一釐米的陽光

The next day, when it was almost time to leave, to Great aunt’s home came a boy named A Liang.

The boy was rather timid, from his looks, seemed two or three years older than Ji Yi.

That boy visited out of his admiration, with a low voice spoke a few words with Ji Chengyang. He said, he wanted to leave that place, not only leave by himself, but also taking together with him the people in the village away for a life with more dignity. Great aunt laughed. The town chief who came to see Ji Chengyang off also laughed, poking the young boy’s forehead saying, the child is foolish, never mind that his grades aren’t good, he still likes to daydream.  The town chief also said, in the future, being able to earn a lot of money to marry a wife is more important.

This town had more than three thousand people, already considered to be a big town.

Three thousand people, still not as many as the number of people on the tiny campus of the attached high school.

Knowledge alters lives, but not having knowledge……

Ji Yi stretched out her hands over the stove to warm herself, unable to imagine how, apart from doing manual labor, this young older brother could make it through.

But, just relying on manual labor…would he really be able to fulfill his dreams?

Ji Chengyang stretched out his hands, pulling the little boy in front of him, spoke to him very clearly: “Have the courage bear on your shoulder the person you dream of becoming,  only then would you have the chance to become the person in other people’s dreams.”

As the boy listened to this sentence, his eyes glimmered, only to be filled with shame after a short moment, “…I only think about being able to change myself, change the lives of the the brothers who are by my side, want to earn a lot of money, want to live a life that is better than other people’s.”

He smiled, encouraging the boy without any reservations: “There is nothing wrong with this.”

She thought about his words.

When the two had gotten on the car, Ji Yi finally asked him in a low voice: “Why, didn’t you tell him to have a bigger dream?

This would be more like the standard teaching they received from a young age.

She looked at Great aunt, town chief, and A Liang who came to see them off by the side of the car, all of a sudden feeling loath to part with Great aunt who had taught her how to sow.

He also looked out the window, but was in fact answering her question: “You cannot ask a person with a hungry stomach to selflessly sacrifice, right? It’s not only saving the world that can be called ‘an ideal’.

She considered it, softly gave out an “um”.

Suddenly, she saw him use his fingers to feel below his left pocket, that was the spot which she had st.i.tched up the night before. She was embarra.s.sed, “Great aunt said, patching up wouldn’t look nice, such a good piece of clothing, just st.i.tch up for now, so that the hole doesn’t get bigger. Wait until back in Beijing, then have a professional seamstress take care of it.”

As the car drove on, it snowed; on the road, the cars they pa.s.sed by were extremely few.

Perhaps it was as the driver had said, this place was not yet a scenic area, so it was only extremely adventurous young people who would come. Half way through, they ran into a group of people whose car had broken down, the driver was very kind, got off the car and quickly helped them. Those three grown boys from that car came over, talked to Ji Chengyang.

However…Ji Chengyang actually did not paid them much attention.

It was only when the driver called out Ji Chengyang’s name, telling him that they were almost ready to leave, that one of the three grown boys was suddenly taken by surprise, very excitedly grasped the car window with his hands and poked his head in, “You are Ji Chengyang? Ji Chengyang from Dong Cheng? I am Luo Zihao, I am w.a.n.g Haoran’s cousin-brother, just got an offer from Pennsylva(1), I am your junior-to-be.

Ji Chengyang lightly murmured, “I think I have heard w.a.n.g Haoran mentioned it before.”

……

Ji Yi listened until she felt like laughing, lowering her head and laughed with pressed lips for a short moment.

That man named Luo Zihao, with his way that showed his extreme respect for Ji Chengyang, continued to chat with him for a long while. Because Luo Zihao’s group of three people was already on their way back, they enthusiastically proposed a small meet up after he returned to Beijing… Ji Yi listened and looked on, suddenly experiencing the same kind of wors.h.i.+p that Nuannuan had.

Nuannuan’s dad once said, in every group of friend would always be a person who was the soul, only if that kind of person exists would that group of friends stay in tact. She only pretended to listen attentively, but right then and there, seeing another grown-up older brother chatting with him with such extreme reverence, to the point that the other two also had that look of admiration, she suddenly understood.

Little uncle Ji… Must be that so-called soul person.

Those people’s cars were finally fixed, and should be able to sc.r.a.pe by until they reach the nearest city.

As they bid farewell, Ji Chengyang, finally thought of something, suddenly asked: “I remember, in your group friends, there is one named Gu Pingsheng.”

Luo Zihao quickly smiled, “A good brother of mine.”

Ji Chengyang also smiled, just as the driver was preparing to drive away, he threw Luo Zihao a packet of cigarettes, “Us Chinese were all outstanding, don’t make us lose face.”

The car had started moving.

Luo Zihao, suddenly moved by those words, also fished out a packet of cigarettes from his pocket, throwing it in through the window, “Have a safe journey!”

The car picked up speed, continuing on the path winding up the mountain.

Surrounded by clouds and mist, extremely picturesque.

Those few people they met in pa.s.sing, after another turn, were no longer visible.

Ji Yi looked at him taking out a cigarette from that cigarette packet, holding it in his hand, lighting it up with a lighter, then, under the early morning ray, facing the outside of the window, slowly exhaled a puff of smoke.

The wind was strong, not a moment pa.s.sed before it was snowing.

She felt a little cold, pulling up the zipper of her down jacket; in the following second, Ji Chengyang had already helped her pull up the hood on her jacket on her head, “Cold?”

She nodded, “A little.”

“This afternoon, we’ll be able to see snow mountains.” He told her.

Snow mountains.

She was instantly expectant.

In the afternoon, they arrived at a stop, finding that the weather had unexpectedly turned warm.

When the driver said they would keep going towards the deeper part, the local host became anxious, saying that it was very dangerous, the condition of the road to Aden village was very poor, very difficult to drive.

“Last year, there were even two young people, just…” the host talked with the driver in a low voice, but the route was no longer far, could they just give up like this?

“There are places which, going to see them before they become scenic areas, is not bad.” Ji Chengyang in the end decided to take her.

Embracing Ji Yi, Ji Chengyang rode on a horse, instead of walking by foot, into the mountains.

There was only a dirt road made by the footsteps of human and horses, moving towards the depths of the forests, advancing without stopping, they even pa.s.sed a precipice.

She leaned on Ji Chengyang, did not quite dare to look at the view over the precipice, her entire face and head were wrapped around with scarf, leaving exposed only a pair of eyes, listening to the navigator talked on windingly. When they finally saw the snow mountains, she was completely in awe.

Multi-color patches of trees, intense red and yellow, adorned the vast stretch of green; out there as far as one could see, were the white snow mountains……

There seemed to be almost no one else.

On four sides, other than their group, was only one single procession far away.

They stopped on the gra.s.sland, unexpectedly caught sight of a rainbow.

This was not the same as the rainbows in the cities, stretching across the sky, extremely beautiful.

Ji Yi remembered him once, to console her, used a gla.s.s of water on a table to create a rainbow. And now, at this moment, she, with him, found this real, vast rainbow. She could not help lowering her scarf, breathing in the air in this place, “So beautiful.”

“Um,” he smiled, “Very beautiful.”

Here, there were only the sky and the earth, one can forget so many troubles.

In the evening when they had returned to the reception point, Ji Yi was still very excited, but also finally felt uncomfortable. The doctor who came with them hurriedly gave her a check up, then took out a simple oxygen canister, teaching her how to breathe in.

Ji Yi put the oxygen mask over her mouth and nose, obediently learning, once in a while stealing glances at Yi Chengyang who was by the bonfire.

Because of the light shone off the fire, the light and shadow on his body constantly s.h.i.+fted, drawing his shadow stretched long, as if his whole person were even taller and leaner. His facial features were defined, with the light from the fire casting on his profile, indeed very beautiful.

Especially that pair of eyes under the short, black hair.

Even more beautiful than the stars above this gra.s.sland, as if they had been painted.

Suddenly, a Tibetan child ran over, stopped in front of her, examining her breathing mask. She blinked at the child, separated by the breathing mask, using an unclear voice to say: “h.e.l.lo.”

The child grinned at her, then ran away.

So cute. She smiled, keeping her head low, breathing in.

Because of alt.i.tude sickness, her lips also felt very dry.

Must get better soon, otherwise… next time, he would not take her along anymore.

Next time? She thought of the word, suddenly took in a deep inhale, because she was breathed in pure oxygen too deeply, she felt a little pain.

“Xixi,” his climbing shoes appeared in her line of vision, looking up, he had already half couched down, “Happy Birthday.”

……Been having too much fun, completely forgotten her own birthday.

She lowered the transparent mask, speaking with not a lot of strength: “Thank you……little uncle Ji.”

“It’s okay if you don’t want to call me uncle.” He smiled, obviously aware that she did not like to call him that way.

He handed hot b.u.t.ter tea to her, saying that it has curing effect on alt.i.tude sickness; he himself was instead drinking the wine in his hand. Ji Yi curiously looked at the white wine in his hand, he seemed to have understood, “This is honey highland barley wine.”

She was curious.

He pressed his lips, laughing, “This one you cannot drink.”

On the road on their return trip, she had evidently recovered back to normal.

When they were coming here, they had to wind around many roads to visit Great aunt, taking more than three days’ time. It was much better on their return, only around one day and a half, they were already close to Chengdu. On their return, most of the time, she sat on the car leaning on the window sleeping, sometimes, when she was awake, she would curiously look at what Ji Chengyang was doing, then continued to look at the view for a while, then fall back to sleep.

The dreams she had during the journey, were all fragmented in bits and pieces, one moment she was being scolded in detail by her teacher, another moment was the dress rehearsal of the music band, as the scenes varied, before her eyes appeared that day when he was at one corner of the rehearsal hall, playing on the piano, fingers moving up and down, like moving clouds and flowing water……

(1) 賓西法尼亞大學 （Bīngxīfǎníyà Dàxué): University of Pennsylvania. In the novel, Luo Zihao called the school shortly as 賓法