Chapter 66: He Doesn’t Accept Fate

Chen Wende slammed the door after his outburst.

He was proud and ambitious. He had excelled in his studies, graduating from university with honors and becoming a well-known talented writer in the literature department.

Even before university, he knew he wasn’t from the same world as the people in Gaoshi Village.

They didn’t understand national policies or government regulations.

They didn’t understand poetry or literature, the vastness of the world in books, or his ideals and romance.

Their world was impoverished, their lives were impoverished. They only cared about the wheat harvest and the rain.

They haggled over small gains, fought fiercely, and fiercely defended their interests.

Such people, such an environment, and such a wife were not what he wanted.

Chen Wende sat at his desk, taking a deep breath.

He picked up a manuscript, his “Country Night Scene” from the previous night.

Thinking of his current situation, his shoulders slumped.

In another year, he could have changed his fate and never returned to this small village.

But fate had other plans.

At the beginning of the semester, he was returning to school from home when some classmates dragged him to a social dance.

He had vaguely heard about these dances in the city lively and exciting.

He didn’t want to go because he didn’t have much money.

But Chi Suzhen wanted to experience it.

In an abandoned factory, the dim lighting, flashing lights, young men and women, and loud music were all strange and exciting to Chen Wende.

People would invite each other to dance, whispering in each other’s ears.

Unfortunately, the police raided the dance shortly after it began.

The crackdown started in August 1983, and Chen Wende encountered it in September.

Everyone was separated and questioned.

Chen Wende had just held Chi Suzhen’s hand, about to go onto the dance floor, when they were arrested.

Luckily, they weren’t completely unlucky; the quota for arrests had been met.

Several classmates who had been to such dances before were sent to the Gobi Desert for reform and couldn’t return to the mainland after their sentences.

Chen Wende was a well-known talented writer in the literature department, kind and polite, liked by both teachers and students.

The school leaders intervened.

Because Chen Wende and Chi Suzhen were dating, and the other two were there for the first time and just watching, the school managed to keep them from being sent to the Gobi Desert to plant cotton.  However, they were expelled.

Their future was ruined.

Chen Wende was unwilling to accept this but helpless.

He remembered Che Jinmei saying it was fate.

“I don’t accept fate,” Chen Wende straightened his back.

“I won’t stay in this poor mountain village forever. I’m educated. My vision and spiritual world are different from theirs. I will let everyone see that.”

Chen Wende muttered something, picked up his pen, and wrote a line on his notebook.

“No one helps me reach the peak, but I can climb Kunlun alone.”

Qiao Jiangxin arrived at Old Man Cheng’s house with her books, sitting under a tree in the yard with Liu Xinyan.

Liu Xinyan pointed to the books and explained them, and Qiao Jiangxin listened attentively.

The high sun slowly set in the west.

Qiao Jiangxin raised her head and rubbed her tired neck.

“It’s almost time. I’ll teach you how to cook.”

Liu Xinyan jumped up, “Okay, I’ll catch the fish.”

A two-pound fish was pulled from the vat, its tail flapping.

Qiao Jiangxin quickly gutted the fish.  The dog, smelling the fish, circled them.

“Go away! This is for us, you can’t lick it,” Liu Xinyan shooed the dog away.

The spoiled dog wagged its tail and tried to get closer.

Liu Xinyan grabbed the dog by the neck, “Jiangxin, come quickly! This stupid dog won’t listen! Let it go with the fish!!”

Qiao Jiangxin cooperated, placing the back of her knife against the dog’s neck, pretending to saw back and forth.

“Kill it, kill it!”

The dog’s eyes bulged, its ears drooped, and it whimpered in terror.

“Woof woof woof!”

“Woof woof woof!”

After escaping, its legs trembled.

Qiao Jiangxin and Liu Xinyan laughed hysterically.

“Hahahaha!”

“Hahahaha!”

The dog shook its neck and fur; it was fine.

It tilted its head, looking thoughtfully at the knife in Qiao Jiangxin’s hand.

Liu Xinyan grabbed it again, but it wasn’t scared anymore, sticking out its tongue and grinning.

Gu Yunzhou, standing by the window, watched his silly dog, twitching his lips.

It’s over.

His silly dog probably thinks it’s invincible.

The Qiao family’s house was being tiled. Qiao Jiangxin still went to Old Man Cheng’s house to see Liu Xinyan every day.

Liu Xinyan was idle and enjoyed spending time with Qiao Jiangxin.

She waited at the door for Qiao Jiangxin every day.

The Qiao family had workers eating at their house, so the dog’s food also improved.

At worst, it got some leftover soup and rice.

It was a large, dark golden retriever, with shiny, healthy fur. Liu Xinyan said it was a guard dog.

Grain was precious at that time; people didn’t usually feed dogs so well, especially when the Qiao family was short of money.

But Qiao Jiangxin passed by the Chen family every day.

The two dogs at the Chen family seemed to sense Qiao Jiangxin’s hostility and barked at her every time.

Once, Qiao Jiangxin lost her temper and chased one of the dogs for two li with a stick from the fence.

She arrived at Old Man Cheng’s house, breathless and sweating, but she hadn’t caught the dog.  She was exhausted and angry.

The dog licked her, and Qiao Jiangxin, seeing its size, decided to seek revenge.

When the Chen family dogs barked at Qiao Jiangxin, the golden retriever sensed her tension, immediately engaging in combat mode, darting out, grabbing one dog and shaking it.

In an instant, one of the Chen family dogs had half its ear torn off.

The other dog, hearing its companion’s cries, attacked from behind. The golden retriever turned, tackled it, and subdued it.

The other dog’s front leg was bitten.

Another dog, hearing the fight, rushed over, probably wanting to join in.

But seeing the injured Chen family dogs, it slammed on the brakes, tucked its tail, and ran away.