“Have you lost your mind? Absolutely not!” Mother Hu was the first to object. Aside from Su Nianyuan, she was the calmest person there, and she was the one who usually arranged for many tasks to be carried out.
She squatted down, pressed her hands onto Su Nianyuan’s shoulders, and her eyes were filled with strong disapproval. “Little Village Chief, you’re only five years old. Even if you’ve received the immortal’s blessing, you shouldn’t be taking such risks.”
Su Nianyuan knew the other woman was worried about her. At that moment, they were standing right at the main entrance, where a glance outward revealed the rivers and villages submerged by water.
Corpses of the starving littered the land, and devastation was everywhere.
Many bodies couldn’t even be recovered because the currents had washed them away.
Right then, the sun broke through the heavy clouds, and a beam of light broke through, landing right upon Su Nianyuan.
It looked just like hope.
She turned around, a bright smile blooming on her childish face. “No, I have to go.”
“I won’t leave a single person from Green Bamboo Village behind.”
A yellow-haired little girl.
Mother Hu looked at Su Nianyuan, that phrase suddenly popping into her mind. Because in the sunlight, she could see the fine fuzz on Su Nianyuan’s cheeks, and her hair was a bit messy, yet those big eyes were filled with absolute seriousness.
Mother Hu opened her mouth, then glanced down the mountain as well. The rain had stopped, and all the terrifying sounds had vanished.
The entire world seemed to have plunged into tranquility.
She let out a breath. “Xiaohu, you go with the Little Village Chief. And bring two more men along. Auntie Lin, you shouldn’t follow; if you end up getting hurt, they’ll just have to carry you back.”
Xiaohu, who had been standing blankly to the side, widened his eyes and pointed at himself.
Me?
Mom! I’m only seven years old!
Yet looking at Su Nianyuan, who was even a head shorter than him, Xiaohu suddenly couldn’t voice any objections. The Little Village Chief dared to go, so what did he have to be afraid of?
“Alright!”
Su Nianyuan determined the general direction, tightened her trouser cuffs, and moved with a nimbleness that was even more agile than the two grown men behind her.
Green Bamboo Village was built against the mountain, so apart from the houses at the foot of the mountain being thoroughly flooded, most of the houses halfway up the mountain had been buried by mudslides.
As they walked, Su Nianyuan called out, “Lin Shoufeng! Lin Shoufeng!”
Her voice echoed through the forest.
After every call, Su Nianyuan would stop and listen intently.
After searching a large area, there was still no movement whatsoever. Xiaohu climbed up from a pile of ruins and panted, “Little Village Chief, still nothing.”
The two uncles followed them, moving whatever they could. They did find a bit of grain that had been soaked and sprouted, but no people.
Just when even Su Nianyuan was starting to feel that there was no hope left, she suddenly heard a sound.
Thump, thump, thump.
Thump, thump, thump.
Her ears twitched. She immediately dropped to her knees, pressed her ear against the ground, and the sound grew clearer.
Not understanding what was going on, Xiaohu trotted over. “Little Village Chief, what are you doing?”
“Shh!”
The sound was transmitted through solid matter, which meant someone was striking a nearby object—proving that someone was indeed there!
However, Su Nianyuan couldn’t determine the direction, so she couldn’t help shouting, “If you can hear my voice, knock three times!”
The thump-thump-thump sound paused for a second, followed by three consecutive strikes: “Thump, thump, thump!”
This time, Xiaohu heard it too.
He widened his eyes in disbelief, and the four of them began searching once more.
Buried deep underground, Lin Shoufeng was incomparably weak at that moment, his eyes closed and his mind somewhat hazy.
At the very moment the mountain torrent erupted, he had been cutting firewood on the mountain.
Without any hesitation, he immediately ran down the mountain, wanting to find his mother.
Yet the mudslide was far faster than he had imagined, and coupled with the mountain collapsing, he was crushed directly beneath a house.
The weight on his body was simply too heavy; it was impossible to escape on his own.
Fortunately, his mother had a habit of keeping dry rations on him. Relying on that pancake, along with the rainwater seeping through the gaps, Lin Shoufeng had held on until now.
Upon hearing Su Nianyuan’s shout, Lin Shoufeng almost burst into tears.
Yet when he opened his mouth, he could only produce a cry as faint as a mosquito’s buzzing.
Fumbling around, his hand managed to find a piece of stone, with which he struck the roof beam beside him, hoping the person outside could hear.
Fortunately, his luck wasn’t too bad.
Soon enough, however, the voice outside vanished again. Growing anxious, Lin Shoufeng continuously increased the force in his hands.
Tears slid down his cheeks.
Save me! Save me!
Mother is still waiting for me, I cannot die!
When a gleam of light abruptly appeared, Lin Shoufeng squinted upward, and a childish yet joyful little face suddenly came into view.
“Uncle Lin! I found you!”
That familiar voice! Lin Shoufeng recognized that face; wasn’t this the village chief’s daughter?
Usually a bit timid, she had actually brought people and found him?
It felt like a beam of light piercing through despair, dazzling to the extreme.
“Little Village Chief…” He opened his mouth, but couldn’t get any words out.
Su Nianyuan hastily said, “Don’t speak, save your energy. I will definitely get you out!”
With that, she looked down at the ground.
All the roof beams and load-bearing pillars were pressing down on this spot. Normally, a single roof beam required four or five adult men just to move.
One of the men said with a bitter face, “Little Village Chief, should we go call for more people? The few of us really can’t move this thing!”
He had already tried just moments ago; lacking a full stomach and using all his strength, he had only managed to budge it by a fraction.
As for Su Nianyuan, she was out of the question, and Xiaohu counted as half a man—put together, it still wasn’t enough.
Su Nianyuan had already analyzed the load-bearing structure of these pillars and located the most critical node.
In her past life, she had been an ordinary female college student.
A female college student majoring in architecture.
“Xiaohu, find a long wooden stick and wedge it in right here!”
“Oh.” Though confused, Xiaohu obediently did as he was told. Then, under the astonished gazes of the two men, he stood at the tail end of the stick and hauled down hard.
That roof beam, weighing hundreds of catties combined, rolled directly off to the sides, revealing Lin Shoufeng, who had been buried deep below.
The sudden glare of the light caused Lin Shoufeng to close his eyes, which happened to block the falling dust.
“Little Village Chief, you’re amazing!” Xiaohu couldn’t help shouting, his eyes shining brightly. He could brag about this achievement for an entire year!
The two men also snapped back to their senses and gave Su Nianyuan a thumbs-up.
While they had previously treated this child somewhat casually, they were now truly convinced. A little girl whose height barely reached their waists had such a brilliant mind.
When they were five years old, they were still running around bare-bottomed and playing in the mud.
With the heaviest roof beam removed, the remaining timber was much easier to handle. Lin Shoufeng was pulled out shortly after; he wasn’t heavily injured, just severely weakened.
Sitting there catching his breath, his gaze remained fixed on Su Nianyuan.
At that moment, Su Nianyuan was ransacking the Lin family’s belongings, even managing to find a kitchen knife, an iron pot, and a large quantity of seeds.
A firewood-cutting knife was still hanging at Lin Shoufeng’s waist.
Turning around, Su Nianyuan caught him staring straight at her. She stepped forward and touched his forehead. “No fever. Uncle Lin, are you hungry?”
Lin Shoufeng pressed his lips together, his expression filled with guilt. “I’m sorry.”
“Huh?”
Su Nianyuan was a bit baffled. “What are you apologizing to me for?”
Guiltily touching his nose, Lin Shoufeng said, “In the past, I cursed your dad, called him useless, and refused to obey him. I’m sorry.”
Hearing this, the other two men, including Xiaohu, all wore guilty expressions.
Because that had been the unanimous sentiment throughout Green Bamboo Village.
Yet the ones who ended up saving them were the very village chief and his daughter whom they had looked down upon the most.
The guilt was so intense that they wanted to wake up in the middle of the night and slap themselves across the face!