She limped and hobbled forward. As she walked more, her leg would easily feel some pain, but she could still find it tolerable. But, when she was about to reach the place, she was blocked by a person.
She looked up. With the wind blowing everywhere and snow filling the whole sky, her eyes were slightly blurry. She blinked a few times which melted a few snowflakes and moistened her eyelashes.
When she saw clearly the person in front of her, she lowered her head again and walked past the man with the firewood on her back.
“I don’t think you can survive any longer.” The man said with the accent of the local dialect. It sounded much like Mandarin even with the accent, but it was not difficult to understand.
Yan Huan did not stop. It was not for other people to say whether she could survive or now. She had fallen into the Sea River and survived it. She did not believe that she could not survive now that she had food to eat, water to drink and a place to live in.
“You might as well stay with me. At least, you can live.”
The person behind her spoke another sentence again. His tone held a hint of annoyance within as if he was offering Yan Huan a mouthful of food to eat out of charity, unlikely to go so far as to let her starve to death here.
Yan Huan was still walking forward. She stepped on the snow-covered ground with one deep and one shallow footprints. She also left behind a long series of footsteps. The wind blew her hair from time to time, and also added some white snowflakes on her.
The snow was pure white but also icy cold.
The snow continued to fall on her body. Her hair, shoulders, as well as her face, were still so cold and indifferent. At the end of that line of footprints, a man around thirty years old stood there. He was skinny like a monkey and his forehead was full of wrinkles. His eyes were small like two green beans and his mouth was also turned downwards. Coupled with a mouth full of yellowed teeth, his appearance was so disgusting. And at the mention of a monkey, he really looked like a monkey.
He was the oldest bachelor in the village, aged about thirty years old. He was called Jin Gen. His family was the similar as Changsheng’s, with only a widowed mother and no children nor wife. He lived in a run-down house. He was ignorant and incompetent. He only dallied with women all the time and did not tend to his fields properly. It was all thanks to that old mother of his that he could survive. If it had not been for his old mother, he could not have survived in this way. It would be strange if he did not die.
Jin Gen’s family was poor, his character was also not good, and he was ugly looking. Even if the village had a really ugly woman, she would rather be married to a one-legged mute person than to marry such an old bachelor like Jin Gen. Of course, it would be impossible for a family with a daughter to want such a son-in-law. As a result, Jin Gen was more than thirty years old and still had not found a wife until now. Even though he was said to be thirty years old and still considered young in other places, it was different in the village. A thirty-something year old man who did not marry a wife, would really become an old bachelor whom no one wanted and the old bachelor in the village was quite a disgrace.
Yan Huan opened the door and the house had cut off the cold air outside. All of a sudden, she felt much warmer. She piled all the firewood she picked up on the edge of the window. Not only would it help her block the cold wind from outside, it could also dry the firewood so that it was much more convenient when she wanted to use the firewood.
Well, when she stood up and walked to the front of the broken window, she reached her hand over and touched the window, which was recently secured with nails. The window was nailed shut and several pieces of wooden board were nailed over it. Although it could be said that it reduced the light some, it also blocked out the outside wind. No wonder, she felt it was not as cold.
Who had helped her to nail the window properly? She crouched down and piled the firewood well. There was still enough time. She would go out again in a while. Anyway, she was not like she had something to do and there was nothing entertaining here to do. She would pick up more wood to give herself an additional buffer.
As for the person who nailed the window, it should be Changsheng, who treated her the best in the village. The rice, noodles and other necessities at her place were all secretly given to her by Changsheng. But she could not accept other people’s good intentions without reason and a peace of mind.
No one would be nice to her unconditionally. Moreover, she had already owed him a debt for saving her life. As for the rest, she still did not know how to repay.
It was easier to pay back a debt of money, but it was difficult to repay a favor.
She touched her face. She did not know how ugly she was at the moment, but she must not look good and she also had this lame leg. She did not think that there would still be a man who would like her.
With her current appearance of a disfigured face and crippled leg, it might not be a bad thing for Yan Huan. If she had her face from before, then, in fact, it was not hard for her to imagine what her life would be like in such a quiet mountainous village with a bunch of old bachelors who could not get a wife.
And with her face being like this, she thought no one would pay her any notice and have ideas about her. She only had to wait until the beginning of Spring for someone to come to the mountains. When the time came, she would find a way for her to definitely leave the mountains. She must go back, she wanted to go home.
At this time, the snowfall outside seemed to be getting heavier. That series of footprints, which extended from a distance was finally covered by the snowflakes once again. It was as if no one had ever walked on it like it was still an untainted world.
Jin Gen went back to his house and directly walked into the kitchen. He opened the pot and took out a bowl from inside to start wolfing down noisily. He continuously stuffed rice into his mouth. His pair of beady eyes also endlessly gleamed. Even if he opened his green bean sized eyes wide, they would not look too big. And now as he narrowed his eyes, he looked like he only had slits for eyes.
Whenever Jin Gen’s mother saw her old son, she would cry all the time and was about to cry her eyes out. He was thirty years old and also an old bachelor. Once she had a foot in the grave and was no longer around, what was her old son going to do? He did not even have a child for the future.
Jin Gen finished stuffing his face with the meal. He wiped his mouth and dropped the bowl on the table. Then, he just went to sleep on the heated brick bed. Because they were Northerners, so the people in the mountains had heated brick common beds in their houses. Once it was heated in the winter, it would be warmer than anything else.
As he laid on top of the stove in his house, he tossed and turned and could not sleep. He thought to himself that the woman had curves of a woman’s figure and was really not bad. And there was the snow-white skin all over her body. He felt itchy in his heart just thinking about it. Although it could be said that her face was ugly, it could not be helped. After all, she was still a woman and also young. Perhaps she would be better after she took off all her clothes.
He did not know how a woman felt like despite growing so old. Although he was a bachelor, he had also secretly stayed outside other people’s houses and heard other couples do that thing. He certainly wanted to, and his heart was itchy. He dreamt of it and wanted to have a woman at night to do that kind of thing with. But his family was poor and no one in the village was willing to be with him, not to mention outside the village.
