The Farm Girl and the Executioner (Rebirth) 63

Chapter 63: The Great Flood

Punishment Department of the Yamen.

Official Liu stood at the door of the room, looking at the pouring rain outside the eaves. He stroked his beard and looked at Lu Qing, who was standing beside him. “I have to say, that traveling old Daoist you met, he really got the weather right.”

Lu Qing hesitated for a moment and asked tentatively, “Then… can the previous case be written off?”

“Foolish,” Official Liu tapped the table. “A case that has been signed and sealed is a done deal! You’ve been on duty at this yamen for over a dozen years, and you still don’t understand this?”

Seeing Lu Qing’s pale face, he softened his tone. “Don’t blame me. Observing the astronomical phenomena is a mysterious thing. Besides… this was a task specially assigned by Magistrate He.”

Lu Qing was surprised. “Why is that? She’s just a little woman, and she has no grudge against the county magistrate. Why would he specially order an investigation on her?”

“I heard that the person who reported her has some connection with the county magistrate, so he took it to heart. Otherwise, if it were just an ordinary rumor, they wouldn’t have been fined so much.”

“Connection?” Lu Qing was stunned for a moment.

“The Qin family from the Benevolence Hall,” Official Liu glanced at him.

“Thank you, official in charge,” only then did Lu Qing change the subject. “This rain has been falling for four days and four nights now. If we don’t do something, and the river dikes collapse, the consequences will be unimaginable.”

Official Liu shook his head. “Our Punishment Department is in charge of judicial and criminal cases. It’s not our place to interfere in this matter.”

Disaster relief, famine preparation, and relief efforts were the responsibility of the Household Department, while water conservancy and disaster prevention were the functions of the Works Department, and had nothing to do with their Punishment Department.

If the Punishment Department were to step in now, it would be overstepping their authority. If something really happened, and they were implicated, they would have gotten nothing and would have gotten themselves into trouble.

Official Liu waved his hand, telling him to leave.

Lu Qing gritted his teeth and returned to the duty room.

Hearing a constable report from below that a child had gone missing in Stone Slope and had not been found for a day and a night, he threw on his rain cloak. “I’ll go and take a look.”

“Chief, look at the heavy rain…”

“We have to go even if it’s raining heavily. Do you think the child will just run back on his own if it’s raining heavily?” With that, he picked up his sword, got on his horse, and ran out of the yamen.

The child from Stone Slope was eventually found, but by the time he was found, he was already a corpse floating in the water grass by the river.

After Lu Qing had his men follow up, he turned his horse and headed for Whitewater Village.

At this time, at the Jiang residence, Jiang Huaizhen was standing under the eaves, chopping bamboo with an axe. Lin Shuang was helping on the side.

Ping’er, who was next to them, was playing with a bamboo dragonfly.

The old woman was walking back and forth at the door. Hearing the sound of horse hooves in the rain, she muttered, “Who would come in this heavy rain?”

Lu Qing galloped to the main door, dismounted, tied the rope to a large tree, and walked under the eaves.

Jiang Huaizhen stopped what she was doing and asked in confusion, “Uncle Qing, why are you here?”

Lu Qing’s face was not good. “A child went missing in Stone Slope. I came out to help find him.”

Seeing his gloomy face, Jiang Huaizhen could roughly guess the outcome and didn’t dare to ask further. She greeted him and invited him into the house.

Lu Qing shook his head. “It’s raining too heavily. A rain cloak is useless. I’m dripping with water all over. I won’t go in. What are you doing?”

“We’re making a bamboo raft. Lin Shuang said that the river is rising, and she was thinking of going to the riverside to see if we can help.”

Hearing this, Lu Qing couldn’t help but let out a long sigh.

The officials in the yamen were just holding their positions without doing anything, taking the court’s salary and doing nothing. The outside was almost a vast ocean, and the county magistrate and the county magistrate had been dining at the Ju Xian Lou yesterday.

And this little commoner before him, who had almost been wrongly imprisoned and had paid a hefty fine, knew how to worry about the disaster.

He really didn’t know what to say.

Seeing that he had come all this way but wouldn’t enter the house, Lin Shuang was afraid that he had something to say and quickly asked, “Uncle Qing, what happened?”

Lu Qing asked, “Have you offended the Qin family, the largest medicine merchant in our county?”

Hearing the words “Qin family,” Lin Shuang’s heart skipped a beat.

“The person who reported you for spreading rumors a few days ago was the Qin family.”

Lin Shuang’s heart sank. She replied, “The Qin family wanted me to marry their young master for a chongxi marriage before. But because my birth characters were faked by my aunt and uncle, they found out and broke the engagement.”

“But it’s been almost a year since this happened. I have nothing to do with them now. Why would they want to report me?”

The few of them were all at a loss.

Jiang Huaizhen suddenly said, “The Qin family is in the medicine business. Did you mention anything related to medicinal herbs?”

Lin Shuang understood now. She put down the bamboo in her hand with a thud and sneered. “So that’s what it is.”

Lu Qing quickly asked, “What is it?”

“When I was spreading those news before, I did remind the villagers to prepare some epidemic prevention medicinal herbs, just in case. I also specially notified Doctor Xue.”

After a flood, there would be a plague. It had always been like this.

In her past life, at the Qin residence, she had been busy preparing medicine with the other medicine slaves during the flood. And the Qin family had also made a fortune in that flood.

She had blocked someone’s path to wealth.

The Qin family was really on high alert. The rain hadn’t even started yet, and they were already so defensive.

Hearing her explanation, Old Madam Jiang was so angry she stomped her feet. “To make such an unconscionable fortune, they really deserve to die a horrible death.”

With that, she said to Lin Shuang, “Don’t provoke these people in the future. These are people who will do anything for money. If we fight with them, we can’t beat their vicious minds.”

Lin Shuang agreed, “I know.”

With that, her eyes were very cold.

After learning the whole story, Lu Qing said a few more words and then left on his horse.

…

Other than Lin Shuang, no one had expected this rain to be so heavy and to last so long.

The continuous heavy rain for five days and five nights had turned the three counties along the river in Lingzhou into a vast ocean.

The common people who had managed to harvest their rice and wheat before the rain were still in a state of shock, and the rising river water had thrown the people on both banks into a new panic.

Those farmers who had not yet harvested their grain could still run through the fields in their rain cloaks to harvest at first. But in just two days, the river water had flooded the fields, making it impossible to walk, let alone cut the rice.

In the end, they could only sit at home and watch the storm outside, regretting that they had not listened to Lin Shuang.

Old Madam Jiang stood under the eaves, looking at the continuous curtain of rain outside, her face also worried.

“Our family’s rice has been harvested, but the others wouldn’t listen. If the rain continues like this, people will die.”

Although she didn’t like the people in the village, she didn’t hate them to the point of wanting them to die. If it weren’t for Lin Shuang, their family would have been like those outside, with nowhere to cry.

The rain was getting heavier and heavier, with no sign of stopping.

The river water had already surpassed the warning line, and many families, seeing that the situation was not good, had already moved their valuables to a safe place.

The yamen finally issued a notice, telling the people to leave the low-lying areas. But there were always some stubborn common people who would rather die than leave their ancestral homes, not moving an inch even when the river water had flooded to the bottom of their beds.

In the end, Lu Qing couldn’t sit still any longer. He took Hu Guiying and a few of his constables and, wading through the waist-deep floodwater, went from door to door, urging them to evacuate. However, the effect was minimal.

Hu Guiying came to the Jiang residence and complained for a long time.

Her home was by the river, but after getting the news from Lin Shuang, she and her family had moved to a relative’s house on higher ground in advance.

But there were still some who wouldn’t shed a tear until they saw the coffin.

After complaining, she got on her thirty-tael horse and hurried away.

Seeing her leave, Lin Shuang said softly to Jiang Huaizhen, “If the rain doesn’t stop tonight, by tomorrow morning, the two villages of Sanyang and Shanggu will probably be flooded.”

“Huaizhen, let’s take the bamboo raft out early tomorrow morning and call a few people to go and save people.”

Jiang Huaizhen agreed. “I’ll go to Seventh Grand-uncle’s house now and tell him about this.”

With that, she put on her rain cloak and went out.

The next morning, the rain had indeed not stopped. Lin Shuang had not slept well all night and had woken up when the rooster crowed. Jiang Huaizhen also got up. The two of them unhitched the carriage and, working together, lifted the few bamboo rafts they had made yesterday onto the cart, preparing to go and save people.

Old Madam Jiang repeatedly instructed, “You have to look at the situation when you’re saving people. Don’t be reckless. Don’t go to where the water is rushing. You can’t put yourselves in danger no matter how many people you’re saving.”

Jiang Huaizhen said, “I know. You stay at home and watch Ping’er. Don’t go out.”

Only then did Old Madam Jiang watch them drive the carriage out of the valley with a worried expression.

On the sixth day of the heavy rain, the river water, thick with yellow mud and sand, finally showed its fangs.

A ten-foot-high wall of water, carrying broken trees and huge rocks, rushed toward the river dikes like a ferocious beast.

What was even more terrifying was the livestock carcasses that were washed down from the upstream. The bloated pigs and sheep swept downstream, and the stench of decay mixed with the rain and mist and spread everywhere.

The cries of the fleeing refugees mixed with the sound of the rain and the flood.

The dozen or so young and strong men of Whitewater Village, led by Lin Shuang and Jiang Huaizhen, had been busy in this section of the river for a day and a night. The dozen or so bamboo rafts relayed back and forth, pulling one group of people after another to the shore.

The water level reached a new high, and the news that the river dikes of Shanggu Village had collapsed came. The rescue team rowed their bamboo rafts upstream.

Before they had even arrived, they heard heart-wrenching screams from the other side of the river.

The ancestral hall of Shanggu Village had collapsed, the beams and pillars broken in half by the flood, and over thirty villagers who had taken refuge there were directly washed into the middle of the river.

The situation was urgent.

At this moment, Jiang Huaizhen was no longer low-key. She shouted at the dozen or so young and strong men behind her, “Tie the hemp ropes around your waists! Those who can swim, come with me to grab people. Those who can’t, stay on the bamboo rafts to receive them!”

The goddess-like woman, covered in mud, was the first to jump into the water.

The young and strong men behind her were instantly filled with a rush of blood and jumped into the water one after another, swimming toward the ancestral hall.

Sun Kang was one of the disaster victims who had been swept into the water.

Shanggu Village was his hometown, and his mother still lived there.

He was usually on duty at the yamen and would occasionally go back to his old house to visit his old mother.

At the beginning of this rain, he had thought it was just a short shower. Who would have thought that it would continue for several days? By the time he had rushed back, the village was already submerged in a vast ocean. His mother, Zhou shi, and the villagers had taken their belongings and had taken refuge in the ancestral hall on higher ground.

No one had expected that the ancestral hall, which had gone through so many dynasties, would be washed away in this flood.

The moment he was washed into the water, the only two words in his mind were “it’s over.”

He subconsciously dragged his mother, and the two of them were swept away by the rapids, clinging to a piece of driftwood, struggling to hold on.

But a small piece of driftwood could not support the two of them.

Seeing a huge wave rushing toward them, the muddy water filled his mouth and nose, and his vision went black.

But at this moment, his mother, Zhou shi, let go. “—Son, don’t mind me. Go and save yourself—”

He went crazy and let go of the driftwood, rushing in the direction his mother had been swept away.

Just as the mother and son were about to be separated, a bamboo raft came, breaking through the waves. A long and powerful hand reached down from the bamboo raft, grabbed Zhou shi’s wrist, and pulled her up.

Sun Kang was overjoyed, thinking that he was saved. But when he saw the person on the bamboo raft, his heart sank.

That woman, wasn’t she that female executioner?

Last autumn, when the prisoners were executed, he had skimmed one tael of her reward silver.

Not long ago, when they had met, he had even ridiculed her.

His head was buzzing.

He had always been greedy and vengeful. If their roles were reversed, he would never have extended a helping hand to someone like himself.

Moreover, the flood was raging now, and it was the perfect opportunity for revenge…

Despair washed over him, and his whole body went cold. He even lost the strength to struggle.

Another wave came, and he closed his eyes, resigned to his fate, and let go.

“Sun Kang!” a stern shout suddenly entered his ears.

He opened his eyes abruptly and saw a bamboo pole hit the water next to him. The woman on the bamboo raft had a sharp look in her eyes and shouted, “If you don’t grab the bamboo pole and come up, what are you waiting for?”

Sun Kang was shocked. He didn’t have time to think and grabbed the bamboo pole, using all his strength to get to the bamboo raft.

By the time he was exhausted, he had finally reached the side of the bamboo raft.

A slender arm reached over. He gritted his teeth, grabbed that hand, and with the other’s help, used his last bit of strength to climb onto the bamboo raft.

On the other end of the bamboo raft stood another woman, Lin Shuang. Seeing him get on the bamboo raft, Lin Shuang held a bamboo pole and rowed hard toward the shore.

Seeing that her son was still alive, Zhou shi kept thanking the two of them.

Jiang Huaizhen held another bamboo pole with her lips pressed tightly together and did not reply.

Lin Shuang did not know that Sun Kang was the petty official who had skimmed her one tael of reward silver and said to Zhou shi, “You’re welcome. We’re all from the same village. It’s only right that we help each other.”

Zhou shi quickly asked, “Which village are you from?”

“Whitewater Village.”

Zhou shi then turned to look at Jiang Huaizhen and asked, “I just saw you call my son’s name. Do you know each other?”

Seeing that Jiang Huaizhen did not speak, and looking at the official’s clothes on Sun Kang, Lin Shuang said, “She is the executioner of our county. I guess you can call them colleagues.”

Zhou shi had not expected to be saved by an executioner and was full of sighs.

Sun Kang shrunk to the other end of the bamboo raft. At this moment, how could he have the face to talk?

After Lin Shuang and Jiang Huaizhen had sent the two of them to the shore, they rowed the bamboo raft back.

Zhou shi looked at their retreating figures and shouted, “Girls, be careful—”