Chapter 598 Every Step Counts
Xu's father turned around and called Yan Shi back, asking him to send more useful people over to help, promising to reimburse their travel expenses. He was then given a severe scolding by Yan Shi.
"...Don't you know what position your son-in-law holds? What's the point of sending a few more capable people? Aren't all those people higher up than him? They'll just be taking credit for his work and stealing his achievements! You must have lost your mind!"
Mr. Xu raised his hand and pretended to slap himself twice. "Then what should we do? Letting him shoulder the burden alone won't work either, or..."
"Alright, don't worry about it, I'll take care of it." Mayor Yan took a breath and hung up the phone.
The meeting lasted for most of the day, and lunch was eaten in the conference room.
In the afternoon, the charter was finally completed. Yan Shi withstood the pressure and appointed Su Lao Er as the first person in charge of the disaster relief team, leading experts and medical teams to cooperate with the soldiers dispatched by the military region. The person in charge happened to be a former subordinate of Song Yuanzhi, who was the second person in charge.
Li Banxia applied to join a private medical team.
Su Lao Er's personal safety is taken care of by bodyguards from a security company. Many people are grateful to Li Banxia for providing them and their families with jobs and accommodations, and they are rushing to sign up to contribute their share.
Having no other option, Li Banxia organized a lottery to select eight people from a hundred or so, which barely managed to appease everyone.
The rest of the Su family weren't idle either.
The Su couple used their connections to purchase various necessities, such as bread, instant noodles, and chocolate, and rented an empty house in a nearby county town to house the disaster victims.
They also purchased a lot of tents, compressed biscuits, and other items needed for disaster relief from Hong Kong and Macao through Uncle Jiang and Su Hongying.
Su Lao Er went to the disaster area and worked tirelessly. Within three days, he relocated more than a thousand households. He personally oversaw the relocation of each household, making sure no one was inside before moving on to the next village.
He would eat a few bites of bread to get by, and his lips would be chapped and cracked from one village to the next. In just three days, he became almost unrecognizable.
Three days later, when they gathered at the county town square, Li Banxia was carrying an aluminum lunchbox to deliver food to her son and almost didn't recognize him.
"Second brother..."
Su Lao Er grinned at her, "Mom, the people have all been moved out. I have to rush to make a call to notify our soldiers to dig the dikes and release the floodwaters. The city's underground water system has reached its limit. If we delay any longer, something terrible will happen."
Li Banxia nodded.
Su Lao Er walked past her, his rolled-up trouser legs covered in mud, his thin legs covered in countless blood clots from what seemed to have bitten him. The clothes that had fit him when he arrived were now hanging loosely on his body.
You can hear the wind whistling as you pass by her.
Li Banxia felt a lump in her throat, clenched the aluminum lunchbox in her hand, and opened her mouth to call her son to eat something before leaving, but when she turned around, her son had already walked far away.
"Dr. Li, there's a pregnant woman over there who's gone through a miscarriage. She's only eight months along, a young woman in her early twenties. The couple are both orphans and don't know anything about pregnancy. You need to go and take a look quickly, or I'm afraid something bad might happen..."
Li Banxia shoved the lunchbox into the hands of the newcomer and called out, "Arno, take the medicine box and come with me."
"Hey, here I am."
In the distance, Su Laosan and Zhao Tan were helping people set up tents in an open space. In front of the tents were tin stoves, some boiling water and some cooking rice.
Further away, Xiao Zhanyou and his wife were distributing daily necessities. In a net bag were bowls and chopsticks for eating, basins and cups for washing, and simple pajamas.
Everything is proceeding smoothly.
Su Lao Er followed the soldiers to dig open the dike and watched the floodwaters flow downstream, instantly submerging farmland and houses. The village, which was inhabited not long ago, became a vast expanse of water.
After several days, the torrential rain stopped, the weather cleared up, and the clear blue sky was as clean as if nothing had happened.
Before Su Lao Er could even lament God's shamelessness, he led his men to begin tallying the losses suffered by the disaster victims—crops, houses—recording everything in detail for each household to ensure nothing was missed before reporting it up.
What followed was post-disaster reconstruction.
With limited municipal funding, he voluntarily contributed 100 million yuan to help disaster victims rebuild their homes after the floodwaters receded.
Li Banxia, along with her father and the apprentices from the health center, provided free medical treatment to people in the disaster area, offering all medicinal herbs free of charge.
This busy period lasted for three months until things began to return to normal in Shuize Township and Xiushan Township.
Su Lao Er's name also became famous in these two towns.
The People's Liberation Army has a very high opinion of him.
With the help of people from Yan City, Su Lao Er became famous overnight and almost without any suspense, he became the second-in-command of Shuize Township.
He began living apart from Xu Ying, personally participating in everything, and together with Su Laosan, he raised the banner of helping farmers in the local area, built roads for mountain villages, and paid for the hard work of the farmers.
During his three-year term, he gradually transformed Shuize Township from an impoverished village, helping farmers sell their free-roaming chickens, ducks, and geese from the mountains. They transported baskets of eggs, duck eggs, and goose eggs to big cities to turn them into money.
They encouraged people to raise rabbits that reproduce very quickly and sell them to restaurants in big cities to generate revenue.
Help build primary schools in impoverished areas so that children under ten years old can have access to education, and that every household has surplus grain and savings.
From being the disaster relief team leader, Su became known as Secretary Su among the people.
After three years of reporting to Beijing, Secretary Su was transferred back to the capital and became the deputy director of the municipal office.
Every step he took was counted at this moment.
Then, 1997 arrived.
On July 1, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region was established, and my country resumed the exercise of sovereignty and governance over Hong Kong.
With the return of Hong Kong, coming and going to Hong Kong is now legal.
Film and music productions from Hong Kong began to be exported to the mainland in large quantities.
Li Mingyue's movies and TV series are flooding the market.
During the Spring Festival Gala, she also sang the song "Mother in the Candlelight" as a friendship ambassador between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.
When Su Laosan saw Li Mingyue come out, his eyes almost popped out of their sockets.
Li Banxia glanced at him, her gaze sweeping over Li Mingyue's face, and instantly understood.
"Well... Mom, I only found out about her name change later. Why did she have to take your surname, Li? Of course, she can take whatever surname she wants. As long as you're still angry, we'll just treat her like a familiar stranger..."
Su Laosan forced a dry smile.
Following their gazes, Boss Su noticed Su Hongying, opened his mouth slightly, and exchanged a glance with Yao Jianshu.
"mom……"
Before Su could say anything, Yao Jianshu stopped him, saying, "Mom, putting everything else aside, this song is quite fitting. Hong Kong has just returned to China, and we need songs like this to strengthen cross-strait relations. Hong Yingting knows how to choose songs."
Su Laosan covered his eyes, peeking at his mother through his fingers.
Li Banxia nodded and hummed in agreement.
Just then, Su Hongying finished singing on TV, and the host asked her, "As a native of Beijing, you've been away from home for so many years. What would you like to say to your family in front of the camera?"
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