At first, everyone thought it was just a thunderstorm.
Chai Fei and Yu Xiangwan sat on either side of Zhou Gongqi, watching him design the draft stroke by stroke.
Chu Yang and Jiang Hexi then colored the drawing according to the colors marked on the paper.
Yan Jie and Shen Yingyu found a topographical map of the Sanxi Lake area and, while planning their route, began to meticulously calculate the cost of building the slab road.
Thunder rumbled loudly, followed by torrential rain pounding against the doors and windows of the wooden building.
Everyone in the room was startled.
Jiang Hexi had never heard such loud thunder before. It was as if a copper basin was placed over her head and an iron hammer was pounding on the bottom of the basin, making her deaf.
She walked to the eaves. It was just past five o'clock, and the sky outside was already as dark as the bottom of a pot.
The heavy rain obscured the view, and the ground was covered with puddles and potholes.
Why is the rain so heavy?
“This is an exceptionally heavy rain,” Yan Jie said, looking at the floodwaters in the courtyard. “It’s unusually heavy.”
A bolt of lightning suddenly cleaved the gloomy sky in two, followed by a deafening roar that shook the entire wooden building.
Chu Yang watched the rainwater rushing out of the gate from the courtyard and said worriedly:
"With such heavy rain, will there be a flood?"
Director Chen suddenly interrupted them, "Uncle Zhong called and said that the forest will be flooded soon, and he wants you to go and move the beehives quickly."
The six men turned and went into the tool shed, grabbed raincoats and put them on. Zhou Gongqi wanted to follow, but Director Chen stopped him.
"Duke Zhou, you stay home and make them ginger tea and turn on the water heater. They'll definitely want to take a bath when they get back."
Zhou Gongqi didn't want to cause trouble by going over there, so he agreed: "Okay, I'll stay at home."
As Jiang Hexi put on a military green raincoat and rain boots, and bent down to tuck her cuffs, a straw hat was forcibly placed on her head.
Yan Jie looped the rope behind her ear and tied it securely in a knot under her chin:
"There are three straw hats in total. Wanwan and Sister Gossip put on the remaining two."
He pulled down his straw hat to avoid her startled gaze, and nudged her shoulder, saying, "Go stand outside first."
She walked onto the eaves, feeling the cold wind whistling through her, the lingering warmth of his fingertips still clinging to her ear.
The van drove along the village road, which was flooded by rain.
The rain intensified, and just as the wipers swept away a layer of rainwater, more water poured down in torrents.
Yan Jie avoided the flooded sections of the road and drove to the rapeseed field.
The woods were flooded, and Uncle Zhong waded through the muddy water, carrying the beehives back and forth onto the beekeeping truck.
Jiang Hexi pushed open the car door and got out. The torrential rain hit her body, causing a dense, stinging pain all over.
Wearing a straw hat, she rushed into the woods. With one step, the water reached her knees. She didn't care and picked up the beehives to carry them to the car.
"Shen Yingyu, stand on the beekeeping cart. Uncle Zhong, Chai Fei, and Yu Xiangwan, take turns. Chu Yang, come with me!"
Yan Jie assigned the tasks, leading Chu Yang to move the beehives.
None of them were wearing protective suits; they were just moving beehives by hand. Aren't they afraid of being stung by the bees?
During the midday live stream, Ximei was happily saying that beekeeping was a sweet business, but now...sigh—
Watching them relay the beehives, I was actually a little moved by the five members of the chaebol group.
Jiang Hexi picked up the beehives and carried them out of the woods.
Startled, the bee scurried out of its hole, buzzing around her, and stung her hard through her raincoat.
She stood still, gritting her teeth and enduring the pain.
Rainwater streamed down her lowered straw hat, and the water under her feet grew deeper and deeper. She walked through one muddy puddle after another, carrying the beehives into Yu Xiangwan's arms.
Then they went back to continue moving the beehives.
As Director Chen watched the water level in the woods rise rapidly, he handed over the filming task to the assistant director and then led two staff members to join the transfer team.
Chai Fei watched in disbelief as he handed her the beehives, then shouted at him in the pouring rain:
"Aren't you supposed to be the most principled person? What about your bottom line?"
"The program's rules are meant to restrict you, they don't apply to me," Director Chen wiped the rain off his face and said to her, "Hurry up and move."
Chai Fei carried the beehives to the car.
Uncle Zhong's beekeeping truck can only hold a total of 140 beehives.
Yan Jie looked at the water, which was up to his thighs, and listened to the thunder and lightning above the trees. He immediately decided:
"Remove them! Don't keep any of the remaining beehives. Load them all onto the truck!"
Upon hearing this, Jiang Hexi immediately waded into the woods.
Yan Jie caught up with her in a few strides, grabbed her arm, and pulled her back:
"I told you to turn back, are you deaf and didn't you hear me?!"
"We can do without the beehives, but we can still have the honey."
Jiang Hexi was so anxious that she was about to cry. She tried hard to pry his fingers open, but she couldn't budge them an inch.
If she were to open the beehives at this time without the protection of a mask, she would probably ruin her face.
Yan Jie held her arm tightly, and in the pouring rain, he spoke to calm her down:
"Listen to me, we don't want it."
"I can't bear to part with it..."
"Sweetie, we don't want any of them."
Jiang Hexi held back her tears, glanced at the sixty beehives on the shelf, and walked out of the woods with regret.
The group was soaked to the bone by the heavy rain.
Jiang Hexi went back to her room and took a hot shower. As soon as she came downstairs, Yu Xiangwan invited her to sit on the sofa.
"Pull up your sleeves, let me see where you got stung by the bees."
"Five bumps on my arm, one on the side of my neck, and one on my face," Jiang Hexi counted clearly for her.
How do you remember it so clearly?
“These are my medals of honor, of course I have to remember them.”
Upon hearing this, Yu Xiangwan's pity for her vanished considerably, and she picked up the ointment and began applying it to her body.
Shen Yingyu turned on the old television he had never seen before and started switching channels to watch the local news.
He switched to the evening news on Yubei City TV, put down the remote, and started watching it attentively, something he rarely did.
Halfway through the evening news broadcast, the anchor interrupted with a breaking news report:
"At 3:30 p.m. today, extreme heavy rainfall occurred in northern Henan Province. The highest recorded rainfall was 667.8 millimeters, the highest rainfall ever recorded in northern Henan Province since instruments began measuring the area."
"According to meteorological experts, influenced by the northward movement of the subtropical high, Typhoon Duri is expected to make a strong landfall in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region on July 3. It is predicted that within the next week, rainfall in northern Henan will reach its historical peak..."
Upon hearing this news, everyone in the living room stopped what they were doing and looked up at the television.
Even Yan Jie was chased out of his room, his hair dripping wet. He stared intently at the news, not uttering a word.
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