Country Love: Xie Dajiao, 37, is pregnant!

In less than two minutes, Lin Chen emerged carrying a young girl, followed by Old Mrs. Li, who was leaning on a cane, as they slowly walked out of the ruins.

The girl, who looked to be about sixteen or seventeen years old, was Li Yinping, a high school student who had returned to her village to spend the Lunar New Year with her grandmother.

Her school uniform was covered in dust, and her face was still wet with tears. She was terrified, but seeing so many people, she bit her lip tightly and refused to cry out.

Mrs. Li was perfectly fine, but her legs were so weak from fright.

"Thank you, Lin Chen! You saved our lives!" Old Mrs. Li gripped Lin Chen's arm tightly, tears streaming down her face, sobbing uncontrollably.

Lin Chen gently helped the old woman up to comfort her, then looked down at Li Yinping, reached out to brush the dust off her shoulders, and spoke very softly:

"Were you not hit? Are you injured? Can you walk normally?"

Li Yinping stared blankly at Lin Chen. The dazzling snow light illuminated Lin Chen's handsome face, his hair was covered with snowflakes, and his eyes were gentle and reliable.

He was the one who saved her from the dangerous ruins, calming her fear with his words, "Don't be afraid."

The sixteen-year-old girl's heart was pure and passionate. Looking at the handsome guy in front of her, her heart raced. She shyly lowered her head and whispered:

"I'm fine, thank you, brother."

Lin Chen assumed she was just frightened, gave her a few more instructions and told her to go to the village office with her grandmother to calm down, then turned around and led his men to the next dangerous location.

Li Yinping stood in the snow, her gaze fixed on that figure, unwilling to move for a long time.

The rescue he gave her amidst the snow and ruins, that calm figure, was deeply imprinted in her heart.

Later, she and her grandmother were taken back to the city by their family. She filled her diary with these youthful feelings and secretly set a goal to study hard, get into university, and return to Ivory Mountain to see the person who saved her from danger again.

After rescuing the grandmother and grandson, Lin Chen did not rest for a moment. He led his men to fully integrate into the self-rescue team and buried themselves in their work.

He was young and strong, and he worked methodically and didn't work blindly. He would first clear the surface snow, then dig drainage ditches to clear the water. He was more than twice as fast as the villagers.

He kept swinging the shovel, his palms were red and hot from being rubbed, even wearing gloves didn't help. He worked from morning till sunset, and managed to clear the main north-south road through the village.

The snow has stopped, but the wind hasn't died down.

As the setting sun pressed down on the mountain peaks, the villagers, exhausted from a day's work, slumped over, their backs aching and legs sore, leaning on their shovels and panting heavily.

Lin Chen is still doing it.

He was busy from dawn till dusk today, rescuing people, clearing snow, and opening roads, always at the forefront of everything.

His clothes were covered in snow and sweat, making him look disheveled, but he worked with no hesitation, even more diligently than the old farmers in the village who worked in the fields year-round.

The villagers saw it all and remembered it.

These past two days, with the village locked down by heavy snow, every household has enough food stored up to eat and use, and no one is going hungry.

But the mess left after the disaster is a headache for anyone to look at.

The snow had frozen the ground solid, making it as hard as an iron plate. It was impossible to clear it with just a few shovels, let alone rebuild or resume production.

The temporary resettlement site at the village office was completely set up. All the residents of the dilapidated houses, the elderly, and children were moved there. The house was warm with a big stove burning inside. With a place to stay and a safe haven, the villagers, who had been worried for two days, finally felt relieved.

Ivory Mountain has weathered this natural disaster.

But the impact of the snow disaster is far from over.

On the seventeenth day of the first lunar month, the town's snowplows slowly made their way in from the national highway, but the snow was too thick to move an inch.

On the nineteenth day of the first lunar month, the bulldozer barely managed to push the vehicle to the mountain pass, still a long way from entering the village.

On the 20th day of the first lunar month, the rescue team finally entered the village, and the village, which had been without power, was lit up again.

Until the end of the first lunar month, the dirt roads in the village could barely accommodate tricycles and tractors...

……

The snow has stopped, the roads are open, but it's still bitterly cold.

The winds in Xiangyashan have been fierce these past few days, and the snow on the ground is frozen solid, making it slippery to walk on.

The liveliest place in the whole village is Big Foot Supermarket.

Inside, the large iron stove was burning red-hot, with flames leaping upwards. As soon as you entered the room, you were greeted by a wave of heat mixed with the smell of coal smoke.

The windowpanes were covered in a thick layer of white frost, and you couldn't see anything outside.

Even though the shelves in the room were empty, it was still packed with villagers who had nothing else to do, so they all gathered around the color TV on the counter to watch the show.

The TV presenter is broadcasting:

"During this cold wave and blizzard, the total snowfall in Kaiyuan County reached... Due to the northerly winds of level 6 or 7, the snow accumulation at village entrances, ditches, ponds, and wind-swept mountain valleys exceeded 1.2 meters..."

"The temperature dropped by 14°C. The Beijing-Harbin Expressway and National Highway 102 are currently closed. Rural dirt roads are expected to be closed for more than 7 days, and primary and secondary schools throughout the city will be closed for 2 days."

As soon as he finished speaking, the room erupted in smacking sounds.

"My goodness! No wonder the snow is already as deep as a person!"

"I've lived for over forty years and this is the first time I've seen such heavy snow. In previous years, it was never like this."

The older woman next to her chimed in:

"It's so cold! The wind howls at night, and the windows are letting in drafts, so the kang (heated brick bed) isn't even warm."

"Minus thirty degrees Celsius? That's ridiculous!"

The old man sighed as he smoked his pipe.

"Winters in previous years weren't this bad; this year is truly awful."

No one interrupted anyone; they chatted away, one sentence after another, in a chaotic mess.

The television news continued, beginning to report on agricultural losses, but the tone became much somber:

"More than 1.1 vegetable and flower greenhouses and solar greenhouses across the city were damaged, of which more than 3200 completely collapsed. The mortality rate of crops inside the greenhouses due to frost damage exceeded 90%, and the direct economic loss to facility agriculture alone exceeded 2.7 million yuan..."

"The frost damage rate of flower buds of fruit trees such as apples and pears has reached 60% to 80%, and fruit production is expected to decrease by more than 70%. Nearly 180,000 square meters of livestock and poultry pens have collapsed or been damaged, and more than 120,000 piglets and poultry have frozen to death. The interruption of feed transportation has caused large-scale farmers to run out of feed for 1 to 2 days."

The room fell silent instantly, with only sighs remaining.

"My two vegetable greenhouses have completely collapsed, and all the seedlings have frozen to death..."

"You're doing a little better. Mine had so many branches broken off, and all the flower buds were frozen black. There's no chance of fruit this year. It's been a wasted year."

"Sigh, whose family hasn't suffered losses?"

"This snow is a real disaster; it's ruined everything for farmers and livestock breeders."

As everyone sighed in dismay, the television continued to report on the losses suffered by ordinary people. Xie Dajiao turned the volume up even higher:

"More than 210 10 kV power lines in rural areas were damaged or broken, and more than 70% of administrative villages experienced power outages for 2 to 3 days. A total of more than 470 farmhouses were damaged or destroyed, and the total direct economic loss in the city was about 420 million yuan, with agricultural losses accounting for more than 70%."

Xie Dajiao slowly wiped the counter with a rag, then struck up a conversation:

"The news wasn't exaggerating at all; our village alone is like this."

"Yes, the old mud houses simply can't withstand this heavy snow."

"This year's disaster is truly real."

Just as they were getting into the conversation, the village loudspeaker outside suddenly blared.

Changgui's loud voice was known throughout the village:

"Attention all village representatives! A general meeting will be held at the village office at 10:00 AM to convey the town's snow disaster relief subsidy policy. Anyone affected by the disaster or facing financial difficulties should come and listen! There are many policies in place, don't miss it!"

Upon hearing this, everyone in the room immediately perked up, and their previous worries vanished.

"There's also a subsidy? I'd better go check it out!"

"My shed collapsed, I'm sure I'll benefit from that!"

"Let's go, let's go, don't be late!"

A large group of people poured out, heading towards the village office in twos and threes, each with their own agenda, hoping to snag some subsidies to cover their expenses.

……