Dong Qiangqiang's Story of Leaving Germany

Chapter 1114. Good Hands
"Dong Qiangqiang, let's go." Zheng Chunhua urged from the top of the hill, "If you don't leave now, you won't be able to go back."

"I'm coming," Dong Qiangqiang responded loudly in the direction above his head, and then he unconsciously looked towards the village at the foot of the hillside a few times before turning around and walking back.

Just as he used the back of his hand to push away the vines blocking his body, his mind suddenly moved, as if he realized something. He stopped unconsciously and turned to face the village again.

He looked back and forth at the place he had just scanned, and after a moment he found the reason why he stopped.

After hearing Dong Qiangqiang's promise but seeing no one coming up, Zheng Chunhua thought he was in trouble. Just as she was about to ask, someone below shouted, "Zheng Chunhua, look in the direction of the broken bridge where the cars are piled up. Is there anything on the roof of the fifth house?"

Upon hearing the sound, Zheng Chunhua raised the helmet visor that she had put down and searched carefully as Dong Qiangqiang had said. As expected, she saw something.

"It seems... there is something next to the chimney. Is it a plastic bag? I see it is motionless. Maybe it was blown up there by the wind."

"It looks like a person to me," Dong Qiangqiang walked up breathlessly on the dirt road. "I seemed to hear someone shouting for help just now. The voice was very soft and didn't seem to have much strength, but I'm not sure."

"People? No way? We've been looking for such a long time, and there's not a single person on the street. Maybe they've been evacuated to a nearby emergency shelter. They must be worried about mudslides. We have to leave quickly, otherwise it will be difficult to walk after dark. Don't forget, I still have to go to the river after I send you off."

"Maybe someone didn't have time to evacuate. How about we go take a look? Otherwise, I'm always suspicious. Before you came, there were people in Wasserbilich who ran to the roofs to avoid the water, and many of them couldn't get down after going up."

Zheng Chunhua was worried at first that they would not have enough time to travel, but after hearing what he said, she realized that his worries were not entirely unreasonable. Anyway, the village can be reached by just following the gravel road down the hillside, which is much easier than going up the mountain. Taking a look at it would stop the thought and would not delay the journey. She thought about it for a few seconds and agreed.

There was indeed no one in the village.

Before the two of them rode to the broken bridge, across the surging river water, Dong Qiangqiang and Zheng Chunhua could clearly see that the plastic bag Zheng Chunhua was talking about was actually a little girl.

The little girl looked about five or six years old, with wet blonde hair lying limply on her little head, her eyes full of helplessness and fear. Her two little hands like lotus roots tried hard to hug the chimney, but her arms were too short to do so. The rain was heavy and fast, and her body kept sliding down. She could only use her little feet to push herself up, but still couldn't stop her body from sliding down. She cried out from time to time because of fear, and I think it was this faint cry that was heard by Dong Qiangqiang.

The window not far from the little girl was wide open, and I guess the child climbed out from there. The distance from the window to the chimney was not too far for an adult, but it was quite far for a child. Although they didn't know why the child chose to climb to the chimney, neither of them had time to think about it.

The motorcycle braked steadily in the mud beside it, and the water overflowing from the river quickly flooded over the shoes of the two people.

Zheng Chunhua said with emotion: "I didn't expect it was a child. You are really alert. If it was me, I would have missed it."

"Maybe she was already on the roof when you passed by here just now." Dong Qiangqiang got off the motorcycle and stared at the more than ten-meter-wide river and the turbulent water in the river, thinking: The water only flooded the lower half of the door of that family's house, it should not be difficult to open (the door), and if you can enter the house, you can go up to the attic, and it won't be too difficult to bring the child down. The difficult part is how to cross the river. No matter how good he is at swimming, he can't cross such a turbulent river.

Zheng Chunhua ignored Dong Qiangqiang's analysis and took out her cell phone to call the police, but found that the phone had been turned off at some point.

She pressed the switch several times, but the screen was still gray. She shook off the water, but it still wouldn't turn on. "My phone is bricked. Can your phone call the police?"

Dong Qiangqiang took out his cell phone, which had one bar of battery left but no signal: "Mine is the same."

"What do you think?" Zheng Chunhua asked, "We have to cross the river first before we can save people. But the bridge has collapsed, so motorcycles and people can't get through. We can't call the police, and just waiting won't work. The children may not be able to hold on."

"She will definitely not be able to hold on." Dong Qiangqiang stared at the surrounding environment, especially the broken bridge, for a few minutes and quickly thought of a solution. "The water is too fast. I can't swim across. Even if I do, I don't have the ability to bring another person back. We still have to go over the bridge."

"But the bridge has collapsed," Zheng Chunhua repeated doubtfully, "even a motorcycle can't get across the broken bridge."

"Who said we can only cross the bridge? Isn't the river full of garbage?" Dong Qiangqiang got back on the motorcycle.

"Garbage?" Zheng Chunhua didn't understand what Dong Qiangqiang was referring to.

"Go to the bridge first, and I'll tell you."

Seeing Dong Qiangqiang's confidence, Zheng Chunhua knew that he had an idea. She said no more and twisted the handlebars a few times. The motorcycle quickly brought the two of them to the broken bridge.

Dong Qiangqiang hung his helmet on the handlebars, took off his boots that were as heavy as lead blocks and placed them next to the motorcycle. Under the gaze of Zheng Chunhua, he used his fingers to grab the protruding stones or the edges of the wooden frames on the bridge wall as much as possible, stepped on the muddy ground, and slowly walked towards the small bridge hole closest to him along the broken bridge.

The river water flows unimpeded under the large bridge hole, but several small bridge holes are clogged with rotten tree roots of varying sizes that have washed down from upstream.

Most of the tree roots have a piece of remaining trunk. Some of them have light moss at the junction of trunk and root, roots grow horizontally, and some trunks have very small mushrooms.

As they walked lower and lower, Dong Qiangqiang's body gradually sank into the water, with only his head still exposed above the water.

"Are you okay?" Zheng Chunhua asked with concern, "If not, come up quickly."

Dong Qiangqiang had not expected that the river water in August could be so icy cold. Presumably, the water temperature in the nearby mountains was already low. It seems that when buying a jacket in the future, he should not only look at the waterproof index, but also the water immersion index. He found it funny to think about it. Who in the world would wear a jacket while swimming when playing outdoors?

The river water surrounding him naturally reminded him of the last time he jumped into the river. It seemed to be more than a year ago when he was looking for Lao Bai on the island. As a result, he encountered a bear. Fortunately, the mother and cub bears were in a good mood and did not attack him.

As his mind began to recall the past, the movements of his hands unconsciously slowed down.

Zheng Chunhua, standing on the shore, stared at Dong Qiangqiang in the river and kept trying to call the police using her own and Dong Qiangqiang's cell phones. Seeing that Dong Qiangqiang was slow, she thought he was in danger and repeatedly reminded him not to be stubborn.