Apocalyptic Hoarding Diary

Chapter 361 Seeking refuge

"Please, just let us stay for a few days, we'll leave once we find somewhere else..."

"I have elderly people and children at home, we really have nowhere else to go..."

"I'll give you water tickets. I have water tickets, so you won't stay for free..."

The sounds came up from downstairs, intermittent and broken. Xu Xiaoyan listened to those words, her lips pressed into a thin line.

Her back was pressed against the cold wall, her hands clasped in front of her. It wasn't that she didn't feel sympathy, but rather that she knew all too well the ways of the world; sympathy was a luxury she couldn't afford.

She heard voices downstairs again, mixed with a child's crying. She didn't know how many people had run into the building, but judging from the voices, there were probably about ten people.

They must have started knocking from the first floor and worked their way up, not missing a single floor, knocking on every door.

Some people opened the door, said a few words, and then closed the door.

Some people didn't even open the door; they just said "It's inconvenient" or "There's no room left" through the door, and then there was no more sound.

The knocking and talking echoed in the hallway, climbing up floor by floor, and they had probably reached the fourth floor by now.

We'll be on the fifth floor soon.

Xu Xiaoyan's gaze fell on the two bedside tables behind the door. The tables were still arranged the way she had placed them before, one on the left and one on the right, side by side against the door.

She walked over, squatted down, and pushed one of the cabinets with her hand.

The cabinet wobbled slightly, the door panel vibrated slightly, and the cabinet leg slid to the side by less than a centimeter, but the overall structure remained relatively stable.

She pushed another one, and the same thing happened: it wobbled, slid, and then stopped.

Xu Xiaoyan frowned. What could they possibly block?

The two bedside tables together weigh less than 40 kilograms, and the door panels can only withstand a few dozen kilograms of pushing force if pushed from the outside.

If a grown man really makes up his mind, he can probably push the door open with a shove of his shoulder.

She stood up and scanned the dark room with her eyes. Her gaze fell on the bed frame by the living room window, and her eyes lit up!

The wooden bed frame that used to block the living room window was made of solid wood and was very heavy. If she didn't have the space, she wouldn't have been able to move it at all!

After returning from the fire last night, we sealed the windows with cardboard and plastic sheeting. The bed board was not put back; it was leaning against the corner of the living room, taking up almost half of the space.

She had planned to put it back when she opened the windows to ventilate the room at night, but she hadn't gotten around to it until now, and it has come in handy.

Xu Xiaoyan walked quickly to the living room and found the bed board in the dark.

Her hand rested on the edge of the wooden plank, and rough splinters from under the bed pricked her fingertips, but she didn't let go. With a thought, the entire bed plank disappeared from the ground and was stored in her spatial storage.

Then she walked back to the front door, stood behind it, closed her eyes, and adjusted the bed board in the space so that its long side was down and it was placed vertically, so that its width could just cover most of the door panel.

But how should it be placed?

She first tried to simulate it in her mind: would it work to just lean the bed frame against the bedside table?

The bed board is upright, supported by a bedside table. The bedside table can only support the lower half of the bed board, while the upper half is suspended in the air without any support.

If someone pushes the door open from the outside, the bed might fall backward, rendering the bed board useless and wasting effort.

She stood in the dark for a few seconds, her mind racing, when suddenly an idea struck her: why not just switch places?

The bed frame is against the door in front, and the bedside table is against the lower half of the bed frame from behind, but what about the upper half? The bedside table isn't tall enough, so the upper half will still tip backward.

Unless you prop up that old sofa in the living room with something taller and heavier!

The sofa's backrest is over 80 centimeters high, and with the seat cushions and backrest, the overall height exceeds one meter. Moreover, the sofa weighs several times more than the bedside table, at least over 100 kilograms.

By using the sofa to brace against the upper middle part of the bed board and the bedside table to brace against the lower part of the sofa, the bed board can be firmly attached to the door panel with these two support points.

Moreover, the bed board is made of a single piece of solid wood, which is wide and heavy, and has a high friction on the bottom as it is close to the ground.

If the door panel is pushed from the outside, the pressure is evenly distributed across the entire bed board. The bed board then transmits the force to the sofa and bedside table behind it. The three items together weigh more than 200 pounds.

In this way, no matter how much people outside push, the door won't open unless they remove the entire door and frame together.

Xu Xiaoyan quickly arranged the solid wood bed frame, sofa, and bedside table in the space. After finishing, she took two steps back, dusted off her hands, and nodded in satisfaction in the darkness.

Once everything was ready, she listened intently to the sounds coming from the hallway.

The sound came closer, and now it could be heard clearly without the aid of the can.

A family on the fourth floor opened their door and said something in a low voice, the content of which was unclear, but the tone of their voice indicated rejection.

Then came another voice, a more aged one, like an elderly person from that household. The words were unclear, but the tone was soft, as if explaining something.

Then the door closed.

The footsteps moved up one floor, and someone whispered, "Let's try again," "There are still five or six floors to go."

Xu Xiaoyan turned around, tiptoed back to the bedroom, and sat down by the bed.

The people knocking on the door in this stairwell weren't robbers or bandits, but a group of homeless, desperate ordinary people.

Right now, they are just knocking on doors, humbly begging for a place to stay.

But it's hard to guarantee that they won't develop other ideas later. They might think that if they can't survive, they wouldn't mind dragging others down with them.

The footsteps downstairs were getting closer; someone was already climbing the stairs.

Xu Xiaoyan closed her eyes, slowed her breathing, placed her fingers on the edge of the bed, and listened to the sounds outside the door.

The sound reached the fifth floor, and the footsteps echoed in the corridor, becoming clearer than in the stairwell, followed by a knock on the door.

It's not hers, it's the neighbor's.

Knock, knock, knock, three times, and the lady of the house next door opened the door.

Xu Xiaoyan heard the sound of the door hinges turning, followed by the low voice of the mistress. She couldn't hear what she was saying, but her tone was polite, with a cautious distance.

Then came the voice of a strange woman, speaking very quickly, but stopping halfway through her sentence, and then the door closed.

From opening the door to closing it, it took less than two minutes.

The footsteps moved toward her.

Xu Xiaoyan's fingers tightened.

There were three knocks, but she didn't move or make a sound. The door shook slightly.

There was silence outside the door for a few seconds, then a woman's voice rang out, "Is anyone home?"

There was silence for a few more seconds.

Another voice, a man's, very low, seemed to be advising the woman, "Go away, no one's here."

The footsteps hesitated for a moment, then slowly moved away, heading towards the next door.

Xu Xiaoyan loosened her grip on the edge of the bed, leaned against the headboard, looked up, and listened to the footsteps moving to the side.

Some of the other doors on the fifth floor were open, while others were closed.

They opened the door, exchanged a few words, and then closed it.

Those doors that weren't open didn't bother the people knocking. They would knock, wait, and leave quietly if no one answered. They kept knocking on doors, one after another, only to be rejected each time.

Finally, all sound ceased, and the hallway returned to silence, except for the occasional sound of a door closing downstairs, followed by even more silence.

Xu Xiaoyan sat in the dark for a long time. She reached out, touched the mineral water bottle by the bedside, unscrewed the cap, and took a small sip.

The water wasn't cold anymore; it had been sitting at room temperature for too long and was lukewarm. But as it slid down her throat, it still made her feel alive again.

She put the water bottle back and went back to bed to continue sleeping.

I woke up in the evening.

She opened her eyes, and her first reaction wasn't to check the time, but to listen.

Listen for any sounds in the hallway; it's quiet, there's nothing there.

She reached for her phone, pressed the power button, and the instant the screen lit up, the bright white light made her squint.

She turned her head away, and only after her eyes adjusted did she turn back to look at the time on the screen: 5:30 pm.

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