“Everyonelisten!”Thenoiseofrainnearlyswallowedhervoice。“Leavethehousesclosesttothestreamfirst。Takechildren,elders,medie,andfood。Everythingelsebereplaced。”
Anoldfarmershouted,“Whataboutouranimals?”
Suyuanlookedtowardthefloodedfields。“Movethemtohigherground。Butdontriskanyoneslifetryingtosaveananimal。”
Thevillagersbeganmoving,peopleslippedinthemudandthechildrencried。Chisescapedfrombaskets,whilesomeonedroppedairesackofgrainandcursedloudly。Buteveryonemoved。Anhourlater,XieZhengarrivedwithseveralsoldiers。HedismountedandimmediatelysawSuyuanstandihtherain,hersleevessoakedthrough。
Hisexpressiondarkened。
“Youshouldberesting。”
Suyuanglahim。
“Soshouldyou。”
“Iamnottheonewhogetssickfromstandingintherain。”
Shelookedaway。
“Iwasbusy。”
Xiesaidnothing。Instead,heremovedhisoutercloakandplaceditaroundhershoulders。
Suyuanstiffenedslightly。
“Youll。”
“Ihavearmor。”
“Thatisntthesamething。”
Shelookedathim,thenatthecloak。
Afteramoment,shepulleditcloser。
“Thankyou。”
Xieturowardthefloodedbridge。
“Gooddecision。”
Suyuanblinked。
“What?”
“Movingthevillagersbeforethebridgecollapsed。”
Shewatchedhimwalkaway。Forsomereason,thosefewwordsstayedwithherlohantheyshouldhave。It’snotpraisenoraflatterybutareition。Behindthem,theoldbridgefinallygavewayandthevillagerswatchedinsilenceastherushingwatercarriedthebrokentimberdownstream。Noonewasstandingonitandforthefirsttime,Suyuanuoodthatsometimesprotegpeopledidnotmeanfightinganenemy。
Sometimesitsimplymeantnotigthedangeralittleearlierthaneveryoneelse。