The rain in May came as suddenly as it pleased.

At dusk the whole sky was still cloudless and steaming with heat.

But at a little past eight in the evening, a downpour suddenly crashed down, bringing a touch of coolness to the dust-choked plain. Thanks to the territory’s emphasis on water conservancy, even in this small Mulberry Field Town, the floods that had struck back in the Origin Territory did not happen.

Apart from the drains gurgling without a break, the lives of the people in town were hardly affected.

Those in business carried on with their business, and those who went out to the fields carried on working in their raincoats.

Quite a few people were even glad about it. The rain had finally brought the long spell of high temperatures down a good deal and spared them the torment of working the fields under a blazing sun.

But that gladness lasted only one night.

When they discovered the next day that the rain showed no sign of stopping and was falling harder and harder, more and more people could only pray silently

that this rain before the Summer Harvest would pass quickly and not bring any other variables to the harvest ahead.

Unfortunately, all one could do with a prayer was do one’s best and leave the rest to fate.

From the evening of June 2nd until June 6th.

Four whole days passed, and when Su Mo woke up in the morning, the sound of rain reaching his ears showed no sign of getting any lighter!

“Ah, Brother Zong, why are you up so early?”

“It’s only five fifty. You don’t start work until seven thirty, so there are nearly two hours left!”

“But breakfast will be ready soon. There’s your favorite spicy mashed potato in a flatbread bun. Go wash up first.”

Huang Xiaojuan, busy at the stove, poked her head out and called cheerfully when she saw Su Mo come out of the middle room. The rain was truly too heavy, and the fields all around Mulberry Field Town had basically turned into puddles of thin mud.

In that state, never mind going to work in the fields, even a single walk would turn a person into a mud doll.

So from the afternoon of the second day, every planting-related industry in Mulberry Field Town had come to a near-total standstill. Only the work done indoors carried on, and the workers of the other trades were almost all idle.

Of course, what made Huang Xiaojuan so happy was that the territory identity came with a contract that bound both sides at the time of purchase. Now, for example, work could not be done, but wages were still paid.

Under this paid leave, she even fantasized that the rain might go on for ten days or half a month, which left people not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

“All right, no hurry. Let me clear the standing water out of the yard first.”

Su Mo waved a hand and looked at the courtyard, flooded again overnight, and at Oreo, who had been forced to squat under the eaves.

He rolled his shoulders, picked up a broom made of broad leaves, and began sweeping the water out toward the street, huffing and puffing.

Over these four days, the drainage system of Mulberry Field Town had undoubtedly faced a severe test.

But the reassuring thing was that the town had been built from the start to the wasteland’s natural-disaster standard.

Four days of rain was considerable, but still far from reaching that standard.

On Gutian Third Street in front of the courtyard, for instance, the town’s management staff even had time to come and carry out maintenance.

“Oh, you’re sweeping out your yards too!”

Sweeping from under the eaves all the way to the gate, Su Mo opened the courtyard door and stood outside. Looking at the two people also sweeping water on the street, he smiled “honestly.”

When he first arrived, only two households lived on this Gutian Third Street.

Moreover, those two households were at the head of the alley, a full three small streets away from his place at the tail end.

But strangely, only two days had passed since the heavy rain began,

and one “neighbor” after another had chosen to move in near the little courtyard.

As of last night, as many as four households had moved in, thirteen people in all, and the whole street had suddenly become lively. These people were tall and short, fat and thin, men and women, old and young.

If Su Mo had not already sensed these people watching him, it would probably have been hard even now to notice that these groups that looked so much like “families” were actually disguised.

“Isn’t it just so? The rain is so heavy, and in one night it nearly flooded my house!”

After two days of living near each other, the few of them had had no chance to strike up a conversation, since Su Mo left early and came back late every day.

Now that Su Mo had greeted him first, the slightly chubby, bare-chested man, Wang Qian, was visibly uneasy and hurriedly tried to get friendly. “Brother Su, I can smell how good your food is from here. How about this: we’ll pay for the ingredients and add a little processing fee.”

“Could you cook a bit for us few too? Eating out is just too expensive!”

“Oh? You know my surname is Su?”

He tilted his head slightly in “confusion” and watched Wang Qian freeze, his face going a little pale.

Su Mo held back a laugh and coughed lightly. “It’s not impossible. I’d just have to ask my Xiaojuan whether she’s willing. After all, I’m only the one who eats the food.”

“Fine, fine, fine. We won’t force you. I figured that since we’re neighbors, we could help each other out if anything comes up, right?”

Seeing that Su Mo was no longer pressing the matter, Wang Qian let out a small breath of relief and hurriedly steered the conversation elsewhere.

After a short while, in a friendly atmosphere of conversation,

Su Mo had swept all the water in the yard into the drain. He clapped his hands in satisfaction and went back home to wash up.

By the time he sat at the dining table, Huang Xiaojuan had just brought the food over, filling the room with steam and the smell of home cooking. “Brother Zong, I saw you saying something to those people next door. So, are they watching us because they want to...”

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