Chapter 147: Taking the Untrodden Path

Dong Yanyan and Zhao Guo arrived at Li Juan's house, where Li Juan was helping her grandparents wipe the window glass in their room. Seeing them, she smiled and said, "One rag each, help me wipe the glass!"

Helping others was Dong Yanyan's favorite thing to do, let alone cleaning for two elderly people who had always been very kind to her. Dong Yanyan found a rag on the windowsill and began wiping another window right next to Li Juan.

Li Juan's grandmother was overjoyed to see them and bustled about to get melon seeds and frozen pears for them to eat.

Looking at this slightly empty, spacious room and the smiling old woman, Dong Yanyan felt a faint pang of sorrow: Li Juan's mother had long since cleaned her own side of the house until the windows shone, and the kitchen was piled high with New Year goods she had prepared; yet she paid little attention to her parents-in-law's side, separated from them merely by a kitchen. The elderly couple's other children didn't live far away, but they weren't willing to take a few extra steps to visit them. This New Year's Eve, it was likely that only Li Juan would be keeping them company, as even Li Juan's eldest sister was too lazy to come over.

Yesterday, when she went to her own grandmother's house, she saw that her third aunt had already cleaned their rooms long ago. Her third and fourth uncles had taken time out over the past couple of days to transport boxes of New Year goods to her grandmother's house. Her eldest aunt's family had slaughtered a pig and brought them over a dozen pounds of meat and homemade blood sausage. Her parents had also bought them new clothes, shoes, and socks at the previous rural market. Even her stingiest eldest aunt had symbolically sent them a fish. Every New Year's Eve, her third uncle and third aunt would wrap dumplings and stir-fry dishes, bringing their little cousin over to spend the New Year in this room. Things would get even livelier after the third day of the lunar new year, when those uncles, elders, and aunts would set aside a day without fail every year for the entire extended family to have a reunion dinner. Dozens of family members would gather together, the adults chatting and playing mahjong, while the children played cards to win candies. No matter what unpleasantness there might have been on ordinary days, this day was always filled with warmth and harmony.

Truly, a sense of happiness comes from comparison. Although her grandparents had lived through half a lifetime of hardship, compared to other old folks in the village, they could still be considered blessed in their later years.

After helping Li Juan finish wiping the windows, Dong Yanyan and Zhao Guo ran to the east room to ask Li Juan's father for permission to go out. Li Juan's father shook his head repeatedly. "Where do you think you're going? Just stay at home in the middle of winter!"

"Uncle, just let her go. Yanyan is going too, and her mom already agreed," Zhao Guo said with a flattering smile.

"Exactly. If Li Juan doesn't go, I won't be able to go either. I finally got permission from my mom," Dong Yanyan also pleaded for Li Juan with a smiling face. She knew her father wasn't being difficult about anything else; he was just reluctant to part with that ten-yuan bill. Monitor Wang Fang had already discussed it with everyone: they couldn't just go to Song Yang's house to eat and play for free. With over thirty people, everyone had to pitch in ten yuan as a contribution. Since the family was running a business, they had to at least cover the cost of ingredients. Ten yuan wasn't even enough for him to lose in a single round of mahjong.

"Go on, go on! You kids only know how to play!" Li Juan's father said with a face full of displeasure.

Dong Yanyan and the others were delighted: never mind whether he was happy or not, as long as they achieved their goal.

*

Early the next morning, Dong Yanyan got up to wash and dress up. Since she was going to meet old classmates, she naturally wanted to make herself look pretty. After changing into a sweater, she picked up the trench coat her parents had bought for her. This trench coat would be perfect to wear in early spring, but wearing it now would be a bit too cold. After a moment of thought, she slipped her down jacket back on over it. Warmth! In the dead of winter, looking stylish wasn't important; staying warm was paramount. If she accidentally caught a cold, she would probably spend the entire New Year taking injections and swallowing medicine.

As she was admiring herself in the mirror with satisfaction, Zhao Guo and Li Juan rushed in, bringing a chill from the outside air and laughing merrily. "Yanyan, hurry up! Chen Wenfen's vehicle is already here, and he's just waiting for you!"

Hearing this, Dong Yanyan beamed. "I almost forgot, we even have a private vehicle to pick us up today!" Remembering Chen Wenfen's vehicle, she couldn't help but smile: of course, that certainly wasn't a brick-hauling truck, but rather a small three-wheeled auto-rickshaw! Speaking of this classmate Chen Wenfen, he was truly an extraordinary character. Back then, he had been admitted to a key high school with a high score of over six hundred, but after studying for less than two months, finding it boring, he dropped out, went home, and started driving a small three-wheeler to make a living in town. When their head teacher heard this piece of devastating news, she almost spat a mouthful of old blood! The prized student she had painstakingly cultivated for three years gave up a perfectly good education to go drive a three-wheeler at home! Right up until the time she entered junior high school, the teacher still held a grudge over this, feeling heartbroken whenever it was mentioned, even though by that time classmate Chen had already upgraded his equipment and started running long-distance freight transport. Aside from being a bit exhausting, money had been rolling in endlessly. As for financial conditions, he was not a bit inferior to those classmates who had gone to university, and even far surpassed some of them.

Therefore, she later came to a conclusion: no matter which path you take, personality and intelligence are what matter most; otherwise, even if you attend a key university, you'll still be a useless bookworm.

Saying goodbye to her parents, Dong Yanyan slung her backpack over her shoulder and ran outside with Li Juan. A brand-new red auto-rickshaw was already waiting at the front gate, and seeing them run out, Chen Wenfen even specially honked the horn.

"Get in, get in!" Chen Wenfen said with a proud smile, turning back to ask them, "Isn't my ride nice?"

"Classmate Chen Wenfen, you really do march to the beat of a different drum. Not bad! Promising future!" Dong Yanyan squeezed into the cramped cabin along with Zhao Guo and Li Juan, smiling at him.

"I love hearing that!" Chen Wenfen raised his eyebrows, gave the starter a vigorous push, and with a violent shudder, the small three-wheeler surged forward. Caught off guard, Dong Yanyan was almost thrown out.

"Zhao Guo, close the door, close the door! This little clunker is too unstable!" Li Juan shouted from inside, gripping Dong Yanyan's arm.

Rocking from side to side, the three-wheeler sped onto the rural road at a speed rivaling that of a local minibus. The country road was narrow to begin with, and coupled with the numerous small ditches and bridges along the way, the ride was fraught with hair-raising moments.

Dong Yanyan suffered from motion sickness. After being jolted on the road for more than half an hour, she turned pale as a sheet. When they arrived at the school gate, she climbed out of the vehicle and squatted by the roadside for a long time before managing to keep herself from vomiting.

"Dong Yanyan, are you alright?" a girl's voice came from behind. She looked up and saw the class monitor, Wang Fang. The two girls standing beside her looked familiar, but because they hadn't been particularly close back then, she thought for a long time without being able to recall their names.

It turned out that fifteen years could cause people to unconsciously forget many things.

She reached out her hand and let Wang Fang pull her up. Not far away at the school gate, students were standing around in twos and threes. Fortunately, she still recognized most of them. Looking at these young figures one by one, she was about to lapse into sentimentality again.

A small blue truck stopped on the road by the gate, and without thinking much, she pulled open the passenger-side door and climbed in to sit in the front seat. This type of small truck had a passenger limit of four people: besides the driver and front passenger, there were two empty seats right behind the cab, while anyone else had to brave the cold wind in the open cargo bed at the back. Last time, she and several others had squeezed into those two back seats and were almost flattened into photographs, so this time she was quick-handed and sharp-eyed enough to grab the front spot.