Chapter 44 Someone fell into the water
Mr. Zhong also saw it, was stunned, and looked embarrassed.
The little boy named Yangyang continued to copy. He looked only seven or eight years old, with very black pupils, delicate and cute facial features, small limbs, and wore torn open-crotch pants, but he didn't mind the cold on his butt.
Zhong Qiao just found it funny.
The noodles with toppings were brought to the table by the woman.
She turned around and saw her son's appearance. She was furious: "Xu Yangyang, look at what you have done. I told you to wear it, but you refused to listen and ran out wearing open-crotch pants all summer long. You have made me lose face."
"Go back to me."
She took the crying little boy away.
Zhong Qiao withdrew his gaze.
There were two bowls of braised pork rib noodles on the table, with red soup and thin noodles. When stirred with chopsticks, the soup bottom was filled with chopped green onions, tomatoes and black fungus. There was also a row of free pickles near the big tree.
She scooped a few spoonfuls onto a small plate and placed it in the middle of the table.
Suzhou noodles are sweet and salty, with sugar adding flavor. The noodles are smooth and chewy, and are paired with a piece of braised pork ribs and eaten with soup. They even sweated a lot while eating while it was still hot.
They were sitting under an old tree, with the 721st Workers' University behind them and the bridge they had come from further ahead. Looking far ahead, they could see a thin layer of ice on the river. There was also broken ice in the weeds near the river, and the river was faintly flowing.
A man and a woman are pulling each other on the bridge.
"You just listen to your dad, right? Who should I marry, you or your dad?!" The man was very angry.
Across from him was a girl who looked like a student. She was so frightened by him that she trembled in fear: "Your home is too far away. My sister and I are the only two daughters in my family... Unless... Unless."
The girl twisted her fingers into a ball and stammered.
"Unless what?" the man demanded.
"Unless you can come to Suzhou and settle down." The girl looked up at him, her tone softening. "My dad said that my future partner must stay in Suzhou, and the agreed betrothal gift must not be reduced."
The man's face suddenly turned pale. "I didn't expect you to be such a materialistic woman. What's the difference between you and playing tricks on me? You know my family is not well off, my parents are not in good health, and they can't go out to farm. I'm their only son, and I can't stay with them to take care of them. As a son, I'm already unfilial. And your family actually forced me to do this. Do you want our whole family to die?"
The girl was frightened by his appearance, tears welling up in her eyes. She was completely panicked and said, "I'm sorry, I don't know this. What should I do?"
Seeing her soften a bit, the man quickly put on a completely different expression: "For you, I can give you my life, but now, you can't listen to your father. Do you remember what I said? I like girls with independent minds. At this critical moment of our marriage, can't you make some sacrifices and work hard for our future?"
He took a step forward, grabbed the girl's shoulders, and pressed forward.
"Dowry is all empty talk. As long as I love you, and you love me, and we live a good life together, isn't that better than those vulgar things?"
The girl's intuition told her that this was wrong, and she couldn't help but struggle: "No, my dad will be sad, and my sister will scold me."
The man was so angry that he was shaking all over: "If you had told me earlier that you guys in Suzhou don't marry outside the family, why would I bother with you?"
The girl lowered her head and pursed her lips, as if she had made up her mind, "I have to go back. Let's not contact each other anymore."
After saying that, she wanted to turn around and flee the scene, completely ignoring the gloomy expression on the man's face behind her.
Zhong Qiao was still chewing the pork chop, with half of her face bulging. Seeing that she liked it, Zhong's father put the uneaten pork chop into her bowl and also picked out some noodles.
"Dad, I can't eat anymore." Zhong Qiao answered vaguely with pork chops stuffed in his mouth.
"Someone fell into the water!"
"Someone fell off the bridge!"
"Help! Help! Who can swim?!"
There was a cacophony of voices, car horns, and bicycle bells coming from the bridge, making it a chaotic mess.
Zhong Qiao paused, turned around and followed the sound, only to see a thin figure hanging on the edge of the bridge. He must have fallen straight into the glacier due to exhaustion.
The river, which was covered with a thin layer of ice, was broken open by the impact, making a loud noise and splashing water everywhere.
Zhong Qiao and Zhong's father looked at each other, quickly dropped their bowls and chopsticks, and pushed through the crowd.
When encountering such an emergency, everyone's first reaction is to shout and call for help, while some people hesitate whether to save people.
After all, it's so cold today, and if you don't have enough energy, you can easily get yourself into trouble.
"Dad." Zhong Qiao was about to speak when his father jumped over the bridge, flipped down, and jumped into the water.
The river water in winter is bitterly cold, flows slowly, and is overgrown with weeds.
The girl struggled in the water and drank several mouthfuls of dirty water. Her hands and every part of her body ached, and her strength gradually declined. When she fainted completely, she seemed to feel as if she was being lifted up by a force.
Father Zhong found the nearest river bank in the river, pulled away the weeds, and almost dragged her to the shore.
Several kind-hearted men came forward to help. Seeing that Mr. Zhong was exhausted, they found a pole to help him hold on. When they got closer to the river bank, some men tried to pull the girl, and some who were too short-handed almost fell into the river themselves.
The two were pulled ashore by many hands.
Zhong Qiao didn't have time to blame him for being reckless. He checked on Zhong's father's condition. Fortunately, he had just caught a cold and was frozen unconscious.
The situation for girls is not optimistic.
After being soaked in the glacier, her originally frail body seemed to have lost its vitality, and her face was pale. Zhong Qiao touched her forehead and wrist and found that even her breathing was weak.
Instead of the joy of saving the people, everyone looked heavy-hearted.
It was such a cold day, and the girl fell from the bridge and landed directly on the river. It was hard to guarantee that she would not hit the rocks at the bottom of the river and cause damage to her internal organs.
Someone had already found a phone booth to call an ambulance.
Someone was pressing on the girl's chest, trying to help her force out the river water that she accidentally choked on.
Seeing Mr. Zhong shivering from the cold, the stall owners kindly said, "Beautiful lady (a term used in some parts of Suzhou to refer to outsiders), quickly take your father to the other side of the river where they sell clothes. Go get some new clothes."
Zhong Qiao had no choice but to help her father, who was shivering from the cold, and push through the crowd. She didn't know if it was her sixth sense as a woman.
Her heart suddenly tightened, and she looked back at the crowd. Her eyes gradually fixed on a man who was trembling all over and had a terrified look on his face.
He was tall and strong, so he didn't notice Zhong Qiao, but he tried his best to hide his presence and blend into the crowd. Zhong Qiao carefully observed his helpless movements and it was obvious that he didn't seem to be helping.
Zhong Qiao frowned.
Maybe I'm just being sensitive.
She sighed, took off Mr. Zhong's wet coat, leaving only his inner shirt, and put her own coat on him. While rubbing Mr. Zhong's hands, she walked away without looking back.
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