Chapter 92 (First published on Jinjiang Literature City)

In late autumn, the autumn wind blows gently, and the trees and flowers in the mountains turn yellow and withered.

Cheng Ying carried a mailbag and walked alone through the mountains. When the warm autumn sun rose high, she arrived at Aimen Village to deliver mail to everyone.

Because of the many things that have happened during her three months in office, the recent arrival times of emails have been inaccurate. When villagers see her, they inevitably ask her more questions, such as what happened to her or whether she is feeling better.

Cheng Ying patiently answered each question. After sending emails to everyone, she noticed that Xiang Zhaodi was not among them. She grabbed a middle-aged woman and asked, "Auntie, how is Xiang Zhaodi doing lately? Why hasn't she come to the brigade headquarters?"

"What can you do? Life is tough," the aunt said. "You got Xiang Zhaodi's father arrested, so we all thought her life would be easier without him at home."

As it turned out, her mother was a good-for-nothing. After only a couple of days of good fortune, she started crying and making a scene every day, demanding that Zhaodi get her father out.

They said her father was the head of the household, and without someone to lead the family, without a pillar of support, how could they, a widow and her children, possibly survive?

"Xiang Zhaodi told her mother that since her father was no longer in the family, she and her younger siblings could support the family and take care of her. But her mother wouldn't listen. She was determined to get Zhaodi to get her father out. She argued with Zhaodi every day, sulked, hit and scolded her, and thought Zhaodi was a jinx who had brought her father into trouble and caused him to go to jail."

"Among Xiang Zhaodi's younger siblings, two of her brothers completely inherited their father's bad habits. They do no chores all day long, just stay at home, shirk their responsibilities, eat and drink for free, constantly make sarcastic remarks to their mother, instigate her to quarrel with them, and cause trouble every day, making her deal with a lot of problems. Xiang Zhaodi is like an ant on a hot pan right now, how can she leave!"

Cheng Ying understood what was going on, thanked the woman, and carried the mailbag towards Xiang Zhaodi's house.

A dozen minutes later, she arrived outside Xiang Zhaodi's courtyard.

As soon as I stepped into the courtyard, I heard a woman's hysterical cries, accompanied by the sounds of two teenagers saying all sorts of nasty things, and the voices of several girls trying to break up the fight.

Cheng Ying frowned and stood in the courtyard calling out, "Is Xiang Zhaodi here? Your package has arrived."

There was a moment of silence in the room, then a thin, middle-aged woman with sunken eyes and prominent cheekbones rushed out of the room, looking at Cheng Ying and asking, "What package?"

Cheng Ying looked at Xiang Zhaodi, who had run out with her, and her younger siblings, and said, "This is Xiang Zhaodi's package. I have no comment on what's inside."

Just as Zhao Di's mother was about to explode, Zhao Di rushed to Cheng Ying, her face beaming with surprise, and said, "Comrade Cheng, is this my...?"

“There’s a problem with your package. I suggest you go to the brigade headquarters and ask Secretary Ge from your village to witness it. Open the package in front of me and make sure there’s nothing wrong before you take it home. If there is a problem, I’ll have to take your package back to the post office for a return and compensation,” Cheng Ying interrupted her.

He asked Zhao Di's two ungrateful younger brothers, "What package? Is it my eldest sister's college acceptance letter?"

"Comrade Cheng, my sister doesn't know anyone. Who would send her a package? Just take the package out and we'll open it and see what's inside. There's no need to ask the village secretary to witness it; it's too much trouble!"

“I have no right to tell you what’s in the package. You’re not Zhao Di herself, so you have no right to ask what’s in her package. I have to deliver the contents to her.” Cheng Ying said coldly.

Xiang Zhaodi was a smart woman and immediately understood Cheng Ying's intention. She reached out and pushed away her two younger brothers who were blocking her way: "Who said I don't know anyone? I have good classmates, teachers, and friends. They have all said that they would send me some local specialties from their hometowns. Maybe they are the ones who sent them. Also, a while ago, my high school teacher said that he would send me two foreign textbooks for my major. I guess the books arrived, but there might be some problems with them."

She turned to Cheng Ying and said, "Comrade Cheng, I'll go with you to the brigade headquarters to find Secretary Ge and open the package together."

Zhao Di's mother and Zhao Di's two younger brothers did not completely believe her. They insisted on going with her to the brigade headquarters to see what was in the package.

Xiang Zhaodi felt very uncomfortable being pestered by them, and glanced at her three younger sisters standing in the courtyard.

The three younger sisters, of varying ages, seemed to understand something when they met her gaze. They stepped forward to stop Zhao Di's mother and her two children, making various excuses to keep the three of them there.

Xiang Zhaodi took the opportunity to slip away and followed Cheng Ying toward the brigade headquarters.

When the two had walked quite a distance from the Xiang family home, Xiang Zhaodi cautiously asked, "Comrade Cheng, has my admission notice arrived?"

"Yes." Cheng Ying nodded, stood under a big tree by the roadside, put down the mailbag, took out the admission notice from the inner layer of the mailbag, and solemnly handed it to Xiang Zhaodi. "Comrade Xiang, congratulations on your admission! Please open the mail and carefully check whether there are any errors in the admission notice."

Xiang Zhaodi excitedly took the email, tore open the seal, and with trembling fingers pulled out an acceptance letter from a prestigious university. Seeing her name on it, she immediately covered her mouth and burst into tears, “It really is an acceptance letter! I really got into university! I… I’ve waited so long for this day! Waaaaah…”

She was born into a family that favored sons over daughters. Her father was abusive and her mother was ignorant. The unfair treatment she suffered from childhood, as well as the experience of almost being sold by her father to other people as a wife several times after she grew up, left her with countless psychological traumas.

She studied with all her might, hoping to escape the suffocating family she came from.

No one knows how much effort and sacrifice she made to study and get into university.

Now, the university acceptance letter she had been dreaming of was right in front of her. Holding the letter in her hand, she felt like she was in a dream and couldn't stop crying.

Cheng Ying stood quietly beside her, waiting for her to finish crying and calm down before speaking: "Comrade Xiang, I know your family situation very well. The reason I asked you to go to your village secretary to witness this was to remind you that with your family background, your parents and your younger brother might tear up or hide your admission notice, or even alter it to let someone else take your place in university and ruin your life!"

For your future, I hope you will take this seriously and keep your acceptance letter safe and hidden where no one can see it. Only bring it out when university registration is approaching to avoid causing any unnecessary trouble.

“I know, I understand, thank you for reminding me, Comrade Cheng.” Xiang Zhaodi shook Cheng Ying’s hand gratefully. “I finally got into university, and I won’t, and will never, let anyone take away the opportunity to change my destiny! I want to leave my home, leave the mountains, and live the life I want!”

After hearing her say that, Cheng Ying felt much more at ease. She couldn't help but give her a few words of advice about things to be careful about when going to university. Then she went with her to find the village secretary and told her about her admission to university.

Xiang Zhaodi is the first person in the village to be admitted to university. The village secretary was overjoyed and repeatedly assured Cheng Ying that he would not allow Xiang Zhaodi's mother and brother to do anything wrong, and that he would let Xiang Zhaodi leave the mountains and go to university to bring honor to their entire Aimen Village!

A day and a half later, Cheng Ying arrived at Pucang Village, bathed in the dappled sunlight of late autumn.

Actually, there was no mail from Pucangzhai on this mail delivery trip, but Cheng Ying missed Long Buxi and was willing to spend more time to come see him.

When she arrived at Pucang Village, it was almost lunchtime. The village was exceptionally quiet. As she walked along the stone path, she could hear the babbling of the river that flowed through the entire village, and the occasional croaking of frogs from the rice paddies in the distance.

This tranquil atmosphere allowed Cheng Ying, who had been on edge while delivering mail, to relax.

She carried her mailbag and walked briskly up to Long Buxi's stilted house.

The water cup hanging outside the parcel jingled and clanged against it as she moved.

Cheng Ying ran up to the second floor of the stilted house and saw Long Buxi standing in front of the medicine table in the living room, which had no windows, fiddling with something.

The living room was well-lit, but the spot where he was standing was dark. The light and shadow stretched his slender back long, giving him an inexplicably lonely feeling.

"Long Buxi, I'm here." Cheng Ying walked excitedly toward him, taking the mailbag off her back as she went, and pulled out two lunchboxes from it, handing them to him. "Look what delicious food I brought you."

Long Buxi turned around, took the lunchbox from her hand, and looked down at the lunchbox, saying, "I don't know."

"Guess!" Cheng Ying had walked for a long time on the mountain path, and her legs were tired and sore. She sat on a wooden stool next to him, rubbing her feet with her hands, and looked at him with a smile.

"Rice? Meat? Or something else? I can't guess." Long Buxi placed the lunchbox on the medicine table, walked to Cheng Ying, bent her left knee, half-squatted down, and stretched out her slender arm to massage her calf.

Cheng Ying was taken aback by his actions, but didn't think much of it and comfortably enjoyed his leg massage. "Two lunch boxes. One is fried pork that my mom made. She said that last time you brought such a big wild boar to the banquet, and your relatives and friends ate to their hearts' content, but you didn't eat much meat. She thinks that as a future son-in-law, you must be embarrassed to eat too much meat at your in-laws' house, so she specially fried a big bowl of fried pork for you and asked me to bring it to you so that you can eat more meat."

"The other lunchbox contains stir-fried beef with pickled chili peppers, which I cooked for you myself. This beef is hard to come by; in our country, the land is still mainly used for draft cattle, so there are few times when cattle are slaughtered and sold for beef."

On the day I was delivering mail, I happened to hear from my neighbor that the grocery store in town was selling beef in limited quantities, so I quickly went over and bought some to cook.

"Put some hot water over the lunchbox to scald it, then steam the rice. Let's eat together. Try my cooking, okay?"

"Okay." Long Buxi lowered his head and kept massaging her calves with his hands to relieve her soreness.

"What's wrong with you? You're acting strange today?" Cheng Ying noticed his unusual mood and looked down at him to ask.

Long Buxi looked up at her and said, "Before you started working as a mail carrier, you were with your ex-boyfriend, Wei something-or-other."