Chapter 704 : Crossing Mountains and Waters, I Come to See You
Chapter 704: Crossing Mountains and Waters, I Come to See You
Tianfu Airport.
Chen Fan and Feng Pojun finally landed at 2 pm.
The place where Su Ruochu was volunteering as a teacher was so remote that Chen Fan had never even heard of it.
Moreover, transportation to that place was very difficult. Chen Fan could only first fly to Tianfu Airport.
"Boss, I'll go buy tickets," said Feng Pojun.
"Wait a moment," Chen Fan called out to Feng Pojun. "Let's find a supermarket first and buy two suitcases."
The two had arrived empty-handed, and Chen Fan planned to buy some gifts for Su Ruochu.
He took out his phone and dialed Su Ruochu's number.
But the result was still the cold electronic prompt:
"The number you have dialed is not in service area..."
Chen Fan smiled bitterly and shook his head.
They had agreed on three rules.
But as soon as this girl reached the teaching area, she had broken the promise.
Her phone was completely unreachable, and she had lost all contact. It was probably because there was no mobile signal in the area where she was.
The two found a shopping mall, and Chen Fan picked out two larger suitcases.
Since he couldn't get through on the phone, Chen Fan didn't know what Su Ruochu needed, so he could only buy things based on his own judgment.
He bought a lot of snacks that Su Ruochu usually liked, and finally picked out several books for her to pass the time when she was bored.
After some thought, Chen Fan also bought a mobile phone with a stronger signal. Seeing a handheld voice recorder nearby, Chen Fan also put it in the shopping cart, along with several cassette tapes of songs that Su Ruochu liked.
Finally, remembering that there would be children where she was teaching, Chen Fan also bought a lot of candy.
The two suitcases were just filled to the brim.
They took a taxi to the long-distance bus station, then bought tickets and waited for departure.
Before coming, Chen Fan had already anticipated that the place where Su Ruochu was teaching might be very remote and difficult to reach.
But when actually traveling, the ruggedness of the road far exceeded Chen Fan's imagination.
First, they took a long-distance bus for nearly 2 hours to reach the local county town.
Then they changed vehicles and continued on.
Leaving the county town, almost all the roads around were dirt roads, with dust flying as cars passed.
Moreover, the roads on both sides were extremely steep and rugged. Chen Fan noticed several times that the bus was almost scraping against the hillside when passing other vehicles, which was quite scary.
However, this was not the end of it.
After riding for another hour, the two arrived at the local town. By this time, it was almost dark.
There was no bus station in the town, and Chen Fan and Feng Pojun were completely at a loss. Fortunately, they had bought a map before coming.
Chen Fan took out the map and asked several old men in the town.
Seeing that Chen Fan was from out of town, they kindly advised, "You'd better find a villager's house in town to stay for the night."
"The place you want to go is very difficult to reach, and there are no vehicles going there. If you want to go, you'll have to take a tractor."
"Grandpa, where can we find a tractor if we want to take one?" Chen Fan asked.
"Young man, it's very dangerous to walk at night. I advise you to stay in town for the night," the old man advised again.
Chen Fan smiled and explained, "Grandpa, I'm here to see my girlfriend."
"She was assigned to come here as a volunteer teacher this year. I just want to see her as soon as possible, I can't wait another moment."
Hearing this, the old man's tone obviously became more enthusiastic.
"Oh, so that's how it is."
"Child, wait here, let me ask around for you."
The old man led Chen Fan to a household in the town, and sure enough, they found someone.
The man of this household was going to go into the mountains to transport stones later, and he could give Chen Fan and Feng Pojun a ride part of the way.
"It's settled then."
Chen Fan nodded decisively. He and Feng Pojun smoked in the courtyard for about half an hour, then hitched a ride on the man's tractor.
The road was all dirt, jolting Chen Fan so much he almost vomited bile.
After traveling like this for about 40 minutes, the tractor driver suddenly shouted something in a dialect Chen Fan couldn't understand.
He directly stopped a donkey cart carrying dry firewood in front of them.
"These two are here looking for someone. His girlfriend is volunteering as a teacher at Lijiagou Primary School in your area," the man explained.
Then he turned to Chen Fan with a smile and explained in broken Mandarin:
"He's a villager from near the primary school you want to go to. He can take you there."
Chen Fan nodded, "Thank you, sir."
After getting off with the suitcases, Chen Fan took out a 100 yuan note.
But the man waved his hand, "I can't take it. You city folks coming to our place to volunteer as teachers, that's doing a good deed. If I took this money, my dad would break my legs when I got back."
Without waiting for Chen Fan to speak, he waved and drove off on his tractor.
So next, Chen Fan and Feng Pojun had no choice but to continue their journey by donkey cart.
By now, it was basically dark.
The surrounding road was uneven and very difficult to travel.
But Chen Fan couldn't care about these things now. He was only worried about his wife.
A young woman, coming to such a remote place alone to teach.
How much hardship must she have endured?
No way.
This time, no matter what, he had to persuade her to go back.
"Young man, we're here," the old man driving the donkey cart suddenly called out to stop the donkey, then pointed for the two men.
"Lijiagou Primary School is on this mountain. Children from several nearby villages all come to school here."
"The Liu teacher who was teaching here before the New Year passed away from illness. Now there's only Teacher Su on the mountain. I heard she's from a big city. She's as beautiful as a celestial maiden, and all the children here like her."
Chen Fan hurriedly thanked him. Feng Pojun took down the suitcases, and Chen Fan once again took out money.
But the old man refused to accept it again, so Chen Fan had to take out a pack of cigarettes and hand it to him.
In the end, the old man only took one cigarette and tucked it behind his ear.
"Teacher Su is like a celestial maiden, a literary star descended to earth. You're Teacher Su's boyfriend, so you're honored guests here. If you need any help, you can always come to the village to find me. This old man is called Ma Youde, I'm the village head of the nearby village."
Watching the old man drive away with his donkey cart, Chen Fan and Feng Pojun exchanged a glance, looked up at the pitch-black mountain before them, and without a word, each picked up a suitcase and began to climb.
More than 20 minutes later, Chen Fan finally saw the distant lights at the top of the mountain.
Thinking that there was only Su Ruochu as a teacher on the mountain, Chen Fan felt a pang of heartache.
This girl was most afraid of the dark.
Now she was staying alone in such a remote place, who knows how she had endured this time.
"Boss, we're here," Feng Pojun reminded after climbing for another ten minutes or so.
Chen Fan could already see the school on the opposite side of the mountain slope.
Rather than calling it a school, it was more like two low, dilapidated single-story buildings.
There was only a small courtyard of less than 100 square meters in front of the buildings, which served as the school's playground.
The dim light on the playground illuminated the surrounding darkness, making it look quiet and lonely.
Thinking that the woman he loved was right there, Chen Fan suppressed the excitement in his heart and strode towards the school.
At this moment, on the school playground, a delicate figure was crouching on the ground, making a fire to cook.
The temperature in the mountains was low. Su Ruochu was wearing jeans and a sweatshirt, her long hair tied in a simple ponytail, carefully adding firewood to the earthen stove.
In the half month since coming here, after the initial awkwardness and embarrassment, she had gradually learned how to live and cook for herself.
She wasn't afraid of hardship, and every day was very fulfilling.
The only drawback was that there was no mobile signal in the mountains. She couldn't call her boyfriend.
It seemed she had broken their three rules, hadn't she?
She wondered what he was doing now.
Thinking of him, Su Ruochu couldn't help but smile slightly.
Suddenly, as if their hearts were linked, Su Ruochu heard a slight noise behind her.
She instinctively turned to look at the school gate across the playground.
"Who's there?"
"Who is it?"
As footsteps sounded, a figure walked through that simple wooden door.
The panic on Su Ruochu's face instantly turned to shock.
She froze on the spot, the chopsticks in her hand dropping to the ground with a clatter.