"Don't worry, gentle coercion is the way if they don't work together."
She turned sharply, boots crunching over gravel. Her voice rang out over the temporary camp. "New plan. We're not securing the whole hotel anymore—it's too big. We're building a flood-resistant shelter on higher ground. Small, fast, and strong enough to keep 50 of us alive through the surge."
Heads turned.
Xu Tianming blinked. "Wait, where? What about the hotel?"
"Abandon the hotel perimeter for now. We don't have time to reinforce everything." She jabbed a finger toward a raised hill just east of their current position. "There. That's where we're building. One room, one kitchen, one bathroom. That's it."
Yu Song stepped up beside her, glancing at her pale face. "You're burning up. You look like you haven't slept in days."
"I'm fine," she said again, then paused. "No, I'm not fine. But I'm still standing. That's enough."
He looked at her hard, then nodded. "So what do you need from us?"
