Hailstorm Strikes

Everyone worked themselves to the bone until it was time to knock off. The brigade provided lunch, but they had to eat in the open space in front of the office.

Gu Yu and Shen Jianan carried their farm tools and followed the crowd over at an unhurried pace. The moment they arrived, Zhao Gang's wife, Bai Qiulian, was standing to one side with her youngest daughter by the hand, chin lifted as she waved at them.

The little girl had two braided pigtails, each tied with the hair ties Shen Jianan had given her. They looked quite pretty. The two exchanged smiles and hurried over to greet her. "Aunt Qiulian."

"Hey!"

Bai Qiulian answered with a smile, and the little girl sweetly greeted them too. "Hello, Brother Jianan, Brother Gu."

"Hello, Little Nini."

The two waved at her with smiling eyes. The little girl giggled twice, then ran off shyly.

"This child."

Bai Qiulian called after her irritably, "Don't run too far."

Then she handed them the two aluminum lunch boxes beside her and lowered her voice. "I made these for you at home. My Little Nini really likes those hair ties, but don't spend so much next time. They look expensive."

Look at how well she spoke. Shen Jianan had given the hair ties, yet she said they were "for you two." Dealing with smart people really saved trouble.

"They weren't expensive, not like I give them every day."

Shen Jianan smiled and waved a hand. "As long as Little Nini likes them."

Hearing that, Bai Qiulian's smile grew even broader. She promptly shoved the lunch boxes into their hands. "Hurry up and eat. Return the lunch boxes whenever you like."

After saying that, she went over to help serve food to the commune members, leaving the two of them no chance to refuse. Shen Jianan could only have Gu Yu collect their own portions first, then take them somewhere else to eat.

After all, they were opening a little private stove. It would not look good in front of everyone. If they ran into a few shameless slobs who kept sticking their chopsticks into their bowls, would they still be able to eat?

It was not that he was stingy. Some people really were disgusting—their chopsticks still had vegetable leaves and chili skins stuck to them, yet they would reach into someone else's bowl. It was revolting.

The original owner had argued with educated youths and villagers over this before. They had even turned around and called him arrogant. He disliked such behavior too.

The two gave up the shade beneath the big tree where everyone liked to gather and sat instead at the edge of the open space, keeping their distance from the crowd. The sun beat down hard there, so the villagers did not like staying there. It suited them perfectly.

Shen Jianan pulled up a handful of grass and swept the dust off a roadside stone before sitting down in satisfaction. He casually opened the lunch box, only to freeze in shock.

Half the lunch box held coarse-grain rice, while the other half was packed tight with dishes.

That alone was nothing, but the dishes were eggs and chives fried in lard, along with several slices of salted pork. Forget the countryside—more than half the households in town would not dare eat like that.

The grain had not yet been distributed, so everyone was short on food. Most people lived on porridge and vegetables. Precious things like eggs were saved for when the family truly could not get by, or when something happened and they could be used as currency.

Yet Bai Qiulian had prepared two portions for them. Shen Jianan was moved, but he also felt sorry for her "wastefulness."

It was not that he was trying to be a saint. Their grain rations had not been distributed yet. Though this was a major grain-producing province and grain was distributed twice a year, after the portion handed over to the state was deducted, what people received was simply not enough to eat.

Families with many mouths to feed and few work points had to tighten their belts and endure hunger even more. Zhao Gang was the brigade leader, and the elders and three children in his family could all earn work points.

But apart from him, Bai Qiulian, and their eldest son Zhao Ming, who could earn full work points, the two elders and the remaining three children could only earn six or seven points, sometimes even less.

There were four children. Zhao Ming was seventeen this year, the second child Zhao Tian was fifteen, the third Zhao Qin was thirteen, and the fourth, Zhao Liangliang—Little Nini—was only seven.

Aside from her, her brothers were all half-grown children, at the age when they could eat their father into poverty. If they were allowed to eat their fill every day, they could gnaw clean the whole rice steamer.

That was why the food in the lunch boxes made him think this way. Gu Yu saw his reluctance and, after some thought, said, "Eat. I haven't had much contact with the couple, but after all these years, I know a little about them.

Captain Zhao and Aunt Bai are different from other people. They don't bully others, they don't fawn over others, and they certainly don't take advantage of anyone.

If you don't accept these two lunch boxes, they might return the hair ties. Then the connection we've just established will be cut off.

Besides, it's too late to return them now. Not only would they refuse to take them, they'd think you were looking down on them."

Hearing that, Shen Jianan felt Gu Yu had a point. Smiling, he divided the dishes from one lunch box between his and Gu Yu's bowls. He left the remaining dishes and two portions of rice untouched, tightly closed the lunch box, and set it aside.

"After we finish eating, run quickly and take this to the Cattle Shed."

Gu Yu paused with his chopsticks in hand. Only after several breaths did he smile and nod. "All right."

He quickly finished the watery coarse-grain porridge in his bowl, so thin he could see his reflection in it. Wiping his mouth, he grabbed the lunch box and ran off. Shen Jianan smiled and quickened his own pace of eating. Before long, he finished his portion too.

He set their bowls and chopsticks aside, then got up and left the brigade on his own, heading into the fields. Not long afterward, Gu Yu came looking for him.

Seeing Gu Yu's light steps, Shen Jianan teased him with a smile. "So? Did the old folks cry again?"

"Mm!"

Gu Yu laughed helplessly. "They kept crying and thanking you. They said that if they ever got the chance to return to the city alive, they would definitely find a way to repay you properly."

Shen Jianan said nothing at that. No one could predict the future. What he wanted was practical benefit in the present. He was helping those people because, first, he truly found them pitiful and stifled. Second, he wanted to learn some things from them.

He had always believed that knowledge changed one's fate. No matter what kind of knowledge it was, as long as it benefited him and Gu Yu, he would never let any chance to learn slip through his fingers.

Before they were sent down, these old people had all been leaders in their respective fields. Learning from even one of them for a while would benefit a person for life.

So, once his family found him study materials, his path of learning would officially begin.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh—

The piercing Work Whistle pulled him from his thoughts, and he and Gu Yu returned to working in the fields.

But not long afterward, a fierce wind suddenly rose. The sky darkened at once, and thick black clouds gradually swallowed the heavens. Everyone felt colder and colder.

Zhao Hongjun, standing beside the ridge between the fields, cried out in alarm, "Quick, everyone go home!"

His voice cracked from shouting. The villagers hurriedly hoisted their tools and ran toward the village. Gu Yu swiftly threw both hoes over his shoulder, grabbed Shen Jianan, and sprinted away.

But when they reached the foot of the mountain, they saw two children, each carrying a basket on their backs, crying as they struggled forward against the wind.

Looking closely, they saw that they were Zhao Hongjun's youngest son Zhao Xiaofeng and his twin sister Zhao Xiaomin. Gu Yu immediately threw the hoes into a pile of rocks. He and Shen Jianan each scooped up one child and ran up the mountain.

Suddenly, violent thunder rolled closer and closer. Lightning tore through the thick, black clouds, flashing with streaks of dark red light.

Then the rain came pouring down in sheets. Carrying the children, the two rushed into the courtyard, panting, and ducked into the thatched hut. They did not even stop to retrieve the shoes that had fallen off while running.

The moment they entered, Gu Yu pushed Shen Jianan and the two children into the corner to hide. Then, moving quickly, he carried the fabrics from the table onto the kang bed. He dragged over quilts, reed mats, and whatever else he could find, covered the fabrics tightly, and weighed them down with a wooden board.

The thatched hut had fallen into disrepair long ago. It normally leaked wind and rain. With rain falling this heavily today, he feared it would not withstand the battering. If it leaked and the fabrics were soaked, that would be a terrible waste.

Rumble—rumble—

The wind abruptly stopped, and thunder boomed through the sky again. Egg-sized hailstones came crashing down in a torrent, rattling against the roof in a furious barrage and making it sway on the verge of collapse.

Gu Yu's expression hardened. He hurried over to shield the three of them. Before long, the roof collapsed beneath the tremendous impact, and the two children screamed at the top of their lungs.

Fortunately, they were in the corner, supported by a pillar, and a crossbeam blocked some of the falling debris. That was the only reason they were not struck.

Gu Yu held the three tightly within his arms. He looked up at the huge hole in the roof and the hail pouring through it, then quickly grabbed a broken basin from the side, ran to the window, dragged the table over, and propped it above their heads.

The hail, gradually weakening, immediately pelted the tabletop with a furious clatter. The two children were frightened and cold, their little mouths trembling as they began to cry. "Waaah! Dad, Mom..."

Shen Jianan was still shaken. Breathing hard, he hurriedly pulled two candies from his pocket and fed one to each child. "Don't cry, don't cry! Once the hail stops, we'll take you to find them."

"Waaah... okay..."

The children had candy. Though they were still terrified, they obediently closed their mouths. Fortunately, the hail stopped not long after.

Shen Jianan looked at the hailstones carpeting the ground and slowly melting away, and his heart sank bit by bit. There was less than a month until the rice harvest, followed by the corn harvest, but now...

He looked up at Gu Yu. Seeing the same worry on his face, he reached out and tugged at him. "Brother Gu."

"Mm!"

Gu Yu answered, holding the children as he crawled out from under the table first. "Come on. Let's take the children home first."

"All right."

Shen Jianan crawled out and stood. Each of them carried a child on his back, carefully wading through the hail toward the foot of the mountain. But before they reached it, they heard heart-wrenching cries.

"Dad, wake up, Dad!"

"Jianguo, hurry and find someone to help! Take your grandfather to town!"

"Got it..."

"Someone, help! Can anyone help me? My mother's hurt!"

"Oh no! What happened to Aunt Chrysanthemum?"

The two exchanged a glance and hurried their pace. When they reached the foot of the mountain and turned the corner, they saw that many houses had been smashed apart. As far as the eye could see, the fields were silver-white, and the crops had been battered to pulp.

It was truly over. Their eyes slowly reddened. Food was everyone's lifeline! Who knew how many people would go hungry now?

"Xiaofeng! Xiaomin—

Where are you? Answer your father and mother!"

"Xiaofeng, Xiaomin! Waaah... can you hear Grandpa and Grandma calling you?"

"It's Dad and Mom, and Grandpa and Grandma!"

The two little ones struggled on their backs and cried out loudly, "Dad, Mom, we're here! Dad, Mom, waaah..."

"Don't move. Be careful not to fall."

Gu Yu turned his head and instructed them softly, "Big Brother will take you over."

As he spoke, he and Shen Jianan carried the siblings forward while shouting, "Recorder Zhao, Xiaofeng and Xiaomin are here."

The children heard him and shouted too, "Dad, Mom, we're here."

Hearing the commotion, Zhao Hongjun's family rushed over. From afar, they saw the two children safe and sound on the two men's backs, and everyone let out a breath of relief.

Then they ran over crying, thanking them as they took the children and held them tightly in their arms, crying and scolding them all at once.

Seeing the blood all over their father's head, the two children were so frightened that they began wailing. "Dad, what happened to you? Does it hurt a lot?"

Zhao Hongjun did not answer. He merely held his daughter and roared at his son with reddened eyes, "You little brat! Why were you running around everywhere? If something happened to you, what would your father and mother, your grandfather and grandmother do?"

"Waaah! My sister and I weren't running around! We went to cut pig grass."

Zhao Xiaofeng curled up in his grandmother's arms, deeply aggrieved. Zhao Hongjun's anger flared. He handed his precious daughter to his wife Li Shuqin and smacked his son on the backside. "You're still talking back! Didn't I tell you to stay home and not go out today?"

As he spoke, he hit him again, even harder. The child was small, and those two sudden blows hurt badly. Unable to bear it, he started crying.

The child's grandparents had wanted their grandson to learn a lesson, so they had not stopped Zhao Hongjun from disciplining him. But seeing the child get hit, they immediately felt heartbroken.

Furious, they reached out and struck their son too, the slaps landing with sharp smacks. "Are you trying to kill him? Why are you using so much force?"

As he hit him, Old Master Zhao began crying again. "It's enough that the child is all right. Teach him properly when you get home. Don't beat him badly."

"I know."

Zhao Hongjun nodded through a choked sob. He was not usually someone who liked hitting children. He had simply been too angry. The two children were very sensible. At such a young age, they already knew to go out and cut grass to feed the chickens and help the family.

But the sun had been too strong today, so he told them not to go out, lest they suffer heatstroke. Yet the children had ignored him and slipped out again while the adults were at work.

When the hail was about to fall, he had gone to pick up the children's mother, his eldest son, and the two elders. That had already delayed him for a while. Just as they reached their front door, the hail began. After the four of them scrambled into the house, they discovered that the two children were not home.

At that moment, he had been both furious and frantic. Wearing a bamboo hat, he ran outside, only for the wind to blow it straight off. Before he could dodge, the hail battered his head and face bloody.

It was also because he had been delayed at home for several minutes that he avoided the worst wave of hail. Otherwise, he might have been beaten to death before finding the children.

Just think—an adult like him had been injured this badly. What about two children? If Gu Yu and Shen Jianan had not encountered them today, would they still be alive? That was why he had been so angry that he could not help raising his hand.

Zhao Hongjun pulled himself from his thoughts, then stood and looked gratefully at Shen Jianan and Gu Yu. Choking up once more, he thanked them. "Thank you. If it weren't for you two, the children might already be dead."

He was not exaggerating in the slightest. On the way over, he had heard that Zhao Qiancheng's father had been knocked unconscious by hail while trying to drive the chickens in the yard into the house.

And Aunt Chrysanthemum had fallen while running back, then been struck until her head was covered in blood. By now, both of them should have been taken to the town clinic by their respective children.

"Recorder, please don't say that. Anyone who saw it would have helped."

Shen Jianan spoke softly. "But the children were badly frightened. Keep an eye on them tonight. Don't let them develop a fever."

"All right, all right. I understand."

Zhao Hongjun nodded repeatedly, then asked after thinking of something. "The hail was pretty bad. Is your house all right?"

The two smiled bitterly. "The roof is gone. It can't be lived in for now."

"Then come stay at my house."

Li Shuqin stood and smiled at them. "There aren't many rooms at home, so you'll have to squeeze into Xiaofeng and Xiaomin's room."

Their family of five lived with Zhao Hongjun's parents, his second uncle Zhao Jianshe's family of three, and his younger sister Zhao Mingfeng, so the rooms were quite tight.

The children's room had been partitioned off from an old storage room. It was narrow, barely large enough for two small beds and a little table and chairs. A curtain divided the middle. They had to watch themselves even walking in, or they would bump into things.

But Li Shuqin sincerely wanted to invite them to stay. Zhao Hongjun had come home at noon and told her about the hair ties. She had originally planned to send the two young men something in return that evening, when fewer people were around.

But the disaster had struck before nightfall. The two were her children's lifesavers. She could not simply stand by while their home had been destroyed and do nothing.

The children's grandparents and Zhao Hongjun thought the same way, and they all spoke up to invite Gu Yu and Shen Jianan to stay at their home.

After considering it, the two agreed. With the Half-Mountain Courtyard destroyed, the only places they could stay were the Cattle Shed or the Educated Youth Station.

The Cattle Shed was already crowded. The old people could barely find room to put their feet down. If they went to squeeze in too, they might have to sleep in the pigsty.

As for the Educated Youth Station, there were too many people and too many mouths, especially with Jiang Hongmei planted there. If they moved back, would they not be walking straight into misery?

So Zhao Hongjun's home was the best choice. Still, they would not stay long.

Shen Jianan calculated silently that they needed to ask several people to help repair the thatched hut as soon as possible and move back quickly. After all, living in someone else's home for too long would make it inconvenient for him and Gu Yu to do things.

"Then we'll trouble you. We'll go back and pack our things first."

The two nodded goodbye, turned around, and returned to the foot of the mountain. They picked up their farm tools before heading up the mountain to sort out their belongings.

As for Zhao Hongjun, he first sent his parents, wife, and children home. Then he merely grabbed a handful of bitter mugwort from the roadside and pressed it onto his wounds, holding it in place with his hand as he went to the brigade to attend a meeting with the cadres.

Now that the crops had been destroyed, they had to come up with a solution immediately. Setting aside the grain quota, even everyone's food and clothing would become a huge problem.