Chapter Sixty-Nine: Xingyang Village

The next day.

At six in the morning, Lin Nan climbed out of bed and got dressed. Gazing at the pale but not yet bright sky outside the window, the first thing that crossed Lin Nan’s mind was that the morning and evening training he had kept up for a year had come to an end yesterday.

He had plenty of excuses—no proper place to shower after sweating, no training grounds—but Lin Nan knew that if you truly want to do something, there is never a reason to give up halfway.

Still, he didn’t feel particularly regretful, because he was doing something more meaningful than playing basketball. Besides, he didn’t believe that two days off during the holidays would have any significant impact on his basketball skills. In fact, Lin Nan thought that if he won the national high school basketball championship, his training might end forever.

He walked quietly to Lin Lang’s bedside and looked at his father’s resolute and calm face, so peaceful in sleep. Lin Nan gently tucked his father’s quilt more securely around him, then tiptoed to the side of the room.

There, he began doing push-ups, squats, and other silent exercises. Whenever he felt his body begin to sweat lightly, he would pause to rest, letting the heat dissipate before continuing.

When Lin Lang awoke, he found the quilt pulled snugly around him and Lin Nan quietly exercising in the room. A look of contentment appeared on his face.

With a son like this, what more could a man ask for?

After a quick wash, father and son packed up and went downstairs to the inn’s first floor. By then, Wang Dashan and Wang Jinsong, the other father and son, had also come down at the agreed time.

Wang Dashan was a bit puzzled; how had Wang Jinsong gotten up even earlier than him? That wasn’t his usual habit at home. What he didn’t know was that the Qingshui No.1 High basketball team, after months of training with Lin Nan, had almost all developed the good habit of early to bed and early to rise.

The four of them drove around Pinshan Town, looking for a place to have breakfast. Yesterday’s dinner at the inn had been quite unappetizing.

Surprisingly, after turning through several streets, they found that even though it was nearly seven o’clock, every house in Pinshan Town still had its doors and windows tightly shut, and there were hardly any people on the street. If this were in QS County, the breakfast stalls would have opened long ago, and the roads would be bustling with people and vehicles.

Last night, when they arrived after dark, Lin Lang had thought the townsfolk simply went to bed early. Now it seemed the town was sparsely populated to begin with. Most of the young and able must have left for the big cities to work, leaving behind only a few locals.

This had become the norm in rural towns, and the trend would only become more pronounced in the coming years. In a remote and impoverished place like Pinshan, most people surely dreamed of leaving, making the place all the more deserted.

After circling several times without finding a single breakfast stall, they had no choice but to return to the inn.

The innkeeper was an honest and rather industrious young man. Last night, when Lin Lang had asked for hot water, he hadn’t asked for money and had brought it quickly, speaking with genuine warmth.

As the four entered, the innkeeper was boiling porridge. Seeing them return empty-handed, he immediately guessed they hadn’t found any breakfast.

He smiled, though the smile soon turned bitter. Life in Pinshan Town was getting harder by the day.

Before Lin Lang could speak, the innkeeper said, “I knew you’d be back, so I made extra porridge and boiled four eggs. It’s nothing fancy, but please make do.”

Lin Lang and Wang Dashan thanked him at once. Lin Nan and Wang Jinsong said nothing, though after being used to beef noodles every morning at school, the sudden plainness of the meal took some getting used to.

The innkeeper saw that neither the adults nor the children showed any sign of displeasure and thought, “They must be accustomed to hardship too, maybe from the countryside themselves. I do wonder what brings them to this godforsaken place.”

So he asked, “What brings you here? There aren’t any tourist attractions nearby, and we hardly see any outsiders all year.”

Lin Lang replied with a smile, “It’s my son’s birthday. He wanted to visit children from poor families in the mountains. We grew up in the countryside ourselves; we know how tough it is for poor kids. It took us years of hard work to get where we are. We bought a carload of clothes, books, and toys to bring to the mountain children, hoping the boys can experience hardship for themselves.”

The innkeeper was momentarily stunned—just as Wang Dashan had been initially. But his thoughts were different. He knew there were many kind-hearted people in the world, and every year there were plenty of donations to their impoverished county. Yet, very little ever reached the mountain families in need.

What truly surprised him was that these two men had brought their children and supplies personally. In recent years, he had never seen anyone do good deeds so directly.

Looking at them with new warmth, he ladled out the porridge and asked, “Which village are you heading to?”

“Xingyang Village,” Lin Lang replied.

The innkeeper looked at him with admiration. “You really did your homework. Xingyang is the poorest mountain village in our county.”

He sighed, face full of compassion. “The people there can’t help it. For generations, they lived by hunting, but now that’s forbidden. They have no choice but to leave and find work, and most can barely speak Mandarin, so finding jobs is hard. The village is half-way up the mountain, and there’s no land to farm. The dozens of families scrape by each year on the odd jobs their young men manage to find, just enough for food and drink. A few years back, they built a small classroom, but they have to pool their money to fix it up from time to time. Luckily, there’s a volunteer teacher who’s been there for years, teaching for free. The villagers now pin their hopes on their children learning something useful so they can have a better future. They all know the world has changed. Without an education, there’s really nothing you can do.”

Lin Lang and Wang Dashan listened in silence as the innkeeper poured out his heart. Lin Nan and Wang Jinsong said nothing either, quietly eating their bowls of hot porridge.

The innkeeper’s eyes grew moist as he spoke, and he hadn’t eaten a bite of his own porridge, finally serving it to the two children. “I’ll make something for myself later. It’s still a long way to Xingyang Village, and the road’s rough. The kids should eat more—there’s nothing along the way.”

Then he brought out a packet of biscuits and some instant noodles for them to take. He knew there were no supermarkets in town, and Lin Lang and his group seemed to have come unprepared.

Lin Lang and Wang Dashan thanked him profusely, accepting his kind gesture.

The two men and two boys shared a single egg and ate every grain of the plain porridge, then bade the innkeeper farewell and set off.

As soon as they left town, the road turned to pure dirt, full of potholes. Thankfully, they were in an off-road vehicle—otherwise, a car’s undercarriage would have been destroyed in minutes. Today’s journey was even longer than yesterday’s; they spent more time in the car, and it was less comfortable.

But this time, Lin Nan and Wang Jinsong did not complain once.

The endless dirt road, the ever-changing mountain scenery on either side—Lin Lang could not tell how far they were from their destination. The one good thing was that the weather was clear. Riding in an off-road vehicle through the mountains felt almost like an outing.

It wasn’t until noon that Lin Lang pulled over for a break. Stepping out, he took a deep breath of the mountain’s fresh air, trying to clear his head after hours in the car. Since it was winter, they hadn’t opened the windows, and the other three also took deep breaths of the pure mountain air.

What they lacked was food: only the biscuits and instant noodles from the innkeeper, and no hot water for the noodles. Wang Jinsong thought, “If only we had some roast chicken right now.”

In the end, they ate a few biscuits, drank some bottled water, and continued on their way.

Lin Lang figured that being underprepared wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. After all, the point was for the boys to experience hardship. If they had roast duck, beef jerky, and cola right now, how could they possibly understand what poverty felt like?

The off-roader continued on, now with Wang Dashan at the wheel. After another two hours, they finally reached the foot of a mountain, where a small wooden sign bore the crooked, hand-painted characters for Xingyang Village.

The car stopped by the sign. Lin Lang got out to check the slope, the width, and the condition of the mountain path. He told Wang Dashan, “The car can’t make it up. Lin Nan and I will go up and have a look. There’s too much stuff in the car for four people to carry; we’ll have to find someone to help.”

Wang Dashan agreed. “All right. We’ll wait in the car.”

Even though it was the wilderness, there was still daylight, so they didn’t have to worry about getting lost.

Soon, Lin Lang and Lin Nan made their way to the end of the mountain path, where they saw a house made of earth and black tiles. The walls were built from stones mixed with mud, the roof a patchwork of black tiles weighed down by stained white plastic sheeting.

Lin Nan was reminded of the house in his own village when he was very young, though even that was better than what stood before him now. At least the roof tiles there had been neatly laid and the stone walls set in cement. Later, when his father earned more money, they’d renovated the house, covering the outside in tiles and using bright red tiles for the roof—it was considered stylish in their village.

Lin Lang walked up to the wooden door of the earth house and, hearing nothing inside, knocked twice and called, “Is anyone home?”

After a moment, there was the sound of a chair scraping across the floor, followed by heavy footsteps on the packed earth. Then the door opened, revealing a young man with a thin moustache and small glasses.