The World Ends In 27 Days

Shichen looked back at Zhiyi, embarrassed that she had needed to remind him who had asked the question.

Hanchuan was sitting across from him, but there was nothing he needed to ask her husband before answering her.

"I don’t know," Shichen admitted with a slight shrug. "I can show you how this door opens, but I can’t tell you what you were remembering."

Zhiyi studied his face before lowering her eyes to the drawing. Her fingers slowly loosened, leaving a small crease along the edge of the paper.

"Show me," Zhiyi replied, moving her hand aside.

Shichen brought the pencil toward the plan, then paused above it. "Can I draw on this?"

When Zhiyi nodded, he traced the space the door would move through as it opened.

He explained where the hinges sat and how far the door needed to swing, keeping the pencil still whenever she looked back at her own sketch.

She followed the curve with her finger, then touched the place where she had wanted to put the panel.

"It would block the door," Zhiyi said.

"Yes," Shichen answered, pointing to where the two would meet. "The door would hit it here."

Zhiyi looked at her sketch for a while without speaking. Shichen waited, wishing he knew what to say.

Before the accident, she would have corrected the lines and moved on. Now she seemed reluctant to touch them.

Hanchuan leaned forward but stayed quiet. Beside him, Qinghe adjusted the bedside lamp, moving the glare off the page. Zhiyi blinked at the drawing, then reached for the pencil herself.

She crossed out the position she had chosen. The first stroke dug into the paper, and she eased her grip before making the second.

"Keep this," Zhiyi said, sliding the sketch toward Shichen. "So I know what was wrong."

"I’ll put a note beside it," Shichen told her.

He wrote a short explanation beneath the crossed-out lines and added the date. She had asked them to leave earlier notes where she could see them, and he wanted her to be able to follow this one later without having to ask what had happened.

A cabinet closed somewhere down the corridor. Zhiyi glanced toward the sound, then looked back at the plan.

"Is there another position?" Zhiyi asked.

"There might be," Shichen replied. "I need to look at the passage again before I can tell you which one would work."

Her eyes moved along the printed walls. Shichen knew that look, but he could also see her lips pressing together as she studied the smaller details. Qinghe noticed it too and brought his chair closer to the bed.

"How does your head feel?" Qinghe asked.

Zhiyi kept looking at the paper. He waited until she lifted her eyes to him.

"Worse," Zhiyi admitted.

Across the bed, Hanchuan’s hands tightened against his knees. Shichen reached for the folder, but Zhiyi put her palm over the drawing before he could collect it.

"I haven’t finished," Zhiyi told Qinghe.

"I know," Qinghe said. "We can leave everything here. I just want you to give your head a rest."

Zhiyi looked down at her hand. After a few seconds, she moved it back onto the blanket, and Shichen turned the plan facedown with her sketch beneath it. He left the pencil beside the folder.

"I’ll go and check those other places," Shichen told her as he stood. "Then I can show you what I found."

Zhiyi nodded, although her attention stayed on the papers. Shichen said goodbye and left Qinghe to settle her, closing the door partway behind him.

He stopped in the corridor and rubbed a hand over his face.

He had gone in expecting to explain the repairs and perhaps give her something to think about besides being hurt. He hadn’t expected a misplaced panel to upset her so much.

For a moment, he considered waiting before doing anything else. Then he looked down the corridor toward the entrance.

They still needed to secure it, and he couldn’t promise to leave the work untouched until she was ready.

Zeyu was in the workroom, separating fittings into shallow trays. He looked up when Shichen came through the door.

"Did she come up with anything?" Zeyu asked.

"She suggested moving it farther inside, but we’d block a service door." Shichen picked up his gloves from the bench. "I want to take another look."

Zeyu set down the fitting he was holding. "Was she upset?"

"She asked me to keep the drawing and write down what was wrong," Shichen replied. He pulled on one glove, still thinking about how hard she had pressed the pencil into the paper. "Grab the light, will you?"

Zeyu took it from the charger and followed him.

At the entrance, Jingwei checked the camera before letting them through. The yard was empty, but Shichen still looked toward the broken gate as they stepped into the passage. He doubted he would be able to stop doing that for a while.

The air was hotter here, and he could feel sweat gathering beneath his collar by the time they reached the panel.

It stood on its supports where they had left it. He ran a hand along the edge, then turned toward the wall farther inside.

"Bring the light over here," Shichen asked.

Zeyu held it above his shoulder while he examined the surface Zhiyi had suggested. It was in better condition than the damaged frame. There was something worth considering in her idea, even if the position she’d chosen wouldn’t work.

Shichen opened the service door all the way and stood back to see how much room remained.

"Where does that go?" Zeyu asked, angling the light through the doorway.

"Along the side of the old vehicle bay," Shichen explained. "There’s another locked door at the far end."

Zeyu looked into the passage, then turned toward the panel behind them.

"If we move the barrier back here, wouldn’t this door be on the wrong side of it?" Zeyu asked.

Shichen looked from the doorway to the place where they would install the panel.

He had been thinking about the brackets, the wall, and whether they could still use the service door. He hadn’t followed the route someone outside could take once the barrier moved.

"Yes," Shichen said. He reached for the light, and Zeyu handed it over. "They’d be able to get into this passage."

Jingwei came closer, looking past them into the dark. Shichen stepped aside and raised the light so he could see.

"What about the door at the other end?" Jingwei asked. "Would it keep someone out?"

"It locks, but it isn’t reinforced like the main barrier," Shichen replied. "I wouldn’t want to rely on it."

Jingwei glanced back at the waiting panel before turning toward the maintenance passage.

"Show me where it comes out," Jingwei said. "Let’s check that before we put anything up."