"good."
Sensing his anxiety, Yu Jiu didn't say anything. He took some food, put on the raincoat Yu Jiu had given him, and went back to the educated youth settlement.
The journey was extremely difficult for her. Not only were there frequent thunderclaps and torrential rain, but the wind was also very strong, stinging her face. If Xu Zijiang hadn't been holding her, she felt like she would have been blown away by the wind.
In this situation, even wearing a raincoat would be of no use. The wine was already soaked as soon as they stepped out of Xu Zijiang's house, much to Xu Zijiang's annoyance.
"I should have let you stay at my house first. Now your clothes are all wet, and you'll catch a cold later."
But if I leave her home alone, I'm afraid she might be afraid of the dark or thunder.
"It's nothing. I've been sick before, I won't get sick so easily."
Yu Jiu was half-held by Xu Zijiang to shield her from the rain and wind, but she was still shivering from the cold. She gritted her teeth and said. The rain blew on her face and stung her eyes. She closed her eyes uncomfortably, and her wet hair clung to her face, making her look as if she had been pulled out of the water.
Xu Zi escorted Yu Jiu back to the educated youth settlement with great difficulty.
"Make some ginger soup for yourself, change into some clean clothes as a precaution, I'm leaving now."
"Okay, be careful."
Yu Jiu nodded and gave him instructions, but for some reason, a sense of unease suddenly flashed through her heart. It wasn't that she hadn't experienced thunderstorms before; typhoons had been so strong in the past that they almost collapsed houses, but she had never felt this uneasy, as if something much bigger was about to happen.
She was preoccupied with her thoughts as she boiled bathwater and ginger soup in the kitchen, glancing out every now and then to see if the rain would stop. But lightning flashed and thunder roared, and the rain poured down harder and harder, as if the sky were about to collapse. She could only clutch her anxious heart, hoping that Xu Zijiang, who was still busy outside, would be alright.
On the other side, Xu Zi braved the wind and rain to first check on several houses that were in dire need of repair. After observing them from the outside, he felt that things were really not going well. Half of the roof had been torn off, and the walls were about to collapse.
He frowned and knocked on the door of Shen Juncong's house.
"Uncle Cong, the wind and rain are too strong. The house may not be able to withstand it. You should take your family to the neighbor's house for shelter. If you are worried about the grain getting soaked, you can move the grain there as well. I will help you move it!"
He vigorously wiped the rain off his face; he was soaked to the bone, but his eyes remained sharp and shrewd.
"No need, there's no need for such trouble. The rain is too heavy, you'll get soaked as soon as you go out, and you won't even have a change of clothes. My house won't collapse, it's withstood so many years of wind and rain, what's there to be afraid of? Zijiang, you should go back and rest, don't worry about us."
Shen Juncong waved his hand, not taking it to heart at all. Although half of the roof had been blown off, they had already moved everything inside to another room. It would be fine; the walls were so sturdy, how could they possibly collapse?
“Uncle Cong, the wind is stronger than usual this time. Didn’t you hear it? It’s howling. You should go to the neighbor’s house for shelter. It’s not far. What if the wall collapses and hits someone? Even if I’m worrying unnecessarily, it’s better to be safe than sorry. Hurry up. You don’t have to take anything. People can’t stay here.”
"Hurry up, go squeeze into the neighbor's house for the night. Uncle Yuan is on good terms with your family, he'll definitely let you squeeze in for the night. You're old and not afraid of trouble, but you have to think about your grandson. How can a little kid not be afraid?"
Xu Zijiang accurately hit Shen Juncong's weak spot. He frowned and thought for a moment, but finally took a step back.
"Fine, I'll listen to you. You say I'm just causing trouble for others, but what's wrong with living in my own house? I don't believe my dilapidated house can collapse!"
He muttered to himself and started directing his family to come out and go to Uncle Yuan's house next door, where they would squeeze in for the night.
Xu Zijiang saw that he had been persuaded and did not linger any longer. He then went to another house. Most of the people in the team lived in thatched huts, but the thatched huts varied in age and size. There were three poor people like Shen Juncong who lived in dilapidated little houses. Whenever the wind and rain were heavy, he would come out to check if the house could withstand the pressure.
If they feel they can't hold on any longer, they need to be brought out quickly. Getting rained on is better than being buried inside a collapsed house.
However, not many people listen to advice like Shen Juncong, and not everyone is willing to go to someone else's house in the pouring rain. Not to mention the fear of being disliked by others, they themselves find it too much trouble.
"Oh dear, Uncle Cong's roof was blown off, there's nothing we can do. Our roof is perfectly fine, I'm not going. Team leader, if you're free, go to the educated youth settlement and keep an eye on Educated Youth Yu. She's just a young girl, she's probably afraid of this kind of weather!"
"Yes, we're all going to bed now, let's not make any more noise, Captain, you should go back too."
The remaining two families refused to budge no matter how much Xu Zijiang tried to persuade them. Xu Zijiang even braved the rain to try and control them, which only fueled his anger.
"Okay, don't cry if something goes wrong."
After trying to persuade them for ages, and with the rain practically making him dizzy, neither family would budge. Annoyed, he snapped to himself and turned to leave, refusing to budge. He looked closely; their houses were indeed slightly sturdier than Shen Juncong's, and their roofs hadn't been blown off. Fine, if they wouldn't move, they wouldn't move. He'd already tried to persuade them; they could take responsibility if anything happened.
Xu Zi shook his head vigorously to shake off the rain, then put on his straw hat and walked into the rainy night. His tall figure gradually disappeared into the rain.
Instead of going straight home, he took a detour to the educated youth settlement, worried that the houses there were newly built, so there was no need to worry too much about the roofs being blown away by the wind. However, the wind was too strong, howling, and there was even lightning. Xu Zijiang was afraid that Yu Jiu would be scared, so he went to check if she was asleep.
Yu Jiu hadn't gone to sleep yet. She closed the kitchen doors and windows and quickly wiped herself down with hot water in the kitchen. The rain was so heavy that she was already soaked without even needing to carry hot water to the shower room, let alone when she came out. The kitchen was right next to the female educated youth dormitory, connected to it, and had an eaves to keep out the rain. It was best to wipe herself down in the kitchen and then run back to bed clean and warm.
She carefully dried herself, hesitated for a moment, then decided to wash her wet clothes as well. Since they were already wet, she figured she'd have to hang them out to dry anyway. She wrung them out thoroughly and took them back to her dorm to hang them at the foot of her bed. After she finished her work, almost everyone in the dorm was asleep. She closed the kitchen door and craned her neck to look at the dark rain outside.
Just as she was about to go to sleep, a bolt of lightning suddenly flashed across the sky above the educated youth settlement, illuminating the scenery around it. Yu Jiu was astonished to find a tall figure standing at the gate!
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