Thunder and Rain

She took out buckets of various sizes, cardboard, scissors, transparent tape, mulch, cement, and sand from the space.

Since she couldn't go out during the typhoon, why didn't she take advantage of the free time to make another batch of cement flower pots? It was such a waste that there was still so much planting soil in the space that wasn't being used.

Without hesitation, she cleaned up the pots and pans on the coffee table.

They took out several pieces of leftover plastic sheeting and laid them one by one on the floor, securing the edges with tape to prevent cement slurry from splashing onto the floor.

She carefully poured in the cement and sand according to the ratio, then stirred it evenly with an entrenching tool. When the dry powder was stirred, a small cloud of gray dust rose up, making her turn her head and cough twice.

Do not add too much water at once; pour it slowly while stirring, until all the dry powder is turned into a uniform mortar.

It has a consistency similar to thick yogurt; when you scoop it up with a shovel, it flows slowly but doesn't spread out.

The mixed cement slurry was poured into the mold she had prepared, shovel by shovel.

The molds come in all shapes and sizes, including upside-down plastic buckets used as negative molds, and square basins made by pasting plastic bags onto cardboard.

After pouring in the cement grout, she poked it a few times with a thin wooden stick to remove air bubbles and fill every corner of the mold with the grout.

Then insert a short bamboo tube into the bottom of each flowerpot, leaving space for a drainage hole. Once finished, place them on a plastic film and let them air dry and set.

Xu Xiaoyan made more than forty flower pots in one go, in all shapes and sizes.

The largest size of the molded flower pots made using plastic flower pots as molds is suitable for planting eggplants, peppers, and the like.

She plans to grow scallions and garlic in the square basins made of cardboard. A row of square basins stacked in the greenhouse will look nice and save space.

By the time she finished the last flowerpot, her arms were already starting to ache.

There was still some cement slurry left, and she didn't waste it. She poured it all into the largest mold and made a deep, large round basin.

All the flower pots were lined up on the mulch, wet and emitting the distinctive alkaline smell of cement.

She squatted down and watched for a while, feeling very happy. Once these flower pots were completely dry, she could fill them with soil, plant seedlings, and start a new round of planting.

The next morning, she was awakened by the violent shaking of the window frame. There was a muffled thud, as if something had hit the glass hard.

She drew back the curtains and saw that the wind outside was a whole level stronger than yesterday.

The glass panes stuck to the window frame were shaking violently; even the crisscrossing tape seemed unable to withstand such a strong wind.

Xu Xiaoyan's heart tightened. If the tape couldn't hold up and the glass shattered, the wind and rain would rush in, and her second floor would be ruined.

Without thinking too much, she pulled out several rolls of transparent mulch film that she had previously hoarded from her space, and also found a handful of iron nails and a few thin bamboo strips.

Quickly unfold the mulch film, stand on the windowsill and cut it to a size roughly the same as the window. Then cover the mulch film from the outside of the window and smooth it against the glass.

The wind outside was too strong. She held the membrane down with one hand and used the other hand to press bamboo strips against the edge of the membrane. Then she used iron nails to hammer them one by one into the wooden frame of the window.

When the wind blew again, the plastic film made a whooshing sound.

But it's pressed tightly against the glass, with no gaps, so the wind can't get in. The tension on the tape is also largely absorbed by the floor film, making the whole window much quieter.

She worked on all the windows in the house in the same way, running around for almost an hour and a half, until the shaking of the windows finally subsided.

Xu Xiaoyan had just sat down when the floor above her head trembled slightly from a muffled clap of thunder. The thunder was so close and powerful that it made the windowpanes vibrate.

She looked up, but before she could react, a second clap of thunder followed, even more muffled than the first.

The sound of the rain has changed. Although it had been raining continuously before, it was a moderate-intensity downpour. Now, the sound has suddenly become denser.

She walked quickly to the window and looked down; a shallow layer of water had appeared on the ground in the yard.

Her heart sank. The rain from last night hadn't caused any flooding. Although the ground was damp, you could still see the original color of the soil.

But the current rainfall is significantly heavier than yesterday's peak, and it doesn't seem like it's going to stop anytime soon.

She stared at the water on the ground for a while and noticed that the water level was slowly rising at a visible rate.

The floodwaters started spreading from the edge of the yard towards the center, gradually submerging patches of the ground that were still visible, and blurring the outline of the pebble path.

She turned and quickly went downstairs to the first floor, walking to the small door leading to the yard. The water in the yard was indeed more noticeable than what she had seen from the second floor.

The water level at the base of the courtyard wall had already submerged the half-brick she had left in the corner yesterday.

Although it's still a while before the water reaches the stairs and floods the house, given the current rate of rainfall, if it continues for four or five hours without abating, it's only a matter of time before the first floor gets flooded.

Xu Xiaoyan leaned against the door frame, revealing a bitter smile that was both helpless and self-deprecating. Well, a typhoon and flooding at the same time, she really had it all.

The last flood completely ruined the first floor, and she went to great lengths to clean, disinfect, and renovate it to turn that space into a planting area.

As a result, she had only stored the crops in her space for two days when the floodwaters were about to return.

Although the crops were all in a safe place, the sight of the water rising little by little still made her feel uneasy.

At the top of the stairs were piled up the sandbags she had made from woven burlap sacks last time, filled with soil dug out of the yard.

However, those sandbags had been used once during the last flood, and some of the soil inside had been washed away after being soaked in water.

A lot of mud was washed away, and each bag was much lighter than before.

She hadn't had time to refill it, thinking she'd do it later, but it's been delayed until now.

Now that we need to use them, those half-empty bags are no longer effective at blocking water and must be refilled.

She walked to the corner on the first floor where miscellaneous items were piled up, bent down, and pulled out the dozens of flat, sagging sacks one by one.

The bags still had yellowish-brown mud stains left from the last flood, and the ropes at the openings of some bags had come loose, spilling half of the soil out.

She put the half-full bags back into full bags, and then took the empty bags to the yard to fill them with soil.

The rain outside was pouring down, but the greenhouse film on the roof of her yard remained relatively intact.

The fact that it could shield her from the downpour, allowing her to work outdoors without wearing a raincoat, was a stroke of good luck amidst misfortune.