Chapter 175 Struggle in the rain
There were one after another aftershocks. Shu Huan had become numb to the shocks. The hardship at this moment was the heavy rain that had poured for more than two hours before gradually becoming smaller. They had no place to shelter from the rain. Even if there was a place to avoid the rain, they didn’t dare to go. At this moment, they were so wet from head to toe that water was dripping down from their bodies. Sneezes came one after the other.
"So cold." Liangchen hugged herself firmly and said, "We have to find a place to make a fire to dry ourselves. Otherwise, we'll get sick due to the cold."
It was indeed very cold with the blowing wind and the wet clothes on the body. Shu Huan was so cold that her lips were somewhat purple. However, everywhere was wet. Where could they find a place with dry firewood?
Before the heavy rain started pouring, it was already dark inside the city. One couldn’t see anything around them. Shu Huan knew that under such circumstances, not to mention looking for someone, they couldn’t see even if someone was one meter away from them. Therefore, she walked decisively to the wasteland with Liangchen.
Since they usually took a carriage, they didn’t feel how far the journey was. At this moment, it was pitch dark and stepping on the mud wrapped in rainwater under their feet, it was really difficult to walk. The number of times they fell was countless and they also went countless times back to find their shoes that were stuck in the mud. Their whole body was covered with mud.
Shu Huan laughed self-mockingly and said, "Well, at least the mud on the body is blocking the wind. The wind can't blow through, so it feels warmer."
It seemed as if there was no end to this night just like the road under their feet.
As they walked in the dark, they wondered if they were going in the wrong direction. They just moved forward with their instincts. Even if they were very tired, they didn't dare to stop. Because if they stopped, they felt colder and time would feel like it flew more slowly.
This was really a terrible experience!
Shu Huan even had the illusion that they weren't walking the human world's path, but the road of the Yellow Spring leading to the depths of Hell. Only when the first morning light rose did she feel that she was still alive.Yellow Spring: underworld of the Chinese mythology.
The rain was still falling but it wasn’t pouring.
Since there was light, Shu Huan turned to look at Liangchen and found out that she (L) was as dirty as if she had just been pulled out of the mud. Her hair was clumping and sticking together. Her face that had been washed by rainwater was rather clean, with several shallow scars. Several places on her clothes were also damaged. One of her shoes hadn't been found, so, she was limping as if her foot had been hurt.
"Why didn’t you say anything?" Shu Huan wiped away the rain on her face and frowned.
Liangchen saw her (SH) staring at her (L) foot and couldn’t help but pull back her foot. She said, "It doesn’t matter. I can still walk."
"Can't walk anymore! If I walk any further, I also can't bear it," As Shu Huan said that, she looked around. She wanted to look for a place to rest.
Unfortunately, what entered her eyes was a desolate place. The trees were all destroyed by the earthquake and had fallen onto the ground. They didn’t even know where they were.
"This…." Liangchen also couldn’t recognize where they were. "Did we walk past the place and missed the wasteland already?"
"Maybe," Shu Huan sighed. "We may even have walked in the wrong direction. However, now it didn't have much use to find that wasteland. We don’t even know how long this rain will continue. We need a place to shelter from the rain. We also need to dry our clothes and eat something afterwards."
She had begun to feel uncomfortable. If she went on like this, she was afraid that she would get seriously ill.
They supported each other and walked forward for a while. Everywhere they went, they could only see wilderness. When they finally met someone who trudged in the rain like them did they got to know that they were already very far from the city after having asked that person. The direction they were on was leading to Shadow Moon village, where Gu household's resort was.
No one was interested in talking anymore. After thanking the man, he continued to walk numbly while Shu Huan and Liangchen looked at each other in dismay.
Gu household's resort! Because they didn’t know where the epicenter of the earthquake was and how wide the range of the earthquake was, Shu Huan didn’t know whether the Gu household's resort was safe or not. However, they couldn’t endure to go back on another way. So, after discussing, they decided to go there first to have a look. If the village wasn’t affected too much by the disaster, they had to find a place to stay first. Only after stabilizing themselves, would they have the strength to think about other things.
Shu Huan remembered that there were several small teahouses on this road. Last time when she returned to the city from the resort, she had stopped at one of the teahouses. Hence, she looked carefully on the way and did find it! However, the teahouse which was made of planks, had completely collapsed and scattered into a pile of wooden chips. The people in the teahouse had naturally fled away for a long time.
It was a little disappointment but it was also expected.
Shu Huan shook her head and began to dig into the pieces of wood, trying to find something useful. It didn’t matter if it was food or something to shelter from the rain. The food she brought should be saved, because even if she had money on her, there would be no place to buy food.
Money!
After thinking about money, she hurriedly touched the hairpin on her head. Fortunately, the hairpin wasn’t lost in the chaos. In addition, the banknotes inside were wrapped in an oilpaper and shouldn’t be too wet. She didn’t dare to look at it. She hurriedly took down the hairpin and hid it beneath her clothes. This way when they arrived at a city that wasn’t affected by the calamity, she might be able to find a private bank to get some money.
After thinking like this, she was a bit more assured. She wasn't at the end of her rope. As long as this heavy rain didn’t make her seriously ill in the middle of the journey, as long as she could persist to walk to the next city or the city after, she could always find the hope to survive.
Liangchen saw her moving away the planks constantly, she also went forward to help.
This kind of small teahouse built by the roadside wasn’t big and they didn’t use any good materials to build it. At most, there were some bricks between the planks, which was rather easy to move.
Although they both didn’t have much strength anymore, as soon as they started working, they felt less cold. In the end, they found an iron pot, two kettles, a small amount of food soaked in rainwater, half-torn clothes, a bedsheet and a quilt from the ruins of the teahouse.
"This really is…." Liangchen was very discouraged and threw aside the broken iron pot. The kettle was flattened and couldn’t be used anymore, so it was also thrown away. As for the half-torn clothes, it was torn when she pulled it out of the ruins. She lifted it and was somewhat at a loss whether to cry or to laugh. She really didn’t know what this thing could be used for.
Shu Huan picked up a soaked sesame seed-coated cake. She didn’t care whether it was hygienic or not, she ate it to fill her stomach first. One had the strength when one had food in one's stomach and wouldn't feel as cold anymore. But when Liangchen was about to throw those clothes away, she (SH) reached out to stop her and said vaguely while chewing on the pancake, "Use the dagger to cut it, then put it on your feet and use it as a shoe."
As for the sheet, Shu Huan took it with her even though it was dripping wet. As for the quilt, each of them held onto one side of the quilt and then put it over their head to block the rain. Although the load had increased again, at least they wouldn’t be drenched by the rain and caused their eyes to be blurry. It was a bit more more comfortable like this.
Just like that, they walked, stopped and picked up things along the way. When it was noon, the rain gradually stopped. The two of them breathed a sigh of relief. When they looked around and saw no one, they took turns to cover themselves with the bedsheet, took off their clothes, wring the clothes to drain out the water and then wore them again.
It was still cold and uncomfortable, but it felt better than being completely soaked in water. Afterwards, they found a place with a higher terrain. They used the stone as pillow, laid down the cotton quilt on the ground and slept as soon as they had laid down.
They needed to restore their mental and physical strength as soon as possible. As for whether they will get sick or not when they sleep like this, they really couldn’t care much.