I became the God Brother of the Regent King after Transmigration!-Chapter 45: Resignation to Fate

Qin Zhenghu did not want to recall, but because of this sentence, his mind uncontrollably recalled a scene from four years ago.

Back then, he was just a fourteen-year-old boy.

His family was impoverished, and he was frail and often ill. His father was a teacher at an academy, but he died of an epidemic just as Qin had learned to read. His mother supported him and his sister by earning some silver taels from embroidering at a cloth shop, sending both of them to private school.

Though his mother was an illiterate woman, she taught him that reading could be a means to stand tall in society, that even though his sister was a girl, she too should be sent to school to learn.

However, to earn more silver taels, his mother tirelessly embroidered day and night, ruining her young eyes.

His sister ate poorly to save some silver to buy him a new wolf-hair brush.

That day, when the flood came, the river overflowed, the houses collapsed, and they didn’t even have time to struggle!

He rushed back from the school in panic, breaking a leg, but only saw two drowned bodies!

That was the nightmare Qin Zhenghu could never forget for the rest of his life.

"On the third day of the seventh month in the second year of Chengping, Tongzhou was flooded, resulting in nine hundred sixteen deaths by drowning, over ten thousand victims left unfed and unclothed, cries of despair echoed for thousands of miles."

"My mother and sister drowned then."

Qin Zhenghu answered, his eyes red, speaking each word with emphasis.

Those who heard his words seemed to have their throats choked, the previous mockery was gone.

Instead, a greater panic ensued.

At this moment, as if to confirm Qin Zhenghu’s words, several hours of torrential rain accompanied by thunderous noises from unknown places, submerged everyone waist-deep in water.

"Everyone, get to higher ground! Quick, save people!" 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

The old general shivered as he shouted in horror. Despite his unparalleled martial arts skills, he couldn’t swim, and they didn’t know when the temperature around them had dropped to an unbearable degree.

"Help, help, save me!"

"Someone, anyone, I am the son of Vice Minister Cao, quick, save me—"

The heavy rain blotted out the sky, the thunder blurred all voices.

Gu Lan had already left the Changting area. She held onto a stone pillar, took a deep breath, and squinted into her surroundings.

Even though it was the Imperial Palace, at this moment, it had become a complete mess.

In just a few breaths, she couldn’t find the old general and Qin Zhenghu anymore. Once the floodwater rose above her chest, everyone had been swept away in different directions.

Did this palace not have drainage canals and river dikes! Gu Lan grumbled softly that Yan Country was inadequate, missing the all-around drainage system of her previous life.

But she also knew, since the palace was like this, the entire Capital City must be the same; the moat had certainly been breached.

According to what the old general said before, the Capital City had always enjoyed favorable weather and, being located inland, hadn’t been built with such disasters in mind.

She kicked hard, her figure shot out like an arrow, saving a little eunuch struggling and close to drowning, and dragged him to a high platform.

"Save, save me... Thank you, thank you, my lord—" The little eunuch cried in gratitude, his eyes popping out when he saw that his rescuer was Gu Lan.

She pulled the little eunuch into the water with one hand: "Get down here."

The little eunuch wailed and sobbed, feeling like Young Master Gu was going to silence him.

If she wasn’t afraid of the dirty water getting into her eyes, Gu Lan really felt like rolling her eyes tenfold.

"Stand up straight." She said each word distinctly.

The little eunuch instinctively obeyed her, standing straight in the cold floodwater, realizing... he was tall enough, the water just over his navel.

"..."

Gu Lan ignored him, her white princely robe buoyant in the water, thrashing in the waves like an agile swimming fish.

She intended to go back to Xiaoxiang Palace to find Zijin, but saved several people along the way.

Somehow, as she swam, she circled back and saw Qin Zhenghu clinging to a small tree, his head with a despairing expression, showing only one shoulder above the water.

"Go!"

She swam forward and shouted to Qin Zhenghu.

The rain was so loud that even people nearby couldn’t hear each other. Gu Lan shouted again, almost pulling at his ear.

However, this man had no reaction, he just clung to the trunk dumbly, his face pale, lips purple, as if already resigned to die.

"Will you go or not?" Gu Lan asked with her mouth, but in reality, grabbed Qin Zhenghu’s clothes, pulling him to face her.

Then, her arms suddenly exerted force, single-handedly hauling him up by the collar.

"I...I’m afraid...I’m afraid of the water—" Qin Zhenghu snapped back, his face pale, as if talking to himself.

Gu Lan felt the original book had lied to her, this guy, in the future, becomes a great flood management minister of Yan Country?

She let go, her voice carrying a bone-chilling coldness: "Want to die? Then why are you holding onto the trunk, just die, die with your family, die in the water."

Qin Zhenghu lost support, his tall body plummeted into the water.

He clearly wanted death, had already closed his eyes, yet the moment his nose and mouth were engulfed by the flood, his instincts forced him to struggle for life.

He opened his eyes, the desire for survival in his gaze.

Gu Lan watched him calmly, her eyes surprisingly cold, as if looking at a dead person.

"I can’t...I can’t...useless scholar, so many have died...yet I can’t save them, I can’t do anything." Qin Zhenghu muttered to himself.

In his mind, it was the bodies of his mother and sister woven with the torrential downpour.

His mother often said to him: "Generals and ministers have no lineage, a man should strive for strength."

Qin Zhenghu suddenly uttered a hoarse, weighty voice:

"I wish to subdue this flood! How could I die!"

"I want the world to suffer no more from natural disasters, how can I die in one!"

He clung to Gu Lan’s leg, with snot and tears mixed in the water: "Young Master Gu, boo-hoo-hoo, Zhenghu was wrong, save me."

Gu Lan saw Qin Zhenghu’s snot bubble rubbing against her leg in the rain, her eyes instantly flared red, almost wanting to kick him dead, a repressed whimper from her throat:

Let that person die, not worth saving.

In the end, she pulled Qin Zhenghu up, rolled him up and threw him to the roadside, no, to a high platform by the water.

The high platform was a semi-sheltered pavilion with stairs, where Yan Qing’s companion Cao Chen and two little eunuchs squatted shivering.

"Where’s Yan Qing?" Gu Lan asked.

Qin Zhenghu, having just undergone a trial of life and death, upon seeing Cao Chen, was the first to anxiously ask: "In such flooding, with Yan Qing just recovering from a serious illness, weak-bodied, where, where has he gone?"

Cao Chen shook his head in fear: "I don’t know, I can’t swim, I got up here myself, I didn’t see him either."

Gu Lan frowned, her fingers pressed at her brow as she gazed into the surreally blurry rain curtain.

She wasn’t worried about Rong Heng, Rong Heng was a good swimmer.

The original book mentioned, once the male lead fought Wei Country’s navy, was shot and fell into the water, everyone thought he was doomed, but it turned out he had soldiers ambushing underwater, turning defeat into victory.

At that moment, a figure splashed up in the water, it was Yuan Lang who left earlier.

Yuan Lang wiped his face, his narrow eyes full of vulnerability, his red lips had lost their color.

Too fragile, Gu Lan sighed again.

However, this was indeed Wei Country’s Crown Prince at his most disheveled.

Yuan Lang, already delicate and gentle, now with a pale face and scattered black hair, made him even more pitiable.

He wore a thin robe, wet clothes clinging to him, making him appear even weaker.

Gu Lan acted as if watching a beauty bathing, yet she heard Cao Chen beside her, emitting a loud gulping sound.

Gu Lan looked at herself, her clothes were all wet—yet nothing could be seen, and Cao Chen dared to swallow.

Stunned for two seconds, she realized that Cao Chen’s gulp was directed at Yuan Lang.

Gu Lan took a deep breath, telling herself not to bother with fools.

Yuan Lang also heard the sound from Cao Chen, a fleeting glint of killing intent passed through his amber eyes, yet he remained gentle and humble outwardly.

He concealed his inner emotions, glanced at Gu Lan, then nervously pointed in a direction and spoke:

"I, I saw General Chen and Rong Heng over there, they seem to be in a bad way, but I am too weak, can’t even swim myself, totally unable to save them."