Chapter 14

Ruan Changgui and Sun Xiaohui were talking when they suddenly heard a voice from outside: “Second son, come out for a moment.”

It was Ruan Zhigao calling Ruan Changgui out. Ruan Changgui didn’t dare pretend he didn’t hear, so he quickly got up and went out.

When he reached Ruan Zhigao, he called out, “Dad.”

Ruan Zhigao didn’t beat around the bush and said directly, “I don’t want to say much about the trouble your wife caused today, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have an opinion on it! You should know better than me what her intentions are. This time, let’s consider it over, but if it happens again, you and your wife can get out!”

Ruan Changgui didn’t dare say anything else, just nodded, “I have already scolded her, and she realizes her mistake. She promised to correct it and will listen to me in the future. There won’t be a next time.”

Ruan Zhigao didn’t look pleased, “It better be.”

After saying this, he turned and went back inside.

After dinner, Ruan Xi, Ruan Jie, Ruan Zhigao, Liu Xinghua, and Ruan Changsheng’s family of five were chatting privately. Liu Xinghua was still furious about today’s events and said about Sun Xiaohui, “If no one had stopped me today, I would have beaten her to death.”

In reality, Liu Xinghua couldn’t actually beat Sun Xiaohui, given her age. Today, she just struck first and caught Sun Xiaohui off guard. Another point is that Sun Xiaohui is genuinely afraid of her mother-in-law. But regardless of whether she could win the fight or not, she must not lose in terms of momentum and language!

If she doesn’t give her a harsh lesson, Sun Xiaohui might not remember the cost of being disrespectful.

Ruan Zhigao took a puff from his pipe and said, after a moment, “This matter is hard to prevent. We can’t control what others say or do; we can only control ourselves. So, always be cautious in what you say and do, and don’t give petty people any leverage.”

He then looked at Ruan Changsheng and said, “Mainly you.”

Ruan Changsheng replied, “I’ve been behaving lately. Haven’t I been going to work obediently every day?”

Recently, Ruan Changsheng has indeed been behaving well, working all day at the construction site, so Ruan Zhigao doesn’t say anything more to him.

As for Ruan Xi and Ruan Jie, the girls had simple minds, so he wasn’t too worried about them.

Ruan Xi herself wasn’t worried either. She was confident in her words and actions, and Sun Xiaohui had suffered a significant loss this time, which should keep her from causing trouble again for a while.

Only Ruan Jie remained silent, her eyes empty.

After washing up and lying down to sleep that night, Ruan Jie finally spoke, saying to Ruan Xi, “I must have done something wrong in my past life. That’s why I ended up with a mother like this in this life. It’s really heartbreaking and embarrassing.”

Hearing her words, Ruan Xi suddenly thought of “her” mother, the woman who abandoned her at the age of three in the countryside. She didn’t feel much about it, as it wasn’t her real mother, just a thought that crossed her mind. She came back to her senses and comforted Ruan Jie, “Our birth and parents are things we can’t choose, so let’s accept reality and look forward. The most important thing is to live our own lives well.”

Ruan Jie took a deep breath, “How can we live well? In a few years, we’ll be of marriageable age, and we’ll just find a man to marry and continue living like this, stuck in the mountains for life.”

Ruan Xi didn’t expect Ruan Jie to have such deep thoughts. She turned to face her, looking at her through the darkness, and asked, “You don’t want to live like this? Do you want to leave the mountains and see the outside world?”

Ruan Jie turned her head and replied, “Of course I do. What about you, sister?”

Ruan Xi held her hand, “Then let’s work hard together to get out.”

Ruan Jie was inspired by Ruan Xi’s words but soon lost her enthusiasm. Sighing, “We can’t marry outside. Even marrying into the town is difficult. Our third aunt was lucky to marry into the town.”

Then she thought of something, “No, sister, you’re different. Uncle will take you to the military district. Once you’re there, uncle and aunt will find you a cadre’s son, and you can marry into a cadre’s family.”

Ruan Xi wasn’t very interested in marrying into a cadre’s family. She just held Ruan Jie’s hand and said, “Trust me, I’ll take you out. We won’t rely on marriage to change our fate; we’ll change our fate through our efforts; how about that?”

Changing fate through effort? It sounded inspiring but also too unrealistic. They had no direction to work towards or the possibility of changing their fate through effort.

Ruan Jie couldn’t imagine such a thing and hesitantly asked, “Is it possible?”

Ruan Xi replied, “If you trust me, it is.”

Ruan Jie thought about it. If she believed, there was an unrealistic hope; if she didn’t, there was no hope at all. So she nodded heavily and said to Ruan Xi, “Sister, I trust you!”

On the sparsely populated mountain path in the early morning, a girl with two braids, wearing a pink and white floral short-sleeved shirt, hummed a song with her backpack on her back, adding a lively touch to the mountain along with the morning birdsong. When she reached the gate of the tailor’s courtyard, Ruan Xi knocked twice and pushed the door open.

Seeing the old tailor sitting in front of the sewing machine in the main room, she walked to the door and greeted him before stepping inside. She walked to the old tailor’s side and saw him drawing on brown recycled paper with a pencil.

Seeing him drawing clothing designs, Ruan Xi was a bit surprised—she didn’t expect her master to be so stylish, drawing design sketches before making clothes rather than just following fixed patterns.

The old tailor didn’t look up at her and said while drawing, “Today, just watch me draw this. Learn as much as you can. If you’re interested, find some paper and practice drawing yourself.”

Ruan Xi stood by the sewing machine, slightly bending her waist and nodding, “Okay.”

The old tailor drew quickly, mainly sketching the general style, so even though he had to draw three sets of clothes, it only took him most of the day.

Today, Ruan Xi had other things on her mind. After the old tailor finished drawing, she greeted him and left the tailor’s shop. She didn’t go home after leaving the tailor’s shop. Instead, she went to a few hills where Ling Yao often herded pigs and sheep. After finding him on one of the hills, she ran over and asked, “Do you have any books at home?”

In the entire Fengyan Brigade, the first person she thought of to borrow books from was Ling Yao. She had said last night that she wanted to take Ruan Jie out of the mountains, but it wasn’t as easy as she made it sound. She knew that if they didn’t rely on marriage, the only way to change their fate was to take the college entrance exam.

She hadn’t thought about this before, as it was only 1973, and the college entrance exam hadn’t been reinstated yet.

She had undergone intensive study training in modern schools and attended high school and university, so she wasn’t hurrying to review. But for someone like Ruan Jie, who was almost starting from scratch, four years wasn’t much time at all. She had the memories of her original self and knew that the little schooling they had before was almost equivalent to none. The characters they recognized were very simple, roughly at the second or third-grade level in elementary school.

Ling Yao answered all her questions and asked, “What kind of books?”

Ruan Xi said, “Just study books, textbooks, anything like that.”

Ling Yao thought for a moment, “I’ll take you to find some.”

So, he herded the pigs home early today and took Ruan Xi back to his stilt house.

Ruan Xi was naturally familiar with the place and followed Ling Yao inside, watching him pull out a suitcase from under the bed. The suitcase was obviously frequently rummaged through, with the zipper not fully closed and no dust on it.

Ling Yao opened the suitcase and looked up at Ruan Xi, saying, “The books are all here.”

These were the books his father had desperately brought up the mountain. When he was exhausted and on the verge of collapse, he considered throwing away his luggage but never considered discarding the books in this suitcase. However, after bringing it up, he rarely looked through it, and it was usually Ling Yao who found books to read from it.

Ruan Xi came over and flipped through the books with him, finding that most of them were physics books. Many were too advanced for her to understand, but there were two books she could somewhat comprehend, which were high school-level math and physics textbooks.

While flipping through the books, Ruan Xi asked Ling Yao, “What did your dad do before coming up the mountain?”

Ling Yao was very honest with her now and said, “University professor, teaching physics.”

Ruan Xi was stunned for a moment—no wonder Ling Yao could understand such difficult physics books at a young age. It turned out he was influenced by his father, learning early from a young age. Of course, talent shouldn’t be underestimated either.

Ruan Xi continued flipping through the books and asked, “Did he study abroad?”

Ling Yao nodded, “Yes.”

“Then your family must be quite wealthy, right?”

Having money wasn’t necessarily a good thing in those days, so Ling Yao didn’t respond to that.

Ruan Xi looked up at his expression and didn’t continue asking. She went through the books in the suitcase, finding none suitable for basic literacy and cultural learning, so she organized the books and closed the suitcase.

Ling Yao saw her closing the suitcase and asked, “Didn’t you find what you wanted?”

Ruan Xi shook her head, “These books are too difficult. I’ll look for others.”

Ling Yao felt a bit regretful, “Sorry I couldn’t help you.”

Ruan Xi smiled at him and thought for a moment before saying, “Can you help me with something else?”

Ling Yao didn’t ask what she needed help with and nodded directly, “Sure.”

Ruan Xi was taken aback by his response, then smiled and said, “My sister and I want to study. Can you teach us? I’ll find the textbooks, and you can start teaching us from the basics. Is that okay?”

Ling Yao nodded decisively again, “Yes, that’s okay.”

Ruan Xi smiled at him, feeling like he was an angel sent from heaven.

In Ling Yao’s heart, she was the angel sent from heaven.

As they left the stilt house, the sky was already approaching dusk. On her way home, Ruan Xi thought and hesitated for about ten minutes before deciding to go directly to her former teacher’s house.

In this isolated mountain, she couldn’t think of anyone else who might have books. When they went to school before, they didn’t have textbooks either; they just followed the teacher and learned as much as they could from the blackboard.

This teacher was once the only teacher in their area, but due to his bad background, he was criticized during the revolution. After that, there were no more teachers, and the children all became wild. Searching her memories for fragments related to this teacher, Ruan Xi felt uneasy, not knowing what state the teacher was in now or if he still remembered her as one of the students who had once joined in throwing small stones at him.

Ruan Xi found his house and happened to meet the teacher who was returning from work. He was almost unrecognizable from her memories, having aged and become much more haggard.

Ruan Xi approached and greeted him, “Mr. Jin.”

Mr. Jin didn’t even look at her and said, “I’m no longer a teacher.”

Ruan Xi followed him, “You will always be my teacher.”

Mr. Jin put down the basket from his shoulder at the corner of the wall and turned to look at Ruan Xi, “What do you want from me?”

Ruan Xi didn’t beat around the bush and said directly, “Do you have any study books? Textbooks or anything like that, I want to study.”

Mr. Jin stood there looking at her for a moment without saying anything, then turned and went inside the house.

Ruan Xi stood outside, anxiously waiting. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Mr. Jin’s wife cooking inside, and his two children were leaning on the door frame, staring at her as if she were some strange creature.

A few minutes later, Mr. Jin came out, holding a stack of books. He approached Ruan Xi and said, “I only have first to fifth-grade Chinese and math books, nothing else. If you want to study, take them, but you must return them when you’re done.”

Books were the scarcest thing on the mountain.

Ruan Xi breathed a sigh of relief and felt grateful. She quickly reached out to take the books and bowed to Mr. Jin, saying, “Thank you.”

Mr. Jin showed little expression, turned, and went back inside, saying, “Take care of them.”

Ruan Xi stood there and replied, “I will.”

Holding the stack of books, she walked home, taking deep breaths repeatedly, as if she were holding the world’s most precious yet undervalued things.

After returning home, she called Ruan Jie into the room, placed the books in front of her, and said, “These are borrowed from Mr. Jin’s house, perfect for us to study. If we want to change our fate, we must start here.”

She lowered her voice, “Knowledge changes fate!”

After hearing her words, Ruan Jie wasn’t excited. Her eyes were full of doubt, and she felt like Ruan Xi was just trying to make her happy.

After a moment, she asked, “Sister, are you serious?” It felt like nonsense to her.

Can knowledge change fate? Knowledge seemed to lead people into pits, bringing them into the mountains, like the highly educated Ling Yao’s family in the stilt house and the educated youths settled in the village. And then there was Mr. Jin, whom Ruan Xi had just mentioned.

Ruan Xi stared into Ruan Jie’s eyes and said nothing else, only asking, “Do you believe me or not?”

Ruan Jie hesitated, holding her breath, and looked into Ruan Xi’s eyes for a long time, seriously examining her. Finally, she took a deep breath and nodded heavily.

“I do!”