Chapter 24: The Stranger Father
The dilapidated and slanted rooftop was drenched by the rain, reflecting dazzling silver light.
Luxianbei, with only one arm left, stood at a corner of the rooftop with her eyes closed.
She silently controlled the spirit energy within her body, peeling away layer by layer, dispelling the spirit energy that suppressed the Hundred-Armed Giant Power, returning its freedom and releasing it.
When the suppression was completely removed and she felt the Hundred-Armed Giant Power still residing in her chest, particularly docile, Luxianbei frowned slightly.
It was like a prisoner who had been under control for too long, discovering that the prison door had suddenly opened, hesitating to act rashly.
Luxianbei pondered for two seconds, a thought crossed her mind, and she controlled a wisp of spirit energy, rushing towards her chest.
As if provoking, that wisp of spirit energy collided with the Hundred-Armed Giant Power and then withdrew.
The next moment, Luxianbei felt a series of booming sounds coming from within her chest, like thunder.
Raging spirit energy fluctuations, infused with a sense of destruction, erupted from her chest, spreading to her limbs and bones. The sound of flesh and bones being crushed echoed in her ears.
Dazzling silver light burst forth from beneath her skin, coating her entire body with a layer of brilliant silver glow.
Since she had nothing better to do, self-destructing a bit to complete a “restart” and repair her arm was quite good.
Better short pain than long pain; a man should be ruthless to himself! Luxianbei thought.
Thus, with a muffled sound of flesh exploding, her vision first turned into a white blur, then quickly sank into darkness. Immediately, her consciousness seemed to sink into a slowly flowing dark river, drifting along, and time itself began to slow down…
After a long while.
Feeling the cold rain pattering against her face and smelling the earthy fragrance in the air, Luxianbei let out a soft hum and opened her eyes.
She got up from the damp ground, steadied herself, and looked towards Qing Ji, frowning.
Qing Ji was still asleep, occasionally murmuring his own voice and sometimes the voice of a girl, as if engaged in conversation.
Uncertain how long this state of Qing Ji would last or when he would wake up, Luxianbei simply sat cross-legged beside him, arms crossed over her chest, listening intently.
Hmph, I want to hear what nonsense you are talking about!
“I grew up with my grandmother when I was young. My grandmother lived in the Rain City, in a village called Jinhua Village, near Meng Mountain…”
Rain City Meng Mountain? Is that the Meng Mountain known for its tea leaves? Luxianbei nodded thoughtfully.
Although she had never been to Meng Mountain and didn’t understand tea leaves very well, she knew the poet Bai Juyi once wrote, “In the zither, one knows only the clear water; in tea, one remembers the old Meng Mountain.”
“My grandmother was a very shrewd and capable woman. My grandfather passed away early, and she raised both my father and me through her skills of picking and roasting tea…”
Qing Ji continued to speak intermittently, and Luxianbei listened quietly.
Thus, a certain girl’s past gradually unfolded before her, like a slowly opened yellowed photo album, in this unhurried narration…
————
From the time Huasang could remember, she lived with her grandmother. She was about three years old then.
It was a small house facing the mountain, a two-story building with two bungalows, and right in front was a large sun-drying area where tea leaves were dried throughout the year.
Her grandmother was an excellent elderly woman, possessing almost all the admirable qualities of traditional Z Country people: hard-working, simple, neither servile nor arrogant… So even though her grandmother rarely spoke and never lectured, under her guidance, Huasang was particularly understanding and thoughtful from a young age, never causing trouble for the family.
She never even asked her grandmother where her parents had gone.
At that time, in Jinhua Village, one could often see the following scene.
Surrounded by green hills, an old woman was busy on the sun-drying ground, flipping through the tea leaves that had already been sautéed, sweating profusely.
Beside the sun-drying area, a little girl, looking like a pink dumpling, sat quietly on a bamboo chair, swinging her little feet, never crying or making a fuss, just watching the old woman with her big watery eyes.
Huasang’s grandmother was a skilled tea picker in the village and a renowned tea roaster. To buy her granddaughter some treats, get her new clothes, and send her to school, she often had to help out on the tea mountain or in the tea roasting house.
But both the tea mountain and the tea roasting house were quite far from the village; one was five miles away on a rugged mountain road, the other full of smoke and open flames, unsuitable for children.
Her grandmother, worried about Huasang, could only use a small backpack to carry her along, taking her to the tea mountain and the roasting house.
Huasang would rest on her grandmother’s shoulder, either using a handkerchief to wipe her grandmother’s sweat or holding a water jug to her grandmother’s mouth, or imitating her grandmother by plucking a tender green leaf from the tea tree.
The two of them relied on each other, living a life that, while a bit impoverished, was filled with happiness.
Time in the mountains passed slowly, from sunrise to sunset, tranquil and extended, but quickly, a year and a half flew by.
One morning, when her grandmother was preparing to take the young Huasang out, she suddenly said in a childish voice, “Grandma, you don’t need to take me with you today, I’ll be good and obedient at home by myself.”
She knew she had grown a lot, and her grandmother had aged considerably, almost unable to carry her anymore; that little bamboo basket barely seemed to hold her.
It was as if some force was urging her to advance, making her mature earlier than the children her age, even those older than her in the village.
However, leaving such a small child at home alone was surely a concern for the elderly woman. Still, she only smiled, patted Huasang’s head, and said, “Sangsang is good; Grandma isn’t tired.” Thus, she continued to carry her out every day.
Yet Huasang did not give up; she repeated the same words to her grandmother every day.
A week later, her grandmother finally compromised and took her to the village’s elementary school.
The elementary school in Jinhua Village was small, with only a row of bungalows, a small playground, a principal, two teachers, and fewer than fifty students.
At that time, Huasang was just over four years old, far too young to be in school. Initially, the principal was extremely reluctant to accept her, but after her grandmother visited repeatedly and pleaded, the principal reluctantly admitted her.
From then on, in the village’s first-grade classroom, there was a girl who was noticeably much younger than the others.
She wore a floral dress, had a round face that was rosy and plump, and her slightly yellow hair was tied up in two small braids, wafting a scent of tea.
The classroom chairs were high, and sitting on one, her little feet in cloth shoes couldn’t reach the ground, only swinging in the air.
However, even though she was the youngest in the class, she was also the most obedient child; she studied earnestly, achieved excellent grades, never played or caused mischief, and during lunch, she didn’t fight for food like the other children, even when it was her turn, there was only a plate of vegetables and a few steamed buns left.
After school, when everyone else had left, she would sit quietly under the old tree at the school gate, listening to the sounds of Jinhua Village.
The chickens in the coop would squawk together, clucking.
A few dogs at the village entrance barked lazily.
Bubbles would pop in the well.
Insects buzzed against the window.
A distant person called out something…
Until the sky had darkened completely, and the busy grandmother would come to pick her up from school.
People say the crying child gets candy, but this saying did not apply to Huasang.
On the contrary, it was precisely because she did not cry and was particularly obedient and understanding that her grandmother, the principal, the teachers, and indeed most of the villagers showed her maximum kindness.
Her grandmother spoiled her, which goes without saying; the teachers would set aside a portion of food for her during lunch, and whenever someone in the village slaughtered pigs or sheep, they would send a small piece of meat to her house… In return, she would help everyone with whatever she could.
The villagers of Jinhua Village loved Huasang, and she loved them too.
Thus, she grew up healthy and happily in such an environment until she was six years old…
That summer was particularly hot; the sky was always bright blue, without a single cloud, even the tea trees on the mountain could not withstand the scorching sun, curling their leaves into fine strips. The air was humid and stifling, with rain delayed as if holding back a surge, ready to steam people alive.
That day, Huasang had just helped the neighbor, the village chief, cut some pig grass, happily carrying home the eggs the chief had given her, when she encountered a strange man.
The man appeared to be in his thirties, sturdy, with a simple appearance that suggested he was from the city.
Although Huasang had never seen him before, just one glance was enough for her to recognize him as her father, whom she had never met.
That evening, three generations sat together at the dinner table, and the food on the table was more lavish than during the New Year.
Her grandmother kept stealing glances at the man, not looking at her son but rather showing a hint of caution, while the man smiled and served Huasang food, saying he would soon make it big, and then take her to the city. Huasang just focused on eating, not saying a word.
After dinner, she went back to her room early, locked the door, and lay on her bed, distractedly flipping through the novel borrowed from Teacher Huang, eventually falling into a deep sleep at some point.
In a hazy state, she felt someone opened her bedroom door and entered her room.
She desperately wanted to wake up, but her body felt as if it were cursed, lying still in bed.
The person came sneaking up to her, turned her body over, and a large palm slapped hard on her back, as if wanting to shatter her spine.
It felt like falling into the icy waters of a spring-snow-melted stream, a bone-chilling sensation spread through her limbs, and soon she fell back into a deep sleep.
Faintly, she heard a deep voice say to her, “Don’t blame me…”
In the middle of the night.
The air, which had been hot for a long time, suddenly became cool, dark clouds accumulated over Jinhua Village, and with a gust of mountain wind, torrential rain began to pour, causing the jars in the yard to clink loudly.
“Boom—!”
With a sound that seemed to shatter the very marrow of one’s bones, Huasang awoke from her nightmare, opened her eyes, and heard a quarrel coming from the living room.
By the sound of it, the voices arguing were her grandmother and her father.
She climbed out of bed and walked to the door, pressing her ear against it and listening carefully to their conversation.
“I raised the child by myself; you have never shown concern for her. Why do you suddenly come back now and do such things to her!?” her grandmother said sternly.
“Mom, listen to me. I didn’t have a choice but to make this decision. Sangsang is my daughter; do you think I don’t care about her?” her father replied.
“If you know how to care for your daughter, you should have resigned from that lousy job at the Siye Society earlier. I’ve told you countless times that you have no talent for it!”
“Mom!” her father seemed to be provoked and grew dark and fierce, “I know you’ve always looked down on me, but I want to say that once I succeed this time, I won’t be the same person as before!”
The more he spoke, the more agitated he became, and by the end, he was nearly roaring, “Mom, don’t you think that man had great talent? When the time comes, I can be like him or even surpass him, becoming the best under calamity!”
“What if you fail? For such a lousy thing, you even put that kind of thing on Sangsang. If you fail, the entire village will be harmed by you!” her grandmother said coldly.
“Mom, I will not fail. Even if I do fail, I still have Sangsang, right? She is my backup! Trust me, this is a secret method I’ve worked hard to obtain; it absolutely won’t…”
“Shut up! Don’t call me mom; I don’t have a son like you. Get out, get out!” Her grandmother trembled with rage, shouting furiously.
“Bang!” A heavy slam of the door sounded, and her father seemed to have left, on this stormy night.
Huasang pressed herself against the door, not daring to breathe; she had never seen her grandmother so angry.
She did not dare to go out, silently returning to her bed, covering herself with the quilt until she fell into a deep sleep.
Then she began to dream, a terrible nightmare.
She dreamt of the reservoir halfway up the mountain, waves surging, with a massive shadow swimming below.
Suddenly, with a loud crash, the shadow leaped out of the water, revealing its terrifying body in the storm.
It was a colossal beast resembling a turtle, its mountain-like size nearly filling the entire reservoir.
Dozens of meter-high trees beneath it appeared as mere wild grass.
Flash floods rushed past it, as if they were merely streams.
Facing the lightning cracking across the sky, it let out a long howl, producing a roar like thunder.
Thus, the earth trembled.
…
After that day, Huasang never saw her father again.
That man appeared in her life for less than a day, seemingly leaving something behind on her before disappearing again.
After her father left, Huasang fell seriously ill, with high fever lasting day after day, lying in bed in a daze.
In her stupor, she often dreamt of that dreadful beast; when she occasionally woke, she would see her grandmother looking tired by her bedside.
This state lasted for about an entire summer vacation until the village’s elementary school had already started for several days before her condition began to improve.
Once informed of Huasang’s recovery, Teacher Huang from the village specially brought the new semester’s textbooks for her, gently touching her forehead and advising her to take good care of herself to return to class soon.
Then, not long after, people in the village began to d*e.
The first person to d*e was Teacher Huang!
That day, Teacher Huang did not go to school all day. After school, the principal went to look for him at his home, and upon pushing open the door, he fainted on the spot.
The vibrant person who had been alive and well just the day before had turned into a corpse that seemed to have soaked in water for days, being all bloated and rotting…
