Jing Shu did not bother counting how many bald heads there were. All she saw was a dense sea of them. She ran calculations in her head. Years of practicing with the Rubik's Cube Space had honed her mind. Her mental math now scaled up like a geometric curve.
Shi Jiujiu kept filming. "My god, this girl says she's going to transfer us. How is she going to evacuate over a thousand people?"
Jing Lai was startled. "Jing Shu, don't talk nonsense. How can you move this many? Call Officer Li and ask him to send a few people instead."
"Y-yes, exactly. Thank you, but there are too many of us…"
Jing Shu shouted, "Enough talk. Only half the oil-base community has been evacuated. It will take at least two hours before anyone can come. Downtown is flooding too, and everyone is rushing for higher ground. Who would have the manpower to reach a supermarket this far off? If you don't want to die, do exactly as I say."
She pulled ten climbing ropes from the back seat of the shark submarine. They were top quality, impossible to cut and rated for very high loads. Jing Shu had originally prepared them for climbing snowy mountains during migration, but she had not expected to use them today.
She told Jing Lai to gather every floating plank and board they had. Thankfully, during earlier drills, Jing Lai had organized a sweep and collected a pile of them.
Then she threaded the ropes through the crowd, stringing people together the way ancient prisoners were linked, lashing each line of bald heads in series. She tied a plank or a big basin to every segment so each person had enough buoyancy not to sink.
Soon, five long chains of people were secured to the shark submarine's tail, each person clutching a plank or basin.
The first to go would be the riskiest, but everyone understood the longer they waited, the greater the danger for those behind. Plenty of people who could swim volunteered at once.
"Can that little shark really tow so many of us?"
"Look at this flood. It's strong enough to wash people away."
Jing Shu tossed the remaining ropes to Jing Lai. "Auntie, you organize the next group. Tie them in properly. I'll be back fast for the next run."
Jing Lai still could not quite believe it. She nodded in a daze. "O-okay!"
Shi Jiujiu narrated breathlessly, "Unbelievable. The girl actually came up with a way. She even had this many ropes with her. But can she tow sixty or seventy people at once?"
He had barely finished when the motor screamed, the kind of sharp roar you get when someone floors the throttle.
"Hold on tight, everyone. It might get a little intense, but grit your teeth and we'll be there soon. We're moving out."
Vroom!
The shark submarine threw up a sheet of water four meters high, drenching the line behind it. Then it shot forward like an arrow, dragging the chain of people with it as screams and shouts pitched across the water.
In a blink, the shark submarine and its human tail vanished from sight.
A 280-horsepower tractor can haul sixty tons of cargo, so imagine what a 280-horsepower shark submarine can do. On open water it can hit speeds of eighty kilometers per hour. Its signature is raw power. It can even launch, skim four meters above the surface, and glide.
And right now, Jing Shu was running with the current.
Heaven must have been watching. Good thing she had been reborn and had experience with this year's flood. That was the only reason she dared to brag. She would ride the current at an angle. It meant a slight detour, but it was faster.
Going straight with the current would sweep them into the city center.
The supermarket sat like an island in mid-river. Her job was to drag people to the bank. There happened to be a temporary shelter there. Officer Li Yuetian had said someone was stationed on site.
Jing Shu opened the throttle. With the flow on her side, she held sixty kilometers per hour. She covered four kilometers in four minutes and delivered the first train of survivors to the shallows. The water was deep now, and this area was remote with no high buildings or utility poles left standing, just an endless sheet of water, so the run went smoothly. She spun the boat and raced back.
At the drop-off, people staggered up coughing, some outright fainted, and many had purple welts where the ropes had dug into their skin. Compared to life and death, those marks meant nothing.
"Thank you, miss!"
"Thank you so much. I didn't think it would work, but it did. Let's get these ropes off fast so she can go back for the next group."
The return trip took three minutes, since it was against the current.
Back at the rooftop, the shark submarine's speed gave everyone hope. Never mind how people were being dragged off. At this pace, they could really evacuate the entire rooftop.
The second group lined up with even more urgency.
Shi Jiujiu held up his waterproof phone. "Look, I'm in the second group. We're all roped up and ready. Just waiting for the shark submarine. Oh, there it is. My god, only a few minutes. That speed is insane."
As soon as the shark submarine nosed in, Jing Lai swapped out the ropes with quick hands. Jing Shu herself clipped the new chain of bald heads to the boat's tail. Once everyone had a grip on their planks, she said nothing more and sliced away through the water like a gust.
Shi Jiujiu lashed his phone to his wrist. "Oh man, glug, glug, so thrilling, it's like—ptooey—glug, glug—"
For the first time, Shi Jiujiu realized how much it hurt to be hit by water at speed. The spray slapped his face like the hard smacks his mother had given him as a kid, only sharper, with red nematodes stuck in it.
The speed taught him another lesson. Keeping your mouth shut can be hard work. The second you opened up, wind and rain blasted in. His throat played along, gulping by reflex. In just a few minutes he had swallowed a few jin of water (about 1 to 1.5 kg), and his stomach bulged.
Worse, momentum kept slamming him into the auntie next to him. The auntie even looked like she was enjoying the ride.
A perfect spin at the bank flung the line of people into the shallows. Everyone pitched and reeled. Vomit splashed everywhere.
Shi Jiujiu smacked the boat's tail with a wet hand. "Cough, cough. Big Sis says little and does more. Her skills are unreal. She's already turned back to save more. At this rate, all thousand of us can make it out. If I ever get the chance, I want to thank her to her face. That's it for now. Someone's coming to receive us. I'll film again after they settle us in."
…
Jing Shu kept pushing, run after run. At last, just as the flood rose past the roofline, she lashed the final big group to the shark submarine's tail. Over a hundred people, all trembling. Thank goodness they had made it in time.
Inside the shark submarine, Jing Lai felt a stab of worry. It looked like a sled dog hauling a dozen bodies through floodwater, the engine's drone thinning under strain.
Jing Shu secretly topped off the diesel. Luckily, she always carried supplies on her person.
Officer Li Yuetian stood in the downpour in his fatigues, nerves fraying. "It's been ten minutes. Why isn't she here yet? Didn't she say five minutes?"
As he spoke, a shark fin appeared in the distance, struggling forward through wind and rain.