In her sophomore year, a freshman exposed a professor’s sexual harassment incident online, becoming a moderately popular topic.
“What’s this about me being like his Midori? Who gave him that confidence—his mouthful of yellow teeth?” That girl’s words were contemptuous, and it was finally at this time that she understood what had happened to her.
It wasn’t love. It had nothing to do with those tender, affectionate words from Soviet novels. It was just an old man venting his animal instincts on her body, no different from being groped on a bus.
So she chose to tell her father, the person she trusted most.
Yu Shixuan emphasized her father’s reaction when he learned about this. He was very angry, then sternly told her that she must protect herself well.
And then, there was no “and then.”
Engineer Yu, who had quite a reputation in the architecture circle, neither settled accounts with that professor nor brought up the matter again.
“Even the year I graduated, he suggested I take the graduate school entrance exam, as if he completely didn’t know that I had developed an almost pathological fear of S University—I would break out in cold sweat just passing by it.” Yu Shixuan said softly.
How was that possible?
I couldn’t understand this situation. My dad, though unreliable, would still jump up and curse back when others made crude jokes about me. A girl raised with such careful protection—her father should have felt like killing that person.
Why would he remain silent? For the sake of propriety? Or did he simply think that since his daughter was an adult, it wasn’t a big deal?
“What’s even more ridiculous is that later my dad tried to set me up with Yan Lei. He thought Yan Lei had a good personality and high emotional intelligence. I said, but I like Cheng Xia more. You know what my dad said?”
“He very tactfully said that Cheng Xia’s family background was too good, and if they knew about what happened to you at school, there might be some unnecessary trouble—”
“Yes, I’ve always treated my father’s words as the highest principle since childhood. But in his heart, I had already become a defective product.”
She was so beautiful, so delicate, like the little princess sleeping on twelve mattresses of swan’s velvet in a fairy tale, yet tears slowly fell onto the pillow just like that.
Then she met Chi Na. He wasn’t on her father’s shortlist at all—a nouveau riche’s son from a small county town thousands of miles away.
But after hearing her story, his first reaction was to go to the school and beat up that sanctimonious teacher. He was detained for over ten days for that.
“At that time my dad was still forcing me to try getting along with Yan Lei—he firmly believed that only someone like Yan Lei wouldn’t despise his raped daughter.”
“I was suffocating, so I had Chi Na take me away. Only he would always protect me.” She closed her eyes wearily and murmured.
I had always thought that legendary story of climbing down from the ninth floor was an ultimate romantic act.
I never expected it was a belated teenage rebellion.
I wanted to say, but you don’t need another man to rebel against your father—it’s like moving to live beside a volcano because you’re afraid of the cold.
But she had already fallen asleep, her nose twitching, tear stains still at the corners of her eyes.
My heart suddenly became very soft.
Actually, I had always vaguely looked down on her.
I thought she only knew how to watch dramas, put on makeup, and date—that she had no substance and hadn’t experienced any hardship.
I didn’t know that every girl’s coming of age had its hidden pain and secret wounds.
Behind a cute and lovable appearance might be eyes streaming with tears.
——
I’m a very cowardly person who doesn’t like to cause trouble.
But that day, I really hoped Chi Na would settle accounts with Old Feng.
Just like beating that old beast to the ground.
He should have once again, recklessly protected his princess.
But nothing happened. Old Feng and I ate breakfast and were respectfully sent off.
That dog Yu Shixuan especially treasured, called Yogurt.
It just died for nothing like that.
——
Winter came, and the temperature dropped very quickly.
Traditional herders moved between three pastures each year to ensure their cattle and sheep didn’t go hungry. The winter pasture was to escape the cold wind and prevent the livestock from freezing to death. They generally lived together with the cattle and sheep.
We built centralized warm livestock sheds on the leeward side of the mountain slope. Opposite was the public activity area. We renovated the old houses to make a chess room and library. When the old people had nothing to do, they would run over, basking in the sun while watching their own cattle and sheep.
Ba Te often came over on weekends, carrying his camera and taking pictures everywhere.
“You’re amazing, Dongxue.” He was very happy. “You’ve changed the entire village’s spirit!”
“This is nothing. With sufficient budget, it’s not impossible for me to build a Tomson Riviera here.” I said.
As soon as I mentioned budget, Ba Te’s face changed faster than flipping a book. “The county has no money…”
Here we go again.
“But as I said before, wanting it to change dramatically all at once is impossible.” Ba Te said. “It can only be like acupuncture—one small point drives a line, then a surface.”
I smiled too.
Ba Te was really quite lovely. I hadn’t expected that such a barren place could still produce such a pure, naive idealist.
I took a deep breath and smiled. “Then we have great responsibility. Don’t worry, even without money, I’ll still build beautiful houses for you.”
We went to the cafeteria to eat. In winter, Ha Rina didn’t need to herd, so she came to help at the cafeteria. I paid her wages.