Becoming the Villain's Discarded Wife
Chapter 31_1

Chapter 31: 31_1

Gougou knew his mother must be busy, but after nearly two hours without a sight of her, he had lost his last barrier of hope. Despite being an obedient child, Gougou was only three and a half years old. The tremors caused by the collapse of the house had scared him, deep down he believed that Nanzhi didn’t want him anymore.

Struggling from the arms of Mrs. Liu, Gougou started crying and running towards the entrance of the village. However, he was thrown to the ground by another sudden tremor, hit his chin on a stone, and started to cry harder.

Weeping and calling for his mother, he crawled towards the village entrance. He wanted to go to his grandmother’s house to find his mother. He swore he would behave and never anger his mother again.

"Gougou! Come back!" Mrs. Liu, while trying to protect her own grandchild, was shouting at Gougou who was crawling towards the village entrance. She couldn’t let anything happen to Gougou, not after he had been entrusted to her care by Ling.

She wanted to chase after him, but her feet were entangled by her own tearful grandchildren. She was so anxious that she nearly burst into tears herself while continually shouting Gougou’s name.

"I want mommy! Mommy! Don’t leave Gougou behind! Wa——"

"Boom——"

Gougou tried to stand up while crying, but another sudden tremor threw him to the ground. He could only lie on the ground, his little hands scratched by the stones.

Not just children, but even the elderly like Shen Dashan, who had experienced the last earthquake, were shocked. Many people were thrown to the ground.

All the children in Lihua Village were crying uncontrollably, causing their family members to try to calm them down. Not knowing how long the earthquake would last, they could only hold their children tightly in their arms.

Shedding tears, Gougou kept moving towards the village entrance until he saw two shadows slowly moving towards him. He stopped.

After a moment of surprise, Gougou suddenly stopped crying. He lowered his head and ran towards the slender figure.

"Mommy, mommy!" Gougou stumbled into Nanzhi’s arms, completely unconcerned about the mud smeared on his face, only hugging Nanzhi affectionately.

Mommy was back, she hadn’t disappeared like she had in his dreams.

"Good boy, Gougou, mommy was wrong. Mommy shouldn’t have left you alone here." Nanzhi was panicked as soon as she heard Gougou crying. She stumbled and fell several times before finally making it back.

Gougou sobbed in Nanzhi’s arms, "Mommy, mommy, Gougou is scared."

Holding Gougou tightly, Nanzhi finally felt a weight lift from her heart. Feeling Gougou’s small trembling body in her arms, a familiar tingling returned to her nose, "It’s mommy’s fault, all mommy’s fault."

Only when the tremors stopped did Nanzhi, holding Gougou and leading the equally disheveled donkey, start to walk back towards the village.

Seeing the sporadic crowd at the village entrance, Nanzhi felt a heavy feeling in her heart. She had done her best, tried her best to save them.

While holding Gougou, Nanzhi approached Shen Dazhu’s family, her voice hoarse, "Mrs. Liu, thank you for everything."

"Sweetheart, you’re back." Seeing Nanzhi’s return and the sight of Gougou in her arms, Mrs. Liu’s stupefied expression finally showed a hint of brightness. She had been frightened by the tremors, had even fallen due to the instability of the ground. She blamed herself for not watching Gougou carefully.

With an exhausted face, she murmured, "Thank goodness, Gougou. Thank goodness you’re okay."

Saying this, two lines of tears rolled down her exhausted face.

Thankfully, Gougou hadn’t been hurt.

After what seemed like another hour, when there was no more tremor, Shen Dashan, along with his two brothers, Shen Qingchuan and Shen Qinghe, gathered the villagers.

Once they had divided their territories and led a group of men to look for missing people, less than half of the villagers had surfaced. It was feared that many may have died in the earthquake.

Following this incident, the men from every household lighted wooden sticks, leaving only a dozen or so younger lads behind to protect the elderly and children.

As Shen Qinghe followed the villagers into the village, he noticed a bloody arm sticking out from a pile of bricks and mud. He took a closer look before exclaiming loudly, "Father! There’s someone here!"

Upon hearing this, Shen Dashan rushed over to inspect. After some men lifted and removed debris, they pulled out a bloody corpse.

Staring at the "person" whose head had been smashed to a pulp, Shen Dashan stated solemnly, "It’s Wang Mazhi."

Wang Mazhi was 34 years old this year. Because of his poor family and a face full of pockmarks, he had remained unmarried. However, he was well-liked and often shared fruits with the village children. Earlier that evening, he had mentioned that he would be sleeping outside, and in less than three hours, he was gone...

In view of Wang Mazhi’s case, the villagers felt a heaviness in their hearts. They kept shouting as they moved deeper into the village, hoping for some response from within the ruins.

Carrying torches, the villagers lit up the entire settlement. In the midst of their frantic efforts, dawn began to break, with a gentle golden hue painting the horizon. Only children and the elderly remained on the dam, taking a rest.

Ms. Qin led a group of women into the village to join the rescue.

Perhaps their strength could not match that of men, but they could still contribute in locating survivors.

This earthquake was even more severe than the one from 20 years ago. More than half of the houses in the village were flattened. Of the survivors found, over 270 sustained injuries of varying severity, while 93 mauled bodies were excavated from beneath the rubble.

Totalling 92 households and 631 inhabitants, Lihua Village lost over half of its population to this earthquake.

As one after another disfigured body was lifted from the ruins, there was a hush among the crowd.

Most families in Lihua Village were interconnected by blood or marriage. They could have been laughing together just yesterday evening, and within a few hours, their lives were snuffed out.

As the sun rose to its zenith, the devastated scene of Lihua Village was fully revealed -

Due to the collapsed houses, bricks, tiles and rubble were scattered everywhere. Large patches of dark red bloodstains were visible all over, and the bodies excavated were neatly arranged at one side. Even with a white cloth covering them, the scene was terrifying.

"Help —— help me ——"

In the midst of sorrow, a faint cry for help rang out from somewhere nearby.

With his keen hearing, Shen Yuntian was first to respond. He quickly alerted his two older brothers, and they rushed over.

He also warned, "Be careful, don’t step on anyone."

"Help, help me." The person buried under the rubble, alarmed by the commotion above, tried to lift his arm but sharply tore at his wound. He could only lay there quietly, waiting to be rescued.

Seeing the movements of the Shen brothers, the surrounding men grasped the situation and rushed over to lend a hand.

After immense effort, the men made a small pit and uncovered the severely injured Li Tian.

"Li Tian?" Shen Yuntian stared at the person they had rescued, slightly taken aback. He remembered clearly that Ms. Wu was present when Sister Lin warned everyone against sleeping inside their houses the night before.

He distinctly remembered seeing Brother Li carrying their one-legged uncle out last night and he even waved hello. How did Li Tian, from the same family, end up buried under the rubble of his house?

Shen Xing and Shen Yuan exchanged glances, uncomprehending.

Shen Dazhu noticed the three of them were not moving. Assuming they were worn out, he asked them to rest while he continued directing the rescue efforts.

Left puzzled, the Shen brothers retreated to a corner.

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