CH 8

Chapter 8 – Encounter

The air was still chilly during spring but after it got warmer suddenly, it turned cold again.

Hundreds of flowers bloomed on the mountains and the yellow rapeseed flowers stretched vastly along the hillside was lushly spectacular like thousands of gradient colors.

The weather was good in the afternoon since the sun was sunny and warm.

Children from the neighboring villages assembled at the Village Chief’s house. After Li Chuan did a headcount, he asked the children to bring the watercolors and painting papers to the mountain to pick the scenery.

As he was leaving, Zhang Feng rushed into the Village Chief’s house in a fluster and stumbled at the doorway.

The woman was full of panic, thus Li Chuan deliberately walked slower to listen.

A man named Zhang Er’wa from the village had disappeared. He didn’t come down after going up the mountain yesterday. Zhang Feng begged the Village Chief to bring someone up the mountain to look for Er’wa as she worried something happened to him on the mountain.

Just woken up, Zhang Xing was stretching and yawning in the yard when Zhang Feng rushed in.

He still hasn’t settled the score with Zhang Feng for selling him the ugly girl last time, so he purposely didn’t want to help this time. He first greeted the children in the yard then turned to say hello to the three teachers.

Finally, he turned to face Zhang Feng and said, “He probably went out of the village to play, or maybe lie down to sleep somewhere. Aunt, don’t worry about it. Er’wa is so competent that he might even be okay if he runs into a bear.”

He sent the person away with just a few words.

There were more than 30 children in the group with the youngest being 5 and the oldest 15 years old. Since Yun Fei was familiar with the mountain terrain, he was leading the way in front of the group.

Zhang Xing naturally didn’t feel at ease with the outsiders and specially instructed the Fool not to let them go to the mountain temple.

The big group moved along the mountain winding path like a long snake, with the teachers following behind just like a spring outing troop.

The children were in high spirits since this was the first spring outing in their lives.

Because they were going to pick scenery at a beautiful location, Lin Xiaoyin brought her camera and wore a beautiful white skirt with a hand-woven round hat.

Zhang Xiuxiu, who was at the rear of the group, looked at Lin Xiaoyin’s dress several times. Blinking her eyes, she blushed and said, “Teacher Lin, your dress is so beautiful!”

This kid … can’t you compliment my beauty instead? Hmph.

The corners of Lin Xiaoyin’s lips curled up and the bright sunlight radiated her smile causing the peach blossoms on the mountain path to lose their color too.

“When Xiuxiu grows up later, Jiejie[1] will give you a beautiful dress, okay?”

Shaking her head, Xiuxiu’s eyes were filled with unwavering determination, “No need. I want to make it myself. I will make many many beautiful clothes when I grow up.”

The stubbornness and determination in the little girl’s eyes reminded Li Chuan of Su Qin in his previous lifetime.

There was always stubbornness and strength in her eyes. Life had given her too many tribulations, yet she had turned the potholes and mires in her life into smooth paths.

A girl in her early twenties returning to the city whose parents disdained finally saved enough money for her high school tuition fees by being a waitress.

She went back to school and yet was subjected to campus bullying. Though she ultimately failed to get into the undergraduate courses, she did pass the entrance exam of a technical college.

She then worked as a fashion designer after she graduated since she was inspired to set foot in the fashion industry to design beautiful clothes yet suffered setbacks in the workplace. Though life was unsatisfactory, it did not bring her down. Instead, she used her remaining savings to open a tailoring shop in Yunyang and earned a passable income to live a decent life.

After marrying Li Chuan, Su Qin’s business didn’t plummet.

Thinking of Su Qin and their daughter, Baobao, Li Chuan felt stabs of throbbing pain.

Li Chuan had already seen the rough paper that Yun Fei passed to him, on which a string of very simple distress Morse code was.

“Abducted and sold, help me. Mountain temple.”

Due to the complexity of Morse code phrasing, even though there was a long string of “ . -”, stringing such symbols together in fact were just these few words.

Not many people in modern times can still recite the Morse code chart, thus Li Chuan guessed that the other party should be a highly educated girl, who is familiar with cryptography and has a meticulous mind.

The degree of literacy in the village is relatively low, hence she could just use written words or simple English. But that girl chose to use Morse code in preparation for any eventualities.

If the villagers found out that the Fool had stuffed a note in Li Chuan’s hand, even if they couldn’t read, they could still make up what was written on it. But it was different with Morse code, since it was just symbols, it would only look like the Fool’s random scrawling. Even if it was found out, it would not rouse others’ suspicions.

So, how did that girl know that he could read Morse code too? Could she be … an acquaintance?

With the bright mountain flowers in full bloom, the children’s naivety and the company of a beautiful woman, Zhang Cheng laid down on the glade to look up at the blue sky and lowered his head to look at the boundless piece of beautiful bright yellow.

The children sat on the grassland with drawing boards and watercolor brushes to scrawl the beautiful scenery.

As Li Chuan instructed the children how to use the watercolor, the heart of a young girl in Lin Xiaoyin almost pounced out of her chest seeing his meticulous and earnest look.

She ran over with her camera and poked Li Chuan’s shoulder with her finger, “Teacher Li, can you help me … take a picture?”

Looking at her with a cold and stern gaze, the black shirt made Li Chuan appear even grimmer.

The man changes his clothes every day, but he has only worn black since he entered the village, which somewhat looked like … attending a funeral? But even so, he is so handsome that one can’t turn their gazes away.

This was not the first day Lin Xiaoyin knew him. Both their families have business collaboration and she has known him since high school.

From high school to university, though the man pays no heed to the girls’ affection, he is still courteous and treats others with just the right manner, and not icy-cold like this and unlikely with this kind of distancing attitude.

Lin Xiaoyin was obviously frightened by the look in his eyes. Holding the camera, she asked timidly, “Li … Teacher Li … did I do something wrong?”

Shifting his gaze from the girl’s face, Li Chuan looked at the landscape behind the field of bright yellow rapeseed flowers. His eyes landed on the ridge of an old building with auspicious beasts popped up on its four corners.

From the visual point of view, the mountain temple is not very far yet not close either.

Tenderness once again cast on the man’s face in an instant when he softly asked Zhang Xiuxiu, “Xiuxiu, what building is that over there?”

Following Teacher Li’s gaze, Zhang Xiuxiu said, “Teacher Li that is our village’s mountain temple where the burning joss sticks are abundant.”

“Oh?”

Girls, who had been abducted, are imprisoned in the mountain temple. Even if he implies wanting to go have a look, not only the children but the villagers will also try their best to stop him. Even if he managed to go, he would have beaten the grass and startled the snake, and the villagers would move the girls away again.

[T/N:  打草惊蛇 (Dǎ cǎo jīng shé) – figuratively mean inadvertently alerting the enemy]

Li Chuan knitted his brows then raised his hands to cover his abdomen, revealing an expression of pain.

Zhang Xiuxiu looked up at him and asked, “Teacher Li, what’s wrong with you?”

“Li Chuan, what happened to you? Feeling unwell?” Lin Xiaoyin asked him in a low voice.

Exhaling a breath, Li Chuan spoke to the children, “Teacher Li needs to go somewhere far to relieve myself. If you don’t understand anything, ask Teacher Zhang and Teacher Lin.”

The children answered in unison, “Okay.”

Seeing his ghastly face, Zhang Cheng immediately got up from the ground to grip his shoulder and asked, “Old Li, are you okay?”

Li Chuan shook his head and looked at the children behind him, “You stay here. I’ll be back soon.”

“En.” They are after all friends of many years. With merely a glance, he knew what he wanted to do, “Your diarrhea still hasn’t improved yet? Okay, come back quickly once you have pooped ah.”

Teacher Zhang didn’t mince his words, causing the children to cover their mouths and laugh.

A little boy raised his hand and asked, “Teacher Zhang.”

Zhang Cheng with a serious look of a paragon of virtue, “This fellow student, do you have a problem?”

Little boy, “En … Teacher Li is so handsome, how does he look like when he poops ah?”

Li Chuan, “ ………. “ The man who was going downhill in the distance stiffened his back and almost slipped on the steep slope.

“Wow. You little kid, your question is very tricky. Your Teacher Li is so handsome, he will certainly be the world’s handsomest when he poops. Am I right, Teacher Lin?” Zhang Cheng looked at Lin Xiaoyin.

Plucking a bunch of rapeseed flowers, Lin Xiaoyin stuck one behind her ear, “Hmph, vulgar.”

But Zhang Cheng was right, Genius Li surely looks outstanding even when he poops?

Walking along the mountain trail, the mountain temple was about forty minutes away from where they were. If descending vertically from the rapeseed flowers field, the straight-line distance would be no more than one kilometer.

Burrowing into the rapeseed flowers field, he was quickly swarmed by the bright yellow color even though he is tall in stature. Since the rapeseed flowers were terraced-fields, each level is about two meters high.

The man jumped down level by level and was sweating profusely in less than 15 minutes.

When he almost reached the destination, he saw the gentle swaying of the rapeseed flower stalks in front of him.

Someone is here.

Li Chuan reacted sharply. Crouching down like a wolf, he instinctively fished out a Swiss army knife from his pocket, with a ‘kacha’ it revealed the shape blade as he assumed an attack stance.

If the person plays tricks or has misgivings about him, he will not be merciful.

The image of his wife and daughter being burned to death is still vivid in his mind. He dares not forget that kind of pain nor does he dare to have compassion for the people here.

The other party was completely burrowed in and parted the stalks of rapeseed flowers when suddenly … the man squatted motionless in place.

As the man’s face was still obstructed by the rapeseed flower stalks, she couldn’t see the other person clearly. Pulling out the hatchet in her hand, she hacked at the other party with ‘huff and puff’.

Facing a sudden attack, Li Chuan dodged instinctively and stabbed the other party.

Since he is agile and has been trained, he immediately knocked the small skinny girl to the ground then snatched the hatchet in her hand and chopped down almost without hesitation.

Su Qin was startled. There was a rampant killing intent in the man’s eyes.

The hatchet stopped a few centimeters from her face.

Using the pair of knees, Li Chuan weighed down on the girl’s not-yet fully developed chest and pushed her shoulder with one hand so that she could not struggle.

Since Su Qin had a cloth wrapped around her head and was wearing Yun Fei’s clothes, this caused Li Chuan to have mistaken her for a thin weak boy.

Locking eyes with Su Qin for a few seconds, he asked in a deep voice, “What did you want to do just now?”

Su Qin’s muddled mind finally cleared. She opened her mouth with a muted voice, “Teacher … Li?”

This voice … Li Chuan felt shaken. Throwing the hatchet in his hand away, he helped the girl up then reached out to rip off the cloth covering her head.

The girl’s face was smeared with some kind of medicinal herbs, but these eyebrows, the pair of lips and nose …

It’s his Su-su, that’s right.

As if having a lump stuck in his throat, the man’s chest was filled with surging excitement that he couldn’t utter a word for a long time.

[1] 姐姐 (Jiějiě) – Elder siste