Chapter 381 - 309 A Pair of Cloth Shoes

Not far away, two fire engines with their lighting equipment waving around brought in the intense light that shone through the windows, making the only source of brightness in this house, the stove, seem particularly dim.

"How could you let her lie on the floor?"

Fang Huai gently lowered her head and helped the elderly lady to sit up.

The old man also hurried over to assist.

But just as they were about to lay her on the bench, the old man immediately stopped them:

"Cowpeas! She can’t sit! She can’t sit! Little Qing, get up, let your grandma sit!"

The three or four-year-old girl, now without a seat, burst into tears.

"Waaah..."

The little girl stood up, with closed eyes and mouth agape, crying and walking to one side.

The old man had to go and pick up the child.

Fang Huai could only help the old man to sit on the bench first. Watching the three of them squeezed into this small space without a place to sit, he didn’t know what to say.

A bunch of cowpeas, yet more valuable than a person.

After holding back for a while, he asked, "Old man... do you rely on selling these for income?"

The old man picked up the only bowl on the stove, and while pouring tea from the pot, said:

"We used to have experts come and teach us to grow mushrooms, and it was only the year before last when the flood came. Nothing would grow in the soil, only cowpeas could survive. A few months ago, the government helped us by bringing in soil to fill our fields, saying that raising the level of the land could prevent flooding. After plowing, I planted rice, but now it has drowned again, leaving only these cowpeas."

Fang Huai understood in his heart.

Land desertification, they saw it clearly upon arrival. The bare rocks washed out on the mountain, the entire mountain face - not a speck of soil was left.

In the fields along the road, one could also spot chunks of stark white rocks rooted in them, suggesting severe soil loss.

Forget fertile land; they didn’t have ordinary land.

Perhaps in the past, they weren’t considered poor, just ordinary farmers, but these two floods had cut off the elderly couple’s source of income, making them especially treasure these remaining cowpeas.

Who would have thought that a handful of soil, so easily taken for granted, could change a place’s wealth?

This child’s parents, leaving their child here to both go out and work, must be facing great difficulty as well.

"Let’s go, old man. I’ll take you outside."

At this moment, Fang Huai felt a bit of heartache.

Poverty is something you can hear about, discuss, but it’s hard to witness.

Especially these vulnerable people, they aren’t poor because of laziness, but because they are trapped by nature, and looking at them, they truly seem pitiful.

"Have some water before you go!"

The old man insisted on him having some tea, and his manner of searching around suggested that he wanted to find something to offer in hospitality, but there truly was nothing available.

They couldn’t possibly offer him a handful of dry cowpeas to chew on.

Fang Huai realized this sentiment, picked up the steaming hot tea, tasted a couple of sips carefully, then gulped it down.

It was bitter herbal tea.

Bitter at first, but quickly turning sweet, the sweetness arrived fast, and the bitterness was actually quite faint, much milder than their lives.

"Drink slowly! It’s hot!" the old man shouted.

What’s hot? The stove itself was only warm.

Fang Huai picked up the tongs and poker hanging by the stove, opened the stove door, and began to extract the still-burning coals, placing them into the ash furnace. He wrapped them in ash a few times to extinguish them quickly, allowing for future use.

There wasn’t much coal, just two or three small chunks, and no smaller pieces were present. The burning was complete, but the heat was limited, no wonder the fire was so small.

"Let’s go, thank you for the tea," Fang Huai said.

He went back downstairs, found the two life jackets tied to the rope, removed his own as well, and helped the two elderly people and the little girl put them on one by one.

After these tasks, he picked up the two-way radio to call out.

"Instructor Cao, Instructor Cao, send the kayak over to my side to pick up some people."

"Received, the kayak is near your door, just come out directly."

Fang Huai then reminded the old man to make sure to hold the child tightly before he took off the elderly woman’s shoes, carrying them in his hand.

Their clothes would definitely get wet, so he tried to leave her with something dry.

The paralyzed old person, not exercising, was quite prone to gaining weight.

Even Fang Huai felt a bit heavy when carrying her.

But this weight gave him a little peace of mind.

Gaining weight was a good sign.

"Thank you, child," the slow, gentle voice of the old lady came from behind his back, sounding very kind.

Fang Huai thought of his late grandmother, tears threatening to spill from his eyes; carrying the old woman on his back without a free hand to wipe them away, he could only walk ahead, not letting them see.

As he walked, he instructed, "Old man! Hold your granddaughter at the stairwell and wait for me!"

"Eh!" The old man’s voice of agreement came from behind, followed by his scolding of the child:

"Little Qing, don’t grab at people’s clothes!"

Halfway down the stairs, there was already water.

Fang Huai had no choice but to free up a hand and bite the old lady’s two cloth shoes in his mouth, trying to enter the water as gently as possible.

"Grandma, are you cold?"

"Not cold, not cold. Why put shoes in your mouth? Just throw them away, we’ll come back for them when the water recedes!"

With the shoes still clenched in his mouth, Fang Huai simply said, "Hang in there, it’ll be warm outside."

Feeling that the old person was fully supported by the life jacket, Fang Huai began to pull her, slowly swimming forward.

Not many meters away, he found a rope and took it in hand, swimming outward.

The old lady felt she had caused him great trouble. Shivering from the cold, yet she didn’t utter a word.

Hao Chengbin, who was steering the kayak, was already waiting at the door. Seeing Fang Huai pulling an old lady out while holding a pair of shoes in his mouth, he quickly added more throttle and pushed the kayak closer, saying:

"Help, help! Quick!"

Everyone, seeing the pair of cloth shoes in Fang Huai’s mouth, was moved.

"Come, come, give the shoes to me!"

Huang Yong reached out and took the shoes from Fang Huai’s mouth. Looking around the boat and finding no dry spot, he simply put them inside his clothing to keep them safe.

Getting the old lady onto the boat was no easy task.

Not only were her lower limbs paralyzed, her hands were also weak. With two hands supporting and eight hands pulling, the kayak nearly toppled over before they finally managed to pull the old lady aboard.

Fang Huai at least supported the old lady’s back in the water, choking on four or five mouthfuls in the process.

After getting on the boat, Hao Chengbin took off the outer jacket of his emergency rescue suit and draped it over her to shield her from the rain.

"Thank you, thank you so much," the old lady began to wipe her tears as soon as she boarded.

What the old lady was grateful for wasn’t just the lifesaving help.

Being paralyzed, she couldn’t walk, and although her shoes weren’t dirty, they were worn on her feet. Yet these young kids carried them in their mouths, held her in their arms, not minding at all – their actions proving what it means to treat the common people as family.

But Fang Huai didn’t consider it a big deal. Rescue work could demand the sacrifice of one’s life, what was this in comparison?

He turned back to continue rescuing the grandfather and granddaughter.

...

When the three were brought ashore, everyone who could be seen or found had already made it onto the vehicles.

After all, it took a while to escort the paralyzed old lady, and by the time they were done, the people in the other two boats had already reached the shore.

Getting the old lady onto the fire engine was another challenge, but this time the villagers helped out, even holding umbrellas to shield her from the pouring rain.

As all were settled in the vehicles, a thorough check of the houses along the row had also been carried out.

Because the water was high, not all of the first floor was submerged. Passing by the higher parts was easy to observe, and the second stories had also been checked. In the entire village, there were no buildings taller than two stories.

With the presence of a dozen or so rescued villagers from Bianwang Village, it was much easier to account for everyone. Everyone stood on the elevated side of the road, pointing at each house, tallying who had already boarded the vehicles, who had already left, which houses might still have people inside, and if there were any immobile or elderly people possibly trapped.

Fang Huai also specifically asked if there were any deaf or mute individuals in the village, to which everyone replied there weren’t.

Soon, they confirmed a few households, and the soldiers from the two boats quickly went again for a detailed inspection.

After a round of searching, no one else was found, and they reallocated the vehicles to transport everyone out in one trip.

Twenty-six from the Second Squadron, sixteen civilians.

The rear space of the fire engines was actually quite large. If they really squeezed in, it surely had more capacity than Indian’s motorcycle. The soldiers half-stood leaning against the panels opposite the seats, while the civilians sat. In less than a minute, the four vehicles had absorbed all forty-two people.

Once the soldiers boarded, they each offered their spare camouflage uniforms to the villagers as cover to keep warm.

The villagers repeated their thanks over and over.

The lighting system inside the vehicle was turned off, and the entire village once again sank into darkness, leaving only the forward lights of the vehicles.

Only then did the civilians begin to look seriously through the car windows at their darkened, half-flooded homes.

"Crack, snap!"

The distant thunder lit up once more.

The vehicles, however, started to move slowly, heading towards the distance.

This time, looking at the soldiers before them, the villagers felt no fear, not even the children cried.

Now, even if the sky were to fall, there would be someone to take cover under.

In this vehicle, what was most abundant was a sense of safety.

"Are you firefighting comrades... also part of the Liberation Army?"

The elderly person Fang Huai had rescued, holding the little girl, looked at the camouflage uniform covering them and voiced her query.

The soldiers glanced at each other.

This question was a bit difficult to explain.

"We are soldiers, firefighters, and also 119. If you call 119, we will come," Fang Huai answered with a broad smile.

Some of the more knowledgeable villagers started to explain:

"They’re from the Fire Brigade, and the Fire Brigade consists of soldiers!"

"They rescue from fires, from floods, from any darn thing! Very good indeed! My youngest nephew is in the Fire Brigade, works really hard!"

"Right, a call to 119 and they take care of everything. Last time Old Qian got drunk in the town, it was the firefighters who brought him back home!"

At that moment, the girl who alternated between crying and laughing, whom the villagers jokingly called "the girl with the three-colored face," earnestly asked:

"Uncle, if I get scared at night, can I call you guys to come over?"

This time, everyone laughed.

Fang Huai straightened up a bit, patted her head, and said with a smile, "If you behave better from now on, don’t cry when giving up your seat to grandma. If grandpa and grandma agree, we will come."

The little girl was on the verge of tears again, "But it was grandma who asked me to sit..."

The paralyzed grandma in the back hurriedly added, "Yes, yes, grandma asked you to sit."

The grandpa didn’t speak, but simply covered the girl’s mouth.

"Don’t cry, don’t cry..."

(There might be another Chapter coming around one or two o’clock. I’m writing slowly, to ensure quality...)