Transmigrated as My Aunt in the 70s

Chapter 620: Chapter 613: Growing Larger and Larger

On August 4th, so far the torrential rain has continued for four days, and it looks like it might keep going. The low-lying areas of F City have already been flooded, including the City Committee Building. Now the water has reached the second floor, with various trash and unknown objects floating on the water surface.

"Is the building sturdy? Will the flood wash it away? Shouldn’t we leave here?" a frightened voice asked.

"Yes, let’s leave here and go to the mountains. I heard that it’s safest to hide in the mountains during a big flood," an excited voice replied.

"How could we leave? Are you going to swim across?" a sober voice questioned.

Looking at the endless floodwaters, everyone felt disheartened. Yes, with such massive water, how could we possibly leave?

"Everyone, don’t panic. Staying in the building is the safest option now. We need to patiently wait for rescue; someone will definitely come to get us," Sisi said loudly. Her voice was calm and didn’t sound anxious at all, possessing a strange soothing quality.

Sisi also didn’t know when the rescue would arrive. If it were the 21st century, she would be sure that help would come quickly, after all, these families’ men were officials, so they could have this bit of privilege.

But now it’s the early 1990s, a time of good servants devoted to the people, and Sisi was really worried that these good servants would sacrifice their small family for the greater good, putting the people’s needs before their own, and might leave this place for the last round of rescue.

The main thing is that the City Committee Building is a four-story building, so as long as they stayed on the roof, they wouldn’t be in immediate danger. It’s not the most dangerous area in the city needing immediate rescue. In the case of limited rescue resources, by the order of importance, it wouldn’t be the first place to receive help.

So Sisi had already prepared to stay in the building for a few more days. That’s why she asked everyone to gather their food together, fearing that there wouldn’t be enough to eat. After all, this building was four stories, even if the men weren’t home, some families had taken their children back to the countryside, but there were still seventy or eighty of the elderly, women, and children here who needed to eat, drink, and use the bathroom.

"Mama, where’s Papa? Why isn’t he here to pick us up?" Du Du asked suddenly, tired of playing with water.

Sisi cleaned Du Du’s hands, smiled, and said, "Papa has more important things to do. He is at the frontline with many uncles fighting the flood to protect us."

Du Du nodded, looking mature with his dark, round eyes saying, "Du Du is also very powerful. Mama, let’s go help Papa fight the flood?"

Sisi couldn’t help but plant a heavy kiss on her son’s forehead, "Du Du is really brave, but we have important things to do here too. Would you help Mama with them, okay?"

"Okay!" Du Du agreed happily, although he still wanted to go to Papa’s place to become a strong man. However, as Papa said, Mama is a weak woman, so as men, they should protect the weak women.

The tap water and electricity in the building were already cut off. Now everyone was using rainwater for drinking. Sisi had everyone collect more rainwater with buckets, worried that if the rain stopped, dozens of people would be without water.

At this time, the Mayor’s wife was directing everyone to boil ginger and brown sugar water to drink in a big pot. Every household stocked ginger as a spice, and Sisi took out quite a few from Space, which would be enough for the past few days. There wasn’t much brown sugar, though, and they would run out of it after this boil.

The Mayor’s wife was a short, plump middle-aged woman with a friendly demeanor. Since she worked with the Women’s Federation and her last name was Peng, everyone affectionately called her Sister Peng.

Sister Peng was directing a few of the leader’s wives to serve ginger soup to the elderly and children first. In such a damp environment, without ginger soup to dispel moisture, it was easy to get sick.

"Sister Peng, do we have enough ginger? If not, I still have some at home."

Sisi was on the fourth floor, holding onto Du Du’s hand all the time. She wouldn’t let her son out of her sight for a moment, afraid that if something unexpected happened, she wouldn’t be able to save Du Du in time and would regret it for the rest of her life.

Sister Peng laughed, "We can still boil another pot, it’s enough for today. I’ll get some from you tomorrow. Fortunately, Sisi, you had the foresight to prepare so many things."

Sisi smiled embarrassedly. Previously, when people saw her house stocked full of food and groceries, they expressed surprise, and Sisi used the excuse of not wanting to go out in the rain and hence bought extra to brush them off.

"Sisi, you should have a bowl of soup, and so should Du Du," Sister Peng said as she handed a bowl of ginger soup to Sisi and another to Du Du.

"Thank you, Mrs. Peng." Du Du thanked politely, making Sister Peng lovingly pat his head.

"Sister Peng, you should drink a bowl too, or you’ll have joint pain later," Sisi said.

Sister Peng seemed troubled and said softly, "Sisi, do you think Old Yu would be in trouble there? I don’t know why, but my heart feels so heavy these days, it should be fine, right?"

"Nothing will happen to him. Mayor Yu is not alone there, with so many people around, how could anything happen?" Sisi comforted her.

"Right, so many people around him." Sister Peng seemed relieved, but soon enough, anxiety crept back onto her face. "And then there’s Yuanyuan, she’s all alone studying in G City. We’re flooded here, and G City can’t escape it either, what if something happens?"

Worrying about the elders and then the young, that’s what women do. There’s always endless worry, but so little concern left for themselves!

"Sister Peng, you better drink the ginger soup quickly. It won’t be effective if it gets cold. Why worry about Yuanyuan? She’s with teachers and classmates. Plus, G University is on a mountain. It’s not like our City Committee Building, which floods whenever there’s a flood. Rest assured a hundred times!"

"Oh right, G University is on a mountain, I forgot." Sister Peng’s face relaxed as she put aside worries for her husband and daughter and drank her ginger soup in large gulps.

On August 6th, the heavy rain had continued for the sixth day, but Sisi felt the rain had lessened somewhat compared to the past two days.

"Ah, the rain has finally lessened. I think it will stop tomorrow, and once it stops, the water will recede," Sister Peng said excitedly.

But the next day, while the rain did stop, the water level didn’t recede at all, and there was even a trend of it gradually rising.

"What’s going on? Why is the water getting bigger?" Everyone was utterly terrified. The second floor was almost underwater, and soon it would reach the third floor.

At the Z River, the mother river of F City, the flood raged on. Tian Xinhua was wearing a raincoat, working with the armed police to carry sandbags to reinforce the dike. Since Mayor Yu was older, Tian Xinhua had him direct from the shore, even though he very much wanted to be in the water.

"Secretary Tian, several cracks have appeared on the dike," Tian Xinhua’s assistant, Xiao Zheng, ran over out of breath. Xiao Zheng was brought over from Huang Yuan by Tian Xinhua and was his trusted assistant.

"Damn it, when I finish battling this flood, I’ll make them pay!" Tian Xinhua couldn’t help but curse at the sky.

"What are you waiting for? Get the sandbags to block the cracks. We can’t let the dike collapse. Otherwise, not only the citizens of F City will suffer, but the downstream C City will be doomed too," Tian Xinhua shouted at Xiao Zheng, who was standing nearby.