Chapter 53: The Rising Sun

Chapter 53

The sky had not yet brightened when Su Youfu got out of bed. At the high altitude of Gumula Village, the temperature was relatively low. In August, one had to wear a thick coat early in the morning.

He carried a load of winnowing baskets, but not as many as before, only twenty baskets, ten on each side. On either side of the baskets were two large hemp sacks as well, though it was unclear what was inside them.

After loading the baskets onto the back of his vehicle, Su Youfu finally breathed a sigh of relief.

The villagers beside him joked, "Crippled Su, you're desperately making big money huh. You just went to sell winnowing baskets last week, and now you're going again this week!"

"With just ten pairs of winnowing baskets, what treasures have you got in those sacks?"

"Crippled Su is not the same as us. We can only sell our baskets for 10 yuan each, but he can sell them for 13 yuan. He knows how to make money to support his college student daughter."

The group babbled on.

Su Youfu simply responded innocently, "The sacks have some vegetables and dried goods I prepared to sell. My wife was missing our daughter and told me to bring her some food."

The villagers figured that was the case. This time of year was not the autumn harvest, so they were short on cash. They would make things like dried bamboo shoots and mushrooms to sell.

After speaking, Su Youfu didn't say anything else. He sat to the side waiting for everyone to gather.

The vehicle was small, and there were many villagers heading into town, so Su Youfu still didn’t get a chance to sit in the front. He was too shy to wrestle a spot from others, so he could only sit in the pickup bed. But he was long accustomed to this and had prepared a thick hat and coat. He plopped down next to the winnowing baskets, leaning against the front of the vehicle to avoid some of the wind.

Sitting in the back was quite nice. No one would tease him, which worked well since he wasn’t very good at idle chatter anyway.

Su Xiaoqi’s personality was greatly influenced by her father in this way. She also felt awkward and uneasy when teased, not knowing how to retort.

But Su Youfu had told a lie today. The sacks did not contain dried goods. The family’s dried bamboo shoots and everything else had long been sold. His daughter needed money every week for school, so they couldn’t wait until now. The bags actually contained some bamboo baskets and bags that he had tried making based on the book his daughter had bought for him. They had turned out pretty well.

He wanted to try selling them. If winnowing fans could sell, these items could probably sell too. Weaving the bamboo was a bit more laborious, but he had felt excited making them these last few days, staying up until one or two in the morning.

Xiaoqi had never noticed before how beautifully spectacular an early morning sun could look, without needing to visit any famous scenic vistas. Just standing on the bridge—

Surrounded by the unceasing traffic, faced with the surging unrelenting river, the sun a golden red circle that looked as precise as if drawn by a compass, simply suspended there in a sky so clean it resembled a child’s drawing, a swathe of blue with a single circle to represent sun and river.

In that moment, Xiaoqi inhaled deeply, feeling the heaviness that had sat in her heart dissipate like smoke.

She couldn’t deny that the terms “father” and “mother” carried a lot of pressure for her. She even felt it was more tiring to deal with her parents than her aunt.

Her parents’ love was too dense, heavily unconditional with only giving and no expectation of return. She actually felt a huge amount of pressure, constantly fearing she was not good enough or outstanding enough to repay them.

And because of this heavy devotion, she would feel guilty telling the occasional lie due to feeling suffocated by their affections, like during the time of the college entrance exams. She desperately wanted to test well, get into a top university, gain face for her parents. But the more she thought that way, the greater the pressure, even though her usual grades indicated zero issues with reaching the first-tier university threshold. Yet when it came time for the actual exam, she cracked and failed, not even making the first-tier cutoff score at first. She had to go through remedial admissions procedures before finally getting into her current second-tier school.

That moment when she learned her score truly felt like the sky was falling down.

She even had passing thoughts of suicide, of wandering into traffic and letting a car take her life. Brief as the notion was, it had existed.

Her parents hadn't pressured her, yet she felt their devotion itself to be an immense burden.

Fortunately, it was all in the past now.

The crimson sun rises, the great river surges on.

Every day is brand new.

Xiaoqi stood for a while longer atop the windy bridge before resuming her run.

She arrived at the village drop-off point, but the vehicle hadn’t come yet. She stood catching her breath for a bit, face flushed like the rising sun, warm and beautiful.

After rattling around for over two hours, Su Youfu’s face had gone stiff and his hands clenched into numb fists. Before the vehicle even fully stopped, someone nudged him, “Hey crippled Su, isn’t that young lass over there your daughter?”

Su Youfu looked up to indeed see his daughter there, smiling brightly. He suddenly felt a surge of warmth and vigor course through his rigid body. He wanted to smile back, but his stiffness only made his expression look more dour.