Quick Wear: Men Farming and Women Weaving

On the third day, it started to drizzle, so he didn't plan to wait any longer. He packed up the remaining things, put some pots and pans in the kitchen, put a tarpaulin on the donkey cart, and loaded all the things onto the cart. He asked his wife and son to wait for a while, and he had to inform his parents first.

"I want to take my wife and son to take shelter over there first. It's drizzling now, and it will rain heavily if we wait until the end, and we won't be able to leave." I went to my parents and explained the reason, and asked them if they wanted to go with me.

The people nearby were about to leave when they heard this, as they did not believe there would be a flood. Looking at the drizzle outside, they did not believe that there would be a heavy rain that would not stop.

A few people were hesitating and hadn't made a decision yet.

In the end, Erniu didn't care about them anymore. He went straight to the village chief to explain the reason and said that he would leave soon.

The village chief was helpless. He had so many people at home and in the village, and he couldn't just leave them behind. He thought the drizzle would stop, and he couldn't imagine that it would continue to rain heavily later.

Finally, the family drove the donkey cart towards the cave. Because it was drizzling, the speed was slow. When they reached the foot of the mountain, the road was difficult to walk on, so he had to get off the cart and slowly pull the donkey up. After passing various paths, they reached the deep mountains. Along the way, they used a machete to cut vines and weeds to cut a path. The donkey cart was relatively small and could pass through these trees. It took twice as long as usual to reach the cave. He helped his wife down slowly, held his son, lit a torch, and walked deep inside. Changning was afraid of the dark inside and hugged his father's neck.

He asked his wife to sit on the chair next to him, and he prepared to spread all the bedding on the bed, and took out a thicker quilt. He asked Xiangru and his son to lie on the bed and rest for a while, and then covered them with quilts.

Xiangru looked at the dimly lit environment around her. The big boxes of food were piled up on the other side of the wall. She touched the bedpost and found that it was newly made. She was tired these days and was not in a good mood. She was so sleepy that she couldn't open her eyes. She fell asleep while holding her son in her arms.

It rained for three days, sometimes stopping and sometimes starting. The weather was dull and humid, and the environment in the cave was not good. Xiangru was bored and lit an oil lamp to teach her children to read.

In the next few days, the drizzle turned into heavy rain. He Erniu was worried that the rain would flood into the cave, so he took a shovel and dug ditches outside in the rain to drain the water.

After living in the cave for ten days, he would sometimes walk out of the cave and stand on a high place to see the situation below. He saw that the fields not far away were soaked by rainwater, and some crops and vegetables that had not been harvested in time were all soaked and rotten. Villagers were everywhere rushing to harvest in the rain. The low-lying houses were flooded, but no one took it seriously, thinking that the rain would stop. Who would have thought that because of the heavy rainfall, the accumulated water was more than in previous years, forming a flood, which broke through the river embankment and flooded the bottom of the plain in all directions.

Those who were closer to Hejia Village had already been submerged and washed away by the flood. Those who had no time to escape were struggling in the flood. Some who were lucky enough to know how to swim clung to driftwood or planks.

Those who were well-informed quickly packed up their things and ran to higher places.

He was afraid of being disturbed, so he found this place. The entrance of the cave was sealed by tomb robbers, and the outer layer was covered with soil and vines, leaving a few ventilation holes. He dug a robbery hole not far away in the cave to facilitate checking the situation outside.

The flood had completely submerged the entire plain, and there were cries for help everywhere. The bodies of various animals floated on the flood, and the bodies of the elderly, the weak, women, and children all floated on the water, with tragic deaths. In this mountain range, many people climbed up and ran forward desperately. The flood had already reached the foot of the mountain.

Everyone on the mountain calmed down and cried bitterly when they saw that their relatives and friends had not escaped. The survivors also began to prepare to look for food and edible wild vegetables in the mountains, waiting for the flood to recede.

He Erniu calmed his wife and son down, and whispered to them what happened outside, telling them to stay in the cave for a while longer and wait for the flood to recede.

The flood receded and the sun came out to dry the road. Since there was no more edible food on the mountain, the villagers returned to their original places one after another.

He shoveled away all the dirt at the entrance of the cave. Having stayed there for so long, he was a little uncomfortable with the sunlight outside.

Xiangru has been pregnant for nearly eight months and is about to give birth. If she continues to stay here, it will affect her mood.

He packed up the important things and waited for him to come back to move the rest. Then he rode the donkey cart with his wife and children back to the village.

The village was in a mess, a large part of the houses had collapsed and many had been washed away.

The villagers who survived began to build their homes and brought their wives and children to the old house. Since the old house was not well built and the walls and the house had collapsed, they set up a tent in the yard and asked their wives and sons to rest inside. He first went back to his parents to check on the situation.

When they got there, they found out that it was too late because they found out when they were escaping. Their parents had been crushed to death by the beams of the house washed away by the flood. They only survived because they held on to the wood tightly and supported themselves in the flood. The eldest son had separated from the third and fourth sons, and found the village chief to approve the land for the house not far away and worked there. The two younger sisters were washed away by the flood and were rescued by people from the next village. Their parents had passed away and were buried in the cemetery, so the two of them decided to marry to the next village so that they could take care of each other.

Seeing that there was nothing more for him to do, he turned around, returned home and started building the house.

They brought back blue bricks and tiles from a faraway place and planned to rebuild a larger courtyard. Considering that the children in the family had grown up, they planned to build eight side rooms.

He found a construction team in the county and spent money to build the yard in the shortest possible time. After the wages were settled, he used the remaining bricks to dig a cellar in his and his wife's bedroom, which only he and his wife knew about, and put all the important things and money in it. He also dug a cellar in the kitchen to store food and vegetables.

A month later, Xiangru's water broke and the delivery was relatively fast. She gave birth to her second son in three hours.

When the child was one month old, he was named He Changkang.

He planned not to have another son after the birth of his second son. He would concentrate on educating his two children to study and take the imperial examinations. He would only care if they could pass the examinations to be exempted from corvée service. He did not plan to let his sons become officials.

He concentrated on tending the few acres of land at home, and occasionally went hunting far away to sell to wealthy families.

When Changning reached a certain age, he would start teaching him to read and write, and also teach him the Zhang family's basic kung fu and swordsmanship so that he could save his life when in danger.