Early summer at the end of seventeen.
When Gu Jianian left home, he only took a few sets of clothes, a wallet, and a mobile phone charging cable. The remaining space in his suitcase and schoolbag was filled with books.
Her parents drove her to the high-speed rail station and then hurried back to their respective units.
She was carrying a bag and pulling a small suitcase, standing aimlessly in the endless waiting hall.
Looking around, the hall was crowded with people, some sitting and some standing. Each of them was leisurely playing with their cell phones, chatting with friends, eating and dozing off. They were all experienced travelers.
The sunlight poured in from the two-story floor-to-ceiling windows, casting her thin, cramped shadow on the cold, shiny floor tiles.
This was her first time traveling alone.
Gu Jianian took a deep breath and took out the ticket again to confirm the waiting gate, train number and departure time.
Fortunately, due to my full concentration, nothing went wrong.
The high-speed train slowly pulled out of the station, steadily and imperceptibly reaching an extremely high speed. Outside the window, rows of tall residential buildings were moving backwards at high speed like a rewinding movie.
With his back resting on the sturdy seat cushion, he felt a sense of relief as if he had finally reached shore after walking on thin ice. Gu Jianian slowly exhaled the breath he had been holding for a long time and took out a novel from his bag.
"Girl, are you going to college?"
Gu Jianian realized that he was asking her, so he looked up from his book and saw that the person asking the question was the aunt sitting next to him.
Before she could answer, the aunt asked again: "You just finished the college entrance examination this year, right? It's only the beginning of July. Are you going to military training?"
The continuous concern made Gu Jianian blush instantly.
She had not yet learned to be perfunctory or change the subject, so she had to lower her head and answered awkwardly but obediently: "I didn't do well in the college entrance examination, so I won't go to college. My parents asked me to live with my grandmother for a while."
The aunt said "Oh" meaningfully, and didn't say anything for a long time. After a long time, she patted her shoulder and said, "It's okay, repeating the year is not bad, take a rest for a while before going again!"
This time, Gu Jianian learned to remain silent. He smiled and nodded, then buried his head in the book again.
She has no plans to repeat the year.
No matter what the future holds, she has no intention of continuing her studies. In the week after the college entrance examination results came out, her parents kept whispering threats and inducements in her ears, but she refused to give in.
Until my grandma called.
"Stop nagging me. Let Tingting come to my place for the summer vacation. It's cool in the countryside."
Hence this journey.
*
Seven hours later.
Gu Jianian sat in the passenger seat of his second uncle's pickup truck, looking out the window at the layers of bamboo mountains.
The wind blew through the bamboo forest, which swayed like upright feathers. The sky was a clear blue, and the hot and humid air carried the scent of the mountains, forests, and bamboo leaves. A breath of it would iron every pore on my body.
The pickup truck was moving forward on the winding road, surrounded by rolling bamboo mountains. Between the mountains were endless green rice fields, with a few scattered pools of water, like crystals inlaid on green velvet.
There was a big blue ox lying on the wet ground beside a pond, with a few birds resting on its body during their journey.
Gu Jianian suddenly felt like he was alive again.
The car stopped.
My grandmother's house is a two-story brick building. It was painted white and brown in the early years, but most of the paint has now peeled off.