CH 4

Chapter 4 – Yun Fei

This novel is only hosted on Foxaholic, copies found elsewhere are either stolen or plagiarized.

“Oh, it’s like that.” Mayor Li smiled and said, “Our condition here is indeed difficult. I will ask the villagers to give the teachers a few new quilts tomorrow, so the teachers can have restful nights. I still have some business and will leave first. I will come pick you up at noon tomorrow.

“En.” Li Chuan got up and sent the mayor all the way to the door.

Lin Xiaoyin, who came together to the mountain village to teach, unexpectedly jumped in through the door with books in her arms and called out a ‘wow’ intending to scare Li Chuan.

The man, however, just swept her an indifferent glance without uttering a word and began to correct the students’ homework once he returned to his seat.

Due to the limited conditions in the mountain village and the difficulty in washing up, all the boys who came along become slovenly, except for Li Chuan, who insists on boiling water every day in the kitchen for bathing. He will change into a clean shirt every day and make himself immaculate. In front of those unkempt youths, he is like a white gardenia with a fresh temperament.

Even the air around him seems to have a refreshing scent that makes the mind wander when one walks past him.

Sitting in front of a simple and plain desk with a red pen in his hand, Li Chuan’s head was slightly hung.

Looking at him from the side, his Adam’s apple, straight nose and thick long eyelashes are lethal weapons that fascinate the girls.

Li Chuan was called Genius Li, mainly because of his unbelievably persistent good academic career. Tsinghua University made an exception and recruited him while he was in high school and by 21, he had already completed his postgraduate studies. Apart from that, he is remarkably good looking. Not only girls have crushes on him, even boys have confessed their love for him too.

Pulling out a stool, Lin Xiaoyin sat in front of him with hand propping her head up and said to him, “Genius Li, I’ve heard what you just said to the mayor. Aren’t you looking down on others? My watercolor painting won first prize in the Youth Contest during high school. I also want to go with you tomorrow.”

Hearing this, the hand that was holding the pen halted as Li Chuan turned to look at her, “You can’t go.”

Li Chuan’s tone turned cold suddenly and his expression was extremely solemn which was completely different from the amiable discussion he had with Mayor Li just now.

Lin Xiaoyin is beautiful and her family is well off too. She came to teach this time solely because of Li Chuan.

In the previous lifetime, Lin Xiaoyin had pursued Li Chuan for more than 10 years. Even after Li Chuan had told her clearly that he would not divorce nor would he marry any woman other than Su Qin, Lin Xiaoyin was determined and said she would never give up as long as she was still alive.

Li Chuan lectured in Nanjing University, so Lin Xiaoyin also stayed to teach at Nanjing University.

With makeup on and heavily perfumed, Lin Xiaoyin blinked at Li Chuan and asked him, “Why ah? Oh… I know, you are worried that I will be tired, right? Genius Li, you don’t have to worry. I will be fine.”

After experiencing the tragedy of his previous lifetime, Li Chuan no longer treats others or matters with a gentle approach like he did in the previous lifetime.

“Classmate Lin has misunderstood.” He frowned and said, “Although you are a woman, none of us is obligated to take care or accommodate you. Please have some self-awareness, Classmate Lin and stop trying to hold others back.”

Arching her eyebrows, the girl held up two fingers and swore, “I promise I won’t hold the troop back!”

“Humph.” Li Chuan seemingly has had no more patience since rebirth.

He recalled a phrase that the students often used and actually blurted out, “Don’t you have the b-figure in your heart[1] whether you will hold others back or not?”

The words were offensive and he only hoped he could leave a very bad impression on the girl.

In Lin Xiaoyin’s mind, Li Chuan nevertheless treats others with politeness and courtesy even though he does not like to meddle in others’ business and always keeps his distance from the female classmates. She was obviously shocked by the sudden ‘foul language’ that came out of Li Chuan’s mouth.

This is a popular internet slang many years later but now that Li Chuan used it, it became the most powerful word to put girls off.

The rims of the girl’s eyes reddened and her lips shriveled as she covered her face and cried out. She originally thought Li Chuan would comfort her with a word or two but unexpectedly, the man just abandoned the half marked homework as he got up and went out.

Since the man had already left the office, the girl also stopped crying. Rubbing her red and swollen eyes, she looked at the direction where Li Chuan left and bit her lips tightly.

**********

Noon of the next day.

Mayor Li came to school with someone carrying a basket on the back to help carry Li Chuan and Zhang Cheng’s things.

Li Chuan did not bring many things. Just a few changes of clothes and toiletries while the rest were paints and drawing papers for the students.

After checking the inventory, they were ready to go upstairs when Lin Xiaoyin rushed out from the dormitory in thick-soled boots and a designer shoulder bag. She waved at them from afar, “Wait, wait, wait, Teacher Li , Teacher Zhang, wait for me. I’m going too!”

Lin Xiaoyin ran out and stopped in front of them. Gasping for breath, she straightened her back then raised her eyes and gazed at Li Chuan’s chin, “Genius Li, I am going too. I promise I will not hold you back! I certainly have … b-figure in my heart!”

Li Chuan and Zhang Cheng exchanged a glance.

Pulling Li Chuan aside, Zhang Cheng asked him, “Dude, what’s the matter with you? One has yet to be rescued and yet another is sent to them? You didn’t tell her about the situation in that village ah?”

“Will she believe it if I told her?” Li Chuan raised his hand and kneaded his glabella.

Taking a glance at Lin Xiaoyin, Mayor Li then looked at Li Chuan and Zhang Cheng, and asked, “What? Teacher Lin also wants to go to the mountain? Teacher Lin, you don’t know how to paint, so what are you doing up the mountains?”

Lin Xiaoyin stuck out her chest. As she was wearing a low-cut v-necked sweater, the white orbs shook in wake once she stuck her chest out.

She said, “Who said I can’t paint? My paintings have won awards before.”

Mayor Li’s gaze was fixed on her before he quickly cast a glance at Li Chuan, “Teacher Li, didn’t you say that the other teachers have no fundamental skills in painting?”

Turning around, Li Chuan looked at Lin Xiaoyin, “The mountain road is rugged and long. There are jackals, wolves and wild boars running amuck. As a girl, is Teacher Lin not afraid?”

“I’m not afraid! With you and Teacher Zhang around and besides, there is also the Mayor, what am I afraid of?” Lin Xiaoyin looked at the mayor and smiled, “Isn’t that right, Mayor?”

Mayor Li thought it might not be a bad idea to have one more teacher as it might shorten the children’s lesson time and probably be able to finish in less than a week, so he let her stay too.

The villagers respect teachers who come to teach in the countryside and since Lin Xiaoyin was personally brought over by Mayor Li, he reckons that those villagers will not dare to have ideas on Lin Xiaoyin.

Li Chuan and Zhang Cheng did not stop her anymore but kept a distance from her all the way.

Su Qin slept with Yun Qin at night. Due to the tossing and torments of the past few days, she slept until 9 o’clock.

Rural people are accustomed to do farm work in the field before the sun rises. When she got up in the morning, Yun Qin had already brought Feifei to work in the field and only left her alone in the house.

Sitting up, she casually combed her hair with her fingers and tied it into a ponytail.

When she came out and passed by the main room, she saw food left on the square table that was covered with a winnowing fan. Lifting the winnowing fan were two boiled sweet potatoes, a small dish of pickles and a bowl of mung bean porridge.

She was really hungry. Due to her suspicion of Yun Qin last night, she didn’t eat many mouthfuls of rice. Picking the sweet potato up, she gobbled it when it choked her and she hurriedly drank two mouthfuls of porridge to make the food stuck in her throat slide down.

After finishing the meal, she packed up the dishes and went to the kitchen.

The kitchen is next to the pigpen. Went out of the main room first then walked straight along the right hand side and the kitchen was at the end.

It is an earthen stove kitchen where firewoods are neatly arranged around the foot of the wall. Su Qin fetched two ladles of water from the water vat to wash the dishes before going out. She caught sight of several children standing in the yard who sized her up with broad smiles.

When they saw her come out, the children hid bashfully behind the tree.

Two little boys made faces and threw stones at her then mockingly said, “The Fool’s wife is ugly and their children will be ugly too! La, la, la, la, la, la …”

The stone hit Su Qin’s face which hurt her and made her click her tongue.

She frowned and was about to go back into the house when a dark skinny little girl of about eight years old was seen picking up a bamboo stick to chase after the boys who threw stones at Su Qin. She hit and scolded them, “Who asked you to bully people again! Bully again! Beat you to death!”

It was worth noting that this eight-year-old girl was carrying a basket on her back which contained a babbling little sister of about one-year-old.

Due to the limited conditions in the rural areas, these several children’s clothes were pitch-dark while their faces and hands were all dirty, like the little beggars squatting and begging by the roadside in the city. Even though it was a distance away, she seemingly could smell their body odor.

The boy jumped as he got beaten up by his elder sister when he ran and yelled, “Zhang Xiuxiu, you actually dare to hit me! I’m going back to tell our grandparents! Let grandpa beat you money-losing-goods[2] to death!”

The boy soon ran out of sight.

Holding the bamboo stick with her little sister, who is learning to speak, on her back, the girl approached Su Qin and apologized to her, “Sorry ah Sister, my little brother is just asking to get beaten up. Next time if he hits you again, you take the stick and beat him hard!”

Su Qin sized up the girl in front of her. She is only eight years old and still a child yet she is carrying a one-year-old on her back. At such a young age, she is actually shouldering the burden of an adult.

There are very few girls in this village. Either they were drowned at birth or grown up to the age of 15 or 16 then taken by their parents to barter marriages for the boys in the family.

This girl obviously can’t escape the fate of being exchanged to get a wife for her younger brother in the future.

Su Qin shook her head and told her, “It’s okay” before entering the house.

Back in the house, she looked at her reflection in the water. Half of her face was still swollen but the hives had subsided considerably. She took a piece of cloth from Yun Qin’s cabinet and wrapped it around her head.

The hives and bruises will soon heal. She can’t let the villagers see her original look. Although she is not exceedingly beautiful, in the eyes of the villagers, it is only normal for a Fool to match with an ugly girl.

If the Fool is paired with a decent-looking wife, it is bound to attract gossip. She still has some self-confidence in her own appearance. Although she doesn’t have a celebrity look, she can be considered outstanding amongst the ordinary people.

Yun Qin took Yun Fei home around noon and they brought back some herbs.

When Yun Qin went to cook in the kitchen, Yun Fei grinded the collected herbs into a paste and carried it in a small bowl to the main room to give Su Qin the medication.

Su Qin’s injuries were all on her face and she herself simply couldn’t see them.

Dipping his fingers into the bit of medication, he daubed it gently on her face yet she bared her teeth in pain and shrank back.

There was no warmth in Yun Fei’s tone, “Don’t move.”

Su Qin stopped moving to look up closely at Yun Fei and still felt surreal.

She owed him too much in her previous lifetime. In this lifetime, she will take both mother and son out of this mountain village and out of the purgatory on earth no matter what.

Their first move is to convince Zhang Xing to agree, letting Yun Fei follow the village children to attend school with Professor Li.

Yun Qin had already told her life experience to Su Qin last night.

Originally a postgraduate student at Nanjing University, she was abducted and sold here about 16 years ago. One must know that during that era of more than a decade ago, there were very few college students let alone the rarer than an exotic animal, the postgraduate.

But it was just like this; a highly educated and intellectual young woman got abducted and sold to such a place. She was already a month pregnant at that time when she was abducted.

Yun Qin was sold to a genuine fool and wasn’t as lucky as Su Qin. In order to save the fetus in her womb, she dared not resist and endured the humiliation. The fool was really foolish and treated her really well, and she gave birth to the baby in her womb smoothly. She did not blame the fool as he didn’t have the ability to distinguish right from wrong but she bitterly hated the fool’s parents and everyone in the village.

They were the ones who ruined her life. If it weren’t for these monsters, she would now have her own family, a loving husband and a decent job.

She would probably be a successful career woman who walks with the wind.

She got abducted and sold here which not only ruined the happiness of a family but also squandered the country’s resources.

The one suffered the most is Yun Fei, who has to bear her hardships since young and even had to act dumb.

[1] 你自己心里没点逼(b)数 (Nǐ zìjǐ xīnlǐ méi diǎn bī shù) – it’s an internet slang that derived from the Northern dialect which goes along the line ‘Are you mentally retarded?’ or impolitely means that aren’t you overestimating yourself?.

[2] 赔钱货 (Péiqián huò) – an old derogatory term for girls because girls couldn’t go out to earn money and her family had to prepare dowry when she got married, hence the name.