Chapter 17 Sophomore Year
When Nan Jiu was packing her luggage that night, she noticed the bottle of champagne on the bedside table. Thinking of Nan Qiaoyu's covetous look, she decisively stuffed the champagne into her suitcase.
Song Ting's departure time was 7:00 AM, and Nan Jiu was up a little after 6:00 AM. Old Man Nan also got up earlier than usual, going to the alley before daybreak to buy steamed buns, soy milk, and Nan Jiu's favorite salty bean curd.
While Nan Jiu was drinking her bean curd, Song Ting had already loaded her luggage into the car, started the car, and turned on the air conditioner.
Old Man Nan walked Nan Jiu to the entrance of the teahouse and told her, "Don't cause trouble for your Uncle Song when you get there. Help if you can. The conditions in the mountains are tough, not like here. Don't run around at night, and be careful."
"I know." She added, "Don't let Nan Qiaoyu handle that account. He failed elementary school math."
Nan Qiaoyu woke up early, a rare occasion. With messy hair, he stuck his head out of the second-floor window and looked down.
Nan Jiu glanced up at him and warned, "You are not allowed to sleep in my room after I leave."
Nan Qiaoyu replied casually, "Just go feed the mosquitoes and I'll take good care of the room for you."
Nanjiu glared at him, opened the door and got into the car.
Because he'd slept late the previous night, Nan Jiu had already fallen asleep with his neck tilted before the car even reached the highway. At a service area, Song Ting got out to refuel and then went into the supermarket to buy a large bag of groceries, which he dumped in the trunk.
When they got back in the car, Nan Jiu had somehow moved from the passenger seat to the back seat, curled up in a ball. Song Ting turned down the air conditioning and continued driving.
Nan Jiu fell asleep as long as the car drove on the highway, until the road began to twist and turn, and inertia woke her up.
Nanjiu stretched and slowly sat up. Outside the window was another world. Layers of green covered the hilltops, and endless terraced fields twisted along the mountainside. The car meandered through the heart of the tea mountains. With the windows lowered, the tea ridges surged forward like waves, and the air was filled with the faint fragrance of tea.
The sleepiness in Nanjiu's eyes faded, and his pupils gradually became brighter: "Are we there yet?"
Song Ting glanced at her in the rearview mirror: "Almost there, twenty minutes left."
The wheels rolled over the gravel path and turned into a bamboo forest. Amidst the lush greenery, an iron gate appeared ahead. Song Ting stopped the car and honked the horn twice. A woman in her fifties, wearing a headscarf, ran out of the house behind, untied the chain hanging on the iron gate, and pulled it open.
The car drove slowly through the iron gate and stopped in an open space in front of a row of bungalows. A large yellow dog kept wagging its tail and barking at the car.
The woman in the headscarf was called Mei Qin, and she was in charge of the meeting at the warehouse. Song Ting opened the car door and got out. Aunt Mei Qin grinned and came forward to greet him. "After seeing the weather forecast yesterday, I asked Lao Ba to lead the team to dig a ditch down there. We'll have to work hard over the next two days to reinforce the low-lying areas. We'll still be in time."
"Thank you for your hard work. I'll be down later."
Nanjiu got out of the car, her soles crunching on the gravel, and looked up at the row of houses with blue bricks and gray tiles. The big yellow dog sniffed the air and pounced on her, barking, startling her.
Song Ting scolded the big yellow dog, and it immediately walked away, wagging its tail. He opened the trunk and said to Nanjiu, "Come here and pick up your things."
Nan Jiu walked to the trunk and saw a big bag. She opened the bag and took a look. There were a lot of drinks and snacks inside. She wondered when Song Ting bought them.
Zhen Min spotted Song Ting's car between the tea ridges and ran up. As soon as she turned the corner of the warehouse, she shouted breathlessly, "Brother Song, you're here? I thought you wouldn't arrive until this afternoon!"
The big yellow dog greeted Zhenmin enthusiastically.
Nan Jiu tilted his head and looked at the woman jogging towards him. The woman wore a conical hat and a washed-out blue cloth. Her skin was tanned to a warm brown, but her facial features were beautiful.
The smile on Zhenmin's face paused slightly when she saw Nanjiu sticking out half of his head.
Aunt Meiqin asked, "Who is she?"
"Old Nan's granddaughter, Nan Jiu, is here to visit the tea mountain during summer vacation." After saying that, he turned around and said, "Xiao Jiu, come over and say hello."
Nanjiu walked up to the group carrying the bag. Song Ting looked at Aunt Meiqin and said to Nanjiu, "This is Aunt Qin."
Aunt Meiqin smiled and took the things from Nanjiu's hands: "You are so pretty, are you tired from the journey?"
Nanjiu smiled and said, "Not bad." After all, he slept all the way.
Song Ting added, "She is Zhenmin, only two years older than you. If I'm not around, you can find her if you have any problems."
As they spoke, Zhenmin's eyes remained fixed on Nanjiu. He wore a one-shoulder T-shirt and hip-hugging pants. He had long legs and a tall figure. His skin was fairer than that of the women in the mountains. He carried a unique aloofness, and standing there, he seemed like a self-contained barrier.
Zhenmin had never met Old Man Nan, but she had heard of him. Knowing that Nanjiu was a Nan family member, she couldn't help but look at him with a warmer gaze, smiling at him. Nanjiu nodded at her as a greeting.
Aunt Meiqin helped Nanjiu carry the things into the house and then went out to do something.
This row of warehouses housed freshly picked tea leaves, temporarily stored here before being transported to the tea factory for processing. Next to the warehouses stood a separate room, spacious but rather spartan. It had a concrete floor, a bed, a folding table, two chairs, and two cabinets, one high and one low. Nan Jiu had expected the conditions in the mountains to be harsh, but she hadn't expected them to be this harsh. After a thorough inspection, she couldn't find even a refrigerator. It wasn't that she needed one, but rather that the ultraviolet rays were so strong during the day, and she craved an ice cream.
"There's not much entertainment here. There are some books in the low cabinet. You can read them if you have nothing to do this afternoon." Song Ting hurriedly explained, then answered a phone call and hurried out. Before leaving, he said to Nan Jiu, "If you're really bored, just walk around nearby. Don't go too far, and keep your phone with you."
"I'm not a child." Nan Jiu didn't look at him and replied to the message with his head down.
Song Ting glanced at her and walked out.
Nan Jiu raised his eyelids and looked through the window of the room to see Song Ting and Zhen Min talking as they walked down the mountain. After a while, their figures disappeared behind the tea ridge.
After they left, Nanjiu opened the low cabinet, revealing a collection of books crammed together. She squatted on the floor, searching for a novel. After a long search, she found books on tea cultivation, business management, and production safety, or on supply channels and agricultural market research. She finally found a complete record of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. So she started with the September 18th Incident, obsessing over the entire afternoon's worth of details about the Japanese.
Before dusk, Aunt Qin came to call Nanjiu to her house for dinner. To get to Aunt Qin's house, they had to walk through the small paths between the tea trees and into the village. The big yellow dog kept following them. Whenever Nanjiu turned to look at it, it would run away. When she wasn't paying attention, it would sneak up on her and sniff her.
In front of Aunt Qin's bungalow sat a little girl with her hair down, no more than ten years old. Seeing Nanjiu's long platinum hair, the girl's eyes widened, thinking she had seen Princess Elsa.
Nan Jiu didn't interact much with children, perhaps because she wasn't close to her siblings, so she always stayed away from them. However, the little girl's gaze was too intense, and she couldn't avoid it, so she could only smile at her: "Hi."
Aunt Qin said, "She can't hear. She was born deaf and dumb."
Nan Jiu was a little surprised and looked at Aunt Qin: "Is she yours?"
"Granddaughter, my daughter and son-in-law are working away from home."
Aunt Qin came into the house and served the food. She said to Nanjiu, "Go outside and bring Sang Ya in to eat."
When Nanjiu left the house, Sang Ya was squatting on the ground, piling up a bunch of rocks of varying sizes she had gathered from somewhere. Nanjiu patted the little girl's shoulder, and Sang Ya turned around. Nanjiu pointed inside the house, and Sang Ya threw the rocks away and ran to wash her hands.
Dahuang lay at the door and would not step into the house even though the door was open.
Aunt Qin asked Nanjiu and Sangya to eat first. She mixed the rice and took it out, placing it at the door. Dahuang came to the food bowl, wagging his tail.
After Aunt Qin sat down, Nan Jiu asked, "Do you two usually live here alone?"
"And the child's father-in-law and Boss Song are busy downstairs. We'll eat downstairs tonight."
"They still have to work at night? What are they busy with?"
Aunt Qin told Nanjiu that this time of summer is the rainy season here. Ideally, the rain will stop within a few days, but in bad times, it can linger for more than half a month. So, while tea picking isn't necessary during this season, tea farmers are busy strengthening protective measures and conducting safety inspections to avoid losses.
"The year Boss Song first contracted the tea plantation, he was unlucky and encountered a flash flood. We had no experience in how to deal with it, and all the tea trees in the low-lying area were washed away. The warehouse was also flooded, causing considerable losses. We later moved the warehouse to higher ground."
Nanjiu put down his chopsticks and asked, "What year was it?"
"About 12 years," Aunt Qin recalled.
Nan Jiu's expression froze, he lowered his head and stopped talking.
In 2012, when Nan Jiu was a sophomore in high school, her father sent her back to Mao'er Lane. She was rebellious, even getting into a fight with Song Ting in an internet cafe. That day, Song Ting arrived at the internet cafe, dusty and exhausted. It was summer, but he was wearing boots, his rolled-up trouser legs stained with mud. She had never considered what he had just been through, how exhausted he had returned.
"That's just his personality. He never talks about anything. Is he treating you badly? Every time you come over, he always cleans up your room and buys you what you need."
"That's not for my sake, that's for your sake."
"That's a heartless thing to say. His tea business wasn't taking off back then, and he had very little money, yet he still bought you a computer..."
Old Man Nan’s words once again echoed in Nan Jiu’s mind. Something in his chest suddenly jumped a few times, and the aftermath was rippled.
During the meal, Sang Ya's eyes were glued to Nan Jiu's face. Although she couldn't hear anything, whenever Nan Jiu spoke, she would stare intently at her lips.
After dinner, Aunt Qin asked Sang Ya to take Nan Jiu home. Sang Ya walked in front, Nan Jiu in the middle, and Da Huang brought up the rear. Aside from Nan Jiu, the other two remained silent. Walking through the pitch-black tea mountains, Nan Jiu looked up. The world seemed remarkably quiet, like another world.
The warehouse was built on a high ground, and it wasn't far to go back, so they would arrive in a short while. Nanjiu grabbed Sang Ya, went back into the house, took out two bags of snacks and two bottles of drinks from the bag and stuffed them into her.
Sang Ya showed her neat row of teeth to Nan Jiu as if she had found a treasure. She ran a long way away and turned back to wave at her.
Nan Jiu watched her walk away, glanced at Da Huang lying at the door, and asked, "Do you want to come in?"
Da Huang didn't move at all, telling her with his actions that he had an important position.
Not long after Nanjiu closed the door, Dahuang outside the door suddenly shouted again. Nanjiu opened the door again: "I asked you to come in just now, but you didn't..."
Her words stopped abruptly, and Song Ting's silhouette became increasingly clear in the night. Da Huang twisted his butt and ran towards him, jumping up and ready to pounce on Song Ting.
I don’t know what gesture Song Ting made to Dahuang, but Dahuang stopped jumping and just walked around Song Ting, wagging its tail.
When Song Ting reached the front of the house, Nan Jiu finally saw him clearly. His clothes, which had been clean when he left home in the morning, were now stained.
"Have you eaten?" Song Ting stopped at the door and asked.
"I've eaten at Aunt Qin's." She glanced at the dirt on his body. "You've been busy until now?"
"It's going to rain in a couple of days, so we need to speed up the trenching in some places down there."
As he spoke, he glanced around the room. He'd expected Nanjiu to complain, but she'd adapted quickly. The dusty table and floor had already been swept. The bed was also made, her clothes neatly stacked in the corner.
Song Ting retracted his gaze and returned it to her face: "There is a shower room at the back of the house. Remember to lock the door if you want to take a shower at night. If there is nothing else, I will leave first."
"Where are you going?" Nan Jiu had already taken a look around the room while cleaning it that afternoon. A few of Song Ting's clothes and some simple daily necessities were hanging in the closet. This room was clearly Song Ting's base in the tea mountain. "I'll sleep here, so where are you going to sleep tonight?"
"I have a place to stay. Call me if you have any questions." Song Ting left this sentence and walked back the way he came.
After he left, Nanjiu took her pajamas and walked around to the back of the house. She was surrounded by endless mountains. It wasn't noticeable during the day, but at night, the shadows of the trees formed a dark array. The shadowy darkness seemed to hold countless eyes, and the more she looked, the more her scalp tingled. Occasionally, branches moved, and a hissing sound lurked in the darkness, like a terrifying sob.
Nanjiu simply turned around, without even looking at her again, and hurried into the shower room.
The shower room uses a solar water heater, is surrounded by partitions, and has a clothes rack and a shower head.
The shower room door was a single panel that didn't reach the ground, and it had a latch. Nanjiu locked the door, looked around, and prepared to undress. A chilly air seeped in from the gap under the door, and she shuddered, remembering the news report about a woman using the restroom when a man's head suddenly popped out from the crack under the door. Although the warehouse had an iron door and no one lived nearby, the psychological pressure made Nanjiu stop grabbing the hem of her clothes. The creepy image flashed through her mind, and she rushed back to the house with her pajamas in her arms, slamming the door shut.
She would rather go to bed without a shower than in a haunted house shower room. However, after sitting in the car for several hours during the day and cleaning the house in the afternoon, she worked up a sweat. Without a shower, she tossed and turned and could not sleep well.
After an unknown amount of time, Nanjiu picked up her phone. In the dim light, she seemed to catch a glimpse of something moving on the ground. She jumped out of bed and flicked on the lights in her room.
In the dead of night, the commotion inside the house startled Da Huang, who was standing at the door. Da Huang, not knowing what was happening, barked furiously at the house. His voice echoed across the hills and into the distance.
Nanjiu searched through everything but found nothing. The more she thought about it, the more she was afraid to sleep. She was afraid that the thing would crawl onto the bed as soon as she turned off the lights.
Da Huang's voice suddenly became sharp. A few minutes later, someone knocked on the door: "Xiao Jiu, open the door."
Nan Jiu heard a familiar voice and rushed to the door, opening it. Song Ting's figure filled the doorframe, the light from inside illuminating his solid silhouette. His calm aura instantly tamed the chaotic scene inside.
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The author has something to say: I will resume updating during the day tomorrow, but it will still be at 9 o'clock for now. Please let me know if there are any changes.
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