The village chief arranged for the seven guests to stay together in a small courtyard house in Shangrao Village.
Three girls share a room.
The room, nearly 30 square meters, had cement floors and whitewashed walls. There were two bunk beds, one small bed for luggage, and three other small beds for sleeping. Apart from that, the room was completely empty.
After crying, Jiang Hexi covered her head with the blanket and curled up on the small bed without moving.
Yu Xiangwan tiptoed out, closed the door, and said to Yan Jie, who was waiting under the eaves:
“Xi Mei wasn’t asleep; she was still sobbing and crying.”
Yan Jie glanced through the crack in the door at the little bundle curled up like a turtle on the bed and said:
"How long can you girls cry the longest?"
"It depends on what exactly is causing the crying."
Yu Xiangwan said with deep concern, "Someone like Xi Mei won't fall asleep until she's exhausted, unless she cries for two hours straight."
When faced with such natural disasters, there's simply no way to offer advice; crying is the best way to vent.
"Wanwan, you stay here and take care of Ximei."
Yan Jie took one last look at the person on the bed and said, "I'll go to the kitchen to see what we have to eat and make her a bowl of millet porridge."
The kitchen was filled with smoke and fumes.
Unable to bear it any longer, Chai Fei put down the kitchen knife and looked at Chu Yang, who was squatting in front of the stove lighting a fire:
"How did you start the fire? The house is filled with black smoke. Are you trying to suffocate me?"
"Gossip Girl, this straw is damp, cough cough cough, it smokes as soon as I light it, there's nothing I can do about it."
Chu Yang covered his mouth and coughed violently. His face was still wet with tears, and his hands were covered in dust. He wiped them off and his face became a mess.
Yan Jie stepped inside, saw the plume of black smoke in the kitchen, and withdrew his foot from the ground.
He walked to the opposite side, glanced at the chimney above, but saw no black smoke coming out. He went into the room to get a towel, wet it, covered his mouth and nose, and went into the kitchen amidst the choking smoke.
Seeing him standing behind him, Chu Yang quickly stood up and made room for the low stool in front of the stove.
"Go outside and see if there's any smoke coming from the chimney."
Yan Jie gave the instructions, and Chu Yang stepped outside.
He sat on a low stool, pulled the straw out of the stove, and used fire tongs to poke it inside.
A thick layer of black ash had settled in the stove.
He shoveled out the soot and continued poking it in with the tongs, repeating this three times until he heard Chu Yang shouting outside, "The chimney is smoking!" Only then did he put down the tongs.
Without the smoke in the kitchen, cooking is much easier.
Yan Jie reluctantly picked out a pot from the iron rack that wasn't too black on the bottom, opened the rice container, scooped out a pound of rice, washed it with water, and then placed it on the stove with water in it.
Chu Yang sat on a small stool and started a fire to cook porridge.
Yan Jie searched through the cupboards but found only three cabbages and six cucumbers; he couldn't even find a carton of eggs.
Shen Yingyu led Zhou Gongqi back from outside.
The two of them hadn't even had time to change out of their raincoats before carrying their hands full of relief food into the house.
"I went to the village committee of Shangrao Village with Zhou Gong. There were people everywhere. We lined up and received a bucket of oil, five catties of flour, twenty catties of rice, three cabbages and a dozen eggs."
"Luckily we arrived early. The crew members lined up behind us, and all the eggs and flour were gone," Zhou Gongqi said cheerfully.
The old man was always optimistic. He wouldn't frown because of the flood, but would be overjoyed because he managed to get flour and eggs.
Yan Jie looked at Shen Yingyu, "Is this enough for several days' worth of rations?"
"Ten days."
"There are seven of us. If the flood doesn't recede, we could be trapped here for ten days. This amount of food and oil is not enough for us at all."
Yan Jie pondered carefully, "I need to think of a way to get some local products back."
Chu Yang slapped his forehead and immediately thought of something, "Brother, I brought fishing gear. Let's find a waterfront platform later and I'll go catch a few fish."
Yan Jie refused him, saying, "Do you know how dirty the floodwaters are? You can't eat live fish of unknown origin. Besides, there's a risk of collapse near the floodwaters at any time. You absolutely cannot go there."
Chu Yang said seriously, "Brother, I'm not going there."
Shen Yingyu said meaningfully, "On the way back, I saw two ducks floating on the floodwaters and falling into the ditch along the way."
Yan Jie understood his meaning: "Are you sure it drifted over?"
"Sure."
"The flood came so suddenly, and since we can't trace the ducks back to their source, whoever catches them keeps them."
Yan Jie immediately decided: "You two come with me to catch ducks, and when you come back, we'll make old duck soup for Xi Mei."
I knew I shouldn't laugh at this moment, so I held it in tightly and even slapped myself to stop laughing!
(￣ε(#￣)☆╰╮o(￣ Pan￣///)】
[I've never seen anything like it! How did these second-generation chaebols end up having to rely on welfare to survive?]
I was feeling sorry for Xiaobaiyang at first, but then I saw his face covered in graffiti, lol, does it have to be this funny?!
[The five chaebol members: If we had known we were going to take refuge at a farmer's house, we would have brought the housekeeper with us before we left. Now we wouldn't have to cook for ourselves.]
Yan Jie went out to inquire about Director Chen's whereabouts. The staff said he wasn't there; he had gone to the village committee to coordinate the collection of supplies.
With no worries left, he took the net and the snakeskin bag, and led Chu Yang and Shen Yingyu, braving the rain, towards the village path.
The three searched along the ditch for the two ducks.
Chu Yang imitated the duck's "quack quack quack" and peered into the bushes, but found no ducks.
He continued walking forward, parting a clump of weeds and making a "crunching" sound. Just when it seemed like he was about to give up again, a series of urgent "crunching" sounds came from the depths of the ditch. He immediately raised his hand and shook the person, saying:
"Brothers, over here—"
Yan Jie and Shen Yingyu arrived one after the other.
Chu Yang pointed to a patch of hidden weeds under the wooden bridge and said, "The two ducks are hiding in that shadow."
Yan Jie glanced at the overgrown weeds along the ditch, then found a spot with a relatively open view and said:
"Yu the Great stood here with a snakeskin bag, herding ducks. I went over there to scoop up some ducks, while Chu Yang kept a close eye on where the other duck was going."
The three hit it off immediately.
Shen Yingyu found a long bamboo pole and slapped the weeds beside him, startling two ducks that darted out from under the bridge and ran forward with a "clattering" sound.
Yan Jie seized the opportunity, swung the net and swept it in, scooping the duck into the net and flipping it over into the snakeskin bag that Shen Yingyu had opened.
Chu Yang used a bamboo pole to herd the ducks back from the other end.
Yan Jie once again scooped up the bottom of the net, trapping another duck in the snakeskin bag as well.
The three men carried the ducks back to the bungalow.
Looking at the two soaking wet ducks in the yard, Yu Xiangwan abruptly asked:
"I don't know how to kill a duck, who among you does?"
The four grown men looked at each other in bewilderment, while Chai Fei added that she wouldn't kill the duck.
Yu Xiangwan sighed, "The only one here who can kill ducks is Xi Mei."
Yan Jie looked at the half-open door and asked with concern, "How is she now?"
Yu Xiangwan said with great sadness, "After crying, she was so tired that she fell asleep."
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