(1)
This was a low, earth-walled house.
It didn’t look tall, as if you could just stand on a stool and touch the roof, but in reality, it was a two-story small house.
In front of the door, various small flowers bloomed in different colors, all looking quite healthy.
But they didn’t seem to have been deliberately planted, because they grew rather haphazardly, even threatening to take over and surround the modest earth-walled house.
The house had a courtyard—but that courtyard was barely half a person’s height.
Tools that were used daily hung on the mud-and-straw walls, and by the wall’s base rested an old yet clean bicycle—there was barely any dirt on the fender.
In the basket on the bike were a few freshly picked flowers, still looking very new, as if gathered not long ago.
Yu Minghui noticed Zhu Ying’s gaze lingering there and smiled, explaining, “That’s my Great-Aunt’s bicycle. A few kilometers away there’s a landfill, but nearby villagers set up a small market there on their own. Sometimes she rides over to sell things and buy a few things back.”
“…A market at a landfill? How does that work?”
Zhu Ying asked in confusion.
“The trucks carrying trash all go there. At first, some people started setting up stalls nearby to sell farm products—like cabbages, watermelons, and the like. Later, some began selling snacks, and gradually more people came. The nearby villages aren’t too far either…”
“So it slowly turned into a small market? Is that how villages and small towns formed in the past?”
Zhu Ying nodded gently, finding it quite interesting.
“Isn’t it, Xiao Jing?”
“Hm? It’s pretty rare,” Anjing scratched her head.
“Compared to that, I’m more curious about this poster stuck on the door—should be a poster, right? What era do you think it’s from?”
“The East is Red, the Sun is Rising,’” Zhu Ying blinked, staring at the faded, yellowed poster on the wall.”
She reached out to touch it, and it crumbled like a dried leaf, pieces falling off.
“Might be older than my dad…”
“All of this is history,” Yu Minghui sighed softly, moved.
Just then, the old, loose wooden door slowly creaked open.
A small elderly lady in a floral padded jacket looked up and, seeing the three young faces, her expression softened into a daze.
“It’s rare… three children coming at once.”
“Great-Aunt, I’ve already graduated from university.”
“University graduate, huh? Still only a few years old, still a child. At least you should be married to be considered grown up,” the old lady muttered, her face crinkling in a smile.
“Where do these two little girls come from?”
“They’re both my cousins,” Yu Minghui explained simply.
“Come on, come on, three young ladies, come inside and sit.”
Compared to the warm sunshine outside, the house felt dark and damp inside.
Half of it was below ground level; you had to walk up a few steps to enter.
But not all of it was low—like the south-facing window, which was noticeably higher than ground level.
—Old houses built into hillsides were often constructed this way.
The room carried a faint scent of old age.
It wasn’t exactly a bad smell, but when you first entered, it was somewhat unfamiliar.
A few steps to the right brought them to the living room, where the lighting improved significantly.
An old sewing machine sat by the window, with a pair of unfinished jeans on top—looking like a slim-fit style.
“Huihui, you came too early. I haven’t finished these pants for you yet.”
The old lady slowly sat down.
“These days, I can’t focus on one thing for long. I start sewing and then get distracted—go make some tea and stare outside. Getting old is like getting a bit forgetful.”
“Not at all.”
“Ah, luckily you come to visit often, or I’d be completely cut off from the outside world.”
“Living a slower pace here is nice too. The outside world changes so fast, every day’s different. Even for us young people, there’s so much to learn.”
“Hehe! Come, come, you two young ladies, sit over here!”
The old lady pointed to a square bamboo table by another window.
“I’ll make you some tea.”
“Great-Aunt, don’t bother. I’ll do it, since I know the place well.”
“No, no, you don’t. It’s rare to have guests… you must let me serve you.”
It was two in the afternoon.
Bright sunlight streamed through the wooden windows without glass, warming the room pleasantly.
The Great-Aunt fetched three unglazed ceramic cups, poured tea for them, and set a plastic hot water kettle on the table.
“Not tea leaves?”
Zhu Ying held up her cup curiously and took a sip.
“How is it?”
Yu Minghui smiled.
“Hm… light and sweet. What is it?”
“Herbs and flowers from the mountains. You could call it flower tea.”
“It looks pretty. If only it was in glass cups, it’d be even nicer.”
“We do have glass cups. I’ll go get some for you.”
“No need, no need…”
Zhu Ying hurriedly waved her hand.
“Just a random thought…”
“It’s fine, hehe. They’re just sitting there, might as well use them once in a while.”
Watching Yu Minghui’s Great-Aunt disappear around the corner, Zhu Ying murmured thoughtfully, “Come to think of it… this lady has been speaking Mandarin with us all along, albeit with an accent, but at least it’s Mandarin.”
“She was a teacher when she was younger, probably an elementary school teacher.”
Yu Minghui sat down at the table.
“Back then, many people in the village learned to read from her.”
“Did you hear this from Huihui, then?”
“Yes.”
“Though it’s a pity a village like this was abandoned, it’s really inconvenient here. There’s no real need to build big roads—just not worth the cost, no value in it.”
“When some places become abandoned, others grow prosperous. I guess that’s just how the world works.”
Zhu Ying seemed to understand, took another sip from her cup, and at that moment, Yu Minghui’s Great-Aunt returned carrying clean glass cups…
***
(2)
Yu Minghui stayed inside chatting with her Great-Aunt, while Zhu Ying pulled Anjing along the village path.
The sky here seemed to darken earlier than outside, or maybe it was because of the mountains; the sun was already slanting, making it feel like dusk.
Many houses were empty, but surprisingly, most of the vacant ones looked relatively new.
On the other hand, the oldest houses, which seemed to almost blend into the mountains, still had residents.
“Moo—”
Not far up the slope, a water buffalo gently flicked its whip-like tail and greeted the two as they approached.
An old man sat nearby, smoking dried tobacco, watching them with interest, and smilingly said a few words in dialect.
“What did he say?”
“He’s asking where we’re from and whose children we are,” Anjing translated, then replied a few words in dialect herself.
Maybe it was just Zhu Ying’s impression, but the old man’s dialect sounded even more rustic than Anjing’s and seemed farther from standard Mandarin.
Walking up the slope, they passed three or four elderly people sitting in the sun at their doorsteps. Occasionally, they heard dogs barking and the sound of chains dragging.
At the slope’s end stood a cylindrical red brick building that didn’t look like a residence—more like a water tower or granary.
“There’s no path behind this.”
Anjing glanced back.
“Shall we turn back?”
“I want to stay a while and enjoy the view over there.”
Zhu Ying pointed to a stone bench by the mountain’s edge.
“Alright.”
Anjing didn’t ask further and simply patted the dust off the stone bench before sitting down with her.
They overlooked the entire village.
The village was truly small, probably never exceeding a hundred people even at its most prosperous.
The dozen or so houses, all different in style, were the whole of it.
At the village center stood a dense banyan tree.
The sunlight had begun to slant, casting long, angled shadows over the mountains.
Zhu Ying calmly looked out at the still-open view, then suddenly smiled and turned back.
“Xiao Jing, thank you.”
“Huh?”
“Having you with me makes me feel so much better.”
“Still struggling with the whole dream thing?”
“Not just that. Someone jumped off a building today… I’m really glad my parents aren’t like that. Although my dad looks strict, he’s never lost his temper with me.”
“Yeah… but actually… there are probably more parents like homeroom teachers. Awei and Aqiang’s parents… they’re kind of scary too. Sometimes when I visit their homes, I feel suffocated.”
“Are their families like that?”
“Not that extreme, but they control everything… it’s just exhausting.”
“Maybe it’s because you live with your cousins, so you find it especially strange?”
“Yeah. Even as a kid, I was with siblings. I stayed with my parents a while in elementary school, but that wasn’t long.”
“Xiao Jing, do you think people in small cities will gradually become fewer, until they’re abandoned like these villages?”
Zhu Ying interrupted her thoughts and asked suddenly.
“Huh? Uh… I don’t know, but cities won’t become like this, right? Otherwise, they’d become ghost towns. So many people, there must be somewhere to go…”
“Maybe to bigger cities.”
“No way everyone moves to big cities. My cousins work in the big city, but they often say it’s tiring, stressful—they want to come back home.”
“That’s just talk. If they really wanted to come back, they would have already.”
Zhu Ying touched her school uniform pocket.
“Hmm… I forgot to buy candy today.”
“Eat less, be careful not to get fat!”
“One candy lasts me all day; I won’t get fat! Besides, don’t you think having something sweet in your mouth makes you feel happy?”
“I think I can be happy without that stuff.”
“Tch… I can’t compare to carefree Xiao Jing!”
“I don’t have no heart!”
“Where? Let me feel it~”
“Go ahead, it’s just my heart beating… eek!!”
“Hehe~ Xiao Jing’s blushing!”
“Your hand’s like that—no wonder I’m blushing!”