The scene was a room that looked a bit like a lecture hall, with the backdrop of high-rise buildings in the city. Anyone who watched Lvshan Channel One would be very familiar with this backdrop.
As the interview began, Jiang Yiru quickly found her home ground. She chatted casually with several people for a few sentences about this competition, and then started to focus her interview on Su Xiaoqi.
"I heard that you were a top student when you were in school, with excellent grades."
Su Xiaoqi: ...
Her scalp tingled. Although this was not a live broadcast, hearing the beautiful hostess saying this in her sweet voice made Xiaoqi feel it wasn't right.
Today's interview was supposed to praise her more, after all it was an interview about her recent victory in the Jingnan Provincial Women's 200m Freestyle competition, and also to publicize herself and Lvshan City's own swimming team.
But who told her this?
Seeing the hostess professionally holding information in her hands, Xiaoqi did not feel dizzy with the idea that she really was a top student. Although she was at Lvshan No. 1 Middle School and her usual grades were decent, upper middle level, she did poorly on the college entrance exam and was almost bottom of the class - she was nowhere near being a top student.
Xiaoqi did not yet understand the concept of an "image", but her instinct told her that the accolades the hostess was piling on her did not feel right. The old Xiaoqi might have just smiled awkwardly, which could be taken as acquiescing.
In an instant she felt it was inappropriate. Without much hesitation she answered, "No, the competition at No. 1 Middle School was intense. My grades were only average in class."
After all, there was one student from her class who made it into Tsinghua University or Peking University. Calling her a top student would be too cheap.
Jiang Yiru paused slightly, her smile still present. She did not expect the young girl to explicitly reject this.
Jiang Yiru's subsequent questions became more conventional. There were two more ambiguous questions, trying to push Xiaoqi closer to the image of a top student, but Xiaoqi firmly denied it each time.
Jiang looked at the information in her hands again, wondering if her assistant had gotten the data wrong - could this girl without background really be such an unexaggerated and direct village student?
Besides, the girl had great camera presence, seeming very unconstrained while sitting close by. Jiang noticed she had very little make-up on her naturally pale face. Although not shockingly beautiful, she had very long lashes. Occasionally laughing to reveal a mouth of straight teeth, wearing clothes with a hint of professionalism, she was a budding young woman far from the impoverished mountain prodigy Jiang had envisioned.
Jiang felt that while the girl did not seem to like to speak much, she was not insecure at all.
They started to talk about swimming.
Xiaoqi did not want to say much, often deflecting the conversation to Coach Wu or Captain Zhao.
Captain Zhao revealed a kindly smile, feeling inwardly that the young lady handled things very adroitly - rather than just sitting on the side as a potted plant, it was better she did not come.
When it came to talking about swimming, Coach Wu was also less nervous, speaking more fluently, and his leg stopped shaking so violently where it rested on the sofa.
Xiaoqi sat quietly on the side, listening carefully. The camera would still pan over her from time to time, even more than it did the hostess. After all, it was rare to see such an aloof young lady.
Jiang Yiru felt the interview was dull and fruitless. She wanted to find exciting points about the girl, but was rebuffed. She tried to guide the conversation, but Xiaoqi directly refuted instead. It was as if she was not interviewing a young girl but a government official - they spoke for half a day, seemingly talking a lot but actually nothing much.
The interview lasted a little over an hour. Besides the hostess feeling there was no substance, Coach Wu was preoccupied with nervousness, while Captain Zhao kept relishing his own performance, actively asking when it would be aired.
Xiaoqi did not say much, answering when asked but not volunteering anything additional. She left on her own after it ended, also not giving a clear answer about when it would air.
Xiaoqi could not catch the bus back home to her village, and wondered about getting a taxi back that would probably cost over 100 RMB. But thinking of Gumula Village, that primitive little place - if someone had a surprise guest, it would lead to the whole village coming out to gawk... so at least public security was good, bad people really could not hide at all, the villagers kept sharp eyes on everything.
If Xiaoqi took a taxi home, it would surely give the whole village much to talk about.
Maybe Granny would even come make a scene at her family's home, saying that she had money for a taxi but not to buy some things for her uncle...
Thinking of this, Xiaoqi involuntarily shuddered.
If she ran back home, the villagers would also gossip, maybe thinking she had gone crazy.
The villagers never finished their work, going up the mountain for labor far away, walking many li a day already. Who would want to run too?
It would be best for her to just walk home, and get her 30,000 daily steps done at the same time.
Xiaoqi looked at the interface on her phone, she already had over 300,000 steps, feeling she was getting closer and closer to buying a house.
After eating at her auntie's dormitory and packing up, Xiaoqi did not bear to wear her new clothes since she would take the mountain path. She changed back into her old athletic pants, T-shirt and long sleeve jacket.
The mountain areas were high altitude with dense foliage, much cooler than the city.
With so many branches, wearing short sleeves and shorts made it easy to get scratched.
When Auntie Sumei heard Xiaoqi would walk home, she did not let her carry much, only some pomelos patients had gifted the hospital. Pomelos were considered rare treats, so Auntie Sumei let Xiaoqi take them.
Xiaoqi now felt quite strong, not finding it tiring to walk far carrying things. Also, she would go to her uncle's home tomorrow, so after eating her fill she still went to the market to buy some things.
She bought a set of clothes each for Granny and Grandpa. Grandma's clothes had small floral prints - Xiaoqi's memory was of Grandma as an elderly woman who took pride in dressing up, oiled hair twisted up and pinned with a silver hairpin, face shiny with oil, keeping the house extremely tidy, laughing frequently with her neat set of dentures fully displayed, giving others a very cheery feeling.
Grandpa was exceptionally tall, over 1.8 meters, but looked thinner and more hunched over with age, no longer so imposing. Xiaoqi had inherited half her height from Grandpa's side, since her Mom was tall while Dad was shorter than Mom. She picked out a thicker Zhongshan jacket for Grandpa, single-colored, a bit blue. Her memory of Grandpa was him wearing very practical clothing.
Elderly people's clothing was not too expensive, only about 100 RMB each.
She bought Granny a bottle of liquor over 100 RMB - Granny loved to drink liquor, insisting on a cup of white wine before meals to stimulate her appetite.
Xiaoqi also went to buy Mom a pair of leather shoes, red, soft leather, rounded toes with shoelaces like athletic shoes, the sole made from cow tendon, very comfortable for walking. Xiaoqi tried them on too. Her skin was as pale as Mom's, Mom was just more tanned from working outside more. Her hands and feet were still especially white, red leather shoes would definitely look good on her. The shoes were slightly expensive, over 400 RMB.
Xiaoqi did not buy anything for Dad. He probably would not have borne to wear the new clothes she got last time either, so buying more would lead to real complaints of wasting money.
In all, buying bits and pieces still added up to a large package. Fortunately Xiaoqi's school bag was big, able to stuff everything into it.
She first took an express bus from the bus station to Huanghe Town. After arriving at Huanghe Town she alighted and started walking.
She walked a segment along the highway, then turned in at a village along the roadside, entering the mountain from a small path at the edge of the village.
It was around 4 pm, before sunset.
Xiaoqi found a dead branch in the path and cleared it up as a walking stick. Some parts of the path were narrower, so having a stick helped.
Xiaoqi felt her physical fitness was much better now. Carrying a heavy load for a long time did not make her pant too badly. It was just extremely tranquil in the mid-afternoon mountain, even birds calling out were scarce, occasionally hearing some insect cries, or the sound of wind shaking the branches.
And the sound of dry branches crunching underfoot.
Xiaoqi took out her phone to check and found she had entered deep into the mountains already, no signal.
After walking for over half an hour more, she finally felt the scenery becoming more familiar.
Because she spotted paddy fields.
Where there were paddy fields meant there were people. These fields belonged to Gumula Village, Xiaoqi remembered her Second Uncle's family had fields here.
Compared to the deep mountains, walking in the open paddy fields felt completely different.
It would be the autumn harvest soon. The setting sun shone the fields all golden-orange, a very beautiful sight.
The setting sun stretched Xiaoqi's silhouette out long, a bead of sweat appearing on her forehead. The wind carried the smell of the paddies, seemingly entering deep into her lungs.
Still no people encountered, but the scarecrows in the paddy fields swayed in the wind as if waving hello to Little Seven.
