Hu Huajin quietly felt the breath of nature, the rhythm of life. When she opened her eyes again, the burning anxiety in her eyes had disappeared, replaced by a faint smile, and a new-found resolve—to protect this beautiful scene.
"Sister..." Xiaoxiao was stunned watching her.
"Let’s go," Hu Huajin said with a bright smile to her younger brother, so dazzling it made Xiaoxiao shiver. He thought his sister looked cuter when she pretended to be angry.
Hu Huajin had no idea what her brother was thinking. If she knew, she would be more than happy to loosen his muscles a little.
Unexpectedly, her brother seed to have a tendency for masochism.
A cup of tea later, she found a place far enough away from Hua Village. Hu Huajin stopped.
The first thing she did after stopping was to look at her brother’s foot.
"I’m fine," Xiaoxiao imdiately reacted, feeling a bit happy inside. His sister still cared about him.
The injury had been a few days already, and the worst pain had long passed. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have dared to co out with his sister.
Hu Huajin: "Don’t try to act tough."
"Sis, you still don’t understand ," Xiaoxiao chuckled.
Hu Huajin thought so too. Although this child talked a lot, loved to eat, and didn’t like to think much, he was never soone to treat himself poorly. He should really be fine.
"Alright, judge for yourself," she said, then started to survey the area.
This location was to the northwest behind Hua Village. Even if sothing happened with a bit of noise, it shouldn’t have much impact on Hua Village.
The earthquake had been almost a month ago, and the tectonic movents below the ground should have stabilized. Hu Huajin didn’t believe that the little gunpowder she mixed could trigger any chain reaction.
In fact, she was quite unsure. Although she had dismantled quite a few fireworks for research and found so downloaded materials on gunpowder, practical work was vastly different from book knowledge. It was Hu Huajin’s first ti mixing this stuff, using different proportions and materials, and she wasn’t sure if it would actually explode.
The problem was having a participant, which was sowhat embarrassing, even if it was her own brother. If she wasn’t feeling a bit guilty about not knowing her brother got hurt, Hu Huajin wouldn’t have brought him along.
"Sister, are we still going?"
Xiaoxiao sat down on a broken and dried-up tree trunk, lifting his injured foot and placing it flat on the trunk.
Although it wasn’t very painful anymore, walking for a long ti still caused swelling. Raising it for a mont felt so comfortable that he almost sighed, but his eyes remained fixed on his sister and particularly on the two bamboo baskets beside her. If he hadn’t worried about being scolded, he might have already peeked inside.
"We’re not going any further," Hu Huajin said as she carefully examined the flat area. It was on the edge of the forest. Not far away, a river flowed, surrounded by many broken or uprooted trees, which was truly saddening to see.
So of these trees were decades or even over a hundred years old, but they ultimately couldn’t withstand nature’s destruction.
She thought to herself that she couldn’t let them die in vain. She decided to take as much as she could back.
Then she found a spot away from Xiaoxiao. Seeing he wanted to follow, Hu Huajin shouted, "Stay there and don’t move."
The seriousness in her voice made Xiaoxiao dare not move and obediently sit back on the tree trunk.
"Sis, don’t you need my help?"
"No, staying put is the biggest help you can give ," Hu Huajin said as she picked up the two bamboo baskets and walked a few more ters, still not at ease because of her curious little brother.
Xiaoxiao: "..."
Heartbroken, Xiaoxiao made an exaggerated gesture of pain, but unfortunately, Hu Huajin was too busy to notice, as she carefully took items out of the baskets.
So had the shape of enlarged firecrackers, only each one was many tis bigger than a regular one. There were clay ones the size of a fist, specially made for her by Uncle Zheng. Then there were bamboo tube forms, but the most expensive were the tal ones. If not for her grandfather, Tie, helping her, she wouldn’t have managed to get such a thing.
Each was laid down on the ground with extre care.
"Sis, what are those?"
"Gunpowder," Hu Huajin replied without turning her head.
"What’s gunpowder?"
Xiaoxiao kept asking, ready to turn into a questioning machine, but Hu Huajin simply replied with two words: "Shut up."
Xiaoxiao imdiately fell silent, feeling a bit wronged, but he kept staring wide-eyed at the things his sister took out, his curiosity like a cat scratching at his heart.
Hu Huajin was feeling a bit anxious herself too. After all, talking on paper was one thing; she really didn’t know how effective it would be. She hoped it would be successful.
The first one was, naturally, the enlarged firecracker. Igniting it and throwing it out in one motion, she tossed it into the open space she had picked out. As the firecracker hit the ground, a loud explosion sounded, and the flat grassland was imdiately blasted into a ss, with soil and grass flying everywhere, scattering over a few ters.
"Giant firecracker!" Xiaoxiao exclaid in surprise, instinctively wanting to co closer, but after a few steps, he rembered his sister’s words and had no choice but to stop.
"Sister, you made a giant firecracker," Xiaoxiao shouted excitedly.
Whether a boy or a man, it seed like they’d naturally love things like firecrackers, especially for their power.
Unfortunately, his sister didn’t respond because she had started again.
Hu Huajin was also quite pleased with the successful explosion, her eyes squinting slightly with a shimring light.
This... ant that the proportions were correct, but the power was too small. Hu Huajin looked at the relatively flat ground, noting that it had not even created a dirt pit, just scattered a layer of surface dirt. At this level, causing injury seed difficult.
If one wasn’t enough, what about two or three, or five or six? Hu Huajin put six big firecrackers together and twisted their fuses into a braid.
After another "boom," the explosive force was noticeably stronger this ti, and you could feel a slight tremor underfoot. Though weak, it was enough to make Hu Huajin happy.
The thod seed viable, and after waiting for a mont, she eagerly went to inspect, grinning as she saw a dirt pit the size of a washbasin.
With such power from six, if she used ten, injuring or even killing would be a matter of monts. Hu Huajin was a bit excited now.
Having gained confidence in this one, the next was the clay pot. The results were not very promising. Out of seven thrown, apart from a single small explosion, either they broke apart and disintegrated before reaching the target or there was no reaction at all.
The clay pots ultimately ended in failure.
Then ca the bamboo tubes. Though they exploded, the force was still not adequate for her satisfaction.
The last was the iron egg, which Hu Huajin had researched the longest. The principle was to use vibration to create friction and ignite an explosion. She had even adjusted the proportions and increased the amount. Yet, she still felt unsure about it.
She picked up her fist-sized iron egg and threw it as hard as she could into the open space ahead. A "boom" followed by a loud explosion, making Xiaoxiao at a distance almost jump up in fright and quickly sit down on the tree trunk behind him to steady himself.
Even Hu Huajin was startled, grateful that she had thrown it far enough. Otherwise, the exploding iron fragnts with such force would’ve been challenging to deal with.
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