Volume One: First Steps in the City Chapter Thirty-Three: The Fourth Night. Drowning

“Get down and cover your heads!” they shouted, while some of their companions pulled out hammers and smashed the display cases filled with gold and silver jewelry. The room instantly erupted into screams.

After several gunshots, the crowd fell silent. Seeing this, the group of bandits nodded approvingly. One of them, who seemed to be their leader, dragged a chair over and sat down, barking, “Hurry up!”

Meanwhile, the others patrolled the shop. One of the thugs spotted Li Xinran and Xu Anxuan crouched together. “Hey, there are two over here…”

He hadn’t finished his sentence when someone suddenly leapt up from behind and tackled him. In his panic, the thug instinctively pulled the trigger, sending several bullets flying. At the same time, other shoppers bravely lunged at the remaining gunmen, wrestling them to the ground.

As soon as the shots rang out, Li Xinran instinctively grabbed Xu Anxuan. A bullet, ricocheting from somewhere, struck the spot where Xu Anxuan had just been.

While people were grappling with the bandits, some of the more timid took the opportunity to escape the shop. Li Xinran wanted to help, but at that moment, a few hostages pulled out guns and shot the first rebels dead.

Faced with such chaos, Li Xinran and Xu Anxuan had no choice but to squeeze their way out.

The crowd screamed and ran, desperate to flee this floor. Some even overturned merchandise to clear a path.

They toppled television sets playing seaside scenes and smashed through makeshift partitions, all to escape this dangerous place as quickly as possible.

As Li Xinran and Xu Anxuan ran, they noticed there were fewer and fewer people around. When Li Xinran glanced at her surroundings, she realized everyone else had vanished without a trace.

At the same time, the lights around them began to flicker ominously, a sense of doom settling over the space.

While the two scanned their environment, a stray bullet struck a fire safety device, triggering the sprinklers to unleash a torrent of water.

The instant the water sprayed, Li Xinran sensed something was wrong. She grabbed Xu Anxuan and continued to sprint. “Head for the restroom. We’re on the third floor—if possible, we’ll jump right out.” Pulling Xu Anxuan along, Li Xinran ran toward the side.

But when they rushed into the restroom, they were instantly dumbfounded. The windows had been fitted with security bars, and at that moment, the restroom door slammed shut.

“No, I have to get out!” Xu Anxuan shoved Li Xinran aside and dashed for the door. Li Xinran, pushed, crashed into the sink. By some unfortunate chance, several faucet handles snapped off, and water gushed out in torrents.

“Why?” Xu Anxuan cried, yanking the door with all her strength, but it didn’t budge an inch.

She rattled the door so hard it banged loudly, but as she did, fragments from the ceiling quietly began to fall. They knocked down the stall bolts, but the noise was drowned out by Xu Anxuan’s frantic shaking, and neither noticed.

Li Xinran wiped water from her face, ready to help Xu Anxuan. But as she lifted her head, a more nerve-wracking scene caught her eye: water from the faucets wasn’t draining away but accumulating in the basin, with the water level rising steadily, soon to overflow.

Realizing the danger, Li Xinran rushed to the door and helped pull, but their efforts were useless.

“It’s fine, this is a restroom—there are plenty of drains. We can’t possibly be drowned,” Li Xinran reassured herself. Then she ran for the window, but after only two steps, she slipped.

She clung to the sink to steady herself, then glanced down and was shocked to see two clear streams of water—one overflowing from the sink, the other seeping from beneath the stall door.

Within moments, the restroom floor was covered by these streams, leaving no dry ground.

“This is bad—the stall’s leaking too, which means the drains are blocked.”

Li Xinran hurried to the stall door, pushed, but it remained immovable.

Xu Anxuan slammed her shoulder into the main door, but it was as unyielding as before. The difference was, the thickening water on the floor made it impossible for Xu Anxuan to keep her footing. She staggered back and immediately collapsed.

Perhaps the cold water shocked her into clarity; Xu Anxuan regained some composure. She watched Li Xinran try the stall doors one by one, then glanced at the waterfall cascading from the sink. Now, she too sensed the lethal threat.

“Xinran, try the window!” Hearing Xu Anxuan’s words, Li Xinran nodded, abandoning the stall doors. She tugged at the window, but it was as if welded shut, refusing to move. She slammed herself against it, only to be thrown back by the recoil.

“Xinran, use these!” Xu Anxuan tossed her several metal pieces—the broken faucet handles.

The two battered the window with the metal, hoping to break it or at least alert someone to their plight.

Gradually, their strength waned. They slumped against the wall, exhausted. “Xinran, I’m sorry. If I hadn’t called you here, you wouldn’t have been dragged into this.”

“Don’t give up—you contacted the experienced challengers, didn’t you?” Li Xinran caught her breath. “And I’ve asked others for help too.”

“The protagonist?” Hope suddenly sparked in Xu Anxuan’s eyes.

Li Xinran didn’t crush that hope. Xie Ruida might indeed know of Xu Anxuan’s peril, but Li Xinran hadn’t told him she was here too, so Xie Ruida probably wouldn’t come. Now, all they could hope for was Lu Yi and the experienced challengers.

“We’ll be fine—at this rate, they’ll definitely make it in time to save us,” Xu Anxuan encouraged Li Xinran instead.

Li Xinran managed a strained smile. At that moment, a raindrop fell onto her forehead, puzzling her—why would it rain in the restroom?

She looked up and saw water dripping steadily from the ceiling. Soon, streams formed, and the restroom’s light flickered, sparking, and finally died.

The water level rose faster and faster, submerging the sink, the windows, the stalls. Li Xinran pressed her head to the ceiling, but the water soon covered her mouth.

She took one last breath before the water filled every inch of the room.

Floating in the water, Li Xinran could no longer hold her breath. She opened her mouth, releasing a stream of bubbles, and glanced toward where Xu Anxuan had been—but in total darkness, how could she see?

Her consciousness blurred; she knew she was done for. In her haze, memories flashed by, and finally she seemed to glimpse Lu Yi in a halo of light. She moved her lips.

At that moment, she felt a strange sensation—the notification that the temporary team channel was activated when members were nearby. “Lu Yi, save me,” Li Xinran said in the team channel, and then she lost consciousness completely.