Hearing Fang Senyan's explanation, President Wilson sighed with disappointment, seeming to age several years in an instant. He wearily sank onto the cold iron chair beside him, pressing his temples hard with his fingers. Because the airship floated, furniture was bolted down to prevent accidental injury during violent shaking, so the seating was far from comfortable.

Seeing this venerable President, Zi couldn't help but feel a pang of emotion. Compared to his predecessors—the father-son duo of Presidents Bush, Clinton of the Zipper Gate, and Nixon of Watergate—this colleague Wilson truly appeared saintly. Zi took the President's female aide, Sally, aside, and before long, Sally returned with a basin of hot water before heading off to the galley area to busy herself further.

Soon, steaming hot towels, thick, warm cocoa, and a large sandwich injected renewed energy into President Wilson. Logically, given the psychological and physiological strain, the President should have been utterly exhausted, yet he insisted on inspecting the living conditions of the others aboard the massive airships before resting. To show respect, Fang Senyan and his party accompanied him.

It must be said that Fang Senyan and his group had prepared quite thoroughly. At this time, the airship staff were methodically distributing essential supplies to everyone: a numbered tag, a set of toiletries, and a gray blanket that, while slightly coarse and prickly, was sufficiently large and thick.

This meant that even those who had just boarded and lost all their possessions at least gained a safe place to lie down and rest—a bed that might not have been entirely comfortable but would keep them warm. Furthermore, because the number of people rescued exceeded expectations, some individuals had to make do with sleeping on the floor in the corridors.

Many, upon seeing Fang Senyan and the President, were so overcome with emotion that tears streamed down their faces. Some even struggled to crawl forward to kiss their feet, demonstrating the immense prestige the President and Fang Senyan now held among the survivors.

After accompanying the President on his tour of the two massive airships, President Wilson, despite his fastidious nature, finally nodded in acknowledgment. Given the emergency, everyone was ordered to remain inside their cabins and refrain from moving about freely. Dinner was distributed in a fixed, orderly manner via specialized serving carts; only those holding a numbered tag could receive rations. The carts held two enormous aluminum vats.

As food is paramount to the people, President Wilson naturally approached with great concern to inspect the provisions. He noted that the first aluminum vat contained dense biscuits, compressed into perfect squares. Each person was allotted a piece the size of a cigarette pack, hard enough to nearly break a tooth, with one vat containing enough biscuits to supply more than ten cabins.

The second vat held steaming hot, thick soup, mixed with chopped carrots, plenty of butter, dried meat floss, and corn kernels. Everyone had been issued toiletries, including military canteens and large mess kits, and each person received a full kit.

President Wilson requested a portion of dinner to eat with the others, using the opportunity to hear their concerns and opinions. From a personal standpoint, this meal certainly lacked flavor, but soaking the dense biscuits in the soup made them swell, providing substantial sustenance sufficient to fill any adult. The soup was rich with butter, and while somewhat greasy, it was undoubtedly helpful for regaining energy and warding off the cold, showing that the organizers had put considerable thought into the provisions.

During the meal, some disharmony arose: a few individuals, unable to stomach such basic fare, discarded their rations despite clear signage forbidding waste.

This behavior quickly drew the attention of security personnel, who swiftly administered punishment... The tag of the person who dumped the food was confiscated and would only be returned after thirty-six hours, meaning they faced the awkward prospect of going hungry for at least four meals.

Overall, President Wilson was quite satisfied with the orderly state of affairs across the entire airship fleet. At that moment, an emergency signal emanated from the central control room: the great tsunami was imminent. To brace for the ensuing severe weather, the airships would ascend to maximum altitude and forcibly seal all external hatches.

Simultaneously, warnings were broadcast throughout the fleet: all passengers were urged to remain in their cabins, secure themselves to stable objects, and any passengers confident in their physical fortitude were invited to the portholes to take a final farewell to their great, beautiful, spectacular, and magnificent Washington.

In the distance, the ocean tide swelled vast and turbulent, piling up against the horizon like dense clouds, crashing forward furiously. The tallest waves overlooked the land as if from above, inevitably swallowing it whole. Everyone watched in silence below. At the very crest of the waves, even an aircraft carrier, symbolizing humanity's greatest conventional military might, was swept along, the stars and stripes clearly visible, before it was violently crushed over the White House!

At this moment, tears silently tracked down the aged, wrinkled cheeks of President Wilson. The capital, once the seat of the most powerful nation on earth, was dissolving into nothingness beneath the unprecedented tide in such a fragmented, shattered form!

In that instant, this aged black man, this President willing to share the suffering of life and death with his countrymen, broke down, sobbing uncontrollably with his composure entirely lost!

This wave of sorrow instantly swept through the entire airship, cries of grief rising everywhere.

The terrifying giant wave surged past in a flash, wiping clean the architectural history and civilization that had absorbed generations of human effort. As far as the eye could see, there was only a vast, white expanse of ocean—a sight that truly inspired utter despair! On the distant horizon where the sky met the sea, inky black clouds, solid as mountains, stood erect, churning madly, with faint flickers of electricity emanating from within.

Fang Senyan felt the atmosphere of loss, sorrow, and despair. Instinctively, he felt compelled to say something, so he stepped before President Wilson and spoke earnestly: "Mr. President, Washington may be buried beneath the sea, but why do those three words move us so profoundly? Why do they bring tears to our eyes? The meaning behind it, the spirit it represents! It is absolutely not something to collapse in sorrow over. If we mourn it, etching it deep in our memories is enough. But if we are pained by its demise, why not use our hands to rebuild a new Washington in the future? Rebuild a city even grander! Remember, before 1789 AD, this was all wasteland beside the Potomac River!"

President Wilson raised his eyes. Though his reddened eyes were still filled with tears, upon closer inspection, his fists had clenched tightly once more.

Fang Senyan continued: "According to precise intelligence, the flood will cover the land for at most ten days before receding. When it does, we will still face a brand-new Earth. Mr. President, there is one statement you repeatedly emphasized that I strongly disagree with: you said you are the last President of the United States of America. But I believe that as long as people live, as long as everyone harbors the dream of rebuilding their nation, the United States of America will never perish!"

Everyone watched Fang Senyan; even President Wilson looked at him in astonishment. Then, the President's aide, Sally, was the first to burst into heartfelt applause, tears in her eyes. Others beside her followed, and finally, even President Wilson joined in.

Seeing that morale had been restored, Fang Senyan smiled slightly, knowing his words had taken effect. He then called out toward the engine room: "Hey, Shan Te, our ascent speed is too slow! We need to get above those dreadful cumulonimbus clouds before they reach us."

Shan Te, a technician personally trained by Dr. Octopus, having served aboard the vessel for a cumulative total of three hundred hours, shouted back proficiently: "I'm on it! Our current altitude is three thousand seven hundred meters. When the storm hits, the high winds will actually help increase our rate of ascent!"

For the next half hour, all the passengers experienced what it felt like to traverse through thunderclouds. Imagining lightning and fierce winds raging just inches away behind a thin hull must have been an intensely thrilling experience.

Fortunately, fortune favored them; only one airship was struck by lightning, though it remained barely functional. Soon, the airships ascended as planned to an altitude of twelve kilometers above the ground, placing them at the top of the troposphere in this mid-latitude zone.

From this height, they could observe the dense, water-laden cumulonimbus clouds below, intermittently illuminated by flashes of light, while they drifted like tiny boats buffeted by the powerful winds. This trajectory was also part of the initial design planning; the severe winds posed no threat to the vast, sturdy gas envelopes of the airships, much like how no matter how turbulent the current, a sealed, hollow tin can cannot be permanently submerged underwater.

At this point, the entire airship fleet entered a stable phase. They were expected to drift in the air for over seventy-two hours until the enraged Earth slowly began to calm its fury. Most passengers aboard the airships, worn out by fatigue and fear, drifted into a deep sleep. Meanwhile, Fang Senyan, along with President Wilson, drank thick, bitter coffee, remaining awake because they had more important matters to attend to.