Mud beads

Before the end of the year, the school officially started its holiday.

Parents trudged through the snow into the mountains, picking up their children one by one. Blankets were rolled up and tied to their shoulders, basins and thermos flasks were stuffed into burlap sacks, and several children, carrying bulging backpacks, ran far away, then turned back to wave to their teachers. The dormitory doors opened and closed, the laughter and chatter on the playground gradually faded away, and the school, once teeming with twenty-odd children, suddenly felt empty, as if a tide had receded.

In the end, only three children whose parents couldn't make it back stayed at school to spend the New Year with Yu Zhu and Teacher Zhang.

The day before Lunar New Year's Eve, Yu Zhu went to town again.

Red lanterns were hung in the shops along the street, and stalls selling Spring Festival couplets and the character "福" (good fortune) crowded the intersection, their plastic canopies rattling in the wind. She bought two boxes of pastries and a carton of milk, then walked along the street where the snow had not yet melted to Xu Wenwen's house.

The door opened after two knocks.

Xu Wenwen, wearing an apron and with a little flour still on her hands, paused for a moment when she saw Yu Zhu, then smiled and stepped aside to let her in.

"You're so unconventional, why are you bringing things?"

"It's almost Chinese New Year," Yu Zhu said, placing the New Year's gifts by the door. "Just a little something to show my appreciation."

Xu Wenwen complained that Yu Zhu was wasting money, but still bent down and took the items one by one. Xu Wenwen's husband was still busy in the kitchen. When he saw Yu Zhu come, he peeked out and greeted her shyly, then lowered his head to continue cutting the sausages on the cutting board.

Yu Zhu didn't go inside. Instead, she stood at the door, took out the iron box from her bosom, and handed it out.

"Thank you."

Xu Wenwen didn't answer immediately. She wiped her hands on her apron, a hint of surprise flashing across her face.

Aren't you staying?

Yu Zhu shook her head.

"I've already found the answer I was looking for in it," she smiled. "There's no need to possess it anymore."

Xu Wenwen raised her eyes.

Yu Zhu pushed the tin box forward a little: "These are your memories, so you should keep them."

Xu Wenwen looked at Yu Zhu, pursed her lips, and her eyes reddened again.

She reached out and took the tin box, then suddenly took a step forward and opened her arms to hug Yu Zhu.

The hug came somewhat suddenly. Yu Zhu was taken aback for a moment, then slowly raised her hand and patted her back with a smile.

When Yu Zhu came out of Xu Wenwen's house, she had a bag of red sausage in her hand.

Afraid that Yu Zhu would refuse, Xu Wenwen escorted her all the way to the courtyard gate. The sausage was tightly bound in two layers of plastic bags, and a faint smoky smell could still be detected through the bags. Yu Zhu carried it a few steps, then turned back and saw Xu Wenwen still holding the tin box, standing by the door waving at her.

She raised her hand and turned to merge into the crowded streets that were packed before the Lunar New Year.

It wasn't easy for Yu Zhu to come to town, so she didn't go back to school immediately and wandered around the market a couple more times.

A row of freshly slaughtered pork hung in front of the butcher's stall. The owner, holding a cleaver, asked her across the cutting board whether she wanted it fatty or lean. She thought for a moment, then bought three pounds of pork belly, and also picked out a yellow croaker and two bags of frozen shrimp from the freezer. The firecracker stall was closing up shop, so she grabbed a roll of firecrackers and bought a box of snap pops for each of the three children staying at school.

When she came out of the market, her hands were red from being squeezed by plastic bags.

Many people were returning to their hometowns before the Lunar New Year, so the vehicles heading back to the mountains moved very slowly, with seats and aisles crammed with New Year's goods. A layer of white mist had formed on the windows, and Yu Zhu wiped away a small patch with her finger, revealing the snow on both sides of the mountain road shimmering with a pale gold hue under the setting sun.

By the time the car arrived at the school gate, it was already getting dark.

Yu Zhu carried pork and frozen shrimp in her left hand, and red sausage, firecrackers, and a few other odds and ends hanging from her right. She used her shoulder to push open the school's half-closed iron gate. There were no children on the playground, and a narrow path had been cleared from the snow, leading all the way to the office door.

As soon as she stepped inside, Teacher Zhang came out to greet her with a beaming smile.

"You're finally back."

Seeing the large bags in her hands, Teacher Zhang frowned and exclaimed, "Oh dear!" He took the heaviest bag of pork from Yu Zhu's hands and immediately said, "An entrepreneur came to the school this morning, saying he was your friend."

Yu Zhu paused in her steps.

"My friend?"

"Of course, she even donated some money to the school." Teacher Zhang pulled her inside, her smile widening the wrinkles around her eyes. "They've been waiting for you in the meeting room for ages."

Yu Zhu stumbled forward half a step as she was pulled by her, and her heart began to pound unexpectedly.

Among the people she knows, there seem to be not many who can be called entrepreneurs by Teacher Zhang, and who would also seek out people from the mountains at this time.

A gust of north wind blew in through the front door, lifting the scarf around Yu Zhu's neck and patting her shoulders. She subconsciously tidied her wind-blown hair and glanced down at her mud-covered shoes.

"Stop thinking about it." Teacher Zhang gestured with her chin toward the meeting room, her excitement barely concealed. "Go quickly, I'll get your things for you."

Yu Zhu nodded, handed the remaining New Year's goods to her, and walked along the corridor towards the conference room.

The door was pushed open, and the person inside looked up at the sound.

A woman was sitting by the window.

Her long black coat was open, revealing a dark red turtleneck sweater underneath. Her chestnut curly hair was shorter than before. She crossed her legs, holding a chipped enamel mug from school, with a small suitcase beside her.

Yu Zhu stood frozen at the doorway.

Liang Xia raised his eyes, looked her up and down, and slowly raised his eyebrows.

"What's wrong?"

She put down her enamel mug and offered a hand to Yu Zhu.

"Doesn't he proactively shake hands with his superiors?"

Moth

That evening, Teacher Zhang took his pillow and blanket to the next room and gave Liang Xia his bed in the dormitory. Before leaving, he added two new pieces of coal to the stove.

Liang Xia said, "I'm not that delicate," but as soon as Teacher Zhang left, she immediately took off her coat, crawled into bed, and put her cold feet near the stove.

The coal was burning brightly, yet a thin layer of frost still clung to the inside of the window. Yu Zhu leaned against the headboard, holding a thermos, and looked at Liang Xia in the opposite bed: "Your bubble tea shop hasn't even broken even yet, how come you're suddenly acting like a big spender?"

"What are you saying?" Liang Xia pulled her feet back under the covers, wrapped herself up more tightly, and sat up straighter. "Supporting education in our hometown, what's wrong with making a little sacrifice? Do you think we'd just let a nobody from out of town put on airs here?"

Yu Zhu lowered her head, blew on the steam rising from the rim of her cup, and shook her head.

"I'll just treat the milk tea shop like a fixed deposit," Liang Xia waved her hand dismissively. "Liu Zhengyang calculated it for me; it'll break even in two and a half years, which is definitely higher than bank interest rates."

"What if you lose money later?"

Liang Xia paused for a moment: "Close your anus."

Yu Zhu smiled, placed the enamel mug on the small stool beside the bed, lifted the covers, and crawled inside. The wind was strong outside, causing the window frames to vibrate slightly, and the iron stove occasionally emitted a crackling sound as the coal burned.

After a moment of silence, Liang Xia suddenly spoke.

"Hey you... what are you thinking?"

Yu Zhu lay in bed, her eyes closed: "Who?"

Liang Xia clicked her tongue: "Your debt manager."

Yu Zhu opened her eyes, her gaze falling on the dark window above her. The thin layer of frost had melted from the heat of the room, and now a layer of water seeped out, slowly trickling down the wall.

"I didn't think about it."

Liang Xia turned to look at her. Yu Zhu's expression was calm, neither perfunctory nor deliberately evasive.

"Ugh, just thinking about that guy makes me angry." Liang Xia suddenly sat up, the blanket sliding down her shoulders to her waist. "Didn't his company go public before? I figured this guy is as cunning as a sieve, buying from him is definitely the right choice. Liu Zhengyang and I discussed it and decided to buy from him."

Yu Zhu recalled Yue Jianche's mention of the Hong Kong listing, and then she thought of the two ID cards that were tightly placed together in his desk drawer.

"and then?"

"It's been steadily declining for six days since the day we bought in," Liang Xia said through gritted teeth, holding up a six on her hand. "I just couldn't hold on any longer, so I sold everything on the sixth day."

Upon hearing this, Yu Zhu had already guessed the ending, and the corner of her mouth twitched slightly.

"Then on the seventh day, it suddenly jumped by more than twenty points!" Liang Xia slammed her hand on the mattress, making the iron bed creak. "I didn't dare to take the plunge; I didn't even get close to the taillights!"

"Liu Zhengyang sold it too?"

He didn't sell it.

"Isn't that great?"

"Good my ass!" Liang Xia was even angrier. "He's sending me account screenshots every day now!"

Yu Zhu finally couldn't help but burst into laughter.

She laughed so hard her shoulders trembled slightly. Liang Xia sat beside her, cursing Yue Jianche for cheating her and Liu Zhengyang for being greedy for money, saying that sooner or later the capital market would swindle her out of her underwear. Listening to Liang Xia's incessant complaints, Yu Zhu felt as if she had returned to that small milk tea shop.

Moth

The next morning was Lunar New Year's Eve.

The last bus from the mountains departed for the county town at nine o'clock in the morning. After getting up, Yu Zhu urged Teacher Zhang to pack her things so she could go to the county to spend the New Year with her husband.

Teacher Zhang initially refused, saying there were three children at the school, and it made no sense for a teacher to run away. Yu Zhu draped her down jacket over her shoulders, and Liang Xia chimed in, saying there were two adults here, and it made no sense to let three children starve to death.

The three of them argued for a long time in the dormitory, but in the end, they pushed Teacher Zhang onto the bus to the city, clutching the red sausage and frozen shrimp that Yu Zhu had packed in advance. Before getting on the bus, she clung to the door and repeatedly reminded them to lock the door at night and to keep firecrackers away from flammable materials.

Even after the car had driven quite a distance, she was still looking out the window.

In the afternoon, the five of them started preparing the New Year's Eve dinner early.

The red sausage Xu Wenwen gave them was sliced ​​thinly, the pork belly was stewed in a pot, and the yellow croaker was coated in flour and fried in oil. The three children sat around the table making dumplings, their hands and faces covered in flour. Liang Xia rolled up her sleeves and sat in the middle. The first dumpling she made lay limply on the cutting board, half of its filling spilling out.

Yu Zhu stared at the dumpling for a while, then picked it up and reshaped it: "Weren't you from a poor family?"

Liang Xia retorted, "I spend all my time working."

A child picked up a dumpling made by Liang Xiabao and examined it carefully for a moment: "Aunt Liang, this looks like a shoe insole."

Liang Xia expressionlessly snatched the dumplings back from his hands.

"I'll put it in your shoe later."

That New Year's Eve dinner lasted until very late.

Five children sat around two desks pushed together, eating their meal while watching the Spring Festival Gala on a small television. Three of the children were initially quite energetic, but gradually became so sleepy they could barely keep their eyes open, yet they still insisted on staying up until midnight.

As the New Year's bells rang on television, Liang Xia woke up the children at the table, grabbed a string of firecrackers, and rushed into the yard.

She rolled the firecracker around, leaving a trail of red in the snow. She lit the fuse with a lighter, then turned and ran back. Sparks flew rapidly along the red paper, and the firecracker crackled and popped in the snow, sending bits of red paper flying everywhere in the blast.

Yu Zhu squatted under the eaves, pulled the child closest to her into her arms, and covered his ears with her hands. The child hunched his neck, his eyes shining as he looked at the yard, shouting something loudly.

The firecrackers were too loud, and Yu Zhu couldn't hear anything.

She saw only faces that were happy and vibrant in the flickering firelight, as if they had an endless future.

The last firecracker exploded, and the courtyard fell silent again. Liang Xia cheered, stepping on the red paper scattered on the ground, and shouted "Happy New Year!" in unison with the three children. Yu Zhu released her hands from the children's ears and smiled in response.

My phone vibrated slightly in my pocket.

She reached out and took it out.

The screen lit up, illuminating her face, which was slightly flushed from the cold wind.

Toru Koshima's name was at the very top.

Moth

Happy New Year, Yu Zhu.