"Um, yes..." She swallowed her words before she could finish.
Do you have any matches?
Niu Fangfang asked.
She ran away from home with nothing but her grandfather's portrait and her grandmother's wooden box.
To start a fire and dry clothes, you need matches to ignite it.
Niu Fangfang did not believe that they could learn from the ancients how to make fire by chiseling wood.
Even if they could, their soaking wet clothes wouldn't last long enough for them to successfully start a fire. They'd probably freeze solid before they even began.
If everyone freezes, how will we make fire by rubbing sticks together?
"Sis, have you forgotten that I just came back from the cemetery? I went to pay respects to Grandpa and Great-Grandpa, how could I not have matches?" He said, reaching into his pocket, only to find that he really didn't have any.
I don't know when or where it was lost.
Niu Zhenghui's expression was rather unpleasant.
Niu Fangfang had already guessed the outcome from his expression.
She sighed and said, "Never mind, once we get over this mountain, we won't be far from the city. Let's hurry and try to get to the city before midnight."
"sister……"
Niu Zhenghui felt ashamed, realizing he had done something wrong and hadn't even protected a box of matches.
If he had been more careful and hadn't dropped the matches, he could have started a fire to dry his sister's clothes. It's all his fault.
"Sis, are you particularly disappointed in me?"
Niu Zhenghui lowered his head, his voice filled with sorrow: "I'm also extremely disappointed in myself..."
What are you thinking about?
Niu Fangfang reached out and patted Niu Zhenghui's head: "Let's go quickly, it will be inconvenient to go down the mountain if we wait until night."
"sister……"
Niu Zhenghui looked up and met his sister's encouraging gaze. Knowing that his sister didn't blame him, he felt a warm glow in his heart.
"Okay, I'll help Grandma. You watch your step."
The siblings helped the old lady up the mountain, talking as they went. Although their house had been flooded by the sudden flood, thankfully no one in the family was hurt, so they seemed relatively relaxed.
Other villagers living in low-lying areas were not so lucky.
Some families were swept away by the flood, and those who managed to climb ashore were mostly adult men, like one- or two-year-old children, and elderly people in their seventies or eighties. They became the biggest victims of this flood.
Niu Fangfang and the others dared not think about the consequences of this incident, dared not think about it deeply.
After crossing the mountain, they met Liu Lan and Liu Mei, sisters who had come up from Liujia Village to pick them up. Seeing that their child and mother-in-law were all safe and sound, they couldn't help but smile.
Only then did I feel relieved.
"Mom, Auntie, what are you doing here?"
Niu Fangfang quickly took a few steps forward and stopped in front of Liu Lan and Liu Mei: "My dad and uncle went to look for you. Have you seen them?"
“I saw it. It was your dad who told me you went through the back mountain, so your aunt and I came looking for you.” Liu Lan touched Niu Fangfang’s frostbitten face and handed her the cotton-padded coat she had brought.
"Go and change your brother's clothes, we're going back to the city."
"Um, where are my dad and the others?"
“They went to help in the village. Your aunt and I will take you back to the city first, and then we’ll come back to help.”
Although Liu Lan and her family rarely lived in Niujia Village, it was still the birthplace of her husband, and her mother-in-law received help from the villagers when she lived alone there. Now that there was a disaster, they had absolutely no reason to turn a blind eye.
Niu Fangfang nodded and agreed.
They handed one of the cotton-padded coats to Niu Zhenghui, and the two siblings turned their backs to find a secluded spot, took off their wet clothes underneath, and put the dry cotton-padded coats directly on their bodies.
Although a cotton coat is hardly enough to keep out the cold, it is still much better than wearing wet clothes that are about to freeze.
After changing their clothes, the siblings' faces were no longer so pale.
Give me the clothes.
Liu Mei came forward and put away the siblings' clothes, preventing them from carrying the wet garments.
"Hurry up and go back to the city. Your father told me to make some ginger soup when I get back..."
As Liu Lan spoke, she glanced worriedly at the floodwaters at the foot of the mountain.
At this point, even though their house was on higher ground, the water had already flooded the roof.
Only a few tiles are visible, proving that there were once residents and houses here.
"How could the reservoir suddenly start leaking?" Liu Lan couldn't understand it.
Liu Mei picked up the wet clothes and sighed upon hearing this, "Isn't that right? And it's on New Year's Day..."
This is absolutely deadly!
There are seven or eight villages beneath the Rhinoceros Horn Reservoir. When the reservoir breached, the water rushed down like a flood. The people guarding the reservoir didn't even have time to react or report the situation before the flood submerged the nearest village, Niujia Village.
The water continued flowing forward along the riverbed.
Downstream from Niujia Village, there are several other villages where villagers live along the river, with their houses built on the riverbank.
Having never experienced a flood in decades, they had no memory of floods whatsoever.
This directly resulted in many people not having time to react when the flood came.
However, this is a man-made disaster, so it's really difficult to react in time.
In the city.
Lu Huaijiao wasn't idle either. She, Gu Changzheng, and He Meizhu took out all the rice, flour, and other supplies from their family's small shop.
This is for cooking porridge for the villagers.
Of course, with only this much rice, it's definitely not enough, but it's still a small token of their appreciation, isn't it?
Not only that, Lu Huaijiao also asked Gu Changzheng to sort out all the cotton-padded clothes in his shop, preparing to donate them to the government so they could use them for disaster relief.
"Right now, we're not only short of clothes, but also of warm blankets and quilts. I'll call Lin Yang and ask him to get some quilt covers and mattresses ready. As for cotton, we'll buy it from the cotton quilt factory."
Lu Huaijiao made the arrangements in an orderly manner.
Gu Changzheng agreed with this.
“Okay, I’ll go find Brother Meng and Brother Xiang, and we’ll all work together to find some food to help the villagers get through this difficult time.”
After Gu Changzheng finished speaking, he was about to leave.
Gu Tiezhu can handle the task of packing clothes at the shop; he needs to personally go to Meng Yong and the others to get some food.
Lu Huaijiao grabbed his arm and gently shook her head: "We should donate to the government in the name of the company. If they allow us to go there, we'll bring some other items with us."
In short, the first batch of supplies must be donated to the government in the name of the company for disaster relief.
Lu Huaijiao is kind-hearted, but she is not the kind of kind-hearted person who is completely selfless. Since she has given, she wants some return.
She wasn't asking for money or anything; she just wanted them to remember that in the provincial capital, during times of crisis, there were still entrepreneurs like them.
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