Chapter 20: A Lot Of Demands
"After spending the time and money to secure it?" pressed Rong Jingwei. That sounded completely asinine to him.
"Ownership won’t be enforceable after the collapse," countered Zhiyi.
Shichen’s attention moved from the rejected medical complex to the growing requirements on Zhiyi’s page.
A primary underground shelter for the heat.
A secondary shelter close enough to reach if the first failed.
A third site on an alternate route.
Independent water, ventilation and power at all three.
Replacement machinery stored at each location.
His expression changed as the cost expanded.
"The flood shelters require another three structures?" he asked.
"At minimum," Zhiyi agreed, nodding her head. She looked at the notebook he, too, was looking at to see if something in it had been unclear.
"And the freeze?" continued Shichen.
"The same."
"We’re discussing nine fortified properties, separate supply caches and transportation between all of them," he hissed, pinching the bridge of his nose as he closed his eyes in frustration.
Zhiyi was familiar with that expression. A lot of people had it on their faces when they talked to her for a while. But this wasn’t her fault. If they wanted to survive, they couldn’t just depend on a single shelter and hope for the best.
That was how the majority of the population ended up dead.
Them included.
"Yes," she continued firmly. She would not compromise.
"You have a lot of demands for someone who isn’t spending her own money." His voice remained courteous, the expression on his face read polite, so Zhiyi didn’t think anything of it.
It’s not like he was wrong anyway.
She didn’t own any property suitable for conversion. Her personal accounts couldn’t purchase even one commercial ventilation system, and she had offered nothing with measurable financial value beyond information that Shichen hadn’t verified.
"Yes," she agreed, looking at the man. "You’re right."
"My money is hers," Hanchuan interjected at the same time. His voice had a definite bite to it that Zhiyi couldn’t understand.
Silence settled over the office as Shichen looked past Zhiyi to Hanchuan.
Hanchuan hadn’t raised his voice. His posture remained unchanged, but his attention had sharpened in a way that made Zeyu straighten against the wall.
"She doesn’t need your approval to spend it," Hanchuan continued. "Or mine."
Zhiyi turned to look at him.
The statement wasn’t legally accurate. She held no position within Pei Holdings, had no access to Hanchuan’s accounts and possessed no authority to sign contracts in his name.
Hanchuan’s expression indicated that he considered those administrative problems rather than limitations.
Shichen’s suspicion didn’t disappear.
From his perspective, a nineteen-year-old woman had entered Hanchuan’s office, settled onto his lap and begun assigning billions of yuan to properties and equipment. Her only explanation was a relationship no one else remembered.
None of the other men had a reason to trust her.
But Shichen did, however, have a boundary he couldn’t cross without challenging Hanchuan directly.
He looked at Zhiyi again. "Then we’ll continue with the nine properties."
"Nine is the current minimum. The final number depends on location and travel time."
Zeyu released a quiet breath that may have been a laugh.
Shichen ignored him and returned to the display. "Explain why the underground hotel can’t remain useful after the heat."
"Because it would become a coffin when the flood arrives," she answered, coming to her feet and moving to the big screen that Jingwei had moved into the room at some point.
Shichen handed her the stylus without being asked.
Zhiyi marked the hotel’s location, then drew the first projected flood boundary around it.
"The first heat lasts four years. Before it ends, the temperature begins falling and storms increase. Water enters lower elevations before most people understand the heat is over. If we remain underground until the flood reaches the building, the entrances become unusable."
"We seal them," Jingwei countered her.
"Then we can’t leave. External pressure increases against every sealed opening, and water eventually reaches the ventilation shafts since they require access to the outside. A protected underground shelter is the safest place during the heat and one of the worst places during the flood."
"What survives ninety meters of water?" Zeyu asked.
"Buildings that are taller than ninety meters," Zhiyi answered, completely seriously.
Shichen changed the display again and the image of a completed tower appeared.
It had more than fifty floors and an exterior made almost entirely of glass.
Zeyu pointed toward it. "You rejected the first hotel because of the glass."
"For the heat," Zhiyi replied nodding her head. "The flood begins while temperatures are falling. Solar gain becomes less important each month. Reinforced glass would provide light without requiring us to expose the interior."
"Floating debris will break it," Jingwei said.
"Not if it is reinforced," Zhiyi repeated. She looked around for a bottle of water. She had been speaking more in the hour and a half that she had been here than at any other time in her life. It was exhausting and her mouth was getting dry.
Without saying a word, Hanchuan got up, went to the mini fridge under his desk, grabbed a bottle of water and opened it for her.
She took it without saying anything, her attention still on the screen in front of her.
Shichen enlarged the tower’s structural plan. "Laminated panels, exterior impact screens and internal shutters would reduce the risk. The greater concern is the foundation. Most towers weren’t designed for water pressure or repeated strikes from debris."
"This one?" Hanchuan asked.
"Anchored to bedrock. The lower structure is reinforced, although I’d need a complete engineering review before trusting it."
"Power systems?" Qinghe asked.
"Currently below ground."
"Move them above the thirty-fifth floor," Zhiyi said. "Supplies too. Anything below the projected waterline should be considered unrecoverable."
She added a line across the tower.
"Living space begins here. Food, medical supplies and replacement equipment occupy separate floors. We need rooftop access and an opening that can function as a dock once boats can reach the building."
Zeyu moved away from the wall and took the stylus from her. He marked the side of the tower.
"Reinforced loading doors on an upper service floor. The vehicle approaches here if it can float."
"And if it can’t?" Shichen asked.
"Then I’ll make it float," shrugged the other man.
Shichen’s expression suggested the answer offended several engineering principles.
The argument hadn’t begun before Qinghe returned them to the timeline.
"What happens when the water freezes?" he asked
"We leave before it does," Zhiyi answered.
"Where?"
Shichen replaced the tower with a regional topographic map.
Zhiyi examined the elevations.
The capital occupied a low basin crossed by two rivers. The mountain ranges beyond it remained above the confirmed flood levels, but higher elevation also meant lower temperatures, deeper snow and fewer usable roads.
She identified a dormant volcanic field north of the basin.
"There."
Shichen enlarged the area. "That’s more than three hundred kilometers from the capital."
"The floodwater doesn’t reach the eastern ridges."
"It’s a dormant volcano," Zeyu said.
"The shelter wouldn’t be inside the crater."
"That clarification doesn’t improve it as much as you think."
Zhiyi ignored him and indicated a ridge beyond the mapped volcanic hazard zone.
"The region has an existing geothermal power station. We acquire land here and build into the bedrock. The geothermal field provides heat, hot water and power after surface temperatures become too low for conventional systems."
"Volcanic gas can enter underground structures," Qinghe said, his brows furrowing.
"Then the geothermal loop remains sealed from the living area. We install carbon-dioxide and hydrogen-sulfide sensors, independent ventilation zones and emergency breathing equipment."
"Earthquakes?" Jingwei asked.
"We reinforce for them."
"Eruption?" Zeyu asked.
"The volcano didn’t erupt during the ten years we experienced. Although, that doesn’t prove it won’t erupt this time."
"So it’s another location you may abandon."
"Yes," Zhiyi replied with a decisive nod. Everything but the five of them could be abandoned at any time in the coming years. That was the way to ensure survival.
Shichen studied the ridgeline. "The tunnels require several entrances. If snow buries one, we need another on a different face of the ridge."
"And heated ventilation shafts," Qinghe added. "Otherwise ice can block the intake and kill everyone inside."
Zhiyi looked at him.
"The final ventilation system killed us."
The room went still again.
Hanchuan’s shoe remained against her leg.
Shichen lowered the tablet slightly. "How many backup systems did you have?"
"Two. Both depended on components we could no longer replace."
"And the next shelter?"
"Eleven kilometers away."
"Too far in the heat."
"Too far considering that Hanchuan couldn’t walk," replied Zhiyi, her face blank.
No one looked at his legs this time. Instead, Shichen returned to the map. "Then the geothermal shelter needs an alternate outside the volcanic field."
"A hydroelectric facility built into another mountain," Zhiyi said. "Or a military archive, mine or railway tunnel that can be insulated and heated with stored fuel."
"And a third?" he asked.
"Yes."
"Because the first two may fail."
"Or someone else may occupy them before we arrive."
Jingwei’s gaze sharpened. "They would be occupying our property."
"Once again," sighed Zhiyi. They should have already established this point, but the other man seemed to be determined to not understand a world without rules and restrictions. "Property ownership stops mattering when there’s no authority to enforce it."
"We’ll have weapons."
"And so will they."
"You expect us to leave without attempting to reclaim what belongs to us?"
"I expect us to assess the number of occupants, their weapons, the condition of the shelter and the distance to the alternate. Fighting sixty people over a damaged shelter is less efficient than leaving."
Jingwei didn’t agree but he also didn’t dismiss the calculation.
Zhiyi returned to the heat map and drew a second line from the first underground shelter toward the alternate. Then she added the flood tower and connected it to the volcanic ridge.
The route crossed roads that would melt, rivers that would overflow and valleys that would eventually freeze.
One shelter couldn’t carry them through all of it.
Neither could one road.
Shichen moved beside her and began adding his known properties. Jingwei marked warehouses and safe houses. Zeyu identified vehicle facilities along the proposed path. Qinghe added hospitals and medical storage centers that might still be reachable during the first months.
The map filled up fast.
Hanchuan stood behind Zhiyi as the route extended beyond the edge of the capital.
"We don’t just need shelters," she said. When Hanchuan’s hand settled at the back of her neck, she looked up at him. "We need a route. Or three."