Because the Jishui River next to Luhua Village… had actually burst its dikes!
The river water surged madly into Luhua Village from the breached bank. Before the villagers could even manage to run away, they were swept down into the depths by the raging floodwaters.
“Our village has been flooded!” Old Lady Shen murmured, her face turning pale with fright.
The expressions on the faces of the Shen family were all filled with the horror of having survived a narrow escape.
If they had not gone up the mountain… they would certainly have been just like those villagers at the foot of the mountain, swallowed up by the bursting floodwaters before they even had time to react!
Once Old Lady Shen snapped out of her shock, she excitedly held little Xihe and kissed her, saying, “If it weren’t for Guibao, we wouldn’t even know where we’d have been washed away to by the flood!”
Old Man Shen also looked at little Xihe with relief and said, “Guibao really is our Shen family’s little lucky star. You all didn’t believe it before, but do you believe it now?”
“We believe it!” Shen Qiang looked at Old Man Shen and said, “Father, I’ve never doubted that Guibao is a little lucky star!”
Shen Fu also hurriedly said, “Father, I believe it too!”
Wang Juhua, on the other hand, looked at the village submerged in floodwaters and said in an extremely anxious tone, “The village is completely flooded, so the grain at home must have all been washed away by the flood!”
At this point, her eyes suddenly darted around, and she turned to look at Eldest Brother, saying with utmost selfishness, “Eldest Brother, you, Second Brother, and Fourth Brother hurry down the mountain and move the grain and valuable things from home up to the mountain!”
“Our Third Brother can’t swim, so he’ll stay on the mountain to protect us.”
Hearing this, Old Lady Shen was so furious that she twisted Wang Juhua’s ear and said, “Are you crazy! The entire village is submerged in water, and you still want Eldest Brother and the others to go down the mountain to fetch grain?”
Wang Juhua cried and said, “Then what are we supposed to do? There’s nothing to eat on the mountain. If we don’t go down the mountain to get grain and we all stay on the mountain, we’ll sooner or later starve to death!”
Just then, little Xihe pointed at a nearby locust flower tree and said, “Third Aunt, eat flowers!”
Hearing little Xihe’s words, Old Lady Shen immediately said, “Guibao is smarter than you. There are locust flower trees everywhere in the mountains, so we’ll eat locust flowers first to satisfy our hunger.”
“The village is flooded, so the government will definitely send people over for relief! Let’s wait on the mountain for a day first.”
Hearing this, although Wang Juhua still wanted to go home to get grain and silver, she did not dare to let anyone go down the mountain anymore.
…
After picking some locust flowers and barely filling their stomachs, the Shen family returned to stay overnight in that thatched hut used by hunters to rest.
During this time, a few fortunate villagers who had climbed up the mountain made their way into the thatched hut to rest as well.
, The already small thatched hut instantly grew even more crowded.
These villagers who were fortunate enough to survive the flood looked at the Shen family with envy when they saw that every single member of the Shen family was up on the mountain.
“You Shen family are so lucky! To think that your whole family went up the mountain to gather wild vegetables just when the flood broke out, avoiding this disaster!”
The Shen family knew perfectly well in their hearts why they had suddenly gone up the mountain before the flood broke out, and almost all of them looked at little Xihe with gratitude.
Early the next morning, the Shen family discovered that the floodwaters down the mountain still had not receded; instead, they had risen a bit higher, making their hearts feel increasingly anxious and uneasy.
Furthermore, the government had not sent any officers or soldiers over to rescue people at all.
After discussing for a long time with Old Lady Shen, Old Man Shen looked at the rest of the Shen family and said, “We don’t know when the floodwaters down the mountain will recede. It’s even possible they won’t recede at all.”
“Therefore, we cannot stay on the mountain forever. We must go to a place without floodwaters as soon as possible!”
Right now there were still locust flowers and wild vegetables to eat in the mountains, but what about when the locust flowers and wild vegetables were all eaten up?
So they had to leave this place as quickly as possible in order to survive!
Taking over the conversation from Old Man Shen, Old Lady Shen looked at her four sons and said, “You four take firewood knives to chop down a few trees and build a wooden raft.”
“We’ll leave here first and head to the county seat!”
“Alright!” The four Shen brothers all nodded firmly and quickly went out to chop down a few trees. They then found ramie to twist into rope and bound the trees securely together, creating a simplified version of a wooden raft.
This kind of wooden raft naturally could not seat every member of the Shen family, as there were twenty-one people in the Shen family in total.
However, this raft was not made for everyone to sit on in the first place, but was specifically for Old Man Shen, Old Lady Shen, and three-year-old little Xihe to sit on.
Wang Juhua, the third brother’s wife, said she could not swim and insisted on sitting on the raft too.
Only after Old Lady Shen glared at her did she behave and follow the other members of the Shen family who could not swim, clinging to floating logs on the water surface and swimming in the direction of the county seat.
Before nightfall, the Shen family finally swam to the place that was originally the county seat, only to discover that the county seat had actually been submerged by the flood as well!
No wonder the government had not sent anyone to rescue them—it turned out that their village was not the only one suffering from the flood disaster!
Old Lady Shen and Old Man Shen discussed it for a moment and decided to continue swimming toward the north.
The terrain in the north was higher with many mountains, and they could also head to the capital in the north to seek refuge with Old Man Shen’s younger sister.
…
Soaking in the floodwaters, the Shen family swam for a whole night. Just as they were on the verge of despair, a streak of light broke through the edge of the sky, and they finally saw dry land that had not been submerged by the flood.
Everyone grew excited and accelerated their swimming in that direction.
At this moment, however, little Xihe suddenly bent down and lay over the edge of the raft, stretching her little hand into the water, looking as if she wanted to scoop something out.
Seeing this scene, Wang Juhua could not help speaking up, “Can’t you sit properly? If you fall into the water, we’ll have to waste energy to scoop you out!”
Just as her words fell, little Xihe scooped a large, pitch-black iron pot out of the water and shouted happily, “Grandpa, Grandma, there’s a pot pot, we can cook rice rice to eat now!”