Apocalypse Star House Hoarding-Chapter 6

The two of them took the stairs to the seventh floor. Yuan Qi and her son hadn’t had breakfast yet, so they went to the restaurant to get their meals, and Yuxi also picked up a portion symbolically.
Breakfast consisted of a carton of milk, a piece of bread, two boiled eggs, a quarter of a pineapple, eight meat-filled steamed dumplings, and a 500 ml bottle of mineral water for each person. The bread was packaged, and the dumplings were frozen, so they weren’t freshly made. The taste wasn’t great, but considering the current situation, it was already very good. However, some people in the restaurant were still dissatisfied.
These were the original guests of the hotel. Those who could afford to stay in a five-star hotel generally had some money and normally wouldn’t touch these items during a buffet breakfast. Some were complaining that they wanted hot porridge, some soup noodles, or bread with fried eggs, sausages, and bacon.
Although the water hadn’t receded, the current situation wasn’t too dire. Some were worried and anxious, while others were more carefree. With around two to three hundred people in the hotel, some felt that with so many people around, there shouldn’t be any real danger, even if they were temporarily stranded.
After all, the tsunami had already passed. Could there possibly be another one?
Ultimately, they believed that rescue would definitely come. Even if the island’s rescue efforts were limited, assistance from other islands or the mainland would surely arrive. They were all tourists from different countries, and if Sea Country’s rescue couldn’t make it, surely their own country’s rescue would. It wasn’t possible for the entire world to be submerged by the tsunami, right?
Yuxi, now fluent in multiple languages, thought: “Shouldn’t you avoid jinxing it like that?”
Compared to the noisy and complaining guests, Yuan Qi said nothing. She took the breakfast for herself and her son, retrieved a zippered cloth bag from the side pocket of her large backpack, and placed all the food inside. She then slung it across her chest, picked up her son, and went down to the rescue floor with Yuxi.
A considerable number of people had already gathered at the open space near the entrance to the fitness center, mostly women, children, and the elderly, along with some lightly injured individuals.
These were the people notified for the first evacuation group. Others, outside these categories, also gathered, likely to see if there were any remaining spaces and hoping to be evacuated to the mountain sooner.
Several staff members were registering people at the fitness center’s reception desk, including Ximan. The hotel had many foreign guests, and he, being young and proficient in multiple languages, made communication easier.
When Yuan Qi and Yuxi’s room numbers were being registered, the recording staff exchanged a few words with a nearby colleague, which Yuxi overheard.
The hotel was notifying guests floor by floor, and the person assigned to notify the thirteenth floor had only just gone up. They were surprised to see Yuan Qi and Yuxi had come down so quickly.
Simon overheard and glanced at Yuxi. She smiled gently at him, leaving the young boy blushing and avoiding her gaze.
Those who were registered received a card with their name, room number, and the rescue boat number.
Yuxi didn’t mind staying at the hotel or moving to the mountain, as her task was to escape the island. Moving to the mountain didn’t mean escaping, and her situation suited a more solitary approach. She had reviewed the island’s tourist guide and looked at the situation of Sea view mountain in detail.
Sea view mountain was large, with many famous hotels, inns, and bed-and-breakfasts. Even if she moved with the crowd, she could find a less crowded inn or bed-and-breakfast to continue her solitary survival.
As a last resort, even if all the inns and hotels were full, she wouldn’t share a room with others. She could set up her camping tent, which was equipped for extreme climates, and find a way to leave the island.
Ten minutes later, those who received their cards were led to the fifth floor. A room at the end of the hallway had its door open. Due to its unique location, it had an extra-large triangular balcony. The furniture in the living room had been moved, and the balcony door had been removed.
“When the boat arrives, you’ll go down from the balcony. Please check your clothes, shoes, and belongings, and make sure you’re wearing comfortable clothing for movement,” a staff member reminded them. There were twenty people in the first group, including Yuxi.
Almost all the injured were in this transfer list, with five seriously injured individuals lying in the next room. Due to the space occupied by these five, only twenty people could go in the first boat, although it could have accommodated more otherwise.
Fortunately, there were three rescue boats, and with multiple trips, all the hotel guests should be able to leave.
The first boat carried women, children, and the elderly. Not knowing each other, they found places to sit and wait in the room. Yuan Qi found a corner near the balcony, opened her bag, and let her son eat breakfast.
Although young, her son could sense the tension. Holding Yuan Qi’s neck, he said a few words in his baby voice, then took the milk and drank it obediently. After a few sips, he remembered his mother and tried to feed her, insisting she drink as well. Yuan Qi symbolically took a couple of sips.
The milk carton was soon empty, and he wanted more.
“Be good, you’ve already had one carton. Let’s save this one for the boat, okay?”
They hadn’t stocked much food in their room since they were on vacation and could buy food easily around the hotel. Most of the food in the backpack was her son’s snacks, like biscuits, cheese sticks, and candy, which weren’t enough to fill them up.
In this situation, having more food gave a sense of security. Yuan Qi could endure hunger, but not her son.
Her son’s small chubby hand had already reached for the other milk carton. Hearing Yuan Qi, he looked back at her, reluctantly stroked the carton, and then withdrew his hand. “Mom, keep it safe for me.”
“Good boy, Yuan Yuan.”
While Yuan Qi and her son were talking, a carton of milk was handed to Yuan Yuan. He looked up and saw that it was the pretty sister who lived next door.
“This is for you,” Yuxi said, handing the milk to him. She then tied up the plastic bag containing her breakfast and put it into Yuan Qi’s cloth bag.
“Miss Yu, you…” Yuan Qi was about to refuse and pushed it back.
“I already had breakfast, and I bought quite a bit of food at the supermarket when I checked in yesterday. You have a child, so don’t be polite with me over this little bit of food,” Yuxi said, pointing to her large backpack. She then patted Yuan Yuan’s head. “Drink it.”
“Thank you,” Yuan Qi said, accepting the food with gratitude. She needed the food, so she took it with thanks.
Yuan Yuan looked at her with his big, bright eyes, his long eyelashes fluttering over his chubby cheeks. He gave her a sweet smile and said, “Thank you, sister.”
Then, he rummaged through his small backpack, which was slung across his shoulder. Inside were two small packs of biscuits, a few pieces of beef jerky, a lollipop, and a jelly.
He pulled out his favorite jelly and handed it to Yuxi. “Sister, eat this. It’s peach-flavored. Yuan Yuan loves jelly the most!”
Yuxi didn’t refuse and accepted it, thanking him. She ruffled his hair again and then went to the balcony to check the water level.
She remembered that the water level yesterday was at the bottom edge of the fourth-floor windows. Today, the fourth-floor windows were no longer visible, and the waterline was less than a meter below where she was now.
This balcony was very large, and the water’s surface near the wall was littered with debris and fragments of buildings. About a hundred meters away from the front left, on the roof of a five-story building, several people were preparing to move, seemingly aiming for this hotel.
In fact, survivors from nearby lower buildings were all moving toward the surrounding high-rise buildings.
Some buildings, although tall, were sealed with bulletproof glass that ordinary people couldn’t break through. Hotels like the Ronaia, with balconies and railings, were undoubtedly a good choice.
Ahead to the left, a boat was approaching the hotel. In contrast to the slow-moving rubber boats and makeshift rafts around, this boat sped toward them quickly and stopped near the balcony.
It was a medium-sized speedboat, slightly battered, with a young woman with short black hair piloting it. She maneuvered the boat towards the balcony with her right hand hanging limp and a large bloodstain on her t-shirt.
She was sitting on a high stool, with someone next to her supporting her body. Her face was pale, lips nearly bloodless, but her eyes lit up upon seeing Yuan Qi and Yuan Yuan.
“Sis! Yuan Yuan!” she called out.
Yuan Yuan, who was nibbling on bread, wriggled off his mother’s lap. “Auntie! Auntie!” he shouted excitedly.
“Auntie?” Yuan Qi, shocked, followed her son’s gaze and hurriedly moved to the balcony, holding him.
The speedboat had slowed down and stopped at a suitable angle outside the balcony. Yuxi then noticed the young woman piloting the boat had a dislocated arm and a large wound on her waist and abdomen, blood-soaked.
She had managed to pilot the speedboat back despite being injured and nearly passed out upon reaching the hotel. Yuan Qi, filled with both joy and fear, clutched her sister’s hand and begged the hotel staff to help her.
Several people helped carry her to a clean room. A hotel employee ran out and returned moments later with a tall young man.
Yuxi recognized him as the surgeon named Lin that Simon had mentioned. He had been helping the seriously injured guests the previous day.
“What’s the situation?” he asked as he bent down to examine her, addressing Yuan Qi who stood closest.
Relieved that he spoke their language, Yuan Qi quickly described her sister’s injuries.
Lin Wu lifted her shirt to inspect the wound on her abdomen, his eyebrows furrowing deeply.
Yuxi asked, “Is the wound infected?”
In a tsunami, the most dangerous condition was infection. Bone fractures and puncture wounds might not be fatal, but if a wound wasn’t treated in time and got contaminated by floodwater full of debris and bacteria, infection and fever could be deadly.
Lin Wu glanced at her and replied, “No need to worry, it’s just blood loss. Fortunately, there was some emergency treatment done, so it hasn’t been contaminated. It shouldn’t get infected.”
After setting her arm back in place, he prepared to perform a simple surgery. Yuxi left the room, and as she walked down the corridor, she saw another injured man being helped along. He had a head wound that needed bandaging.
As they passed, the man suddenly grabbed her and hugged her tightly. “You… you’re okay? Thank goodness you’re alive…”
Yuxi was speechless.
Alright, she remembered now. The man in front of her was Fang Zichen, the person her “background story” claimed she had a crush on.
He was so overwhelmed and hugged her so tightly that the two people supporting him nearly stumbled.
One of them looked up and was equally surprised. “Yuxi?”