Recalling the news reports about the devastating 1998 floods from his previous life, Qin Chuan felt an oppressive weight in his heart, completely dispelling the joy he had felt about real estate reform.
This was the innate kinship of a Chinese descendant, feeling the pain of their countrymen as if it were their own.
However, Qin Chuan knew all too well that his individual strength was minuscule, like the light of a firefly.
Despite being a重生者 (reborn individual), a phenomenon perhaps unique in the entire world, he was not so arrogant as to believe that his decades of experience from his past life could actually prevent this century's catastrophe.
Relying on his rebirth experience, at best, he could earn some money to ensure his family lived comfortably, and that was all.
In the face of this century's calamity, individual power was truly insignificant.
The continuous, drizzling rain persisted, having lasted for over a week.
This was merely in Qin Chuan's northern county town, far from the Yangtze River. He could only imagine what the situation was like in the actual middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze, in regions like Jiangxi, Hunan, Hubei, and Heilongjiang.
Floods had likely already occurred. The Songhua River and Nen River basins were the most severely affected areas.
With a heavy heart, Qin Chuan started his car and headed to the Butterfly Garment Factory.
Upon arriving at the factory and entering the office building, he found Li Ya in a meeting with her subordinates.
Recently, the Butterfly Garment Factory had undertaken a significant move. Following Qin Chuan's suggestion, they were adopting a strategy of "encircling the cities from the countryside" by opening similar flagship stores in neighboring county towns.
This time, they were opening two stores simultaneously, one each in Minan County and Taining County.
These county towns, with their low investment and comparable returns to larger cities, were ideal for the Butterfly Garment Factory's current expansion phase.
Qin Chuan did not go in to disturb them. Instead, he pushed open the door to Li Ya's general manager's office and walked directly to the television, turning it on.
Unlike rural areas with limited broadcast signals, county towns could receive more television channels, such as CCTV and other local stations.
However, since arriving in the city, Qin Chuan had not watched television. Partly, he was uninterested in the current era's television programs.
Having grown accustomed to the large, fifty-inch LCD TVs of later generations, with their incredibly high image quality, and the constant stream of news and entertainment on smartphones, the televisions of this era were truly poor.
Another reason was a lack of time. He would rather spend his free time "rolling on the bed" with Sister Li Ya, or going out for meals and drinks with his capable subordinates.
But this time, Qin Chuan approached the television with an unprecedented mindset, quickly switching to CCTV.
To his disappointment, CCTV was broadcasting nothing but advertisements, with no news about the floods. He switched through several other channels, but the situation was the same.
"Damn it!"
Furious, Qin Chuan turned off the TV and paced the office before slumping onto the sofa.
As an ordinary citizen, having finally wished to contribute to his country and show concern for the disaster situation of his fellow countrymen, he couldn't even find any information about the disaster. Wasn't that infuriating?
In his anger, Qin Chuan lit a cigarette and leaned back on the sofa, taking deep drags.
Halfway through his cigarette, Qin Chuan's gaze froze, fixated on a corner.
There was a large pile of newspapers stacked there, nearly a foot high.
The moment Qin Chuan saw this pile of newspapers, he felt like a drowning man grasping the last life-saving straw. He lunged towards it with incredible speed, not even noticing the cigarette that fell from his mouth.
He carried the pile of newspapers to the table and searched quickly, soon finding what he needed.
It was the Yongnan Headlines. Some editor from the newspaper had copied disaster information from elsewhere and recorded a lot.
Newspapers faced survival difficulties in this era, especially in small places like Yongnan County. With little happening on a daily basis, reporters often had nothing to write about.
To complete their assignments, they would often plagiarize from what they saw elsewhere.
Qin Chuan meticulously sifted through the Yongnan Headlines, pulling out newspapers from the preceding half-month. He was grateful to the editor who had helped him immensely.
The newspapers clearly documented the progress of the disaster in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Starting from mid-June, due to continuous rainfall in Poyang Lake and Dongting Lake, the Yangtze River's flow had surged rapidly.
Qin Chuan remembered that this flood disaster occurred in four stages. He carefully reviewed the information in the newspapers and realized that they were currently in the second stage of the flood, which was also the least severe.
The third and fourth stages would be the true natural disasters, with countless farmlands submerged, countless houses collapsing, and innumerable people left homeless...
When Li Ya finished her meeting and pushed open her office door, she froze, wondering if she had entered the wrong room.
The floor of the office was littered with newspapers, leaving no space to stand.
At the same time, the large office was filled with thick smoke, reeking of stale tobacco.
On the sofa, a young man with a half-smoked cigarette in his mouth was exhaling clouds of smoke, his eyes glued to the newspaper in his hand, so engrossed that he didn't even notice her enter.
"Xiao... Chuan?"
Li Ya called out, her voice uncertain, as the Qin Chuan before her seemed like a stranger, someone she had never seen since knowing him.
In Li Ya's memory, Qin Chuan had always been a confident and charming handsome man, always wearing a signature smile whether he was doing something mischievous or good.
He was nothing like the person before her, who exuded an aura of aloofness that instinctively instilled fear.
Qin Chuan, who was intently focused on the newspaper, finally snapped back to reality after Li Ya called out to him several times. He looked up.
His bloodshot eyes startled Li Ya again. Her face turned pale, and she rushed to the sofa, tightly grasping Qin Chuan's arm, her voice filled with anxiety. "Xiao Chuan, what's wrong?"
"Did something happen? Tell me, we'll face it together!"
As she spoke, Li Ya held Qin Chuan's head tightly in her embrace, her voice quivering.
The intense feeling of suffocation gradually cleared Qin Chuan's mind. He wanted to remain lost in the warmth of her embrace, but the discomfort of not being able to breathe forced him to struggle and lift his head, gasping for fresh air.
"Sister, I'm fine!"
Qin Chuan said.
Li Ya, her eyes still teary, pointed at the scattered newspapers on the floor. "Then what's going on? What are you looking at in the papers? Your eyes are so red, as if you've been crying!"