After fleeing the famine, my older sister and I married the brother next door.

Seeing the two brothers standing there unharmed despite their disheveled state, Su Xiaoyin and Su Xiaoqing finally breathed a sigh of relief, followed by a surge of lingering fear and inexplicable anger. They pushed through the crowd and walked to their husbands.

Su Xiaoyin carefully examined Chen Dashan from head to toe, and seeing that he had no obvious external injuries except for being cold and wet, she lowered her voice, her tone trembling: "It's not that I'm asking you to stand by and watch someone die... but before you save him, can you think about your families? Think about the four children on the kang who have just learned to crawl? Think about your parents, think about us? What is the river like now? You just jump in like that? What if... what if something goes wrong, how are we supposed to live?" As she spoke, her eyes were already red.

Su Xiaoqing gripped Chen Xiaohe's cold hand tightly, feeling both distressed and annoyed: "Exactly! After hearing what Aunt Ermu said, I was terrified! My legs were so weak I could barely walk! Next time, next time you can't be so reckless!"

Looking at his wife's reddened eyes and still-shaken expression, Chen Dashan knew he was in the wrong. He moved his lips, wanting to say something, but in the end he only whispered, "I was in a hurry at the time and didn't think that much... The child was struggling right in front of me, any later and he would have been far away."

Chen Xiaohe stammered, "We're decent swimmers... and besides, we threw the pig feed baskets on the shore, so it's fine..."

"Nothing's wrong?!" Su Xiaoyin raised her voice, then quickly lowered it again. "It'll be too late if something happens! Hurry home! Make some ginger soup to warm you up!"

Under the half-reproachful, half-admiring gazes of their wives and the surrounding villagers, the two brothers silently picked up their equally soaking wet baskets (which were empty; the pig feed had long since been washed away by the water) and followed Su Xiaoyin and her sister home. Chen Xiaohe took a few steps, then looked back at the riverbank and muttered to himself, "...all that pig feed was for nothing."

Back home, Chen's mother was already pacing anxiously in the main room. The four children had just woken up from their afternoon nap and were sitting on the kang (a heated brick bed) playing, still half-asleep. When she saw her sons come in, dripping wet, Chen's mother rushed over and touched their hands and faces. They were ice-cold. She was immediately filled with anxiety and anger, and launched into a tirade: "You two good-for-nothings! How dare you! You think you can just walk into that river like that? Huh? Saving lives is the priority, but you don't care about your own? If something happens to you, won't it cost your father and me our lives? What will happen to Xiaoyin, Xiaoqing, and these four children?" As she spoke, tears welled up in her eyes, from fear and anger.

Despite the scolding, Chen's mother didn't stop. She turned and went into the kitchen, muttering, "Wait! I'm going to make ginger soup! I'll make sure you all learn your lesson!"

Su Xiaoyin wanted to help, but Chen's mother waved her hand: "Watch the child, I'll do it!" She took out some old ginger, washed it, and instead of chopping it carefully with a knife, she put it directly on the cutting board and smashed it to pieces with the back of the knife. She didn't even peel the ginger, and threw it all into the pot, added more than half a pot of water, stuffed hard firewood into the stove, and burned it brightly.

Before long, the ginger soup was ready. It was a deep, dark yellow color, and an extremely pungent and overpowering ginger aroma assaulted the nostrils. Mother Chen ladled out two large bowls, carried them to the main room, and placed them in front of Chen Dashan and Chen Xiaohe: "Drink! Don't leave a single drop!"

Chen Dashan looked at the suspiciously colored, steaming soup, said nothing, picked it up, blew on it, and tentatively took a small sip. He immediately choked on the intensely spicy broth, which hit him right in the head without any buffer, but still didn't utter a sound, held his breath, and gulped it down in several large mouthfuls. Chen Xiaohe also picked up the bowl with a pained expression, took a sip, and almost spat it out: "Mom! This...this is too spicy! How much ginger did you put in? At least...add some brown sugar to make it milder!"

With her back to them, Chen's mother was pretending to tidy up the sewing basket on the table. Hearing this, she didn't turn around and said stiffly, "No! Drink it like that! Spicy is good! Spicy will drive away the cold! Spicy will make you remember this day!"

Chen Xiaohe grimaced, seeing that his older brother had already finished drinking and was pursing his lips to endure the burning sensation. Looking at his mother's resolute back, he knew begging was useless, so he pinched his nose and, like taking medicine, gulped down the entire bowl of scalding hot ginger soup. After finishing, both of them opened their mouths, fanning themselves vigorously with their hands, tears welling up in their eyes from the spiciness.

Su Xiaoyin and Su Xiaoqing watched from the side, feeling both distressed and amused. They knew their mother-in-law was deeply worried and frightened, which was why she was expressing herself this way. Su Xiaoyin silently poured two bowls of warm water for them to rinse their mouths, while Su Xiaoqing turned and went to the inner room to find clean clothes: "Quickly change out of your wet clothes, cover yourselves with the blankets to sweat it out, and don't catch a cold."

A thrilling rescue ordeal finally came to a temporary end with a bowl of extremely spicy ginger soup and the scolding and concern from family members.