After treating the wound, Chen Yunqi took out a half-finished box of blackcurrant-flavored throat lozenges from his pocket and poured one into Sheng Qinyu's other palm. Sheng Qinyu ate the lozenge and stopped crying, and only then did Chen Yunqi lead him back to the classroom.
Back in the classroom, Tang Yutao was disciplining the child who had injured Sheng Qinyu, striking his palm with a long ruler.
The child was hit several times, but he didn't cry. He just lowered his head and bit his lip to endure the pain.
Chen Yunqi led Sheng Qinyu back to his seat. Sheng Qinyu was still young, and with a candy in his mouth, the tear stains and snot on his face had dried, leaving dirty marks, making him look like a little cat with a dirty face. He seemed to have forgotten what had happened earlier, and he and the other classmates stared curiously at Tang Yutao punishing his deskmate.
Chen Yunqi whispered to Tang Yutao, "Stop hitting him, let me talk to him."
Tang Yutao put away the ruler and said sternly to the boy, "Go out with Teacher Chen and explain what happened!" Then he turned and walked away to prepare for class. Chen Yunqi immediately put his arm around the boy's shoulder and led him out of the classroom.
After leaving the classroom, Chen Yunqi let go of the boy's hand, and the two walked one after the other to the edge of the playground. Chen Yunqi sat down on the stone steps first, beckoning the boy to sit next to him. The boy hesitated for a moment, then reluctantly moved over and sat down, rubbing his dirty cuffs and fidgeting with his feet in worn-out sneakers.
"What's your name? How old are you?" Chen Yunqi asked, trying to keep his tone as calm as possible.
"My name is Huang Yelin, and I am 8 years old."
"Hmm?" Upon hearing this, Chen Yunqi turned his head and carefully examined him.
From the side, Huang Yelin has prominent ears and a large head. He wasn't wearing a school uniform, but a dark cotton jacket with a cartoon panda print. The collar of his shirt, so dirty it was impossible to tell if it was white or gray, was showing. His pants were covered in mud and dust, his hair was a bit long and messy, and his fingernails were full of black grime.
When Chen Yunqi noticed that Teacher Chen hadn't spoken for a while, Huang Yelin turned his head and looked at him blankly. Chen Yunqi was surprised to find that the child's eyes were really big and had a clever look in them. Coupled with his protruding ears, he was very cute. His skin was dark and there was some food residue stuck to the corner of his mouth.
"Why did you hit him?" Chen Yunqi frowned slightly and asked him seriously.
Huang Yelin lowered his head again, his voice barely audible, "I...I didn't mean to. He insulted me first, and I got angry..."
Chen Yunqi then asked, "What did he say to you? Why did he say that to you?"
“He wanted to play with my toys, but I didn’t want to let him. So he called me a son of a bitch and said my mother was a son of a bitch and an idiot.” Huang Yelin said, his childish face filled with anger, and his fists clenched unconsciously.
Chen Yunqi was shocked. Sheng Qinyu was only 6 years old. Could she say such harsh things? He couldn't quite believe it.
But he didn't immediately express any doubt; he simply said, "So what? You hit him?"
Huang Yelin looked at Chen Yunqi in disbelief: "He insulted my mother, of course I had to hit him! I was so angry! So I poked his hand with a pencil!"
Explaining principles like "violence can't solve problems" and "people should learn to control their emotions" to the child in front of him would probably not be effective, Chen Yunqi thought to himself. Perhaps the best way here is to fight violence with violence, but he still decided to try. He had a feeling that the child was very smart and didn't want to let him grow up wildly.
"Do you like painting?" Chen Yunqi turned to look at Huang Yelin.
"I like it! But I can't draw it well." Huang Yelin didn't know why Teacher Chen suddenly changed the subject. His emotions were still stuck in the anger of recalling Sheng Qinyu's rude words to him, but when he heard about drawing, his attention was immediately diverted.
"If you can refrain from hitting someone next time, I'll teach you to draw privately. You can draw whatever you want." Chen Yunqi turned his head and raised his eyebrows, as if asking with his eyes: How about it?
He was still just a child, and the innocent kid nodded in agreement after only a few seconds of thought.
Chen Yunqi made a promise to him that after school, he could go to Chen Yunqi's room to study painting alone.
Huang Yelin lives in Group 6, and it takes him nearly an hour and a half to walk up the mountain road. He told Chen Yunqi that he has to rush to help take care of his younger siblings after school every day, so they plan to draw once a week.
"Next time you feel really angry, I hope you can remember our agreement and hold back from hitting me. Otherwise, if it happens again, I won't teach you anymore." Chen Yunqi said, standing up and dusting himself off.
Huang Yelin also stood up and imitated the gesture by patting his buttocks.
When Huang Yelin was taken back to the classroom, Tang Yutao was leading the children in reading pinyin. Li Hui was passing by with a stack of test papers. After seeing Chen Yunqi knock on the door, he pushed Huang Yelin in and walked up to him, asking, "What's going on here?"
Chen Yunqi briefly recounted what had just happened, and Li Hui dismissively said, "Just give them a beating, what's the point of reasoning with these kids!"
Chen Yunqi smiled and said, "Beating him up probably won't solve the problem. I'm just trying." After saying that, he turned around and went back into the house.
Li Hui curled his lip, watching Chen Yunqi's retreating figure, and muttered to himself with a mocking tone, "Tsk, does he think he's some kind of bodhisattva, trying to save all sentient beings here?"
Chapter Nine Confidence
Chen Yunqi has been on the mountain for almost half a month and is beginning to adapt to life here.
Every morning, before the fog has dissipated, the mountains and fields are filled with dampness. The roosters raised by the farmers crow in turn, their calls varying in length. As the sky begins to brighten, Chen Yunqi stands in the mist, brushing his teeth. In the distance, wisps of smoke rise from the rooftops of early-rising families, creating a unique and picturesque scene.
After washing up, he sat by the playground and read for a while.
Tang Yutao has a lot of books; he reads all sorts of things, especially supernatural tales. A few days ago, Chen Yunqi picked up a book of unofficial history from him and is now engrossed in it.
As December approached, the weather grew colder and colder. Chen Yunqi refused to wear the gloves Tang Yutao had given him, as they made it inconvenient to turn the pages. After reading for only a short while, his fingers went numb from the cold wind, so he put down the book and played basketball alone for a while to warm up.
Tang Yutao got up quite early. Chen Yunqi waited for him to get up and wash before going to San San's house for breakfast together.
Only Li Hui fully embodies the true nature of a modern-day homebody: he doesn't get up until the last minute before class, he's unkempt and slovenly, and he doesn't eat breakfast, making him extremely unhealthy.
Tang Yutao and Li Hui clearly separated their responsibilities, one for arts and one for sciences. Tang Yutao was responsible for Chinese and geography, while Li Hui was responsible for math and physical education. Chen Yunqi, a top student who excelled in both subjects, had to teach Chinese in small classes and math in large classes, alternating with others, in addition to art classes. Teacher Sheng, on the other hand, only taught Chinese and didn't know anything else.
Chen Yunqi once attended Teacher Sheng's Chinese class. Teacher Sheng was extremely displeased with him for sitting in the last row without being invited and listening on his own initiative, and the whole class was very stiff.
Teacher Sheng's Mandarin is very poor; his pronunciation of pinyin and texts is very non-standard. Chen Yunqi had to emphasize and correct him during his own Chinese classes, but the effect was minimal. Obviously, the children were more receptive to Teacher Sheng's "native accent" and learned faster.
These past few days, Tang Yu and Li Hui cooked two meals at school, both times it was stir-fried shredded potatoes with meat and stir-fried eggs. The two shamelessly claimed that they were still growing and needed to consume more protein to keep warm in the cold weather. In one dish, there was only meat, and only a few shredded potatoes, cut to the thickness of a finger. They also wolfed down the half-cooked rice cooked in a large iron pot.
This approach might be manageable for one or two meals, but even they themselves couldn't stand it anymore. Chen Yunqi, who knew nothing about cooking, was helpless and could only go around eating at other people's places.
Besides the homes of San San and Li Yan, they also visited the village chief's house and several other students' homes these past few days. Men and women in the village drink and smoke; half of the two cartons of cigarettes Chen Yunqi brought were given away in just a few days.
Whenever he went to eat at someone else's house, there was always a drinking session. The village chief's house was an exception. During the meal, he only mentioned it briefly, and Chen Yunqi politely declined. Surprisingly, the village chief didn't try to persuade him further. Later, he heard from the village chief's wife that the village chief had a heart condition and couldn't drink alcohol. In addition, as a village cadre, he had to set a good example and it wouldn't be good for him to be addicted to alcohol like others.
The village chief's name is Sheng Xueshu, and he has a brother named Sheng Xuewen. The two families live very close to each other, and both brothers are village officials; Sheng Xuewen is the village secretary. Tang Yutao told Chen Yunqi that their relationship was not good in private.
Village Chief Sheng has two sons. His eldest son is 18 years old and has a hereditary heart condition. He only managed to raise enough money for surgery last year and has been recuperating at home ever since, without going out to work. His younger son is 7 years old and attends kindergarten in the village.
The village chief's family cooks in the kitchen, which is much cleaner as there's no oily smoke inside. They burn charcoal instead of firewood, which reduces smoke when boiling water or using the fire for heating. The couple's bedroom also has a color TV, which they reportedly bought a long time ago and have been waiting for it to be connected so they can watch this year's Spring Festival Gala.
Every day after meals, they would visit each other's homes, smoke, drink tea, warm themselves by the fire, and chat. Chen Yunqi spoke little and spent most of his time listening. The questions asked by each villager were similar, mainly about life outside the mountains and his personal life, and he answered them all patiently.
After visiting each other's homes and returning to school, there was nothing else to do. Tang Yutao would almost always crawl into his sleeping bag and read novels. Li Hui would occasionally leave one house and, feeling bored, would go to visit other houses and have a few drinks. He would often come back drunk, and sometimes Tang Yutao would have to pick him up.
Three families were responsible for supplying hot water to the school, and Chen Yunqi had to carry a thermos to collect it every night before going to bed.
Li Hui was very disdainful of Chen Yunqi's habit of washing his body before bed and repeatedly said sarcastically that he was wasting water. But he didn't know that Chen Yunqi was just filling a basin with water and, like the villagers, washing his face first, then wiping his body, and finally pouring it into another basin to wash his feet.
The only difference was that in the village, the whole family used the same basin to wash their face and feet. The adults washed their faces first, then the children washed theirs, and after the children finished washing their faces, the adults used the same basin to wash their feet. One day, before leaving after having dinner at Li Yan's house, Li Yan's father warmly invited Chen Yunqi to wash at his house before going back, and very generously let him use the first batch of water.
Washing his face and feet was also a grand hospitality here, and Chen Yunqi could only politely decline this heartfelt offer with a wry smile.
Tang Yutao wasn't as careless as Li Hui. He washed his face and brushed his teeth every morning and evening, and occasionally groomed his sparse beard.
Water was scarce on the mountain. A stream flowed down from the summit, and the people living in Group Three had to fetch their drinking water from that stream. Chen Yunqi couldn't bear to use the water without a second thought, so he went with San San, leading their horses, to fetch it once.
As winter approached, the water level in the stream had dropped significantly. They filled four large plastic buckets and made three trips back and forth to fill the large water tanks in the yards of the three families to about two-thirds full.
Once during a meal, Chen Yunqi overheard San San's mother saying that San San also loved taking baths, and that her family had a large tin bathtub that required many bottles of water to bathe in.
"It's so hard to get water, and then you wash and wash, and wash it all so clean, I don't know what you're going to do with it. We have to work in the fields every day, so it's all for nothing." She complained irritably while cooking.
San San, a little embarrassed, lowered her head and poked at the firewood in the hearth, making the fire burn even brighter. The leaping flames slightly obscured the blush on her face.
He was considered one of the more educated and particular people in the village, even more so than Teacher Sheng. Chen Yunqi felt that no matter when he saw him, even if he had just come back from the fields and was covered in mud, he still looked very presentable. However, there were no facilities on the mountain for him to take a bath and wash his clothes every day. He used to take a bath every two or three days, but since Chen Yunqi came, he has gradually started to take baths more frequently.
The clean, tidy, and unapproachable aura emanating from Teacher Chen made him feel somewhat ashamed of his own appearance, living environment, and habits, as if he couldn't get close to Chen Yunqi without washing himself thoroughly.
When not visiting others, Chen Yunqi would wash up early and go to bed, reading by flashlight. Here, he gradually lost his sense of time; sometimes, when he got sleepy while reading, he would glance at his watch and see it was only a little past 8 p.m. Early to bed and early to rise, far removed from the world, he felt he was living a secluded retirement life ahead of schedule, unsure whether it was a good thing or a bad thing.
But one thing he was very clear about was that his depression had lessened considerably. In this environment, the anxiety and indescribable pain seemed to be slowly dissipating from him.
Chen Yunqi's phone had long since run out of battery, and the charger he brought was useless. Finally, on the day Tang Yutao was generating electricity, Chen Yunqi managed to find it and charge his phone. The voltage was unstable and the current was very low; it took him an entire afternoon to charge it to only half full. Next to him, Tang Yutao's brick-like phone, its battery clipped to a makeshift charger, flashed colorful lights, mocking Chen Yunqi's smartphone.
After turning on the phone, there was no response and the signal was very weak. Chen Yunqi went outside to the earthen slope where Tang Yutao usually looked for a signal. After a while, the messages finally arrived all at once.
Of the twenty-odd messages, half were spam, two or three were group messages from classmates, and the rest were from his mother.
There is no Yu Xiaosong.
Chen Yunqi opened his mother's unread messages, one after another asking where he was and why she couldn't contact him. The tone of her messages changed from unease to anxiety to anger, and finally she just asked him to contact her as soon as he turned on his phone to let her know he was safe.
Chen Yunqi thought for a moment, then dialed the number directly. After a few rings, his mother answered quickly and asked him anxiously where he was.
"Don't worry, I'm fine. I'm on a big mountain, the signal is bad, and there's no electricity, so my phone doesn't work." Chen Yunqi squatted down, picked up a small pebble with his clean, slender fingers, and scratched it on the ground, saying, "I'm sorry for making you worry."
Hearing him apologize, the mother's anger at his abrupt departure without informing her subsiding was greatly reduced. Although she hadn't learned the specifics, she knew that Chen Yunqi's mental state had been poor recently, so she had no choice but to stop pursuing the matter and helplessly inquired about the details of the situation in the mountains.
Chen Yunqi patiently answered all her questions. Hearing that he only planned to stay here for about a month, his mother was slightly relieved, but then she became worried about whether her son could handle living in such harsh conditions. So she asked about Chen Yunqi's food and clothing.
"Do you have any money? Mom will transfer some more to you. Buy whatever you need, don't suffer."
Chen Yunqi could almost see his mother's furrowed brows on the other end of the phone, and hear her continue, "If you've had enough, come back sooner. If you don't want to work, then don't. My company will be yours sooner or later. Go travel to a scenic place, relax. What's so great about staying in that remote mountain valley?"
Chen Yunqi threw away the pebbles and stood up. From this hillside, he could see three or four families, and even further away, people working in the fields on the slopes of the mountain.
"No need, there's no need for money here, and there's nothing to buy. Everyone here is very kind and hospitable, and they've been very good to me, so don't worry about me."
"Have you ever heard the saying, 'Bad people come from poor and remote areas'?" The mother wasn't entirely convinced by Chen Yunqi's reassurance: "Anyway, just be careful."
Chen Yunqi thought he should say a few more words and then hang up, but suddenly remembered something and asked, "Mom, there are many children here who can't afford to go to school. I want to help them find sponsors. Do you have any good ideas?"
The topic suddenly changed, and Mom exclaimed "Huh?" before pausing on the other end of the phone before saying, "Sure, no problem, what's so difficult about that?"
It was rare for her son to make a request, which surprised his mother. She wanted to praise Chen Yunqi for his kind heart, but she didn't say it. She only said, "If there are a lot of people, I need to make some arrangements."
It would be ideal if more children could be helped, but Chen Yunqi's first thought was for San San. He thanked the mother and briefly explained that the student he wanted to sponsor was a high school dropout, adding that he would have to inquire about the specific cost.
After hanging up the phone, Chen Yunqi saw that San San's family had returned. He jumped down the embankment and walked towards San San's house.
It was Friday, and San San's younger sister, who studied in the county, was home for the holidays. She was probably still halfway up the mountain. San San put down his farm tools and prepared to lead his horse to meet her. Chen Yunqi hesitated for a moment. He was still a little scared of climbing the mountain, but he still said, "I'll go with you."
San San's mother told them to go early and come back early, so that they could have dinner after picking up their younger sister.
Chen Yunqi took the reins from San San's hand and, imitating him, urged the horse forward. San San let him lead the way, walking empty-handed beside Chen Yunqi.
The weather was fine that day, unusually without fog. As dusk fell and the sun set, the winter leaves withered on the branches, leaving the ground desolate. The wind rustled the waist-high weeds on the hillside. Occasionally, villagers returning from their work would walk by and greet them in Yi language.
Smoke rose from every household's chimney, and the aroma of stir-fried cured meat wafted from the doorways.
Perhaps because Chen Yunqi wasn't quite used to hiking on mountain paths, they stopped at a crossroads far from the village, where the path down the mountain led directly ahead. San San said, "Let's not go down; let's wait here."
San San dusted off a large rock by the roadside, then sat down. Chen Yunqi tied his horse to the side and let it graze on the wild grass. He then walked over and sat down next to San San.
Chen Yunqi took out a cigarette, lit it, exhaled a puff of smoke, squinted and blew it away before speaking, "San San, how about continuing your studies?"
Today, San San was wearing that bright yellow cotton coat. The color had faded a bit from washing, making it look quite old, but it made his skin appear even whiter. A few strands of hair covered his forehead, making him look extremely clean and refreshed. Even though he had just finished working, there was no trace of sweat odor on him, only a faint scent of laundry detergent wafting in on the breeze. His black trousers were a little short, revealing a small section of his ankles when he sat down, and his heavy work boots were covered in mud.
Chen Yunqi noticed that San San's clothes were all very simple and down-to-earth, mostly solid colors, and quite old-fashioned, but without any strange patterns or huge misspelled English logos, unlike the clothes bought in the town's clothing stores.
He had met Li Jun once. He was a young man who had returned from working on vacation. He was a loud, glib-tongued man, just like Li Hanqiang. He wore shiny, tasteless, and overly exaggerated clothes, and his hair was dyed yellow. He looked like a small-time thug in the village. Several young men of similar age in the village dressed like this. Compared to them, San San was a breath of fresh air.
Hearing this, San San looked at Chen Yunqi with some surprise, then lowered her head and whispered, "I want to too, but my family doesn't have money, and I can't study well..."
The short sentence trailed off in a whisper. Chen Yunqi took a drag of his cigarette, not looking at him, but gazing into the distance at the path he had trudged up, the path he saw for the first time in broad daylight. He understood why San San had stopped there, and felt a warmth and gratitude in his heart.