CH 5

Chapter 5 – Up the Mountain

Yun Qin’s house has a large compound. Many children like to come and play with Yun Fei.

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He behaves dumbly in front of the children and has never fought back whenever he is bullied. If his family roasted any peanut kernels, he would offer to eat together with the children.

The boys think that Yun Fei is very stupid.

While girls feel that Yun Fei is very good, he doesn’t talk much and has a good temperament. Moreover, although he is ‘stupid’, he is always neat and clean. In summer, his body has a faint soap-scent smell unlike other boys who are full of sweaty stench.

At noon, the children came to Yun household’s compound to play with sandbags and hopscotch.

The neighboring women also brought out the insoles and needlework where they sat and sewed in their own yard, watching the children play while they chatted.

Four women were engaging in small talks.

Li Suhua from next door asked Yun Qin, “Qin’er, I heard you bought a wife for Feifei yesterday? Is she obedient?”

On Yun Qin’s lap was a wicker basket with tangled needles and threads which were slightly messy.

As she sorted out the needles and threads, she replied, “Not too bad. Probably scared witless from the beating. Very obedient. She helps with the dishes and work too. Hm… just a little ugly. But that doesn’t matter as long as she can give birth to children.”

Li Suhuai exclaimed, “Oh, fortunately she’s ugly, otherwise not knowing what ruse she will kick up if she’s good looking. Do you know the wife of Zhang Er’wa family?  Tsk, unusually beautiful but in the end, within two days, she made a fuss of wanting to kill Zhang Erwa’s entire family and also wanted to report to the police. That damn girl even went as far as wanting to perish together with Zhang Er’wa by using rat-poison! But guess what?”

The other women stared in disbelief, “Beaten to death?”

“In any case she was paid for, how could she be beaten to death?” Li Suhua took a breath and said, “That ruthless Zhang Feng hacked off both her daughter-in-law’s legs. I went to take a look, the original very beautiful girl has become mentally-deranged … crawling around in the pigpen and has now gone completely crazy. What a sin ah.”

“Haiz, like I say, how can Feng’er be blamed for this? If it was not that girl who tried to poison others, would Feng’er do such a wicked thing? Like I say, it’s the girl who is ruthless, no one is to be blamed! It’s benevolent that she was not dragged to the rooftop and burnt to death. But then again, isn’t our Qin’er also a daughter-in-law from the city? Look how kind our Qin’er is and how happy she is staying here?”

Saying that, she reached over and patted Yun Qin’s shoulder.

Yun Qin hung her head without saying a word while a thin smile suspended on the corners of her mouth but her stomach was churning and she felt like vomiting.

She then called out towards the window, “Little Qin, bring over the bunch of red thread for me.”

Not long after, the chatting peasant women sitting in the yard saw a petite girl with a head-scarf come out with a bunch of red thread.

She handed the red thread to Yun Qin with visibly trembling hands.

Her raised eyes met Li Suhua’s and like a startled rabbit, she hastily hung her head and quickly entered the house.

Li Suhua said to everyone once she had entered the house, “Just look at how well Qin’er taught her daughter-in-law? It’s only her first day here and she does everything she’s told to do. This morning when Qin’er and Feifei went out to work, the girl went into the kitchen alone to do the dishes then went back to the room herself, quite well-behaved.”

Yun Qin laughed audibly, “Although our Feifei is stupid, he nevertheless is handsome. It is also her blessing that she can marry our Feifei.”

“Yes, yes, yes and not only that, your family Feifei ah, is really good-looking. Even better looking than … that Xu Xian in《The Legend of the White Snake》.”

“Yes ah, your family Feifei looks like you, it’s just a pity …”

Yun Qin suddenly remembered something and asked Li Suhua, “Sǎozi[1], since the Village Chief is your nephew, can you go talk to him to allow my family Feifei to attend school too? My family Feifei has grown up working along with me and now he even has a wife but he has never had a taste of going to school. I want him to experience attending school once.”

“This … “ Li Suhua appeared to be in a dilemma and said, “We are both mothers. Of course I know you are doing it for the good of your son. But Feifei’s situation and the impossibility of leaving the village, what’s the point of going to school?”

Yun Qin gripped Li Suhua’s hand and said, “Sǎozi, you don’t know how envious our Feifei is sitting at the door and watching other children coming home with school bags on their backs every day. Besides, Feifei’s father had never attended school. Isn’t it free schooling now? Our Feifei is also a male offspring in the village, so why can’t he attend school? Even if he only learns a few numbers, it will already make me look good as his mother.”

Li Suhua was in a predicament.

Su Qin let out a sigh hearing the conversation outside through the window.

Although Yun Qin and Feifei were not home in the morning, the neighbors were watching her. If she had made a move of leaving the compound, Li Suhua would have definitely suggested Yun Qin to break her leg at this moment.

In her previous lifetime, the reason why she dared not run away was precisely these instances of broken limbs that she heard of. Later, what led her to make the desperate attempt was when she heard Zhang Xing’s intention of selling her to an old man.

The escape was unsuccessful, not only was she captured back but Yun Fei was killed too.

There is a rooftop used for sacrificial worship at the edge of the village. Before the Chinese economic reform[2], this was a superstitious feudal village and a young girl would be burned to death every year as a sacrificial to Heaven.

After the economic reform, this phenomenon has stopped but the villagers still use it to burn those who violated the village rules.

In this village, villagers must abide by the rules and be united. Whoever dares to liberate someone else’s wife/daughter-in-law will certainly be burned to death as sacrificial to the mountain. And Yun Fei violated this taboo in her previous lifetime for setting Su Qin free, hence he ended up being burned to death.

Yun Fei knows his own identity and just like his mother, he loathes the people in the village and also yearns for the outside world, wanting to know what his biological father looks like.

At night.

Yun Qin caught an old hen and went to Li Suhua’s house.

An old hen that can lay eggs is worth a bit of money. As such, Li Suhua relented and agreed to help the matter of letting Yun Fei attend school.

Su Qin found a thumb-length pencil and a piece of rough paper at home.

Relying on the bit of light from outside, Su Qin lay on the bed and drew a map from the memory of her previous lifetime.

Surrounded by mountains on all sides, there is only one way out of Zhangjia Gorge. However, there is a natural cavern behind a cliff southeast of the back mountain.

Water cascades along a small waterfall below the cavern that flows towards the big river in Tongluo Township.

Yun Fei found that cavern in her previous lifetime. Under the pursuit of the villagers, the two of them made a desperate attempt dashing down the waterfall to float along the river to Tongluo Township by holding on to a dead tree.

But that path was so treacherous that both of them almost drowned and it was by pure luck that they survived. She wasn’t sure if she would have that kind of luck in this lifetime, so she dared not take that risk, let alone risk the lives of both Yun Fei and Yun Qin.

This map was only drawn as a contingency. She will not consider this escape plan unless it is the last resort.

The best plan now is to find a way for Yun Fei to attend school and contact Professor Li.

Professor Li was a lecturer specializing in ‘Security Countermeasure’ in her previous lifetime. This specialized field was rare in China and was specifically set up by Nanjing University for the military.

Nanjing University is located in Jinyang City of Dongchuan Province. As a science and technology city in China, Jinyang flourishes with the military industry.

Professor Li not only taught at Nanjing University, but also provided network security for Jinyang Ninth Research Institute.

Jinyang Ninth Research Institute is a highly confidential national institute for China’s Academy of Physics Engineering which is the only nuclear weapons development and production unit in China.

For someone who was engaged in network security, Professor Li was naturally proficient in cryptography. After Su Qin married him, the first Morse code he taught Su Qin was.

” … . -… — … – . -… ”

Which interpretation is, ‘I love you’.

Su Qin didn’tt learn many codes from Professor Li, but she has no problem sending a simple distress message.

She believes that if a girl sends him a distress call from the remote mountains, he might come to find her out of curiosity even if he has no empathy.

The herbal medication on Su Qin’s face dried up quickly and needed to be washed off before reapplying it again.

The herbs that Yun Fei gathered and mashed were brought into the bedroom where he sat at the edge of the bed. Putting the pencil down, Su Qin looked up at the neat and tidy boy in front of her.

He dabbed a bit of the medication in the bowl with his fingers and spoke to her, “Take off the face towel.”

Taking the face towel off, Su Qin accepted the towel he brought in and wiped her face clean.

The hives on her face had already faded and only a few red spots remained on her skin, while the swelling on her face had also subsided and her original palm-sized oval face revealed.

Although there are still some bruises on her face, it does not affect the beauty of her whole appearance.

Adorned with a pair of beautiful shapely eyebrows, her gaze is gentle and calm. There is stubbornness and also clarity in her eyes, like dewdrops shrouded by the first ray of morning sunlight which are full of ingenuity.

The girl has stunning features, especially that pair of shapely and delicate eyebrows.

This is the first time Yun Fei met such a beautiful girl.

The girl moved her face closer when he administered the medication. Her long arched curvy eyelashes fluttered up and down like small fans while the girl’s warm breath that sprinkled on his throat caused his heart to throb.

The fifteen-year-old boy, who has never experienced close contact with girls of his age, suddenly blushed.

As Su Qin was pondering about something, she didn’t notice the boy’s changes.

In her mind, Feifei is her family hence she simply didn’t feel anything inappropriate at all.

While the boy’s fingertips pressed her cheeks gently, she frowned that he immediately paused and began to blame himself … for using too much force.

“Can I call you Feifei?” Su Qin suddenly raised her eyes and asked him.

Yun Fei was stunned for a moment before he nodded a while later.

The fingertips that dipped with herbal medication swept across her cheekbones lightly.

“You can call me Sister Su-Su from now on.” Su Qin arched her eyebrows, causing the herbal medication to come off due to her overly expressive facial expression.

Yun Fei frowned and got up very angrily all of a sudden. The enamel bowl containing the herbal medication that was in his hand was placed heavily on the cabinet before he turned around and went out.

Su Qin was taken aback and wondered why the young lad lost his temper. Lowering her eyes, she saw the medication that dripped on the bed sheet and guessed —

Was he angry with herself for getting the herbs on the bed sheet?

Yun Fei was a little angry.

He was angry at the girl, who is shorter and smaller than him, asking him to call her sister.

Humph.. He definitely doesn’t want to.

7:00pm is usually the time that people in the village start to close their doors to go to bed. But there were sudden beatings of gongs and drums outside while torches were lit up as if it was daylight outside.

Putting her clothes on, Yun Qin slipped on her slippers and went to find out what was going on.

She asked her neighbor Li Suhua at the top of her voice, “Sǎozi, what’s all this banging and drumming? What’s going on ah?”

As the compound was pitch-dark and the silhouette of the other party could not be seen, Li Suhua also replied at the top of her voice, “I’ve heard from my family Mingming saying that Mayor Li seemed to have come to the village with a few teachers.”

Hearing the conversation outside, Su Qin immediately sat up on the bed.

Yun Qin had just returned to the house and was about to bolt the door when someone knocked on the door ‘thud thud thud’.

When she opened the door, a group of men with torches stood outside.

The man in lead had a sharp look and spoke gaspingly, “Qin’er, hurry up and call your family’s daughter-in-law out. Some teachers have come to stay a few days in our village. The Village Chief said to take and hide those wives/daughter-in-laws who recently arrived from the city to the small temple on the mountain.”

Standing at the doorway, Yun Qin blocked the door and said, “My family’s daughter-in-law is quite obedient, she doesn’t need to go to the small temple, right?”

“No, you know the village’s rules. All brides must go!”

Wrapped in a headscarf, Su Qin came out and seeing Zhang Er’wa, she instinctively hid behind Yun Qin.

She grabbed Yun Qin’s shoulders with her head hung low while her voice trembled badly, “Mother …”

Standing in front to block Zhang Er’wa, Yun Qin gripped Su Qin’s hand and placated in a low voice, “Don’t be afraid and just go calmly. Mother will make a good meal for you when you come back.” She then raised her eyes to look at Zhang Er’wa and said, “Er’wa, don’t you try having any idea on my daughter-in-law ah. My family Feifei is stupid but I am not.”

Zhang Er’wa made a ‘tsk’ sound before sweeping a glance at Su Qin and said, “Hurry up and come with me!”

[1] 嫂子 (Sǎozi) – sister-in-law / older brother’s wife / general appellation for married women