Shengliver’s Note: A complete stranger bailed the teen writer out of hellish weather.

Most years, the Chinese National Day celebrations concur with the autumnal rainy season in our region, Shiyan. This year, 2017, was no exception. It rained, on and off, throughout what is popularly called the Golden Week Holiday. Sometimes it was bucketing down. Most times it was drizzling.

On the way back to my village in Yunxi for the long break, I saw the normally tame stream in my hometown swelling into a raging torrent. The leaden sky indicated no possible let-up in the teeming rains in the near future. The minute I got home, word came that a landslide had struck somewhere on the highway. All traffic, as a result, had to cease until road workers came and cleared it.

I felt as fortunate as worried. I felt blessed that I had passed the part of the road before the landslide happened. Meanwhile, I was worried that should the road not be reopened in time, I would not be able to make it back to school on schedule, for it is sole access to the city.

When the holiday was nearing its end, the rains eased off a little. More bad news came in, however. The highway near my village had been blocked at another point by a fresh landslide. After I left my home village to get back to school, first I had to detour, by circumventing cautiously on foot the dangerous section of the road. On the other side of the blockage was a villager on a motorcycle. I paid him to take me on his makeshift taxi to the next road junction, where there might be a chance for me to get a ride.

To my frustration, there was hardly any traffic on the road because of the weather despite the fact that it was a holiday season. Dressed in school uniform, I was standing all alone at the junction, under an umbrella, for about an hour, with great apprehension. I was about to quit and backtrack to my village when a sedan pulled along. Rolling down the window, the driver asked if I was waiting for the shuttle bus to town. I nodded anxiously. He said that he could give me a ride back to the city but that his schedule would not allow him to take me direct to my school (name and logo on uniform). I accepted his offer and jumped in. His family were already on board.

After we reached town at long last, I breathed a heavy sigh of relief. Before I bid the driver farewell, I took out the purse and offered to pay for the ride. The man declined it.

Thanks to the generous man and his family, I got back to school on time, safe and sound, amidst the treacherous weather conditions.