When Li Nanshan came back and told him that his sister Nanqiu had found a partner in the provincial capital, the old man smoked his pipe silently, floating in the smoke, and it was impossible to tell whether he was happy or sad.
"I didn't expect that my sister would really turn into a phoenix. Who could have imagined this? When she gets married tomorrow, I can go to the city to attend the wedding, right?" The second sister-in-law said secretly. She could always find the information that was beneficial to her from something.
"Nan Qiu is about to graduate, right?" Old man Li suddenly asked.
"Well, she will graduate this year, but she wants to take the postgraduate entrance examination, so she has to continue studying." Li Nanshan said.
"Do you need to read more?" Old man Li's scalp tingled, and he had a feeling that he had misheard.
"Yes, with her grades, passing the exam is not a problem." Li Nanshan said optimistically.
"I've heard of people who are addicted to smoking, drinking and playing cards, but I've never heard of anyone who is addicted to reading. I don't know which ancestor of the Li family is related to Wenquxing." Old man Li said in disbelief and self-deprecatingly.
"Dad, being able to read is a good thing."
"Studying doesn't cost money. Studying is for the rich. For ordinary people like us, just being able to read a few words is enough. She's still a little girl."
Li Nanshan stopped talking. It was useless to talk as long as his mouth was full of disagreements.
Tao Xiaoxi felt that her father-in-law was really incomprehensible. He had always been against Nanqiu's studies. Now that his daughter had become a graduate student, she no longer needed to rely on him. If he had just given in and softened his stance at this time, Li Nanqiu would have come back. He would have gotten a good daughter and one more filial person for free. However, he couldn't see clearly, or even if he saw clearly, he was unwilling to admit that he was wrong. So his daughter deserved not to come home.
This day was particularly different. It rained heavily for a whole day and night without stopping, and it was even more sudden and violent than usual. The chickens, ducks and geese, soaked by the rain, hid under the haystacks and stopped moving, not daring to come out. The dogs also stopped barking. The ditches were full, and the water of Qushui River overflowed the riverbank, threatening to form a vast ocean.
"Beibei, I'll go pick her up. I'm afraid the roads are going to be flooded." Li Nanshan said as he watched the rain outside continue unabated.
"Okay, I'm also scared looking at the rain." Tao Xiaoxi's heart was beating very hard, with inexplicable palpitations, and she couldn't tell why.
However, before Li Nanshan reached the school, he saw several teachers pulling students down.
It turned out that the classroom was leaking seriously and there was a big hole in the teacher's office. It was very dangerous to stay there any longer, so the principal decided to let the students go home immediately.
Li Nanshan helped the teachers to send the children back to their homes. Just after sending the last student, he saw a white field on the other side of Qushui River, like thousands of troops galloping towards them.
Li Nanshan was shocked and screamed, "Oh no!" and ran home.
In less than a quarter of an hour, half of Mantou Village became a vast ocean and was completely flooded.
Tao Xiaoxi's newly built house was not flooded because it was located on high ground, but the yard was also flooded. Countless streams converged into streams, and countless streams converged into a river. The river broke its banks and a mountain torrent broke out.
Beibei was so scared that he hid behind his mother, not daring to look, but also wanting to look. Besides the roaring sound of the raging flood, there was also the faint crying of women and children. It seemed that many families had suffered.
In fact, their family also suffered a disaster, a great disaster. Almost all the fields in Mantou Village were flooded, including the medicinal fields.
Li Nanshan was wearing a straw raincoat and wanted to go to the fields to check. Tao Xiaoxi saw that the rain had subsided a little, so she didn't stop him and let him go. She also wanted to know how much money she had lost this time.
When Li Nanshan arrived at the field, his father, Old Man Li, was wielding a hoe to dig a ditch to divert water. Li Nanshan stepped forward and grabbed his father's hoe, shouting, "You are trying to save your life! Go back quickly! It's useless!"
Old man Li was unwilling to accept it. "These are all money. If you don't feel sorry for it, I do."
How could Li Nanshan let his father continue to do this foolishly? The father and son started to fight in the rain.
Tao Xiaoxi handed the two children to Ma Zi girl and came over, and saw this scene. Sometimes she really couldn't understand her father-in-law, who slandered him and rescued him at the same time, but his efforts were in vain, because the medicinal field had been flooded and not a single tree was left.
She stood in despair at the edge of the field, her legs covered in mud. Fortunately, the medicinal seedlings had no cost, and her only loss was the labor cost. Fortunately, not all the medicinal fields belonged to her. Most villagers chose to be self-financing and manage their own business. In this way, her loss seemed to be the most serious in Mantou Village, but in fact it was not even in the top five.
However, such losses would cost the lives of other villagers.
Sure enough, after the rain stopped, many people came to the fields one after another. Everywhere they looked were villagers sighing and groaning. Some of them beat their chests and stamped their feet, some were at a loss, and some had no expression on their faces and could not even cry.
"Oh my God, you won't let us live!"
However, before everyone could wake up from their sorrow, new bad news came: Jiang Yazai was washed away by the flood!
But the reason why he was washed away by the flood made it impossible for anyone to sympathize with him. He was defecating on the riverbank when the flood came and he had no time to hide. He was swallowed up by the flood with his naked butt.
The village secretary had a sullen face, and seemed to be trying to suppress his laughter. He didn't know how to characterize Jiang Yazai's case.
He was clearly unqualified to be a martyr, and dying in the line of duty was shit. But if it was simply considered a personal accident, the Jiang family disagreed. They surrounded the secretary and said that if the matter was not resolved, they would go to the county town to sue him for not doing his job and for taking human lives lightly.
The dead are the greatest. Because of Jiang Yazai's life, the villagers temporarily forgot their heavy losses. Finally, Jiang Yazai was determined to have died in the line of duty, and the report said that he was washed away by water while repairing a ditch.
Tao Xiaoxi called it ridiculous. Thinking of Jiang Yazai's face when he was alive, she couldn't accept that he could be classified as having died in the line of duty even after his death.
But even though she was not convinced, there was nothing she could do. She could not go to the county to expose him. As the saying went, the dead are the greatest.
Now that the Jiang Yazai incident was settled, everyone felt sad again. Looking at the mud left on the ground by the fields washed away by the flood, they began to breathe rapidly and nothing tasted good anymore.
They spontaneously gathered in front of Tao Xiaoxi's door, wanting Tao Xiaoxi to give them some advice.
Mrs. Li muttered as she looked at the huge crowd, "Why are they running to my son's door to ask for an explanation after something happened? They are also the ones who suffered."
Tao Xiaoxi actually knew what they wanted. Looking at the drizzle falling from the sky again, she made a decision.
Pushing open the door, facing half of the villagers in Mantou Village, she tried hard to pull the corners of her mouth and forced a smile, "If you still want to continue growing herbs, go to Xiangxiang (Miss Mazi) to register, and you can buy on credit!"
There was silence, followed by thunderous applause.
The rain stopped, and a dazzling rainbow appeared in the sky, indicating that the great disaster that the villagers of Mantou Village had just experienced was over.
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