Today is destined to be a chaotic day in the prefectural city. The neighboring counties, towns, and villages will be no different.
After a busy day, no earthquake occurred, and the weather remained unbearably hot and humid.
I don't know if it's because of nervousness or the weather, but I've been quite irritable.
Either the Zhang family was arguing, or the Li family was having a physical fight. It was as if the pent-up emotions from before had suddenly been released.
As night fell, some people even began cursing Lord Duan.
"This prefect is a complete scoundrel. What kind of earth-shaking event is this? Everything's fine now, he's just wasting his time."
He, the master, has servants to wait on him, he's waited on hand and foot, and he does whatever he's told. We poor folks, we have to do everything ourselves.
And what's with the "not letting me sleep inside" nonsense? Pshaw! Why would I stay in a perfectly good house and insist on feeding mosquitoes outside? Only an idiot would listen to that.
I refuse to believe it. I'm sleeping in my house, what, could an earthquake possibly kill me in the middle of the night?
If the King of Hell decrees your death at midnight, you cannot live past dawn; whatever fate decrees, so be it…
It's true what they say, ignorance is bliss; not everyone listens and stays out in hotels.
There are many people who harbor wishful thinking, believing that they are the center and therefore right.
Those who caused trouble at the Zhao family's gate were taken back to the yamen. The yamen was busy today and it was inconvenient to put them in jail, so they were given a few lashes and then released.
These reckless fools just insist on going against the Zhao family.
"Your family made a fuss before the government even notified us. I think it's your family who's behind this. I don't believe it."
He Laoliu, who had previously led the disturbance, carefully changed his clothes while cursing.
At the beginning of Hai hour (9-11 PM), a torrential downpour began, accompanied by lightning and thunder.
Lacking sufficient materials, the hastily erected tent was now teetering on the brink of collapse, washed away by the heavy rain.
Rainwater seeped in through holes in the tent or gaps in the raincoat.
People braved the rain to repair tents, got up to move beds, and used basins to collect water; everyone sprang into action.
Meanwhile, some people who didn't believe in superstitions were lying in their own beds, listening to the noise from their neighbors next door, and thinking that the people outside were all idiots.
The rain, accompanied by thunder and lightning, lasted for more than an hour before it stopped.
For families whose drainage ditches in the yard weren't deep enough, the water in their tents had already reached their calves, so they had to sit on their own beds or cabinets.
It was August, still the height of summer for the people of Lingnan Prefecture, but the rain in the middle of the night still made them shiver when they got soaked.
Every now and then, the sound of sneezing could be heard coming from the tents of each household.
The daughter-in-law of the Zhao family's west courtyard is causing trouble again.
"It's too cold, I'm not staying in this tent anymore. Our house is a brick and tile house, and it was built with the best materials."
It's incredibly sturdy; you might not even be able to budge it with a ram, let alone make an earth dragon turn over.
My dear husband, why don't we go back to our room and sleep?
I can manage, but our son and daughter can't take this kind of suffering.
Fan Cuihua followed the man Chen Hongxi and said coquettishly.
Chen Hongxi had always doted on his wife, and after being coaxed by her sweet words, he immediately lost his temper. This infuriated his mother, Chen Wanshi.
He grabbed the teacup beside him and threw it at his son and his wife.
"You damned bastard."
When your father died, I should have strangled you too, so you could meet your short-lived father in the afterlife.
I don't want your mother to risk her life to raise you, only to have you be fooled and killed by some woman.
So your wife is precious, so you think you're the only smart ones? Does everyone else think everyone else is stupid?
Are you all smarter than the prefect, or are all the people in the city stupid?
Every household is setting up tents outside to live. Is it really because they like to suffer?
It's okay if you're not smart, but you can't be stupid.
If you can't figure something out, just look at how smart people handle it, and you can't go wrong by learning from them.
Qin, let me tell you, if you keep being so clueless, you can go back to your parents' home right now.
I don't know how your scholar father raised such a stupid daughter.
That's true. Your father wasn't exactly a bright one to begin with, otherwise, how could he still only be a scholar at his age?
Go back to your parents' house less often in the future; stupidity is contagious.
Especially, don't let my son Cai and sister Qing be led astray.
After being bombarded with questions by Chen Wanshi, the couple stopped insisting on going inside to sleep.
If it gets cold, just put on more clothes. The two younger children were lying on their grandmother's bed, covered with blankets, completely unaffected by the thunderstorm, and sleeping soundly.
Around the hour of Chou (1-3 AM), the earth began to tremble. At first, it was a slight shaking, which was followed by a violent tremor.
Screams and cries of pain rose and fell.
The night is like a giant monster, wanting to devour everything.
The Zhao family members were already more vigilant than normal people, and with someone keeping watch at night, they all woke up as soon as the ground began to shake.
Sit firmly and hold the stick upright on the ground to avoid falling because of the swaying, since the ground is still wet.
The shaking of the earth caused dizziness, a feeling that most people couldn't bear.
The initial shaking lasted for about five or six minutes.
After the ground stopped shaking, a corner of the roof of Zhao Qianci and his wife's house had collapsed.
The Chen family next door had several skylights on their roof, and the neat tiles that used to be there were gone.
The collapse occurred right in the couple's bedroom and Cai Ge's bedroom.
Squinting to see clearly, Chen Hongxi instantly broke out in a cold sweat.
Ignoring the dirt on the ground, he immediately knelt before his mother and kowtowed three times.
"Mother, thank you. If it weren't for your reminder, I might be in grave danger right now."
Qin Shi, come over and kowtow to your mother. From now on, in all matters of the household, your mother shall come first.
You have to listen to whatever your mother says, otherwise you're considered extremely unfilial and heartless.
Today, your life, and our son's life, were both saved by your mother.
At this moment, Qin, who had lost her footing during the earthquake and landed on the ground, was so frightened that she collapsed.
I was terrified. If my mother-in-law hadn't stopped me, I don't know how badly I would have been hurt.
Especially when heart-wrenching cries came from afar, it was clear that someone had been injured, and must have been seriously hurt, which made me tremble with fear.
From then on, Qin no longer treated her mother-in-law with disrespect, always remembering that her mother-in-law had saved her entire family's lives.
Chen Wanshi scolded her daughter-in-law less and less.
If someone in your family has been hit by a rubble or buried, you naturally want to dig your loved ones out as quickly as possible.
Because of his stubbornness, He Laoliu refused to sleep outside, and when the earthquake struck, he was buried inside the house.
Whether they died or were injured, no one knows.
At this moment, He Laoliu's own mother was wailing and begging her daughters-in-law to go and rescue people.
Her own sons, however, stood huddled together in the yard like quails.
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