Chapter Thirty-Three: The Little Girl's Mishap

  After dinner, I brought some food back to Da Jiang and let him eat and sleep. Then I rode my bike and sent the two raccoons and dozens of pounds of python meat back home. The tens of kilometers of road along Highway 308 quickly passed by. My mother and the aunt saw that Yu Songyuan had actually brought back two such fat raccoons and so much python meat, they were so surprised that their mouths couldn't be closed.

  Yu Songyuan then told everyone about the process of capturing the pangolin and the giant python, and after listening, everyone felt it was extraordinary. Especially when they heard that General Yu had risked his life to fight the python, everyone was so tense that they couldn't help but sigh in admiration.

  She Wenfang then took out a knife and divided the animal meat into four portions, one for each family. Each family also did not decline or refuse, they were all very happy. Yu Songyuan again respectfully presented the python gallbladder to Teacher Chen, letting him soak it in wine to drink.

  Mr. Chen looked at the thumb-sized, emerald-green snake gall and sighed: "This is a top-grade item, something that's extremely hard to come by in this day and age." He then said to Yu Songyuan's father, Yu Xiner: "Brother Yu, being able to obtain this thing is fate, only professors and you have the qualifications to keep it."

  Yu Xinhe smiled and said, "You've taught them for ten years. The bond between you and your disciples is not just a snake's gallbladder. You shouldn't refuse this. This isn't a snake's gallbladder, it's the filial piety of his brothers. Don't decline anymore."

  "I'm just an old cold leg, it's nothing after a good rub, Teacher Chen don't push, you need it more!"

  Wang Feng and Yu Yueyue took turns holding Yu Songyuan's head, passionately kissing him. He couldn't help but think that the fragrance of Yu Yueyue and Wang Feng had intoxicated him once again.

  I heard he's going to rush back tonight, his mother is in a hurry to pack him some food and roasted soybeans. Yu Yueyue said don't roast the soybeans, I just roasted them, this kid loves eating my roasted soybeans the most. Aunt Xie Wenxiu and Wang Feng said they also have some leftover pancakes, the three of them quickly went back to get them and sent the meat back as well.

  Yu Xinmin said, "Old Three, after the New Year, when the weather gets a bit warmer, I'll come visit you on a Sunday when you're free. This piece of land with good feng shui that you mentioned might still have some treasures. Badgers and pythons won't just be in one den, there's a possibility of other good things too. When it gets hot, you need to be careful not to go alone on the riverbank. No matter how deep your skills are, if you're not prepared, once a large python wraps around you, one person can't handle it."

  Yu Xinhe said: "What I'm saying is right. Especially pay attention to preventing snakes, after April when the weather starts to get hot, they will no longer be hibernating, it's very fierce. This time not only did the general die protecting his master with merit, but also because the python was awakened from its winter sleep by the smoke. If it were summer, such a big python, you guys might have had a big disaster."

  Before leaving, everyone gathered tens of dollars to let him take it, but Yu Songyuan refused. His mother said: "At home, everything is fine, but outside, everything is difficult. We have nothing at home now, this money was collected by everyone, if you don't take it, you will hurt the aunts' hearts."

  Yu Songyuan moved his face, "I live in a treasure land, and I'm almost self-sufficient. You see this car is bought with the money I made from selling fish. Aunts, don't worry, I have plenty of spare change on me. Besides, after selling the snake skin and badger skin in a few days, I'll get at least one or two hundred yuan, which is more than enough for the college entrance exam. It's meaningless for me to take this money."

  Everyone then let him leave.

  Back to the dormitory, Da Jiang was already able to stand up. Seeing him open the door and turn on the light, he wanted to jump up to greet him, but after jumping a few times, he didn't jump up, his legs were still not listening to orders, and he was so angry that he kept bumping into the wooden board.

  Yu Songyuan walked over and patted his head, he was proud of himself, the praise and encouragement from his loved ones were still in his ears, so he boldly said to the general: "General, don't worry, tomorrow you'll be able to run again, believe me. I'm a cockroach that can't be slapped to death, a bug that can't be beaten to death. Even on the most unlucky days, I can make you live a prosperous life."

  The general nodded as if he understood, looking very determined. The implication was that of course, what's a little hardship, and with me added, we're invincible!

  This time when he returned home, his mother brought back a lot of food including dried yams, barley shoots, a big package of roasted flatbread, and a large bottle of salt-fried soybeans. There were also about 10 kilograms of rice. Yu Yueyue also stuffed into his bag a jar of freshly made fragrant lard, weighing two kilograms, the jar was still hot, saying "mix it with rice to eat, it's filling."

  Yuè Yuè gave two catties of lard, which made Yú Sōngyuǎn extremely delighted. With this, in the future when there is a need to cook, it will be very useful.

  The people at home will no longer go hungry, thinking back to when the house was just searched, not a single needle was left in the house, all pots and pans were smashed, all grain was taken away and divided, and the pig was killed and eaten by the family planning team that night. Those days relied on help from other families to get through. Little sister often wakes up at night, scared and crying bitterly, making him heartbroken and wanting to kill people.

  This time when he went back, he saw that his father had built a small thatched cottage on the original site. Although it was smaller than the original house, it was still better than the grass shed and could block the wind and rain. Life seemed to have returned to its former state of poverty and hardship, but with a warm and harmonious atmosphere. He made up his mind to walk his own path, to use his own efforts to make his father and the whole family stand up again, to be proud again.

  However, Yu Songyuan, who had just been invigorated, soon encountered a new problem.

  That day, Yu Songyuan found his lunchbox in the cafeteria at noon and carried it back to the dormitory to prepare for dinner. When he arrived at the door, he suddenly discovered with surprise that the doors and windows of the neighboring room were also carefully pasted with newspaper. Perhaps, he might already have neighbors.

  The general opened the door to greet him, and he asked the general: "Is there a guest coming?" The general hummed in a low voice, seemingly receiving a cold reception, feeling down. From the general's reaction, Yu Songyuan had already seen that this new neighbor did not push open the unlocked door of his neighbor's house. Moreover, he was not too friendly to the general either. Otherwise, the general would not be so despondent.

  After the evening self-study, Yu Songyuan walked towards his dormitory as usual through the vegetable field, forest, small river and reed marsh. Suddenly, he felt a chill in his heart, feeling unsteady, with a cool sensation on his back. He always felt that someone was vaguely following him from behind, staring at him.

  A martial artist has a keen sense of danger around them. Although he can feel that the person following him is not a great threat to himself, being followed and stared at for no reason is still an unpleasant feeling. Yu Songyan never believed in evil spirits or ghosts, so he didn't take it seriously.

  As he opened the door and entered the room, Da Jiang jumped up to greet him. He picked up his toiletries and led Da Jiang to the water pool in front of the door to prepare for washing. To his surprise, a thin and short figure hastily walked to the door of the adjacent room, took out the key quickly, opened the door and went in, and immediately closed the door, and the light was also turned on at once.

  Although he didn't even get a chance to greet her, he was still very excited, thinking that the school had arranged for someone to move in and he would finally have some company. The only regret was that judging from her figure, she looked like an underage little girl?

  This must be another poor wretch like himself, Yu Songyuan thought. In fact, there's no need to think about it, a child, such a small girl, who would come to live in this broken place unless they had no other choice.

  After washing up, he took Da Jiang to the riverbank for a stroll and returned home to prepare for bed. His excitement made him want to knock on the door and greet his neighbor several times, but he hesitated and withdrew his hand every time. After all, she was just a young girl, and it wouldn't be proper to knock on her door in the middle of the night, even if she wasn't yet an adult.

  For a long time afterwards, every evening after self-study, when he returned to the dormitory and walked past the teacher's family quarters, that thin figure would always quietly or hastily pop out from somewhere, then follow far behind him. After he entered his room, the door of the neighboring dormitory would make a hurried opening and closing sound, and then the lights would come on.

  The sky slowly became colder and colder, but the relationship between the two did not change with the weather. They hadn't even spoken a word to each other, and almost every day was spent in silent companionship. Moreover, Yu Songyuan sometimes got up at night to use the bathroom and found that the lights in the nearby dormitory were always on until he got up for his morning exercise.

  Yu Songyuan gets up very early and on time for his daily morning exercise every day.

  He noticed that since the girl moved in, every morning when he opened the door to exercise his hands and feet before going out for a run on the embankment, the girl would also quickly open the door at this time and rush into the toilet.

  When he finished reading by the river and got up to get his breakfast box in the cafeteria, the girl also hastily closed the door and followed closely behind him to find her lunch box, as if she was afraid of not keeping up with him. Then they would stay at school all day and never return to their dormitory during the daytime.

  He didn't need to think about it, the little girl was actually afraid. During the day, she didn't dare to stay here alone. At night, she must have had nowhere else to go and had no choice but to return to her dormitory to sleep. At night, she didn't even dare to go to the toilet alone, and she didn't dare turn off the lights when sleeping.

  He didn't mean to blame her for being too timid. If it were Yu Xiaohong or the other three younger sisters, Yu Ya, Yu Xiaohui, or Chen Jing, living in a place like this would make them even more timid, and they wouldn't dare sleep with the lights on at night.

  On Sunday morning, some girls' colorful clothes were hung on the iron wire in front of the door. However, they were all coarse cloth dresses that rural girls often wear. Yu Songyuan was puzzled, would the bureaucrats in the school affairs office arrange a rural girl student who is as unlucky as himself to be his neighbor? Don't they fear anything going wrong at all?

  In the afternoon, Yu Songyuan was sitting at his desk solving a problem when someone knocked on the door lightly. When he opened it, a young female worker in her late 20s walked in. She was wearing work clothes and looked very spirited and beautiful.

  She looked at Yu Songyuan and said: "Hello, I am the master of your neighbor Xiao Lin. I came to say hello to you, can I come in?"

  Yu Songyuan hastily said: "Of course, of course, please go ahead."

  "Xiao Lin told me you're a good kid, and indeed you don't disappoint. The woman sat down in the chair, surprisingly touching the big shot's head first, then said: "I'm a straightforward person, I want to ask you to take care of my apprentice, this place is too scary for a girl to walk around alone. Consider it a formal request from me, Big Sis."

  Yu Songyuan said, "Don't be polite, I'll take her with me to and from work, it's no problem, I'm going to school anyway. If you're not at ease, how can you let a little kid live here? Doesn't the school factory have a women's dormitory?"

  The master said angrily: "The dormitory has always been tense. The factory director is not a good thing, didn't give him gifts, bullied the little girl, only arranged for her to go to the collective dormitory to add a temporary bed. The female workers also bullied her, couldn't live there anymore, the school affairs office and the factory pushed each other. My family is also inconvenient, just got married, one room, both need to live and cook, how can I let her live here?"

  Yu Songyuan listened and said solemnly, "I originally thought I was unlucky enough, but I didn't expect there to be someone even more unlucky than me. Since she's also an unlucky egg, don't worry, big sister, I'll take care of her just like I do my own little sister, so you won't have to worry anymore."

  The master said, "That's great, thank you first." He also took out a bottle of pickled vegetables from the pocket of his work clothes and said, "This is for you, a little thought."

  "You don't have to be too polite, I'll definitely do what I say." Yu Songyuan was being polite on the surface, but in his heart he was dissatisfied and didn't even want to talk to me, how could I take care of her?