The rain lasted all day. At midnight, the drizzle turned into heavy rain with lightning and thunder. Chun Niang was so scared that she didn't sleep much the whole night.
She didn't breathe a sigh of relief until the rain stopped the next day.
After a night of heavy rain, the river overflowed and was just about to overflow the river bank.
Jiang Sanlang stood by the rushing river for a long time and was already 80% sure in his heart.
It seems that my daughter's dream may really come true.
But one night of heavy rain can cause the river to flood like this. What if it rains for another night
He didn't dare to think about how he and his family would cope if a flood came.
In the past, rivers would overflow and inundate low-lying farmland and occasionally villagers’ homes, but the water would recede quickly so the villagers didn’t care.
Ever since their daughter said there was going to be a flood, alarm bells suddenly started to ring in Jiang Sanlang and his wife's hearts.
Now when I look at the rivers after the rain, they seem more and more dangerous.
No, we still have to move to Xiaonanshan as soon as possible.
Looking back, Xiaonan Mountain is not far from the village, only about two or three miles away. Standing on the hillside, you can see the smoke from the village.
If more households move to Nanshan, it seems not impossible.
Jiang Sanlang made up his mind and turned to find the village chief Chen Sanshu.
After the rain, the sky cleared up, the sun was shining, and the weather gradually became hotter.
Today is the first day of the Five Poisons Month. Yingbao is wearing a five-colored wristband embroidered by her mother, colorful silk threads tied around her ankles, a colorful shirt, and shoes embroidered with five poisons. She goes to the ditch to catch shrimps with Da Ni, Er Ni and Hu Zi, who are dressed similarly. They also pick some reed leaves to make rice dumplings when they return.
The little deer followed them closely, nibbling on the fresh grass by the roadside from time to time and wagging its short tail happily.
The reeds were growing vigorously and their leaves were large and broad. Dani asked her two younger sisters and little cousin to stay on the shore while she went down to the riverbank to pick leaves.
Soon she filled a bamboo basket and walked ashore with one foot deep and one foot shallow.
At this time, a pheasant flew by, startling Hu Zi so much that he screamed, "Pheasant! Pheasant! Big sister caught it!"
Dani took a look and said, "The pheasant flew far away. We can't catch it."
She placed the basket at Erni's feet and went back down to the riverbank. "I'll go see if there are any pheasant eggs in the reeds."
Normally, pheasants and other wild birds will build their nests in grass or reeds. There might be pheasant eggs where the pheasant just flew away.
Sure enough, Dani's surprised voice came from the reeds: "Wow! There are really pheasant eggs!"
Yingbao and Erni Huzi immediately stretched their necks, trying to see where the pheasant's nest was.
After a while, Dani came out with her hem in her hand, one foot deep and one foot shallow, laughing, and showed her younger brother and sister the pheasant eggs in her hem. "Look, there are eight of them."
Hu Zi squeezed over and stretched out his hand to take it, but Er Ni slapped him away, "Don't move, it will break."
The four-year-old boy was so angry that he cried and jumped up and down, trying to grab it.
Suddenly, his little hand was grabbed by Yingbao.
Hu Zi paused immediately, and instantly became as quiet as a chicken. He turned around and said to Ying Bao with a smile: "I want to give it to Ying Bao to play with."
"I don't want to play. We still have to go catch shrimps." The two-year-old Yingbao coaxed him like a little sister: "Be good, Huzi. I'll go back and cook pheasant eggs for you to eat."
Hu Zi nodded wildly, sniffed his nose, and suddenly turned into an obedient baby.
Dani took her younger brother and sister to find a large puddle with aquatic plants and started catching shrimps with the scoop net they brought with them.
At this time, the shrimps are fat and big, and twenty to thirty of them can make a plate.
Yingbao was too small to lift the scoop net, so he just wandered around carrying the basket.
Seeing that Dani, Erni and Huzi were all staring at the puddle, she squatted down, quietly took out a large bunch of water chestnuts from the cave and placed them by the ditch, deliberately making it look like it had just been pulled out of the ditch.
Then she shouted, "Come quickly, Sister Dani, I found some big water chestnuts."
Dani came over when she heard the noise and saw what her cousin was holding. She was a little surprised and asked, "Is this really a water chestnut?"
This one was too big. She had never seen a water chestnut as big as an egg.
Regardless of how shocked Dani was, Yingbao picked up a water chestnut and rinsed it in the water. She pointed at several water chestnuts hanging below and said, "This should be edible."
As he spoke, he picked one, washed it, took a bite, and kept muttering, "So sweet, so delicious."
Hu Zi had long forgotten that he had eaten water chestnuts last year. He picked up a water chestnut grass, rinsed it, happily tore off a big water chestnut and stuffed it into his mouth, chewing it with a crunching sound.
Seeing this, Erni squatted down, picked the water chestnuts one by one and put them into the basket.
Dani didn't hesitate for long and came over to help.
This time Yingbao put out a bunch of freshly pulled celery and a small basket of picked water chestnuts.
The four siblings stopped catching shrimps and returned home with a basket of water chestnuts and a basket of reed leaves.
"This is a water chestnut, right?" Mrs. Jiang Liu and Mrs. Jiang's eldest sister-in-law Zhou saw such a big water chestnut for the first time and were very surprised. "Where did it come from?"
"Yingbao found it." Dani and Erni said in unison.
"Where did you find it?" asked Jiang Liu.
"Over there in the ditch."
Dani was still a little confused and asked Jiang Liu: "Grandma, is this really edible?"
Jiang Liu picked up a water chestnut, rubbed it on her palm, took a bite and chewed it, "It's not numbing, it's sweet and refreshing, it should be edible."
He handed another one to his eldest daughter-in-law, "Try it too."
Zhou took it, went to the kitchen to scoop some water to wash it, and then tasted it. "It tastes like water chestnuts, but sweeter than water chestnuts."
Jiang Liu smiled and asked her granddaughter, "Is there anything else over there in the ditch?"
Dani was confused and turned to look at her little cousin.
Yingbao said quickly: "It should be there, let's look for it tomorrow."
She wanted to get all the water chestnuts out of the cave, and perhaps she could mobilize her family and her uncles' families to plant some, which should be able to be sold for money.
If you can’t sell it, just eat it at home. It’s better than leaving it in the cave to rot.
Jiang Liu touched Yingbao's head and said with a smile, "Then you can look for it again tomorrow. If you find it, come back and tell grandma, and grandma will ask your second brother to help dig it out."
"Yeah." Yingbao nodded. She would definitely find lots of water chestnuts.
Yingbao returned home and showed her mother half a basket of water chestnuts.
"This is the water chestnut that my elder sister Ni and my second sister Ni found."
"A water chestnut this big?" Chunniang picked one up and looked at it. "It's really rare."
The two babies on the kang also crawled over to grab it.
They were just starting to grow teeth, so they would put anything they caught into their mouths.
Yingbao moved the basket away and said, "I'll give it to you after it's cooked."
Children of seven or eight months old have weak spleen and stomach and cannot eat raw food. Moreover, these things grow in water and there may be small insects in them.
Chunniang washed the water chestnuts, cooked them all, and put them in a yellow basin.
The two babies drooled as they watched their sister peel water chestnuts for them and screamed with excitement.
Yingbao handed the peeled cooked water chestnuts to her younger brother. Seeing how they were chewing them so sweetly, she took one and started to chew on it herself.
The two little guys chewed with gusto, their saliva all over their clothes.
Chunniang had no choice but to keep wiping the saliva and hands of her two sons, but the little babies pushed her away and protested with babbling sounds.