Mud beads

Teacher Zhang placed the washbasin in her hand on the shelf by the door, her gaze passing over Xu Ran and landing on Yu Zhu.

The courtyard lights shone from behind her. Yu Zhu stood in front of the iron gate with her bag on her back, her hair sticking to her forehead in strands with sweat. She looked a little disheveled, but her fair complexion, tall stature, and elegant attire made her stand out in the mountain valley.

Teacher Zhang took a step forward and pulled Xu Ran behind her: "Who are you looking for?"

"My surname is Yu." Yu Zhu paused, as if she had thought of something, and looked down to take out her ID card and student ID from her coat pocket. "I came from Chang'an—these are my documents."

She handed over the two documents with both hands.

Teacher Zhang took it, his gaze darting back and forth between the photo and Yu Zhu several times before his shoulders finally relaxed.

"Did you come alone?"

Yu Zhu nodded: "Mm."

Xu Ran stood to the side and nodded in agreement: "I ran into her at the old factory."

"You're quite proud of yourself." Teacher Zhang held her ID card in her hand for a moment, tilted her head slightly towards the courtyard, and said, "Go wash your hands quickly. The steamed buns Teacher Sun left for you are all cold."

Xu Ran turned and ran a couple of steps, then turned back, still worried: "What about her?"

"Children shouldn't interrupt adults."

Xu Ran pouted, glanced at Yu Zhu, and ran towards the innermost room with the lights on.

Teacher Zhang looked at Yu Zhu again and waved.

"Come in."

The office was in the bungalow she had just come out of.

A white sign with black lettering hung by the door, its plastic frame cracked at one corner. Inside, there were three desks, but only two had frequently used items on them; the other was piled high with exercise books and notebooks. Two metal cabinets stood against the wall, their doors not closing properly and held together by a thin wire.

Teacher Zhang entered the room, pulled out a chair in front of his desk, sat down, and placed Yu Zhu's ID card and student ID on the table.

Yu Zhu followed her in, standing by the table with her hands pressed tightly against the seam of her trousers.

Even though she was already in college, her deep-seated reverence for teachers never seemed to diminish. Even standing in this dilapidated little office, facing an ordinary and unfamiliar woman, she still felt somewhat awkward and restrained.

"Sit down," Teacher Zhang pointed to the empty chair next to the table and smiled. "Why are you standing?"

Yu Zhu straightened her clothes and sat down. The moment her bottom touched the chair, she felt as if she had returned to junior high school. During those years, she went to the office for tutoring almost every day after school, alternating between Chinese, math, and English, until the mocking laughter gradually disappeared. The office where she worked always had the last light to go out in the whole school, and she had sat at that desk many times.

"Are you a student at Chang'an University?" Teacher Zhang's gaze fell again on the student ID on the corner of the desk. "It's not even holiday time yet, what are you doing out here?"

Yu Zhu was very honest: "I was sick before and was still on leave of absence."

The doubt in Teacher Zhang's eyes hadn't dissipated: "Then what are you doing here?"

Yu Zhu put away the documents on the table and looked up.

"My boyfriend lived in the old factory area's staff quarters when he was a child." She lowered her head, a faint smile appearing on her face. "I want to see the place where he used to live."

Along the way, she had come up with many explanations for herself, and although this reason sounded absurd, she couldn't really give a more logical answer. Humans seem to be very complex creatures, and the emotional side becomes even more elusive.

Yu Zhu didn't crave any understanding and was prepared to be questioned further, but the woman sitting opposite her suddenly fell silent.

A mountain breeze blew in through the crack in the window, lifting a corner of the timetable on the wall. The sound of flowing water in the distance suddenly became clear, quietly seeping in from the darkness of the night.

"fine."

Teacher Zhang nodded, took a paper cup from the cabinet under his desk, poured in half a cup of hot water, added some cold water from the thermos, and pushed it in front of Yu Zhu.

"People should travel more and see more while they are young."

The words that Yu Zhu was still thinking about vanished into thin air.

She nodded solemnly: "Thank you."

"Alright, it's getting late, you can stay in the dormitory with me for now." Teacher Zhang picked up a bunch of keys from the table, stood up, and said, "My surname is Zhang, I'm the principal here, I won't cheat you."

Yu Zhu was taken aback for a moment, then quickly put down her cup and stood up: "How much is the accommodation fee?"

Teacher Zhang smiled when she heard this.

"This is a school, not a hotel, why should I charge you?"

After she finished speaking, she walked to the door and opened it: "If you feel bad about it, please cover one of my classes tomorrow."

Yu Zhu stopped, her hand still holding her backpack: "What class?"

"math."

"I studied humanities..."

Teacher Zhang was taken aback by these words, then frowned: "You don't know elementary school math?"

Yu Zhu blinked and slowly smiled.

The school playground wasn't large; the distance from the office to the dormitory was only a dozen or so steps. As she passed one of the classrooms, she could see about a dozen wooden desks through the glass. The desktops were covered in scratches and ink marks, whether from insects or repeated use. A blackboard, cleaned until it was almost white, wasn't mounted on the wall but supported by two tables, leaning against the wall at an angle.

"How many students are there in the school?" Yu Zhu asked, following behind Teacher Zhang.

"Twenty-three."

Teacher Zhang walked to the dormitory door and started searching for the keys: "All six grades are here. Some have five or six students, some have two or three. I teach English, Teacher Sun teaches Chinese and also takes care of the students' meals. Xiao Chen, who teaches math, went back to his hometown to get married and took a week off."

"Only three teachers?"

"One is enough." Teacher Zhang found a key, inserted it into the lock, and immediately braced the door with his shoulder. "It's just a matter of whether it's tiring or not."

The key was lifted slightly before the latch could barely open.

The dormitory was narrower than the office, containing two metal bunk beds. The one by the window had a gray sheet on it, with the corners of the blanket neatly folded, while the other was piled with textbooks, miscellaneous items, and a stack of old test papers tied with plastic rope. There was no wardrobe against the wall, only a low box with a few nails nailed to it, on which hung two coats and a yellowed towel.

Teacher Zhang took the textbooks off the bed and moved the old test papers to the box. The bed board was exposed, covered with a very thin mattress.

"No one usually sleeps in this bed, so you'll have to make do with it." She squatted down and pulled a woven bag from under the bed, which contained a neatly folded quilt. "It's cold in the mountains at night, so you'll need to use a thicker one."

Yu Zhu put down her backpack, thanked them, and reached out to take the blanket.

The duvet cover was whitish, and the cotton was unevenly distributed; it felt heavier on one side and lighter on the other when held. However, it smelled very clean, with a sun-dried scent of soap powder and a faint dusty smell.

After the lights were turned off, Yu Zhu felt as if she had returned to the small shop next to the woodshed from her childhood.

She heard the whispers of the mountains once again.

The chirping of insects and the croaking of frogs answered each other through the night, while the flowing water murmured softly. These sounds, near and far, overlapped, slowly drawing her into a dream.

Yu Zhu stood on a soft patch of grass.

In the center of the meadow stood a long table laden with delicacies and fine wines, its surface extending to the front of a house with lights on. Strings of warm yellow lanterns hung from the eaves, and strangers in various attire sat around the table, smiling at her as if they had known she would come.

Yu Zhu looked down and realized that her shoes were gone.

She turned around, a long rope hanging behind her, laden with shoes and boots. A man stood at the edge of a distant grove, his figure blurred, only a faint outline illuminated by the moonlight.

Yu Zhu looked at that familiar back view, and her heart began to pound anxiously.

"Liang Dong?"

She ran towards him. The man heard her call and slowly turned around.

The moonlight made his face almost transparent, except for the small mole on the side of his nose.

Yu Zhu suddenly opened her eyes.

The sky outside the window was already turning white, and the distant mountains were still shrouded in the bluish-gray morning mist. She lay still, waiting for her rapid breathing to subside before slowly sitting up.

The bed next door, Teacher Zhang's, is already empty.

Suddenly, there was two knocks on the door.

"Teacher Yu!"

A loud child's voice rang out from outside the door.

"Get up and eat! Math is the first period!"