In her sophomore year, a freshman exposed a professor’s sexual harassment incident online, becoming a moderately popular topic.

“What’s this about me being like his Midori? Who gave him that confidence—his mouthful of yellow teeth?” That girl’s words were contemptuous, and it was finally at this time that she understood what had happened to her.

It wasn’t love. It had nothing to do with those tender, affectionate words from Soviet novels. It was just an old man venting his animal instincts on her body, no different from being groped on a bus.

So she chose to tell her father, the person she trusted most.

Yu Shixuan emphasized her father’s reaction when he learned about this. He was very angry, then sternly told her that she must protect herself well.

And then, there was no “and then.”

Engineer Yu, who had quite a reputation in the architecture circle, neither settled accounts with that professor nor brought up the matter again.

“Even the year I graduated, he suggested I take the graduate school entrance exam, as if he completely didn’t know that I had developed an almost pathological fear of S University—I would break out in cold sweat just passing by it.” Yu Shixuan said softly.

How was that possible?

I couldn’t understand this situation. My dad, though unreliable, would still jump up and curse back when others made crude jokes about me. A girl raised with such careful protection—her father should have felt like killing that person.

Why would he remain silent? For the sake of propriety? Or did he simply think that since his daughter was an adult, it wasn’t a big deal?

“What’s even more ridiculous is that later my dad tried to set me up with Yan Lei. He thought Yan Lei had a good personality and high emotional intelligence. I said, but I like Cheng Xia more. You know what my dad said?”

“He very tactfully said that Cheng Xia’s family background was too good, and if they knew about what happened to you at school, there might be some unnecessary trouble—”

“Yes, I’ve always treated my father’s words as the highest principle since childhood. But in his heart, I had already become a defective product.”

She was so beautiful, so delicate, like the little princess sleeping on twelve mattresses of swan’s velvet in a fairy tale, yet tears slowly fell onto the pillow just like that.

Then she met Chi Na. He wasn’t on her father’s shortlist at all—a nouveau riche’s son from a small county town thousands of miles away.

But after hearing her story, his first reaction was to go to the school and beat up that sanctimonious teacher. He was detained for over ten days for that.

“At that time my dad was still forcing me to try getting along with Yan Lei—he firmly believed that only someone like Yan Lei wouldn’t despise his raped daughter.”

“I was suffocating, so I had Chi Na take me away. Only he would always protect me.” She closed her eyes wearily and murmured.

I had always thought that legendary story of climbing down from the ninth floor was an ultimate romantic act.

I never expected it was a belated teenage rebellion.

I wanted to say, but you don’t need another man to rebel against your father—it’s like moving to live beside a volcano because you’re afraid of the cold.

But she had already fallen asleep, her nose twitching, tear stains still at the corners of her eyes.

My heart suddenly became very soft.

Actually, I had always vaguely looked down on her.

I thought she only knew how to watch dramas, put on makeup, and date—that she had no substance and hadn’t experienced any hardship.

I didn’t know that every girl’s coming of age had its hidden pain and secret wounds.

Behind a cute and lovable appearance might be eyes streaming with tears.

——

I’m a very cowardly person who doesn’t like to cause trouble.

But that day, I really hoped Chi Na would settle accounts with Old Feng.

Just like beating that old beast to the ground.

He should have once again, recklessly protected his princess.

But nothing happened. Old Feng and I ate breakfast and were respectfully sent off.

That dog Yu Shixuan especially treasured, called Yogurt.

It just died for nothing like that.

——

Winter came, and the temperature dropped very quickly.

Traditional herders moved between three pastures each year to ensure their cattle and sheep didn’t go hungry. The winter pasture was to escape the cold wind and prevent the livestock from freezing to death. They generally lived together with the cattle and sheep.

We built centralized warm livestock sheds on the leeward side of the mountain slope. Opposite was the public activity area. We renovated the old houses to make a chess room and library. When the old people had nothing to do, they would run over, basking in the sun while watching their own cattle and sheep.

Ba Te often came over on weekends, carrying his camera and taking pictures everywhere.

“You’re amazing, Dongxue.” He was very happy. “You’ve changed the entire village’s spirit!”

“This is nothing. With sufficient budget, it’s not impossible for me to build a Tomson Riviera here.” I said.

As soon as I mentioned budget, Ba Te’s face changed faster than flipping a book. “The county has no money…”

Here we go again.

“But as I said before, wanting it to change dramatically all at once is impossible.” Ba Te said. “It can only be like acupuncture—one small point drives a line, then a surface.”

I smiled too.

Ba Te was really quite lovely. I hadn’t expected that such a barren place could still produce such a pure, naive idealist.

I took a deep breath and smiled. “Then we have great responsibility. Don’t worry, even without money, I’ll still build beautiful houses for you.”

We went to the cafeteria to eat. In winter, Ha Rina didn’t need to herd, so she came to help at the cafeteria. I paid her wages.

Seeing us, she poked her head out, looking impatient. “Hey! Director Ba, why do you always come? Do you like my sister?”

The 1.9-meter tall man immediately turned red from head to toe, shaking his hands desperately. “No, no, no, no—”

I stared with wide eyes in surprise. “So that’s how it is. Tsk, my charm truly hasn’t diminished over the years.”

Poor Ba Te nearly shook his hands into windmill flowers.

Ha Rina brought us cups of milk tea and sat beside us. “But it’s useless even if you like her. My sister’s boyfriend is really handsome—he looks like a Korean.”

“Watch fewer Korean dramas.” I lowered my head to drink milk tea but heard Ba Te ask quietly, “Is it true?”

“False.”

I smiled. “He doesn’t look like a Korean at all. But indeed, he’s very handsome.”

——

That day, I sat on the crane, looking at the winding, clear river under the sunlight.

I finally mustered the courage to send Cheng Xia a WeChat message. I said, “Can I call you?”

After coming here, I had sent him many messages. He had never replied.

This was the first time he said, “Okay.”

The call connected. The sea breeze of S City, the bitter fragrance of the coffee shop, the sunlight jumping on the red roof, and his voice all came rushing toward me.

“Dongxue, can you hear me?”

“Yes.”

We fell into a long silence. Neither of us spoke.

I wanted to ask so much—like how is your body now? Did you see a psychologist? Did your dad go back? Are you eating on time? Did you ever love me? Are we broken up?

Are we… broken up?

I finally spoke. “Hey, guess what I ate yesterday? Ha Rina’s grandpa killed a sheep—authentic hand-grabbed mutton…”

He quickly laughed softly and asked, “Was it good?”

“Don’t even mention how fragrant it was—dipped in leek flowers, absolutely delicious.”

Neither of us mentioned what happened that day.

Perhaps deep in my bones, I’m still selfish and pragmatic.

I didn’t want to think about those life-and-death emotional entanglements. I didn’t want to face those complex problems of Cheng Xia’s either.

But I still couldn’t bear to let go.

I still wanted to make a phone call in such beautiful sunlight and talk to the person I liked.

I’d leave those questions to ask in person. Our many years of entanglement deserved a face-to-face, solemn ending.

——

Just as I was still eating lunch, a manager rushed over and said to me, “Manager Ren, more workers have quit.”

Huh?

The temperature was about to drop, and it was time to rush the construction period. But I didn’t know why—recently, workers kept quitting. Not just one or two. Whole teams were throwing down their tools and leaving.

This wasn’t just locals, but also advanced skilled workers we had recruited from other places, for whom we had arranged transportation and accommodation and signed contracts with.

Ba Te nodded at me and said, “You go handle it.”

I immediately got up and rushed over. The lead worker was acting arrogant there. “No way! We really can’t work today. We must leave!”

“You’ve got to have a reason!” I said. “Are you causing trouble or resigning? Make it clear before you leave.”

“I’m not talking to some old lady!” he said, and casually called to the others, “Brothers, pack your bags!”

“Let’s see who dares move!”

I said, “Is it Li Jianye from Shanxi, the scaffolder? Or the reinforcement worker Zhou Wen? Or you carpenters—Zhang Qiang, Liu Wei, Zhao Li…”

I looked at the workers behind the foreman. They didn’t dare meet my eyes. Clearly, they hadn’t expected that I could call out their names and hometowns one by one.

As a collective, they had gained enormous courage. But as individuals, that courage would quickly dissipate.

“Each of you signed a contract. You can leave, but give me a month to recruit people. Otherwise, forget about getting half a month’s wages—I’ll absolutely make you pay compensation. New Year is coming. Calculate your family’s finances.”

The foreman was still unconvinced and unwilling. I raised my voice. “Anyone who walks out that door today, I guarantee none of you will be able to enter S Construction’s sites!”

Between threats and deception, I finally suppressed everyone.

I said to my subordinates, “First, speed up recruitment. Second, before Mr. Feng knows about this, we must find out clearly who’s competing with us for workers.”