Chapter 71: The Victims

Chapter 71: The Victims

Ye Jianguo didn’t get home until it was pitch black.

By then, the rain had let up, but a light drizzle was still falling.

The children had all gone to bed, and Miao Cuifang was laying out the bedding.

"How’s the situation in the village?"

"Three houses in the village have collapsed, and seven or eight have walls that are leaning and are uninhabitable. That leaves several dozen people affected."

Ye Jianguo took off his soaked clothes.

Miao Cuifang: "Thankfully, our house is on higher ground. I saw that the lower roads are starting to flood. If the rain doesn’t stop, those houses will be submerged."

Ye Jianguo: "Not just the houses, but the crops in the fields are a total loss."

Baishi Village never had much farmland to begin with, and grain was already in short supply. Now, with the flooding, there won’t be much left in the fields.

Miao Cuifang fretted, "We should stock up on grain now. Even though prices are high now, they’ll only go up if the autumn harvest is bad."

Ye Jianguo nodded, "Let’s talk it over with my older brother and buy in bulk."

Food was a big deal, so they couldn’t afford to mess around.

He said slowly, "We’ve got to save up for the kids’ education. Even if they get into university and get subsidies, we can’t let the kids struggle out there.

And our second son, who’s got a girlfriend out there, shouldn’t keep sending money back home. He should keep it for himself in the future."

Miao Cuifang: "I’m aware of all that."

Meanwhile, Ye Xiaoxiao lay awake, listening to the rain and tossing and turning.

It’s raining.

The mining disaster from the original book must be happening right about now.

Even though Ye Changqing didn’t stick around the mining area this time, what about everyone else?

This mining accident took a lot of lives.

After three days of rain, half the houses in the low-lying parts of the village were underwater.

Nearly twenty families are now homeless, crammed into the village hall.

"Village Chief, what are we supposed to do? Our houses are gone."

"The government can’t just leave us hanging."

Zhang Rengui was worried too. "It’s not just us—downstream areas got hit even harder by the floods. We’ve got to focus on what’s urgent. Let’s handle what we can without adding to the country’s load.

Once the rain stops, don’t rush back home for your stuff—those houses could collapse on you.

For now, we’ll eat and sleep in the village hall. The village will cover the food costs."

Zhang Rengui’s words finally settled everyone down.

But he was even more anxious and talked with the village secretary about heading to the county town early to request relief grain. It seemed like there would be no harvest this year, so they needed to plan ahead.

While the issue of flooded houses in the village was still unresolved, another tragedy struck.

Due to the poor road conditions, it took seven or eight days for news of the collapse at Donggou mining area to reach the village.

Over a dozen villagers, including Ye Changqing, worked there as temporary laborers. This time, three of them were killed.

The mining area has kept the news under wraps, saying they’re investigating the accident.

A fellow survivor sneaked back and broke the news to the villagers.

When Ye Changqing heard the news, he was devastated.

He even wondered if it was his fault, thinking that if he’d pushed harder, they might have changed their decision and returned to the village with him.

Although Ye Changqing had tried, and the incident had nothing to do with him, he still couldn’t shake the guilt.

Ye Xiaoxiao knew what Ye Changqing was thinking.

She tried to comfort him, saying, "Thank goodness you came back. Otherwise, our family would be grieving like the others. We should try to stay positive."

Ye Changqing: "I knew all three of the deceased. As temporary workers, they weren’t on the mining area’s official payroll. To earn more money, they had to increase their working hours, grabbing every dirty, backbreaking job they could.

If they hadn’t pushed themselves so hard, maybe they’d still be alive."

Ye Xiaoxiao: "If the mining area messed up on safety, the families should get some compensation."

Ye Changqing shook his head, "Temporary workers barely get anything."

Ye Xiaoxiao didn’t know what else to say, as she knew too little about such matters.

The mining area still hasn’t told the victims’ families about the accident.

The victims’ families in the village are already planning to head to the mining area themselves to get answers.

As someone who left the mining area, Ye Changqing also wanted to help these families and offered to go with them.

The village arranged two ox carts to take them to Donggou.

The Ye family saw Ye Changqing off at the village entrance.

Just as they joined the group of victims’ families, a disheveled woman suddenly charged at Ye Changqing.

"You! Did you know something was going to happen? Is that why you came back early? My Yusheng said it was because you left that their shifts changed. If you hadn’t left, my Yusheng wouldn’t have died!"

This emotional woman was Zhang Yusheng’s wife.

The two had corresponded just a week ago.

Previously, Ye Changqing had been a team leader in the mining crew. After he left, Zhang Yusheng took over his position.

Team leaders were in the know and had to take on more responsibility.

Zhang Yusheng was one of the victims this time.

But his wife blamed everything on Ye Changqing, which was hard to understand.

Others who heard her started giving Ye Changqing strange looks.

Ye Xiaoxiao frowned.

Even though this is baseless, we cannot let the other party pin all the blame on Ye Changqing, otherwise the villagers will believe this claim and think that Ye Changqing caused the deaths.

"Although you have lost your husband, you cannot cause a commotion here. My brother has been back for a month, who could have guessed there would be such a heavy rain.

The shift arrangement cannot be blamed on my brother, does it mean others should have died instead of your husband?"

Ye Xiaoxiao's words made the others realize, especially the person who secretly came back to inform them.

"Yusheng’s wife, this matter has nothing to do with Brother Changqing, he took good care of us in the mining area.

After the schedule change, it was Brother Yusheng who proposed to take on his own shift, he said he wanted to buy you a silver bracelet."

The young man's words immediately shut up Yusheng’s wife, who had been yelling.

She collapsed, drained of all energy.

In fact, she knew very well that Ye Changqing was innocent, she just needed an outlet for her grief.

Village head Zhang Rengui shouted beside her: "Yusheng’s wife, you’re too worked up, if you don’t want to go to the mining area, stay home for now."

"No! I want to go, I want to see Yusheng."

Seeing her so pitiful, the others didn’t have the heart to say more to her.

Zhang Rengui and Ye Changqing accompanied the victims’ families to the mining area, determined to get some answers.

Watching the two carts leave, Ye Xiaoxiao and the others went back.

On the way back, the Ye family couldn’t help feeling lucky that Ye Changqing had left the mining area early.

Otherwise, they might now be among those grieving families.