Forced to marry a disabled man in the countryside? I'll repay you tenfold!

Lu Mingxuan snorted. Little Arend laughed gleefully from the side, "Lu, your gaze is too blatant. Dr. Su's husband has already noticed. You'd better tone it down."

Lu Mingxuan, however, argued vehemently: "My true love is Ms. Su. I don't mind that she has a husband. But her husband minds everything, which shows that my love is even deeper."

Arendt shrugged: "Oh, now that you mention it, there's some truth to it."

Under cover of darkness, Deputy Commander Zhang had already ordered hundreds of metal barrels to be filled with spring water. Now, he led a water transport team and dozens of people, making a grand procession towards the resettlement site at the very bottom of the river.

As everyone passed the large pit from yesterday, they craned their necks. The original pit had long since been filled in by spring water, turning into a small lake that shimmered in the morning light. The lakeside was crowded with people who had come after hearing the news, and they brought all sorts of utensils, including pots, pans, wooden buckets, and iron basins, making it as lively as a market day.

The convoy traveled for nearly an hour before arriving at its destination.

The roads and houses in this area were all submerged in water. Several open spaces on slightly higher ground were covered with plastic sheeting and straw sheds, densely packed together, forming a refugee camp that stretched as far as the eye could see. Next to it was a middle school that hadn't been flooded, with gray walls and blue tiles, which became a temporary command post.

As soon as the convoy arrived, people swarmed around it.

"They're here! They're here again! More military trucks, are they bringing us supplies?"

"Last night they told us to pack up and leave, but then in the middle of the night they said we weren't leaving anymore, that the water upstream had receded? What's going on?"

"Look, there are tons of metal buckets behind us! It's water! There's water!"

"Great! Finally, we have water to drink!"

The person in charge, Ma Guoliang, pushed through the crowd and shouted repeatedly:

"Alright, alright, quiet down! Don't push! Each family, send one representative, grab your gear and line up!"

He ran to the car while talking, his voice hoarse with anxiety.

"Commander Zhang, what's the situation up there? We waited all night, and the communications officer said in the middle of the night that the water had receded? Really, completely? That can't be right, it's still raining upstream, the water should still be rising... But if the water has receded, why did you bring in so much water? We can't even drink it all here, we should leave some for the other points too..."

His place is at the very bottom of the river, so news is always a step behind. Plus, last night they kept saying they were going to withdraw and then saying they didn't need to, so he didn't sleep a wink all night and his mouth was covered in blisters from worry.

Deputy Commander Zhang jumped out of the vehicle, his face beaming with an undisguised smile:

"It's receded! Not only has the water completely receded over our area, but a natural spring has also appeared in Liulinwa, turning it into a lake overnight. All of this is thanks to Comrade Su Wanqing!"

He then vividly recounted what Su Wanqing had done the day before: how she predicted the flood, how she waited for the spring water, and how she turned the dam from danger to safety with just a few words.

The people around were stunned, and even forgot to put down the buckets of water they were holding.

"What? Comrade Su Wanqing is the bodhisattva who donated all that cooked food to us? And she's so powerful, she can make the flood recede just like that?"

"Not only did the floodwaters recede, but they also said there were underground springs, and suddenly so much water came? Is it really that miraculous?"

"So that means all those water barrels on the truck behind us are for our shelter? Does that mean we'll be able to drink our fill this time?"

Deputy Commander Zhang laughed heartily: "Not only can we drink our fill, but we can drink as much as we want! Your resettlement site is the furthest away, so delivering water is a bit of a hassle. The other resettlement sites that are closer have to fetch water from the lake themselves."

He then quickly introduced Su Wanqing to everyone: "This is Comrade Su Wanqing. She not only donated food and clothing to everyone, but also came to inspect the situation personally. I tried to dissuade her from coming because of the danger, but she insisted. If it weren't for Comrade Su Wanqing, the floodwaters wouldn't have receded so quickly!"

"Comrade Su Wanqing is truly a living Bodhisattva!"

"We owe a lot to Comrade Su Wanqing this time. She provided everything, from food to drinks."

Secretary Zhou muttered to himself, "This deputy commander changes his tune too quickly. He's all talk today, but I wonder who was it that kept preventing Comrade Su from going to the front lines yesterday."

Upon hearing this, Deputy Commander Zhang blushed and quickly changed the subject, introducing Ma Guoliang: "This is Comrade Ma Guoliang, the county magistrate, and currently the person in charge of this resettlement site."

Ma Guoliang shouted at the crowd, "Alright, stop crowding around and get in line for water!"

He then turned and held Su Wanqing's hand, his face showing both gratitude and shame:

"Comrade Su, on behalf of all the disaster-stricken people in our county, I bow to you! You saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of us this time. This kindness will be recorded in our county annals!"

Su Wanqing smiled and helped him up: "County Chief Ma, you flatter me. It's all what I should do."

Deputy Commander Zhang then said, "Old Ma, Comrade Su is here to inspect the resettlement site and also to check on the floodwaters behind it and take some measurements. You don't know how capable Comrade Su is; after she takes the measurements, she'll know when the floodwaters here will recede completely. Could you first give me a brief introduction to the situation here?"

Ma Guoliang readily agreed, leading the group uphill while pointing to the vast expanse of water behind the resettlement site, saying:

"Comrade Su, look, this area was originally the central district of our county, and it's also the hardest-hit area in this disaster. This county has a population of over 500,000. Except for the schools, the county hospital, and the martyrs' cemetery, which are on higher ground and weren't flooded, the rest are all submerged. Other towns are at least villages, with at most tens of thousands of people affected. But here, almost half of the county is flooded. Even the county's agricultural machinery factory, textile factory, sugar factory, and the newly built department store are all soaked."

He sighed heavily as he spoke: "Fortunately, there was a flood warning issued at the time, and the water was slowly rising, so we evacuated everyone in time, and no one was killed. But we couldn't salvage any of our belongings or the machinery in the factory."

As far as the eye could see, the entire county was submerged in water. Some two- or three-story buildings had only their roofs showing, and a few trees had only their tips sticking out of the water. It was a pitiful sight.

Ma Guoliang then pointed to a half-submerged gray building not far away and said:

"Everything else is fine, but that's the place inside—our county's fertilizer plant. It has a 'perfluorinated quench nitrogen fertilizer synthesis tower,' and there are only three of those in the whole country!"

These were imported from the Soviet Union two years ago at great expense by the country. The urea production of several provinces in North China depends entirely on these three sets of equipment.

We had just started trial production last year, and were looking forward to ramping up production this spring, when a major flood soaked the motor, compressor, and synthesis tower!

As he spoke, his eyes reddened. "It's already the end of February, and spring plowing will begin in another month! Wheat needs to be fertilized to turn green, and corn needs to be sown. Which of these requires urea?"