As afternoon approached, everyone gradually woke up. There were no lights in the safe house, and it was still very dark, relying only on the light from our flashlights. Even after a comfortable afternoon nap, we still felt listless.
Zhu Dachang huddled in a corner, looking rather unwell. An Xin stepped forward and asked with concern, "Are you feeling unwell? Why do you look so pale?"
Zhu Dachang nodded and then shook his head: "It's nothing, just a bit of a stomachache, I'll be fine if I bear with it."
I asked, "Why does your stomach hurt? Did you eat something bad?"
Zhu Dacuo forced an awkward smile: "It seems so, I feel like I need to go to the toilet."
Seeing that we were all silent for two seconds, Zhu Dachang continued, "Just bear with it."
I didn't say anything. There was a trap set by Ji Lin'an at the door. Going out and coming back in would indeed be a lot of trouble, and it would also mean that we would be temporarily exposed. Zhu Dachang continued to curl up, hugging his knees and burying his head in his arms.
The dimly lit safe house made everyone much quieter, making the whole safe house seem exceptionally quiet. The only sounds were the hum of the exhaust fan and Zhu Dachang's occasional low groan. I turned to Ji Lin'an and asked, "What time is it now?"
Ji Lin'an opened his phone and calculated: "It's probably past 6 o'clock."
I nodded and softly called out to Zhu Dachang, "Brother Dachang."
Zhu Dachang looked up, squinted, and frowned: "Can you still tolerate this?"
Zhu Dachang nodded with a grim expression. I said, "Just bear with it a little longer. It'll be dark soon. You can take care of it outside when it gets dark, okay?"
Zhu Dachang finally managed an awkward smile: "Okay, I can still hold on."
According to Ji Lin'an's calculations, it would be dark by 7 o'clock when the sun sets, so Zhu Dachang wouldn't attract much attention if he went out.
Dai Qiang and Li Song were probably hungry, so they opened their bags and took out food. Suddenly, they heard a rumbling sound outside, which was thunder. After a few claps of thunder, they heard the sound of heavy rain. The rain was particularly heavy, and the sound of raindrops falling on the branches above the safe house could be heard very clearly.
A moment later, Wei Bin exclaimed, "Oh dear, rainwater is leaking in!"
We immediately looked towards the doorway. The loess ground had been soaked to a dark brown by the rain, and the rainwater was still flowing into the soil. Everyone stood up in alarm. I shouted, "Quickly block the doorway with cardboard to prevent the rainwater from seeping in!"
Everyone listened to me and immediately laid the cardboard on the ground at the doorway and stacked it up. The rainwater did stop flowing in, but the sound of the rain was getting heavier and heavier, and more and more rainwater was flowing in. The cardboard did not absorb water well, and some of the rainwater flowed in through the gaps.
Ji Lin'an quickly said, "This rain probably won't stop anytime soon, and if we stay any longer, there will probably be flooding."
The clairvoyant said, "Then let's go out."
An Xin stepped forward and said, "Let's not go out for now. It's okay if there's water, but we can't let the whole safe house flood. It's safe here, but where can we go to take shelter from the rain if we go out?"
Thousand-Mile Eyes nodded: "That makes sense."
I thought for a moment and took out two shovels from my spatial storage: "Let's dig a hole at the entrance so that rainwater can temporarily flow into the hole and not come in."
Ji Lin'an reached for a shovel, and An Xin also reached out for one. I handed the shovel to An Xin, and the two of them quickly took away the cardboard placed at the door and began digging a pit. The ground was all yellow soil, making digging much easier. An Xin and Ji Lin'an soon dug a large pit. An Xin continued digging, while Ji Lin'an used the shovel to shovel the yellow soil he dug to the side and use it to build a wall around the pit. The deeper the pit, the higher the wall. Seeing that the pit had been dug to a depth of one meter, Ji Lin'an left a space for An Xin to come out. After An Xin came out, Ji Lin'an filled the gap, so that even if rainwater seeped in, it could catch nearly two cubic meters of rainwater.
We spread the cardboard that hadn't been damaged by the rain back on the ground and sat down. Everyone took out the food from their backpacks and started eating. I went into my spatial storage and took out some food to replenish everyone's supplies.
Time passed slowly, but the rain showed no sign of stopping. Zhu Dachang's expression didn't seem as bad as it had been at the beginning. I asked, "Are you feeling better, Brother Dachang?"
Zhu Dachang smiled slightly: "Much better, I reckon it's gone."
I nodded: "That's good, it saves you from having to go out to the toilet. It's not convenient for you to go out now, with the rain so heavy." Zhu Dachang smiled and nodded.
I went closer to check the pit and found that it was already full of rainwater. The water level was just up to the wall that Ji Lin'an had built. I immediately looked around and, after confirming that there was no leakage, I went back to Ji Lin'an's side: "I'm afraid this won't last much longer. The pit was full in just over ten minutes. I reckon that in another ten minutes or so, your wall won't be able to hold back the rainwater."
An Xin heard what I said and said, "What are you afraid of? This rain can't last all night, can it? We're all tall, I don't believe the water can get over a person."
The all-seeing eye stepped forward: "You're not short, but isn't there someone short too?"
Thousand-Mile Eyes pointed his chin at Song Yi. I looked at Song Yi, and she was indeed not tall. Her height of about 1.5 meters and her thin body made her look particularly petite. I turned my head and glared at Thousand-Mile Eyes: "You think you're tall? Do you have any manners? Making fun of a girl's height."
Qianliyan pursed his lips, shrank his chin, and didn't say anything more. Song Yi wasn't angry either, and walked towards us: "Sister Su, I saw that you have a lot of storage boxes in your space. Why don't you take them out? If we each sit in one, and rainwater accumulates, we can use them as small boats."
My eyes lit up: "Great idea!"
I turned and glared at Qianliyan: "See? That young lady has a much broader perspective than you."
After saying that, I went into my space and cleared out 10 storage boxes. The storage boxes were made of plastic, and I bought the largest size, 60 centimeters wide, 80 centimeters long, and 45 centimeters high, more than enough to fit one person. I carried the storage boxes out of the space and gave one to each person, waiting for the rain to wash them in.
The previously gloomy atmosphere brightened considerably when everyone sat down in the storage boxes. Li Song said, "I really hope more rainwater can flow in now."
Ji Lin'an laughed and said, "We can't float if there's not much rainwater, unless it accumulates to a certain level. But we can put our supplies in the storage boxes for now." Li Song pouted, somewhat disappointed.
Soon after, the water breached the wall and flowed into the safe house. Everyone immediately slung their bags over their shoulders and sat in the storage boxes. As the water level rose, and it was almost at the edge of the storage boxes, none of us showed any sign of floating up. Qianliyan panicked: "Old Ji, what do we do? Why haven't we floated up yet?"
Ji Lin'an looked around and pondered for a while: "Our weight plus the weight of our backpacks is too heavy. The water level is too low right now. There are so many of us. I guess we won't be able to float for a while."
The man with the far-seeing eye got impatient: "Why didn't you say so earlier!"
Ji Lin'an smiled and said, "People won't be submerged for a while, let's put the backpacks in the storage box first."
We all had to come out of the storage box and put our backpacks inside.
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