Chapter 188: Bigger, Even Bigger!
Black clouds covered the sky, making the already darkening sky even more overcast.
Su Ran covered the pot lid and walked out from inside the room, then turned her head and looked toward the direction behind the house.
She had been sent home by Hui for more than an hour, nearly two hours, and at this time, the black clouds covering the sky had become oppressively heavy to the extreme, but not a single drop of rain had fallen yet!
There seemed to be a faint smell of smoke and dust floating in the air, which was very uncomfortable to breathe.
And at this moment, a wind had risen outside the room.
The wind was very strong, blowing the branches in the woods behind the house into collision with each other; even from a distance, through the wind, the rustling sound of branches colliding inside the forest could be clearly heard.
Su Ran looked at the woods, whose outlines were almost invisible under the dim sky, and only felt her heartbeat in her chest growing heavier and heavier, one beat after another!
Hui had not returned yet.
The beastmen had not returned either.
With the wind this strong now, who knew what the fire in the forest would spread into.
Even if there was a firebreak blocking in front, if the fire took advantage of the wind, it could quickly burn over from both ends of the firebreak.
She looked up at the top of her head; at this time, neither the moon nor Blue Star had appeared, and even if they did, they would be blocked by the thick clouds.
Black clouds pressed down on the city as if it were about to collapse.
But why hadn’t this rain fallen yet?
Su Ran stood outside for quite a while until a gust of wind made her shiver, snapping her back to her senses.
When she withdrew her gaze and lifted her foot to walk back inside the room, she realized her legs had gone stiff from standing!
In the kitchen pot was stewed radish and beef; a full large pot of beef was stewed, and in another pot were beef steamed dumplings—these were all things Hui liked to eat.
For this pot of stewed beef, Su Ran kept only one hind leg from an adult four-eared ox, and threw all the rest, except the ox head, into the pot to stew.
The reason for keeping that hind leg was that this pot couldn’t hold any more, but that leg meat was also chopped up by her and made into steamed dumplings.
However, since she was alone, she was afraid there wouldn’t be enough time and she didn’t have that much strength, so the chopped beef was in large chunks.
The reason for making so much food was that she wanted to cook it and then send some to the beastmen living in the vicinity.
Although it would only be enough to divide among the beastmen living nearby, and after dividing, the amount each family got wouldn’t be much, it was still good because the taste she made was delicious!
At a time like this, her so-called cleverness and so-called advantages from advanced society were of no help at all against the forest fire.
But she still wanted to do something for the settlement.
Su Ran forcibly suppressed the panic in her chest, stood in the kitchen and turned in place twice, before remembering what she had just wanted to do.
She had just gone out to pick some green soap fruit from behind to roast; Hui really liked roasted green soap fruit.
But with her mind disturbed, she became a bit flustered and absent-minded, forgetting this and that.
She walked out of the room again, got a basket from the storage room, and carried the basket toward behind the house.
The speed at which the sky was darkening was accelerating; almost as soon as Su Ran finished picking the green soap fruit and lifted the basket to look up, she found that in the vegetable garden in front of her, she could hardly see the path anymore.
The path under her feet had become so dark it was a bit hard to see; Su Ran carried the basket, moving step by step, first probing with her toes, then stepping down firmly bit by bit, before slowly walking back to in front of the house.
Back inside the room, there were only two patches of light shining from the stove in the kitchen.
Su Ran lit the two oil lamps in the kitchen using that light, then took one oil lamp, carried the basket, and went to the vegetable garden to pick two more rounds of green soap fruit.
Then she hugged some firewood and placed it by the stove outside, went to the storage room to stand up the previous stone pot, rolled it bit by bit to the stove edge, then used the stove edge as support to forcefully move the stone pot onto the stove.
After finishing that, she put the dozen or so picked green soap fruits into the pot and added half a bowl of water in the pot.
This was a new method Su Ran had recently discovered for roasting green soap fruit: put the green soap fruit in the pot, add a bowl of water, then directly burn a big fire under the stove; generally after twenty minutes, the green soap fruit would be cooked.
However, the water in the pot could only be added in the amount of one bowl; too little and it would dry too fast, easily causing the green soap fruit skins to catch fire directly, while too much would turn it directly into boiled green soap fruit.
The texture of boiled green soap fruit was sticky and gooey like lotus root starch, but the taste was far inferior to lotus root starch; neither Su Ran nor Hui liked to eat it.
After adding the water, Su Ran covered the pot lid and stuffed firewood and dry grass into the stove to light it.
Once the fire was burning, she stuffed a few larger pieces of wood into the stove and cleaned the stove opening to prevent sparks from flying out and causing danger.
After finishing these, she took the oil lamp and returned inside the room.
The steamed dumplings in the room were done.
Su Ran hurriedly took out the unburned firewood from under the pot and stuffed it under the pot stewing the beef instead; this pot of beef was large and needed to stew a bit longer.
After getting everything done, she walked to the house doorway and looked outside.
The sound of the wind outside tugged at people’s nerves; in the pitch-black night, only the firelight flickered from the stove not far ahead.
Su Ran went into the bedroom, lit the oil lamp inside the bedroom, then went outside to remove the hook fixing the window outside the window, and closed the window.
It was just at this moment that a gust of strong wind blew through, and something unknown was blown off, smashing onto the ground with a series of clattering sounds!
Su Ran was startled and looked over there, but it was just pitch black.
Su Ran was just a little girl who had gone through such a fantastical thing as transmigration; it was impossible for her not to have any guesses or imagination about those mysterious and profound matters.
And having imagination would lead to fear.
She hurriedly lifted her foot to walk inside the room, but just as she took a step, she suddenly felt a chill on her face!
A drop of water fell on her face.
Then two drops, three drops, four drops…
It was raining!
Su Ran touched the water drop on her face, stunned for a second, then suddenly came to her senses!
Great! This rain had finally started!
She was so happy that she almost jumped up in place right there! She didn’t care that the rain had started falling hard and fast within just a few dozen seconds; she even ran out from under the eaves, stood in the open space at the house doorway, stretched out her arms and spun in circles, looking up at the sky.
Bean-sized raindrops fell rapidly, hitting directly on the exposed skin, and it even hurt!
But at this moment, Su Ran was oblivious to these; her gaze turned toward the pitch-black night sky behind the house.
The night was deep, unable to see the soaring flames a hundred or so kilometers away, but the raindrops falling on her body made her feel that there was finally hope, and her heart finally settled down.
Now she only wanted to pray that this rain would fall harder, even harder!
Extinguish that big fire, protect her hard-won homeland, and the beautiful life that had just gotten on track!
