It was just a metaphor—why did he keep bringing up eggs? Even though Cheng Ning felt her skin had thickened after decades, his words still made her cheeks burn slightly. She thought to herself: No wonder the old me was always at odds with him. With a personality like that, who could stand it? Who could?
Fortunately, she was no longer an ordinary person. She only cared about the result. And the result was—he had agreed to help.
She straightened her face, nodded, and said: “Then I’ll go. Tell me what you find out.” She glanced again at the pen holder and added: “If you need help with anything, let me know.”
Han Dongyuan gave no reply, so Cheng Ning turned and left on her own.
She didn’t even take the little wicker basket. Perhaps she was too angry and forgot.
After she left, Han Dongyuan’s gaze lingered on the basket for a few seconds. Then he looked at her back as she slammed the door shut with a “bang”—and suddenly, he laughed. At last, he saw in her puffed-up little face, pretending not to care but clearly sulking, the familiar look she used to have. That felt normal.
He swung his long legs off the kang, walked to the doorway, and leaned against the frame with his hands in his pockets, letting the cold wind blow as he watched her cross the corridor back to her dorm. Only then did he return inside, catching sight of Liao Sheng and the others coming back from the main room—he didn’t even bother closing the door.
Back in her dorm, Cheng Ning noticed her roommates looking at her strangely.
Wang Xiaojuan asked hesitantly: “Cheng Ning, did you really come here for Comrade Han?”
Then she raised her hand quickly: “We’re just curious. Don’t worry—even if you did come for him, we’d totally support you. What’s the big deal? And besides, it’s clearly not one-sided. Comrade Han is obviously nervous about you—he’s just a stubborn duck with a hard mouth. If you ask me, you should keep pressing him, don’t spoil him too much.”
After Jiang Shanshan’s earlier drama, Cheng Ning was unfazed by Wang Xiaojuan’s gentle probing. But she hadn’t expected Xiaojuan to rattle off such a long speech before she even answered—clearly, she didn’t need an answer; she already had her own conclusion.
And was Cheng Ning here for Han Dongyuan? Of course she was. So the guess wasn’t wrong. She didn’t bother to argue. There was nothing to explain—time would reveal everything. Besides, she had more urgent matters. Once everything was settled, in just over a year, it would be time for the college entrance exams. Then everyone would scatter in different directions.
After speaking with Han Dongyuan, Cheng Ning felt more grounded, having gotten along well with the villagers and those around her. She changed the subject and asked: “Dongmei, Xiaojuan, Tingting—do you know any educated youths in that Zhang brigade?”
“Yes,” Ma Tingting said. “I have a high school classmate over there. This Sunday, on our rest day, I’ll be going to the commune. If I run into her, I’ll help ask around.”
Cheng Ning thanked her.
Ma Tingting, a little embarrassed, added: “What’s there to thank? I also really like Xiaomei’s personality. If that man really tricked her, we can’t just let him off so easily.”
The girls chatted until it was time to sleep.
Lying in bed, Cheng Ning thought over everything that had happened these past few days, then began carefully considering the flood that would come later.
The flood happened at the end of July. She had already observed the terrain here: Shanghan Village sat in a hollow halfway up the mountain, built along a small stream. Most of the houses in the village were mud walls with thatched roofs. Winters were long and cold, so every household had a heated kang. Though the village was built against the mountain, there were few wooden houses. Now, with snow blanketing everything, the whole village blended into the snowy mountains, breathtakingly beautiful. But imagining storms and torrential rain, with mountain floods pouring down, was truly terrifying.
She asked her roommates: “Dongmei, Xiaojuan, our houses all have thatched roofs. In summer, when there’s strong wind and heavy rain, will the roofs get blown off?”
Xu Dongmei laughed: “Not blown off, but leaking is common. After heavy rains, the roofs always need patching, and every few years they have to be completely redone.” As she spoke, she seemed to recall the chaos of summer storms when the roof suddenly leaked. She sighed, and her smile faded. Life here really couldn’t be summed up with just the word ‘hard.’
“What about flash floods?” Cheng Ning pressed. “We’re in this mountain hollow. If the rain is heavy, have there ever been floods pouring down?”
Xu Dongmei glanced at her and said: “No, not really. Our village isn’t right at the foot of the mountain, and heavy rains aren’t that frequent here. Floodwaters usually drain along the stream, so the impact isn’t too big.”
She paused, then added: “Especially our educated youth dormitory—it’s on higher ground, with flat land behind it. Nothing will happen. Don’t worry.”
She smiled: “When we first came, we only thought about how poor the conditions were, how hard the labor was. Every day, it was just sore hands, sore feet, sore all over. You’re the first one I’ve seen thinking about things like this.”
“Because I used to work in construction,” Cheng Ning explained.
“Whenever I arrive somewhere, I can’t help but think about these things.”
The kang was warm, and after chatting for a while, everyone grew sleepy. Gradually, the room fell silent. Only Cheng Ning lay awake, growing more alert the longer she stayed on the kang.
It was already nearly February. Time was flying, and she had to plan quickly.
In her previous life, Han Dongyuan had lost an arm. After being discharged from the hospital, he still returned here. She had secretly come to see him once, hiding it from everyone. She remembered the faint traces left after the flood receded. She had spoken with a villager—an old man—who described the scene when the flood broke out. He pointed to a slope and said: “Our whole village was washed away. Only a few households survived. Just that patch, just that patch wasn’t submerged. The villagers who weren’t swept away stayed there. But with days of heavy rain, everything was gone—nothing left. Cold and starving, they couldn’t even light a fire for warmth. They waited there for days until the Liberation Army came to rescue them. Many didn’t make it.”
She knew the villagers had lived in these mountains for generations. For decades, there had never been a flood that claimed hundreds of lives. As an outsider, an educated youth, it would be nearly impossible to persuade the entire brigade—several villages—to relocate in advance. And even if they did move, then what? So after recalling the details of her past life, she decided to take another path. She remembered the slope the old man had pointed out—it was just above the lumberyard.
She thought: Couldn’t we build a row of sturdier houses on that slope?
Then, in late July, when the rains came, she could persuade the villagers to move there temporarily. That would be far easier than convincing them to abandon their homes entirely.
But building houses required money. And many other lifesaving measures required money, too. How could she accomplish all this in such a short time, without leaving traces?
She had considered many methods before. She thought about helping the villagers earn money. But she had only just arrived, unfamiliar with them. Money aside, trust hadn’t even been established yet. To convince the brigade to build a row of new houses in such a short time—wasn’t that laughable?
But then she remembered what Han Dongyuan had managed to do in her previous life. If it were just a row of houses, and if she could persuade him to help, wouldn’t things become much easier?
Meanwhile, back in the main hall, Sun Jian and Liao Sheng were stomping their feet to keep warm.
Soon, their other two roommates, Zhu Xiankai and Yang Hongbing, returned. Passing through the hall, they were pulled inside by Liao Sheng.
Zhu Xiankai shouted: “What for?”
“Rest a bit. Why do you care?” Liao Sheng replied.
They waited until Cheng Ning passed by the doorway. Then Liao Sheng said: “Alright, let’s go back.”
Zhu Xiankai and Yang Hongbing looked suspiciously at Cheng Ning’s back in the corridor, then at Liao Sheng and Sun Jian. But the two did not explain and walked ahead on their own.
Back in the dorm, Sun Jian glanced at the things on Han Dongyuan’s kang table. He walked over, picked up a piece of dried meat, popped it into his mouth, and asked the same question Wang Xiaojuan had posed to Cheng Ning in the girls’ dorm: “Brother Han, Comrade Cheng really came down here for you, didn’t she?”
Han Dongyuan lay on the kang, long legs crossed, lazily reading a letter in his hand, ignoring him.
This time, Zhu Xiankai and Yang Hongbing looked at the kang table piled high with things, then heard Sun Jian’s words, and suddenly “understood” what had happened. So that was why Cheng Ning had just come to see Han Dongyuan, and why Liao Sheng and Sun Jian had been kicked out.
Yang Hongbing, being new, felt awkward. But Zhu Xiankai had no such hesitation—he went right over, grabbed a piece of braised beef, stuffed it in his mouth, and exclaimed: “Wow, this is way too delicious!”
It was so fragrant it nearly brought tears to his eyes.
“Brother Han, Comrade Cheng is your girlfriend, huh?” He sighed, “God, people really are unfair. I’m already not as good-looking as you, and now even my girlfriend isn’t as pretty as yours!”
Everyone: “……”
Sun Jian’s mouth twitched: “What girlfriend?!”
“Do you think I could find someone prettier than Comrade Cheng?”
Zhu Xiankai lit up with excitement: “Really? Sun Jian, you really think so?”
Sun Jian: “……”
Yang Hongbing was stunned at first, then nearly burst out laughing.
“What nonsense is this?”
Zhu Xiankai kept talking while his hands didn’t stop. After finishing the beef, he spotted the bag of White Rabbit candies, froze for a moment, then picked one up: “Brother Han, I remember you don’t eat sweets. Huh? Your girlfriend must be sweet enough. Heaven really isn’t fair, is it? A guy like you, ending up with such a beautiful, considerate, kind, devoted girlfriend—who even came all the way down here for you. What did you ever do to deserve that…”
*Smack!* Before he could finish, his hand was slapped.
Han Dongyuan angrily shoved the candy back into the basket and cursed: “Eat your food and shut up. Even beef can’t keep your mouth busy.”
Then he stood up, grabbed the letter, snatched a coat, and stormed out.
Zhu Xiankai: “……” He looked timidly at Liao Sheng.
Han Dongyuan wasn’t much of a talker, but he wasn’t humorless either. Normally, even if their jokes went too far, he’d just smack them lightly. He’d never truly lost his temper before.
Liao Sheng was already laughing so hard he nearly choked.
“What’s so funny?” Zhu Xiankai complained. “Which part of what I said was wrong? Why’s it so hilarious?”
Liao Sheng braced himself against the kang table, finally calmed down enough to drink some water, then grabbed another piece of braised beef. *Tch*—Grandma Han’s beef was even tastier than his mother’s. Chewing, he waved his hand: “Everything you said was right. Brother Yuan doesn’t deserve her—pfft, hahaha. But listen, don’t go spouting nonsense again. Comrade Cheng isn’t his girlfriend. Whatever he feels about her—haha—anyway, just don’t say things like that. And I warn you, don’t mess with Comrade Cheng, don’t even think about her. You saw what happened this morning—if you touch her, you’ll end up like Zhou Xiong. He won’t show mercy to anyone who lays a hand on her. He’ll beat you senseless.”
Everyone: “……???” What kind of tangled grudge was this?
Zhu Xiankai was dying of curiosity. He asked: “Brother Sheng, what’s the story? Could it be that Brother Han and Comrade Cheng used to date, then she betrayed him, dumped him for someone else, only to realize later he was her true love, so she chased him here? But even if he still loves her deep down, he can’t forgive her? God, what kind of tragic romance is this?!”
Liao Sheng nearly choked on his beef. He coughed violently, grabbed a cup of water, gulped it down, then erupted in a fit of coughing.
Zhu Xiankai tried to pat his back, but Liao Sheng shoved him away, cursing: “Ancestor, are you trying to get yourself killed?!!”