Mud beads

Two weeks ago, Echizen gave Yu Pandi a piece of candy.

Yu Pandi was beaten up because of it.

When Echizen Toru first arrived in the Qinling Mountains, he had a smile on his face.

As the car drove out of Chang'an, it traversed one mountain road after another, and the further in it went, the weaker the cell phone signal became. The mountains in September were not hot, but there was a lot of rain. Fog hung between the walnut and chestnut trees on the slopes, making people's collars sticky with dampness.

Grandpa Yue's old house is at the end of the village. It has blue tiles, white walls, and a wooden threshold that has been worn smooth by time. There is a bamboo grove behind the house, and a narrow cement road in front of it. Down the road is a ditch, and further on, there is a cornfield that has been harvested more than halfway.

The driver helped him with his luggage, and he thanked the driver. Villagers who came to see what was going on praised him for his politeness, and he smiled and greeted them as uncles and aunts in a clean and gentle voice.

Only Old Master Yue knew that the better he smiled, the more troubled he was inside.

The old house had been cleaned in advance, the bedding was all new, and the water and electricity had been checked. The villagers said that Grandpa Yue was making his grandson suffer when he came back, but Yue Jianche thought it was absurd. If he were going to suffer, no one would have installed a water heater and air conditioner in advance, no one would have filled a drawer with cold medicine, stomach medicine, and aromatherapy, and no county leaders would have personally come to greet him.

What he meant by "suffering" was nothing more than not having a stable internet connection, no music room or computer, and no nanny available at any time.

It's already annoying enough.

Not long after the start of the second year of high school, something happened at school. The newly arrived young music teacher was dismissed, and Echizen Toru was called in to have his parents. The school's explanation was vague, mentioning things like professional ethics, negative influence, and immoral conduct. Echizen Toru sat in his office, neither defending himself nor admitting any wrongdoing.

The teacher has left.

He's still here.

That very night, Old Master Yue was so angry that he took him to the car and said, "Go live in the mountains for a month. Let him experience some hardship and learn how a person should live."

Koshima Toru did not resist.

Resistance was futile. He had known since childhood that the Yue family kept their word, especially his grandfather.

In the mountains, meals are eaten early. The first meal was noodles in fermented vegetable soup, cold shredded potatoes, and a plate of cured meat. Grandpa Yue ate with relish, while Yue Jianche picked up two pieces of food with his chopsticks and put them down. It wasn't that he couldn't endure hardship, but he just felt it was unnecessary.

The next afternoon, he saw Yu Pandi behind the house.

She carried a basket of pig feed down the slope. She was very thin, her old trousers were too short, revealing her ankles, and she wore a pair of ill-fitting rubber shoes. She walked quickly, the edge of the basket rubbing against her shoulders, and sweat dripped down her temples, leaving two shallow streaks on her dusty face.

On the same road, several children were walking home from school. Yu Zhaozu walked in front, his schoolbag hanging in front of him, his school uniform jacket open, and he was holding half a roasted sweet potato in his hand. When he saw Yu Pandi, he didn't call her "sister," but just threw the leftover sweet potato peel into her basket.

Yu Pandi didn't stop and continued walking forward.

Echizen Toru found this scene fascinating.

He had seen much injustice in the city. Injustice is usually packaged nicely: grades, quotas, background, recommendation letters. The injustice here wasn't even packaged; it was spread out wet and dripping in a basket like pig feed.

Toru Echizen sat on the stone steps, holding a piece of candy in his hand.

He brought it from the city. It smelled of sea salt and lemon, and the wrapping paper was shiny, which seemed out of place in this village.

Yu Pandi paused as she passed by. She wasn't looking at him, but at the candy.

Koshima Toru noticed it.

He placed the sugar on the millstone beside him and said with a smile, "Here you go."

Yu Pandi did not move.

He added, "Just for you."

She slowly reached out her hand, her movements very gentle, as if afraid the millstone would bite her. Her fingernails were full of black grime, and there were tiny cuts on the back of her hand. Yuejian Tetsu looked at her hand, a slight discomfort passing through his heart, but he still smiled.

"Have you eaten it?" he asked.

Yu Pandi shook her head.

She didn't know how to peel a candy wrapper and struggled for a long time. Echizen Toru didn't help her, only pointing with his chin: "Tear it from here."

She did as instructed.

Her eyes lit up the moment the sugar entered her mouth.

Eshima Toru was already fed up.

He considered giving her the remaining half-bag of candy to see if she would be moved to tears. But then he thought it was pointless. Giving too much at once would diminish its value. It's like feeding a dog; you can't dump the whole bag of kibble in, you have to toss it one piece at a time for it to follow your hand.

When the thought popped into his head, he didn't think it was inappropriate.

He'd given away countless gifts, from small items like milk tea and pastries costing tens of dollars to expensive bags worth tens of thousands. He'd also seen far too many people receive gifts. Some were delighted, some feigned indifference, and some were simply used to taking. No one would show that kind of expression over a single piece of candy.

It’s too cheap.

They're so easy to coax.

Yu Pandi went home with a candy in her mouth, keeping it closed the whole time. She couldn't bear to bite it; the lemony sweetness slowly melted under her tongue, making her nose tingle with sweetness.

She did not give it to Yu Zhaozu.

She had actually thought about it. Passing the village store, she considered spitting out the candy, wrapping it in paper, and taking it home for her younger brother. But the candy was already half melted and stained with her saliva; she couldn't give it to him.

She continued to suck on it.

When he got home, Yu Zhaozu was sitting on the doorstep doing his homework. With his keen sense of smell, he looked up and asked, "What did you eat?"

Yu Pandi stood there without saying a word.

Yu Zhaozu ran over and sniffed closely: "Candy! You ate candy!"

He immediately burst into tears.

At first, she only sobbed a couple of times, but when no one came over, she started wailing loudly. She cried until Liu Guizhen rushed out of the kitchen, her hands still covered in flour.

"Where did you get the candy?"

Yu Pandi stepped back.

Liu Guizhen grabbed her and searched her pockets. Finding nothing, she grew even angrier: "You have something good but don't know how to bring it back for your brother? Your brother studies hard, what's wrong with him eating a piece of candy? You're a good-for-nothing, always so greedy!"

Yu Zhaozu cried and hiccuped, "She wouldn't give it to me, she stole it."

Yu Pandi didn't eat that night.

She overheard Liu Guizhen coaxing Yu Zhaozu: "Mom will buy you two tomorrow, not one for her."

Yu Zhaozu asked, "Is it the white rabbit?"

"I'll buy it for you."

Yu Pandi squatted beside the woodshed, clutching her stomach, suddenly feeling a pang of regret. Not regret for not giving any to her younger brother. She regretted eating too quickly, for not savoring the taste for a little longer. The beatings and hunger had already arrived, but the sweetness had vanished so soon.

In the courtyard, Yu Zhaozu was drinking egg noodles, still sobbing, saying that his sister was bad. The sweetness was long gone, leaving only a bit of bitterness on Yu Pandi's tongue.

The next day, Toru Echizen saw her by the river.

Her lips were a little swollen, and the basket on her back was fuller than yesterday. Echizen Toru sat on a rock, far away from her, afraid that the mud on her shoes would splash onto him.

"Is the sugar sweet?" he asked.

Yu Pandi stopped.

Echizen Toru smiled gently: "Was your brother crying?"

She suddenly looked up.

he knows.