August 23
It rained all night, and Xu Lin opened her eyes promptly at 7:30 in the morning. The thunder and lightning continued, and the room was still dark.
Today I've decided to have a Chinese breakfast—soy milk and egg pancakes. Xu Lin always makes extra food and stores it online, because she'll have fewer and fewer days to cook for herself in the future, so she tries to make as much as she can while she still can.
After lunch, I practiced for three hours as usual, and the morning was over. The rain outside showed no signs of stopping, and the wind must have been strong too; the ornamental trees in the neighborhood had all been broken. The lightning, however, had stopped.
After lunch, I casually scrolled through group messages and found most people still basking in the joy of the holiday. Opening Douyin and other social media platforms, I saw various food vlogs interspersed with a few apocalyptic pronouncements.
"This rain never stops, it's been pouring down non-stop. It feels like the sky is leaking, is this the end of the world?"
"The apocalypse is actually not so bad, at least we won't have to go to work."
“Our underground parking garage is flooded, the cars are all submerged, and the power has been cut off, supposedly to prevent rainwater from conducting electricity.”
"With so many flooded cars, the insurance companies must go bankrupt!"
"We don't even know if the insurance company will pay out! Old neighborhoods are just no good, the drainage is terrible!"
...
Xu Lin spent the entire afternoon surfing the internet, and so far there have been no negative comments. Relevant departments have also reminded citizens to stay home and avoid going out.
It was 7 p.m., and it was completely dark. Xu Lin, carrying a backpack, changed into a one-piece raincoat and prepared to go out. The location was the same as the location posted on WeChat Moments about the flooded underground parking garage in her neighborhood—Xingfu Community.
Happiness Community is just two streets away from Jinxiu Garden, where Xu Lin lives. It is an old community, but there are quite a few wealthy people living there.
This was a residential community built for the first batch of people moving to the city, and it was also the first community in the port city to have an underground parking garage. Of course, being the first to have no experience, it's understandable that the community's drainage system wasn't well-done.
In the afternoon, Xu Lin suddenly realized that since she had a car, it must have gasoline inside. When making her shopping list, she hadn't thought about stockpiling gasoline because she didn't have a car. Even after she did think about it, she couldn't get too much, so she only managed to buy about ten cans at self-service gas stations. Every little bit helps; in the apocalypse, gasoline is a crucial and scarce resource.
What usually takes 20 minutes took a full hour. The neighborhood was alright, there was no standing water, but outside the neighborhood, the water was up to my calves.
Following the signs at the entrance of the residential complex, I arrived at the underground parking garage. The entire complex was pitch black, so there was no need to hide. I simply took out a high-powered flashlight, a headlamp, and a tree branch I had picked up on the road and walked up the stairs into the garage.
The water in the garage was knee-deep. Sandbags were piled up at the entrance, and rainwater continued to pour in. When a strong flashlight was shone on the car, there were only about fifty or sixty cars scattered around. It seemed that they had learned from previous experience and parked most of the cars on higher ground.
He took out the modified lock pick given to him by 801 from his spatial storage, and with five seconds he could open the fuel tank cap and use a pump to siphon the fuel into a pre-prepared 10-liter mineral water bottle. The whole process was done in one go, taking only five minutes.
Upon opening the second car door, Xu Lin's gaze was drawn to a Maitreya Buddha statue on the center console. It was gleaming gold, and she wondered if it was pure gold.
I glanced at the two M logos on the steering wheel—undoubtedly a solid gold Maitreya Buddha. What was I waiting for? I bought it. There was also a beautifully wrapped gift box on the passenger seat. I opened it and found a jade bracelet. The invoice said… RMB doesn't lie, so I accepted!
This gave Xu Lin a new inspiration. She found a diamond-encrusted watch and two unopened boxes of condoms in the storage box. "Should I, a single woman, own these?"
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