The legend begins with becoming a white deer.

It has been raining in Qinghe Town for a full forty days.

A group of thirty or forty people had gathered in front of the broken walls and ruins. The muffled sounds of shovels digging mud, the crisp cracking of wood breaking, and the hushed shouts of the crowd mingled together.

Shi Yan, with his arms bare, carried a broken beam as thick as a bowl on his shoulder as he backed away. Muddy water flowed down his dark spine, forming a murky line at his waist.

The eldest son, Shi Huaishan, squatted at the gap in the ruins, digging in the dirt. His fingernails were full of black mud. The second son, Shi Yunzhou, held up a dim kerosene lamp, the light of which shimmered in the rain, making people dizzy.

"Found it! Here it is, over here!"

A shout made everyone stop.

The crowd hurriedly moved the broken bricks that were pressing down on top of the body, first pulling out a young man, then his wife.

Neither of them was seriously injured, but they were already unrecognizable as human.

His hair was matted into clumps, covered in mud and ash, stuck to his face. His thin clothes were torn to shreds, and his arms and calves were covered with cuts of varying depths, from which blood mixed with mud dripped down.

The woman had lost her left shoe long ago, and her foot was cut open by a shard of broken porcelain. She could barely stand and had to be supported by the man.

The man's back was also bruised and bloodied from splinters, but he was oblivious, his eyes fixed on the ruins that had once been his home.

Their five-year-old son was carried out first, clutching the woman's clothes, his voice trembling with tears: "Mother, our home is gone, where will we sleep tonight?"

The woman's body trembled, and her lips quivered as she turned to look at her husband.

The man opened his mouth, but in the end, he didn't say a word. He just raised his hands and hugged his wife and children tightly in his arms. The rain hit their faces, and it was hard to tell whether it was rain or tears.

Don't worry.

The town mayor walked over, leaning on a wooden stick, his trousers rolled up to his knees, his shoes covered in thick mud.

"The three of you can stay at my place for now. You can squeeze in if you want."

The couple were stunned for a moment, then their eyes reddened as they were about to kneel down, but the town mayor helped them up.

He sighed heavily, looking at the ruins before him, his voice full of exhaustion: "This is the seventh house in town. The roofs have been leaking for so long that the rafters are completely rotten, and they could collapse at any moment."

These words were like a match, igniting the anger that had been building up for over a month.

"Damn it, is this heaven trying to kill us?"

"This damn weather! It's been raining since last month, and I haven't seen the sun even once."

"Alas, the crops in the fields have long since rotted in the mud, and the houses are collapsing one by one. We can't live like this anymore."

Curses rose and fell, all carrying a sense of powerless despair. The rain continued to fall slowly, pelting everyone's faces with a chilling cold.

Shi Yan and his two sons did not linger any longer; after rescuing the person, they turned and headed home.

The town's streets were in a terrible state, with thick mud reaching above ankle height. Once you stepped in, you couldn't pull yourself out without some effort. Many low-lying areas were filled with knee-deep muddy water, floating with rotten vegetable leaves, broken branches, and tattered cloth.

The original drainage ditches were already overflowing, and murky sewage flowed everywhere along the road, making the entire Qinghe Town look like it was soaking in a giant mud pond.

The three of them simply took off their shoes, rolled up their trouser legs to their knees, and shuffled forward, one step at a time.

They finally made it home, and their eldest daughter-in-law, Lin Xiu, was anxiously pacing around under the eaves. When she saw them return, she immediately came to greet them.

"The three of you are finally back!"

She frowned, her voice full of worry: "The woodshed is leaking badly, all the firewood is soaked. Su Wan and I have been busy for half a day, trying all sorts of methods, but we can't even get a spark going."

As the group entered the house, a strong musty smell filled the air. Water seeped from the corners of the walls, and the straw on the floor was so wet it could be wrung out.

In the end, all I could do was eat a few bites of the dry, hard wheat cake with cold water to make do with a meal.

Just as he put down the pancake, his second daughter-in-law, Su Wan, said in a heavy voice, "Father, Brother Huaishan, I just counted the grain in the grain bin. The grain at home can only last for five days at most. We have to go to the grain store to buy more tomorrow."

Shi Yunzhou nodded, but still couldn't help but curse in frustration: "These days have been really frustrating. It's bad enough that the heavens are blind, but the price of grain has also risen sharply. In fact, I went to ask yesterday, and brown rice is three times more expensive than last month, and there's a limit. Each person can only buy two dou (a unit of dry measure). Damn it, it makes me so angry."

"no way."

Shi Yan leaned against the wall, closing his eyes wearily: "Those countries to the east have been fighting for almost half a year. The trade routes have long been cut off, and grain from outside can't be transported in. Grain prices were already rising, and now this rain has washed away all our local crops. It's no wonder that grain merchants are taking the opportunity to raise prices. It will only get harder in the future."

The room fell silent, with only the sound of rain pattering outside the window. The family sat under the dim oil lamp, looking at each other, and finally all that remained was a sigh.

Shi Yan gazed at the dark night sky outside the window and muttered to himself, "When will this rain ever end? If it keeps raining like this, people are really going to die."

The rain did not hear his prayers.

It was like an impenetrable net, firmly covering the entire Qinghe Town, and it rained for ten days straight without any sign of stopping; on the contrary, it rained even harder.

The smiles on the faces of the townspeople have vanished. Every day, the moment they open their eyes, they worry about whether they have enough firewood, how much food they have left, and whether their houses will collapse in the middle of the night.

There were hardly any pedestrians on the street, except for a few people carrying empty grain sacks, trudging towards the grain store, their faces full of disappointment when they returned.

Life in the mountains is harder than in town.

Qi Ji stood on a sunny hillside, gazing at the surging mudslide in the distance.

The turbid mud and rocks, mixed with boulders and broken trees, rolled down the valley like a roaring beast, destroying all vegetation in its path.

An old pine tree, which requires two people to hug, was shaken precariously by mud and rocks. On the trunk, a squirrel was frantically scurrying among the branches, making sharp squeaking noises.

In the middle of the tree branch, there was an adult black bear lying on the ground. It had originally climbed the tree to avoid the mud and rocks rolling down the mountain, but now, as the tree trunk shook violently, it was digging its claws into the bark and letting out a low and desperate howl.

Before they could find a way to escape, the old pine tree collapsed with a loud crash.

Before the black bear and the squirrel could even utter a scream, they were instantly swallowed up by the surging mud and rocks, disappearing without a trace in the blink of an eye.

Qi Ji watched quietly, his eyes filled with helplessness.

He had lived two lives, and this was the first time he had ever seen rain that lasted so long and was so intense.

Now he has to be extra careful when he takes a walk after meals every day. The ground under his feet is so soft from the rain that he doesn't know which step he might take and end up with a deep sinkhole.

Going into the valley is even more dangerous, as mudslides could occur at any time.

He gazed at the rolling mountains shrouded in rain and mist, and sighed softly.

If this rain continues indefinitely, he will probably have no choice but to leave and find a place with open terrain, where he won't be threatened by mudslides, to settle down again.