Chapter 275: Two Hundred Seventy-One: Two Sides of the Same Coin

Two Hundred Seventy-One: Two Sides of the Same Coin

Fang Mu and An Qin's second child was born, a daughter, named Jingjing, with the hope that she could live like a blooming flower and live out her own brilliance.

Fang Mu held his newborn daughter, looking at that wrinkled little face; though it wasn't cute, he loved her from the bottom of his heart. Suddenly, his nose felt sore, and he murmured to his little daughter while holding her: "In the future, you must accept the gifts Daddy gives you well, do you understand?"

"I want gifts too!" The eldest son, Fang Jianhua, heard Fang Mu's words, his eyes lit up instantly, and he hugged his leg, laughing with a grin.

"You will have them too, but the prerequisite is that you must be a good child, a good big brother." Fang Mu carefully placed his daughter back into An Qin's arms, then rubbed his son's head.

Fang Jianhua, who was in preschool, proudly lifted his chin: "I won't be bad! I am very obedient. I have ten little red flowers in my class, the most in the whole class, and the teacher even praised me for knowing many characters!"

"Will you be good in the future too?" Fang Mu squinted at this brat, "Even in places where Mom and Dad can't see."

"Of course I will!" Fang Jianhua racked his brains and patted his chest to guarantee, "A real man, uh, once a word... once a word is spoken, a team of four horses cannot catch it... I, I will be a hundred horses that cannot catch it."

"Good, Daddy believes you." Fang Mu smiled and patted his little head, his eyes complex.

An Qin held their little daughter, watching the interaction between her husband and son. It was clearly a very warm and harmonious scene, yet she seemed to hear the bitter mood behind her husband's joking, and a sense of worry couldn't help but arise in her heart.

After being discharged from the hospital, Fang Mu hired a live-in confinement nanny to take care of his wife and children. Although he had relaxed his work and would help take care of the children and An Qin, his strength alone was ultimately limited, so he had to hire someone to help.

It wasn't that he didn't want An Qin's parents to come help, but ever since they moved to this northern city, the two elders were too far from where they currently lived, and transportation in this era was not convenient; Fang Mu really didn't want to put the two elders through the trouble.

The life that followed was very simple and plain, all about the daily necessities of life. Although there was some fatigue, Fang Mu's heart was satisfied.

When his heart was happy, he wouldn't care so much about those whispering toad calls that kept making a comeback.

However... the strength he had disguised could ultimately not withstand the pressure brought by the mysterious power.

Rumble!

In early June, the weather turned overcast. The weather forecast indicated that an Abnormal air mass had swept across the northern part of the Shenzhou Region, which would bring continuous Abnormal precipitation.

At first, the people around didn't take it to heart, thinking it was just an unpredicted rainstorm and believing that the sky would clear up soon.

However, the changes that occurred in the situation that followed far exceeded everyone's imagination.

Fang Mu stood on the balcony, looking at the rolling mudflows that had submerged the roads and utility poles and were crashing through the city. He frowned, staring blankly at the sky filled with lightning and thunder.

"Mr. Fang, we should prepare to evacuate soon. Once the rescue team arrives, we leave. If we don't, it might be very difficult for us to get out again." Wang Jie, who had gone from a confinement nanny to a domestic helper, said to Fang Mu, whose feet were already soaking in the water accumulated on the balcony.

Fang Mu didn't speak. He just looked back at his family members, who were looking at him as their backbone. A trace of reluctance welled up in his eyes. He nodded and said: "Okay, let's prepare. We will leave in a moment, right from this balcony. The water level is rising quickly. I will first open the balcony's anti-theft screen so that when the rescue team's boat approaches, it will be easier for them to pick people up and easier for us to get out from here."

Fang Mu opened a door in the balcony's anti-theft screen. When the landlord designed this balcony's anti-theft screen, they had left a door-like setup on it; by untwisting the wire tightened on the keyhole, it could be opened.

Next, all their family had to do was wait patiently.

"Why couldn't I have stopped this kind of thing from happening sooner?" While waiting for the rescue, Fang Mu suddenly thought with some regret.

He had felt this regret more than once, yet every time, he didn't know why he didn't take the initiative to change it.

Was he afraid that changing the future would cause an impact on himself?

Fang Mu didn't feel he was that kind of person, yet he had done things he thought he wouldn't do.

"Oh my, Mr. Fang, how could you have foreseen this kind of thing." Hearing Fang Mu's self-talk, Wang Jie comforted him, "This is the Toad God croaking, the Heavens weeping."

"Toad God?" Hearing this familiar name, Fang Mu was stunned for a moment.

Seeing that the head of the household was curious, although she wasn't in the mood to talk about these things now, Wang Jie still gave a rough explanation.

Simply put, the Toad God was one of the totems of their local ethnic belief and was the god of weather. Since ancient times, the local people basically believed that whenever they encountered Abnormal weather, it was because they hadn't treated the Toad God well, making the Toad God angry.

It was clearly just a few simple sentences, but Fang Mu's face turned deathly pale upon hearing them, and An Qin's expression also changed drastically.

Although An Qin had never heard all of Fang Mu's secrets, she knew about the Toad God. Matters related to toads and frogs were a forbidden topic in their home; that was the type of imagery her husband feared most. To the Fang Mu family, the approach of toad and frog items meant bad luck and impending disaster.

"Then do you know about the Toad God?" Fang Mu felt his mouth go dry and asked in a hoarse voice.

Hearing this, Wang Jie said with confusion: "You know about it too? Very few people know about the Toad God, but the older generation in our hometown all said that the so-called Toad God and Frog God are actually two sides of the same coin of a certain god. It's just that the Frog God side is more close to humans and nature, while the Toad God is a bit... extreme." She probably felt it was a taboo and didn't explain it very clearly.

Hearing this, Fang Mu trembled all over; this was the worst thing he had heard so far.

Not long after, the rescue team's boat arrived, but the water was rushing, and it wasn't easy for the boat to dock at Fang Mu's balcony; it required manpower to grab the balcony's anti-theft screen to barely hold it steady.

Fang Mu's whole family was very excited, only Fang Mu had an ugly expression.

When the boat approached, he had already silently counted the number of people on the lifeboat at the first moment; it was almost overloaded.

This meant that someone in their family was destined not to be able to board the boat.

Sure enough, the rescue personnel quickly counted the heads, looking anxious yet troubled. He looked back at the people sitting on the boat and shouted with a somewhat hoarse voice: "One adult must stay behind and wait for the next trip!"

Hearing this, the expressions of the Fang Mu family instantly collapsed. The whole family's eyes subconsciously looked at Fang Mu, as if wanting to hear Fang Mu's decision.

Wang Jie saw An Qin grabbing Fang Mu's hand, looking fearful and reluctant to part. She suddenly smiled brightly and was about to raise her hand to say she would stay behind, but she didn't expect Fang Mu to say calmly: "Xiao Qin, Wang Jie, you take the children and go first, I will wait here for the next trip."

"But..."

"There are no 'buts', go." Fang Mu spoke calmly again, his tone firm, leaving no room for negotiation.

An Qin heard Fang Mu's words that brooked no refusal. Facing his gentle gaze, her mouth couldn't help but pout, and her nose let out a first sob that stopped abruptly. She picked up her son, who was clutching Fang Mu's leg tightly, turned around, and got on the boat, saying: "Wang Jie, just listen to what A-Lin said, don't wait any longer."

"Sigh, sigh, this." Wang Jie held the infant Fang Jingjing, anxious on the spot. After being gently pushed by Fang Mu, she also obediently got on the boat with red eyes.

Under the reluctant gaze of his wife, children, and the others, Fang Mu stood on the balcony, smiling and waving goodbye. His life had finally reached its end.

He looked at the exaggerated water level outside the house; the wind and rain outside were exaggeratedly heavy. He knew deep down that no more boats would come, so he walked back into the flooded study, dove to the bottom of the water to the bookshelf, took out that paulownia wood box, put some of his things, including his diary, into the box, and then locked it.

He floated in the water, looking at the ceiling less than fifteen centimeters away from him, sighed silently, closed his eyes, and sank into the water.

Bursts of frog croaks came to his ears. He opened his eyes, unwilling to accept this, only to find himself floating in a deep, underwater stone cave, with several frog-men with purple-gray skin silently staring at him.