Chapter 5 The Water Did Not Retreat
[5]
This was a very young boy, from L Island, no more than eighteen or nineteen years old, wearing the uniform of a housekeeping staff at the Ronaia Hotel, a white shirt with a black vest, but now the clothes were in disarray, with bloodstains all over.
You Xi glanced at the name tag on his chest, where his name was written in International: Ximan.
She took him a few steps to the other side of the corridor. The doors of the rooms here were all closed, and the smell of blood was not that strong. "Ximan, I want to know the current situation. Your people have been to our floor just now, but they didn't explain the rescue clearly. Has the hotel not received any rescue response yet?"
Ximan didn't have a high level of education, and he was introduced by someone to work in this five-star hotel, but he was smart, quick-handed, hardworking, and could speak international languages, so he was quickly promoted from a porter to a room service.
The guest standing in front of him looked much calmer than the others, with a polite attitude, speaking fluent local language, and a natural sense of intimacy.
He looked around and lowered his voice and said, "Yes, we sent out rescue calls after the first wave of the tsunami, but we haven't received a response. Our L Island is not big, and we have limited police and rescue resources. Now the sea has not receded, and the situation in other places on the island is worse than here. So in this case, rescue should not come to us so soon. What we are most worried about now are the seriously injured people just now. We have to send them to the hospital as soon as possible. The hospital has tall buildings and is farther away from the sea, so the situation should be okay. But the water hasn't receded yet, and if there wasn't a surgeon among the guests, we really don't know what to do..."
"Is it the one in there just now?"
"Yes, his name is Lin, and he is from Beijing like you. Fortunately, he had a fever before, so he didn't go out to sea today. Fortunately, he didn't leave the hotel, otherwise..."
Seeing her frown, Ximan comforted her, "But don't worry too much. You are not injured, and our hotel currently has sufficient reserves in all aspects. Even if there is no rescue, as long as the sea water recedes in a few hours, everyone will be safe."
However, Youxi couldn't rest assured. Not receiving a rescue reply and receiving a reply that they would rescue people in more critical situations first are two different things.
In addition, even if the sea water recedes, the only airport on L Island may not be available in the short term. Water transportation is inconvenient and air transportation is not possible. L Island is isolated from the world.
Unless there are external rescuers, according to the trend of this tsunami, the surrounding large islands and land near the sea will be affected. In a disaster, the principle of proximity is followed. It is unknown how long it will take for external rescue to arrive.
Moreover, will the sea water really recede within a few hours? The tsunami has passed, but the water level is still around four layers high, which is a bit abnormal.
"Let's put it this way. If you get a response from the rescue team, whether you come right away or have to postpone it, once you get a response, please let me know, okay? My last name is You, you know which room I live in."
"Okay, Miss You, no problem."
"Thank you."
"You're welcome."
After leaving the sixth floor, You Xi went down to the fifth floor. There were very few people here, and the entire corridor was wet. Some people had their doors tightly closed, and some were discussing whether to move upstairs.
The fourth floor was flooded for a little while, and You Xi didn't go down again. Looking down from the window of the stairwell on the fifth floor, there were several rubber boats tied to the outer wall of the fourth floor, and people were still organizing rescue operations. Not far away, you could see many local people rowing boats to pick up usable supplies floating in the water.
When Youxi returned to the seventh floor, there were fewer people than before. She registered her room card number and passport name, received a dinner, and returned to the thirteenth floor.
The staff had already left, and most of the rooms that were originally open on this floor were closed. When she passed the next room, the door was suddenly opened, and the woman she met in the afternoon greeted her politely.
"Hello, thank you for reminding me this afternoon, so I didn't go downstairs immediately, otherwise..." She thought of the horrific scene when the tsunami hit, and she shuddered involuntarily.
"Don't be polite, I just mentioned it casually."
"But you indirectly saved my life and my son's life. My last name is Yuan, my name is Yuan Qi, and I'm from H City."
"My name is You Xi, and I'm from S City."
"Sorry, I don't speak Interlingua very well. I want to ask you how the following situation is?"
You Xi simply recounted what he saw.
"Thank you, in fact, my sister also came to L Island with us this time. She speaks Interlingua better, but she went out to play at sea today. She left by boat in the morning. I don't know where she is now..."
Yuan Qi said this, but she knew in her heart that her sister would be in great danger in such a terrible tsunami.
"Mom..." The little boy came out of the door and reached out to grab Yuan Qi's hand, "Yuan Yuan is hungry, when are we going to have dinner with auntie?"
Yuan Qi felt sad and squatted down to hug her son, "It's Mom's fault for forgetting to eat. Now take Yuan Yuan downstairs to eat."
You Xi didn't think of giving the meal she got to the other party. After all, the hotel still had enough supplies, and it wasn't to that point.
After Yuan Qi picked up her son, she hesitated and asked, "Well, if the hotel has any notifications in the future, can you continue to help me translate? I'm sorry, but I don't speak the language..."
This was just a small matter, You Xi nodded to indicate that it was no problem.
She returned to the room, just after closing the door and turning on the light, the room suddenly became dark. A moment later, footsteps and panicked voices were heard in the corridor. In this situation, darkness will make people more panic.
Fortunately, after ten minutes or so, the light in the room rang again. This should be the hotel's backup power supply.
The backup power supply only provides lighting services. The air conditioner and other electrical appliances are turned off. Youxi opened the glass sliding door of the terrace. The heavy rain and tsunami washed away the heat in the island air. It was not very hot.
She turned off all the headlights in the suite, leaving only a floor lamp in the living room, and prepared to have dinner. She was hit by the disaster in the afternoon, and she didn't feel like cooking for herself. She found a Cantonese pork ribs, dried scallops and mushroom porridge and a box of barbecued pork from the Xingwu warehouse.
This is the takeaway she ordered over the past five days. All of them are packed in takeaway boxes. When she took them out, the food was still warm and felt like it had just come out of the pot.
In this strange and alien world, familiar food brings a familiar sense of security.
The pork ribs, scallops and mushroom porridge is warm and salty, the rice is soft and glutinous, the scallops are fresh and fragrant, and the pork ribs are cooked until they are soft and tasty, melting in the mouth.
The barbecued pork is sweet and salty and appetizing. Each piece is lean with some fat. This little fat is not only not greasy, but also particularly crispy and juicy. It is delicious with the dipping sauce.
In line with the principle of not wasting, she ate everything cleanly, stuffed the empty boxes of tableware into a plastic bag, and threw it back into the Xingwu warehouse. Afterwards, she took out a cup of honey grapefruit tea.
The pomelo shop uses red pomelo. The bright red flesh is suspended in the refreshing honey water, and with the floating ice cubes, it feels cool and refreshing.
Because she had already taken a shower at noon, and she didn't feel hot, she didn't plan to take another shower to waste the hotel's water.
She simply washed her hands and face, locked the glass sliding door of the terrace, fastened the safety lock of the room door, went into the bedroom, closed the door, and took a chair to stand behind the door.
Youxi opened all the curtains in the bedroom, opened the air vent a little, and lay down on the big bed with a little swaying water light reflected from the window.
In fact, she was already very sleepy. After all, the time she entered the mission world yesterday was midnight, which was exactly bedtime. Now she has been holding on for more than ten hours, which is equivalent to staying up all night. Not long after she touched the pillow, she fell asleep slowly.
She woke up to a knock on the door. She took out her cell phone from the Star House warehouse and took a look. It was a little after five in the morning.
The phone showed that it had 40% battery left. This was the phone in the mission world. Her own phone was on her body when she traveled through the world, but it obviously did not follow this world.
You Xi remembered in her heart that when traveling through the world, only the things placed in the Star House warehouse could follow the other world. She
had not thought it through before, so she did not stock up on charging cables, power banks and the like. Now she realized that after using up the remaining 40% of power, the phone would be forced to shut down.
There was no signal on the island now, and the phone could not be dialed, but the phone could provide light and check the time, so it was still very useful.
She threw the phone back into the warehouse, and while thinking about whether there was a power bank in the hotel, she got up and walked out of the bedroom and came to the door of the room.
The person knocking on the door was Ximan. He was still wearing yesterday's clothes. His eyes looked a little red and his face was sleepy, as if he hadn't slept all night.
"Ms. You." The other party was quite excited. "I'm sorry to wake you up so early..."
Ximan brought good news. The hotel received a rescue response not long ago. Although the capital island has not been contacted, the rescue team on the main island will arrive in about two hours. The direction of relocation is the Wanghai Mountain area. Although it is closer to the other coast, it is less affected by the disaster due to the terrain.
In addition to a five-star hotel, there are two three-star hotels and large and small hotels and B&Bs on Wanghai Mountain, which can accommodate a lot of people.
The two hospitals closer to Wanghai Mountain transferred some survivors, medical staff and medical equipment there last night.
"So, the water has receded?" You Xi obviously asked the key question, and the boy's face in front of him became solemn.
"You haven't looked outside yet, the water hasn't receded." In fact, not only did the water not recede, it even rose several levels overnight.
Many of the staff in the hotel are from L Island. After the tsunami yesterday, they were very worried about their families, but on the one hand, it was inconvenient to leave because the sea water had not receded, and on the other hand, the hotel put pressure on them with work, so everyone temporarily endured it.
But the sea water did not recede until the evening, and the staff who were worried about their families could not bear it anymore. After private discussions, they directly moved away several rubber boats of the hotel and took away some water supplies.
Nearly half of the staff in the hotel left. Due to the shortage of staff and the lack of morale, Ximan's workload suddenly increased. He only slept for two or three hours a night and stayed in the safety staircase on the fifth floor to pay attention to the water line.
Several guests on the fifth floor had already moved to the seventh and eighth floors. Because it was dark last night and many guests and survivors were very tired, most people did not notice the water level outside.
You Xi said wait a moment, then turned and walked towards the living room terrace. She opened the sliding door and looked down at the hotel. The sky was just getting light, but it was enough to distinguish the situation below. The dark gray water reflected ripples in the dim light, and it was still at the same height as yesterday.
The worst situation has happened. The sea water really hasn't receded!
Seeing her frown, Ximan said again, "But fortunately we have received a reply from the rescue team. Please gather on the eighth floor in two hours. We will arrange for everyone in the hotel to leave one by one."
He thought for a moment and added one more sentence before leaving, "Ms. You, the disaster is serious at present. The rescue is not sufficient. We may evacuate in batches. We will start notifying the guests in half an hour. The injured women, children and the elderly will be given priority. Remember to go downstairs as early as possible."
"Thank you." After seeing Ximan off, Youxi closed the door and started to wash up.
The hotel only provides water for half an hour at night, and there is no water in the morning, but this has no effect on her.
She found a washbasin from the daily necessities in the Xingwu warehouse, filled half a basin of hot water, and then washed up with the hotel's toothbrush and toothpaste. After cleaning herself, she took out a small wonton and a box of soup dumplings from the warehouse.
This small wonton shop is famous for its bubble wontons, with a bone soup base and transparent wontons floating in the soup. They are sprinkled with golden egg skin and green scallions, and the fresh aroma makes people's appetites open just by smelling it.
The soup dumplings are also famous far and wide, with thin skin and large fillings. The soup color can be faintly seen through the extremely thin dough. Use chopsticks to carefully pick up one and place it in the spoon. Gently bite a little bit of the skin, and the delicious soup will flow into your mouth.
A serving of soup dumplings is not much, six, plus the small wontons, just enough to eat in one meal.
Youxi sat in front of the tea table in the living room, eating breakfast while watching the sky gradually brighten. As more and more people woke up and discovered the water level downstairs, the voices in the corridor gradually became chaotic.
She began to reflect on whether she had gone too far. In the face of a catastrophe, everyone was in danger, but she was eating breakfast just one door away.
"Am I too leisurely to do my job like this?" She said so, but her hands and mouth still cooperated honestly until she drank the last mouthful of bone soup cleanly.
[……]
Inexplicably, she felt Xingwu's hesitant state again.
After packing up the packing box, she put the half-drunk mineral water bottle back into her backpack, then put on the backpack and walked out of the room.
The corridor was a little chaotic. The guests who had rested for a night had not yet recovered from the tsunami disaster. Seeing the seawater below the building still not receding, they were all panicked.
There were also cases where the seawater took a long time to recede after a tsunami. Most of the time it was due to terrain problems, such as the high coast and the low terrain in the central area. When the seawater receded, some of it would be trapped in the depression.
But even in that case, the waterline would drop significantly. But now it not only did not drop at all, but it even rose by several steps, as if... as if the whole island was submerged in the sea...
Abnormal phenomena will inevitably bring invisible panic, and panic is often the beginning of chaos.
Youxi knocked on Yuanqi's door. She didn't know if she hadn't slept all night either. Her face was pale and her eyes were red and swollen. She looked a little lost.
"What's the matter?" She lowered her voice, probably because she didn't want to wake the child.
You Xi glanced at the situation in the corridor. She didn't know how many people knew about the shortage of rescue personnel. For safety reasons, she entered Yuan Qi's room, closed the door, and then lowered her voice: "I was notified before that the rescue will arrive at the hotel in an hour and a half, but there are insufficient rescue personnel, so they will be evacuated in batches. Injured women and children should be given priority."
"Really?" She obviously didn't know about the rescue, and her face showed joy when she heard it.
"Well, I'm going to go downstairs now, and you'd better go down early too."
"Then I'll pack my things now." Yuan Qi hurriedly walked towards the inner room, took two steps and turned back, "Thank you for telling me, can you wait for me for a few minutes, I want to go down with you."
It was still early, You Xi nodded: "Okay."
You Xi thought she would have to wait for a long time, after all, Yuan Qi had a child. Adults can endure being cold, hot, thirsty or hungry, but children can't. It would take at least ten or twenty minutes to pack up some basic things.
As a result, Yuan Qi just went into the room to wake up her son, changed his clothes, gave him some water, and then took a large backpack beside the bed and came out with the child in her arms: "Let's go."
Seeing You Xi looking at her, she explained, "This is what my sister told me. She said that if you encounter special situations when you are out, you must pack the items you need to carry with you in advance and be ready to go at any time... She is a female special police officer and has always had a strong sense of crisis..."
Speaking of her sister who was missing in the tsunami, Yuan Qi's face dimmed again.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
