Chapter 58: Hydroelectric Plant

The group passed through the iron door.

Beyond it lay what had once been the visitor lobby.

The glass display cases had long since been shattered, and the scale model of the reservoir inside was buried beneath a thick layer of dust. Yet a few visitor brochures still sat neatly in a plastic rack against the wall, as though time had frozen on the day the apocalypse began.

Leading the way, Mark pushed open a steel door marked Staff Only, and the others followed him inside.

The farther they ventured into the facility, the colder the air became.

Noticing their reactions, Chloe smiled.

"Most hydroelectric powerhouses are built inside the mountain, so the temperature stays around ten degrees Celsius year-round. It'll only get colder from here."

As she spoke, she casually pulled a visitor brochure from her pocket, opened it, and pointed to the diagram inside.

"The basic principle behind hydroelectric power is pretty simple."

"It all comes down to four main parts—the water intake system, the turbine, the main shaft, and the generator."

What began as a brief explanation quickly turned into an enthusiastic lecture.

She went from explaining how the flowing water drove the turbine blades, to how the generators produced electricity, and even covered the maintenance issues they encountered most often.

Halfway through, she suddenly laughed.

"Speaking of which, this reminds me of something."

"One time, sand and gravel wore down the turbine blades. Mark and I got called in the middle of the night, and we rushed over without even getting a wink of sleep."

Curious, Xia Jiuwei asked,

"So how did you fix it?"

"We just replaced the blades."

Chloe answered as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"We cut away the damaged sections, then welded new blades into place."

A small smile crossed her face.

"We worked until sunrise that night, but looking back, it was kind of fun."

Mark let out a helpless chuckle. Clearly, this wasn't the first time he'd heard that story.

Before long, they followed the long concrete corridor deeper underground until they finally reached the powerhouse.

More than a dozen massive hydroelectric generators stood in neat rows throughout the cavernous hall. Most of them were idle, with only one still operating, filling the room with a steady, low hum.

Chloe pointed toward the running machine.

"We rotate them."

"We only run one generator at a time, then switch to another every two years."

She shrugged.

"There are only a handful of us living nearby anyway. We don't need much electricity."

Then she smiled.

"But honestly, this is pretty much all there is to see. Generators stop being exciting after you've looked at them long enough."

She turned toward her husband.

"Mark, quit daydreaming."

"Weren't we supposed to take them to the control room?"

Mark and Charles moved back to the front to lead the way, while Chloe's lively explanations continued echoing from behind them.

After listening for a while, Charles smiled.

"Your wife's certainly full of energy."

Mark glanced back.

Clutching the brochure, Chloe looked so absorbed that she could have been leading an actual tour.

The smile on his face instantly grew wider.

"See, that's where you're wrong."

"I always wanted to marry someone who loved machines as much as I did."

He grinned proudly.

"Turns out I married someone who loves them even more."

Charles laughed.

Mark looked positively smug.

"So what if my adorable wife talks a little more than most?"

After a brief pause, he added,

"Honestly, I should be thanking you for bringing these two here."

"It's been a long time since she's met anyone willing to genuinely listen to her talk about all this."

About five minutes later, a massive steel door appeared at the end of the corridor.

Beyond it was a staircase leading upward.

The group climbed flight after flight until they emerged into a spotless, brightly lit control room filled with every kind of electronic equipment imaginable.

Chloe's eyes immediately lit up.

"This is the main control room."

She hurried over to the control console and eagerly began explaining the purpose of each piece of equipment.

From the floodgate control system, to the generator monitoring interface, to the inspection data for the lubricating oil and turbine oil, she covered every detail with infectious enthusiasm.

Only after she had introduced nearly every corner of the control room did she finally stop, still looking somewhat reluctant to end the tour.

"That's about everything."

"Is there anything else you'd like to see?"

Xia Jiuwei looked around once more before shaking her head.

"No."

Lu Nian'an nodded as well.

"Neither do I."

"Then let's head back."

After leaving the power station, Charles dropped Mark and Chloe off at the hotel.

He then drove back into the mountains, arriving not long afterward at a tributary upstream from the reservoir.

A debris barrier stretched across the stream, built to catch branches, sediment, and other debris carried downstream.

After parking the vehicle, Charles changed into his gear.

Soon, he had pulled on a heavy pair of chest waders and stepped into the icy stream with a shovel in hand.

"It's not snowmelt season yet, so today's workload isn't too bad."

He shoveled away the sediment piled up against the debris barrier as he spoke.

"Once the snow starts melting in the summer, there's at least three or four times as much work."

The water reached his thighs. Even through the thick waterproof layers, the cold still bit sharply into his legs.

After more than ten minutes of work, Charles finally finished clearing the first debris barrier.

By the time he climbed back onto the bank, he was breathing heavily from exhaustion.

"There."

He smiled wryly at Xia Jiuwei.

"One down."

"Want to give it a try?"

Xia Jiuwei shook her head without the slightest hesitation.

"No thanks."

Charles wasn't surprised.

He simply unfolded a map on the hood of the vehicle.

"Then we've still got all of these."

His finger traced the river upstream, passing over more than thirty locations marked along its course.

"Clearing them all usually takes about three or four days."

Lu Nian'an glanced at the map before speaking.

"It doesn't have to be that much trouble."

The moment she finished speaking, a colossal black shadow slowly rose beneath the feet of the three of them.

Before Charles could react, Lu Nian'an pulled Xia Jiuwei onto the giant shadow's open palm with practiced ease.

The shadow extended its other hand toward Charles.

He stared at the enormous palm, which was larger than he was, in stunned silence for several seconds before reluctantly climbing aboard.

The off-road vehicle parked nearby was immediately swallowed by the shadow and vanished without a trace.

Watching it disappear, Charles figured it must've been stored inside that so-called Under-Reality again.

Looking down at him, Lu Nian'an asked,

"Shall we go?"

"Where's the next debris barrier?"

Seated on the shadow's right hand, Charles continuously pointed out directions for Lu Nian'an.

The gigantic shadow sprinted effortlessly through the mountains, treating rugged terrain, steep slopes, and dense forests as though they didn't exist.

At first, Charles felt nervous as the scenery blurred past on either side.

It was far more thrilling than driving.

Before long, however, he began to appreciate just how convenient it was.

An off-road vehicle had to follow winding mountain roads.

The shadow simply ignored the terrain altogether, heading straight toward its destination.

A trip that normally took twenty minutes by vehicle was finished in less than ten.

When his feet touched solid ground again, Charles found himself almost wishing the ride had lasted longer.

"So clearing these barriers just means removing all the sediment piled up in front of them, right?"

Lu Nian'an asked.

Charles nodded.

In the next moment, the giant shadow reached forward with one enormous hand and scooped away the entire mound of sediment blocking the barrier.

A task that normally took more than ten minutes was finished in the blink of an eye.

Charles stared blankly at the spotless debris barrier.

For a moment, he wondered whether he'd spent the last several years working far harder than necessary.

The shadow extended its right hand toward him once more.

Charles instinctively glanced down at it.

Just moments ago, that same hand had dug straight into the riverbed, yet now it was perfectly clean, as though it had never touched the mud at all.

Unable to resist, he reached out and touched it.

Not even a speck of dirt came away.

"...Now that's convenient."

Charles couldn't help murmuring.

Over the course of the next half day, the three of them followed the river upstream, clearing every remaining debris barrier with the shadow's help.

The only memorable incident along the way was discovering a corpse lodged in one of the tributaries.

By the time they finished, it was already around four o'clock in the afternoon.

The shadow carried the three of them back out of the forest and returned them to the roadside.

Looking at the map, now covered with crossed-out markers, Charles smiled.

"That's every last one of them."

He turned toward Lu Nian'an.

"A job that normally takes three or four days..."

"...and we finished it in half a day."

"Thank you. Really."

Lu Nian'an simply gave a small nod in acknowledgment.

The shadow came to a stop and gently lowered all three of them back onto the ground.

The enormous figure then quickly sank into the shadows, while the off-road vehicle that had been stored inside the Under-Reality reappeared beside the road.

The three climbed back into the vehicle and began the drive home.

Sitting behind the wheel, Charles found himself in an unusually lighthearted mood.

Everything that had happened that day had been astonishing—from the colossal shadow to the two girls from another world. To him, it had all felt like an adventure straight out of a dream.

In the back seat, Lu Nian'an suddenly leaned closer to Xia Jiuwei.

"Mia..."

"I'm a little tired."

"I'm going to lie down for a while."

With that, she rested her head on Xia Jiuwei's lap as naturally as though she'd done it a thousand times before.

Looking down at her, Xia Jiuwei's lips slowly curved into a smile.

She knew perfectly well that there was no way Lu Nian'an could actually be tired from something like this.

But she didn't call her out on it.

Instead, she simply reached out, gently smoothed her hair back into place, and let her stay there.

The off-road vehicle cruised steadily along the mountain road, retracing the route they had taken earlier.

Before long, they would be home again, where those two adorable little ones were waiting.

Charles had been in high spirits, even wondering what he should cook for dinner.

But when they were less than six hundred meters from the house—

His expression suddenly froze.

A thick column of black smoke was slowly rising above the distant treetops.

It was coming from the direction of his home.

A cold weight settled in his chest.

His hands tightened around the steering wheel in an instant.

The kids...

Nothing's happened to them... has it?