Chapter 8: The Rescue

At the most critical moment for the little girl, an idea flashed through Su Miao’s mind. She quickly retrieved a coil of safety rope from her magical space. She wrapped one end around the pillar at the villa’s entrance three times, securing it tightly, then tied the other end to herself. Using her umbrella sword for support, she stepped into the rushing rainwater and made her way toward the stranded child.

The rain beat down relentlessly, cold and painful. Prolonged exposure to such a storm would quickly sap a person’s body heat.

Su Miao looked at the little girl trapped outside, growing increasingly anxious.

“Mommy! Mommy…” The girl clung desperately to a tree, her sobs growing louder. Several times, the surging water nearly knocked her off her feet.

It was clear the child couldn’t hold on much longer.

Su Miao forgot her own fear for the moment. She pulled herself closer along the safety rope and called out, “Come on, leave this place!”

The girl looked at Su Miao, then toward the east, and cried, “Mommy fell down… Mommy fell down…”

Su Miao didn’t know how to comfort her. Falling into a sinkhole and then being swept away by a mudslide—surviving that was nearly impossible.

But…

As she hesitated, the ground suddenly trembled again. Startled, Su Miao grabbed onto a small tree.

She suddenly realized that if a mudslide really came, even with a safety rope, she would still be swallowed up.

After two or three seconds, the tremor stopped. There was no collapse, no landslide here.

“Hurry!” Without further hesitation, Su Miao wrapped the safety rope around the little girl several times, grabbed her hand, and pulled her away.

She had no intention of dying here while trying to save someone.

The girl didn’t resist and followed Su Miao.

A few minutes later, Su Miao led the child back to her villa. At nearly the same moment, she saw a huge sofa being swept by the rain toward the ravine. If she’d stayed out there, the sofa could have slammed into the safety rope and dragged her away with it.

Terrifying!

She ushered the girl into the house. Judging by the part of the villa district that had collapsed and been swept away by the mudslide, Su Miao’s home was still within a safe zone, at little risk from further disaster. The ground here showed no cracks or signs of collapse; it seemed secure.

She gathered up the safety rope and set it aside.

The rescued girl was still crying, heartbroken.

Su Miao found a towel and began drying her own hair, intending to help the girl next, but halfway through she stopped.

Rescuing the girl, she hadn’t thought much about it. But now that the child was here, she found herself at a loss for words.

“Do you have any other family?” After a long silence, Su Miao mustered up the courage to ask.

The little girl choked back her sobs, looked up at Su Miao, and said, “I only have Mommy. Now I don’t have Mommy anymore…”

Su Miao stood by awkwardly, towel in hand. She’d hoped to find out if the girl had other relatives and take her to them, but—

“Let’s… let’s take a bath first, or you’ll catch a cold.” Su Miao didn’t press further. She led the girl to the bathroom on the first floor.

As for clothes, she dug out an old school uniform her grandmother had bought her years ago. It had been sitting unused for five or six years but still looked brand new.

“You can wear this,” Su Miao said, unsure how to comfort the child.

When she’d finished, she went upstairs to shower and change herself. Even that brief trip outside had left her soaked to the bone, chilled through.

After her shower, she changed into fresh clothes, dried her hair, and went downstairs.

The little girl, now dressed in the school uniform, stood nervously in the living room, looking adorably out of place.

What should I do? she thought. She’s lost her mother and has no other family. Where should I take her? In this apocalyptic disaster, she won’t survive on her own. What should I say to her? Is she hungry? Should I offer her food? Should I keep her here? Will she see me as a bad person? After the deluge comes blizzard, then heat, then bitter cold. The hungry will turn savage… Su Miao dared not imagine the bloody scenes that might follow.

Her mind was a jumble of worries she couldn’t voice, and she grew more and more anxious—she might as well have had steam rising from her head.

“Sister, my name is Xia Xiao’an,” the little girl said between sniffles. “Can I stay here?”

Eh?

Su Miao was momentarily stunned. That single word—“Sister”—made her nod on instinct. “Of course.”

Xia Xiao’an had just lost her mother and was so young. Su Miao had saved her; she couldn’t bear to entrust her to strangers or leave her to fend for herself. In a world like this, Xia Xiao’an wouldn’t survive alone. As for food, Su Miao had plenty—there was nothing to worry about.

As her elder sister, it was only right to care for such a sweet little girl.

“My name is Su Miao,” she said. “I’ll take care of you.”

“Thank you, Sister Su,” Xia Xiao’an replied through her tears.

Suddenly, her stomach growled.

In fact, she and her mother had planned to stay in the villa and wait out the torrential rain before going to the resort restaurant. They’d lasted two days, but after finishing their snacks and the relief supplies from the resort, they were starving. The restaurant had refused to deliver food.

Her mother decided to go to the restaurant for a meal and bring food back for her. But Xia Xiao’an was scared and worried something might happen to her mother in the storm, so she insisted on going along.

But just after they left the villa, the ground split open, collapsed, and a roaring mudslide came crashing down.

Xia Xiao’an had been terrified, her mind blank. She remembered her body tipping forward, about to fall into the chasm, when her usually frail-looking mother somehow found the strength to throw her to safety. Xia Xiao’an had watched, suspended in midair, as her mother fell and vanished beneath the mudslide.

If only she hadn’t insisted on going, her mother might have been fine…

Tears slid silently down her cheeks.

“Let’s eat something first,” Su Miao said, picking up the electric hotpot from the floor and washing it clean, along with the remnants of soup left behind.

She didn’t know how to comfort someone, but eating when hungry was sure to make things a little better.

She added water, hotpot base, prepared the sauces, beef rolls, vegetables, and more.

Ten minutes later, a delicious beef hotpot was ready.

“Eat up,” Su Miao said, placing clean bowls and chopsticks in front of Xia Xiao’an.

She hoped the child would feel a little better with a full stomach.

The apocalypse had only just begun. There would be far more pain and hardship in the days to come.

Besides, Su Miao couldn’t help but marvel at the resort’s villa district—despite sinkholes and mudslides, the electricity, water, and network still hadn’t failed. Remarkable.

If they had, she would have had much more to worry about.

Su Miao picked up a slice of beef with her chopsticks and looked out at the relentless torrential rain, her brow slightly furrowed.