Soon, Old Man Chen and the others calmed down because they knew that running away wouldn't solve the problem, it would only hurt themselves. As long as they were alive, there was still hope.
Before long, they began to discuss and make arrangements.
The village chief sent his eldest son to inform everyone in the village to hide in the warehouse. If anyone in the village was injured or had difficulty moving around, he was to send someone to pick them up.
The large warehouse that Chen Kai and his team proposed last time was just completed by the village a few days ago. I didn't expect it to be put to use so soon. The warehouse is quite sturdy.
Although Chen Kai and his group thought it was just passable, at this time, the warehouse was much sturdier than some of the houses in their village, since some of the houses were just mud houses, and some of them were in disrepair.
The Chen family also sent out a lot of people to help.
Their mode of transportation is still to crawl under the table and walk while holding the table up to their sides.
These hailstones the size of fists are terrifying; it's safest to hide under the table.
Old Chen carried the table on his head to get the spare medicine from home, and then went to the warehouse.
Chen Lao Da's wife and Chen Lao Er's wife carried a table and some things to the warehouse to boil water for later use.
After a while, villagers gradually arrived at the warehouse. Several of them had been hit on the head, and everyone quickly helped treat their wounds.
Fortunately, there have been no casualties in their village so far.
Now, apart from Chen Kai and Xiao Tian, everyone else in the Chen family is extremely grateful that they listened to Chen Lao Er's wife and harvested all the vegetables in the garden; otherwise, their losses would have been even greater.
Clearly, they've forgotten that Chen Kai and Xiao Tian also contributed to this.
The hail continued to fall relentlessly, and the weather grew colder.
Chen Lao Er's wife tidied up two cotton-padded jackets and said, "Little brother, Xiao Tian, come on, put these on so you don't get cold."
When Xiao Tian saw the extremely ugly clothes, he turned and ran away. Soon, Chen Lao Er picked him up and, ignoring his resistance, helped him put the clothes on.
Chen Kai obediently let his second sister-in-law help him put on his clothes. Although he disliked the colorful clothes, he put them on anyway to avoid getting cold.
After helping Chen Lao Er's wife put on Chen Kai's little cotton-padded jacket, she patted Chen Kai's head and praised, "Little brother is such a good boy!"
In the Chen family's backyard, their pet animals were also frightened and kept howling.
Zhou opened the window a crack and took a look. Seeing that the animal enclosure they had built hadn't collapsed, she breathed a sigh of relief.
The Chen family has a son named Chen Lao Er who is skilled in carpentry, so the animal enclosures are all built very sturdily.
Uncle Zhou muttered to himself, "What a disaster! How many people will die from this hailstorm!"
The hailstorm continued until the next morning.
Early in the morning, when everyone saw that the hail had stopped, they all rushed home to check the situation.
The Chen family's livestock shed collapsed after a night of devastation, but fortunately, their livestock survived.
While Chen Lao Er and his family were repairing the livestock shed, suddenly, with a loud crash, the roof of the Chen family's kitchen collapsed.
"Ah!" Daya screamed in fright.
Old Chen rushed over and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that his daughter was alright.
Boss Chen said, "Don't go near the kitchen, stay away!"
Seeing that her kitchen had collapsed, Daya said with heartache, "There are still so many things in the kitchen, we have to move them out."
Seeing that the younger children were still staring longingly at the kitchen, trying to salvage the contents, Chen Kai quickly said, "You can't go over there, it's too dangerous there."
Er Ya said anxiously, "Uncle, please move aside! There are still a lot of things in the kitchen that haven't been moved out yet!"
Suddenly, with another loud crash, the roof of the Chen family's hall collapsed.
Everyone was stunned. After they came to their senses, they couldn't help but cry.
"Waaaaah..."
"Waaaaah..."
"Waaaaah..."
"Our house collapsed..."
Seeing their house collapse, Chen Kai and Xiao Tian were also heartbroken.
Chen Kai wanted to comfort the children, but he didn't know what to say, so he could only say, "It's okay, it's okay. Look, no one in our family is hurt. Everything will be alright."
As he spoke, Chen Kai couldn't help but burst into tears.
Old Man Chen, Mrs. Zhou, and Uncle Zhou insisted on going to the fields to check on the crops. Old Man Chen and the others couldn't persuade them otherwise, so they had no choice but to go with them to the fields.
Although everyone still held onto hope, they were stunned and their minds went blank when they actually saw the crops in the fields completely destroyed.
After a while, the elderly people murmured to themselves, "Gone, gone, all gone!"
Upon returning to the Chen family home, Old Man Chen and Mrs. Zhou were devastated to find their house collapsed and fainted.
Chen Lao Da and Chen Lao Er called out anxiously, "Father, Mother!"
Then he rushed over and helped the two elderly people up.
After seeing Old Man Chen and Mrs. Zhou back to their room to rest, Old Man Chen's wife, who had gone to the village to check on things, returned carrying a basket on her head.
As Chen's eldest daughter-in-law walked, she cursed, "Oh my god, this damned heaven is really going to kill us! More than half of the villagers' houses have been destroyed, and a lot of livestock have died."
Chen Kai said helplessly, "Sister-in-law, you'd better not go out in this weather. Just stay home."
Chen's eldest daughter-in-law sighed, "Little brother, I just can't sit still. I always want to do something. We can't just sit around and do nothing!"
The village chief toured the village, exhausted, and then told everyone to stay put at the warehouse and not to go out alone.
He felt that the hail hadn't stopped and might continue, so everyone should stay away for safety.
Sure enough, it started hailing again not long after.
The hail lasted all day before finally stopping for a while. It stopped raining continuously and started raining intermittently, with the hailstorms becoming shorter and shorter.
These past few days, the villagers have become numb, and most of them feel hopeless about life.
The village chief convened a meeting and, as the hail lessened, instructed the able-bodied men of the village to take bamboo baskets and go into the mountains to find food and firewood.
Those who were not injured helped the villagers repair their houses.
They couldn't just sit and wait to die; if the hail continued for another ten days or half a month, they would starve to death.
The Chen family had plenty of firewood, because they had a carpenter named Chen Lao Er, and their firewood was piled up in several sheds.
Previously, the village chief had ordered everyone to keep livestock on the mountain, but fortunately, the hail had not yet melted, and the dead animals were frozen. The village chief ordered people to collect the animal carcasses so they could share them later.
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