Chapter 38: After the Rain

By around three or four in the afternoon, the wind gradually stopped, but the rain was still falling. It had shifted from a torrential downpour to a light drizzle.

Lin Wei pushed open the door and stepped outside, seeing the yard in disarray. Fallen leaves and sand covered the ground, and she even spotted a towel blown in from who knows where. It had rolled through the mud, and now it was covered in dirt and sand, unrecognizable in its original color.

The faucet that had been fixed to the kitchen wall was also loosened by the wind. The clothesline above the kitchen had been snapped, and the line now dangled down, hanging over the kitchen window.

The most unfortunate was Lin Wei’s previous planting of green onions and garlic. The leaves were bent and crooked from the wind. However, since green onions and garlic are hardy, as long as the roots weren’t blown out, they would continue to grow. Lin Wei paid no mind to it. After the rain stopped, she picked up the towel, hung it on the wall, and figured if anyone came looking for it, she’d return it. If no one came for it, she’d throw it away in a few days.

As for the other fallen leaves and sand, she didn’t bother with them. The ground was too wet to sweep. Besides, who knew if there would be another round of rain? If she cleaned up the yard only for the wind to blow more sand and dirt back in, all her work would be for nothing.

She did, however, check the clothesline, tugging at it to make sure the length was enough before tying a knot, planning to make do with it for now.

After tying the knot, Lin Wei went to the edge of the rooftop, bending over to look toward the residential area below.

After the rain, the military wives who had been home all day were coming out. Some were likely busy with household chores, but others were standing by the road chatting with neighbors.

Lin Wei overheard one loud-voiced military wife saying, “I just washed the sheets this morning, but I couldn’t bring them in before the rain started. Now they’ve been soaked through and I have to wash them again!”

Another woman replied, “You only have to rewash your sheets. My roof’s tiles have been broken for ages, and I told him to fix them, but he kept saying he didn’t have time. Now, the room where the kids sleep is flooded. Forget the sheets and blankets; the cotton furniture is all ruined!”

“That’s terrible. Won’t you have to replace everything?”

The woman’s voice dropped, “We’ll see if the sun comes out and dries things. If not, we’ll have to replace it.”

“Just let them dry in the sun, they should be fine.”

Hearing their conversation, Lin Wei couldn’t help but feel thankful that before moving in, Zong Shao had renovated their house, replacing the broken tiles and windows. Otherwise, with this heavy wind and rain, their house would have been flooded too.

As she was thinking this, she heard Mingming’s shouting, “Mom! Our house is going to flood!”

Startled, Lin Wei hurried to the yard side, looking down to ask, “Where’s the flooding?”

Standing at the door, Mingming pointed ahead and shouted, “The water is almost reaching our house!”

Lin Wei followed Mingming’s finger and couldn’t help but twitch her lips.

The tide had indeed pushed the coastline a few meters inland, but most of the beach was still intact, and there was still a strip of greenery between the beach and their house.

However, after hearing her explanation, Mingming was still very concerned. “What if it keeps rising? Will our house be flooded?”

Lin Wei reassured him, “The rain has stopped, and the water won’t rise anymore. So don’t worry, our house definitely won’t flood.”

Mingming seemed to understand, then clasped his hands together and muttered, “Please, Lord, no more rain, or our house will flood!”

Lin Wei: “…”

…

Zong Shao was scheduled for duty today, but he swapped shifts with Zhou Jianhai, and since the typhoon had arrived and he was worried about Lin Wei and the kids, he came home a few minutes earlier than usual.

However, when he arrived home, Zong Shao found Lin Wei in a good state, not as though she had been frightened.

Lin Wei was serving noodles. Since it had been raining heavily all day, she hadn’t gone into the kitchen at lunchtime. After the rain stopped, she opened the kitchen, and the coal stove had long gone out. She didn’t feel like lighting it again, so she cooked a pot of noodles on the earthen stove instead.

Looking up, she saw Zong Shao staring at her, and she thought there was something on her face. She touched her cheek with the back of her hand but found nothing and then asked, “What is it?”

“No,” Zong Shao immediately shook his head.

Lin Wei asked, “Then why are you staring at me?”

Zong Shao reached out to take the noodles she had served and asked softly, “Were you afraid when the typhoon came?”

“I was a little scared at first, but then it seemed okay,” Lin Wei said, serving the last bowl of noodles. She and Zong Shao carried them to the dining room. When she entered, she saw the room was dark, and then remembered to say, “By the way, the power lines in the residential area seem to have been blown down. There’s no electricity tonight, and I don’t know when they’ll fix it.”

“They probably won’t send anyone to repair it today. Let’s see how the weather is tomorrow. If it doesn’t rain, they’ll come to fix it,” Zong Shao said, setting down the bowl and walking over to the cabinet. He took out a candle, lit it with a match, and then placed it on the table, letting the wax drip to hold the candle in place.

Just then, the two kids came in after washing their hands. Seeing the candle on the table, Mingming asked in surprise, “Why are we using candles? Can’t we just turn on the light?”

He walked to the door, tugged at the light switch, and looked up, but it didn’t turn on.

“Dad, Mom, is the light bulb broken?”

“No, the power lines are down, so we have no electricity,” Lin Wei explained before calling Mingming to sit down and eat.

Mingming said, “Oh,” then sat on the stool and picked up his chopsticks. After taking a bite, he asked, “If the power lines are broken, doesn’t that mean the power is out? Did they turn off the electricity?”

Lin Wei replied, “When the power lines are broken, the whole area goes without electricity.”

“When will the power be back?”

“Maybe tomorrow, or maybe the day after.”

“Then…”

Mingming really had a lot of questions, and Lin Wei eventually couldn’t handle it and had to deploy the “no talking during meals, no talking during sleep” strategy.

But the strategy didn’t work, and it led Mingming to ask more questions, “Mom, what does ‘no talking during meals, no talking during sleep’ mean?”

“It means, no talking when you eat, no talking when you sleep.”

“But I don’t talk when I sleep! Mom, do you talk in your sleep?” He turned to ask Ruier, “Do you talk in your sleep, little brother?”

Ruier shook his head, “No talking.”

Lin Wei tapped on the table and emphasized, “Is that the point? The point is to not talk while eating.”

Mingming asked again, “Why can’t I talk? You’re talking too, Mom!”

“That’s why, starting now, none of us can talk.”

“Okay,” Mingming said, nodding and burying his head in his noodles.

The dining table finally fell silent, with only the sound of slurping noodles.

However, the silence didn’t last long. When Zong Shao finished his noodles, Lin Wei, recalling that there was no electricity, said, “You should go take a shower first, so it doesn’t get too late.”

As soon as Lin Wei spoke, Mingming yelled, “Mom, you spoke!”

Lin Wei said, “This is important. It’s something that needs to be said.”

“What about me?” Mingming asked.

Lin Wei tapped his forehead and said, “What do you think, little chatterbox?”

Though Mingming was young, he already understood what “chatterbox” meant, and immediately pouted, “I’m not a little chatterbox! Everything I say is very, very important!”

“And then?”

“So, Mom, you have to apologize to me! Or I’ll never tell you anything very, very important again!” Mingming said, turning his head arrogantly.

Lin Wei couldn’t help but laugh, “Alright, I’ll wait for it.”

Mingming didn’t respond but gave a heavy hum to show his firm stance.

So, when Zong Shao came out after his shower, he found that his wife and eldest son were in a cold war. The two—well, mainly Mingming—refused to speak to Lin Wei.

He called the two kids into the bathroom, undressed them, and was about to put them in the bath when he asked, “What did you two talk about? I saw Mingming seemed to be upset with you.”

Lin Wei began recounting what had just happened, and the more she talked, the more she found it amusing. “You see, this kid, though not old, has quite the temper. Just ignore him, and by tomorrow, he’ll forget about it.”

“What if he hasn’t forgotten by tomorrow?”

“What can be done? I’m his mother. He eats the food I cook and drinks the water I boil. Can he really keep ignoring me forever? You don’t need to worry about it,” Lin Wei waved her hand and asked, “Is the water boiling on the stove? I got soaked in the rain today, and I want to wash my hair tonight.”

Zong Shao nodded and then asked, “How did you get soaked in the rain?”

“I closed the windows and remembered I hadn’t brought in the flower pot from the balcony, so I went out to bring it in and got caught in the rain.” Lin Wei said, noticing Zong Shao frowning. She smiled and added, “It was just a quick rain. After I brought the flower in, I took a bath, dried my hair, and I’m fine.”

Zong Shao didn’t comment further, just said, “Next time something like this happens, forget the flowers. Your health is more important.”

Lin Wei nodded. “Understood. You should go wash the kids now. If you leave them in the bathroom, who knows how long they’ll play around.”

Zong Shao agreed and went to the bathroom to wash the two children.

When they were in Shicheng, it used to take half an hour to an hour for the two kids to finish their baths, not because they were thorough, but because they got too busy playing. When Zong Shao rushed them, they’d throw a tantrum.

But after moving to the island, Zong Shao kept them in check. They didn’t dare to play around, and usually, they were done in ten to fifteen minutes.

Today, Zong Shao was even stricter, scrubbing their backs and calling them out after just five minutes. He dried their bodies, dressed them, and sent them out.

After they left, Zong Shao tidied up the bathroom.

Normally, he’d wash the dirty clothes right after their baths, but since the weather was bad, and it looked like it might rain, he left them alone for now and just piled them together.

Once the bathroom was clean, Zong Shao went to the kitchen, brought in hot water, and filled a bucket with cold water to mix for the bath.

While Zong Shao was doing this, Lin Wei came down with the clothes.

She put the clothes into a cloth bag, hung it behind the bathroom door, then turned to take the water dipper from Zong Shao’s hands. “I’ll do it myself. You should go upstairs and rest.”

Zong Shao didn’t leave. He said, “I’ll stay here with you.”

Lin Wei paused and looked up at him.

Zong Shao cleared his throat and explained, “The power’s out, and it’s too dark downstairs. I’ll wait outside for you, and if you need anything, just call.”

With that, he walked around Lin Wei and sat in the living room.

…

Zong Shao had said downstairs was too dark, but in truth, it wasn’t. There were candles downstairs, but upstairs was pitch black. He probably thought it was better to sleep when it was dark, and the kids would be up there alone without anyone to light candles for them.

But it was too early for them to sleep, and the two kids sat together, whispering.

In the darkness, Ruirui kept his eyes open, looking at Mingming, who was close by, and softly asked, “Brother, are you really not going to talk to Mom anymore?”

Mingming was firm in his response, “If Mom doesn’t apologize to me, I won’t talk to her anymore.”

Ruirui responded with a small “Oh” and, looking confused, asked, “Why are you mad at Mom?”

“Didn’t you hear?” Mingming sat up, agitated. “Mom called me a chatterbox. It’s people who talk nonsense who are chatterboxes! What Mom said was very, very disrespectful to me!”

Ruirui replied, “Oh,” and then asked, “What’s nonsense?”

Mingming was incredulous. “You don’t know what nonsense is?”

Ruirui responded, “…” He wasn’t a chatterbox, so why would he need to know?

Mingming leaned over to his brother, explaining, “Nonsense is talk that’s unimportant, but everything I say is extremely important, so it’s not nonsense! Got it?”

Ruirui nodded, though he still didn’t quite understand.

But then Ruirui complained, “Brother, you say a lot of important things.”

Mingming didn’t take it as a complaint. He said seriously, “Everything I say is very, very important! That’s why I’m so angry! Mom says I’m a chatterbox, and I’m really mad! If she doesn’t apologize, I won’t talk to her anymore!”

Ruirui responded again with an “Oh,” “What if Mom never apologizes?”

Mingming said loudly, “Then I’ll never talk to her again!”

“What if Mom gets sad?” Ruirui asked.

Mingming froze. “Sad?”

“Yeah, if you don’t talk to Mom, I’m sure she’ll be sad,” Ruirui flipped over, resting his hand behind his head. “If you don’t talk to Mom, she’ll be sad and might even cry.”

Mingming lay on his arm, thinking about what his brother said. He asked, “Has Mom ever cried?”

Ruirui, a few minutes younger than Mingming, didn’t know anything his older brother didn’t. He shook his head. “I don’t know.”

Mingming asked again, “What happens if Mom cries?”

Ruirui said, “She’d be really sad. I remember once when Wang Xiaofei’s mom cried, Grandma said she was really sad.”

Mingming found his brother’s words strange. If someone is sad, they cry, right? But why did crying then become sadness? He didn’t understand.

But after thinking about it seriously, Mingming decided he didn’t want to see Mom cry or be sad. So he said, “If she doesn’t call me a chatterbox tomorrow, I’ll talk to her.”

Ruirui thought his brother’s words were strange. If he didn’t talk to Mom, how could she call him a chatterbox? But if he was still a chatterbox, how could he not talk to Mom?

He didn’t get it.

But when they woke up, the brothers no longer cared about these confusing things because… Mom was sick!