressed down hard, and several pieces of debris fell off.
“We need to add a lateral support,” he said. “Otherwise, the pressure on the upper layers will be too great.”
“We have I-beams ready-made,” Carl said. “There are three left at the back of the warehouse.”
"Bring it here."
Two minutes later, the steel beam was in place, and welding began. Sparks flew, illuminating faces intermittently.
Susan leaned against the wall and took a sip of water when the walkie-talkie crackled to life.
"The supplies team reports that the last barrel of coagulant has been put into use."
“Understood,” she said. “Have each team check the tool recovery status, make sure nothing is left behind.”
She looked up at the sky; it was still dark. A breeze had picked up, making her feel cold.
"Do you think... we can hold out this time?" she asked, walking up to Chen Hao.
"I don't know," Chen Hao said, looking at the wall that was being reinforced. "But I can guarantee one thing."
"What?"
"If we stop now, we definitely won't be able to hold on."
Susan smiled but didn't say anything.
Nana suddenly spoke up: "An abnormally high frequency of sea surface fluctuations has been detected."
Everyone paused for a moment.
"How fast?" Chen Hao asked.
“It was about five hours and three minutes from the trigger point,” she said. “Seven minutes earlier than expected.”
"Then stop dawdling." Chen Hao clapped his hands. "Last round, everyone up! Bring up everything you can!"
The team started moving again.
The container arrived, the gravel was dumped, and the coagulant was poured in. The sounds of welding, hammering, and footsteps continued.
Standing on high ground, Nana's blue-light eyes swept across the entire defense line. Her database contained hundreds of flood control structure cases, but she had never seen such a pieced-together yet effective combination.
"Ninety-two percent complete," she said. "We expect to finish all the work in four hours and fifty-eight minutes."
"That's enough," Chen Hao said. "Just make sure you stand firm before the wave comes."
He bent down and picked up an empty sack, preparing to fill it with gravel again.
Just then, the ground trembled slightly.
It was very short, but everyone felt it.
Chen Hao didn't look up; he simply threw the sack in his hand onto the ground.
Then he shouted:
"Don't stop! Keep going! If you take a break now, you'll be struggling to breathe for the rest of your life!"
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