Chapter 32 - 24 Days Left
Zhiyi looked at Hanchuan.
He didn’t explain Shichen’s decision or tell her to accept it. Instead, his thumb moved once against the back of her neck. She might have left his embrace, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t touching her in some way, shape or form.
Shichen waited.
"Five shelves," she said finally. "The bottom one should begin at least twelve centimeters above the floor in case of water intrusion."
Shichen altered the plan. "Five shelves."
"Straight."
His mouth moved at one corner. "I know how to build straight shelves."
"Hanchuan said you would."
This time Shichen stopped.
Hanchuan’s hand became still against her neck.
Neither man spoke for several seconds.
Then Shichen looked back at the plan and increased the wall reinforcement behind the shelves.
"They’ll hold anything you put on them," he continued after a brief awkward silence.
At 4:27 that afternoon, the first hidden storage room was ready to be closed.
The contractors had reinforced the space behind the third-level kitchen and installed independent ventilation before leaving the area. According to the official renovation plan, it was a service cavity containing water lines and electrical conduits.
The workers didn’t know that the cavity extended another six meters into the ridge.
They also didn’t know that sixty sealed containers would arrive after midnight and disappear inside it before the wall was completed.
Only the six of them would know.
Shichen dismissed the final crew from the level. Jingwei checked the corridors and disabled every camera except the independent units under his control. Once he confirmed that no one remained below them, Zeyu drove a compact loader through the service entrance.
The first pallet contained water-filtration membranes, mechanical pumps and replacement parts.
The second carried medical supplies Qinghe had taken from one of his private hospital warehouses.
The third held industrial respirators, protective clothing and four types of air-quality monitor.
They unloaded the pallets themselves.
Hanchuan removed his jacket and carried the first crate with Jingwei. Zeyu operated the loader while Shichen directed the placement according to weight and retrieval order. Qinghe checked every medical seal before allowing a container into storage.
Zhiyi reached for a smaller crate.
Hanchuan looked at its label. "Put that one against the northern wall."
Qinghe turned from the medical pallet, a scowl fixed on his face. "She knows where it goes."
"I was giving her the location," replied Hanchuan, unphased.
"You could ask whether she wants to carry it," countered Qinghe.
Zhiyi tightened her hands around the crate. "I already picked it up."
Qinghe’s mouth closed.
Zeyu looked down from the loader and made a choking sound that might have concealed a laugh.
Jingwei didn’t bother concealing his.
It was the first time Zhiyi had heard it. The sound was low and brief, but it changed his entire face before disappearing.
Qinghe looked at all of them. "I’m surrounded by children."
"You’re twenty-eight," Zeyu reminded him. "Just like the rest of us. Family planning remember? Our parents made sure that we were all born in the same year."
"And yet, today I’ve aged another fifteen years," hissed Qinghe.
"That may indicate an underlying medical condition," Zhiyi pipped up.
Qinghe stared at her like she had somehow betrayed him.
She adjusted the crate in her arms. "You should conduct appropriate testing."
Jingwei laughed again, and this time, it lasted longer.
Qinghe took the crate from Zhiyi before she could carry it into the storage room. "Northern wall?"
"Yes."
He carried it there himself.
Zhiyi watched him set it in the correct position.
He was still angry with Hanchuan. As far as he was concerned, Hanchuan kept taking away her choices and calling it help. In fact, as far as Qinghe’s medical opinion went, he felt like Hanchuan was being so controlling that it was a big red flag that bordered on abusive.
And that was putting it nicely.
But, Hanchuan hadn’t taken the crate because he believed she was incapable of carrying it.
Qinghe had taken it because it was heavy.
That distinction mattered more than he was willing to admit to.
By 7:03, all sixty containers had been placed inside the concealed room.
Shichen checked the inventory against the storage plan. Jingwei sealed an independent transmitter behind the final stack. Qinghe confirmed that none of the temperature-sensitive supplies had remained outside refrigeration long enough to be compromised.
Zeyu parked the loader beyond the service entrance and lowered the first panel of the false wall into place.
It took all five men to align it.
Zhiyi stood behind them with Shichen’s measurements and directed the adjustment. "Left side down three millimeters."
Zeyu shifted his grip.
"Too far. Raise it one," she continued to call out.
Zeyu corrected it.
"Rotate the upper edge toward Hanchuan."
Hanchuan pulled while Jingwei supported the center. Qinghe held the base and Shichen watched the alignment marks disappear behind the panel.
The wall settled into place.
When the final fasteners were concealed and the surface coating applied, the room appeared to end at the same point shown on the official plan.
Nothing indicated that years of replacement equipment waited behind it.
For a while, no one moved.
They were dirty, exhausted and covered in concrete dust. Zeyu’s new boots had been scratched beyond repair. Shichen had torn one sleeve. Jingwei’s hands were grey to the wrists, and Qinghe had somehow acquired a streak of sealant across his cheek.
Hanchuan stood beside Zhiyi with one hand resting at her waist.
In their first life, preparations had consisted of whatever they could carry.
One bag of food.
One container of water.
A cart with a wheel that eventually broke.
But this was different.
It wasn’t a plan displayed across an office wall or numbers written in her notebook. It was a sealed room filled with equipment that would remain waiting until they needed it.
The first piece of their future now existed outside Zhiyi’s mind.
Zeyu leaned against the new wall. "Please tell me we’re done for today."
"We need to eat," Qinghe said.
"That wasn’t the answer I wanted," Zeyu whined.
"It’s the answer you received."
Shichen checked the time. "The overnight crew arrives at nine. We need to leave before they enter this level."
Jingwei looked at the wall one final time. "No one opens it unless all six of us agree."
"No," Zhiyi said.
Five heads turned toward her.
"If the shelter is failing, agreement wastes time. Any one of us can open it when the contents are necessary."
Jingwei considered the correction, then nodded. "Any one of us."
Hanchuan took the marker from Shichen’s temporary table and drew a small black line across the wall near the floor.
It looked like an accidental construction mark.
Only the six of them knew it identified the release point.
"Now we leave," he said.
No one argued.
They climbed out of the shelter together while machinery continued working in the levels above them.
Behind the false wall, the first supplies waited in darkness.
Twenty-four days left.