As he spoke, he shoved his phone inside.
Chen Yunqi was stunned. He didn't have time to analyze what she said before the phone was handed to him through the gap in the security window. He had no choice but to take it and say hello into the phone.
A man's voice came from the other end: "Xiaoqi, is that Xiaoqi? It's your dad. I miss you so much. How are you...?"
Chen Yunqi later only remembered that he seemed to be standing there, holding the phone in a daze, and answering some questions from the other party in a vague manner out of politeness. He didn't remember how long he talked or what he said in detail.
After hanging up the phone, he returned it and couldn't remember what the aunt had said afterward. After the aunt left, Chen Yunqi, his mind a complete mess, closed the door, went back to his room, and sat on the bed in a daze for a long time.
When his mother came home in the evening, the two sat quietly together and ate dinner. Chen Yunqi hesitated for a long time before speaking: "Mom, a woman came this afternoon. She said she was my great-aunt and that my dad was looking for me. She asked me to call my dad."
The mother paused for a moment, then asked about the aunt's appearance and what the man had said on the phone.
Chen Yunqi told her everything he remembered, and his mother thought for a moment and said, "Oh, then it might really be true. Where is your dad now?"
Chen Yunqi was frustrated by his mother's lack of surprise.
He said he was in S city and asked if I wanted to go.
Do you want to go?
"I don't have any particular plans; I'm open to going to university anywhere."
Chen Yunqi couldn't quite describe his feelings about this "suddenly appearing" father. He felt neither surprise nor resistance, because he didn't know what a "father" was.
He had no feeling whatsoever when he thought of that word.
Lying in bed at night, he softly murmured a few words in the darkness: "Dad, Dad," trying out various tones and intonations, as if practicing this word he had hardly ever used. But the more he murmured it, the more unfamiliar it sounded.
Later, when he first asked his grandmother about Zhou Jun, she told him that Zhou Jun had worked at the city's procuratorate. In his youth, he was handsome and talented, could write poetry, loved to sing, and was quite popular at work. He met Chen Yunqi's mother through a friend's introduction. However, his mother later discovered that Zhou Jun had a drinking problem. He drank without restraint, and when drunk, he would become violent, hitting and cursing people, showing no regard for family or relatives, even his pregnant wife. He would grab whatever was at hand and use it to hit her at the slightest provocation.
On the day Chen Yunqi was born, Zhou Jun got drunk and for some unknown reason wouldn't let Chen Yunqi's mother go to the hospital. With the amniotic sac already broken, he stood at the door with red eyes, slurring his words and cursing. This angered his good-natured grandfather, who raised his fist to fight him.
The birth of his child did not change him. He ignored Chen Yunqi and spent his salary drinking with his cronies.
One night, while drunk, he lost a crucial piece of evidence, and Zhou Jun was disciplined by his workplace. This proud and ambitious man, unwilling to accept punishment, resigned in a fit of anger and left his hometown; no one knows where he went.
When they divorced, the court ordered Zhou Jun to pay 50 yuan a month in child support, but he hasn't paid a single penny in the past ten years.
After the divorce, Chen Yunqi's mother changed his surname and lived with him in his workplace office for six months. Later, they moved to a company-allocated apartment, finally having their own home. For over a decade, she never contacted Zhou Jun again, determined to raise her child alone no matter how difficult things got.
To provide him with a comfortable life, his mother started a business with his uncle. In Chen Yunqi's childhood memories, his mother was always very busy and had a bad temper. Occasionally, when she visited his maternal grandfather's house, she would buy him a lot of toys and snacks, but she would often leave after putting the things down for only a short time.
Chen Yunqi was very sensible and never complained about why his mother always came and went in a hurry and couldn't stay by his side. He often felt like a stranger to this woman, but every time they met, he would snuggle into her arms affectionately and act coquettishly with his mother, wanting to retain as much of her presence as possible.
After Chen Yunqi returned to her side, they seemed to have lost their way of living together and rarely communicated. When she didn't know how to take care of her son, she would give him plenty of pocket money, hoping he could take care of himself.
In the noisy train station, Chen Yunqi recalled the scene when he first met Zhou Jun a few years ago when he first arrived in S City.
The southern city was as hot as a giant steamer in the middle of summer. After standing for only a few minutes after getting off the bus, he felt like he was about to be steamed. He and Yu Xiaosong were looking for a place to escape the sun when they suddenly heard someone call his nickname. A man appeared not far away and was carefully looking him over.
Chen Yunqi was taken aback for a moment, then nodded, indicating that he was Xiaoqi.
Zhou Jun strode towards him, his face revealing barely suppressed excitement. He was wearing a white short-sleeved shirt, the hem tucked into his trousers. His shoulders and back were already soaked with sweat, the fabric clinging to his skin. The trousers seemed a bit too big, loosely and awkwardly fastened with a worn-out leather belt, hanging high above his waist.
He was shorter than Chen Yunqi, with broad shoulders and thick arms. Although he was not yet fifty years old, he showed signs of hunching and aging, with many wrinkles around his eyes and his hair showing faint signs of gray. His whole demeanor looked like that of a village cadre.
At first glance, Chen Yunqi doesn't resemble Zhou Jun at all.
He had thick, sharp eyebrows, a straight nose, fair skin, and full, delicate lips like a girl's. His light brown eyes, beneath thin single eyelids, looked gentle and bright.
This is the part of him that most resembles his mother: rare and exceptionally beautiful single eyelids, which make his eyes appear large, and when he smiles, the curve adds a touch of playfulness and cuteness. Unfortunately, his mother, in her youth, followed the trend and had double eyelid surgery and eyeliner tattooed by a friend, thus altering the part of her that most resembled her son.
After many years apart, Zhou Jun grabbed Chen Yunqi's shoulders and shook him a few times, excitedly saying, "Wow! You've grown so tall! So handsome!"
Not wanting to disturb the father and son's reunion, Yu Xiaosong took a taxi to school to register by himself. After seeing him off, Zhou Jun exchanged pleasantries with Chen Yunqi, asking if he was tired on the way, and then took his luggage to catch the bus home.
On the way, he introduced the city to Chen Yunqi, talking about the ten years or so he had worked there and his current situation. He told Chen Yunqi that he was currently working in sales for a medical device company, and that he didn't need to get off work regular hours or sit in an office; he often had to go out and do business—promoting the company's products to departments in various hospitals.
Zhou Jun's voice was very hoarse, which reminded Chen Yunqi of the common saying "a broken voice," which was unpleasant to hear. He guessed that it was due to Zhou Jun's long-term alcoholism.
Chen Yunqi followed Zhou Jun back to his rented apartment, an old high-rise commercial and residential building that stood out starkly amidst a large cluster of rural rental houses. Upon entering, a musty, damp smell typical of southern cities, mixed with the unhygienic odor of a middle-aged man living alone, made Chen Yunqi involuntarily frown.
One glance at this house reveals the poor living habits and personal hygiene of the residents—a two-bedroom apartment, one room being Zhou Jun's bedroom, and the other used as an office, containing an assembled computer, an old printer, and a desk piled high with documents and miscellaneous items. The floor tiles were stained, and the tabletop was greasy.
Zhou Jun planned to let Chen Yunqi stay in his bedroom, while he would move to his office to sleep. Chen Yunqi saw that an iron bed had already been set up in the office, but the sheets hadn't been made yet. He went into the kitchen, where a cockroach seemed to be scurrying across the pile of dishes in the sink, and several empty beer bottles lay on the floor. In the bathroom, a bucket of clothes that had been soaking for who knows how long emitted a sour smell.
Zhou Jun paid no attention to any of this and did not notice Chen Yunqi's discomfort.
Chen Yunqi put his luggage in the room, then spent five minutes mentally preparing himself before sitting gently on the edge of the bed, which still had a lingering strange smell despite the newly changed sheets and blankets. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and thought to himself, "I was the one who wanted to come, so what can I do now?"
As Chen Yunqi was pondering where to begin cleaning the house, or perhaps he should just move into the dorms, Zhou Jun came to invite him out for dinner. They went to a restaurant near Zhou Jun's place. Zhou Jun seemed to be a regular customer; the waiters in the restaurant lobby were quite familiar with him and greeted him warmly as he entered: "Brother Jun's here! Who's this handsome young man? First time seeing him."
Zhou Jun said proudly, "This is my son, what do you think!"
The waiter immediately put on a big smile and started praising them: "Wow! Brother Jun's son has grown up so much! Like father, like son, both of them are so handsome!" As he spoke, he led Zhou Jun and Chen Yunqi to the private room.
Zhou Jun's group of drinking buddies had been waiting in the private room for a long time. They had ordered a lot of food and were making a big fuss about welcoming Brother Jun's son. The group didn't treat Chen Yunqi like a child at all. He wasn't a very good drinker, and that night he was forced to drink so much that he ended up vomiting into a trash can.
As expected, Zhou Jun got drunk, and Chen Yunqi and Zhou Jun's friends carried him home. Once home, Zhou Jun didn't even take off his clothes before collapsing onto the bed in the bedroom and falling silent.
Chen Yunqi was also quite drunk, but he still insisted on washing up and making a clean sheet on the iron bed before lying down and falling asleep quickly.
In the middle of the night, the door to the room was suddenly kicked open with a loud bang. Chen Yunqi, who was in his sleep, was so frightened by the sound that he sat up instantly. He then felt a splitting headache. He clutched his head and desperately opened his eyes in the darkness to see. With the help of a faint light from the window, he vaguely saw Zhou Jun barging in like a zombie, as if he didn't know there was another person in the room, and went straight to the window.
At that moment, Chen Yunqi had a bad feeling. He sat on the bed, staring blankly at Zhou Jun's back in the darkness—and sure enough, he heard the sound of a belt being unbuckled and a zipper being pulled down, followed by the sound of water…
After relieving himself, Zhou Jun stumbled and turned to walk out again, without even pulling up his pants properly.
Chen Yunqi sat there until the smell of urine in the air became increasingly strong, then he took his blanket and lay down on the worn-out leather sofa in the living room, keeping his eyes open until dawn.
The thought of living with Zhou Jun from now on made Chen Yunqi feel absolutely terrible.
The mother found it hard to believe that Chen Yunqi was willing to live with Zhou Jun. She knew her son's habits and Zhou Jun's character to some extent. The father and son hadn't seen each other for over ten years, and the fact that they wanted to live together as soon as they met really worried her.
She guessed that Chen Yunqi was just curious and intrigued by this father she had never met, and she thought, "He's getting old, surely Zhou Jun can't be the same as before. Maybe his temperament has improved now."
But Zhou Jun eventually disappointed everyone. Time may have worn down the body of an old drunkard, but it couldn't erase his bad habits and violent tendencies.
Less than a month later, Chen Yunqi moved out and lived on his own, just as expected.
The day before his departure, Chen Yunqi went to have dinner with Zhou Jun and told him about his travel plans, but he did not say how long he would be gone or where he was going.
At first, Zhou Jun remained silent, focusing on eating and drinking. Later, after drinking too much, he began to vehemently object. He had recently been busy using his drinking buddies and numerous distant connections to find Chen Yunqi a job he considered quite good, a task he had undertaken several times while heavily intoxicated. However, Chen Yunqi not only failed to express gratitude for his efforts but also consistently refused, no matter how much Zhou Jun pleaded or begged, Chen Yunqi remained uninterested and unwilling to go.
He was getting anxious and upset about this when Chen Yunqi suddenly decided to go teach in a rural area.
Zhou Jun only has one son, and now that he's finally come to his side, he's eager to use all the "resources" he's accumulated at the dinner table to arrange everything for Chen Yunqi's future according to his plan. Although he has some selfish motives, after all, he's practically half-buried in the ground, and although he won't admit it, the fact is that he's accomplished nothing so far.
But things changed later. His son came, and he had hope. This hope gave him a shot of adrenaline in his impoverished life, making him so proud that he almost forgot how inhumane he had been to ignore his son for the past ten years.
Chen Yunqi and Zhou Jun almost got into a fight in the restaurant. When Chen Yunqi got up to leave, Zhou Jun grabbed his collar and scolded him for getting too big for his britches.
The two pushed and shoved each other until Zhou Jun lost his balance and fell to the ground.
Chen Yunqi didn't need his consent; he was just symbolically informing his only relative in the city. He had already packed his bags, and his wallet contained a train ticket for the next morning.
A note from the author:
--- See you in the next chapter, beautiful young man. --- Let me add a few words. First, although this story is written from the perspective of the main character, I hope to reflect the protagonist's personality more—brave, strong, and capable of both love and hate. This also applies to the supporting characters; they all highlight the protagonist's traits. The protagonist will also be gradually influenced in this process, undergoing significant personality changes throughout the story. Second, I don't want to write a perfect character. The reason I dedicated two chapters to explaining the protagonist's family background is to make his character more complex, carrying the confusion and impulsiveness of youth, as well as sentimentality and melancholy, so that his personality changes can be better reflected in the later development of the story. Finally, everyone's life experiences and choices are different. If you can't understand or don't have the patience to continue reading, you don't have to read it, but please don't ask me questions like "Why does the protagonist live with his father?" in the comments. There's no reason why; this setting has a purpose, and the father character will also appear later.
Chapter Three: Climbing the Mountain
Chen Yunqi took out his phone, about to call the Little Fox Prince, when a figure suddenly appeared in front of him and tentatively asked, "Are you Chen Yunqi?"
Chen Yunqi looked up and saw a man half a head shorter than himself. He was wearing a military green cotton-padded jacket, gray casual pants, and a pair of hiking shoes covered in mud. He wore ordinary black-rimmed glasses, had a round face and thick lips, and although he had a sparse beard, he looked quite young. His childish expression revealed that the beard was probably intentionally grown to make him look older.
Chen Yunqi noticed that one of his eyes seemed a little off, as if it couldn't open properly, but he didn't dare to look at it too closely, lest it be impolite, so he nodded to him.
"Hello, I'm the Little Fox Prince," the man said, extending his hand to Chen Yunqi, who smiled and shook his hand in return.
The little fox prince instantly switched into his familiar mode, scrutinizing Chen Yunqi for a moment before suddenly grabbing his arm, frowning and feigning resentment, and saying, "Hey!? You're actually so handsome, much more handsome than in the photos, and so tall! I regret inviting you here so much, the girls and women in the village are probably going to abandon me now, sob sob sob..."
Chen Yunqi hadn't expected this man with a sparse beard to act so coquettishly, instantly bringing to mind the term "muscle Barbie." He laughed awkwardly, "Oh, not at all..." Then he bent down to pick up his backpack from beside his feet and put it back on his back, using this opportunity to pull his arm away from where it had been grabbed.
"How was the journey? You're amazing, you really did come right away!"
The little fox prince led Chen Yunqi toward the taxi stand by the roadside, saying as they walked, "It's too late today, there are no more buses to the county town. Let's go to the hotel to rest first. I've already bought train tickets for tomorrow morning. It's a five-hour train ride from here to the county town, and then we'll have to transfer to a bus to get to the town. Then we'll see how things go. If the weather is bad, we'll go up the mountain the day after tomorrow when it gets light."
Chen Yunqi stood in the queue waiting for the bus, lit a cigarette, and listened attentively to the little fox prince as he smoked, silently memorizing a few place names: Haiyuan County, Qinghe Town, and Tianyun Village.
This is where he is going now.
The fox prince's real name is Tang Yutao, and he's three years older than Chen Yunqi. On the way to the hotel, Tang Yutao told Chen Yunqi that besides him, there were two other teachers on the mountain: a male teacher named Li Hui and a female teacher named Song Feifei. Song Feifei had been in the mountain for five months and had just left a few days ago to work at the Beijing headquarters of a company that came to the mountain to offer charity.
“It’s normal for a female teacher not to stay long. The conditions in the mountains are really too poor. There’s no electricity, no water, and even taking a shower is difficult,” Tang Yutao said. “When we get to town, we’ll buy you some necessities. How long do you plan to stay?”
"About a month. I'll start planning my work when I get back," Chen Yunqi said, rolling down the car window. A gust of cold wind blew in, making him squint.
Upon arriving at the hotel, he declined Tang Yutao's suggestion to go for a walk together and immediately took a shower and crawled into bed. While he was showering, Tang Yutao went out and bought some local snacks and brought back a few cans of beer. Chen Yunqi got up and tried them one by one; they were all very spicy. So he opened a can of beer and chatted casually with Tang Yutao while drinking it.
After eating and drinking their fill, and knowing they had to get up early the next day to catch the train, the two washed up and went to bed early.
Not long after lying down, Chen Yunqi heard Tang Yutao's soft snoring. He curled up and pulled the blanket tighter around himself. The room was a bit cold without heating, and one blanket wasn't enough to keep him warm. Chen Yunqi closed his eyes, his mind a jumbled mess, not yet able to sort things out.
I think of his little apartment where he used to hide away and escape from life, and the warm orange light that comforted him every lonely night. Meanwhile, I am in a strange little hotel in a foreign land, lying on a not-so-clean bed, and even the air around me feels so unfamiliar.
Tomorrow he will truly set off for his destination. Everything that follows is unknown. He feels a little uneasy, yet also secretly expectant, hoping that the mountain will bring him something he has never experienced before.
Chen Yunqi tossed and turned until late into the night before finally falling asleep, only to be woken up early the next morning by Tang Yutao's phone alarm. They skipped the hotel's free breakfast and Tang Yutao took him to a nearby alley for steaming hot tofu pudding and freshly fried dough sticks.
As dawn broke, the breath exhaled after drinking hot tofu pudding turned white. In the alleys of the old town, elderly people were exercising in the chilly morning air, wearing only two vests. By the roadside, mahjong tables, still bustling with the noise of a night's intense game, sat quietly.
After breakfast, the two boarded the train. The green train carriages were filled with passengers dressed in ethnic costumes. The train's final destination was Tibet. Before boarding, Tang Yutao warned Chen Yunqi to be careful of pickpockets; he had been robbed many times on this train.
The air was filled with the aroma of various flavors of instant noodles in buckets. Tang Yutao got hungry just smelling them, so he bought two buckets from the train vendor, cooked them, and asked Chen Yunqi to eat with him, saying that it was in keeping with the local customs when traveling on a train.
After finishing his noodles, Tang Yutao leaned back in his seat and fell asleep, keeping pace with the swaying of the train. Chen Yunqi, though he hadn't slept well the night before, wasn't sleepy at all. He kept looking out the window, watching the train gradually move from the chaotic city into the open mountains and fields, passing through one tunnel after another, the light and shadow shifting, as if he were in another world.
Five hours later, the train arrived in Haiyuan County.
As soon as they got off the train, Tang Yutao took Chen Yunqi to the bus station and bought tickets for the bus that was about to depart. After a bumpy two-hour bus ride, they arrived in Qinghe Town.
“We still need to take a motorcycle to the foot of the mountain. If we go up the mountain today, it will probably get dark by the time we reach the halfway point. The road is not easy to travel, but I’m used to it and it’s not a problem for me even when it gets dark. It mainly depends on you. We can stay in town for another night and go up the mountain tomorrow morning,” Tang Yutao said, looking at the sky and calculating the time.
Chen Yunqi thought for a moment and then answered confidently, "I have no problem, let's do it tonight."
Tang Yutao didn't try to persuade Chen Yunqi anymore. He took Chen Yunqi to a small supermarket in town and bought some daily necessities such as washbasins. Then, he easily found a motorcycle taxi and, imitating the local accent, bargained with the driver. After agreeing on a price, he spent a long time sending messages on his phone.
Chen Yunqi, carrying a large bag, straddled the back of the motorcycle's storage box, towering over the two men in front of him. About half an hour after leaving the town center, they entered the Qingkou River Grand Canyon.
The motorcycle traveled along the riverside road on one side of the canyon. The Qingkou River meandered through the middle of the canyon, with towering peaks and precipitous cliffs on both sides. The top-heavy mountains seemed as if they could collapse at any moment, and scattered pebbles appeared on the road from time to time.
Chen Yunqi looked up, gazing at the magnificent scenery created by nature's handcraftsmanship amidst the howling wind.