Xiao Qi woke up after a good night's sleep.
The next day, Xiao Qi got up as usual, washed up, and practiced calligraphy.
However, she didn't go for a run. She was going to Cliff Village today, and expected to do a lot of walking.
Her body was still a little sore, but not too bad. Her usual stretching exercises had been quite effective.
After practicing calligraphy, Xiao Qi stretched for a while, then went to wake up her student Jiajia.
Jiajia, who had been excited for days, was starting to miss sleeping in during her vacation. But thinking about going out to play today with Teacher and a group of foreigners got her excited again.
After lingering in bed a little longer, she bravely got up.
She had wanted to wear her new shiny plastic flip flops, but Teacher Xiao Qi made her wear practical sneakers that were good for walking.
Xiao Qi took Jiajia to Luoxi Town for breakfast, beef soup and steak with rice. Xiao Qi really liked this restaurant, too bad it wasn't at their school.
A new branch had opened in the new district, but the taste was completely different, probably not authentic. It didn't have the same flavor.
Xiao Qi needed to go to the local market in town to buy ingredients for the barbecue. The market had plenty of supplies.
Various spices, Sichuan pepper, chili peppers, cinnamon, and Xiao Qi also bought a jar of honey.
The lamb and pork belly also looked good, so Xiao Qi bought some of that too, and prepared lots of bamboo skewers.
The foreign teachers were bringing chicken wings, chicken, sausages and more.
Anything more complicated, they wouldn't have been able to prepare.
After buying everything, they returned to campus.
On the way back, Xiao Qi called her parents.
"My daughter, did you participate in a running competition? Your dad said he saw you on TV," Sheng Juanhua asked.
"Yeah, I went yesterday and won a prize. It was probably because I was the girl from the village who could run. The prize money was quite a lot. I haven't received it yet. Once I do, I'll deposit it in my bank account. Take a look and see what we can use it for," Xiao Qi said.
When she hadn't won the race, the money had seemed very distant. Now that she still hadn't received the money, it still felt distant. Let the chips fall where they may, this was probably how things were.
After a day and night of calming down, Xiao Qi was quite composed about it now.
The competition was over, she had finished that task, and the results were out. No need to get overly excited and crazy about it anymore. Just keep looking forward and moving forward. She still had so much to do.
Hearing her daughter's casual words, Sheng Juanhua's mood also calmed down a bit. To be honest, the couple hadn't slept well at all last night. Her husband had gotten up three or four times in the middle of the night, and she couldn't sleep either.
She had the call on speakerphone, so Su Youfu could hear too.
Su Youfu spoke up, "We're not short on money. See what you need, and buy it. You said you're studying computer science, what about a computer? Don't buy one too cheap, and don't buy one too expensive, get a mid-range one."
"I know. If I need anything, I'll buy it. Same for you and Mom," Xiao Qi said.
The family chatted about trivial things in life for a while. Su Youfu asked Xiao Qi what she had been eating the past few days, and if the school cafeteria was still open during break so she'd have meals. Hearing that the cafeteria was still open, he felt much more reassured.
Then they hung up.
Sheng Juanhua felt confused again. Her daughter's prize money wasn't 10 or 20 thousand. It seemed to be over a million! How could her daughter be so nonchalant about it?
The couple who hadn't slept all night suddenly felt nonchalant as well.
And with so much money, her daughter hadn't said much, just to deposit it in the card account. That card was the bank account Su Youfu and Sheng Juanhua had a savings account on, and Xiao Qi had a card for it too. In essence they all used the same account.
"Is our daughter a bit careless?" Sheng Juanhua realized and asked.
Su Youfu pondered for a moment and said, "The money hasn't arrived yet, right? What's the point of making a fuss now? What if it doesn't come through?"
"You're right, can't count chickens before they hatch," Sheng Juanhua admitted after being admonished by her husband, and didn't bring it up again.
Sheng Juanhua had a fiery personality outside, but at home she tended to discuss matters with her husband and listen to his opinions.
Xiao Qi had gotten up early, bought everything, and also went to the dorm auntie's kitchen to prepare the meat using her kitchen. She gave the dorm auntie a bag of fruit.
It was still early, not even 9 am yet.
Everyone had agreed to meet at 9 am at the bridge by the school gate.
The school bus was providing transportation again.
To Xiao Qi's surprise, she saw her Japanese elective teacher, Yamamoto, there.
Many familiar faces like Garen, Grace, Jinyoung, Xiao Qi greeted them fluently in English and introduced her little sidekick Jiajia.
Jiajia obediently smiled. Her English wasn't very good so she could only say "Hello."
Then Xiao Qi greeted Yamamoto in Japanese and chatted with him for a bit.
The other teachers were quite shocked. They didn't expect Xiao Qi's English to be so good, and her Japanese wasn't bad either.
Of course the most shocked was little Jiajia. Her teacher was just too amazing.
She knew Teacher had just started learning Japanese when she began teaching them English. Now she could already chat with a Japanese person in Japanese. That was just unbelievable!
Yamamoto was also quite surprised to see Xiao Qi. He had a very deep impression of this student. Every time he taught class, she was very attentive.
It was also through this diligent student that Yamamoto found something in himself again. He seemed to see his own youth.
It was also because of this student that he suddenly felt like going out for a walk.
Previously for the donation drive, the foreign teachers had a group. Someone had mentioned the drive there. Yamamoto himself lived an ascetic lifestyle, often just having a bowl of rice, one vegetable dish, and soup for a meal. Sometimes he just used plain water instead of soup. But he felt doing good deeds was important, so he also donated 5,000 yuan.
He himself was very frugal. 5,000 yuan was a lot to him. Looking at his clothes, pants, shoes, he hadn't bought anything new in years.
Yamamoto didn't expect that when a thought arose in him to go out for a walk, he would run into this diligent student. A smile spread across Yamamoto's face. He wanted to express his joy, but probably because he hadn't smiled in too long, his smile was ghastly and sinister, better to not smile at all.
Xiao Qi was a bit frightened too, and couldn't help but think of the elderly villager on welfare who had silently passed away in her village. It was said his corpse had rotted by the time he was discovered, but he had a smile on his face, very creepy.
Even so, Xiao Qi could feel that Yamamoto was trying to express goodwill. She also responded with a bright smile.
Once everyone had gathered, the bus started up again, heading in the direction of Luoxi Town.
It had to go through Dadong Township first. Although the roads here were a bit narrow, whenever vehicles met each other they had to yield and pull over to the slightly wider shoulder to pass before continuing on. But the scenery along the way was beautiful.
There were many rocky mountains along the road, majestic with a sense of history.
Xiao Qi had specifically brought art supplies with her, though she couldn't paint on the bus. She attentively took in the scenery along the way.
After driving for over an hour, they arrived at Dadong Township. The scenery became ordinary here.
The decently populated Dadong Township wasn't very clean or orderly. It felt like a chaotic small town, like Xiao Qi's hometown of Huanghe Town. Just one main street, with small shops on both sides of the road. It would be lively on fixed market days each month, but today wasn't one, so it was very quiet.
The bus continued on, the concrete road just wide enough for one vehicle gradually turning into a small muddy path barely wide enough for one vehicle, winding all around.
The bus rocked back and forth.
Finally it arrived at the foot of a mountain road, where the road ended completely.
This was the access point to Cliff Village, but the bus couldn't drive in. Motorcycles could make it, and walking was also possible.
But this kind of steep uphill path was like a cliffside. Only locals dared ride motorcycles on it. Outsiders wouldn't be able to.
The only way left was to walk up.
This place had originally been discovered by some foreign teacher explorers. They didn't expect there to be a village midway up the cliffside. The scenery of that village was truly beautiful, but it was also truly poor.
The bus stopped and everyone grabbed their things and got off, prepared to hike the rest of the way.
Jiajia's backpack contained lots of snacks, mostly puffed foods, so not heavy.
The heavier drinks, spices, fruit, meat were all in Xiao Qi's backpack. Xiao Qi wore athletic pants, a T-shirt, windbreaker, athletic shoes, a hat, fully equipped.
The foreigners were the same, although it was just a picnic barbecue, each one was dressed as if going to war, dressed very warrior-like.
The only one who looked a little out of place was probably Mr. Yamamoto, who was still wearing a shirt with creases and old trousers, though his shoes were sports shoes, they looked very old too.
Walking uphill, you could still see the streams flowing down the mountainside along the road, and the scenery was indeed getting better and better.
Seeing Mr. Yamamoto panting as he walked, Xiao Qi stopped, went to the roadside into the woods, and after a while came out with a tree branch in her hand, which she gave to Mr. Yamamoto, saying in Japanese: "Sir, you can use this as a walking stick."
