Chapter 1: The Flood

Su Li was woken up by his phone alarm at 7:40.

Just waking up, he was still a bit hazy and his head was faintly throbbing. He reached out to his bedside table, picked up his phone, and turned off the alarm. Feeling the urgent need to use the bathroom, he climbed out of bed.

“I got hammered again last night. Seriously, I can’t keep drinking like this.”

Su Li felt parched, his throat burning uncomfortably as if it were on fire.

Last night, he had been accompanying an important client, and to secure that contract, he had gone through three consecutive rounds of drinking—dinner, KTV, and late-night snacks. Though his alcohol tolerance was decent, even he couldn’t handle that.

Whenever he drank, he’d sneak off to the restroom, stick his fingers down his throat to throw up, and then return to continue drinking. After this cycle of drinking and vomiting, he ultimately ended up completely plastered, unable to recall how he even got home.

“Sigh, I blacked out again.” Su Li’s head felt heavy and groggy. Deep down, he sighed, lamenting the difficulty of life; the experience of struggling alone in a foreign city was truly unpleasant.

He sat up in bed, but as soon as he put on his slippers, he realized they were wet.

“Huh? Why is the floor so damp?” Su Li immediately became much more alert and hurriedly stood up.

Could he have gotten drunk last night and left a faucet running, causing water to overflow and flood the floor?

Seeing the floor everywhere was damp, Su Li quickly checked the kitchen and bathroom, confirming there were no leaks.

“That’s strange. I don’t see any leaks, so why is the floor so damp, as if it’s been flooded? Did a water pipe burst somewhere?”

“But I’m on the top floor, so it can’t be a leak from upstairs, right? Forget it, I’ll deal with it when I get back after work.”

Su Li shook his head, feeling a headache coming on; he was the type of person who hated trouble the most.

This was his rented apartment. The building had 30 floors, and his unit was right on the top floor.

Checking the time, it was already almost 7:50 AM. He had to be at work by 8:30 AM, and it took about 20 minutes by bus from here to his company.

He couldn’t afford to delay any longer and quickly brushed his teeth and washed his face.

Because he’d slept so late last night, his eyes still felt slightly swollen. While washing his face, he simply placed the towel over his eyes. After about ten seconds, he removed it. His eyes felt much more comfortable, and his spirits had somewhat recovered.

Taking the towel away, he turned his head and saw that the bathroom window, which was covered with opaque frosted film, was only slightly ajar. He reached out to push the window and opened it completely.

Looking outside through the window, Su Li’s eyelids suddenly jumped.

“This… this is…”

Su Li’s pupils dilated. He quickly stuck his head out, looked at what was outside the window, and gasped sharply.

From the window, all he could see outside was a vast, shimmering expanse of water. Aside from the water, nothing else was visible—no tall buildings, no roads, no cars.

“How is this possible?”

Su Li couldn’t help but cry out, his heart pounding erratically. He immediately closed his eyes, his whole body trembling slightly.

“I must have covered my eyes with the towel for too long and started hallucinating,” Su Li thought silently. He rubbed his eyes again, and then, he opened them once more.

Outside the window, it was still a water surface. He even spotted a blue plastic slipper floating on the water not far away.

With a bang, this time Su Li forcefully shut the window, a chill rising in his heart. He rushed out of the bathroom. Because he rushed too fast, his toe kicked against the door frame, causing him so much pain that cold sweat broke out on his forehead.

Ignoring his potentially injured toe, Su Li hobbled toward the balcony, pulled open the curtains, and then stood frozen beside the balcony, his whole body stiff, his heart beating violently, his hands subtly trembling.

Looking through the row of windows on the balcony, Su Li finally saw everything completely and clearly.

---

The city visible to him was entirely submerged by water, transformed into a boundless expanse of water.

On the surface of the water, he could only spot a few scattered buildings poking out in the distance.

All these structures protruding from the water were buildings with more than 30 floors. Everything below the 30th floor was submerged.

The building Su Li lived in happened to have exactly 30 floors, and only the top floor where he lived was exposed above the water. Everything from the 29th floor downwards was flooded.

“This is completely impossible… I must be dreaming!”

Although Su Li was 27 years old and had experienced two years of “social beatings,” his mindset was relatively mature. Yet, at this moment, he was still filled with fear and completely unable to accept what his eyes were seeing. He fiercely pinched his left forearm.

He pinched himself hard, and a large bruise immediately appeared on his arm, causing him to take a deep, cold breath from the pain.

This sharp pain and the reality before his eyes made him realize that what he was seeing was absolutely not a dream, nor could it be a hallucination.

His chaotic brain slowly calmed down a bit, and he looked down at the damp floor.

Could it be that this was the true reason for the damp floor?

Had the city really been suddenly struck by a flood and submerged while he was asleep drunk last night?

But if there really had been such a massive, sudden flood, how could there have been no noise at all? Or was he just sleeping too soundly because of the alcohol and missed all the commotion?

Su Li quickly thought of something, opened his door, went out into the hallway, and hurriedly banged on his neighbor’s door.

Besides him, there were two other households in this unit. Su Li wasn’t familiar with them, but he knew the neighbor next door was a fashionably dressed young girl who hadn’t moved in long, only about two or three months.

Because their work schedules were similar, they often ran into each other but had never spoken.

Most of the time, he saw her coming and going alone, but occasionally, he would see her bringing men home. However, the three times he had encountered this, the men she brought back were all different.

“Hey, is anyone home!”

Su Li forgot about being polite and hammered on the door, making a tremendous racket, but there was no response.

Seeing no reaction, Su Li rushed down the corridor to the door of the other household.

He remembered a young couple lived here and owned a very noisy Chihuahua.

Just as he was about to knock, he suddenly noticed the door wasn’t closed but merely ajar.

“Is anyone home?” Su Li paused for a few seconds. Seeing no one answer, he pushed the door open.

As he pushed the door open, the living room that came into view was in disarray. There were two pairs of shoes by the shoe cabinet near the entrance.

One pair was men’s leather shoes, and the other was women’s high heels. One of the leather shoes was overturned, with its sole facing up.

A trash can nearby was knocked over, and the rubbish inside had spilled out onto the floor.

On the dining table near the entrance were two round plastic containers commonly used for takeout. One container held more than half a bowl of soup, and the other had been overturned on the table, with the noodle soup spilled out. However, the liquid on the table had already solidified.

(End of Chapter)