Wang Ying was sleeping so soundly that she thought she was dreaming. She asked in her sleep, "What collapsed?"
Xu Shuang frowned. No one would be happy if they were woken up from their sleep. But he woke up early and reacted almost immediately, shaking Wang Ying a few times.
When Wang Ying heard people outside shouting that the educated youth’s site had collapsed, she got up quickly.
The two of them put on their clothes and knew why as soon as they opened the door.
It's hailing outside now.
Although the hail is now small, it still covers the ground with a layer of egg-sized hail. It is already the third month of the lunar calendar, and the wheat in the field has been planted and the seedlings have already sprouted. But hail of this size fell.
Wang Ying immediately realized the seriousness of the matter, and Xu Shuang also looked serious.
There was no umbrella at home, so Xu Shuang found a thin wooden board for Wang Ying. It was originally intended to be used as a pad for clothes in the house, but now she had no time to use it.
Wang Ying went out holding the board. The person knocking on the door was a member of the commune. When he saw Wang Ying coming out, he said anxiously, "There are more than one collapsed site in our brigade. The most serious one is at the educated youth site. The brigade leader and the branch secretary are waiting there. They said that two educated youth were trapped in the collapse. Now they have been pulled out. I want you to go and check the situation."
After saying that, the other party hurried to leave: "The captain also asked me to look at the whole team, I'm going first."
Wang Ying held up the board and the medicine box and prepared to leave. Xu Shuang also found a slightly thicker board and said, "You go first. I'll help you check the back mountain."
Wang Ying nodded. She had just wanted to say this. Qian** and Cheng Shufen also lived in old houses. If something happened...
"Don't worry about me. I'll go see if my mother is okay. Go and help my sister-in-law. If anyone has any problems, call me."
The two of them quickly separated, and Wang Ying trotted to Old Lady Xu first.
Fortunately, Old Lady Xu was old and slept less, so she had heard the noise outside long ago, and the rooms of the Xu family were fine. The old house only had a few broken tiles, and Old Lady Xu lived in a brick house, so it was not a big problem.
Wang Ying immediately felt relieved and told Old Lady Xu not to go out. She then went to the educated youth site holding the board.
There were quite a few people at the educated youth site at this time, and almost all of them looked like Wang Ying, standing outside holding a board.
There were originally seven rooms, but two of them had not collapsed, but no one dared to stand inside, fearing that the house would collapse and crush them.
When Wang Ying arrived, Tian Youfu and Song Dagui couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
This sudden hailstorm was really unexpected. The crops in the fields, the tiles of each house, and the livestock... everything was worrying, but as long as people were safe, everything else was just a small problem.
"Wang Ying, hurry up and take a look. Jiang Lei's arm is squeezed, and Yu Pengcheng hasn't woken up yet."
Wang Ying came up and looked at Yu Pengcheng first. Jiang Lei shouted at the side: "My arm is broken! My arm is broken! Hurry up and look at me first!"
Wang Ying didn't have the energy to talk to people properly at this moment, and said directly: "Shut up!"
She first looked at Yu Pengcheng, then breathed a sigh of relief: "He's fine, he just fainted, with only some external injuries. Carry him away, and apply medicine after he wakes up."
Jiang Lei had just been yelled back at by Wang Ying. Although he was extremely angry, his arm was in so much pain. He was afraid that he would become disabled, so he did not dare to say anything harsh to the only doctor on the scene. He could only wait uncomfortably on the side.
Wang Ying didn't bother him. She touched it twice and knew what the problem was: "It's dislocated."
Wang Ying saw that the hail had stopped falling and it had started to rain, so she suggested, "Move them to the conference room. Yu Pengcheng's injuries need to be protected from infection."
Jiang Lei felt relieved when he heard that it was a dislocation. He wanted to ask Wang Ying to reconnect his arm first, but seeing that Wang Ying was busy having people carry Yu Pengcheng, he knew that if he interrupted her at this time, she would probably choke him, so he immediately followed her to the meeting room obediently.
Tian Youfu finally confirmed that the person was fine, and immediately went to the village: "Wang Ying, you help the secretary take care of him first, I'll go see if anyone else is injured, and if there is, I'll carry them over."
Wang Ying wiped the rain off her face: "Okay."
Song Dagui asked the educated youth to go in groups of three or four, and sent Yu Pengcheng and Jiang Lei to sit in the conference room.
Wang Ying took the alcohol and handed it to a male educated youth: "You treat Yu Pengcheng's external injuries. First make sure there is no foreign matter in the wound and then disinfect it with alcohol. If other people have external injuries, treat them in the same way."
The educated youth were almost frightened to death when their house collapsed due to hail in the middle of the night. Several female educated youth were still hugging each other and crying.
The male educated youth took the alcohol, and Wang Ying finally had time to work on Jiang Lei's arm.
Wang Ying pulled it up and down with such agile movements that Jiang Lei only felt a flash of pain and it was connected in an instant.
Wang Yingsong let go: "My arm is fine now. Just be careful with your strength in the next few days."
Wang Ying's move left Jiang Lei, who had originally questioned her, speechless.
The words that Wang Ying said to him questioning him on the day he first arrived were still ringing in his ears. Although no one was bothered to stab him, Jiang Lei still felt very uncomfortable.
Wang Ying didn't care about his discomfort, she was busy taking the patient's pulse and examining him. Even though it was just a small hailstorm, some of it hitting the forehead would be painful enough.
Several female educated youth cried and asked Wang Ying to take a look at them, saying that they had just hit their heads.
Wang Ying checked them one by one. When she saw the educated youth named Bai Ling, although she coughed a few times with her hands covering her mouth, Wang Ying still gave her a meaningful look after taking her pulse.
This educated youth, Bai Ling, doesn't look like someone who would be so weak as to faint from hypoglycemia.
Take tonight for example, the other educated youth were frightened and injured, and some were tired from doing farm work for the first time during the day, so few of them were healthy. But this educated youth, Bai Ling, had no external injuries and was in good health.
Wang Ying's meaningful look made Bai Ling move uncomfortably, but she still asked softly, "Doctor, is Jiang Lei okay?"
Wang Ying pointed at Jiang Lei, who was standing beside her with his head down, and said, "He's awake. Ask him yourself."
She didn't care what this frivolous female educated youth was planning. She was just a doctor anyway.
After a group of educated youth were settled, Tian Youfu came with a child who had been hit on the head.
"It's better than I thought. Apart from the youth education center, only a few houses had their roofs partially collapsed, and the rest were just broken tiles."
Tian Youfu couldn't help but sigh. In addition to checking every household to see if there were any problems, he also went to the fields.
The wheat in their brigade was planted early and some sparse seedlings had already sprouted. The big hail that came down suddenly destroyed all the new seedlings.
But the silver lining is that we have not missed the time yet and it is still not too late to replant.
However, the cabbages and radishes planted by the members have basically sprouted, so they can no longer be used. This means that a batch of vegetable seeds have been wasted, and they will have to survive this spring and summer.
Wang Ying comforted her, "It's a blessing that he's alright."
Tian Youfu couldn't help but touch the pipe at his waist, but he couldn't find it. Then he remembered that he had jogged out when he was called, and he left his pipe at home.
"Alas, that's all I can think of."
Old farmers are like this, they depend on the weather for their food. If the weather doesn't give you this bowl of rice, you will have to starve.
That's why everyone is trying their best to move to the city. No matter how tough life is in the city, you can still have a stable income regardless of drought or flood.
Tian Youfu asked the educated youth to go back and dig out the things that had not collapsed under the house while the rain had stopped, and asked the male educated youth to put the tables and chairs together to make do for the night.
Wang Ying didn't bring her pocket watch, and estimated that it was already past four in the morning. Everyone was exhausted, even the most troublesome Jiang Lei had no strength left, and sat listlessly on the side.
Tian Youfu was arranging tasks for people when he suddenly got a sudden thought: "Pig!"
He just remembered to see the people in the team, but forgot that there was money to raise pigs!
Wang Ying: "It's okay, Xu Shuang went to see it. If there was a problem, she would have come a long time ago."
Tian Youfu was still worried. These six pigs and two sheep were important assets of the brigade, regardless of their value. He immediately got up to check on the pigs and sheep.
At this time, Xu Shuang came in. He was soaked and his hair was hanging down.
"No need to go, the pig pen and sheep pen are fine, it's just that the shed is a little damaged, we can fix it later."
As Xu Shuang spoke, she nodded slightly at Wang Ying. Wang Ying felt relieved, thinking that there didn't seem to be any big problems with Cheng Shufen.
After working for half the night, Wang Ying was tired, so Xu Shuang took her back. The road was difficult to walk on, so Xu Shuang carried Wang Ying on his back.
After returning home, he washed the face of the unconscious Wang Ying, and then they fell asleep in each other's arms.
Early the next morning, almost all the members gathered at the threshing ground, waiting for arrangements from the branch secretary and the team leader.
The ground is covered with hail. We are going to work in the field, but where can we work
Some people of that age still remember the harsh times in the early years when they were not well fed. When they saw the crops become like this, they started crying.
This was exactly the scene that Xu Shuang and Wang Ying were facing when they arrived. Everyone seemed to be under a spell. The educated youth huddled together, and the members of the commune gathered in groups of three or four. No one was in a good mood.
Tian Youfu had dark circles under his eyes. He hadn't slept last night and went to several nearby communes at night. The situation in the fourth and fifth brigades next to him was not much better. Several people were gathered together in pairs, and each of them suffered a lot of losses. He went to the commune at night, and the commune that should have been empty was also brightly lit.
The commune leaders were so busy that they threw Tian Youfu's report aside and said that the Seventh Brigade had suffered the least losses, as people had died in other brigades, so they asked him to go back and wait for news.
Waiting for the letter
Tian Youfu was extremely anxious. The spring seedlings were all destroyed. How could he wait? If he waited for the result, he might miss the spring planting.
After Tian Youfu came back, he discussed it with Song Dagui and finally made the decision.
"We will go to the fields as usual today to throw out the unmelted hailstones, and then estimate how much hailstones will fall and need to replant."
Tian Youfu was ready to solve the most important thing first, which was to plant the spring crops! If he didn't plant now, there would be famine in the fall.
The members were originally nervous, but Tian Youfu pointed the way very firmly, and everyone calmed down.
No matter what, life has to go on. Fortunately, the hailstorm occurred when we could still replant crops. If it happened in June or July before the wheat harvest, we would have no harvest at all.
After calming down the restless members, Tian Youfu was about to deal with the problems of the educated youth.
"It's like this. Because the youth settlement has fallen into disrepair, it can no longer be lived in. So now the sixteen youth need to live in the homes of the members. Raise your hands if you are interested."