Chapter 9 Middlemen
The return journey was much more difficult than the way there. On the way there, they followed the floodwaters and reached the mall without much trouble. On the way back, they were rowing against the current, and there were only Gu Yanzhi and Song Zhao rowing. In addition, there were more boats on the road, and Gu Yanzhi had seen several boats collide with each other several times.
Fortunately, Gu Yanzhi and Song Zhao were both quite experienced in rowing, and they made it back to their apartment building without any major incidents.
With the help of the others who remained inside the building, the two successfully climbed up.
"Mr. Song, Miss Gu, why are you the only ones who came back? Where are the others?" As soon as the two went up, the others started asking questions all at once.
"We parted ways when we got to the mall. Don't worry, everyone bought a boat." Knowing that everyone was worried, Song Zhao comforted them with kind words.
"Phew, I'm exhausted." As soon as he entered the house, Gu Yanzhi sat down on the ground, panting heavily, without even caring that his clothes were still wet.
After rowing all the way and climbing 17 floors in one go, Gu Yanzhi was so tired that she was about to faint. Gu Yanlin and Song Zhao were much better off, only slightly sweating.
"It's cold on the ground, get up quickly." After a short while, Song Zhao pulled Gu Yanzhi up from the ground and pushed her towards the bedroom, following her in as well. "Go and change your wet clothes quickly."
"Sister, brother-in-law, how's the situation outside?"
After a while, Gu Yanzhi and Song Zhao came out of the bedroom. They had already taken a shower and changed their clothes. Song Zhao was standing behind Gu Yanzhi, drying her hair.
The two briefly explained the current situation outside to Gu Yanlin.
Before they could exchange more than a few words, there was a loud banging on the door.
"Huff, huff, huff"
As soon as Gu Yanlin opened the door, he saw Zhang Qian standing outside, panting heavily. After catching her breath for a while, she greeted him, "Gu Yanlin, Sister Yanzhi, Brother-in-law."
"Xixi, what's wrong?" Gu Yanzhi looked up and asked with a smile when she heard the voice.
"Sister Yanzhi, my dad and the others are back. We're thinking of going out together to help other people in the neighborhood. Many people in our neighborhood don't have boats, and they don't have much food stored at home. Do you want to come along?"
Song Zhao took out his phone and saw that they had all been added to a new group chat, which seemed to include everyone in the neighborhood. Some people were asking if anyone had a spare boat they wanted to borrow, while others were asking if anyone would be willing to give them a ride when they went out. The property management was also organizing in the group, hoping that people with boats at home could contribute their help.
"Let's not go, but we can lend our boat to everyone. Just return it when you're done," Gu Yanzhi said after exchanging glances with the other two after reading the message in the group chat.
They didn't want too much contact with the people in the community, because the more people they interacted with, the greater the risk of their secrets being exposed. This kind of contact, neither too close nor too distant, was just right; they could know what was happening in the community, but wouldn't get too involved.
As Gu Yanzhi spoke, Gu Yanlin also dragged the two newly bought boats, which he hadn't had time to put away, to the doorway.
"Then I'll go downstairs to find my dad and drag the boat down. Don't worry, Sister Yanzhi, I'll make sure to supervise and return your boat intact," Zhang Qian said, and then ran downstairs to call her dad.
"Sister Yanzhi, we're taking the boat with us!" After a while, there was another sound at the door. This time, Zhang Qian didn't knock, but just called out from the doorway, followed by the sound of something scraping on the ground.
The three of them hadn't slept all night and had been up and about again early this morning; it was only 11 a.m. now. After Zhang Qian left, they chatted briefly, then yawned in unison before heading back to their bedrooms to catch up on sleep.
Gu Yanzhi woke up in the evening; to be precise, she was woken up by hunger.
He turned over and looked to his side. Song Zhao was still asleep, fast asleep. He was exhausted from the night and the morning.
Gu Yanzhi gazed at Song Zhao's sleeping face for a while, but finally couldn't resist the hunger in his stomach. He quietly rolled off the bed, grabbed his phone from the bedside table, and tiptoed out.
Sitting on the sofa in the living room, Gu Yanzhi glanced at his phone and saw that he already had 99+ messages.
Upon opening the chat software, the first thing that catches the eye is Zhang Qian's message.
[Sister Yanzhi, the boat has been returned. I knocked on your door but no one answered, so I left it outside.]
[Image of a ship]
Keep scrolling down
[Yanzhi, thank you all for today. My mom made sweet and sour pork ribs and asked me to bring some up; I've left it outside.]
[Images of sweet and sour pork ribs]
Just heat it up in the microwave before eating.
"A cat sending love.jpg"
Thank you, Xixi. Please also thank Aunt Wu for me.
Sorry, I was sleeping too soundly and didn't hear you knocking. [awkward]
"Sister's awake! It's okay, let's eat dinner."
"Shy cat.jpg"
After replying to Zhang Qian's message, Gu Yanzhi continued reading. The remaining messages were mostly from the Building 10 group chat, mainly thanking Gu Yanzhi's family for their help today. Fortunately, Gu Yanzhi's reminder and the boat he provided allowed them to go out early and buy one. Later, when they went out to help others, several other families in the community had gone out too late and tried many places but couldn't buy a boat.
Then, the two families in buildings 11 and 16 also delivered some homemade food to Gu Yanzhi's door. Since the friend request hadn't been accepted yet, they sent the message and pictures to the group chat to remind Gu Yanzhi's family to pick it up.
After reading the messages, Gu Yanzhi thanked everyone in the group chat and then left. She found two friend requests and accepted them both.
This chapter is not finished, please click the next page to continue reading!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
