“Don’t worry, I won’t speed. Fines are expensive.”
The last few words were barely audible, but Cui Bingbing could tell from Liu Jun’s responses that he had the handling of this workplace injury well in hand. His rushing off was mainly to arrive before the injured worker reached the hospital, primarily to demonstrate his people-first philosophy as Tengfei’s boss – that even minor workplace injuries wouldn’t be taken lightly. It’s just that his temper was too explosive; it would be better if he could handle things with more composure. Cui Bingbing went back inside to read and sleep peacefully. When Liu Jun returned at some unknown hour and woke her up, she drowsily asked, “Any problems?” and upon hearing the answer was “No problems,” she turned over, covered her head, and went back to sleep. Every household has its big and small matters. Liu Jun felt rather like a hero with no place to use his skills.
Xiao Ke quickly produced an activity plan. This plan had the distinct character of an engineering technical person – the timing was arranged with exceptional precision, specifying what to do at what exact hour and minute, when to board and disembark vehicles, etc. To avoid traffic jams affecting the schedule, Xiao Ke always inserted ten-plus minutes of free activity time between activities as a buffer to ensure precise operation according to the planned timeline. Before returning to China, Liu Jun might have also produced a similar activity plan, but now he could only look at Xiao Ke’s plan and laugh. He deleted all the free activity buffer time, blurred the time segments somewhat, and had the R&D center’s administrative staff arrange the specific itinerary. Learning that Qian Hongming would also be home this weekend, he vigorously encouraged Qian Hongming to bring his wife and daughter along. Qian Hongming was persuaded beyond refusal and reluctantly agreed.
But Liu Jun was tactless – early Saturday morning, he called to wake up Qian Hongming, then sent text messages almost every quarter hour, forcing the bleary-eyed, yawning Qian Hongming out to play. Qian Hongming drove his X5 to the gathering point and dragged Liu Jun off the bus to drive for him. He had brought Xiao Suihua along, finding the bus unclean and troublesome. Seeing this, Cui Bingbing explained the situation to everyone on the bus who were watching the drama unfold, then also went to Qian Hongming’s car, sitting in the back row with Jia Li and Xiao Suihua. Cui Bingbing was blunt, immediately saying to Qian Hongming upon getting in: “With this move of yours, Manager Liu has completely lost face in front of the employees.”
Qian Hongming was in the middle of a yawn when he heard this and quickly said: “Oh dear, I didn’t think it through properly. Let me go explain.”
“My face isn’t that fragile,” Liu Jun held back Qian Hongming and followed the slowly departing bus ahead. “How did you get so exhausted, you look black and blue?”
“Ask Jia Li – I hardly slept all night. There was a problem with an import order, and I was negotiating almost all night last night. So tired.”
“Couldn’t you have explained when my first call woke you up? Look at your condition – like a heavy smoker.”
“Xiao Suihua has been looking forward to today’s outing for a week. How did you think of going there to play? Are there any newly developed attractions there? Jia Li checked online but didn’t see anything special. Is it because the restaurant food is good?”
“I want to see someone. Do you still remember that incident from my first year back in China, when the exclusive technical data was stolen and sold by the housekeeper, and after being released from prison, she kept slashing our car tires? The other day, I learned from a company employee that the housekeeper used to be a very responsible and earnest substitute teacher – a good person, in the employee’s words.”
“There’s a story? Tell me. Otherwise, I’ll want to sleep again.”
Cui Bingbing saw that in the back seat, Xiao Suihua was napping in Jia Li’s arms, while in front, Liu Jun was telling how Aunt Fu lost her teaching position, left the mountains to work as a housekeeper, her son couldn’t find work, and then became psychologically unbalanced. Cui Bingbing noticed Qian Hongming’s eyes seemed half-awake, half-asleep, occasionally making sounds but not paying attention to what Liu Jun was saying, which made her unhappy. Because Qian Hongming had lifestyle problems, although Cui Bingbing had seen plenty of men with colorful flags flying outside and didn’t take it seriously at work, she was ultimately a woman, and it was quite difficult for her to take Qian Hongming seriously. When Cui Bingbing was unhappy, she couldn’t help but pay extra attention to Qian Hongming, hoping to find fault. But she discovered that Qian Hongming gradually fell silent – his original “mm-hmm” sounds almost disappeared entirely. She spoke up to remind: “Liu Jun, Hongming fell asleep.”
Liu Jun turned to look, but saw Qian Hongming’s eyelids suddenly open, not looking sleepy at all. “Even if my storytelling level is terrible, you should at least give me some face and listen.”
“I’ve been listening the whole time, didn’t miss a word. Did you arrange with Teacher Fu to visit today?”
“No arrangement – how could I arrange that? I suspect she’d see me as a mortal enemy. I’m just going to look around the periphery, get things clear – am I someone who kicked her when she was down?” Liu Jun spoke in front while Cui Bingbing muttered to herself in the back. She noticed Qian Hongming’s expression was very wrong, frowning as if somewhat displeased, but with something sinister in his eyes. She thought to herself that Qian Hongming was taking advantage of Liu Jun being unable to see while driving, but forgot there was still a pair of vigilant eyes behind him.
“Then, when you get there, don’t go around asking questions. I’ll tell you there’s only one reason: poverty! Young master, just listen to me – don’t go stabbing knives into people’s hearts anymore.”
Liu Jun naturally knew that “poverty” was one reason, but didn’t think it was the only reason, and wouldn’t promise not to get to the bottom of things after getting out of the car. But Cui Bingbing in the back suddenly made the connection that the Qian family had also, because of the word “poverty,” once had so many unspeakable dealings with the Liu family. Listening to Aunt Fu’s story, Qian Hongming was thinking of himself, wasn’t he? No wonder his face looked twisted. As long as Qian Hongming wasn’t harboring bad intentions, Cui Bingbing was too lazy to point it out, letting them talk in front while she watched Jia Li and Xiao Suihua in the back. Seeing Xiao Suihua sleeping under a small blanket, her tiny body was utterly adorable, and she couldn’t help but smile, suddenly wanting a child of her own. She thought that her child would not be stupid, though the looks would be somewhat questionable.
Liu Jun wanted to continue the story, but Qian Hongming said, “I don’t want to hear anymore. Liu Jun, for an unfortunate person at this age, the only way to turn things around is if heaven opens its eyes and acknowledges all those years of substitute teaching work. Hearing this only increases sadness and affects today’s mood. You also shouldn’t try to inquire further – leave people some dignity in their hometown.”
Liu Jun heard the logic in this. If he made special trips to ask around about Aunt Fu, what would others think? So he abandoned his original mission and played to his heart’s content with his colleagues. Qian Hongming, lacking sleep, was too lazy to join the crowd’s festivities and sat in the sun chatting with Jia Li while holding Xiao Suihua. As the hostess, Cui Bingbing inevitably came over to check on them, but immediately noticed Qian Hongming’s graying hair glinting in the sunlight, quite striking. Thinking of Qian Hongming’s complex expression in the car earlier, Cui Bingbing felt quite emotional. “Hongming, you’ve worked very hard these past few years – you have a lot of gray hair.”
“I’m thirty-five by Chinese reckoning – it’s normal to have gray hair at this age. In our line of work, there are quite a few white-haired old men. I’m average.”
“Liu Jun also has quite a bit of gray hair. The other day, I urged him to dye it black, but he was too lazy to sit for so long and just shaved it into a buzz cut instead. He’s still a year younger than you.”
Jia Li rarely interjected: “Hongming works very hard, but I really can’t help him. Bingbing, you’re capable and can help Liu Jun.”
Cui Bingbing rarely said something good about Qian Hongming: “How can you say you can’t help? Hongming often tells us that you and home are his harbor – a high-quality, non-freezing good port.”
Jia Li said: “Yes, Hongming is fighting his way in the world barehanded, and he’s so strong-willed – strong-willed men face great survival pressure in this world. The other day I was looking through old photos and saw that when Liu Jun first came back, he looked so much younger than now.”
“Oh! Print me a copy – I want all of Liu Jun’s photos. Or I’ll come to your house tomorrow to find the negatives.”
Seeing the two women chatting harmoniously, Qian Hongming quietly walked away. He saw an old man digging bamboo shoots in a bamboo grove and went over under the pretext of buying shoots, praising the good shoots and good bamboo grove, flattering the old man until he was delighted and talkative. Qian Hongming worked the conversation around and guided the old man to talk about Aunt Fu. He quickly got the full story about Aunt Fu. Originally, to get her substitute teacher position regularized, Aunt Fu had worked quite actively, even neglecting to properly raise her son and care for her sickly husband at home. But that principal, seeing she was single-minded, strung her along for decades. When the elementary school was finally consolidated, the principal didn’t acknowledge anything and just walked away. Only then did Aunt Fu recognize she’d been deceived and taken advantage of. Devastated, she was too ashamed to stay home and went outside the mountains to work. Everyone originally thought that, having been a teacher for so many years, she’d at least be a tutor outside and wouldn’t earn little, but later it was heard she was working as a housekeeper for an acquaintance. From the glorious teacher to housekeeper – that was quite a fall in status and rather embarrassing.
Qian Hongming thought to himself: How is being a housekeeper a loss of status? It’s just a job. But then he thought again – teacher and housekeeper, at the end of the day, people still had more respect for teachers. When people are down and out, they become more obsessed with such status differences – he had deep personal experience with this. He strongly suspected that Aunt Fu, probably unfamiliar with city life, had relied on Liu Shitang and ended up being tricked and deceived by Liu Shitang into becoming a housekeeper. He had hired housekeepers when Xiao Suihua was born and knew how rare it was to find a trustworthy, responsible, literate, and reasonable housekeeper. He believed that someone like Liu Shitang – a nouveau riche who’d lost his wife with no one to care for him – was capable of such things. Qian Hongming organically connected Liu Jun’s words with the bamboo shoot seller’s words, and a clear outline of the situation formed in his mind. Speaking of it, Aunt Fu was like him – a fellow unfortunate soul who’d been ruined by Liu Shitang’s hands. The mountain bamboo shoots were very cheap, only twenty cents per pound. He pulled out fifty yuan and told the old man to keep the change, taking away what the old man said were the two most tender shoots.
After Tengfei’s people finished mountain climbing, they built simple stoves by the small reservoir, lit fires, and cooked outdoors. The children they’d brought were all exceptionally excited – usually lazy at home, today they were willing to do anything: carrying water, collecting firewood, moving stones, washing dishes. Whatever the adults asked them to do, they did without complaint. So the adults all said such activities should be organized regularly – they could enjoy the mountain and water scenery while teaching children some labor skills. Qian Hongming was moved by these words and remembered them.
On the way home, Qian Hongming didn’t mention what he’d learned to Liu Jun. He knew Liu Jun’s character – since Aunt Fu’s situation was Liu Shitang’s doing, let Liu Shitang bear the responsibility. If Liu Jun knew, he’d probably immediately take it upon himself before anyone could stop him. That young master, outstanding in ability from childhood and with a good family background, had developed the habit of taking on everyone’s problems. But Qian Hongming, putting himself in her shoes, thought that what Aunt Fu would least want to see was Liu Jun taking on this matter. Sometimes people can be driven to darkness by those who are full of sunshine. But Qian Hongming also empathized with Aunt Fu’s suffering under Liu Shitang, and after returning home, he couldn’t help thinking about Aunt Fu repeatedly, repeatedly organizing her personal experiences logically.
After thinking for a week, Qian Hongming decided to take action to help that pitiful person who, at her age, had no possibility of turning her life around. He, too, was a pitiful person who’d just turned his life around, but he now had money in his hands. However, he also clearly understood that a severely wounded person has an extremely sensitive heart. He’d been unable to figure out how to naturally extend a helping hand to Aunt Fu without being suspected, without adding insult to injury to that pitiful person. He discussed methods with Jia Li, who was very supportive, and they decided to make another trip to that mountain village. But with continuous spring rains in Jiangnan, the family of three had been unable to make the trip.