"What's wrong with the head of the household?" Zhao Xiu was pulled out of bed by the village chief and was terrified by the firelight overhead.
She had actually heard the loud thunder, but before she could react, the roof caught fire, and the scorching flames rushed towards her, startling her so much that she forgot to move.
"Lightning struck our house! Quickly put on your clothes, carry the children out, saving lives is the priority." The village chief ran out the door as soon as the four children were sleeping in the next room.
"Wait for me, sir." Zhao Xiu wanted to salvage some clothes, especially the ten taels of silver in the cupboard, but reason prevailed.
Money is just an external thing; children's lives are more important.
When the village chief kicked open the door, the four children had already run to the doorway.
"Dad, our house is on fire." The eldest daughter, Qiuqiu, sobbed.
"Forget about the house, get out first." The village chief, his face tense, pulled the four children outside.
The six people stood in front of the house, on the verge of tears.
"Heavens are not giving us a way out! How could our perfectly good house be struck by lightning?" Zhao Xiu stomped her feet and cried loudly.
"No, I can't just stand by and watch, I have to do something." With that, she rushed into the house.
The village chief quickly grabbed her, "Didn't you see the fire is getting bigger and bigger? If you go in, do you think you'll come out alive?"
"What are we going to do? Everything is gone, how are we going to survive?" Zhao Xiu shouted in despair.
The stars looked at the sky and thought, "If a heavy rain could fall right away, it would put out the fire, wouldn't it?"
Just as I thought that, large raindrops began to fall from the sky, extinguishing the fire on the roof in less than the time it takes to drink a cup of tea.
"It's raining! The fire's out, but the house is still standing!" Xingxing clapped her hands with joy.
The house is still there, but the roof is burned. It's raining heavily now, and the walls, which are mostly thatched and made of mud bricks, have been washed by the rain overnight. I don't know if they will collapse.
Fortunately, although the rain was heavy, it stopped after half an hour, and the wall of the village chief's house stubbornly stood firm without collapsing.
However, everything in the house got soaked. The village chief's family, including Xingxing, were all drenched. The neighbors, Zhou Fafu and his wife, heard the commotion and got up to investigate.
The village chief led the others to Zhou Fafu's house to take shelter from the rain. Since their clothes were also soaked, they could only go to the kitchen to dry them.
Yu Ri, a crowd of onlookers gathered in front of the village chief's house.
"It had been deserted for more than half a year when it suddenly rained last night. It should have been a good thing, but then lightning struck and destroyed the village chief's house. It's too strange."
"Could it be that we've attracted something unclean?" one of the superstitious people interjected.
The villagers started talking all at once, and finally someone made a pointed remark, implying that the little girl they had found on the mountain yesterday might have been unlucky and had attracted lightning.
The ancients held gods and the unknown in great awe and fear. Although the crowd did not agree, they all felt that the little girl was involved in yesterday's lightning strike.
Xingxing listened silently for a long time, seemingly understanding but not quite. Everyone was saying that she was an unlucky person who had attracted lightning and caused the village chief's roof to be struck. But she couldn't understand what the lightning had to do with her.
She's not the God or Goddess of Thunder.
“Rain is a good thing. Look at the dark clouds in the sky, it looks like it’s going to rain again. With water, we can farm, so everyone should be happy.” Zhao Guihua felt sorry for the little girl’s aggrieved look and spoke up to defend her.
Zhang Cui sneered sarcastically, "Sister-in-law, the village chief's house is the best in the village. Why did the lightning strike the village chief's house when it doesn't strike anyone else's house? The village chief has done a lot for everyone over the years. How could such a good person be struck by lightning? It must have been brought by someone else."
After saying that, he deliberately glanced at the stars several times, clearly implying to everyone that the disaster last night was brought about by the stars.
She's just a child, how could she bear such a crime? Zhao Guihua thought bitterly, but she didn't back down on the surface. "How can natural disasters be controlled by human power? Third daughter-in-law, don't make baseless accusations. What kind of skill is it to bully a child?"
“How can there be no proof? This house of the village chief, um…” Zhang Cui was only halfway through her sentence when Zhou Laosan covered her mouth and pushed her behind him.
Zhou Laosan rubbed his hands together and said with a smile, "Sister-in-law, don't take it to heart by Xiao Cui's words. What does a woman like her know? What did the child do wrong? What happened last night was just an accident."
Zhao Guihua didn't want to talk to Zhou Laosan, so she turned her face away and ignored him.
Zhou Laosan didn't mind and said to everyone with a smile, "Village chief, this roof won't be repaired for at least two days. It's going to rain again later, so we can't stay here. Why don't you come to my house for the little girl?"
He sounded like he was asking for everyone's opinion, but he had already taken action. As soon as he finished speaking, he pulled Xingxing to his side.
Xingxing was caught off guard and almost fell on her bottom. Luckily, Zhao Guihua caught her, preventing her little bottom from making intimate contact with the ground.
"Thank you, Auntie. You're a good person. You even spoke well of Xingxing. I'll remember that." The little guy patted his chest and nodded seriously.
"What a good child." Zhao Guihua patted the top of her head.
"My name is Xingxing. Uncle Village Chief said it's the Xing in 'lucky star'," Xingxing introduced her new name in a childish voice.
Before Zhao Guihua could say anything more, Zhou Laosan picked up Xingxing and said, "The village chief has agreed to let the little girl stay at my house. I'll take her back to get something to eat first."
"Sigh..." Zhao Guihua watched helplessly as Zhou Laosan took Xingxing away.
Enraged, she pinched Zhou Laoda again, thinking, "Why can't this blockhead learn from Lao San?"
The villagers stopped paying attention to Zhou Laosan and discussed how to quickly help the village chief repair the roof. Repairing the roof required a lot of materials, so everyone went home to get the materials and lent them to the village chief for his own use.
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