Chapter 13. Jieyi gritted his teeth and said to the man: ...
Jie gritted his teeth and said to the man:
“Ren, let’s go find them. Let Er stay home and watch over Zhong and Yu.”
The man nodded and said to Er, "Er, don't wander off. If your sister wakes up, tell her we'll be back soon."
Er replied, "Don't worry, I will take good care of Zhong and Yu."
Ji and Jie waded through the puddles to look for the piece of wood that had drifted away. They had heard Cang Li mention that he wanted to use the wood to make a bed board. Although they didn't know what was so good about a bed board, Cang Li wanted it. Now that the wood was gone, they were determined to find it.
Cang Li woke up and rubbed his forehead. He saw the three children sitting in a row at the cave entrance, eating melons. Cang Li walked over but didn't see Ji Hejie, so he asked:
"Why are there only the three of you? Where are Ji and Jie?"
Everyone turned around and quickly got up: "Sister! You're awake!"
Cang Li nodded and snatched half of the cantaloupe from everyone's hands, asking as he ate, "Where did Ji Hejie go?"
The crowd said, "Sister's wood is missing, and Ji and Jie went to look for it."
Cang Li slowly raised his head: "?"
What do you mean by "the wood is missing, and Ji and Jie went to look for it"?
Cang Li looked at the still-flooded water outside, his face darkening instantly. He handed the melon back to the others, stood up, and asked, "How long have you been gone! Which way did you go?"
It just rained heavily, and the floodwaters haven't receded yet. Are those two little brats, barely taller than the grass, trying to get themselves killed by going out like that?!
Seeing Cang Li's grim expression, Er and the others were too frightened to speak. When Cang Li asked, Er pointed to the west, sniffed, and said:
"Human, which way did you usually go..."
Without turning his head, Cang Li said, "Stay home and behave yourself. If I come back and find you're not here..."
The unfinished words were more intimidating than the spoken ones. Er swallowed hard, nodded like a chick pecking at rice, and watched Cang Li head west to find someone.
The water outside was still very deep. Cang Li looked at the straw sandals on his feet and finally realized why he had collected the rain boots from the mall. Cang Li laughed in exasperation, then changed into the rain boots with a blank expression and stepped into the water to find someone.
Ji and Jie waded through the thigh-deep water towards the direction of the current. They had seen before that hay would drift away with the current, so the wood must have been carried away by the current as well. They were sure they could find it by looking in that direction.
The two held hands and looked around in the puddles, completely unaware that there were undercurrents beneath the water and that they were getting closer and closer to the riverbank. Because of the puddles, the riverbank had disappeared and the water was quite murky, so Ji and Jie could not see the ground clearly and could not distinguish the location of the riverbank.
Cang Li walked quickly, carefully observing the water as she went. The water reached her knees, and her rain boots were above her knees. Wearing rain boots was actually not very comfortable, but they could prevent her feet from being cut by things she couldn't see in the water. Cang Li knew that if her feet were injured, she would be unable to move around for a long time, and there might even be bigger problems due to infection of the wound.
She didn't know how long the two children had been out. Cang Li prepared for the worst and quickened her pace.
When Cang Li found the two people, his heart jumped into his throat.
Ji and Jie were still in the same spot on the river, but something seemed to be holding them back from being swept away. They stared at the river in terror.
Cang Li estimated the distance, took a few more steps forward before stopping, but Ji Hejie was still a bit far from her, out of Cang Li's reach. There were no useful tools around. The two children's eyes lit up when they saw Cang Li, and they weren't so scared anymore, shouting loudly:
"Sister!"
Seeing the two children swaying precariously, Cang Li immediately scolded, "Don't move!"
Jie and Ji stopped moving and dared not move any further.
Cang Li looked around, bent down and groped in the water for a while, finally finding a large rock. He took a rope from his backpack, secured it to the rock, and then pulled on the rope towards the two children. When his foot slipped, he started swimming. Reaching Ji and Jie, Cang Li threw the rope to them, then reached out and grabbed Jie, saying:
"Hold on tight to the rope."
Ji reacted quickly, grabbing the rope and pushing from behind. Cang Li then swam back with the two cubs. Once their feet were on solid ground, Cang Li breathed a sigh of relief and pulled Ji and Jie back without saying a word. The only sound along the way was the sound of their feet splashing in the puddles.
The two cubs seemed to realize something and followed cautiously behind, barely daring to breathe.
Back in the cave, Cang Li took off his rain boots outside, turned them upside down to dry, put on straw sandals, turned around and grabbed Ji, expressionless, and raised his hand to hit Ji's buttocks hard. He hit him several times in a row. Ji looked at Cang Li blankly, and only reacted after being hit two or three times. Tears welled up in his eyes, and he let Cang Li hit him without moving.
After beating them up, they couldn't run away either. Cang Li grabbed them and gave them another beating. The two kids got spanked and were then taken to the cave to reflect on their actions. Only after Cang Li finished beating them did he speak:
"Do you know you were wrong?!" The tone was very unfriendly, still carrying lingering anger.
The man nodded sullenly: "Sister, I know I was wrong..."
Jie also wiped away her tears and said, "Sister, I know I was wrong..."
Cang Li remained stern: "What did you do wrong?"
The man said earnestly, "We didn't keep a close eye on the trees that my sister worked so hard to cut down, and they got washed away..."
Before he could finish speaking, Cang Li lashed out with a thin twig. The man was hit again and jumped up reflexively. When he saw it was Cang Li, he obediently walked back, head down, looking like he had accepted the beating.
Cang Li was furious. He slapped himself several times before saying, "You know you're wrong? I don't think you even know what you did wrong!"
Ji Hejie looked at Cang Li blankly. Wasn't this the one? But there was nothing else wrong; they hadn't caused any trouble.
Cang Li led the two children to look at the floodwaters outside. Looking out, it seemed that there was no land between the two mountains, but rather a vast lake.
"Do you see this water? How old are you? Why are you running into this puddles? Do you know what's in the water? Can you see the undercurrents? This water can even sweep away thick logs. How old are you? How much do you weigh! If I hadn't found you earlier, or if I had found you any later, would you have been swept away by the river?"
"Do you know what it means to be swept away? After being swept away, you will hit sharp rocks and your heads will be smashed to pieces. Or there may be no rocks, but you can't swim, so you will drown very quickly after being swept away. Once you die, you will never see them again! Do you even understand this?!"
Cang Li's tone was clearly very angry. This was the first time the five children had ever seen Cang Li get so angry. In the past, Cang Li would get angry, but he would always laugh it off, then go to hoe the ground and eat a few more bowls of rice. This was the first time they had ever seen Cang Li hit someone and then yell at them.
While wiping away tears, he sobbed and said:
"Sister, I was wrong... Please don't be angry. Sister said that wood can be used to make many things, and she was going to make several small stools for us, but... Waaah... But the wood is gone... Sister..."
The woman pursed her lips, her voice trembling with tears, and said, "Sister, we didn't mean to. We didn't know we'd be swept away by the water. Sister, I don't want to never see you again... Sister... Sister... Please don't be angry."
Cang Li pointed at the wall and said, "Go stand in line!"
The man pulled the woman, who was wiping away tears, over and made her stand facing the wall.
Cang Li was still angry. When he turned around and saw the three kids huddled together, not daring to say a word, he immediately pointed at the wall and shouted angrily, "You guys go stand up straight too!"
Er quickly pulled Zhong and the bewildered Yu to the wall and stood in a row with Ji Jie.
Cang Li walked back and forth behind the children, carrying a tree branch, saying as he went:
"The wood is gone, so be it! We can just cut more! Is the wood more important than your lives?"
Not satisfied with what he had said, Cang Li slapped the man's shin and continued:
"Did I just have nothing better to do than feed you all until you were all plump and healthy, and then send you to your deaths?!"
The man dared not utter a sound, standing ramrod straight, while Jie continued to wipe away tears.
Cang Li threw the branch aside: "There won't be a next time. If there is, don't call me 'elder sister' anymore."
This sentence frightened the five children more than any of the previous ones, and they frantically clung to Cang Li's legs:
"Sister! I'll never do it again, sister, please don't abandon us!"
Without their older sister, they wouldn't be where they are today.
Ren is more knowledgeable than his younger siblings and is more afraid of Cang Li leaving. He went to find Mu Tou because he was afraid Cang Li would be angry.
Terrified, Jie rushed into Cang Li's arms and burst into tears:
"Waaaaah... Sister... Sister, don't be angry, please be good, don't go!"
Erhezhong was also scared, and with tears in her eyes, she clung to Cangli. When Yu saw that her older brothers and sisters were crying, she immediately burst into tears as well.
Cang Li, his head throbbing from the noise, snapped:
"Stop crying! Get over there and stand properly!"
The man dared not cry anymore. He wiped the tears from his face, returned to stand by the wall, and glanced back every now and then.
Jie, Erzhong, and the other two were dragged over by Cang Li and stood in a row.
Cang Li said with a dark face, "You'll all be punished by standing for half an hour today!"
The five children dared not utter a sound, standing there sobbing.
Cang Li turned around, his face dark, and changed into dry clothes. He dried his hair, moved a rock, and sat down at the entrance of the cave.
Ji thought Cang Li was leaving, so he hurriedly followed her out. When he saw Cang Li sitting at the entrance of the cave weaving grass ropes, he hurriedly ran back to stand still, then moved to a different spot, looking at Cang Li's back with fear and unease.
After weaving a large straw mat, Cang Li finally calmed down. She stood up and stretched. The water under the steps had receded a lot, leaving only a shallow layer. The flooded vegetable garden was now exposed. Her vegetables had indeed been washed away, and even the stacks of straw she had piled up had been washed away, leaving only a little bit.
Cang Li's anger, which had just subsided, surged up again, and he pointed at the sky and cursed:
"What did I ever do to you! You think I'm a murderer? You can't stand to see me doing well, can you? Just you wait! I'll take you down one day!"
She finally felt that things were getting back on track in primitive society. Perhaps after the harvest, she could take her little ones and leave the mountain to see if she could encounter any tribes. In any case, in this environment, the survival rate of the main force was definitely higher than that of her and her little ones.
Before she could reap the rewards of her labor, a rainstorm swept away everything. The rice she had painstakingly planted was gone, and the land she had painstakingly tilled was washed away by the flood, forcing her to till it all over again.
Cang Li threw down the straw mat in his hand and stormed back to the cave. Just as he entered, a thunderclap suddenly erupted outside. Without a word, Cang Li ran out and began cursing:
"You're still not satisfied with being scolded! You don't care about the work you didn't do, do you? If I hear thunder again, I'll fight you right now!"
After I finished yelling, it was quiet outside; there wasn't a sound.
Cang Li wiped his face and went back into the cave. Once inside, he belatedly realized that something seemed a little off.
The God who was being scolded: ...I feel a little wronged, it really wasn't it that caused this.
A note from the author:
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