The World Ends In 27 Days

The elevator doors closed behind Zhiyi.

Hanchuan watched the floor indicator rise until the car reached the service court. Only after it stopped did he turn toward Shichen.

His friend was still holding the list of incorrectly assigned components. "What construction changes?"

"The residential level."

Shichen looked toward the workers reorganizing filtration cartridges. "What about it?" he asked, his brows furrowing in confusion.

Hanchuan opened the shelter plans on his phone and sent them to the nearest wall display. The protected living area appeared above the rows of storage shelves, divided into six bedrooms, a shared kitchen, two sitting rooms and the operational spaces Zhiyi had already approved.

The largest bedroom belonged to Hanchuan, but it was way too small.

"I’m a married man now," he said.

Shichen stared at him. "I know. I attended the wedding."

"Then you should understand why this is inadequate."

Hanchuan enlarged the residential level and indicated the room assigned to him. It contained a bed, a closet, a small bathroom and enough remaining floor space for two chairs. The design had been created when Shichen expected six adults to require six separate rooms.

That was no longer the arrangement.

Shichen studied the plan. "The room is larger than the others."

"It was designed for one person."

"Two people can sleep there."

Hanchuan looked at him.

Shichen remained unmoved. "You said it was inadequate. I’m determining which part fails to meet your requirements."

"All of it."

The bedroom wasn’t merely a place where two people could sleep.

Hanchuan had spent seven years sharing whatever shelter remained after the disasters took everything else.

He and Zhiyi had slept in service tunnels, abandoned rooms and temporary spaces created between supplies. Privacy had been something they remembered rather than possessed.

They had a cot on the final night of their last life, but it was only good enough for one person.

So, they chose the concrete floor, suffocating heat and Hanchuan’s arm around her while they waited to stop breathing.

He wouldn’t recreate that existence inside shelters he had the money and time to prepare properly.

"We need a shared master suite," Hanchuan said. "A larger bedroom, private sitting room, bathroom and dressing area. Her workroom needs to connect directly to it."

Shichen examined the surrounding walls. "The workroom is currently across the corridor."

"Move it."

"That requires relocating two bedrooms."

"Move those too."

"The plumbing for this bathroom has already been installed."

"Replace it."

Shichen zoomed out and studied the structural columns before selecting the rooms beside Hanchuan’s. Walls shifted across the display as he tested several configurations.

"This can be expanded into the adjacent bedroom," he said as he shifted the walls on the display. "The remaining bedrooms will move toward the eastern side of the level, but that will reduce the secondary sitting room."

"We don’t need two," Hanchuan decided. One shared room was sufficient for the six of them, particularly when the lost space would become part of the suite he shared with his wife.

Shichen glanced at him. "The others may disagree."

"They can disagree all they want," Hanchuan replied. "They can also use the first one."

Shichen gave him a brief look before returning to the plans. He had known Hanchuan long enough to recognize which decisions remained open to discussion.

This wasn’t one of them.

"The same changes apply to all nine properties?" he asked.

"To every one of them," Hanchuan confirmed.

Shichen began listing the consequences. Several residential sections were already finished and would have to be demolished. At Jinhai, relocating the bathroom meant removing plumbing embedded in concrete. Expanding the suite at Longyuan would take space from the protected communications center.

None of those problems altered Hanchuan’s decision.

"Demolish what’s finished, remove the concrete and relocate the communications center," he ordered. "Whatever has to move, moves."

Shichen lowered the phone and looked directly at him. "You understand that every change requires additional workers, materials and time."

Hanchuan understood all three.

Nine days remained before the Heat began.

Every unnecessary alteration increased pressure on crews already working without rest, but a bedroom for Zhiyi wasn’t unnecessary. Neither was the room where she would work, the bathroom she would use or the space where she would live for four years.

"The primary Heat shelter comes first," Hanchuan said. "Complete Luming before we move in. The other properties can follow according to their disaster phase, but the plans change now so nothing else is built incorrectly."

Shichen returned his attention to the display. "How consistent do you want the suites?"

"As close to identical as the structures allow."

"That isn’t possible across a hotel, two towers, a geothermal station and buried archives."

"The locations of structural walls can change. The arrangement inside the rooms shouldn’t."

Hanchuan wanted Zhiyi to know where everything was without searching. If they evacuated from one shelter and entered another, the bed should face the same direction. Her side of the closet should remain hers. The drawers, shelves, lighting and work surfaces should be placed where she expected them.

She shouldn’t have to enter another unfamiliar space and begin calculating how to exist inside it.

Shichen adjusted the plan again. The larger bedroom now opened into a private sitting area, with a bathroom on one side and Zhiyi’s workroom on the other.

"Does she know you want this?" he asked.

"She doesn’t know, and I haven’t asked her to approve it," Hanchuan replied.

Shichen’s hand paused above the display. "You don’t intend to?"

"No." Hanchuan had already decided that asking Zhiyi would defeat the purpose.

She approved survival requirements.

She would allocate the minimum reasonable area to sleeping, bathing and anything else that didn’t directly maintain a shelter.

If Hanchuan asked how large their bedroom needed to be, she would calculate the dimensions required for a bed and walking clearance.

Therefore, he had no intention of asking.

Hanchuan unlocked a separate purchasing account on his phone. It wasn’t connected to the shelter inventory Zhiyi monitored, and none of its orders appeared in the warehouse system she had designed.

Shichen scrolled through the first page.

Books occupied three supplier contracts. Physical copies would be divided among the primary shelters, while complete digital libraries would be stored on redundant local servers at all nine properties. Hanchuan had also purchased printing equipment, binding supplies and enough paper to preserve material that existed only electronically.

There were orders for music, films, games and university databases. Art and office suppliers were collecting notebooks, pens, labels, whiteboards and every organizational material Zhiyi might decide had a purpose.

A separate list contained clothing, toiletries and sanitary supplies sufficient for every shelter to remain independent.

The food orders Zhiyi knew about contained nutrition and survival margins.

The ones she didn’t know about contained desserts.

Shichen reached the furniture contracts. "You started this before today."

"I started it before the wedding."

Some orders had been placed while Zhiyi slept beside him during the ten days of wedding preparations. Others had been assigned to his assistant while Zhiyi reviewed construction schedules at the opposite end of the same table.

She had believed he was arranging flowers, security and five hundred guests.

He had also been arranging the rest of her life.

"Where are these deliveries going?" Shichen asked.

"Separate warehouses. None of the cases enter the recorded inventory."

"You’ll need rooms to hold them."

"You’re building them."

Shichen looked back at the enlarged suite. "The private sitting room could conceal storage behind the northern wall. I can add built-in shelving to the workroom and increase the dressing area."

"Do it."

"The residential level will lose more shared space."

Hanchuan didn’t care. His four friends had entire shelters in which to avoid his bedroom.

Shichen apparently reached the same conclusion and began marking the changes.

Hanchuan looked at the room taking shape on the display.

Zhiyi had never asked what furniture he intended to place in the shelters. She hadn’t asked how many books she could bring or whether there would be room for things without operational value.

Her plans assumed that survival would consume all available space because that was what survival had always done.

In their first life, she had accepted the smallest portion of everything. She ate what could be spared, slept wherever he could be sheltered and abandoned every possession that became too difficult to carry.

She had never asked Hanchuan to give her more.

That didn’t mean he required permission to provide it.

Shichen saved the revised Luming plan before opening Jinhai Tower. "When are you telling her?"

"I’m not."

"She’ll notice when she sees the residential level."

"She won’t see it again until it’s finished."

Shichen considered the amount of work required before looking at the elevator doors through which Zhiyi had disappeared.

"You realize she’ll probably tell you that most of this was unnecessary."

Hanchuan smiled.

"Then she can tell me from our much larger bedroom."

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