Wrong door
After a day of traveling, Hui Zifeng finally reached his destination. He continued along a bamboo-lined path until his view opened up. He looked up and saw a statue of a fairy, a pipa in her arms. Next to it, carved into a stone were three characters: "Hongguangli." Puzzled, Hui Zifeng called his teacher for help. The answer he got was: "It's the wrong way. A student going to your place just happened to have gone the wrong way too. They just happened to swap places. It's the same place, no problem."
Who caused this situation? He took the train to the city center and then found the driver who was picking him up to take him back to the village. He had clearly stated that he was going to Changxili, so why did he bring him here? The driver seemed to have dropped him off and then returned the same way. Shouldn't he have taken him to school? He had even asked his mother to prepare many gifts for the children's meeting, so now the driver who went to Changxili must have gotten a bargain.
Hui Zifeng immediately called his mother's secretary and asked him to prepare a new copy and send it as soon as possible.
He asked for directions several times before he found the school. A welcome banner had already been hung at the entrance, but the name was wrong.
"I'm Hui Zifeng. Something happened to me, so I came here and will stay for a month."
The principal, with a smile on his face, took him to greet the teachers and then to the classrooms. A group of eighth-graders, upon seeing him enter, immediately sat down quietly and stared at him. It felt like they were observing a new creature with the naive eyes of a savage.
Wait, except for a female student sitting in the last row by the window. After Hui Zifeng briefly introduced himself, he asked the students to introduce themselves to the teacher one by one. Everyone stood up, and some people cheered. They mentioned their names, favorite sports and hobbies, the TV shows they were watching recently, their favorite celebrities, and so on. Hui Zifeng responded with a few words of praise.
When it was the girl's turn, the class suddenly became quiet and no one looked at her.
"My name is Luo Yu." The female classmate stood up and looked at Hui Zifeng without saying anything else.
"No more?" Hui Zifeng smiled gently, and seeing that she seemed unhappy, he asked her to sit down. Hui Zifeng had said at the beginning that there was no need for everyone to stand up and introduce themselves, but the girl stood up anyway, said four words expressionlessly, and nothing more. Faced with this situation, Hui Zifeng naturally thought it was better to mind his own business and let it go.
Suddenly, a voice popped up in the quiet classroom, "Teacher, she has no parents and now lives with her grandparents. Her grandparents are not her biological parents and have a very bad temper. Teacher, please teach her a lesson!"
"Yes, yes!" The boys in the class immediately started talking at once.
"Her grandparents were rag pickers."
"beggar!"
"I was so poor that I couldn't even afford a school uniform. I borrowed money from my family and never paid it back."
"Everyone, be quiet." Hui Zifeng, after hearing the information about the female classmate, began to take control of the situation. "Classmates, I wonder if you've ever heard this saying: What's important in life is the end, not the beginning."
Few people took his words to heart. Hui Zifeng's status as a teacher kept them quiet. After just forty-five minutes, Hui Zifeng felt exhausted. But with these simple worries filling his head, and his fatigue lingering, he felt somewhat better after taking a shower.
He only had to attend classes for two hours a day, leaving the rest of his time free to wander and explore. However, this place wasn't particularly interesting. The locals primarily farmed, with the elderly tending to the crops and children, while the young left to seek their fortunes elsewhere. The village was bustling with activity outside, but deserted within. Hui Zifeng, carrying a camera, became bored within half a day.
The second class was much more relaxed. The secretary had arranged for the gifts to arrive, filling a small truck. Everyone was delighted and lined up to unload the gifts. The students excitedly unpacked the gifts, competing to see who had the prettiest color. 100 minutes passed like this.
The only empty seat was next to Luo Yu. Hui Zifeng walked around, and when someone asked him, "Teacher, what is this?" or "How do I use this?" he patiently answered over and over again. Gradually, no one paid any attention to him, and Hui Zifeng sat in Luo Yu's seat.
Her gift was still unopened. She was reading an English novel.
"What are you looking at?" Hui Zifeng asked, pretending to be interested. In this dull, hopeless place, Hui Zifeng had nowhere to devote his excess energy. Every time he saw her, he felt the pity of life. If he could help a little, could he change a girl's life?
Luo Yu showed him the cover of the book, which was Hugo's Les Miserables. Then Luo Yu opened the book and continued reading without saying a word.
"Don't you like my gift?"
"No, teacher." Luo Yu turned a page of the book, "I don't think these are what I need."
"What do you want?"
"Teacher, do you know Tan Songqi?" Luo Yu turned his head and asked with a smile.
Tan Songqi? Hui Zifeng didn't want to think of the name, but he was more curious about the relationship between this person and Luo Yu. He took out his phone and pulled out a photo from the news to show Luo Yu, "Is this the person you're talking about?"
Luo Yu took a look and nodded calmly, "Yes. Teacher knows?"
"You know that too?"
Luo Yu closed her book and put it into her long-used schoolbag. The bell rang. She stood up and said, "Teacher, school is over. I have to go home."
Hui Zifeng made way, and when Luo Yu reached the aisle, she turned back and said, "Tan Songqi is my grandparents' grandson. Teacher, can you help contact him? Let him come back to see his grandparents."
What these children lack is love. Without love, they lack the ability to understand the world, themselves, and shape themselves. Their pursuits are always moving towards the pale goal of "just living a good life." As a result, they give up on themselves and gradually become tools without love and without the ability to love.
Luo Yu was clearly different from the others. She knew what she wanted. When boys bullied her, she fought back. When they were defeated, they would accuse her of being ungirly. In this world, Luo Yu found her path early on.
School was over, and the students left the school gates, dispersing in all directions. The only people on the country roads were groups of young teenagers. It was only six in the afternoon, the sun still hadn't set, and the once bright sky was rapidly darkening. The children, young and naive, were terrified and scattered like birds and animals.
The road was empty. Hui Zifeng looked around and saw only one person walking slowly. Her schoolbag had torn again, dangling behind her. Her hair had been combed, but still a little messy. There was a fresh scuff on the knee of her school uniform pants, as if she had just fallen.
Luo Yu kept staring at the direction of the sun as she walked forward. As she walked, she noticed that Hui Zifeng was still in front of her and was looking at her. Luo Yu's expression was still cold as she greeted Hui Zifeng, "Hello, Teacher Hui."
"Don't be afraid, this is a total solar eclipse." Hui Zifeng told her.
"I know." Luo Yu was unwilling to talk to him.
The two climbed the slope, one in front and one behind, and stopped simultaneously. They watched as the bulbous sun was devoured in half, leaving only a dazzling circle of light around the other half. In just a few seconds, the sun was reduced to a standard circle hanging in the sky. On the other side of the sky, the round moon hung in the sky, as if the devoured sun had been born from that side, only its power had become weaker.
Hui Zifeng took out his camera and took pictures, but he couldn't get a satisfactory photo after several attempts. Such a magnificent scene only comes once in a century. If he missed these few minutes, he would never be able to take a photo like it again in his life.
"Teacher, can I take a picture?"
Hui Zifeng was reluctant, but he couldn't say no, so he pretended to be generous and handed it to her. "Do you know how to use it?" He thought, "I don't need him to teach me, right? If I miss it, no one will forgive me." He thought, if this ignorant and arrogant female student made such a request, he would definitely stick to his true intentions. Life is so difficult.
As he thought this, Luo Yu picked up his camera, adjusted the focus and angle, pressed the shutter, and immediately handed it to him. Hui Zifeng was relieved that the eclipse hadn't ended yet. Curious, he flipped through the photos Luo Yu had taken. He was stunned. The sun and moon shone together, a feeling of rebirth and death coexisting. A majestic, yet passionate, scene was captured in his camera—it was taken by Luo Yu.
Hui Zifeng had never imagined that such a bright child could be so gifted, and he already had a deep admiration for her. He decided to create opportunities for her and help her find a stage to realize her own value.
"I'll enter this photo for you in a photography competition. What do you think?"
"Whatever, teacher." Luo Yu shrugged it off and kindly brought up another matter. "Teacher, you said you wanted to find a beautiful place to take us to sketch. I know the perfect spot. Do you want me to take you there?"
Perhaps because they'd been interacting more frequently over the past few days, Luo Yu had let down her guard and warmed up to him. Hui Zifeng was delighted and agreed. "Today is Friday, and school will end early. We can go together then. Oh, and I'll invite Teacher Liu over too, is that okay?"
Teacher Liu was Luo Yu's homeroom teacher, an older female teacher. A young male volunteer teacher walking with a fourteen-year-old female student was bound to cause gossip. Hui Zifeng understood the nature of society, and Luo Yu agreed.
But things didn't go as planned. As soon as Teacher Liu arrived, she said, "Teacher Hui, don't worry. There are only elderly people here, and no one would say anything rude. Just go ahead and relax! If anyone should be worried, it should be you." Then she got in the car her husband had driven and left.
"Let's go, Teacher," Luo Yu urged. He didn't say anything, but his eyes spoke volumes. Hui Zifeng had no choice but to go and return quickly.
But after walking for a long time, the village was far behind. Hui Zifeng wanted to ask, but Luo Yu spoke first.
"Teacher, have you met Tan Songqi?"
"Huh?" How did she know this? Hui Zifeng was almost sweating profusely. She seemed to know everything, waiting here with a mission, waiting for him, Hui Zifeng, to come to her. If the classmate from Changxili came here, would Luo Yu still be like this?
"I saw you and Tan Songqi standing together in a video on my phone," Luo Yu said. "Teacher, I know he did something bad. I'm not concerned about him. I just want to ask if you can help me with something else."
Luo Yu quickened his pace, and Hui Zifeng followed. He was curious, "Have you asked anyone for help?" Could it be that no one else could help, only he could? What could it be?
"No, teacher." Luo Yu said, "I know who you are, so I want to give it a try."
Would it be to get him to help her leave her family? If so, he could help, and it would be easy.
We entered another village. A broad cement road led directly into the village, which looked more prosperous than Hongguangli. However, the further we went, the clearer it became that this place had become a village of the elderly, the weak, and the disabled. There were almost no people. Decades-old houses sat on the roadside, their doors and windows rusted and covered with thick dust. Looking into the yard, the roof wood was broken, and spider webs hung in the dark holes. There were also trees growing wildly in the yard. In front of the yard, there was a purple locust tree, twisted and tilted among the weeds. At the end of August, the trunk was still covered with a bunch of purple locust flowers in full bloom. The house opposite was newer, with dripping clothes hanging in front of the door. Looking inside, the piles of firewood, the wildly growing flowers and plants, and the thick green moss all showed that no one lived here.
"This is it." Luo Yu stopped in front of the two-story building. Its orientation was different from the others. It was alone on the left, facing the road. "Teacher, let's go."
Before Hui Zifeng could figure out what was going on, he was about to take another photo when Luo Yu urged him to leave. Hui Zifeng still took out his camera and said, "Wait."
As soon as he finished speaking, the iron gate of the house creaked open, and a fierce dog rushed out, heading straight for Hui Zifeng and Luo Yu. Luo Yu was so frightened that she twisted around and clutched her head. Hui Zifeng, however, was slow to react. Seeing the owner of the house come out, he thought he would call the dog back, but the old man in his fifties stood still at the door, his hands in his pockets, calmly watching his dog charge at the passersby.
The Tibetan Mastiff lunged at Hui Zifeng's face. His brain went blank, and he felt a sudden, pungent smell of dog. The dog's paw knocked his camera off his hand, and he was thrown to the ground. Luo Yu retreated repeatedly.
Humans are so insignificant. But there are always mountains beyond the mountains.
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