Chapter 274: Two Sides Of The Same Body
Fang Mu and An Qin’s second child was born, a daughter, named Jing Jing, with the implication that she could be like a blooming flower, living out her own brilliance.
Fang Mu held his newborn daughter, looking at that wrinkled little face, not cute but liked from the bottom of his heart, suddenly his nose tingled, he held his little daughter and murmured to himself: “The gifts Father gives you in the future, you have to accept them well, okay?”
“I want a gift too!” Eldest son Fang Jianhua heard Fang Mu’s words, his eyes lit up instantly, hugging his leg, chuckling.
“You’ll have one too, but the premise is you have to be a good child, a good big brother.” Fang Mu carefully placed his daughter back into An Qin’s arms, then ruffled his son’s head.
Pre-kindergarten Fang Jianhua proudly raised his chin: “I won’t! I’m very obedient, I have ten little red flowers in class, the most little red flowers in the class, and the teacher praised me for knowing lots of characters!”
“Will you be good in the future too?” Fang Mu gave a deadpan look at the smug kid, “Even in places where Father and Mother can’t see.”
“Of course I will!” Fang Jianhua racked his brains, patted his chest in guarantee, “A real man, uh, once words are spoken… four horses can’t chase them back… I, I with a hundred horses can’t chase them back.”
“Good, Father believes you.” Fang Mu smiled, patted his little head, his gaze complex.
An Qin held her little daughter, watching her husband and son’s interaction, clearly a warm and harmonious image, but she seemed to hear the bitterness behind her husband’s joking, a trace of worry surfacing in her heart.
After discharge, Fang Mu hired a live-in nanny to care for his wife and children, he relaxed his work and would help care for the children and An Qin, but with his own strength alone it was ultimately limited, so he had to hire someone to help.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want An Qin’s parents to come help, but since moving to the northern city, the two elders were too far from where they lived now, plus transportation in this era wasn’t convenient, Fang Mu really didn’t want the two elders to go through the trouble.
The following life was all simple and plain, the daily necessities of rice, oil, salt, soy, vinegar, and tea, though somewhat fatigued, Fang Mu’s heart was content.
With happiness in his heart, he wouldn’t care so much about those toad croak whispers that came rolling back.
But… the disguised strength ultimately couldn’t withstand the pressure brought by the mysterious power.
Rumble!
Early June, the weather turned overcast, the weather service indicated an anomalous air mass sweeping the Shenzhou Region north, bringing sustained anomalous precipitation.
At first, those around didn’t take it seriously, thinking it was just an unpredicted heavy rain, believing it would clear up soon after.
However, the changes in the situation that followed far exceeded everyone’s imagination.
Fang Mu stood on the balcony, looking at the rolling muddy floods that submerged roads and utility poles, rampaging through the city, his brows furrowed, somewhat lost gazing at the thunder-and-lightning sky.
“Mr. Fang, we should prepare to evacuate too, we’ll leave as soon as the rescue team arrives, if we don’t go, we might not be able to get out later.” Sister Wang, who had transitioned from nanny to family nanny, said to Fang Mu whose feet were already soaked in the balcony floodwater.
Fang Mu didn’t speak, he just looked back at his family members gazing at him as their pillar, reluctance surging in his eyes, he nodded and said: “Okay, prepare, we’ll leave soon from the balcony, the water level is rising fast, I’ll first remove the balcony security netting, so when the rescue team’s boat approaches, they can pick people up easily, and we can get out from here.”
Fang Mu opened one door of the balcony security netting, the landlord had designed the netting with a door-like setting on it, twisting open the iron wire on the lock hole would open it.
Next, all his family had to do was wait patiently.
“Why couldn’t I stop this kind of thing from happening earlier?” During the wait for rescue, Fang Mu suddenly thought with some regret.
He had regretted this more than once, but each time he didn’t know why he didn’t take the initiative to change it.
Was he afraid of changing the future and its influence on himself?
Fang Mu didn’t think he was that kind of person, yet he did things he thought he wouldn’t do.
“Oh, Mr. Fang, how could you have foreseen this kind of thing.” Sister Wang heard Fang Mu’s self-muttering and comforted, “This is the Frog God croaking, the sky god crying.”
“Frog God?” Fang Mu heard this familiar name and was stunned for a moment.
Sister Wang saw the master of the house’s curiosity, though she wasn’t in the mood to talk now, she still roughly said a few words.
Simply put, the Frog God was one of the totems of their local ethnic faith, the god of weather, since ancient times, locals basically considered anomalous weather as not treating the Frog God well, making the Frog God angry.
Clearly just a few simple words, yet Fang Mu listened with a deathly pale face, An Qin also with a drastic change in expression.
Though An Qin hadn’t heard all of Fang Mu’s secrets, she knew about the Frog God too, things related to toad frogs were forbidden in their family, that was the kind of imagery her husband feared most. For Fang Mu’s family, the approach of toad frog things meant bad luck descending, great disaster imminent.
“Then do you know the Toad God?” Fang Mu felt his mouth dry, his voice hoarse as he pressed.
Sister Wang upon hearing this, puzzledly said: “You know too? Few people know the Toad God, but in our hometown the older generation all say, the so-called Toad God and Frog God are actually two sides of one god, just the Frog God side is more friendly to humans naturally, while the Toad God is a bit… extreme.” She probably felt it somewhat taboo and didn’t say it too clearly.
Hearing this, Fang Mu trembled all over, this was the worst thing he’d heard so far.
Soon, the rescue team’s boat arrived, but the water current was swift, docking at Fang Mu’s balcony wasn’t easy, still needing manpower to grab the balcony security netting to barely hold steady.
Fang Mu’s whole family old and young were very excited, only Fang Mu’s expression was grim.
When the boat approached, he had already silently counted the number of people on the lifeboat in the first moment, almost overloaded.
This meant that in his family, someone was destined not to board the boat.
Sure enough, the rescue personnel quickly counted the human heads, anxious yet troubled, looked back at the civilians seated on the boat, somewhat hoarsely shouted: “One adult stays behind, wait for the next trip!”
Hearing this, Fang Mu’s family’s expressions instantly collapsed, everyone’s eyes subconsciously looked toward Fang Mu, as if wanting him to decide.
Sister Wang saw An Qin grabbing Fang Mu’s hand, looking afraid and reluctant, she suddenly smiled brightly, was about to raise her hand and say she’d stay, but unexpectedly Fang Mu calmly spoke: “Little Qin, Sister Wang, you take the children first, I’ll wait here for the next trip.”
“But…”
“No buts, go.” Fang Mu spoke calmly again, tone firm, no room for negotiation.
An Qin hearing Fang Mu’s irrefutable words, meeting his gentle gaze, her mouth involuntarily pouted, her nose let out the first sob but stopped abruptly, she picked up her son tightly hugging Fang Mu’s leg, turned and boarded the boat, said: “Sister Wang, just do as Ah Lin says, don’t wait any longer.”
“Sigh, sigh this.” Sister Wang holding infant Jing Jing anxiously in place, was gently pushed by Fang Mu, only then did she with reddened eyes obediently board the boat.
Under the reluctant gazes of his wife, children and others, Fang Mu stood on the balcony smiling and waving goodbye, his life finally reached its end.
He glanced at the exaggerated water level outside the house, the wind and rain outside exaggeratedly strong, he knew deep down no more boats would come, so he walked back to the study room submerged in water, dove underwater to the bookcase at the bottom, carried out that paulownia wood box, put some of his things including the diary into the box, then locked it.
He floated in the water, gazing at the ceiling less than fifteen centimeters from him, silently sighed, closed his eyes, fell into the water.
Bursts of frog croaks came to his ears, he unwillingly opened his eyes, only to discover himself floating in a deep underwater stone cavern, surrounded by several purple-gray skinned frog people silently gazing at him.
