Chapter 53

The sky had not yet brightened when Su Youfu got out of bed. At the high altitude of Gumula Village, the temperature was relatively low. In August, one had to wear a thick coat early in the morning.

He carried a load of winnowing baskets, but not as many as before, only twenty baskets, ten on each side. On either side of the baskets were two large hemp sacks as well, though it was unclear what was inside them.

After loading the baskets onto the back of his vehicle, Su Youfu finally breathed a sigh of relief.

The villagers beside him joked, "Crippled Su, you're desperately making big money huh. You just went to sell winnowing baskets last week, and now you're going again this week!"

"With just ten pairs of winnowing baskets, what treasures have you got in those sacks?"

"Crippled Su is not the same as us. We can only sell our baskets for 10 yuan each, but he can sell them for 13 yuan. He knows how to make money to support his college student daughter."

The group babbled on.

Su Youfu simply responded innocently, "The sacks have some vegetables and dried goods I prepared to sell. My wife was missing our daughter and told me to bring her some food."

The villagers figured that was the case. This time of year was not the autumn harvest, so they were short on cash. They would make things like dried bamboo shoots and mushrooms to sell.

After speaking, Su Youfu didn't say anything else. He sat to the side waiting for everyone to gather.

The vehicle was small, and there were many villagers heading into town, so Su Youfu still didn’t get a chance to sit in the front. He was too shy to wrestle a spot from others, so he could only sit in the pickup bed. But he was long accustomed to this and had prepared a thick hat and coat. He plopped down next to the winnowing baskets, leaning against the front of the vehicle to avoid some of the wind.

Sitting in the back was quite nice. No one would tease him, which worked well since he wasn’t very good at idle chatter anyway. Su Xiaoqi’s personality was greatly influenced by her father in this way. She also felt awkward and uneasy when teased, not knowing how to retort.

But Su Youfu had told a lie today. The sacks did not contain dried goods. The family’s dried bamboo shoots and everything else had long been sold. His daughter needed money every week for school, so they couldn’t wait until now. The bags actually contained some bamboo baskets and bags that he had tried making based on the book his daughter had bought for him. They had turned out pretty well.

He wanted to try selling them. If winnowing fans could sell, these items could probably sell too. Weaving the bamboo was a bit more laborious, but he had felt excited making them these last few days, staying up until one or two in the morning.

He didn’t want to tell the villagers, knowing they would just ridicule him again for having wild dreams of making money.

His eyes were heavily shadowed, but a fire burned in his heart.

The vehicle departed, the road through the mountains bumpy and rocky, causing him to grip the hemp sacks tightly. He watched the village disappear as the vehicle entered the bamboo forest, the wind howling in his ears.

Su Xiaoqi had asked her coach for time off again, saying she had moved her swim practice to the evening since her dad was visiting, and she wanted to go with him to sell winnowing baskets this time. She felt a bit anxious yet excited early in the morning, lacking her usual composure. She had gotten up very early but only practiced writing for half an hour before growing restless, worried about missing her father if she was late, since he didn’t have a cell phone.

After hastily eating breakfast and getting ready, she couldn’t sit still, so she simply ran to meet her father at the drop-off location, which would serve as her morning jog today too.

She headed out at 7 am, jogging lightly along the road. There wasn’t much traffic yet at this time, the rush hour being around 8 am.

At 7 in the early morning, the sky was just faintly brightening.

Today was a perfectly sunny day without a single cloud marring the slight blueness visible early on.

Xiaoqi wore her school tracksuit, the winter uniform with blue and white trim, paired with her new running shoes. It was a very refreshing outfit.

The city center wasn’t cold, but there was still a difference between early morning and night time temperatures. She didn’t want her father to worry if she wore too little, so she had on long sleeves and pants. If she got hot she could take off the outer layer jacket and tie it around her waist. Underneath she wore a white t-shirt.

She wasn't wearing her glasses, having considered getting prescription sunglasses but deciding it would be a waste of money and unnecessary accessorizing. Some people have pseudo myopia that can be gradually restored over time by protecting the eyes well, especially at a young age. Xiaoqi’s prescription was originally over 300 degrees, but she could actually still function without her glasses. She just found it more comfortable to have them for reading and such.

After jogging for a bit, she felt hot.

Lvshan City was a mountain town split by a river, the bustling city center south of it and continuous mountains pressing up against the north bank, where there was also an old train station.

Her father's vehicle from their village stopped on that north side near the old train station. Xiaoqi had to cross a large bridge as she jogged over.

When she reached the middle of the bridge, she looked up and suddenly caught sight of a round crimson sun in the middle of the wide river.

Xiaoqi had never noticed before how beautifully spectacular an early morning sun could look, without needing to visit any famous scenic vistas. Just standing on the bridge—

Surrounded by the unceasing traffic, faced with the surging unrelenting river, the sun a golden red circle that looked as precise as if drawn by a compass, simply suspended there in a sky so clean it resembled a child’s drawing, a swathe of blue with a single circle to represent sun and river.

In that moment, Xiaoqi inhaled deeply, feeling the heaviness that had sat in her heart dissipate like smoke.

She couldn’t deny that the terms “father” and “mother” carried a lot of pressure for her. She even felt it was more tiring to deal with her parents than her aunt.

Her parents’ love was too dense, heavily unconditional with only giving and no expectation of return. She actually felt a huge amount of pressure, constantly fearing she was not good enough or outstanding enough to repay them.

And because of this heavy devotion, she would feel guilty telling the occasional lie due to feeling suffocated by their affections, like during the time of the college entrance exams. She desperately wanted to test well, get into a top university, gain face for her parents. But the more she thought that way, the greater the pressure, even though her usual grades indicated zero issues with reaching the first-tier university threshold. Yet when it came time for the actual exam, she cracked and failed, not even making the first-tier cutoff score at first. She had to go through remedial admissions procedures before finally getting into her current second-tier school.

That moment when she learned her score truly felt like the sky was falling down.

She even had passing thoughts of suicide, of wandering into traffic and letting a car take her life. Brief as the notion was, it had existed.

Her parents hadn't pressured her, yet she felt their devotion itself to be an immense burden.

Fortunately, it was all in the past now.

The crimson sun rises, the great river surges on.

Every day is brand new.

Xiaoqi stood for a while longer atop the windy bridge before resuming her run.

She arrived at the village drop-off point, but the vehicle hadn’t come yet. She stood catching her breath for a bit, face flushed like the rising sun, warm and beautiful.

After rattling around for over two hours, Su Youfu’s face had gone stiff and his hands clenched into numb fists. Before the vehicle even fully stopped, someone nudged him, “Hey crippled Su, isn’t that young lass over there your daughter?”

Su Youfu looked up to indeed see his daughter there, smiling brightly. He suddenly felt a surge of warmth and vigor course through his rigid body. He wanted to smile back, but his stiffness only made his expression look more dour.