Qiu Xing had originally planned to stay on the mountain for two more days, but he needed to leave afterward for something urgent. During these days, he had barely managed to send a few messages from the mountain, and like Lin Yiran, he had no signal the rest of the time, remaining in a disconnected state.

That subtle, almost imperceptible feeling between the two of them continued to exist, but Qiu Xing had only mentioned their relationship that one time and hadn’t brought it up since. He had said they would discuss it after Lin Yiran returned from here, so he wouldn’t rush her.

He simply fixed whatever needed repair when he saw it, answered students’ questions when asked, and spent the rest of his time sitting quietly not far from Lin Yiran, or watching her.

In a daze, it was as if they were repeating that summer from six years ago. Only this time, their roles had reversed, with Qiu Xing waiting around Lin Yiran.

In Lin Yiran’s memory, Qiu Xing rarely spent time simply doing nothing, except for those few days during the New Year holiday. At other times, Qiu Xing was always busy. These days, trapped on the mountain, whether he wanted it or not, Qiu Xing lived a life so simple it was pure, with time flowing very gently. Here, there were only two identities: teachers and students, or adults and children. As a capable adult, though not as gentle as Teacher Little Boat and Teacher Xiao Xu, Qiu Xing still won the hearts of many children.

Sometimes Lin Yiran felt that Qiu Xing seemed to have grown younger during these days.

Qiu Xing stood on a ladder in the backyard, holding his phone up searching for a signal. He wanted to reply to a message; someone was waiting for him to sign a contract and thought he had changed his mind. He was afraid to sit on the wall, so he stood on one leg on the ladder, occasionally raising his phone and waving it around, searching for that intermittent signal.

“Uncle Qiu Xing.”

Hearing a small voice calling him from below, Qiu Xing looked down.

Little Jinjin was looking up at him, pointing at the ladder with one finger, hesitantly asking: “Are you done with the ladder?”

Qiu Xing answered: “Not yet, what’s up?”

Jinjin said slowly: “Teacher Little Boat asked me to ask…”

“Is she looking for me?” Qiu Xing asked.

“She wants to use the ladder…” Jinjin’s small hand gripped one edge of the ladder. Although she spoke very softly, her actions indicated that she wanted Qiu Xing to give up the ladder: “Teacher Little Boat needs help.”

Qiu Xing smiled and said: “Step aside.”

Jinjin stepped aside, and Qiu Xing jumped down from the ladder, picked it up, and said: “Let’s go.”

Qiu Xing took big steps, and Jinjin had to take quick small steps to keep up. Qiu Xing looked back at her, and she hurriedly moved faster, a very sensitive little girl.

Qiu Xing slowed down, and Jinjin, not noticing, bumped into his arm, hitting her nose. She was startled and dramatically tilted her head back. Qiu Xing said to her: “Little Radish Head.”

When Qiu Xing arrived carrying the ladder, Lin Yiran was standing under a tree looking up, with two children beside her also looking up. Jinjin ran to her side and took her hand, whispering: “I brought the ladder back.”

Lin Yiran burst out laughing. Qiu Xing heard and asked: “The ladder came back by itself?”

Jinjin hid a little behind Lin Yiran.

“What’s in the tree?” Qiu Xing asked Lin Yiran.

“There’s a kitten!” a little boy pointed up at the tree and shouted, “Wang Nai’s kitten! Right there!”

Wang Nai was a student here who had brought a kitten to school in his pocket. The kitten had somehow escaped and climbed up the tree, and now was too afraid to come down, making high-pitched meows from somewhere in the tree.

Qiu Xing looked up, and Lin Yiran moved closer to point: “It’s behind that thick horizontal branch.”

“Got it,” Qiu Xing said.

He set up the ladder under the tree and climbed to the highest rung. Seeing someone approaching, the kitten got scared and hid even higher.

“Be careful,” Lin Yiran said to Qiu Xing.

Qiu Xing’s arm could reach the branch. With a flex of his waist, he swung himself up, stepping on the trunk to climb higher.

Soft gasps arose from below, and Lin Yiran’s heart swung with Qiu Xing’s movements as she watched him nervously.

Tree climbing was nothing for Qiu Xing. In previous years, when he drove large trucks, he would jump onto cargo compartments several meters high every day. Even though he no longer drove trucks, he still had to climb up and down frequently, which wasn’t difficult for him at all.

The kitten crouched on a branch, too afraid to move, its four little paws huddled together, meowing plaintively.

Qiu Xing caught the kitten very easily. He held it with one hand as the kitten fiercely bit the base of his thumb, though without much force, more like teething. With one hand holding the kitten, it was difficult for him to move, so he turned and sat on the tree trunk first.

The students below cheered as they looked up at him, while only Lin Yiran frowned, still anxious.

Qiu Xing’s expression was relaxed as he sat among the branches, looking down.

His already tall image in the students’ hearts now became even more majestic, almost glowing.

Lin Yiran climbed up the ladder and reached out to take the kitten from him.

Qiu Xing didn’t give it to her, raising his eyebrows slightly: “Say thank you.”

Lin Yiran, afraid he might fall, said: “Hurry and give it to me, come down quickly.”

Qiu Xing didn’t reply, nor did he hand over the kitten.

This was one of Qiu Xing’s rare childish moments, unlike his usual self. The students below only knew the two were talking up there, but couldn’t hear what they were saying.

Lin Yiran said: “Thank you, thank you, now please give it to me.”

Qiu Xing then reached down, and as Lin Yiran took the kitten with both hands, feeling its soft body fall into her palms, Qiu Xing said: “No need to be so polite.”

Lin Yiran stood on the ladder holding the kitten in both hands, while Qiu Xing sat in the tree, his eyes calm and relaxed as he looked at her, with a hint of teasing.

In that moment, Lin Yiran felt her heart flutter strongly.

She climbed down the ladder, forcing herself to stop looking at him.

That day, Lin Yiran kept thinking about Qiu Xing sitting in the tree with the kitten.

The world after the rain seemed clearer than usual, as if a fresh filter had been added to the scene. Qiu Xing in that scene was different from his usual self, yet somehow matched perfectly with the version of him in Lin Yiran’s heart.

Rough and tough on the outside, but soft and kind inside.

Lin Yiran had originally wanted to stay angry with him for a while longer, but now felt she could hardly hold on.

Qiu Xing had already hung up the mosquito net in her room again. The bedding carried a faint fragrance of laundry detergent, and the window screens had been cleaned as well.

Qiu Xing had stayed in her room for a few days and tidied up everything that could be organized.

“I’m leaving the day after tomorrow,” Qiu Xing said.

Lin Yiran had come to bring him a charger and nodded with a soft “Mm.”

“Think about what I told you, don’t forget it after I leave,” Qiu Xing added.

“What thing?” Lin Yiran looked at him.

Qiu Xing answered directly: “About us.”

Lin Yiran turned her head away, not wanting to respond.

Qiu Xing said: “Let me know when you’ve decided.”

Lin Yiran held her composure for a moment, but couldn’t maintain it, and honestly replied: “Okay.”

The nights in the mountains were so quiet that only insect sounds could be heard, as if the world, having labored during the day, could finally catch its breath at night.

The darkness dissipated the hot summer air, purified souls, and turned restlessness into peace.

But the tranquility beneath the black curtain could not last forever; it often gave way to unexpected events that crashed through people’s dreams, bringing unease.

When Lin Yiran heard crying, it seemed she had just fallen asleep. She and her senior almost simultaneously opened their eyes and sat up in bed.

Jinjin came running into the school crying, calling for the principal, Teacher Little Boat, and Teacher Xiao Xu.

She cried, saying that her grandmother couldn’t be woken up.

Lin Yiran and her senior exchanged a glance, their hearts sinking heavily.

Jinjin’s grandmother had always been in poor health. Jinjin said she had been fine before bed, but when she woke up at night and wanted her grandmother to accompany her to the bathroom, she couldn’t wake her up no matter what.

The girl, who was afraid of the dark, had run from home to the school. She no longer felt afraid of the dark—her heart was already filled with a different kind of fear.

Someone needed to take the grandmother to the hospital. At the school, besides the principal, there was one male teacher, but the principal had a bad leg and could only accompany them down the mountain, not carry anyone.

Qiu Xing said: “I’ll go.”

Qiu Xing, who had originally planned to go down the mountain in two days, went to Jinjin’s home, carried the unconscious grandmother on his back, and headed down the mountain early.

The scene was chaotic. Jinjin kept crying, and Lin Yiran held her hand, not letting her follow along.

Qiu Xing and the male teacher went down the mountain together, with Lin Yiran watching them worriedly.

Before leaving, Qiu Xing patted her head and said: “If you need anything, let me know. I’ll find time to bring it to you.”

Lin Yiran nodded, telling him to be careful.

“I’m off,” Qiu Xing said.

The principal also went down the mountain before daybreak, leaving only Lin Yiran’s senior and herself as teachers at the school. Jinjin had cried all night, her eyes severely swollen. Curled up in Lin Yiran’s arms, her voice already hoarse, she asked softly: “Teacher Little Boat… can the principal bring my grandmother back?”

Lin Yiran had experienced this before and couldn’t answer.

“I don’t know if they made it safely down the mountain. It’s been raining for so many days, it must be very slippery,” her senior said worriedly.

“They will,” Lin Yiran said with certainty.

From the moment she first got into Qiu Xing’s truck six years ago until now, Lin Yiran had always trusted Qiu Xing unconditionally.

She was worried, of course, but in any situation, as long as Qiu Xing was there, she felt it was reliable and safe. To Lin Yiran, Qiu Xing represented absolute security; he could always hold up a turbulent world, and do so calmly.

So Lin Yiran wasn’t particularly panicked or doubtful about whether Qiu Xing could arrive safely. She was just looking at the young Jinjin, feeling helpless about the future of this sensitive and delicate little girl.

The principal returned that evening and said that Jinjin’s grandmother had woken up, but the town hospital at the foot of the mountain couldn’t treat her illness; she needed to be transferred to the county hospital.

Jinjin began crying again. The principal patted her head and said they needed to call her father.

There was no one to take care of Jinjin’s grandmother. The principal was a man, and it wasn’t convenient for him to do so. Two kind-hearted women from the village volunteered to help with the care. The principal helped pack quite a few things and accompanied them down the mountain that evening.

Senior Xiao Xu asked the principal if he knew what the illness was.

The principal sighed. The doctor said it was a liver problem, and it was untreatable.

Jinjin asked: “What kind of illness can the liver have?”

Lin Yiran still couldn’t answer, because liver cancer was what had taken her mother away.

Birth, aging, illness, and death are eternal themes of human life that no one can escape.

But Jinjin was still too young, her eyes filled with fear. A left-behind child without a mother and with a father far away, losing her only grandmother meant saying goodbye to a relatively stable life. Everything before would just become a childhood dream.

From now on, life would shatter, and the world would fall apart overnight.

Just as Lin Yiran and Qiu Xing had both experienced.

The principal returned to the mountain after two days to continue teaching and cooking for the children. He said he would take Jinjin down the mountain in a few days.

After talking about Jinjin’s grandmother, the principal told Lin Yiran that Qiu Xing had already gone back.

Lin Yiran nodded.

The principal pulled out a bottle from each of his coat pockets and gave them to her, saying: “Little Qiu asked me to bring these up for you.”

Lin Yiran took the two bottles of mosquito repellent and suddenly felt a strong urge to write something.

The world was always like this—cruel yet tender.

After several heavy rainstorms, the signal had not yet recovered. Qiu Xing’s text messages arrived with a delay of half a day.

At that time, Lin Yiran was sitting with Jinjin at the doorway, each on a small stool, quietly watching the sky.

Her phone vibrated, a rare occurrence. Lin Yiran had been keeping it in her pocket these days, so she took it out to look.

Qiu Xing’s two messages appeared on the screen one after another:

[I’m back. Will come over when I have time.]

When taking care of the children, don’t always empathize so deeply. If you miss Auntie Shen, talk to my mom. Even if she doesn’t want me anymore, she’ll still want Little Boat. Regardless of your relationship with me, you always have a family outside.]