Chapter 309| Chapter 310| Chapter 311
Chapter 309: Working Together
Everyone looked around at each other, but no one dared to raise a hand.
Once they took this step, would they ever be able to come back? It was pouring rain, the temperature was twenty degrees below zero, and the floodwaters had already crested at chest height. But if they didn’t go, would they just sit here and wait to die?
Pan Yue took a deep breath and raised her hand high. “I’ll go.”
“I’m going too.” Aunt Xie raised her hand right after. As a military wife, her duty was to hold down the fort and look after the rear. She was up there in years and her own children were already grown; she had no lingering regrets. It was far better to fight for a sliver of hope than to wait for death to claim them here.
“I… I will go too,” said Captain Fang’s wife, Xu Guihua, stepping forward. Her eldest son, an eleven-year-old boy, immediately burst into tears when he realized where his mother was going. He threw his arms around her waist, clutching her tightly.
“Mom… please don’t leave us.”
Xu Guihua bit her lip until it bled, forcing herself to turn her face away, not daring to look down at her boy. If I don’t go, what will become of my children? She had to go out there and fight to give her children a chance to survive.
“Count me in,” said Captain Wang’s wife, Yang Wanshu, raising her hand as well. This woman, who usually seemed as gentle as water, stood tall and resolute at this critical moment.
“I’m going too!”
“I’ll go!”
“Sign me up!”
“I’m in!”
One by one, more military wives stepped forward. Watching them rally, Sheng Wanyan felt a profound wave of emotion wash over her.
Standing near the back of the corridor, Liang Qian and Zhang Zhaodi scoffed softly, rolling their eyes. Are these women insane? Do they all have a death wish? In their minds, only someone like Sheng Wanyan, who loved to show off, would drag others into such a lethal, life-threatening situation. Neither of them raised a hand. They had absolutely no intention of volunteering for suicide.
Sheng Wanyan quickly counted the volunteers. In total, fifty military wives had stepped forward.
“Aunt Xie, you need to stay behind,” Sheng Wanyan instructed, turning to the older woman. “Organize the remaining residents to boil hot water, prepare ginger soup, and cook rice for everyone.”
Seeing that the rest of the crowd consisted mostly of the elderly, Sheng Wanyan knew things would dissolve into chaos without proper leadership. She needed Aunt Xie to anchor their survival efforts at the rear.
Aunt Xie’s expression grew anxious, thinking Sheng Wanyan was sidelining her. “Wanyan, I can still push through. I can go into the water with you.”
“Auntie, holding down the fort at the rear is just as critical,” Sheng Wanyan explained gently but firmly. “Everyone’s health and recovery will depend entirely on what happens here. I can only focus out there if I know you’re managing this side.”
Hearing this, Aunt Xie realized the weight of the responsibility being placed on her shoulders. “Alright, Wanyan. Don’t worry about this side. I promise I’ll have everything ready for when you all get back.”
“But what exactly are we going to use to plug the breach?” one of the wives asked. They were full of determination, but they still had no idea what Sheng Wanyan’s plan actually was.
“Did everyone bring their quilts and blankets from their cottages?” Sheng Wanyan asked the crowd.
“Yes, we have them right here.”
“Wait, do you mean to block the water with quilts?”
“Quilts absorb water well, but how much of a torrent can they really stop?”
The breach was a massive opening. No matter how many individual quilts they had, a few blankets thrown into the current would achieve nothing.
“We aren’t throwing them in one by one,” Sheng Wanyan explained. “We are going to lay out all the quilts and thick winter clothes we brought, and sew them together edge-to-edge to create a massive, heavy barrier net. Just make sure everyone leaves enough dry clothes behind so we can change and keep warm later.”
The moment the words left her mouth, Aunt Xie clapped her hands in pure admiration.
The strategy was brilliant. Thick quilts would absorb the water, growing heavy and dense, and if they secured the massive fabric barrier to sturdy timber posts, it could successfully withstand the velocity of the surging current.
“But that will completely ruin them!” someone whispered sadly. Most families only owned one or two good, thick quilts to get through the winter, and sacrificing them felt like tearing away their own livelihood.
“If the dirt gets into them, we can always scrub them clean later. How can a few pieces of fabric be worth more than your lives?” Sheng Wanyan countered sharply. “If we die tonight, what use will those quilts be to anyone?”
The cold logic hit home, and the women nodded. If they survived, they could always wash the blankets and go right back to using them.
“Everyone, stitch a quick, unique yarn mark or a patch onto your household’s quilts so you can identify them easily when we pull them back out,” Sheng Wanyan added.
With a clear objective, the women sprang into action. They rapidly mobilized, carrying their mountains of winter clothes and heavy quilts into the apartments that were equipped with sewing machines.
“Who here knows how to swim or handle themselves in deep water?” Sheng Wanyan called out.
“I can!” a voice called from the crowd. “I’m from the South and grew up right by the coast.”
“I can swim too.”
“Count me in. I used to swim in the rivers back in my home village all the time.”
In this era, a significant number of people knew how to navigate the water, having spent their childhoods swimming in rural rivers and lakes.
“Excellent. Those who can swim will form the vanguard to navigate the current, while the rest will form a human chain behind them to pass materials forward,” Sheng Wanyan commanded. “For the sisters-in-law who can’t swim, follow me toward the ridge. We need to fell as much timber as possible and float the logs down. The more wood we get into the water, the better.”
“Why do we need logs?” someone asked.
“Wood floats. It will give the team leverage against the current and act as literal lifelines if anyone loses their footing.”
The women moved as a cohesive unit. The exact millisecond Sheng Wanyan’s boots broke the surface of the floodwater outside, a violent shudder racked her body from the sub-zero chill. All around her, the other wives gasped as the freezing, chest-deep current hit them, but they gritted their teeth and pushed forward.
Once they reached the lower slope of the ridge, Sheng Wanyan organized the timber team, demonstrating exactly how to utilize the logs as floating drafts in the deep current. The women’s eyes illuminated with realization; they hadn’t considered using raw timber as structural stability before.
“We’ll leave twenty women stationed here to fell the trees and systematically guide the logs toward the main breach,” Sheng Wanyan coordinated. “If the water level surges any higher or if you feel your strength failing, do not panic. Simply throw your torso over a log, grip the bark, and kick your legs to navigate.”
She personally demonstrated the survival technique in the current, and the women took turns testing it out. A collective wave of relief passed through the group when they realized the logs could easily support their weight.
“This will work!”
“We can use heavy ropes to bind several logs together into makeshift rafts,” Pan Yue suggested. “That way, we can transport larger quantities at once and save critical time.”
“Perfect. Let’s execute that immediately.”
Sheng Wanyan scanned the team on the slope and saw Xu Guihua standing firm. She decided to place the timber station entirely under her command. “Sister Xu, I’m leaving the logging operation in your hands. If the floodwaters breach this ridge line and there’s absolutely no way to hold it, abandon the lumber and lead the women further up into the mountains. High ground is always safer than the valley.”
Under the current catastrophic conditions, the upper mountain peaks were their ultimate sanctuary.
“I understand,” Xu Guihua replied, her expression grim but resolute. “I’ll manage the lines exactly as you outlined. Don’t worry.”
Sheng Wanyan nodded sharply, waded back into the freezing torrent, and navigated her way back toward the central compound.
By the time she returned, the indoor sewing teams had successfully bound the massive quilts into an enormous, heavy fabric net. Sheng Wanyan immediately instructed the wives who were strong swimmers to take hold of the front edge and slip into the current.
“The rest of the headcount, head straight to the ridge to assist with the timber transport!” she ordered.
The military wives who couldn’t swim marched toward the slopes to haul wood, while Pan Yue and the vanguard swimmers plunged into the waist-deep water. Gripping the massive, woven fabric barrier, they began pulling it through the torrent, fighting their way toward the source of the flood. After a grueling, twenty-minute battle against the freezing current, they finally closed in on the main breach.
The water was rushing down violently from the direction of the mountain village, indicating the valley below had already completely succumbed to the deluge.
Down at the flume, Political Commissar Xie was thoroughly soaked, submerged to his chest alongside the remaining officers as they desperately tried to stack sandbags to seal the gap. The freezing water had already crested near neck height, and the men were running on pure adrenaline.
“We don’t have enough sandbags!” Director Pan roared over the crash of the water.
Political Commissar Xie gritted his teeth in utter helplessness. Every single engineering asset and reserve supply within the regiment’s inventory had already been exhausted. “Send a detail back to the administrative blocks!” he ordered. “Haul out the wooden desks, the archives, the heavy tables—bring anything solid we can wedge into this gap! Move!”
“Yes, Political Commissar!”
The remaining base detail was incredibly small—fewer than ten administrative soldiers and a handful of senior guards remained, totaling barely thirty men.
The soldiers turned to sprint back toward the buildings when one of them suddenly froze, his eyes widening as he stared through the driving rain toward the residential quarters. He rubbed his eyes, thoroughly convinced the exhaustion was causing him to hallucinate.
“Political Commissar… look over there!” the soldier screamed, pointing a trembling finger. “It’s the sisters-in-law!”
Political Commissar Xie spun around. Through the sheets of freezing rain, he caught sight of Sheng Wanyan leading a massive line of women, a faint mist of body heat rising from their heads as they battled the current.
“What on earth do they think they are doing?!” the Commissar roared, his temper flaring out of pure terror for their safety. “Who authorized them to march down here?! This is absolute madness!”
“Do they want to get themselves killed?!”
Director Pan and the senior officers stared in sheer, open-mouthed shock as the vanguard of military wives swam methodically toward the breach, pulling the massive fabric barrier behind them.
“Xiao Yue!” Director Pan screamed, his heart leaping into his throat as he recognized his own daughter in the freezing depths.
Chapter 310: Rescue from the City Arrives
It was incredibly dangerous out there—why on earth were they running toward the breach?
Weren’t they supposed to remain safely inside the residential compound? Did these women truly have a death wish?
“Why are you here?!”
“This is absolute madness!”
Director Pan was practically vibrating with rage as he glared fiercely at his daughter.
Pan Yue, however, didn’t care a fraction about his anger. She didn’t waste a single second defending herself, immediately hauling the massive fabric barrier forward and thrusting it toward the men. “Dad, take this! Use it to plug the breach!”
Director Pan and Political Commissar Xie stared at the enormous, heavy net of quilted blankets in absolute astonishment.
“Political Commissar, we need to lash this massive sheet firmly to the timber posts!” Sheng Wanyan shouted over the roar of the current. “If we wedge solid materials along the bottom edge to anchor it down, it will break the momentum of the floodwaters. It can hold the line until the reinforcements arrive!”
The exact millisecond the logic clicked in Political Commissar Xie’s mind, he galvanized the line. This intervention was a absolute lifesaver. “Everyone, move! Execute the deployment immediately!”
“Alright! You women fall back to the buildings, right now!” the Commissar ordered. “We’ll take the line from here!”
“Political Commissar! The bottom edge won’t stay down—the current is tearing it loose!” a soldier screamed from the center of the flume. Just as one catastrophic issue was resolved, a new crisis surged to the surface, throwing the line into frantic anxiety.
Sheng Wanyan scanned the perimeter through the driving rain, spotting the trailing vanguard of military wives navigating toward them. “Political Commissar, use the timber!” she roared.
The Commissar spun around, his eyes widening as he saw the women successfully guiding a massive fleet of raw logs through the current. He lunged forward to seize the trailing ropes.
“Every man down into the torrent!” Xie bellowed. “Drive the timber straight into the riverbed soil! Anchor the fabric down!”
The garrison soldiers were all strong swimmers. Even though the freezing floodwaters had officially crested at chest height, having a structural framework of heavy logs gave them a fighting chance.
“Get back to high ground, immediately!” Xie barked at the women one final time before diving beneath the surface alongside the other senior officers to secure the barrier.
“Let’s head back and help guide the remaining logs down,” Sheng Wanyan called out to her team. She swam back through the current, assisting the human chain to systematically transport the felled wood toward the flume so the engineering teams could deploy it.
“I’m so exhausted…” a wife gasped.
Sheng Wanyan pushed through her own crushing fatigue, working alongside the group until a massive wall of lumber was fully wedged against the quilts. The tactical synergy worked beautifully; within minutes, the violent flow of the torrent visibly eased, and the water levels near the residential compound began to stabilize.
A collective wave of relief washed over the battered line. Thoroughly spent, Sheng Wanyan and the exhausted military wives threw their torsos over the remaining logs, letting the residual current drift them back toward the safety of the apartment blocks.
“Wait… is that a rescue convoy?!”
A sharp-eyed wife pointed a trembling finger toward the upper ridge. Hearing her cry, every woman raised her head to peer through the storm. Five heavy military transport trucks had officially crested the mountain pass.
The reinforcement units dispatched from the city had found the main valley roads completely washed out and impassable, forcing the drivers to ruthlessly navigate the treacherous, rocky terrain of the upper ridges to reach the base.
“Captain! The main road has completely collapsed ahead!” a scout reported, leaping from the lead transport. “The garrison headquarters and the staff quarters are positioned directly down this slope, and the lower valley village sits further beyond the ridge.”
“The latest dispatch confirms that the local garrison’s entire personnel and supply reserve have been deployed to the valley sector! The family compound has been left completely isolated, waiting for emergency relief!”
The city commander leaped down from his cabin, his brow furrowing into a hard line as he surveyed the submerged base below. “The vehicles can’t navigate a grade this steep. What’s our strategy?”
“The precise location of the localized breach is obscured by the downpour, sir!” the scout reported.
The city captain made a split-second decision. “First Platoon, form up and follow me to locate the breach!” he commanded. “The remainder of the headcount, manually shoulder the sandbags and move down the ridge!”
“Listen up, men! We are moving into active floodwaters! Priority one is guaranteeing the absolute safety of the military families! Move out!”
“Yes, sir!!!”
At his roar, the fresh troops executed their commands with clockwork military precision. Captain Ming led the vanguard platoon straight into the waist-deep current, searching for the source of the flood.
“Captain… look ahead! There are civilians in the water!”
Mingxuan raised his eyes, spotting a dozen figures floating precariously across a cluster of heavy logs. His gaze locked onto the vanguard timber; the young woman draped over the bark looked utterly spent, her limbs trembling with a weakness so severe she looked as though she might slip beneath the current at any second.
“Quick! Emergency rescue! Pull them out!”
Mingxuan dived headfirst into the current, swimming with powerful strokes toward the logs.
Sheng Wanyan was currently lying limp against the timber, letting her body rest. She was simply trying to navigate the drift back to the buildings when a powerful grip suddenly clamped onto her upper arm, violently hauling her upward.
Startled by the abrupt contact, her fingers slipped from the rough bark, and she plummeted straight into the water, swallowing a massive gulp of the muddy torrent.
“Cough! Cough, cough…!”
Sheng Wanyan erupted into a violent fit of coughing. The floodwater was thick with sediment and debris, and the sudden submersion forced her to choke down several painful mouthfuls.
Realizing his error, Mingxuan immediately tightened his grip on her arm, lifting her torso cleanly back above the surface. Sheng Wanyan frantically wrapped her arms back around the log, hauling her upper body onto the wood as she gasped for air.
“Comrade! Are you alright?!” Mingxuan asked, his voice laced with concern.
Sheng Wanyan wiped her eyes, glaring up at the man who had intercepted her. The moment her vision cleared and she caught the crisp, unfamiliar tailoring of his military uniform, she realized he was part of the relief force from the city.
The exact millisecond Sheng Wanyan raised her head, Mingxuan found himself looking down into a pair of wide, watery eyes that simmered with an intense, unmistakable look of grievance. His heart skipped a violent beat against his ribs, and he found himself entirely paralyzed, unable to avert his gaze.
In reality, Sheng Wanyan wasn’t feeling vulnerable or aggrieved—she was absolutely furious! She had been navigating the current perfectly well on her own, but this overzealous soldier had dragged her under, causing her to choke and inhale dirty water.
“I am perfectly fine!” she snapped, her voice raspy from coughing. Her hair was completely plastered across her face from the submersion. She ruthlessly wiped the water from her skin and threw her long locks back over her shoulder to clear her line of sight.
With her features fully exposed, Mingxuan froze entirely, thoroughly stunned by her striking beauty. His eyes remained locked onto her face, a long breath of relief escaping his lips only when he verified she hadn’t sustained a physical injury.
“Are you the rescue unit from the city?” she asked, her tone crisp.
“Yes!”
“The main breach is positioned exactly five hundred meters ahead,” Sheng Wanyan instructed rapidly. “The local political commissar and the remaining guard detail are currently anchoring the flume.”
Mingxuan nodded sharply, absorbing the intelligence. He immediately turned to his subordinates, ordering a detail to escort the floating military wives safely back to the concrete apartment blocks. “Are you folks residents of the lower valley village?”
“No. We are families from the staff quarters.”
Understanding dawned on Mingxuan. They were military wives—no wonder they possessed the unyielding fortitude required to plunge into a freezing current in the dead of winter to defend their homes. “You’re shivering terribly. Let my men carry you back to the apartment building.”
“There’s no need,” Sheng Wanyan countered, tightening her grip on the log. “We are all seasoned swimmers. Don’t waste your headcount on us.”
“The current at the flume is exceptionally violent. You need to achieve an absolute seal immediately!” she pressed. “The garrison’s sandbag reserve is completely depleted, and the mountain village still desperately requires your reinforcements. Go!”
Mingxuan didn’t waste another second. Now that he possessed the precise coordinates of the breach, organizing the engineering line would be simple. “Understood. Thank you for the intelligence, comrade.”
Sheng Wanyan offered a curt nod. Refusing to hinder their deployment, she rallied the surrounding wives, and the group smoothly navigated their logs back toward the apartment blocks.
The exact millisecond her boots cleared the floodwaters and hit the dry concrete of the entry stairs, Sheng Wanyan’s physical reserves collapsed entirely. Her entire frame began to shake violently from the sub-zero chill as she dragged herself up the flights of stairs. All around her, the other military wives were in an identical state, their faces completely bloodless and translucent as they trembled.
The moment the waiting families caught sight of the rescue team’s return, the corridor erupted into activity. The neighbors swarmed them, frantically ushering the frozen women toward the hot baths and forcing steaming mugs of ginger tea into their hands.
“How is the flume?! Did you manage to seal the breach?!” the voices asked anxiously.
Sheng Wanyan took a slow sip of her tea, her voice raspy but steady as she addressed the crowd. “The momentum of the current has been significantly alleviated. Furthermore, the rescue convoy from the city has officially arrived on base with a full inventory of emergency supplies.”
“The worst is over. Everyone just needs to remain calm and wait out the storm.”
Hearing that the city reinforcements had successfully breached the pass, a profound wave of relief broke over the crowded corridor.
“Waaah… thank the heavens… I truly believed we were going to drown in this building tonight.”
“We’re safe! The city troops are actually here!”
“We’re finally saved.”
Wives collapsed against one another, clutching their children tightly as tears of sheer relief spilled down their cheeks. Once the warmth of the ginger tea stabilized her circulation, Sheng Wanyan slipped away from the celebration, heading straight into the back bedroom to check on little Yi Yi.
Aunt Xie had already efficiently organized a massive pot of hot, thick rice porridge to nourish the exhausted volunteers. Sheng Wanyan forced down a small bowl to rebuild her strength, then anchored herself beside Pan Yue in the nursery, both mothers entirely consumed with worry for their babies.
Little Yi Yi was currently in a state of absolute distress. Grandma Sheng had been pacing the floorboards for hours, cradling the infant and murmuring endless comforts, but the baby’s reedy wails showed zero signs of abating.
“Grandma, let me take her,” Sheng Wanyan murmured, her heart aching.
Grandma Sheng carefully transferred the fussing infant into her arms, her face lined with deep worry. “The poor thing erupted into tears the literal second she woke up from her nap, Wanyan. I tried to feed her the pumped milk, but she stubbornly refused to touch the bottle, crying relentlessly.”
“It’s as if her little heart instinctively knew her mother was out in the danger.”
Sheng Wanyan looked down at the baby cradled against her chest, her chest tightening as she noted that Yi Yi’s fair, delicate face had turned completely crimson from the force of her tears.
“Be good, my darling. Don’t cry anymore,” she whispered, rocking her gently. “Mom is right here. Mom is home.”
The exact moment her ears processed Sheng Wanyan’s familiar, soothing cadence, Yi Yi’s frantic wails began to taper off into tiny hiccuping gasps, and she snuggled herself tightly into her mother’s warmth. Beside them, Pan Yue scooped little Huzi into her arms. The toddler didn’t throw a tantrum or cause a scene; instead, he simply rested his heavy head against his mother’s shoulder, having waited patiently and obediently for her safe return.
Chapter 311: Besieging Zhang Zhaodi and Liang Qian
“You two must not catch a cold. Get some rest right now,” Grandma Sheng said, her heart aching as she thought about how long they had been soaking in that freezing water.
Women had to be incredibly careful about catching a chill, especially her granddaughter, who had given birth just two months ago. Wanyan had endured so much physical strain already; if Xiao Gu found out about this, he would be absolutely heartbroken.
“Grandma, I’ll nurse Yi Yi first, and then I’ll lie down,” Sheng Wanyan replied softly.
Both Huzi and Yi Yi were already famished. Once Sheng Wanyan filled the baby’s stomach, the two children fell asleep almost the instant they were laid on the bed. The chaotic noise filtering in from the corridors no longer mattered to the two young mothers. Thoroughly exhausted, Sheng Wanyan and Pan Yue had no energy left to care about the outside world and fell into a deep sleep.
They slept until the downpour finally ceased, awakened by the ecstatic cheering of the military wives outside.
“The breach is completely sealed! The rain has stopped! We’re saved!”
Sheng Wanyan got out of bed and stepped into the corridor to assess the situation. The rain had dwindled to a microscopic drizzle, and it was clear the worst of the storm had passed. The natural disaster was finally drawing to a close, meaning the deployed soldiers would soon be able to return home. Now that the reinforcements from the city had successfully reinforced the flume, the base would remain perfectly secure even if it started raining again.
“Thank goodness…” Pan Yue whispered, gripping Sheng Wanyan’s arm tightly, her eyes turning red with sheer excitement.
Sheng Wanyan was equally thrilled. With the floodwaters controlled at the base, the situation down in the valley village would undoubtedly improve as well. The villagers could finally look toward rebuilding their lives instead of suffering out in the open.
Around them, the crowd was weeping and laughing simultaneously, completely abandoning any sense of formal decorum.
Seeing that the rain had officially stopped, Aunt Xie let out a massive sigh of relief and sank directly onto the concrete floor. “We truly survived this night. It’s all thanks to Wanyan, who stepped up and rallied everyone to buy us those critical hours. Otherwise, we never would have held out until the rescue convoy arrived.”
The moment the words left Aunt Xie’s mouth, the entire corridor turned toward Sheng Wanyan, their eyes overflowing with profound gratitude. If it weren’t for her organized, calculated strategy, sealing that massive breach would have been an impossibility. The city troops wouldn’t have been able to navigate the base entryways, and everyone trapped in the building would have been left to drown.
“Yes, we owe it all to Captain Gu’s wife!”
“Captain Gu’s wife really shows her city upbringing. She’s incredibly intelligent!”
“Exactly! If it weren’t for her, we’d probably all be standing before the King of Hell right now!”
Sheng Wanyan smiled warmly at their praise, making sure to deflect the compliments back onto the group. “This victory belongs entirely to the hard work of everyone here. If we hadn’t joined forces and operated as a cohesive unit, I could have accomplished absolutely nothing on my own. Every single one of you deserves the credit.”
Hearing her put it that way, the wives felt a surge of pride. Isn’t that the absolute truth? They were the ones who possessed the raw bravery to plunge into waist-deep, sub-zero currents to chop timber, sew blankets, and transport logs.
Suddenly, a collective realization struck them: they weren’t a fraction less capable than the men! In fact, they had displayed far more courage and fortitude than many of the civilian men down in the valley!
Good heavens, they had never imagined they could be so fearless. They had successfully executed a monumental, life-saving operation!
The longer the military wives dwelled on it, the more excited they became, their hearts swelling with unvarnished self-admiration. When they grew old and gray, they would proudly recount this night to their grandchildren, ensuring their descendants would know their lineage was built on strength. They were utterly amazed by their own capabilities.
While the crowd shared comfortable laughter and swapped stories, Liang Qian and Zhang Zhaodi stood silently at the very back of the landing, a toxic mix of envy and regret twisting in their chests.
If I had known they would actually emerge from that freezing current alive and well, I would have volunteered to help, they both thought bitterly. They had stayed behind because they were fully convinced wading into the torrent was suicide, yet the volunteers had returned completely unscathed.
More importantly, this operation was a massive, documented merit! It was the exact kind of glorious achievement that could easily help a husband secure a major military promotion. But now, instead of reaping professional rewards for their households, they were likely facing a severe administrative reprimand.
“Wait a moment… didn’t Liang Qian and Captain Wu’s wife refuse to lift a single finger during the entire crisis?” a sharp voice called out from the front.
“You’re entirely right! They didn’t help fell timber, transport logs, or even assist with the kitchen chores!”
“Exactly! While my elderly mother-in-law and all the other grandmas were running their fingers raw sewing the quilts together, those two sat idly in their rooms!”
“Worse still, they fiercely refused to let anyone touch their own blankets to help fortify the barrier!”
“They’re so young and healthy, yet they were perfectly content to sit back like high-born ladies and let the rest of us bleed!”
The collective resentment boiled over, the wives turning on the two shirkers with furious glares. It was deeply infuriating; these two cowards hadn’t contributed a single ounce of sweat, yet they were sitting here enjoying the dry safety bought by the blood of others. They hadn’t even volunteered to boil water or chop vegetables, choosing to hide in the back while the vanguard risked their lives, only emerging once the danger had cleared.
“What kind of slanderous nonsense are you spewing?!” Zhang Zhaodi shrieked, her face turning a violent red as she tried to argue. “Who says we didn’t help? We assisted with chopping the vegetables in the kitchen!”
But she stood zero chance against a unified front of fifty angry military wives.
“Bah! Don’t insult our intelligence! As if cutting a few vegetables requires an elite skill!” a wife spat back. “Besides, who did you chop those vegetables for? Was it a charity meal for the volunteers? Didn’t your own family eat from that pot?!”
“Exactly! The moment the porridge was served, your children were the ones who shoved their way to the front and wolfed down the largest portions! Don’t assume the rest of us are blind!”
“You two are nothing but parasitic freeloaders, riding on our coat-tails!”
The reprimand rained down from every direction, and Zhang Zhaodi was so thoroughly overwhelmed by the collective fury that she couldn’t summon a single word of defense.
Sensing the dangerous shift in the air, Liang Qian tried to discreetly slip backward into the apartment, terrified of becoming the crowd’s next target. But while she could hide in her room for an hour, she couldn’t hide forever; they lived in the same building and would cross paths every single day.
From this morning forward, the neighbors would curse and ostracize them the moment they stepped into the corridor. The military wives might not possess high-level academic degrees, but they held an unbreakable memory of who had stood beside them when death was at the door. Their collective actions had preserved the lives of everyone in the compound—including the ungrateful households of Liang Qian and Zhang Zhaodi! If their formal education was lacking, their moral integrity was absolute.
Liang Qian realized with a sinking heart that she had zero defense against the neighborhood’s permanent scorn. Every single accusation being hurled down the corridor was a documented fact; there wasn’t a single point she could logically refute. Had she possessed the foresight to swallow her pride and let them scold her to their hearts’ content today, perhaps the resentment would have faded. Instead, by hiding like a coward, she had permanently cemented her status as a social pariah. Moving forward, every trip to the communal market or the water well would be met with open hostility and public shunning. Her peaceful life on this base was officially over.
Pan Yue’s eyes danced with pure delight as she watched the unified crowd systematically decimate Zhang Zhaodi and Liang Qian. She eagerly hooked her arm through Sheng Wanyan’s, dragging her closer to the front lines of the spectacle to appreciate and study the raw, unvarnished vocabulary of traditional neighborhood warfare.
Sheng Wanyan stood in mute awe. She truly hadn’t realized the local dialect contained so many brilliantly scathing, multi-layered insults.
“Zhang Zhaodi, you pathetic, spineless coward!” a woman roared. “Aren’t you even a fraction of a percent terrified that your own son will grow up to despise you once he realizes his mother is a parasitic joke?!”
Sheng Wanyan’s respect for the base wives shot through the roof. The speaker hadn’t even resorted to common profanity; she had simply deployed a cold, surgical truth that struck straight at the target’s maternal heart.
Once the spectacular neighborhood drama drew to a natural close, Sheng Wanyan returned to the Pan kitchen to prepare a hot meal. She intended to utilize the privacy to slip a generous dose of spiritual spring water into the family’s drinking supply; otherwise, after enduring prolonged submersion in sub-zero currents, every single member of her household would succumb to a severe respiratory infection. She and Pan Yue especially required immediate internal reinforcement; if they failed to properly safeguard their postpartum health, the long-term physical consequences would be devastating.
As she watched the water come to a boil, her mind drifted back to the courageous military wives who had stood shoulder-to-shoulder with her at the flume. Their physical reserves were likely entirely spent, and many would soon fall ill.
A part of her wanted to offer protection to those brave women, but she flatly refused to simply dump her spiritual spring water into the communal reservoir. Doing so would inadvertently benefit the ungrateful households of Zhang Zhaodi and Liang Qian—and Sheng Wanyan was far too fiercely protective of her resources to ever reward cowards.
After mulling over the logistics, she formulated a brilliant alternative. She would design a highly concentrated traditional herbal cold powder, establishing a realistic, scientific cover story so she could safely distribute the remedy to the base. She had already successfully introduced a revolutionary hemostatic compound to the military command, so debuting a powerful, fast-acting respiratory remedy wouldn’t arouse a single shred of suspicion.
Sheng Wanyan anchored herself at the dining table, meticulously drafting the herbal blueprint for the cold granules.
Political Commissar Xie and the remaining senior officers didn’t cross the threshold of the apartment block until early the following morning. The engineering teams had spent the entire night stationed at the flume, maintaining a vigilant guard to ensure the barrier network held against any residual surges. Aunt Xie’s heart had been locked in tight anxiety for her husband all night, which was the sole reason she had repeatedly dispatched young guard soldiers to run hot rations and dry wool clothing down to the front lines.
By the time the sun finally crested the horizon, the driving rain had vanished completely, replaced by a brilliant, blinding winter sun that illuminated the snow-dusted base. Standing by the window and watching the golden light break through the clouds, the compound families finally let out a long, collective breath of relief. The nightmare was over.
