"Godmother, I promised you that I would not skip school anymore, isn't that enough?"
"As your guardian, educating you is my greatest responsibility," Wang Yao said. "I've already contacted a school in Guizhou. You can go there."
"Wang Yao," her godfather also felt something was wrong. "The child is still young. How can she take care of herself when she goes to such a far place alone?"
"I think the study environment over there is quite suitable for her. It's better for her than the glamorous world here."
Ouyang Zishan didn't understand why her godmother was always so demanding of her, never letting her get the best things, and never asking her what she was thinking.
"Okay, I'll go."
"Ouyang!" Jin Lu reminded her, "Don't be like this, Mom is just angry."
Wang Yao stood up and said, "Pack your things tomorrow and I'll take you there myself." Then she looked at her husband and son and said, "Don't follow me."
Ouyang Zishan was heartbroken. Wang Yao was like a mother to her, but she never considered her and always made decisions dictatorially. Now, she wanted to be like her mother and sacrifice everything for the truth. But Wang Yao didn't understand. She always thought her mother's job had ruined her.
Her godmother had always instilled in her responsibility and accountability, so she had studied hard since she was little, never to disappoint her. Both responsibility and accountability were too heavy a burden, and once she had taken them on, she couldn't let them go.
The pain in her shoulder kept her awake, and the next day, her godmother woke her up. She had packed only a few simple clothes, no cell phone, and no snacks. The two of them boarded the slowest train. The two-day journey had left her exhausted, and the train's odor was unbearable. But Wang Yao said, this is real life.
After getting off the train, they had to take a shabby, windproof bus from the train station to the most remote village. When her godmother took her to a wooden house piled with firewood, she despaired. How could such a house be habitable?
An old lady came out of the house. She was leaning on a bamboo cane, with a hunched back. She was not even halfway up the mountain to where he was. Her toothless mouth looked very small, and her cloudy eyes could not be seen clearly.
Behind the old lady was a boy about her own age, named Xiaowei. He was a bit fatter, but out of respect, she still called him brother and grandma. Wang Yao, who was beside her, kept talking to the old lady. Even at dinner, she couldn't bear to leave her side. She squatted in front of the earthen stove in the kitchen, talking non-stop.
"Sister, you are so pretty." The two of them sat in the yard, and the dim street lights only made her feel uncomfortable.
"You're cute too."
"Yeah?"
"By the way, why do you have so many fruit trees planted in front of your house?" When I came here, I saw the trees in front of the house with various flowers blooming, and asked curiously.
“Because it can be sold for money.”
"Oh!" She nodded. "Where are your parents?"
"I only have a dad, no mom."
"Oh, I'm sorry." She didn't ask her godmother about the family situation, feeling a little embarrassed. "I only have my godmother and godfather."
"My father is my adoptive father. I was adopted by him when I was a child."
After hearing about Xiaowei's life story, he felt a little sympathetic and began to change the subject: "You will be my brother from now on."
After they finished cooking, Ouyang Zishan and Xiaowei went to the living room. The dim light made the dishes look even worse. There were only a few dishes with vegetable leaves and too soft rice, so she didn't eat much.
However, Wang Yao had not paid any attention to her. Instead, she was very concerned about the grandparents and grandchildren who had just met.
The next day, Wang Yao left at dawn, without even saying goodbye to Ouyang Zishan. Their home had no telephone, only a first-generation color TV from the 1990s, and the unstable satellite signal made it difficult for her to watch TV safely. Because there were only two beds in the house, she had to sleep in the same room with her grandmother on the first floor. Xiaowei lived on the second floor, and he could always hear the clattering footsteps.
On Ouyang Zishan's first day of school, her grandmother personally escorted her to a familiar homeroom teacher. This middle school only had three and a half students, one class for each grade. Xiaowei and she were in the first grade, and they had four teachers: a Chinese teacher who also taught history and art, a math teacher who also taught geography and biology, an English teacher who also taught homeroom and music, and a physics teacher who also taught chemistry. Despite having only four teachers, there were over fifty students in the class, and almost all of them, like Xiaowei, had to walk an hour to get to school every day.
Many people in the school choose to live in the school. Xiaowei originally wanted to live in the school too, but he was worried about his grandmother being alone at home, so he chose to walk for more than two hours on the mountain road every day.
This was a very difficult thing for her. Even in Chongqing, which is famous for its mountain cities, she had never walked on such a difficult mountain road. Moreover, if it rained a little, the mountain road would become very slippery, causing her to fall and slip all the time.
The lessons were incredibly easy, and she even took first place on her first test. Xiaowei happily told her grandmother the news when she got home. She rewarded her with two hard-boiled eggs. Then, using her godmother's phone number and a worn-out flashlight, she went to borrow a phone next door. She stood behind her grandmother outside the neighbor's yard, listening to her grandmother's excited, high-pitched voice.
At school, she doesn't like to talk to her classmates, but there are a few girls who always like to hang around her and have to follow her to eat lunch. She always politely accepts them, and after dinner, they will take the initiative to help her wash the dishes and wipe the water stains with the corners of their clothes. The school's basketball court is not very big, but it is always crowded with boys. The playground is paved with stones, and every time when running, it always feels like something is kicked into the mouth. The school does not have a dedicated water dispenser. Whenever everyone is tired of playing, they will go to the reservoir on the side. There are two faucets there, which is drinkable well water, but every afternoon, everyone lines up to drink water, and the water flow is very small, so they can only squeeze out a few drops by pressing the faucet.
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