Chapter 92 : Abnormal Phenomenon

Faced with the accusations and scolding from the whole village, even someone as shameless and deceitful as Chen Jinhua couldn’t stand it. It was truly the case that a single drop of spit could drown you.

So, after only two days, she packed up her things and took Jiang Qiaoqiao back to her parents’ home overnight.

But how could her family tolerate her and her daughter? They were also afraid of the rumors, not to mention that her sister-in-law was not someone who could be easily fooled. She was even more aggressive than Chen Jinhua.

The Chen family had two daughters, one of whom was Chen Jinhua, and the other married far away. Contrary to Chen Jinhua’s nature, this other sister was a bully. The two elderly people in the Chen family now had only their son to rely on, and their daughter-in-law was the head of the family. A single glance from Chen’s sister-in-law made it clear that no one dared to keep Chen Jinhua and her daughter.

The mother and daughter now had nowhere to go. After Jiang Qiaoqiao had a miscarriage, she was driven out of the village before she even had a chance to recover.

This was truly the result of their own actions. Chen Jinhua had not been a good person when she was young, and now she was getting her comeuppance.

The Xiao family remained silent, watching the situation unfold with cold indifference. Jiang Sui felt even more satisfied. Every wrongdoer gets their just punishment!

—

As time went by, with everyone’s tireless efforts, a new spring was finally found. It was just a little farther away, making it harder to fetch water than it was to go to the pond. The pond had been created by the villagers, but now it could only hold water for half a month. The water level had dropped to just ankle height, and the water was too muddy to scoop up.

It was mid-September, and the weather should have been cooling down but it was still as hot as ever, if not hotter than before.

There hadn’t been a drop of rain for five whole months, and the crops in the fields hadn’t been harvested. Although the price of grain in the market had skyrocketed, it was still sold out.

After several twists and turns, the memorial finally reached the emperor. Those corrupt officials had already made a lot of money and filled their own bellies.

The emperor was furious and issued an order to punish the local officials, accusing them of being lazy and negligent, which led to the delay in responding to the disaster. The unfortunate ones were the low-level officials, while those court parasites continued to enjoy themselves, pretending everything was fine.

At the same time, the emperor ordered the two surrounding states to send reinforcements of grain to Jeju to lower the price of grain.

However, even with the horses riding in haste, the urgent report took seven or eight days to arrive. It then took more time for the two states to receive the imperial edict, mobilize grain from the granaries, and escort the relief grain. This delay lasted another half a month.

What’s worse, the grain from the two states was bought up in large quantities by local wealthy businessmen in Jeju, who made a profit by reselling it. There wasn’t much grain left for actual allocation, but no one dared report the situation, fearing that the emperor would punish them and that many people would be implicated.

With the emperor waiting to see results and pressure from senior officials, many low-level officials became anxious.

But not only that, abnormal phenomena began to appear in some places.

For example, in Xianhe Village, the village chief organized the villagers to go to the fields to harvest wheat. They hoped to gather some food, as it was better than sitting at home and depleting their supplies.

Overnight, large groups of earthworms crawled out from the dry, cracked ground. Because of the severe lack of water underground, they couldn’t survive. But once they emerged, they faced the scorching sun and died.

Early in the morning, when the Xiao family saw the scene outside, Jiang Sui even felt claustrophobic. Xiao Lanlan and Zhou leaned against the wall and vomited, it was just too disgusting.

Seeing his daughter and daughter-in-law so unwell, Father Xiao told his sons to grab shovels and clean up the dead earthworms at the doorstep. Then he assigned everyone tasks, some were to go up the mountain to fetch water, others down to the fields to harvest ears of wheat.

Just as the village chief had said, there might still be a few fish that slip through the net perhaps some food could be salvaged.

However, things only got stranger. Not only were the earthworms turning over, but the rats in the village began coming out and roaming openly in broad daylight, running in groups.

Ants began to swarm in large numbers, and all the household poultry became unusually restless. The Xiao family’s chickens clucked nonstop in the coop all day. Even the cows, which normally stayed quiet, started pacing anxiously in the cowshed, mooing constantly.

Flocks of sparrows and other common birds appeared in the sky, flying in circles, never landing.

The villagers felt uneasy. None of them had ever witnessed such bizarre behavior. Even the elderly village chief, who had lived a long life, had never seen anything like it.

But only Jiang Sui understood, this kind of abnormal activity could be a warning sign of a major disaster.

She still vividly remembered a disaster in modern times that shocked the entire country. It haunted her to this day. Before that catastrophe, these same signs had appeared: extreme heat, drought, and erratic animal behavior.

Jiang Sui knew they couldn’t just sit and wait for death. She had to warn her family and act quickly, gather food and essentials and move to a wide, open area.

Because you never know, this might be the prelude to an earthquake.

At that moment, a loud boom suddenly erupted from the back mountain, kicking up a cloud of dust.

The Xiao family, who lived at the base of the mountain, were the first to feel the tremor even the ground shook three times. The villagers, alarmed by the noise, rushed out to see what had happened.

When Father Xiao and his sons arrived at the scene, they discovered that part of the mountain had collapsed for no apparent reason. A large portion of the hillside had caved in, and all the stones had crashed onto the path below, forming a small hill of debris.

“What’s going on? Why did the mountain suddenly collapse?” the eldest son, Xiao Qin said.

There hadn’t been any rain, so how could there be a landslide?

Typically, landslides happen after prolonged rainfall, which softens the soil and weakens the slope. But there hadn’t been a single drop of rain for months. A collapse like this made no sense.

One by one, the villagers arrived and were stunned by the scene.

Finally, the village chief stepped forward and said to Father Xiao.

“Old Xiao, if you ask me, I’d say your family better move out and find somewhere farther from the foot of the mountain to stay for a few days. Your house is right next to it, this time you were lucky nothing happened, but you never know about the next time. You can’t afford to be careless!”

Everyone was on high alert. The landslide site was too close to the Xiao family’s home.

Father Xiao was silent for a moment, then nodded in agreement. But the question remained, where could his family go?

At the same time, Jiang Sui was also trying to persuade Mother Xiao to take the whole family and move to an open area immediately.