In the middle of the night, it suddenly rained, the rain was sparse at first, but after a while, it turned into a pouring rain, after a day of hard work, the prisoners were sleeping in the shed, at this time someone outside the shed hurriedly beat the gong, and some people shouted: "Get up, get up, hurry up and gather outside!" ”

People got up from their sleep and hurriedly put on their clothes, some with raincoats wore raincoats, those without raincoats wore hats, and those without hats put their clothes on their heads, and soon more than 100 people stood in line in the courtyard.

The person in charge of the labor camp stood in front of the queue, holding an iron cylinder-shaped horn in his hand, and said loudly: "Listen, everyone, due to the heavy rain for several days, there has been a flood in the upstream section not far from us, the water level of the canal we built has been higher than the warning line, and a large section of the stone slope protection that we have just built has been washed away by the current!" The Meteorological Observatory predicts that there will be heavy to heavy rain tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, and we must now strengthen the river embankment before the rainstorm comes, otherwise our previous works will be completely washed away. Now everyone picks up the tools and immediately rushes to the construction site to rescue! As soon as he had finished speaking, people rushed to the canal with all sorts of tools.

When people panted and ran to the edge of the canal, they were stunned by the scene in front of them, the surging flood in the riverbed that was still dry during the construction was swirling and rushing to the downstream of the river, the rapid water relentlessly washed the mud on the bank, and the slope protection that had just been built with stones collapsed in a large area, and the water surface was almost parallel to the shore and there was a possibility of overflowing the embankment at any time. Seeing this scene, Wang Hongju hurriedly shouted to the people in his group: "Don't be stunned! Hurry up and do it, and the old body is weak and fill the sack with soil. Young and strong followed me to carry sacks to strengthen the river embankment. As soon as Wang Hongju's voice fell, everyone went their separate ways. Wang Hongju saw Yang Xinmin running to the pile of people loaded with soil, so he dragged Yang Xinmin out and said: "Don't be lazy when you are young, go, follow me to carry a sack on the river embankment!" ”

The rain was getting heavier and the wind was blowing, and the wind was raging mercilessly in the night sky with dense raindrops, and the people who rescued the rescue could not open their eyes in the storm, but they could not stop their work, and they had to race against time to protect the river and the villages on the banks.

As the day dawned, the rain stopped and the wind subsided, and the sky gradually cleared. People who had been busy for most of the night were exhausted. Walking in the mud was wobbly, and the flood was largely contained, but there was a section of the embankment that still needed to be reinforced.

At this time, someone shouted loudly on the embankment: "Oh no! Someone's overboard! It turned out that Yang Xinmin was so tired that he couldn't stand up when he was building a flood embankment with a sack, and his black body fell into the panting river with a crooked body in front of him. Yang Xinmin does not know much about water. He struggled desperately in the water. After shouting for help, he choked on the flood.

Wang Hongju was on the river embankment at this time, and he saw Yang Xinmin being swept farther and farther away by the water, so he ran a few steps on the shore in a hurry. Then jump into the raging river.

As soon as Wang Hongju jumped into the river, a wave rolled over and almost slapped him to the bottom, and he struggled to surface from the bottom of the water, looking for Yang Xinmin's figure. He saw a head and a shaking arm on the water four or five meters away from him, and swam with all his might. Just when Wang Hongju was about to grab Yang Xinmin's arm, a strong current pushed him to the shore, but he didn't catch it. When he looked in the direction of Yang Xinmin again, Yang Xinmin could no longer see it, only a lock of black hair floating on the water. Wang Hong couldn't say it well, he stabbed over and drilled out of the water close to Yang Xinmin, grabbed Yang Xinmin's hair and pushed his head out of the water. At this time, Yang Xinmin had lost consciousness, and Wang Hongju swam to the shore with all his strength with Yang Xinmin in one arm. At this time, the shore was full of anxious people, and someone stretched out a twig with the thickness of a bowl into the river for Wang Hongju to grab. Due to the rapid and unpredictable flow of water, Wang Hongju wanted to grab the branch several times and was washed away by the torrent, seeing that he and Yang Xinmin were about to be washed away, at this time there was a person with a good water character who tied a rope around his waist and jumped into the river, he swam to Wang Hongju and hugged Yang Xinmin's body, and the people on the shore worked together to drag the two of them to the shore. When the people tried to drag Wang Hongju ashore again, the exhausted Wang Hongju had been washed away by the merciless river.

When the person in charge of the labor camp heard that Wang Hongju had drowned and disappeared, he sent people along the canal to search for him, and gave them an order to see people alive and corpses to die, but the result was disappointing. After more than 10 days, there was no news of Wang Hongju, and the labor camp judged that Wang Hongju had drowned and died, so they sent a notice of Wang Hongju's death to his family Lin Meijiao.

On this day, Lin Meijiao didn't have classes in the afternoon, and she returned home early after asking for leave from school. Dinner was made by Lin Meijiao herself, the food had fish and meat a little richer than usual, and she put an extra pair of chopsticks and a wine cup next to her rice bowl during the meal. The iron abacus couple was surprised by their daughter's behavior and asked what was going on, Lin Meijiao explained that today was Wang Hongju's birthday, and although her husband was not around, putting the dishes, chopsticks and wine cup on the table was equivalent to celebrating his birthday.

After hearing this, the iron abacus waved his hand again and again and said, "It's not good, it's not good!" Gillian, I always think that your approach is unlucky! ”

Mother Lin also accosted and said: "Yes, I always feel that this is similar to paying tribute to the dead, aren't you cursing your husband?" No, take the chopsticks off! ”

Lin Meijiao smiled and said: "What you are talking about is the feudal superstition of the old society, I don't believe in this!" She filled the bowl and wine cup prepared for her husband with meat, poured the wine, looked at the south affectionately and said, "Hongju, this cup of wine is for you to drink, this bowl of meat is for you to eat, Gillian Yao wishes you a happy 30th birthday!" ”

Seeing that their daughter did not believe in evil, the iron abacus couple did not bother to talk about her anymore, but they felt awkward about their daughter's behavior, and the iron abacus also told his wife that there was always an ominous sign in his heart when he went to bed that night. Sure enough, the next day, the Lin family received Wang Hongju's death notice!

Wang Hongju drowned to death, this bad news is a bolt from the blue for Lin Meijiao! It is an exaggeration to say that even if Lin Meijiao thought that the sky had fallen, she would never have thought that Wang Hongju would die, and Lin Meijiao, who was unprepared, only felt that the world was spinning, and she fell to the ground immediately before she even had time to cry!

Lin Nanhui was also shocked when he heard the news of Wang Hongju's death, Lin Nanhui is a tough guy, he has been a soldier for many years, and many brothers and comrades-in-arms around him have died in battle, but he has never shed a single tear, but after learning of Wang Hongju's death, he was sad and wept, he didn't want to believe it was true! The day after receiving the bad news, Lin Nanhui took the grief-stricken Lin Meijiao and her children to the beach across the sea from Hainan Island. Lin Nanhui built a sand pile with sand, placed fruit snacks and other offerings in front of the sand, and then lit a pillar of incense.

Lin Nanhui shouted loudly in the face of the Qiongzhou Strait: "Hongju, why didn't you say hello to us and leave?" You left without even leaving a corpse, we can't pay tribute to your grave, there is no way, we can only sacrifice across the sea! ”

Lin Nanhui burst into tears after speaking, he squatted down and spilled the wine on the ground tremblingly, "Hongju, I know that you love to drink, if you know underground, drink all this wine." ”

At this time, Lin Meijiao could no longer suppress her grief, she pulled her two children to kneel in front of the sand and cried heartbreakingly. Wang Hongju's death was too much of a blow to Lin Meijiao's spirit, in his heart Wang Hongju is not only a dear husband, but also a generous brother and a good teacher, she loves and worships Wang Hongju, Wang Hongju is her backbone, losing Wang Hongju's heart is like death. If it weren't for the fact that she had two children who relied on her to raise her, maybe she would have followed Wang Hongju. (To be continued......)