The Zhou family.
Before dawn, an eerie white mist rises over the Xinzhou River Valley.
Master Zhou was lying on his gilded canopy bed when he was awakened by a rustling sound.
When he opened his eyes, he found that the calming sachet hanging from the top of the tent was shaking violently, with incense ash falling onto the brocade quilt.
A distant rumble like thunder came, but no lightning struck.
"Someone come here!" Master Zhou kicked off the silk quilt, stepped barefoot onto the Persian carpet, and suddenly noticed that there were murky water stains seeping from the edge of the carpet.
He bent down and touched it, his fingertips getting sticky mud with a few scarlet water plants tangled in it.
boom!
The entire mansion shook violently, and the vases on the display shelves shattered.
Master Zhou staggered and pushed open the carved window. His pupils suddenly contracted. Under the moonlight, the Hengheng Mountains in the distance seemed to be moving!
That wasn't a mountain shadow at all; it was a ten-zhang-high black wall of water, roaring in, carrying broken logs and boulders!
"Master! The water-suppressing stele on the back mountain..." The steward burst through the door, and before he could finish speaking, a row of century-old ginkgo trees snapped in half like straw.
The turbid waves crashed against the roof of the ancestral hall, and the jade tablet bestowed by the founding emperor flashed and disappeared in the spray.
Mr. Zhou slumped by the window, watching the flood destroy the seven-courtyard house.
His treasured South China Sea coral, golden nanmu wood screen, and Western Region glass cup were all shattered into dust in the whirlpool.
Several guards, screaming as they clung to driftwood, were swept away. One of them wore the gilded jade belt hook that he had bestowed upon him the day before.
"The boat! Go get the boat!" Master Zhou suddenly choked up. His magnificent ship, which he had spent a fortune to build, was now being pierced through the bottom by the beams of his own granary and was slowly sinking into the water.
The plaque at the bow of the ship that read "Commerce Connects the Four Seas" was cracked in two, and the ink characters blurred like blood in the water.
On the opposite bank, the evacuated civilians watched all this silently.
Suddenly, someone pointed at the torrent and exclaimed, "Look! Isn't that the young master of the Zhou family?"
As everyone looked over, they saw Master Zhou's most beloved youngest son holding a golden statue that was bobbing up and down in the waves. The statue was said to have come from the Western Regions, where the gods were said to be incredibly powerful and possessed astonishing magical abilities!
However, even the golden statues were of no use in the face of the raging flood; instead, they slowly sank to the bottom.
"Help..." The young master had barely opened his mouth when the turbid waves filled his throat, and the golden statue dragged him straight to the bottom of the water.
...
Wanzhou
At the same time, at the headquarters of the Wanzhou Canal Gang.
Standing atop the watchtower, Old Master Wan watched the floodwaters pouring into the city after the dike breached and laughed heartily: "The bluestone dike I built, how could it be..."
His words abruptly stopped as he watched helplessly as his thirty cargo boats were swept away by the flood and crashed into the watchtower like paper boats thrown by children.
"Impossible! This building was constructed using glutinous rice mortar..."
Grandpa Wan was screaming while clinging to the window frame when he suddenly noticed a strange bluish-green hue in the murky water.
That was the inferior clay he had ordered people to mix into the mortar last year in order to save money.
Boom!
As the watchtower collapsed, Old Master Wan grabbed the fluttering banner of the Chamber of Commerce, looking at the four large characters "Grain Transport Under Heaven" on it, his face filled with despair.
At this moment, in this scene of raging floodwaters, even the tallest ship could not save him!
...
The survivors gathered on the high ground when they suddenly heard the clear sound of a copper bell carried on the wind.
Lin Ping stood on the edge of the cliff, a small jade bell at her waist moving without wind. Beneath her feet were churning, turbid waves, and behind her were terrified people.
"When has the Mountain Goddess's prophecy ever been wrong? A bunch of ignorant fools!" Her voice wasn't loud, but it silenced the wailing disaster victims.
In the distance, amidst the flood peaks, Mr. Zhou finally managed to grab onto half a piece of driftwood.
In a daze, he saw a figure in pure white standing on the crest of a wave, her clothes fluttering like a white egret spreading its wings, sitting on a large fish with wings.
Sitting atop the fish, Wang Wan raised her hand and tapped lightly. Ten thousand taels of silver from the Zhou family's treasury floated up from the bottom of the water, transforming into silver fish that swam toward the direction where the disaster victims were being resettled.
"So..." Master Zhou gave a bitter laugh, "It really was divine punishment..."
Before he could finish speaking, a wave slammed him into the depths of the whirlpool. The last things he heard were the joyful cries of the people on higher ground and the fading sound of copper bells.
…
Chongzhou, Hecun.
The sky was dark and gloomy, with muffled thunder rumbling deep in the clouds, like the low growl of a giant beast.
The river at the village entrance had overflowed its banks, and the turbid waves crashed against the earthen walls with a chilling thud.
Old Wang clung tightly to the door panel, the murky floodwaters already reaching his chin.
He saw his neighbor's grandson being swept away by the rushing water and crashing into the millstone. He tried to reach out and grab him, but a wave crashed over him, and salty, muddy water instantly filled his mouth and nose.
"Help...me..." He struggled, choking on water, when suddenly he felt a tightness behind his collar.
"Quick! Everyone evacuate to higher ground!" Officer Wang Dali shouted as he lifted him up.
Then, she grabbed the two wailing children and ran desperately uphill.
Behind them, the turbid floodwaters swept in like a ferocious beast, destroying thatched huts and submerging fields.
The villagers fled in panic, some falling into the mud, only to be pulled up by their companions and stagger forward.
"Old Li! Hurry up and catch up!" Wang Dali roared back, only to see Old Li, who was lagging behind, with his head caught in the flood and his legs about to be swallowed up.
"Help, help me—" Old Li struggled, the murky water already reaching his chest.
At this critical moment.
"boom!!!"
The ground suddenly trembled, and a huge baobab tree abruptly uprooted itself, its thick roots stretching out like giant pythons, wrapping around Old Li's waist and lifting him high into the air!
"Mountain Goddess, save me!" came the scream of the old woman Li from not far away.
Her red coat, already soaked to a dark brown by the floodwaters, was about to sink. Suddenly, a thick tree branch reached out and wrapped around her tightly!
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