The white rose I picked up cried and said she liked me.

The two walked down the slippery mountain path, hitched a ride on a farm vehicle that was going the same way, and went to a nearby town to buy some necessities.

When he returned to the mountain trail, Qi Yu had an old mailbag on his back, a generator in his hand, and several thick wires wrapped around his neck.

Xu Nian followed behind him, carrying a bag of rice and a can of oil in each hand.

The mountain path was completely soaked after the rain. There was no smooth road surface, only stones embedded in the soil, scattered at different heights, barely forming a winding path upwards.

It looks dangerous, but it's actually not safe at all.

One careless move and you will be smashed to pieces, leaving no trace of your remains.

"Brother Xu, be careful, this is the most slippery spot, you'll fall if you're not careful."

Qi Yu put down the generator, turned around and reached out to help Xu Nian.

Xu Nian was panting heavily, her chest tight, and her steps unsteady. She had to carefully watch the stones under her feet with every step, afraid of missing a step.

The first time he went up the mountain, it only took him an hour to reach the school where Qi Yu taught.

We've been walking for an hour and a half now, but we haven't even seen a glimpse of the mountainside.

Looking at Qi Yu's back, his broad shoulders were slightly tilted by the weight of the heavy objects, and there were still mud spots on the hem of his clothes. Suddenly, he felt a sense of respect.

This man has walked back and forth on such mountain roads for countless years.

"Tiger is right, you really couldn't have come to the mountains to teach."

Xu Nian took a breath, her tone slightly teasing but without a trace of sarcasm.

Qi Yu smiled upon hearing this.

"That's right. My parents both say I'm missing a screw when I come to this poor place to be a schoolteacher."

He put the generator down again, rubbed his sore arms, and looked up at the mountaintop, where wisps of smoke drifted in the drizzle.

"After graduating from university, I plunged headlong into this remote mountain village."

"The first place I went to was my hometown village. When my parents found out, they took the feather duster that used to beat me when I was a child and chased me for two miles, scolding me so much that I could barely lift my head."

"They said I finally got out of the mountains and found a stable job in the city, so why would I go back to that godforsaken place to be a thankless and exhausting schoolteacher? They said I'm crazy."

"Later, I couldn't avoid it, so I ran to the pond by the village and stood there. My parents can't swim, so they picked up stones from the shore and threw them at me. They didn't really hit me, but they were so angry. Thinking about it now, I still find it funny."

As he spoke, he stepped across a rushing stream, but his foot suddenly slipped, and he instantly lost his balance, causing the generator to sink as well.

Xu Nian reacted quickly, grabbing his arm and using all her strength to barely steady him, preventing a tragedy in which he and the generator fell into the river together.

Qi Yu took a breath, smiled at him, and said with a hint of apology in his eyes, "Thanks, Brother Xu."

"So what are you after? There are so many schools in the city, can't they accommodate someone as big as you?"

Xu Nian released her grip, her tone still teasing, but inwardly she was more serious.

Qi Yu bent down to steady the generator, his tone softening.

"Actually, I was initially assigned to Yuncheng No. 1 High School, but at that time the city had a teaching support mission, encouraging teachers to go to remote areas. I was selected and had to stay in the countryside for a year."

"I figured since I'm going to be teaching in a rural area anyway, I might as well go back to my hometown. At least I'll know the way and be able to take better care of my parents."

He skillfully climbed to the top of a nearby tree, picked a ripe wild fruit, and tossed it to Xu Nian.

The two sat on a rock under the tree, slowly munching on the wild fruit, which had a slightly astringent taste, but also a faint sweetness.

"But later, when I looked at those children, my thoughts changed."

Qi Yu lowered his voice, his gaze fixed on the distant mountain valley.

"Most of these remote mountain villages don't have schools, and even if they do, the conditions are so harsh that they can't retain teachers, so they all eventually close down."

"Even if there are schools and teachers, many families cannot afford to send their children to school. When the children are a few years old, they have to go to work in the fields with their parents and be trapped in the mountains for their whole lives, only able to farm and herd cattle, repeating the lives of the previous generation."

Xu Nian munched on a wild fruit, remaining silent as silence enveloped the two of them.

He suddenly remembered that Qi Yu also came from the mountains. Back then, he was forced to interrupt his studies and go out to work because he couldn't afford to study. That's how the two of them met.

It turns out that he didn't just act on a whim; he wanted to leave a way out of the mountains for children like himself who, in the past, even studying was a luxury.

The vague sense of admiration in my heart suddenly became clear and heavy.

"So, after my teaching term ended, I stayed on."

Qi Yu stood up, patted the mud off his backside, picked up the generator again, and his steps became more steady.

"You're quite remarkable."

Xu Nian followed behind him, sighing softly, her tone devoid of any perfunctoriness.

Qi Yu shook his head, a bitter smile on his face: "What am I? There are people greater than me."

"Who?" Xu Nian pressed.

"Ah Lin." Qi Yu's voice softened, his smile faded, replaced by guilt and heartache.

"She followed me for more than ten years and never enjoyed a single good day. From one mountain to another, she was my teaching assistant, boiling water, chopping wood, planting vegetables, and feeding chickens. She braved wind and rain and never complained."

He paused, raised his hand to touch his cheek, his tone full of guilt.

"As you can see, she looks so weathered now, almost like a rough guy like me. When I show the kids pictures of her when she was young, they don't even recognize her."

As he laughed, his voice became hoarse. He raised his hand to wipe the corner of his eye, trying to keep the moisture from falling.

He went into the mountains and brought hope to the children.

Zhao Lin, the once pampered heiress, set aside all her pride and stayed with him in the deep mountains, working tirelessly and without complaint.

She kept her promise from back then. Even when he was delivering food, she would sit on the back of his electric scooter and accompany him through wind and rain.

But he never kept his promise and never let her have a single day of peace and comfort.

Qi Yu wiped the corners of his eyes, took a deep breath, and continued walking forward, his voice returning to calm.

"Actually, Xu Xi is also great."

"The root cause of poverty in the mountains is the inconvenient transportation."

"Without roads, the crops grown by the people in the mountains can't be transported out, and daily necessities from outside the mountains can't be brought in either. Many of my colleagues want to come and teach in the area, but they can't walk on these dirt roads, they can't climb the mountains, and they simply can't get in."

"After Xu Xi made money from his business, he began to support these impoverished mountainous areas by building roads, bridges, and schools."

"In the past, it would take me at least a day to get back to my hometown from Yuncheng. If I missed the bus, I would have to stay overnight in the county town."

"Things are different now. There's a road connecting the village now, and it only takes less than two hours to drive back from the city."

"A new school has been built in the village, and every household can send their children there to study."

"She also funded the construction of a vegetable planting base in our village. The villagers work at the base and their harvest is several times that of farming on their own. They can not only eat their fill, but also transport the surplus vegetables along the road to sell. Every household has built a new house, and life is gradually getting better."

"Wherever I went to teach, she would provide financial assistance to help the people in those villages escape poverty."

Qi Yu stopped, put down the generator, and pointed in the direction of the foot of the mountain.

Xu Nian looked in the direction he pointed and saw a group of people wearing safety helmets working in the misty rain, their figures shrouded in the rain and fog.

They are building something called hope and bringing it into this mountain.

"I changed one generation in the village, she changed generations to come."