By three or four in the afternoon, the wind had died down, but the rain was still falling, but it had changed from a heavy downpour to a drizzle.

Lin Wei pushed the door open and went out, and saw the yard in a mess, with fallen leaves and sand all over the ground. She even saw a towel that had been blown in from somewhere. Because it had rolled in the mud, it was covered with mud and sand, and its original color could no longer be seen.

The faucet that was originally fixed to the kitchen wall was blown loose, and the rope for drying clothes above the kitchen was also blown off, falling along the stick to above the kitchen window.

The worst thing was the onions and garlic that Lin Wei had planted before, whose leaves were blown all over the place. However, onions and garlic are very resilient and will continue to grow as long as their roots are not blown out. Lin Wei ignored it. After the rain stopped, she just picked up the towel and hung it on the wall. If someone came to look for it, she would return it to the person. If no one came to look for it, she would just forget it and throw it away after a few days.

Lin Wei didn't care about the other fallen leaves, sand and stones because the ground was too wet and difficult to sweep. And who knows if there will be a second rain? If she cleans the yard just one moment and then there’s a burst of flying sand and rocks the next moment, then all her work will be in vain.

She took a look at the clothesline, pulled it to see if it was long enough, and then simply tied a knot with the rope, intending to use it for the time being.

After tying the knot, Lin Wei walked to the edge of the roof, bent down and looked into the family quarters along the road next to her.

After the rain, the sky cleared up and all the military wives who were at home came out. Some might be busy at home, but some stood on the roadside and talked with their neighbors.

Lin Wei heard a loud-voiced military wife say, "I just washed the sheets and quilt covers this morning, but I didn't have time to collect them when it rained. They got soaked by the rain and are all ruined. I have to wash them again!"

"You can only wash the sheets more. There's a broken tile on my roof. I asked him to change it a long time ago, but he always said he didn't have time and kept putting it off. Now the room where the child sleeps has become a puddle. Not to mention the sheets and quilts, all the cotton and furniture are soaked!"

"It would be terrible if they were all soaked and damaged, wouldn't you have to replace them all with new ones?"

The man lowered his voice and said, "Let's wait until the sun comes out to see if it can be used. If it can't be used, we'll have to replace it."

"Just get some sun and it will be fine."

Listening to their conversation, Lin Wei couldn't help but feel fortunate that Zong Shao had renovated the house before joining the army and replaced all the broken tiles and window glass. Otherwise, with today's strong winds and heavy rains, her house would have been flooded.

Just as Lin Wei was thinking, she heard Mingming shouting, "Mom! Our house is going to be flooded!"

Lin Wei was startled and hurried to the side near the yard. She looked down and asked, "Where is it flooded?"

Mingming, who was standing at the door, pointed forward and shouted, "The water is about to reach our house!"

Lin Wei looked in the direction Mingming pointed and couldn't help but twitching the corners of her lips.

After the high tide, the coastline was indeed pushed a few meters ashore, but most of the beach was still there, and there was a green belt of several meters from the beach to their home.

But after listening to her explanation, Mingming was still very worried: "What if it rises further, won't our house be flooded?"

Lin Wei said: "Once the rain stops, the water will stop rising, so don't worry, our house will definitely not be flooded."

Mingming suddenly realized what was going on, and then he put his hands together and muttered, "God bless us, please don't let it rain again, or our house will be flooded!"

Lin Wei: “…”

…

Originally, Zong Shao was on duty today, but he switched shifts with Zhou Jianhai. Plus, there was a typhoon and he was worried about Lin Wei and the two children, so he came back a few minutes earlier than usual in the afternoon.

However, after arriving home, Zong Shao found that Lin Wei was in good condition and did not seem to be frightened.

Lin Wei was serving noodles. Because it had been raining heavily during the day, she had not come to the kitchen since noon. When she opened the kitchen after the rain stopped, the coal stove had already gone out. She was too lazy to light the stove, so she just cooked a pot of noodles on the clay stove.

When she looked up, she saw Zong Shao staring at her. Lin Wei thought there was something on her face, so she touched her cheek with the back of her hand, but felt nothing, so she asked.

"No." Zong Shao immediately shook his head.

Lin Wei asked: "Then why are you staring at me?"

Zong Shao took the noodles she had served him and asked in a low voice, "Are you afraid when a typhoon comes?"

"I was a little scared at first, but then I felt okay." Lin Wei scooped out the last bowl of noodles and carried it to the dining room with Zong Shao. When she entered the room and saw that it was dark inside, she remembered and said, "Oh, it seems that the power line in the family area was blown down. There will be no electricity tonight. I don't know when it can be repaired."

"I don't think anyone will be arranged to repair it today. Let's see what the weather is like tomorrow. If it doesn't rain, someone will come to repair it." Zong Shao put down the bowl, walked to the chest of drawers, took out a candle, lit it with a match, and returned to the dining table. He dripped two sticks of candle oil onto the table to stick the candles together.

Just then the two children came in after washing their hands. Seeing the candles on the table, Mingming asked in surprise: "Why light candles? Can't you just turn on the light bulb?"

As he said that, he walked to the door, reached out and pulled the light cord, looked up, and it was not on.

"Mom and Dad, is the light bulb in our house broken?"

"It's not broken. The power lines in other places are down, so there's no electricity at home." After Lin Wei said that, she asked Mingming to sit down and eat noodles.

Mingming said "oh", sat on the stool, picked up the chopsticks, and just after taking a bite, he asked again: "Why is there no electricity if the wire is broken? Is there a power outage?"

Lin Wei said: "If the wires are broken, our area will have a power outage."

"When will the wires be fixed?"

"Maybe tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow."

"That……"

It has to be said that there were obviously a lot of problems, and Lin Wei couldn't handle it anymore, so she had to resort to the trick of not talking while eating and not speaking while sleeping.

But the ultimate move was useless, and Mingming had a new question: "Mom, what does it mean to not talk while eating and not talk while sleeping?"

"Don't talk while eating or sleeping. You are not allowed to talk while eating or sleeping."

"But I don't talk when I sleep. Do you talk when you sleep?" She turned to Ruirui and asked, "Brother, do you talk when you sleep?"

Ruirui shook her head: "No words."

Lin Wei knocked on the table and emphasized: "Is this the point? The point is that you should not talk while eating."

Mingming asked again: "Why can't I speak? Aren't you talking too, Mom?"

"So from now on, we can't talk anymore."

"Okay then." Mingming responded and started eating noodles.

The dinner table finally became quiet, with only the sound of slurping noodles being heard.

But this kind of silence didn't last long. Seeing Zong Shao finish his noodles, Lin Wei thought about the lack of electricity and said, "Take a shower after you finish eating, so you don't get up too late."

As soon as he heard Lin Wei talking, Mingming started yelling, "Mom, you're talking!"

Lin Wei said: "This is a serious matter, and it is something I must say."

"What about me?" Mingming asked.

Lin Wei tapped his forehead with her finger and said, "What do you think? You little chatterbox."

Although she was young, she already knew what a chatterbox meant, and immediately pouted her lips: "I'm not a chatterbox! What I say is also very, very important!"

"Then what?"

"So, mom, you have to apologize to me! Otherwise, I will never tell you anything really important again!" Mingming said, and turned his head away proudly.

Lin Wei suppressed her laughter: "Okay, I'll be waiting."

Mingming did not answer after hearing this, but just snorted heavily to show his firm attitude.

So when Zong Shao came out of the shower, he discovered that his wife and eldest son were in a cold war. The two of them, no, mainly Mingming, refused to talk to Lin Wei.

After calling the two children into the bathroom, stripping them naked and rushing them into the bathtub, Zong Shao came out and asked, "What did you say just now? It seemed like Mingming was angry with you?"

Lin Wei told him what happened just now. The more she talked, the funnier it became. "You said this kid is young but has a bad temper. Don't worry about him. He will forget about it tomorrow."

"What if he doesn't forget tomorrow?"

"What can I do? I'm his mother. He eats the food I cook and drinks the water I boil every day. Can he ignore me forever? You don't have to worry about it," Lin Wei waved her hand and asked, "Is there any water on the coal stove? I got caught in the rain today and I want to wash my hair tonight."

Zong Shao nodded and asked, "Why are you soaked in the rain?"

"After I closed the window, I remembered that the flower pot on the balcony had not been moved in yet, so I got caught in the rain when I went out to move the flower." After Lin Wei finished speaking, she saw Zong Shao frowning, so she smiled and said, "It was only raining for a while. After I moved the flower, I took a shower and dried my hair. I'm fine now."

Zong Shao didn't say much, just said: "Next time you encounter such a situation, don't worry about the flowers, your health is more important."

Lin Wei nodded: "I understand. Go and give them a bath. If you leave them in the bathroom, who knows how long they will play."

Zong Shao nodded, turned around and went to the bathroom to bathe the two children.

When we were in Shicheng, it always took the two children half an hour to an hour to take a bath. It wasn’t because they were very careful in bathing, but because they were busy playing, and they would get angry if you urged them to get up.

But after arriving on the island, Zong Shao was in charge and they didn't dare to play even if they wanted to. They could usually only come out after ten to fifteen minutes.

Zong Shao pushed the two children a little harder today and even rubbed their backs. After just five minutes, he woke them up, dried their bodies, put clothes and shorts on them, and sent them out.

After the two children left, Zong Shao tidied up the bathroom briefly.

Normally he would wash his dirty clothes right after taking a shower, but today the weather was bad and it might rain at night, so he didn't care and just picked them up and put them together.

After cleaning the bathroom, Zong Shao went to the kitchen, brought in the hot water, and also got a bucket of cold water to mix for bathing.

While Zong Shao was doing this, Lin Wei also came down packing her clothes.

She put the clothes into a cloth bag and hung it behind the bathroom door. She turned around and took the ladle from Zong Shao's hand and said, "I'll do it myself. You go upstairs and have some rest."

Zong Shao did not leave, and said, "I'll stay here with you."

Lin Wei stopped moving and looked up at him.

Zong Shao coughed lightly and explained, "There's a power outage and it's too dark downstairs. I'll wait for you outside. Just call me if you need anything." After that, he walked around Lin Wei and went to sit in the living room.

…

Zong Shao said it was too dark downstairs, but that was not true. At least there were candles for lighting. It was really pitch black upstairs. Maybe because they thought it would be easier to sleep after dark, no one helped the two children light candles after they went upstairs.

But it was too early and the two children couldn't sleep, so they leaned against each other and whispered to each other.

In the darkness, Ruirui opened her eyes, looked at Mingming who was close at hand, and asked softly, "Brother, are you really not going to talk to mom anymore?"

Mingming was firm: "If my mother doesn't apologize to me, I won't talk to her anymore."

Ruirui said, a little puzzled: "Why are you angry with your mother?"

"Didn't you hear that?" Mingming turned over and sat up because he was excited. "Mom said I was a chatterbox. People who talk a lot are chatterboxes! Mom said that. It's very disrespectful to me!"

Ruirui said "oh" again and asked, "What is nonsense?"

Mingming couldn't believe it: "How come you don't even know this?"

Ruirui: "..." He is not a chatterbox, why does he need to know this?

Mingming lay down next to his brother and explained, "Nonsense is unimportant words, but what I said is very important, so it's not nonsense! Do you understand?"

Understood.

But… Ruirui complained: "Brother, you have so many important things to say."

Mingming didn't think this was a complaint, and said seriously: "Every word I say is very, very important! So my mother said I was a chatterbox, and I was very angry! If she doesn't apologize to me, I won't talk to her!"

Ruirui continued: "What if mommy never apologizes to you?"

Mingming said loudly: "Then I will never talk to my mother again!"

"What if Mom is sad?"

Mingming was stunned: "Sad?"

"Yes, if my brother doesn't talk to me anymore, I will definitely be sad." Ruirui turned over, raised her hands and put them behind her head, and said, "If my brother ignores me, I will definitely be sad and maybe cry."

Mingming lay on the bed with his cheek against his arm, thought about what his brother said, and asked, "Has mom ever cried?"

Ruirui was a few minutes younger than Mingming. How could he, as the younger brother, know something that his older brother didn't know? He shook his head and said, "I don't know."

Mingming asked again: "What will happen if mom cries?"

Ruirui said: "She must be very sad. In the past, when Wang Xiaofei's mother cried, her grandmother would say that she was very sad."

I clearly felt that my brother's words were strange. He would cry when he was sad, so crying should be more serious than being sad. Why did I become sad again after crying?

I don't understand.

But he thought about it seriously and decided that he didn't want to see his mother cry or be sad, so he said, "If she doesn't say I'm a chatterbox tomorrow, I'll talk to her."

Ruirui also felt that his brother’s words were strange. If he didn’t talk to mother, why would mother say he was a chatterbox? If he is still a chatterbox, why doesn't he talk to his mother?

I don't understand.

But after waking up, the two brothers no longer cared about these confused problems, because their mother was sick!

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