Chapter 84: Washed Away by the Mudslide

Rainy days, pickled snacks, and television really go well together, but now she had nothing. She could only eat the pickled peanuts brought from Yun City, and there weren’t many left. She really craved some spicy strips.

“Honey, is there any snack shop at the school gate?”

“No, the students usually go to buy dates at the gate, but they’re all gone now.”

Upon hearing this, Xu Jiaojiao completely gave up. It seemed that students in this era hadn’t yet been invaded by junk food. She wasn’t sure whether that was a good or bad thing.

Xie Zhi paused flipping through his book, furrowing his brows slightly. “Mom said she’ll make braised meat for lunch today; the supply and marketing cooperative got some new spices.”

Hearing about food, Xu Jiaojiao’s eyes lit up. She was so excited. Who knew how much she loved spicy food? She hurriedly jumped out of bed. “Yay! I’m going to find Mom right now!”

She slipped on her slippers and ran next door without even grabbing an umbrella. Fortunately, the courtyard wall and the house eaves were deep.

When she saw Xu Yan and Xu Ze, the girl froze for a moment, confused. “Brother, aren’t you going to work today?”

“It’s the weekend, my dear sister,” her brother replied.

She nodded, noticing the two of them were deep in thought. Without further delay, she ran to the kitchen. Sure enough, she saw her mother, Yan Fenglian, cutting meat. She affectionately wrapped her arms around her waist.

“Mom, I really love you. You don’t know how much I love spicy food. I’m so tired of all this sugar.”

“Such a glutton. You don’t even like sugar anymore. What do you want to eat?”

“Of course, I want to eat your braised meat,” the girl said, eyeing the braised meat that was being sliced, almost drooling with excitement.

Yan Fenglian spoiled her daughter to no end. She deliberately pretended to resist and said grumpily, “Go get chopsticks. I’ll make some dipping sauce for you in a bit.”

“Okay!”

Xu Jiaojiao couldn’t wait. She grabbed the chopsticks and eagerly took a bite. The sweet and fragrant taste overwhelmed her senses, and she quickly took another piece. “It’s so good, I might cry!” This was the spice she had been craving.

“You didn’t like spicy food at all before, and now you can’t live without it,” Yan Fenglian remarked.

Xu Jiaojiao froze for a moment but quickly regained her composure, grinning. “People change.”

Sheng Jie was weakly lying in bed. He had been drenched by rain all night, and this morning, he developed a high fever. His condition had only worsened, and his mother, holding back tears, applied medicine to him.

He was her only support, the most important person in her life. How could they let him suffer like this?

She wiped him down several times, and after the fever finally subsided, she fed him some millet porridge. “Son, you stay at home and rest. I’ll go to the city to take a look.”

Sheng Jie, groggy, heard the sound of heavy rain outside. Weakly, he grabbed his mother’s hand. “The rain is too heavy. Don’t go, Mom.”

“It’s fine. I’ll just go take a look.”

Sheng Mother put on a plastic raincoat and a hat to shield herself from the rain, heading out along the slippery mountain path. Thankfully, not many people noticed her. If anyone saw her, she simply said she was just out for a walk.

The mountain path was covered in mud and water after the rain, and it was easy to slip. Fortunately, she was relatively heavy, so each step was steady. She walked on the side closest to the cliff, where rocks often fell, but she couldn’t care less at the moment.

It was unclear how long it took her to reach the county town. The rain showed no sign of stopping, and there were few people on the streets, most of the shops were closed. Sheng Mother walked toward the deeper parts of the alley, but the house that used to be there was no longer visible.

There were many people gathered around the area, and cloth barriers were set up to stop people from going in. No one knew if there would be another landslide.

“Fortunately, there was no one inside.”

“No one? Those beggars used to live there, didn’t they?”

“Don’t know if they managed to escape.”

“Forget it, let’s go. It’s not worth talking about.”

A man hurriedly pulled a woman away, and she, with a forced smile, rubbed her hands together. “Comrades, what happened to that house? Where did the people inside go? Why is no one digging it out?”

The man, seeing she was covered in mud, probably from the mountain path, estimated she had walked a long way: “Last night, lightning struck a tree, which fell on the house, and then half the mountain collapsed. The mudslides have made it impossible to save anyone. The people who didn’t run fast enough are all buried under the mud. We can’t let anyone get too close.”

The people nearby expressed their regret.

“Fortunately, it was just some beggars. It doesn’t matter that they’re gone.”

Sheng Mother, Wan Hong, was the child bride of Sheng Jie’s father, and she had been in the Sheng family since she was five. But her life had been difficult—her husband died soon after their son was born, and her in-laws never liked her.

She had struggled to raise Sheng Jie, and when she received the news, her mind went blank. It took her a while to process the information. When she finally came to her senses, she was already far away from the site, her heart filled with a dark satisfaction. Those animals deserved it; they wouldn’t even have complete corpses.

When she reached the mountain road, it was so slippery that she almost fell every few steps, her face covered in yellow mud. Her back ached terribly, but Wan Hong kept laughing, uncontrollably, as if she were a child playing in the mud.

“Is it you, brother, who’s protecting our son?” she muttered to herself as she ran through the rain, feeling her heart race uncontrollably.

Sheng Jie woke up to find his mother, covered in mud and smelling of earth, standing in front of him, smiling eerily. “Son, the house was washed away by the mudslide, and they couldn’t even find the bodies.”

A chill ran through Sheng Jie’s heart, followed by an overwhelming sense of joy. He coughed and laughed, but then he cried. “Mom, I don’t have to be threatened by them anymore.”

“Yeah, we’re finally free. You keep this to yourself,” Wan Hong warned, her tone serious.

With the heavy rain, nothing would be left.

Xie Zhi had gathered several questions and written them down on a sheet of paper. The girl sat nearby, nervously chewing on her pen. “Honey, can you give me a few examples? I’ve almost forgotten everything.”

Without hesitation, Xie Zhi nodded and flipped through the textbook, circling the examples. The girl carefully looked at the examples. She actually remembered most of the material, but had forgotten the formulas. Seeing the example, she quickly recalled everything.

The five problems were matched with examples, and Xu Jiaojiao quickly wrote them down in neat, beautiful handwriting. Xie Zhi closely examined her steps and calculations.

The more he looked, the more satisfied he became. Based on her current level, she had no problem handling the college entrance exam. With some last-minute cramming, she could easily get into a top university. Plus, her strong English skills would be an additional advantage.