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She turned around and took one last look at the entire village, a village she had barely any recollection of. Several years from now, a new village may rise up in its place, but it would never be the same as the village of the past.

With her own eyes, she witnessed, for the first time, the transformation of the whole village, and the passage of time beneath the engulfing waves.

Indeed, at times, the catastrophe stood starkly before her.

That day, Tang Yuxin and her brother, Tang Zhinian, were busy working in the fields. Like most others, they too were out in the fields when suddenly, thunder and lightning rolled in.

Tang Zhinian quickly dropped his hoe onto the ground.

He hastily scooped up Tang Yuxin and took her to a small house. His heart pounded erratically, a suffocating sense of dread creeping up his throat.

The rain intensified, pouring relentlessly to the ground as if being dumped from a bucket.

“We’re in trouble!” someone shouted, “Flood’s coming, run for your lives…”

Tang Zhinian’s face went pale as he glanced at his brother.

“Brother, I’m going home to get the money,” Tang Zhijun, wiping the rain from his face, stubbornly resolved. Their hard-earned money was buried at home. He couldn’t abandon it.

The money was their lifeline. He had intended to use it to send little Yuxin for piano lessons.

“Don’t go,” Tang Zhinian caught hold of his brother, “We can earn money again, but if we lose our lives, we’ll lose everything. Let’s go.”

Without a word, he removed his coat, draped it over his daughter, and started running towards the hill. The villagers followed suit, each scrambling towards higher ground with their families, leaving everything behind. Hands were either empty, or clutching at their children.

Tang Zhinian looked back one last time at the village, his eyes red and swollen. In just a few minutes, the floodwaters had reached the village, slowly submerging it.

He clenched his jaw, forced himself to turn away, and continued to run uphill with Tang Zhinian.

The whole of the village – old and young – was there, shivering in the cold. Cries of children mixed with sobs of women and the elderly, filled the air amidst the deadly floodwaters.

Thankfully, a headcount revealed that everyone had escaped the village without any casualties. As it was the farming season, most were outside when catastrophe struck, enabling them to run for their lives in time.

In the blink of an eye, the floodwaters submerged the entire village, even drowning some rooftops. People stood in stunned silence, wondering when the floods would recede, worrying about their savings stored at home, their chickens, sheep, and the store of grains.

But this flood had washed everything away. Everything.

The rain continued to fall. Tang Zhinian, with Tang Yuxin in his arms, took shelter under a large tree. The thick leaves kept the rain at bay. At that moment, he was no different from the rest of the villagers.

All their efforts for the year had been wasted. He felt like crying.

Suddenly, a little hand rested gently on the back of his coarse hand.

“Daddy, we’ll be okay,” Tang Zhinian touched his daughter’s face and pulled her closer, protecting her from the rain.

The people of the village huddled together, neither eating nor drinking.

Tang Yuxin reached into her pocket, pulling out a piece of candy. This candy was saved from the New Year’s stash. She never ate any of it, instead kept it aside. She had an intuition about the imminent flood, so she filled her pockets with many such candies.