After an hour and a half flight, Qiao Nan’s group landed at Ziyun Airport in Guizhou North.
Their destination for this sketching trip was Shitai County, under Ziyun City.
Guizhou North boasts rich tourism resources.
In recent years, the government has heavily supported the development of tourism, receiving a considerable number of tourists annually, especially during peak travel seasons like summer vacation.
To avoid the crowds, Old Li specifically chose an undeveloped village in Shitai County.
Shitai County was remote and inconvenient to access.
It took over three hours by bus from Ziyun Airport.
They finally arrived at the Shitai County bus station, weary from the bumpy ride, at seven in the evening.
There was still a half-hour drive from Shitai County to Fengxi Village, where they were headed.
Besides Old Li leading the trip, there were eight students, including Qiao Nan.
When they first set off, they were full of anticipation and excitement for the journey, but after several hours of transfers and bumpy rides, they were like eggplants hit by frost, all dispirited and sighing.
Seeing this, Old Li rubbed his protruding beer belly and chuckled, “Wilting already? If you can’t handle this little hardship, how will you manage when we’re sketching up mountains and down rivers later? I didn’t bring you here to enjoy life.”
He grew up in the mountainous areas of Guizhou North during his youth, so he was well-adapted to such an environment.
He went around the station, found two private commercial vehicles, and the group of eight split into two cars, heading towards Fengxi Village.
Fengxi Village wasn’t far from Shitai County, but with frequent summer rains and the darkness of night, combined with Guizhou North’s mountainous terrain and winding, steep, narrow mountain roads, the driver drove slowly.
It was already past 8:30 PM.
The two cars stopped by the concrete road, and the driver pointed to the faint lights in the distance, “It’s over there. Just follow this road straight, and you’ll arrive.”
At this moment, it started to rain again.
The misty drizzle wasn’t heavy, but for the students, exhausted from half a day of bumpy travel, it was adding insult to injury.
The boys helped the girls move heavy suitcases from the trunk, while the girls walked ahead, using their phones as flashlights for illumination.
Old Li lagged behind, to prevent anyone from getting lost.
Upon entering the village, the welcoming party finally arrived belatedly.
Old Li conversed with them in dialect for a few moments, then gestured for everyone to follow him.
Their lodging was an old stilt house, four stories high, built into the mountain.
In the dim light, one could vaguely discern its architectural outline and upturned eaves.
Beyond the eaves, layered stilt houses undulated with the terrain, embedded within the vast mountains, presenting a spectacular scene.
However, everyone was utterly exhausted at this point, with no energy left to appreciate these antique buildings.
They collected their keys and returned to their respective rooms.
The girls stayed on the third floor, while the boys stayed on the fourth.
To look after each other, they were assigned two per room.
Old Li stayed on the second floor with the host family.
Qiao Nan and Zhao Yutong were assigned a room together, the leftmost room on the fourth floor.
As soon as the door was pushed open, the long-sealed damp, musty smell wafted out.
Zhao Yutong pinched her nose, her expression blank, “I guess I expected too much from Old Li. When Old Li said travel, food, and lodging were all covered this time, I thought he’d be bleeding money. Turns out I was too naive.”
Qiao Nan was also quite tired.
He touched the damp quilt and said, “Good thing I brought my own bedding. We’ll make do.”
After much tossing and turning and tidying, it was past eleven at night when they finally washed up and lay down.
Qiao Nan was so sleepy he kept yawning, but remembering he hadn’t messaged his brother to let him know he was safe, he forced himself to stay awake and made a video call to Pei Xu.
The call was answered quickly on the other end, as if it had been long awaited.
“Arrived and settled in?”
Qiao Nan yawned, placed his phone on the bedside table, and lay on his pillow, looking dispirited, “Settled.”
Pei Xu noticed his expression was off and asked with concern, “Not used to it?”
“A little.” Qiao Nan slapped a mosquito dead with a “splat”, “It’s been raining here, so it’s too damp, and there are lots of mosquitoes.”
He hadn’t turned on the light, so Pei Xu could only vaguely discern from the dim background that his environment wasn’t very good.
His brows couldn’t help but furrow, “You’ll be living there for at least half a month. Do you want me to send you some things?”
“Forget it, I’m not that delicate.”
Qiao Nan covered his mouth and yawned again, tears welling up at the corners of his eyes.
Seeing him yawn repeatedly, though uneasy, Pei Xu temporarily suppressed his many questions and said gently, “If you’re sleepy, go to bed first. We can talk about it tomorrow.”
“Mm, goodnight then.”
Qiao Nan bid him goodnight with a heavy nasal voice, put his phone aside to charge, and fell into a deep sleep.
Pei Xu looked at the ended call interface on his laptop, then turned off the screen recording software and played the video he had just recorded.
The young man in the video was clearly forcing himself to stay awake.
Due to frequent yawning, the corners of his eyes were a little red, his thick eyelashes were wet with tears, some even sticking together, making them appear even darker.
When he looked up at him from the pillow, he seemed a little delicate, both cute and pitiable.
Pei Xu pressed the pause button, lightly touched the screen with his finger, gently caressing the upturned face.
His voice conveyed deep helplessness, “What am I going to do with you?”
***
The next morning, Old Li went around knocking on doors to wake everyone up.
After a quick breakfast, they headed out for their sketching trip.
I have to say, even though Old Li could be a bit unreliable in some ways, the place he chose was truly spectacular.
Fengxi Village, being remote and undeveloped, retained its most pristine beauty.
Every stone step, every piece of wood, bore the marks of time.
It was inconvenient to go out in the rain.
Conservative elderly people, dressed in batik Miao clothing, with their gray hair coiled high on their heads, moved wooden chairs and sat under the eaves, chatting and doing handicrafts.
The somber, greenish sky and misty drizzle acted as the perfect filter, bathing the elders in the soft glow of time.
Every wrinkle around their eyes and brows seemed to tell a story.
Qiao Nan pressed the shutter, capturing this moment.
Old Li wasn’t in a hurry to take them into the mountains, letting them first explore Fengxi Village thoroughly.
Fengxi Village was a rather large settlement, with three to four hundred households remaining today.
It was said that in earlier years, there were even more people, perhaps over a thousand households.
Later, with economic development, many moved to the county or even the city, leaving only this many people.
Exploring such a large village, wandering around, taking photos or sketching, took them three or four days to finish.
The insights gained in these three or four days were greater than a month’s worth of learning at school.
Aside from the tough living conditions, Qiao Nan felt this was indeed a great place to inspire and create.
He casually sat on a stone stool by the roadside, a sketchpad on his lap, watching the children in dark blue Miao clothes playing and frolicking in the distance, seemingly lost in thought.
He felt a vague emotion in his heart, yet he couldn’t quite articulate it.
Old Li squatted beside him, holding a bucket of instant noodles, glanced at his sketchpad, and asked, “Any thoughts these past few days?”
Qiao Nan honestly replied, “A little, but I can’t put it into words.”
“Then look more,” Old Li slurped some noodles, narrowed his eyes, and said, “Throughout history, how many masters witnessed or even experienced hardship before they had an explosion of artistic creation? Your current environment is too comfortable. You can’t always stay in a hall. You need to see more of the outside world, see reality, to know what you truly want to express.”
He waved his fork, pointing at Qiao Nan’s drawing board, “You’re proficient in various painting styles, and your foundation is solid. It’s time you seriously considered what you want to paint.”
Seeing Qiao Nan deep in thought, he stood up, took his noodles, and ambled away.
Qiao Nan looked at his half-finished painting, about to pack up his sketchpad and head back, when he suddenly heard an argument behind him.
He followed the sound and saw Zhao Yutong, Wu Meng, and Qiu Ran there, with a scrawny, dark-skinned little girl in front of them.
“What’s going on?”
Qiao Nan walked over.
Wu Meng pointed at the child, fuming, “I only walked away for two minutes, and this kid secretly came over trying to steal my paints! And after I found her, she knocked over my entire paint box!”
“In this godforsaken place, express delivery doesn’t even work. I specially had this box of paints bought from abroad. I just opened it, and she ruined it all for me! What am I going to do for the next half a month? Might as well just go back. I shouldn’t have come to this cursed place!”
The child she pointed at shrunk her shoulders, her head bowed, not making a sound.
Zhao Yutong tried to mediate, “You can’t say that. I was right behind her. This child was just a bit curious and came over to look; she didn’t even touch anything. You were the one who yelled and scared her, and she fell, accidentally knocking over the paint box.”
“So, according to you, it’s my fault?”
Wu Meng glared.
Qiu Ran tried to calm things down, “It’s already spilled. Just scrape off the dirty top layer; the bottom can still be used.”
She asked the child, “Where are your parents?”
Her intention was to have the child call her parents so they could learn a lesson and be done with it.
But the child looked up, her expression timid, “I don’t have parents, only my grandma.”
At this, even Wu Meng was speechless, her aggressive demeanor noticeably softer.
She murmured, “Even if you don’t have parents to teach you, you shouldn’t mess with other people’s things.”
Qiao Nan squatted down to examine the spilled paint box, “We can manage with some cleanup. I’ll give you my box, and I’ll use this one. Let’s just drop it. Zhao Yutong said she didn’t do it on purpose.”
Knowing the child had no parents, Wu Meng didn’t press the issue anymore but felt bad about Qiao Nan taking a loss.
She waved her hand, “No, I’ll just consider it bad luck.”
Qiao Nan shook his head, “It’s just a small thing. Don’t let it ruin your mood. I’ll handle this here.” He gave Zhao Yutong and Qiu Ran a meaningful look, signaling them to get rid of Wu Meng.
Zhao Yutong and Qiu Ran each tried to persuade her, finally coaxing Wu Meng away.
Qiao Nan turned the paint box over, carefully cleaning each one.
The little girl stood beside him, unmoving and silent.
She stood there like a plant that had lost its moisture, its leaves withered and curled.
Qiao Nan glanced at her and quietly asked, “You didn’t do it on purpose, right?”
The little girl nodded, her fingers nervously intertwined.
“Everyone makes mistakes sometimes. That older sister has already forgiven you,” Qiao Nan handed her a box of clean yellow paint, “Take it and play.”
The little girl stared at him, her clear black and white eyes blinking a few times, but she didn’t take the small box of paint.
She softly said “I’m sorry” and then ran off.
This unpleasant little incident was quickly forgotten by Qiao Nan.
But the next afternoon, when he returned from sketching, he found several red fruits and a flower crown placed at his door.
The flower crown was woven from unknown wildflowers, emitting a faint, pleasant fragrance, and was very beautiful.
He bent down to pick it up, looked left and right, and found a small, thin figure at the stairwell corner.
He slowly smiled, put on the flower crown, and waved to the child.