An old man tends a crumbling earthen dam despite the whole village's ridicule, until one stormy night changes everything.
Gossip Around the Village
村东头那座已经修了三十年，谁也说不清最早是哪一辈人砌的。
The earthen dam at the east end of the village had been kept up for thirty years, and no one could say for sure which generation had first built it.
如今守着它的，是个姓周的老头，背已经驼了，整天扛着锄头在堰上。
These days its keeper was an old man named Zhou, his back already bent, who spent his days wandering the dam with a hoe over his shoulder.
Villager
现在都用钢筋水泥了，谁还稀罕这堆烂泥啊？
Everyone uses reinforced concrete now—who'd give a second thought to this pile of mud?
周老头从不，只是默默把塌下来的土一筐一筐重新填上去。
Old Zhou never argued back; he just quietly hauled the fallen earth up, basket by basket, and packed it back into place.
Old Zhou
你们笑你们的，我修我的。
You go on laughing—I'll go on mending.
The Tattered Notebook
孙子放暑假回来，翻出爷爷压在箱底的一个破本子，纸页都发黄了。
Home for the summer holidays, his grandson dug out a battered notebook his grandfather had stashed at the bottom of a chest, its pages all gone yellow.
Grandson
爷爷，这上面记的都是啥呀？
Grandpa, what's all this stuff crammed in here?
Old Zhou
哪一年涨水涨到哪儿，哪一处的土松了，全在这儿呢。
Which year the water rose to where, which spot the soil came loose—it's all right here.
老人粗糙的手指点着一行小字，那是他父亲临终前留下的。
The old man's rough finger pointed to a line of small writing—a charge his own father had left him on his deathbed.
Old Zhou
你爹临走时攥着我的手说，堰在，村就在。
As your father was passing, he gripped my hand and said: as long as the dam stands, the village stands.
The Night of the Storm
入夏后一连下了几天暴雨，半夜里河水猛涨，浑浊的水拍打着堰脚。
Once summer set in, torrential rain fell for days on end; in the dead of night the river surged, and the muddy water slammed against the foot of the dam.
周老头披上就往外冲，孙子打着手电筒紧紧跟在后头。
Old Zhou threw a straw rain cape over his shoulders and rushed out, his grandson close behind with a flashlight.
Grandson
爷爷，水都快漫过来了，咱们快回去吧！
Grandpa, the water's about to spill over—let's hurry back!
Old Zhou
西边那道缝最薄，先堵那儿，要是垮了，半个村子都得淹！
That crack on the west side is the thinnest—plug it first. If it gives way, half the village will be flooded!
祖孙俩在风雨里扛沙袋、填石块，一直忙到天蒙蒙亮。
Grandfather and grandson hauled sandbags and wedged in stones through the wind and rain, toiling on until the sky turned faintly gray with dawn.
The Next Morning
雨停了，村里人陆续赶来，发现自家的田地一点儿没事，全愣住了。
The rain stopped, and the villagers came hurrying over one after another; finding their fields completely untouched, they were all stunned.
那道浑身是泥，却稳稳地拦住了一整夜的洪水。
The earthen dam was caked in mud from end to end, yet it had held firm and kept back a whole night of floodwater.
Villager
周大爷，从前是我们，多亏您一直守着它啊！
Uncle Zhou, we were blind fools all this time—thank goodness you kept watch over it!
周老头摆摆手，把那个破本子地塞到孙子手里。
Old Zhou waved off the praise and solemnly pressed the tattered notebook into his grandson's hands.
Old Zhou
往后这堰，就交给你接着记了。
From now on this dam is yours—you'll carry on keeping the record.