Chapter 036 Your own safety is more important
However, she felt a bit bad about leaving Li Kun alone outside to enjoy the fresh air while she herself slept.
Thinking of this, she suddenly asked, "Is it allowed to light a fire here?"
Li Kun said with some embarrassment: "Of course, but there is no dry firewood here."
"Then let's pick up some branches and hang them out to dry. I guess the wind will dry them up."
As she spoke, she looked around with a flashlight and picked up a branch that was wet by the rain.
The wind drying technique was used quietly and the branches dried up quickly.
She broke off the branch, took out a box of matches from her pocket, grabbed a handful of dead leaves from the side and started to light them.
Li Kun was about to say that this could not be ignited, but just as the words came to his mouth, he found that the dry leaves were burning.
He ran over in surprise, "Sister-in-law, you are so awesome!"
Those people in their kitchen spent a long time just making the fire.
"You add some branches, and I'll find some drier ones."
As he spoke, Gu Xiaoxi had already walked a little further, looking for dead branches.
Since they had not gone far, Li Kun did not stop them. He hurriedly added more branches to make the fire burn brighter.
After a while, Gu Xiaoxi came back with a bundle of firewood.
Seeing that Li Kun's clothes were wet, he said, "I'll go inside and sleep for a while. You can dry your clothes yourself! Otherwise you'll get sick."
"Yes. Sister-in-law, you should take a rest!"
Gu Xiaoxi entered the tent and forced himself to sleep.
Only if you maintain a good spirit can you have energy!
However, she didn't sleep for long. At around six o'clock, she was awakened by a thunder in the sky.
She ran out immediately, "Is it going to rain again?"
Li Kun, who was piling firewood, nodded and said, "I'm afraid it's going to rain again! Sister-in-law, I roasted two sweet potatoes in the fire. Do you want some?"
Gu Xiaoxi saw Li Kun picking up a few more bundles of firewood and immediately said, "We'll eat later. You move the firewood into the tent and we'll go get some more and pile it neatly. If it rains and there's no firewood to burn, we won't even be able to cook."
"Okay." Li Kun immediately went to move the firewood.
Gu Xiaoxi went around to collect firewood.
Because she was in a hurry, she used her garbage sorting skills to gather together all the dry branches that could be burned, and in the blink of an eye, she had a large pile.
She used the wind-driving technique again and called Li Kun to move it.
The two men divided the work and soon the entire tent was filled with firewood. They even took out the only camp bed and placed it next to the fire outside.
As the two of them sat on the cot, resting and eating roasted sweet potatoes, Li Kun couldn't help but say, "Sister-in-law, didn't we pick too much? If it rains later, we won't have anywhere to hide from the rain."
As he was speaking, raindrops began to fall.
After being stunned for two seconds, Gu Xiaoxi immediately grabbed the raincoat in the corner of the tent and put it on.
Li Kun also hurriedly put on his raincoat and stuffed the camp bed into the firewood pile.
When Lu Jiansen came back with his men, he saw his little girl and Li Kun wearing raincoats and getting wet outside in the rain.
His brows furrowed, and just as he was about to ask people to go back to the tent, he saw the firewood in the tent.
He took a deep breath and said to the people behind him, "Everyone has an order to set up a temporary camp immediately."
"yes!"
At the command, everyone dispersed immediately.
Gu Xiaoxi looked at the man walking towards her, took a bite of the sweet potato in her hand, and said weakly, "Sorry! We accidentally picked up too much firewood."
Lu Jiansen stood in front of the little girl and gently wiped the rain off her cheek. "Remember next time, your own safety is more important. You can give up everything else!"
"Oh!" Gu Xiaoxi responded softly.
Li Kun felt that such a scene was unbearable to watch, so he quickly made up for it and went to help set up a new temporary camp.
Because there were not enough supplies, the soldiers finally built a simple straw hut to shelter from the rain.
Although it rained for a while, everyone was still very happy. Some were making a fire, some were secretly looking at their battalion commander's wife, and the atmosphere was very good.
They had firewood, so Lu Jiansen sent someone to the kitchen to get some ingredients and brought a pot over to light a fire and cook.
Gu Xiaoxi sat next to Lu Jiansen, looked at him, then looked at the soldiers, "Are any of you injured?"
Without Lu Jiansen's reply, the soldiers said in unison: "Sister-in-law, don't worry, we are in good health."
Gu Xiaoxi had his own mission, so he added, "If anyone gets hurt, be sure to tell me."
Lu Jiansen patted her head and said, "Don't get hurt. And don't run around!"
"Got it. Did you rescue anyone?" Gu Xiaoxi immediately changed the subject.
Lu Jiansen nodded and said, "We saved some trapped people."
At this time, a soldier with a dark face and a simple and honest look said: "We also saved a pregnant woman. When we came back, the pregnant woman gave birth to twins at the temporary treatment center."
Gu Xiaoxi took a deep breath and said, "That's very dangerous!"
At this time, another soldier said with regret: "We saved a person from the water, but he is dead."
Just this one sentence made the atmosphere depressed again.
Lu Jiansen was afraid that the little girl would feel sad, so he started talking about something else.
"This flood destroyed thousands of acres of farmland, many villagers' houses and furniture, and a lot of cotton cloth and general merchandise from the supply and marketing cooperatives were also washed away. The loss of grain was even greater, and it was estimated to be tens of thousands of kilograms."
Gu Xiaoxi's eyes widened when he heard this. "The loss is so huge?"
Lu Jiansen nodded. "This is just a rough estimate. So we may not be able to return so quickly this time."
Gu Xiaoxi sighed and gently tugged at Lu Jiansen's sleeve.
"How about we move the firewood outside the tent so you can go inside and take a rest?"
She felt that being a soldier was really hard!
Lu Jiansen squeezed her palm soothingly, "No need. These firewoods are very useful. They can feed the soldiers and warm their bodies. You can just rest here for a while."
Gu Xiaoxi turned around and felt sad when she saw that the soldier was making sweet potato rice again.
It's a mess, neither watery nor dry, and the bottom is burnt. It doesn't taste good at all!
Lu Jiansen followed the girl's line of sight and said softly, "I'll make you some noodles later."
Gu Xiaoxi shook his head. "No need. Just put a sweet potato in the fire and roast it. I like to eat that."
"Okay." Lu Jiansen personally picked two sweet potatoes, roasted them by the fire, and kept a close eye on them.
The sweet potatoes were cooked and the soldiers had already eaten them.
However, the rain has not stopped yet, and it is even getting heavier.
Gu Xiaoxi leaned against Lu Jiansen, eating sweet potatoes and watching the rain.
Lu Jiansen felt warm at the sight of the little girl beside him.
Two hours later, the rain lightened up.
Lu Jiansen ordered his men to move the firewood in the tent to the straw shed and empty the tent.
Looking at the drowsy little girl, he touched her cold forehead and said softly, "Go to sleep for a while."
"Yeah." Gu Xiaoxi didn't insist anymore and went to sleep on the camp bed.
Seeing that the little girl looked unwell and would feel cold wearing her military coat, Lu Jiansen borrowed a quilt to cover her, and built a fire to keep her warm before leading the team out.