The World Ends In 27 Days

Hanchuan followed Zhiyi into the corridor, unsurprised when she turned toward the operations room but unwilling to let her rush there without understanding what had captured her attention.

"What happens now?" he asked.

"The reservoirs at lower elevations will continue distributing water through gravity, but most high-rise buildings depend on electric pumps." Zhiyi spoke faster as she followed the sequence beyond the grid failure. "Hospitals and emergency shelters will use their stored water first. Once their backup systems fail, they’ll lose access to whatever remains in the municipal network."

She increased her pace as the consequences multiplied, but Hanchuan caught her hand before she reached the stairs. His grip didn’t stop her so much as draw her back to a speed that allowed him to remain beside her.

"Walking faster won’t change any of that," he reminded her gently.

"It will allow me to determine the consequences sooner."

Hanchuan looked toward the operations room at the end of the lower corridor. "How much sooner?"

Zhiyi calculated the distance and the difference between their current speed and the one she had intended to maintain. "Approximately 14 seconds."

"Then Yunzhou will have to survive without your calculations for 14 seconds." Hanchuan kept her hand in his as he guided her toward the stairs. "You’re walking with me."

Pulling away would waste more time than adjusting her pace, so Zhiyi remained beside him.

The other four men were already returning to the operations room when they arrived. Shichen reached the municipal infrastructure controls first and transferred the remaining public reports onto the communications wall.

Most of the city had disappeared from the electrical map.

Hospitals, government facilities and a small number of private buildings remained illuminated through isolated generators, but several of those connections flickered as the systems struggled to report through the failed network.

Zeyu opened the final traffic data and watched hundreds of intersections turn gray. "Every signal in the city went down with the grid. Any emergency vehicles still moving are about to have an even worse time."

Jingwei glanced at the roads without sharing his concern. "There isn’t enough traffic left for the signals to matter."

"There are abandoned vehicles blocking half the intersections and people who still think an ambulance can reach them," Zeyu replied. His usual humor had disappeared as he enlarged the transportation map. "The drivers don’t need another problem."

"The roads are melting beneath them," Jingwei said. "Traffic lights aren’t the problem that stops them."

Zeyu opened the vehicle reports as though determined to prove otherwise, but the data supported Jingwei. Ambulances, buses and water tankers remained trapped behind collisions or had shut down after their engines overheated.

Qinghe had no interest in settling the argument. He searched the remaining hospital connections until he found Central Medical still transmitting.

"They have power," he said, leaning toward the report with the first trace of relief anyone had shown.

"Backup power," Shichen corrected. He opened the hospital plans and found the mechanical floors beneath the main buildings. "Their generators activated when the grid failed."

Qinghe’s relief faded as he saw their location. "What was the last reported temperature down there?"

"Fifty-nine degrees."

"That equipment was never designed to operate in those conditions." Qinghe studied the generator load, his voice quieting as he followed the likely failure. "If the cooling system stops, the generators will overheat. If the generators stop, they lose the cooling system."

Shichen didn’t offer false reassurance. "They may have hours, but they don’t have days."

Zhiyi separated Yunzhou’s water network from the failing municipal systems.

The western treatment plant had stopped transmitting immediately after the blackout, while the eastern plant reported generator activation. Only three of the seven primary pumping stations remained online, and pressure was already falling across the northern and central districts.

Hanchuan stood behind her chair as the first sections of the map changed color. "How long before people lose water?"

"It won’t happen everywhere at the same time. Buildings above the 20th floor may have already lost pressure unless they maintain rooftop storage tanks. Lower districts will continue receiving water until the reservoirs fall below the gravity-feed threshold."

Jingwei moved closer to examine the remaining pumping stations. "That explains where. How long?"

"The available data is incomplete."

"It isn’t going to become more complete," he pointed out. "Give us the estimate you can support."

Zhiyi used the final reservoir levels, Yunzhou’s ordinary hourly consumption and the increased demand recorded during the first day of the Heat. The initial result was inaccurate. She adjusted it to include ruptured pipes, abandoned taps and cooling systems continuing to draw water inside buildings whose occupants had already left.

"Most residential districts have between nine and 17 hours," she concluded. "Some areas will retain limited pressure longer. Others have already lost it."

Zeyu stared at the consumption increase. "The government told people to keep their taps running and soak towels."

"That advice increased demand by 31 percent."

"It also kept people alive through yesterday afternoon." He looked toward her as though he wanted the calculation to acknowledge that before it condemned the decision.

"For several hours," Zhiyi agreed.

The answer didn’t satisfy him, but both results remained true. The advice had protected people from the immediate Heat while helping to exhaust the water they needed to survive the next day.

An encrypted transmission entered through Xiling’s satellite receiver before Zhiyi could calculate the first complete failure.

Jingwei blocked it at the external barrier and inspected the encryption key. "Someone is using the government frequency assigned to Zhiyi’s contract."

Only the official who had recruited her possessed that authorization.

Hanchuan read the identifier without moving away from her. "Isolate the transmission before you accept it. I don’t want them receiving our location or touching anything inside Xiling’s network."

Jingwei built a separate connection that allowed sound and video to pass without providing access to the shelter. Once he was satisfied with the barrier, he accepted the call.

Zhiyi’s government contact appeared on the communications wall beneath unstable emergency lighting.

Behind him, exhausted workers carried batteries, paper records and communications equipment through a command center that was rapidly losing power.

The official looked older than he had two days earlier. He didn’t greet Zhiyi or waste time asking whether she was safe, but his attention moved briefly over the five men surrounding her before settling on her face.

"I have a question for you," he started. "How long until Yunzhou loses water?"

"Nine to 17 hours in most districts," Zhiyi answered. "High-rise buildings may have already lost pressure."

The official closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he repeated the estimate to someone beyond the camera and waited while the command room reacted around him.

"The municipal engineers gave us three days," he said once the noise subsided.

"Their projection assumed ordinary consumption, intact distribution lines and functioning pressure stations." Zhiyi sent him the current map. "None of those assumptions remain valid."

He studied the three surviving pumping stations. "The critical facilities have generators."

"Central Medical’s mechanical floors reached fifty-nine degrees before the grid failed. The eastern water-treatment plant was above 56. Backup power extends the failure period, but it doesn’t prevent the failure."

The official turned away from the camera and ordered someone to retrieve fuel inventories and internal temperatures. Several people began searching through records while others argued over which facilities still had working communications.

Hanchuan listened long enough to understand what the government lacked. "You didn’t call her to ask when the water would stop. You already knew you were losing it."

The official returned to the camera. Exhaustion roughened his voice, but he didn’t attempt to deny the scale of their failure. "We need a distribution plan that preserves as many lives as possible."

"You’ve had years to prepare for an emergency," Hanchuan replied, his tone sharpening. This department’s entire purpose was to anticipate disasters and create contingency plans before they occurred.

"We prepared for rolling blackouts, damaged pumping stations and temporary supply interruptions," the official explained. "No one approved a plan based on the permanent loss of the grid in only two days."

"You didn’t need Zhiyi’s help to know that the water pumps would stop when the grid failed," Hanchuan pointed out, his patience thinning. "That dependency existed before the temperature rose."

The official glanced toward the reports accumulating behind him. "We expected the grid to recover before the stored water ran out. We didn’t expect every backup plan to fail at the same time."

Hanchuan’s hand settled against the back of Zhiyi’s neck. His touch remained gentle even as his voice hardened. "Your failure to prepare doesn’t create an obligation for her to repair your mistakes."

Rather than challenge Hanchuan, the official looked directly at Zhiyi. "Can you build the model?"

"Yes," Zhiyi confirmed without hesitation.

Hanchuan’s fingers tightened slightly against her neck. "Having the ability doesn’t mean you’re giving them unlimited access to your time."

"The model won’t expose Xiling or consume our supplies," Zhiyi pointed out, turning her head slightly toward him.

"That isn’t what I’m protecting." Hanchuan lowered his voice for her, although his concern remained evident. "You’ll work until the problem is finished, even if finishing it takes the next 20 hours."

Jingwei joined them at the table. "We can prevent that without refusing entirely. Give her a fixed period and require the government to provide the specific data she needs."

Hanchuan considered the compromise before facing the official. "You have one hour."

"That isn’t enough to analyze the entire city," the official protested, his exhaustion giving way to alarm.

"Then don’t ask her to analyze the entire city," Hanchuan replied without yielding. "Decide which failure you need her to solve first."

The official looked down at the reports gathering across his desk.

He had authority, functioning communications and enough emergency power to keep the command center alive, but none of those things could produce more water.

When he faced Zhiyi again, his composure had begun to fracture.

"We have 63 emergency shelters," the official told her, forcing himself to state the crisis plainly. "The remaining water can sustain 19."

He paused, and the people behind him fell silent as they waited for him to finish.

"Which 44 do we abandon?" the official asked, his voice dropping beneath the weight of the decision.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!