A few days passed in a daze, and Yang Xiaowei felt as if centuries had passed. She thought about it over and over again, but she still couldn't figure out why two people who were once so in love have become strangers.
After her body slowly recovered, Xiaowei immediately started working on the farm at home. In Xiaowei's memory, summer vacation was the hardest. Even now that she is a teacher, she can't escape this nightmare - getting tobacco leaves.
In the rural area where Xiaowei's family is located, every household grows flue-cured tobacco, which is most in need of labor. Xiaowei's father has been sick all year round, so the family can only rely on her younger brother and mother. Her younger brother is four years younger than her. He has been helping at home since he graduated from junior high school. At the age of 20, he has become an expert in farm work.
Xiaowei rarely experiences the hard work of planting, because Xiaowei is almost in school during the planting period. When summer vacation comes, she will start picking tobacco leaves. The tobacco leaves picked home have to be tied to a pole and roasted in the tobacco room. After drying, it must be smoothed, graded, and finally sent to the smoking station.
The busy life gradually diluted the pain in Xiaowei's heart. She was very tired every day, so she went home and fell asleep.
Seeing that the holiday was coming to an end, Xiaowei had to return to school a week in advance. There were only 8 teachers in the school. They were on duty during the holidays. Each person got a week's turn. The other teachers were all locals, so everyone still took care of her and let her The last shift is on duty, and then school can start.
The day before leaving, Xiaowei withdrew the salary she had saved for a semester, about 10,000 yuan, and gave it to her mother so that she could use it to repay her college student loan.
The family packed Xiaowei's luggage. Xiaowei's mother brought all the pickles and dried vegetables that the family could bring, as well as the bacon that the family was reluctant to eat.
"Xiaowei, you must listen to your leaders at work and work hard," her mother warned.
"I understand, Mom." Xiaowei nodded, "Dad, you have to take your medicine on time and take good care of yourself!"
"Don't worry, daughter, you have to be patient when teaching, and don't beat or scold the students." Dad also warned.
With tears in her eyes, Xiaowei said goodbye to her parents. Her brother sent her to the station and quietly gave her 200 yuan before getting on the bus.
"Sister, a poor family has a rich life. I know you gave all the money to your mother. I saved this to buy yourself new clothes. After all, you are a teacher. You have to pay attention to your image!"
Xiaowei squeezed the 200 yuan in her hand and burst into tears again. Through the car window, she saw her brother's tanned face. Without her brother, she really couldn't imagine how her mother could support the family alone.
"Now that I am working, I will never let you suffer again!" Xiaowei swore secretly in her heart.
The car swayed and changed three times, and Xiaowei finally arrived at the school when it was dark.
The school is located in an extremely remote mountain village, more than 90 kilometers away from the county seat and 15 kilometers away from the town. It is a minority village. Most of the young people in the village have gone out to work, leaving only the elderly and children behind, so Xiaowei can hardly communicate with the villagers in the village.
The school was on the east side of the village, and there were no homes around. When she arrived at the school, it was almost dark. Looking from a distance, she could see scattered lights in the village and hear a few dog barks.
When she arrived, the teacher on duty had already gone home. The whole school was quiet and dark. Xiaowei turned on the light of her mobile phone and reached the dormitory. She wanted to turn on the lights in the dormitory, but found that there was a power outage in the dormitory.
The boundless darkness came, and Xiaowei was a little scared, but her fear was immediately washed away by her stomach growling. She rummaged through her bag, and found that except for instant noodles, the rest were all the raw ingredients she had brought today.
Xiaowei relied on the faint light of her mobile phone to make the bed, thinking that it would be over if she endured it for a while. She climbed into bed and prepared to take a nap, but she couldn't fall asleep.
She took out her phone and dialed the old principal's number. The old principal had the same surname as her, Yang, and he usually took good care of her. Principal Yang often said that Xiaowei was as old as his children and they were from the same family, just like his own children.
"Hey, Teacher Xiao Yang! What's wrong?" Principal Yang's voice came.
"Mr. Yang, I'm at school, but the school seems to have a power outage!" Xiaowei whispered.
"Oh, I forgot. Because of the holiday and for safety reasons, I closed the gate. Look, there is a gate for everyone at the door of your dormitory. You just lift it up!" Principal Yang said with a smile.
"Ah? Principal Yang, I don't dare to do it. I have never done anything like electricity." Xiaowei said worriedly.
"It's okay, just lift it up. My home is a bit far away, and I can't get through now!" Principal Yang said in embarrassment.
"Then let me give it a try!" Xiaowei hung up the phone and opened the dormitory door to check.
There was indeed an electric meter on the wall at the door of the dormitory. The one next to the electric meter should be the electric switch. Xiaowei looked at it with her mobile phone and raised the switch knife. She felt a spark and immediately retracted her hand in fright.
"Oh, forget it, we'll do it tomorrow. It's just a fool's errand, and no one will know if we get electrocuted!" Xiaowei said to herself.
Xiaowei returned to bed, feeling increasingly hungry. She could only turn on her phone again, and went to the pool to fetch water with the help of weak light. A wild cat jumped out, scaring Xiaowei into screaming.
She quickly picked up the water and ran back to the dormitory. She found that her heart was beating "dong dong" non-stop. She quickly took a scoop of water and drank it. It was cool, but she was still hungry.
Xiaowei went back to bed and hid under the quilt. There were still sounds of wild cats playing outside the window. She muttered: "It's not spring. What are these cats in love? It's really weird."
She turned on her phone, flipped through QQ Space, and saw the couple space she had opened with Li Li before. The photo album in it contained many memories they shared.
She had opened this space before, and looking at it now, it was a bit ironic. She thought for a while, and it was time to cancel it. Just when she clicked to cancel it, her phone said that the battery was low. Xiaowei quickly returned to the homepage, fearing that her phone would shut down if she continued to look at it. Really miserable.
Suddenly, there was a "dong dong dong" knock on the door. Xiaowei poked her head out from under the quilt. Who would come at this time? Xiaowei was too frightened to come out.
"Dong dong dong" the knock on the door rang again.
"Who...who!" Xiaowei said tremblingly.
"Open the door!" It was a man's voice.
"You... who are you? I'm telling you, this is school, you leave quickly, or I'll call the police!" Xiaowei said nervously.
"Our director asked me to come and see you, open the door!" the man outside the door said impatiently.
"Who is your director?" Xiaowei walked to the door and said to the door.
No one answered the door, and Xiaowei didn't dare to open the door. She shivered and stood behind the door, clutching the broom behind the door.
Suddenly, the lights in the dormitory came on and a call came in. Xiaowei breathed a sigh of relief.
"You're so stupid. You can't even make a gate. I don't know how you became a teacher!" the man at the door said impatiently.
Listening to the man's footsteps leaving, Xiaowei opened the door carefully. It was dark outside and there was no one.
"I don't know who it is, but it's so kind-hearted that it doesn't leave its name behind when it does good deeds!" Xiaowei said to herself.
"Wow" suddenly a man jumped out from the stairs and made a face at Xiaowei.
"Ahhhhhhhhhh" Xiaowei was so frightened that she squatted on the ground holding her head, "Who are you and what are you going to do?"
"Hahaha, what a coward. With such little courage, you still dare to come to the mountainous area to be a teacher." The man burst out laughing.
Xiaowei slowly raised her head and looked at the man in front of her. He was in his mid-twenties and very tall.
"You...are you?" Xiaowei asked softly.
"I'm the one who does good deeds without leaving a name!" the man laughed.
"How did you know I needed someone to get electricity?" Xiaowei asked curiously.
"What our director said, I am a college student village official here. Just now, Principal Yang called and asked the director to help you check the power, so our director sent me here!" the man said.
"Director? Who is your director?" Xiaowei was even more surprised.
"Can't you invite me to come in and sit for a while? Do you want to stand here and chat?" The man smiled.
"Oh, I'm sorry, please come in!" Xiaowei quickly let the man into the house.
"I just came here today and the house is a bit messy!" Xiaowei said embarrassedly.
"It's much better than mine, which is even messier!" the man said with a smile.
"I'm sorry, I don't have anything at home. Let me boil hot water and make some tea for you!" Xiaowei was busy fetching water and cleaning the water boiling utensils.
"No, please rest for a while, you were scared just now!" the man asked.
Xiaowei nodded sheepishly and said, "Are you saying that our principal asked the village director to help me check the electric switch?"
"Yes, he said that it is inconvenient for you, a little girl, to have no electricity. He asked the director to help you take a look. Our director gave me this job again!" the man said.
"Oh, then our principal is quite proud. Even the director can boss him around!" Xiaowei stuck out her tongue.
"No, Principal Yang is his elder brother-in-law! Our director is famously afraid of his wife. Of course, he doesn't dare not listen to what his uncle-in-law says!" the man laughed.
"Oh, how dare you speak ill of the leader behind his back, aren't you afraid that I will tell your director?" Xiaowei also laughed.
"This is not a secret, everyone knows it! I'm not afraid if you tell him," the man said.
"Haha, by the way, what's your name?" Xiaowei asked.
"Duan Yu!"
"Hahahaha, you're lying. I'm afraid you've watched too many martial arts dramas and are making up nonsense!" Xiaowei laughed.
"What, you don't believe it, my name is really Duan Yu. If you don't believe me, I will show you my ID card tomorrow!" the man said.
"No, no, you can call me whatever you want!" Xiaowei said, anyway, there won't be any intersections in the future.
"Is your name Yang Xiaowei?" the man said.
"Ah? How do you know?" Xiaowei asked in surprise.
"Of course I know. You are the only young teacher in your school, and you are an outsider. Everyone in the village knows it!" the man said proudly.
Xiaowei smiled sheepishly. She thought no one here knew her except the teachers and students in the school!
"You're not a local, are you?" Xiaowei looked at the man. His skin was fair, unlike the ethnic minorities here.
"Haha, guess what!" the man said.
"Definitely not, the people here have darker skin! And I heard that there are no college students in this village committee!" Xiaowei said confidently.
"I thought you didn't know what was going on outside the window? It seems you know a lot!" the man said.
"Why don't you hear what's going on outside the window? It's just a language barrier. How do you communicate with the villagers when you deal with them every day?" Xiaowei was curious about how a college student village official could go deep into such a minority village.
The man cleared his throat and said, "I can understand most of it!"
"Ah! So awesome!" Xiaowei couldn't believe it, because in her opinion, the minority languages here are more difficult to understand than English.
"You'll get it naturally after listening too much. It's not difficult to deal with villagers in the village every day!" the man said.
Xiaowei admired the man from the bottom of her heart. She had been here for a year and knew that the first and second grades here were taught bilingually. The first grade children could not even speak Mandarin, so the old principal asked her to teach the sixth grade.
"Then how many years have you been here?" Xiaowei asked.
"Two years, this is the third year!" the man replied.
"Oh, can I pass the exam next year?" Xiaowei asked.
"Who knows? It's getting late. You can rest. I'm going back. If you have time, you can come to the village committee to hang out with me." The man stood up and prepared to leave.
Xiaowei thanked him and looked at his leaving figure, feeling warm in her heart. Maybe in such a foreign land, meeting a fellow outsider made her feel sympathy for each other, as if she were a fallen person at the end of the world.
After the man left, Xiaowei hurriedly closed and locked the dormitory door. After all, this school didn't even have a wall. Although the old principal often told her that the folk customs here were very simple, she still felt uneasy in such a dark night.
Xiaowei was lying on the bed. She didn't dare to turn off the light. After charging her mobile phone, she opened her circle of friends.
She clicked on Li Li's homepage. On the page, there was a woman with a smile as bright as a flower. Li Li hugged her and smiled happily.
Xiaowei clicked on the photo, zoomed in, closed it, and opened it again. She bit her lips until the smell of blood came from the corner of her mouth.
"Li Li, you bastard!" Xiaowei finally burst into tears.
Throughout the holiday, she thought she had come out, but she didn't expect that one of Li Li's comments could still make her collapse. At home, the place was so big, she could only lower her voice when crying, and she was even afraid of being swollen the next morning. Worried about having eyes seen by parents.
The night in the mountain village is extremely quiet, with only the chirping of insects, and the green bamboo outside the window rustling in the wind.
Xiaowei cried and fell asleep unknowingly, until a dazzling beam of sunlight came in through the window. It was dawn, the sun came out, and a new day began.
Xiaowei got up and opened the dormitory door. It was late autumn, and the fields were golden. It was only after eight o'clock, and the sun was shining high. The sky was clear and clear. Xiaowei washed up and began to clean the campus.
Since there were no students, the campus was covered with golden leaves. Xiaowei was not in a hurry and started sweeping up slowly, occasionally picking up one or two leaves. The sky was surprisingly blue. Xiaowei suddenly thought of going for a walk in the fields. Maybe, Nature will tolerate all her sorrows. It is rare to have such a free day. Xiaowei made up her mind and accelerated the cleaning.
