Chapter 39: The sun shines brightly. A drop of water falls into the scorching desert...
The next morning, Zhu Yingning and Xu Sirui went to school as usual. Zhou Li did not go. Zhu Yingning asked her to stay at home because she was worried that her father would go to the school to look for her after discovering that she was missing.
Before leaving, Zhu Yingning, like an old mother, kept nagging Liu Guifang to take good care of Zhou Li. At the same time, she took out the stack of exercise books that Xu Sirui had given her, and said to Zhou Li without reservation and excessive enthusiasm: "You can study at my house today. I'll lend you these. Please don't be polite with me." Zhou Li didn't actually like studying that much, and she had no intention of delving into difficult problems to improve her grades. However, she couldn't resist Zhu Yingning's enthusiasm and earnest expectations, so she nodded against her will: "Don't worry, I will study hard." Xu Sirui wanted to laugh when he saw their interaction.
When they arrived at school, Chen Bin first called Zhu Yingning to his office and criticized her.
Curious about the class monitor's rare reprimand from the teacher, Xu Sirui and the other students sneaked to the office door to watch her being lectured. Unlike Xu Sirui, the troubled teenager who would turn around and walk away mid-lecture, Zhu Yingning was very docile during the lecture, essentially nodding in agreement to whatever Chen Bin said. However, this docility was only superficial. When Chen Bin, his mouth dry and having a cup of tea to soothe his throat, asked her, "So, summarize how you'll handle this next time you encounter something like this," she thought for a moment and replied, "Whatever feels right." Xu Sirui knew she hadn't taken Chen Bin's words to heart.
Follow your heart.
This answer is so...
Xu Sirui didn't know how to describe his feelings, but after hearing this, he laughed for a long time, holding his stomach. The other students who were watching looked at him with strange eyes. He asked in confusion, "Don't you think this answer is funny?"
Classmates A, B, and C said in unison: "No."
……All right.
If you force him to analyze the joke, he actually can't figure it out. He just thinks that this answer is very Zhu Yingning-esque, very fitting, and has a subtle female knight-errant style.
I wish that Lady Xia would return to the classroom and start leading the reading as usual.
Xu Sirui fiddled with the wrinkled English book left by Zhu Jixiang on his desk, and spelled the words in the book with his classmates in Chinese English with a strong local accent - sunlight, sunlight, s, u, n, l, i, g, h, t, sunlight, sunshine.
The sky outside the classroom was high and distant, with a few thin clouds sticking to it. The sun was shining brightly and the sky was clear.
**
The sun did not shine on the girl.
After school, when they returned home, Zhou Li was gone.
Like a drop of water falling into a scorching desert and being absorbed by the high temperature, a girl disappeared out of thin air without leaving any trace.
Zhu Yingning was devastated.
Xu Sirui heard her blushing and scolding Liu Guifang in dialect. Although he didn't understand, he could guess the general meaning of her words. It was nothing more than how could you lose a living person. Because Liu Guifang hung her neck, feeling guilty about being criticized, she said timidly: "I just walked away for a while and went to the pigsty to feed the pigs. I don't know why she disappeared. Maybe she figured it out and ran away... Ningning, I think this girl is probably thinking about her cousin's business in the city and wants to go with her cousin to live a good life in the city. Why should we care about her? What's the point of her reading this crappy book in the mountains? We are blocking other people's ways to make money and committing sins..."
Zhu Yingning covered her face with her hands and sighed deeply.
She turned and walked out of the house. Xu Sirui thought she might want to go to the kitchen to drink a glass of water to calm down, but she kept walking towards the village entrance with steady steps and long strides. He was stunned for a moment, and before he could react, his body chased after her, taking two quick steps behind her, and subconsciously asked, "Where are you going?"
"Go find Zhou Li." She answered in a muffled voice without turning her head.
"Where can I find it?"
"She's in the village."
Xu Sirui stopped.
I can’t explain how I feel at this moment.
While Zhou Li's sudden disappearance did surprise him, his thoughts were similar to Liu Guifang's, preferring to believe that Zhou Li had left after coming to her senses. Because not everyone in this world, like Zhu Yingning, believes that studying can change one's destiny. Not everyone has the same dedication and talent for studying as she does. At life's crossroads, choices are countless. Following one's parents' arrangements and following a path that relatives have already proven feasible is also an option.
Although this option doesn't sound very good, to put it nicely it's called beauty services, to put it bluntly it's called a "three|companion", but...
Xu Sirui examined his own heart, admitting he still didn't have the leisure to save others. This kind of love couldn't be cultivated; it wasn't like he could suddenly be moved by Zhu Yingning after just a few days of spending time with her. No means no, and indifference is indifference.
He stared at Zhu Yingning's back, watching her disappear at the other end of the road, her back completely blending into the darkness. In the end, he chose to turn around and walk back to Zhu Yingning's home.
I walked to the back kitchen, intending to pour some water to relieve my thirst from walking five kilometers home, but unexpectedly saw Yang Ji squatting in front of the stove, roasting sweet potatoes and smoking.
Seeing him, Yang Ji smiled and exchanged meaningless pleasantries: "These sweet potatoes are beautiful. We just picked them from the villagers' fields this afternoon."
Xu Sirui didn't care about the taste of the sweet potatoes. He poured himself a glass of water and just took two sips when he heard Yang Ji sighing beside him, "Sometimes I find it strange. How did Liu Guifang raise a child like Zhu Yingning?"
Xu Sirui didn't understand what he meant by this sudden sigh. Hearing this, he raised his eyebrows and looked at him.
Yang Ji was turning over the roasted sweet potatoes in the stove with a branch. He caught Xu Sirui's puzzled look from the corner of his eye, took two puffs of his cigarette, and explained calmly and casually, as if he were talking about the sun rising in the east: "It was that girl, her name was Zhou Li... Was it Zhou Li? Liu Guifang went to her village during the day and brought Zhou Li's parents, and Zhou Li's parents came and took Zhou Li away personally." At this point, he smiled nonchalantly, and said with a tone of regret that Xu Sirui had missed something good, "You didn't see it. That scene—oh my god, it was like a family robbery. The girl was screaming and crying, and her father came up and slapped her twice, almost turning her head into a pig. Then he kicked her in the heart, and she immediately became obedient."
As if struck by a stern warning, Xu Sirui was stunned and froze in his tracks. He asked slowly, "...What?"
The feeling he had when he learned the truth about the disappearance of his down jacket came back to him, a sticky, disgusting feeling as if he had stepped on chewed gum, mixed with shock and a little anger. But this time it was no longer Liu Guifang's one-man show. The feeling of disgust was created by everyone - all those who saw human rights being trampled and ravaged but thought this scene was commonplace, including himself who was standing here watching.
I feel like vomiting.
The urge to vomit turned into a breath that rushed out of his throat, lingering in his mouth, causing burning smoke to come out of his already thirsty throat.
Xu Sirui put down the cup with a thud.
He found out he was wrong.
Human nature is difficult to change, but chivalry can be briefly transmitted, like a harmless infectious disease, from one teenager to another.
When the image of Zhu Yingning walking alone to the end of the road slowly emerged in his mind, he found that he had chased after her uncontrollably.
"Hey! Where are you going?" Yang Ji was startled by his sudden action. Sensing a gimmick, he immediately urged the photographer, "Follow me, follow me!"
But Xu Sirui was no longer the same person he had been before. He quickly shook off the photographer and chased after Zhu Yingning in the direction she had disappeared. Fortunately, he managed to capture her back before she turned into a fork in the road. Otherwise, with the winding mountain road, he really wouldn't have known where to find her.
"Zhu Yingning!" he shouted.
She turned around and saw it was him. Her eyes widened: "Why are you here?"
"Oh, I just feel so bored staying home alone."
The words "I want to help you find Zhou Li" were twisted into something completely different, and Xu Sirui wanted to slap herself in the face. Fortunately, she never paid attention to such false pretenses. She nodded at him and said seriously, "Then come with me to Zhou Li's village to look for her."
Her old-fashioned seriousness made him feel at ease, so he continued to be stubborn and said, "It's so troublesome, whatever."
**
Zhou Li's home was a full eight kilometers from Zhujia Village. Walking this distance during the day would have been exhausting for Xu Sirui, but he was so excited, the adrenaline making him temporarily insensitive to fatigue or leg pain. However, after reaching Zhou Li's village, he couldn't help but ask, "How can you be sure Zhou Li is in the village? What if she's already gone?"
Zhu Yingning glanced at him and said curiously, "I'm not sure."
"Shit!" Xu Sirui nearly fell to the ground. "Then why did you come here with such a determined look? What if they've already taken the ox cart to town?"
"Do I look very resolute?" She was surprised by his description. "Actually, I'm really unsure."
“…”
He held his forehead and said, "Let's not dwell on this issue for now. Now that we're here, let's go in and take a look."
Obviously, Zhu Yingning also agreed with the Chinese principle of "since you are already here", so she nodded and led him straight to Zhou Li's house.
It was not known whether to say it was fortunate or unfortunate, but before they got close, they heard Zhou Li's crying in the house, sharp and hoarse.
Zhu Yingning breathed a sigh of relief. At least this meant Zhou Li hadn't left for the city yet. She walked forward, curled her knuckles, and knocked on the half-open door of Zhou Li's house. She raised her voice and said to the person inside, "Uncle Zhou, are you in there? I have something to talk to you about."
Her expression wasn't tense, and her tone of voice was natural. Xu Sirui figured it was because she frequently visited Zhou Li's home and had become familiar with her parents. But for some reason, he had a vague sense of foreboding, feeling that this fragile familiarity would be completely shattered by Zhu Yingning's abduction of their daughter.
Sure enough, the premonition came true.
Three seconds later, Zhou Li's father rushed out of the house with a broom in hand. His nostrils were bulging with anger, and his forehead was brimming with veins. "How dare you come here! I'll beat you to death, you evildoer!"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com