After everyone had finished eating and drinking, Ma Er arranged for the night watchman and asked everyone to gather around the fire to rest.

The men are responsible for taking turns to keep watch and are assigned to one side alone. The women have to take care of the children and the elderly. The work is not easy. From time to time, the crying of children can be heard in the cave.

After a while, Ma Er, who was sleeping, was awakened.

Ma Xiaojun, who was in charge of the night watch, pushed him awake and said, "Brother Ma, I heard some noise down there."

The sound of the deep mountains and old forests, coupled with the sound of rain, is not clear, but it makes people feel creepy.

"I'll go and take a look." Ma Er patted his cheek, forcing himself to wake up.

"Is anyone there——" a faint voice came from below.

As the sound got closer, lights could be seen.

"Someone!" Ma Er guessed that someone must have come to look for them, and he estimated that it must be someone from the military district.

They have several military wives here!

Because of the mountains, the communes are quite far apart, so they may not be able to discover the problems on their side so quickly.

"Comrade Zhao, are you okay?"

Zhao Huaiyan was originally arranged to watch the car downstairs, but after knowing that Ning Xi went up the mountain with the military wives, how could he sit still?

Fortunately, they went around the village and found obvious traces of going up the mountain.

"I can hold on." There was no strangeness in Zhao Huaiyan's voice.

He followed the three men closely, holding a temporarily cut wooden stick in his right hand as a hiking stick to ease his burden.

If you look closely, you can see that his legs are trembling slightly.

"Okay, let's keep moving forward." Zhang Jianqiang was careful and had already noticed this.

At first, he thought that Comrade Zhao offered to stay because he didn't want to go up the mountain, and that his weak legs were just an excuse.

However, when the other party heard that Ning Xi was there, he immediately changed his suggestion to stay and watch the car and insisted on going up the mountain with them.

Not lagging behind at all.

The reason why Zhao Huaiyan was so anxious to go up the mountain together was to confirm Ning Xi's safety. At present, it seems more likely that she encountered heavy rain while staying on the mountain.

But who can guarantee that it is safe in the mountains?

Even if she is strong, she will still get sick and hungry...

"Hey - who are you?" Ma Er responded loudly from above.

Soon four people climbed up. Many villagers in the cave were woken up and now rushed to the cave entrance, curious about what had happened.

When we saw that the first few people who climbed up were all covered in green, we were so upset that we couldn't express it in words. We quickly brought the wet people into the cave.

But they only reached the entrance of the cave where they were temporarily sheltered from the rain and did not go in.

Zhang Jianqiang: "It's so great that you're safe. I wonder if you saw some military wives picking mushrooms in the mountains... Sister-in-law! Sister-in-law, I'm so glad you're all right."

Before he could finish his question, Zhang Xing poked his head out from inside.

Zhao Huaiyan also breathed a sigh of relief.

The four of them entered the cave surrounded by everyone and were arranged to warm themselves by the fire.

A few villagers who had woken up brought hot water: "Comrades, drink some hot water!"

Everyone was touched that they could come to see them in the heavy rain!

Ning Xi was awakened from her sleep by a noise. There was a big rock under her, so she didn't sleep well and opened her eyes dazedly.

Through the firelight, she saw someone familiar looking at her with a smile on his face.

There were some people gathered together talking, and the sounds came from them. Many other people were sleeping soundly, and only Zhao Huaiyan was sitting quietly on the side.

"Why am I hallucinating again?" Ning Xi shook her head. Good, the fire didn't disappear and the person was still there.

"Xiaoyu?!" She got up and ran over.

"Why are you here? Why didn't you wake me up..."

Zhao Huaiyan pointed at the clothes that clung to his body because he was soaked. "It's wet. I'm afraid the moisture will pass to you."

Ning Xi: ...You still care about this when you're sleeping in a cave?

Just be picky.

"Drink some water." Zhao Huaiyan took the backpack, took out the water bottle and the snacks wrapped in oil paper, looked at the slightly embarrassed Ning Xi, and asked with concern: "Are you hungry?"

Unfortunately, the situation he worried about did not happen.

Ning Xi touched her bulging belly: "I'm not hungry, we just had pork porridge, haha——"

She took the water and backpack and accidentally touched Zhao Huaiyan's hand, which was icy cold.

"Let's warm ourselves by the fire." He quickly put the backpack aside, pulled his hand over to warm it by the fire, unscrewed the kettle and handed him some water, then opened a snack and fed him a piece.

"Hmm..." Zhao Huaiyan had never enjoyed such treatment before. His ears turned red and his face was also reflected with a red glow. He didn't know if it was the fire or if he was red himself.

When he came up just now, he deliberately brought a water bottle and snacks with him, and kept his backpack in front of him for protection, for fear that Ning Xi would be cold and hungry.

Although it was of no use, being fed was worth the effort he put into bringing it up.

......

Gao Changhe and his two companions came out of the mud and water. After walking about a kilometer, they came across a car from the company and quickly stopped it.

It turned out that everyone was worried because they found that the military wives had not returned for a long time, so they immediately asked their superiors to go out and find someone.

According to normal procedures, they should have arrived very early, but several senior leaders were not here today. If a soldier left the military area without permission from his superiors, he would be treated as a deserter.

So it took some time to find the leader.

"Changhe? Why did you walk here? Where is the car?" After stopping, the people in the car immediately got out to inquire about the situation.

Gao Changhe saluted and said, "Captain, there's a mudslide ahead and the car can't get through! I've assigned the other four people to go up the mountain to search and rescue."

He Guangming: "Nonsense! Don't you know how dangerous a mudslide is? Who gave you the authority to go up the mountain to search and rescue? Will you be responsible if anything goes wrong?"

Gao Changhe quickly told the reporter about the houses in the nearby commune being washed away.

"We suspect that my sisters-in-law and other villagers may have gone up the mountain to seek refuge. I want to find them as soon as possible."

He Guangming looked at him deeply.

“Get in the car!”

After crossing the river and parking the car, He Guangming immediately led his men up the mountain.

"Captain, this is the secret code left by Xiaokai!" Gao Changhe discovered that there were marks carved on several trees beside the road leading up the mountain.

"We agreed that if we find any traces of villagers going up the mountain, we would ask them to leave as many marks as possible."

He Guangming came over to take a look and shouted, "Speed ​​up the mountain!"

"Yes!" The soldiers were wearing raincoats and did not slow down at all even on the muddy mountain road, and they moved quickly up the mountain.

"There's someone ahead!" After climbing for a while, he happened to meet Fang Kai who was coming down the mountain to report the news.

After a brief exchange, everyone breathed a sigh of relief when they heard that the military wives and villagers were safe and sound.