Yu’s mother noticed that both her husband’s and second son’s expressions were grim, and she panicked: "Could it really be that they’re here looking for her?"
Before they could answer, she stood up abruptly: "Are we in trouble?"
Yu’s father took a small basket with tobacco leaves from the bed’s headboard, tore off a small piece of paper, rolled a cigarette for himself, packed the tobacco tightly, struck a match to light the cigarette, took a deep drag and exhaled before speaking: "Don’t panic just yet. It’s not certain that they’re here for her."
He took a few more deep drags, then looked at his second son: "Don’t tell anyone else in the family about this. Also, don’t engage in anything else over the next few days. Go out and find out more about this."
Yu Shuosheng nodded: "Alright, I’ll go have a chat with my buddy tomorrow."
With the matter settled, Yu Shuosheng finally stepped out of the room.
Wan Rongjuan, seeing her husband come out, quickly approached him: "Shuosheng, what’s got you rushing to talk to your parents so anxiously?"
Yu Shuosheng, having just been instructed by his father, said: "It’s nothing major, just ran into my third aunt in town. Her son Haijing is getting engaged, asked me to tell mom and dad to come to the banquet."
Wan Rongjuan was a bit skeptical: "That’s it?"
Yu Shuosheng glared: "What else do you think it could be?"
*
After reviewing the investigation materials, Han Jingchen felt disappointed. Although these people were all born in that year, none of them was his daughter.
The records were very detailed, yet none matched the information received from Qiu Jouxuan.
When Han Jingchen arranged the investigation, he was cautious and didn’t disclose his daughter’s actual birth date, only mentioning she was born in 1960, which already ruled out more than half of the options just by this birth date alone.
Also, the child was sent out from the county hospital by Qiu Jouxuan, and Han trusted Qiu wouldn’t lie to him, leaving only a few possibilities.
He looked at the three remaining sets of information in his hand: "Arrange a meeting with these people for me."
Zhang Libing took a glance at the documents in the old leader’s hand: "Alright, I’ll arrange it right away."
Han Jingchen, anxious to find his daughter, didn’t want to delay for even a moment, disregarding his own fatigue from travel.
Su Jingsong took the opportunity to remind him: "Mr. Han, it’s time for therapy, everything is ready."
Knowing that for his daughter’s sake, he must take care of his health, Han acknowledged that his previous despair had made him indifferent to his body, but things were different now.
So he obediently stood up: "Let’s go."
*
He Jinxuan and his team had been working all day and finally managed to bury the cement pipes, allowing the water coming down from the mountains to be channeled through underground pipes directly into the Yuquan River, thus preventing the water from flooding into the factory.
With a few cement pipes left, the deputy factory manager in charge of the project instructed everyone to make the most of these resources and also divert the factory’s water into the Yuquan River, ensuring that, even if the rain continued, the factory yard wouldn’t flood excessively.
Because they had prepared in advance, during the next two days of torrential rain, there were no major issues at the factory.
However, in the villages surrounding the factory, disaster struck on the second day; floodwaters rushed down from the mountains, destroying earthen houses along the streets, sweeping away everything inside.
For villagers living on flat lands, water had flooded into their homes, almost reaching their beds, causing a great deal of fright.
After the rain stopped, the Mechanical Factory received help requests from nearby villages, and the factory leaders quickly organized personnel to assist the villagers in clearing out the mud.
Some families lost everything to the flash floods, but fortunately, the village cadres were responsible enough to have called for an early evacuation, or else the overwhelming waters would have been inescapable under those circumstances.
Early one morning, Zhao Jianlan rushed over: "Xinyan, Zhang Wenqiang and the others are organizing classmates from the Mechanical Factory to help fellow classmates’ families in the villages. Are you going?"
Yu Xinyan, hearing about this, naturally wanted to go. Though she couldn’t offer huge help, she could still do what she could, so she readily agreed: "When are we leaving?"