Chapter 56

The sudden change caused the villagers to look up at the sky in unison, expressions of gravity instantly clouding their faces. The once clear, expansive sky was suddenly marred by a thick, leaden-grey cloud. It descended like a massive hand, extinguishing the daylight without warning. The blinding sun struggled behind the cloud layer for a moment, only to be swallowed whole by the rolling, lead-colored mass. On the distant ridgeline, a deep, ink-black storm cloud emerged, pressing forward at a visible speed. Its edges shimmered with a sickly yellow-green hue—what the elders called a "dragon drawing water," a harbinger of disaster. "Good heavens, it really is going to be a massive storm!" Wang Shunyou suddenly dropped his cigarette butt and stepped barefoot into the drainage ditch. The murky water was bubbling eerily, and clusters of earthworms were surfacing from the silt at the bottom, twisting as they crawled toward the bank. The villagers pulled their gazes back, looking anxiously at the ditches they had spent the last two days clearing.