Chen Zongqing was the reservoir caretaker in Chen Village. He was in his fifties and nearing retirement.
Fortunately, managing a reservoir was not particularly difficult work. Usually, he only had to find time to inspect it, checking whether the water level had exceeded the limit or whether the water had been contaminated.
During flood season, he simply had to activate the reservoir station's sluice gates, open the outlets, and increase the discharge to keep the water level below the warning line.
Easy as the job was, nobody had wanted it in earlier years because the pay was so low.
Only in recent years, as the economy developed, subsidies and benefits steadily increased, and An County began taking water conservation seriously, had the reservoir caretaker's pay climbed to around three thousand yuan.
He did not have to go to work every day, only find time to visit a few times a month. It was practically earning his living expenses without lifting a finger, and some of the village's elderly men and women were very envious.
But although the job looked easy, Chen Zongqing became extremely busy whenever there was wind, rain, or a typhoon.
A downpour had just fallen, and with the summer flood season lasting so long, Chen Zongqing had made a point of putting on a raincoat and heading up to the reservoir that night through the heavy rain.
Seeing that none of the instruments in the reservoir's control room had sounded an alarm, Chen Zongqing breathed a sigh of relief. He felt he had been a little too cautious.
After all, Chen Village Reservoir had been built over half a century ago, and there had never been any major problems.
Only once every few years, when the gates were opened to drain the water and clear rubbish and