Chapter 75 The School Surrounded by Flood
The torrential rain lasted all day and showed no signs of abating.
When Mo An and Lu Lu returned home from school in the evening, their clothes were still wet despite having brought umbrellas.
Molly had boiled water beforehand so the two of them could take a bath and change. The uncle and nephew bathed together, since there were plenty of wooden tubs in the house and the bathroom was spacious enough.
By the time they finished showering, dinner was ready.
"Are you going to school tomorrow?" Molly asked.
"Why don't you go?" Mo An found it strange. It's only Tuesday. Even if it's raining today, it doesn't mean it will still be raining tomorrow.
Molly paused, her hand holding the chopsticks still. How could she explain to the two children that she thought the rain would last a long time and wouldn't stop easily?
The rain was too heavy, so Molly moved the chicken and rabbit cages under the eaves. The chickens had grown to four or five pounds, and the largest rabbit weighed eleven or twelve pounds. Not only that, several female rabbits had given birth to baby rabbits, which Molly had already separated. Now there were sixteen baby rabbits alone.
"Let's have cold rabbit tomorrow," Molly changed the subject.
Mo An's eyes lit up. "Cold-cooked rabbit is delicious, and spicy rabbit meat is delicious too."
Lu Lu also offered his opinion, "Mom, roasted rabbit is delicious too."
"Then we'll have cold rabbit tomorrow, and roasted rabbit in a couple of days." Molly calculated that there were six rabbits weighing over eight pounds each, enough to feed them for a long time.
Lu Lu: "Then I'll tell San San tomorrow that I'm inviting her over to eat rabbit."
Molly: "Yes, she also put in the effort in raising the rabbits, so it's time to share the fruits of her labor."
Mo An: "Would you like to invite Brother Zhao along?"
Molly: "Let him know, whether he comes to see me or not is up to him. Tomorrow I'll kill the biggest rabbit and buy some tofu to make fish soup."
The heavy rain poured down all night, finally subsiding a bit by daybreak.
After breakfast, Mo An and Lu Lu, carrying their schoolbags, rolled up their trousers, held their shoes in one hand and umbrellas in the other, and walked barefoot into the rain. It was summer, so even with the rain, the temperature wouldn't drop much.
Walking barefoot means you can wash your feet if they get dirty. But if your shoes get dirty, it's really heartbreaking.
Yu San San was dressed the same way, carrying an umbrella and shoes, her bare feet playfully wading through the puddles.
The children went to school happily. Molly looked up at the sky and found that the dark clouds had dispersed. She couldn't help but wonder if her senses were wrong.
Molly was filled with doubt and uncertainty. She didn't completely deny herself, so she went to the supply and marketing cooperative with her umbrella and spent all the coupons she had.
"Why did you buy so much today, sister-in-law?" the shop assistant asked Molly.
“The rain is too heavy this time. I’ll feel more at ease if I buy more food to store at home.” Molly said seriously. When she saw the shop assistant hesitate for a moment, she continued, “If I buy it and store it at home, I won’t have to worry about the roads getting damaged by the rain and the goods not being able to be transported.”
The shop assistant seemed thoughtful. After Molly left, she also bought some items. She put her purchases aside, looked at the mostly empty shelves, and increasingly felt that Molly's words made sense. She called the purchasing department to order another batch of goods the next day.
If someone else had said they wanted to stock up on goods today, the shop assistant wouldn't have taken it seriously, but since it was Molly who said it, she couldn't help but remember it.
Molly is no ordinary person.
After leaving the supply and marketing cooperative, Molly, without taking a break, went to the vegetable garden with her umbrella.
After a day and a night of torrential rain, the river level rose considerably, returning to the level it was at in February or March.
The vegetables in Molly's garden, washed by the rain, were askew, but they also looked cleaner and their green seemed deeper. The peanuts were the same.
Molly brought a basket. She picked the ripe tomatoes first, then cucumbers, eggplants, loofahs, and peppers. She also picked some of the newly sprouted cowpeas.
The basket was quickly filled, and Molly carried it home, planning that if it rained again tomorrow, she would pick all the tender vegetables as well. It would be a pity, but better than letting them rot in the ground.
The rain didn't stop that night; in fact, it seemed to get even heavier.
Molly made cold rabbit, cooked tofu and fish soup, made a cucumber salad, and sliced a plate of tomatoes, sprinkling some white sugar on top of the tomatoes.
Zhao Jian'an picked up a piece of tomato and put it in his mouth, a look of amazement crossing his face. "It's very sweet, with a strong aroma and only a slight sourness. Sister, how come the things you grow are so delicious?"
Not just vegetables, but also grains—everything Molly grows is exceptionally delicious, with a unique and unparalleled flavor.
Mo An, with a piece of rabbit meat in his mouth, swallowed it before saying, "And the poultry and livestock my sister raises taste better than others'."
Lu Lu and Yu San San nodded in unison, "Yes."
Molly: "If it's delicious, eat more."
As I fell asleep that night, the light rain turned into a downpour.
Molly didn't know whether to be happy that she felt she hadn't made a mistake, or to be troubled by the impending downpour.
The next morning, with the downpour showing no signs of abating, Molly said to Mo An, "How about we skip school today?"
Mo An shook his head. "The teacher said there will be a test today."
Molly then looked at Lu Lu, "Lu Lu, are you staying home?"
Lu Lu also shook his head, "Mom, rain is fun."
"Sister, we're taking steamed buns and a water bottle to school. We won't be back for lunch," Mo An said.
The rain is too heavy; they might get their clothes wet when they come back.
"I bought some cookies yesterday, please take some with you."
After a day of torrential rain, the yard was flooded. Molly simply removed the threshold and drained the water from the yard into the ditch outside the house, which in turn led to the large river behind the camp.
The terrain around the camp is relatively high, higher than the school, surrounding villages, and towns.
Molly asked Zhao Jian'an last night, and he said that floods are extremely rare here. He has been here for several years and has never seen a flood. Even if a flood does occur, it will not reach this part of the camp.
Molly felt much relieved upon hearing this, thinking that it might just be a few days of heavy rain.
However, the rain did not let up for the next two days.
On Friday, Zhao Jian'an rushed into Molly's house carrying a bag of things.
"Everyone's rushing to buy things at the supply and marketing cooperative. Do you still have any coupons? I'll go buy some more for you," Zhao Jian'an said, wiping the rain off his face.
Molly shook her head. "No, I used up all my tickets a few days ago."
Zhao Jian'an was taken aback. "What's going on?"
"I felt the weather was unusual and I was worried, so I used all the tickets and bought the things," Molly said honestly.
“Well done.” Zhao Jian’an gave Molly a thumbs up. “A section of the road from the camp to the town was washed away by the water, and another section was flooded. The water was more than a meter deep, and our vehicle couldn’t get out.”
Molly frowned. "With so many people in the camp, is there enough food?"
“We have grain in stock, but we can’t store vegetables and meat, so we need to supply them every day.” Zhao Jian’an paused. “But that’s not a big problem; we can go without them. What we’re worried about now is that if the rain keeps going on, will the nearby villages and towns be flooded?”
Molly didn't respond.
"I'll go take care of things now and see what the arrangements are," Zhao Jian'an said before hurrying away.
Molly glanced at the sky, opened her umbrella, and carried a burlap sack to the vegetable garden. This time, she was going to pick all the vegetables, otherwise they would rot from being soaked in the rain.
I just don't know if those peanuts, which I've carefully nurtured for several months, will ultimately yield a harvest.
Raindrops formed lines, plunging the world into darkness.
Molly picked all the melons and vegetables she could, filling the large sack to the brim.
As she turned to go home, Molly gritted her teeth, pressed her left palm into the mud, and pink tentacles emerged from the missing finger, burrowing into the peanut-covered soil. The fine pink tentacles wove into a large net, firmly locking in the not-yet-fully-ripe peanut kernels.
Molly cut off the antennae, and her body swayed slightly as she stood up. She had done her best; whether they could pull through was up to them.
Molly turned around and carried the wet sack of marijuana home.
Molly got home at 5:30. She had just changed into clean clothes when there was a loud banging on the door. Her sister-in-law's anxious voice came from outside, "Molly, Molly, something terrible has happened."
Molly hurried over with an umbrella to open the door and saw Sister-in-law Zhu with red eyes, covered in mud, and her clothes were mostly wet.
"A mudslide occurred on the mountain, and the teachers' dormitory at the school was washed away. We still don't know the situation of the teaching building." Sister-in-law Zhu's voice trembled.
Molly's expression changed as well. She threw down her umbrella and rushed out like a gust of wind.
"Lezhi's father and the soldiers have already gone ahead, so don't rush. Be careful," Sister-in-law Zhu called out from behind Molly, but all she could see was the misty rain; Molly was nowhere to be seen.
Sister-in-law Zhu gritted her teeth, dropped her umbrella, and jogged towards the school.
The school was built at the foot of the mountain, but separated from the mountain by a road and several farmlands. It was a distance of three or four hundred meters from the school to the foot of the mountain. When the soil washed down from the mountain, much of it remained in the farmlands.
But the water flow was too fast, carrying withered trees, stones and mud, rushing towards the school, destroying the school walls, rushing into the campus, destroying the relatively fragile teachers' dormitory, and making the two-story teaching building precarious.
The floodwaters rushed down the mountain, washing away the soil and trees, and the sound of trees snapping could be heard from time to time. Every crack was terrifying, for fear that the next thing to break would be the two-story school building.
When Molly arrived, a number of parents had gathered on the slope two hundred meters outside the school. The parents had tears in their eyes and were calling out their children's names to the school building in the distance. However, the rain was too loud and their voices were drowned out.
The soldiers, with ropes tied to their bodies, tried to swim towards the teaching building.
But the water was moving too fast, and the powerful impact could uproot trees, let alone people in the water.
In addition, this place is too far from the teaching building, only 200 meters away. In such a flood, it would be too difficult to swim across.
“What if it’s from above the school? Let the floodwaters carry people to the school,” one parent said.
“No, we’ve tried. First, the distance is too long. Second, we can’t get to the top; it’s all mud, rocks, and dead trees, making it even more difficult to move around. Third, the water flow is wrong; we’re to the west, and the water comes from the east, so we can’t go upstream.”
Actually, the parents could see that their proposed methods wouldn't work without the soldier's explanation; they were just too anxious and resorting to desperate measures.
"careful!"
The crowd gasped in surprise.
At that moment, a dead tree rushed down the mountain, and the direction of the dead tree was directly towards the warriors in the water.
"What are you standing there for? Quickly pull him back."
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