Picking mulberries

Before the sound of the gong, Zhuang Huaying, who had been staying at the Nanliuqiu resettlement site for a night, was breathing a sigh of relief at home and was about to untie the package and put back her things. He raised his throat and told her mother-in-law Zhou Guimei to run quickly.

Zhou Guimei's feet trembled, spinning around like a headless chicken: "Hua...Huaying, where's Yangyang?"

"Damn, the brat came back with his brother, he must be at the elder brother's house, you run first, I'll go find him." Qiu Yang's cousin Qiu Hong came back from the county during the summer vacation, Qiu Yang ran to the uncle's house every day, Find my brother to play.

"I'll go too." Zhou Guimei stopped shaking when she heard that her little grandson was still in Qiancun, and rushed out of the house as she spoke.

Qiu Jingping's house was built at the back of the village. When the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law rushed out of the house, everyone in the village had already run out of the house, calling for their children and mothers, making a mess.When the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law ran to Qiu Jingdong's house with the flow of people, there was no one in the house. Zhou Guimei was so frightened that she burst into tears and lost control of her legs.

"My mother, let's run quickly, my sister-in-law must take them away first." Zhuang Huaying took her mother-in-law's hand and ran south.

In order to avoid detours, they crossed the vegetable garden behind Beiliuqiu Village in front of the village and ran southward. Zhuang Huaying subconsciously looked towards the Liujiu Reservoir to the east, seeing that the dam was destroyed and disappeared. The flood rushed westward like mountains and seas, and in a blink of an eye, the mulberry field was covered.

It was too late and then it was too late, Zhuang Huaying threw away the wrap in her hand, squatted down and carried Zhou Guimei on her back, and without knowing where the strength came from, she raised her feet and ran quickly, surpassing many people who were desperately rushing to Nanliuqiu people.

Arriving at Shiping Field in Nanliuqiu, Zhuang Huaying slumped and put down Zhou Guimei. Without breathing evenly, she took her hand and looked for sister-in-law Wang Qiuxia and the children among the crying crowd.There were so many voices, like ants on a hot nest, disorderly, Zhuang Huaying searched and asked, smoke came out of her throat in anxiety, and Zhou Guimei couldn't make a sound.

The water of the entire Liujiu Reservoir was released, and the outlet of the Luosi Peak downstream was narrow, and the flood water was not drained smoothly for a while.

The two villages of Dongxiao Qiqiu and Xixiaoqiqiu are facing the dam of Liujiu Reservoir. The houses in the villages were washed up to pieces, and none of the houses could stand upright in the middle of the water. They all collapsed and were submerged in the flood.Although Beiliuqiu and Zhuang Huaying's Jiuqiu village is not in the main area, they are all submerged in water, and some of the lower ones can only see the green tiles on the roof.

Touqiu Village and Qiqiu Village at the foot of Niubei Mountain were slightly higher, so they were not flooded deeply, but because the only flood outlet was the Tangong River going west along the Tan Road, the Tangong River had to go around the Luosi Peak pass to go. Qingxi, a neighboring village, was damaged by the strong flow of the flood, and many houses in Touqiu Village were also collapsed.The roaring flood could not be drained from the narrow Luosifeng pass for a while, and the powerful impact of the flood like a trapped animal was blocked by the mountain in the west, and it swirled eastward repeatedly like a stormy wave hitting the shore, and all the garbage washed down from the bottom floated up. When I came up, there were tree roots and stumps everywhere, and there were still many corpses floating on the muddy water, which was shocking to see.

After searching for a long time, Zhuang Huaying, who couldn't find Wang Qiuxia and the child, was so frightened by the horror in front of her that she was paralyzed on the ground and couldn't get up. Zhou Guimei, who had been crying all the time, was silent and stared at the vast ocean in a daze. Dazed.

When Qiu Jingdong and Qiu Jingping found Zhuang Huaying and the others, they were terrified by the expressions of the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, and hurriedly asked where the rest of the family was.When Zhou Guimei saw her two sons, she immediately burst into tears. Qiu Jingdong and Qiu Jingping saw his mother in such a situation, he was suddenly dumbfounded and wanted to cry but had no tears.

When the rapid gong sounded, Qiu Hong was teaching Qiu Yang to sing.As soon as Wang Qiuxia heard the sound of the gong, she didn't take anything with her. She ran out with Qiu Hong and Qiu Yang, and turned around to urge Qiu Rong to bring the grandmother out.

As soon as the five people ran out of the village with the flow of people, the distance between Qiu Rong, Song Fenghuang and Wang Qiuxia grew further and further, and the people around them rushed forward, knocking Song Fenghuang until his old legs trembled, and he became old soon. When she was a child, she fell alone at the end, Qiu Rong held her grandmother's hand and cried anxiously, Song Fenghuang urged her great-granddaughter to run first, but she couldn't shake Qiu Rong's hand violently.

Qiu Yang and Qiu Hong kept looking back in the crowd, crying and shouting to Wang Qiuxia that the grandmother hadn't followed.Wang Qiuxia gritted her teeth, held the hands of the two children tightly while running and shouted loudly, you follow the aunts in front and run to the south, don't stop, squeeze as hard as you can.After speaking, Wang Qiuxia pushed forward with all her strength and let go of the two children's hands, squeezed out the crowd sideways and jumped into the rice field, wading through the muddy water and rushing back. When she rushed back to Qiu Rong and Song Fenghuang, the flow of people in the village had already gone south. , only a few old men and old ladies who were dispersed by the crowd were running desperately.

Regardless of Song Fenghuang's desperate struggle, Wang Qiuxia picked her up on her back, pulled Qiu Rong up with one hand, and was about to rush forward. When she looked up, she saw her son and nephew rushing back through the crowd. Said: "Don't die, run for me quickly..."

Qiu Hong's lips trembled: "Mom..., water... water... water is coming soon."

Wang Qiuxia looked to the east and saw that it was over, the dam had disappeared without a trace, the wicked flood was roaring down like wild horses, and large tracts of mulberry trees were rolled up by their roots. good.

Qiu Yang was quick to wit, and shouted to his aunt: "It's too late, let's go to the back mountain."

Wang Qiuxia woke up immediately after being called by her nephew, she carried Song Fenghuang on her back and hurried back to the village.Fortunately, she was very familiar with the small alleys in the village. Wang Qiuxia took the old man on her back and led the young one to take a shortcut to Yehuling at the back of the village. The flood that was crashing everywhere seemed to reach Beiliuqiu Village.

"Hurry up, follow me closely and go up the mountain." Because they were in a panic, the place where the five people arrived was not the way they usually go up the mountain. There was no road in front of them. Wang Qiuxia had to use her body to block the thorns and open the way ahead. The man supported Song Fenghuang and followed closely behind, while Qiu Yang arched his buttocks behind Song Fenghuang and pushed her away.

As he was struggling to climb the slope, Song Fenghuang felt the power behind him suddenly lose. He quickly turned his head to look. He was about to fall into the water. Fortunately, during the descent, the pendant on Qiu Yang's neck caught a piece of firewood, and the pendant held the back of Qiu Yang's head to buffer his downward trend. Qiu Yang picked up the weeds on both sides with both hands, and lay there with his head up against the ground. The flood rose quickly, and it almost reached Qiu Yang's waist as soon as he was still under his feet.

When Song Fenghuang saw it, he pushed Qiu Rong and Qiu Hong away from both sides, rolled and scrambled to Qiu Yang's side, his old leg desperately pressed against a tree stump under his feet, picked up Qiu Yang's small hand with both hands and pulled it up desperately.Wang Qiuxia pushed Qiu Hong and Qiu Rong up the hill, grabbed the firewood and slid down, hugged a small pine tree with one hand to stabilize her body, gathered Qiu Yang's collar with the other hand, With a pull, Qiu Yang was finally pulled up from the water.To be on the safe side, Wang Qiuxia wanted to pull Qiu Yang to the side of the pine tree she was holding. Song Fenghuang knew what the grandson's daughter-in-law meant, so she got up and gave Qiu Yang a sideways push. Holding on tightly to the pine tree, he stood firm.After Song Fenghuang pushed it forcefully, he breathed a sigh of relief, his eyes blurred, and he fell backwards due to exhaustion. Hearing a sound of "dong", the old man fell into the water.

Qiu Rong, Qiu Hong and Qiu Yang watched her grandma fall into the water and couldn't help screaming and crying. Qiu Yang, who was the closest to the water, wanted to reach out to catch it, but was pulled back by Wang Qiuxia. Can't help shivering.The flood was still rising, and Wang Qiuxia didn't dare to think about it any more. She pulled up the three crying children and continued to climb to the higher place of Yehuling.

After a night of hard work on the mountainside of Yehuling, the flood had receded at dawn the next day. The exhausted Wang Qiuxia led three limp little guys down the mountain. The place she saw was a mess and there were garbage everywhere. sludge.

In this dam break, Dongxiao Qiqiu and Xixiao Qiqiu were the most severely affected and killed the most, mainly because the weather cleared up people's minds and they hadn't encountered any natural disasters so far, so it was a fluke At the government resettlement site, everyone couldn’t stay still and went home. They didn’t have time to run to a safe place, and because of the men’s labor, they went to the embankment to control the flood. Most of the dead were women, the elderly and children who were preparing to cook at home.The two villages of Dongxiaoqiqiu and Xixiaoqiqiu were the first to bear the brunt of the flood, and they were located between the south resettlement site and the north resettlement site. When the flood came, many people were still hesitating whether to run south or north. The most important cause of death.

Although Qiqiu Village of Touqiu Village is also a hard-hit area, because the disaster prevention and resettlement site is on Niubei Mountain, the flood can just run up the mountain after coming and going. Although many houses collapsed, fortunately no casualties were caused.

Although the three villages of Beiliuqiu, Jiuqiu, and Daerqiu are also in the flooded area, they are fortunately not too far from the disaster prevention and resettlement site of Shipingchang in Nanqiu Village, causing serious property losses and relatively light casualties.

The members of the Qiu clan, who had never suffered such a catastrophe, had a hard time digesting the disaster for a long time, with gloom and mourning.Nanliuqiu, Xiaoerqiu, Siqiu Village, Xiasanqiu, and Shangsanqiu villages, which were not damaged by the dam break this time, saw that the members of the Qiu clan had suffered such a catastrophe, and all the villages did their best to help the affected clansmen rebuild after the disaster.

After the flood receded, Song Fenghuang's body was found on the collapsed hearth of a family in Beiliuqiu Village.

Among the people who were killed, the most appalling were the several victims of the township government, because they were washed down from the embankment, and some of their bodies were dismembered by sharp stones and tree stumps. I haven't found it all the time, and I don't know where it was washed.In addition to the mayor Cheng Tianhao, two deputy mayors and four clerks were also killed.Even so, in a series of work such as disaster relief and reconstruction in the future, neither the county nor the province commended the township chief Cheng Tianhao and other government staff, nor were they named martyrs. The disaster prevention work is not satisfactory, and the possibility of the largest disaster is not estimated, resulting in avoidable losses and casualties.However, people in Longgong Township have the right to comment on Cheng Tianhao's usual behavior. Many villagers spontaneously buried him and donated money and materials for his wife and children. After the transformation, a Tianhao Garden was built for him. This is a later story, so I won't repeat it here.

Qiu Jingdong, Qiu Jingping and his brothers, who were looking for the dead bodies of their family members, were ecstatic when they saw Wang Qiuxia bring three children back to the village from Yehuling. Buddha bless.

Because it deviates from the main breach of the flood, and there is Beiliuqiu Village in front of it as a buffer, the houses in Jiuqiu Village were not seriously damaged, and none of them collapsed. After cleaning up the sludge in the house, they can move in again.

The furniture at home was soaked and rinsed to a mess, and Song Fenghuang's funeral had to be arranged by her two sons-in-law of the Song family.It was the old lady's funeral, cleaning up the corners of the house, and going to the township government to handle disaster registration and other matters. Qiu Jingping, Qiu Jingdong and the others were so busy that they were dizzy and exhausted. Fortunately, relatives and other clan members gave great help. Zhuang Huaying and Wang Qiuxia were very sad. The heart finally had some comfort.

After getting out of the disaster, Qiu's family wished to build a golden body for Dr. Cui who gave the jade pendant for Qiu Yang's survival. Even Zhuang Huaying, who had never believed in ghosts and gods, felt a little strange when everyone spread it magically.

The night before Song Fenghuang's funeral, Zhou Guimei, who was guarding the spirit, held Qiu Yang tightly in her arms, rubbed the jade brave on Qiu Yang's chest, and warned him to wear the jade pendant on his body every day from now on. Don't take it off either.

"It's just a matter of luck, why are you always talking about it, don't let the children follow the superstition." Zhuang Huaying was very disgusted with her mother-in-law's nagging.

"Hua Ying, I also think what Mom said is right. Not to mention superstition or superstition, at least this jade pendant is also a lucky charm for Yang Yang," Wang Qiuxia, who burned paper money in front of Song Fenghuang's spirit, said to her mother-in-law, "Without this jade pendant, I would Yangyang can't be saved even if he has three heads and six arms, I can't sleep when I think of the scene at that time, it's so dangerous."

"That's right, auntie," Qiu Rong followed suit, "Seeing my little brother slide down, it wasn't for the pendant holding the back of his head that he fell into the water."

"It's all the blessings of the Bodhisattva." Zhou Guimei murmured again.

"Although it is a thing, you have to remember its kindness no matter what, Yangyang, listen to your grandma, and wear it all the time from now on." Qiu Jingdong said to his nephew.

"Yeah." When the adults said it, Qiu Yang even regarded the jade pendant on his chest as a treasure.

"The fate between people is really wonderful. Who would have thought that a gift from a stranger could save lives." Qiu Jingping said with emotion.

"That young man with a doctor's degree is probably a bodhisattva sent by the Tathagata Buddha to protect Yangyang, and he has appeared in real form." Zhou Guimei thought even more mysteriously.

"You think your little grandson is the reincarnation of Tang Seng." Zhuang Huaying snorted.

"Regardless of whether the Bodhisattva is manifesting his holiness or not, this jade pendant will be Yang Yang's third hand from now on. You are not allowed to take it off at any time, and I will wear it when you sleep." Zhou Guimei said stubbornly.

"Just wear it. No matter how precious it is, it doesn't matter if it's life. I'll take it back to him." Zhuang Huaying thought, superstition is just a psychological comfort. Letting his son wear it every day may be harmful to him. There are benefits.

"I don't know if the doctor surnamed Cui will still be able to see me, I have to remember his great kindness in this life." Zhou Guimei said drinking water and thinking about the source.

"He came here just for fun, how could he remember this?" Zhuang Huaying said.

"We will meet again if we are destined," Wang Qiuxia said piously, "I believe there will be a chance to meet him again, and then I will thank him face to face. This will save a life."

Listening to the family's discussion, Qiu Yang couldn't help trying to search for the image of Dr. Cui's uncle in his memory, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't form a complete face in his mind. He only remembered that it was because he was too beautiful, dressed too cleanly and spoke The voice is so nice that I can't help but want someone to be my "girlfriend".

After Song Fenghuang's death, Qiu Yueli was depressed all the time. He only sprained his foot but lay on the bed and never recovered. Within two months, he unexpectedly followed his wife and passed away. He was 76 all the year round.