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

Good evening, Teacher Qi.

"Good evening, Uncle Li. You're not feeling well, so you should go home and rest early. Don't stay out in the wind and catch a cold."

"Teacher Qi, have you had dinner yet?"

"Not yet. The village generator broke down, and the light bulbs aren't working. I got a new one to replace it. We'll eat after that."

"Teacher Qi, you've worked so hard! It's so late and you're still fixing our light bulbs! Come over to my place for dinner after you're done, I'll ask my wife to cook a couple of dishes!"

"Haha, no need, Uncle Zhou. My daughter, Alin, has already cooked dinner and is waiting for me to come home."

"Teacher Qi, my child is so naughty, I'm so sorry to trouble you!"

"It's alright, Uncle Liu! Mingyu is very well-behaved at school; he got a perfect score on his last test!"

Xu Nian followed behind Qi Yu, curiously observing the villagers deep in the mountains.

Most of them were emaciated, with sallow complexions and weathered faces; their spines were bent and deformed from years of hard work.

They wore simple clothes covered in grime and patched marks, and straw hats, with hunched figures standing beneath the bamboo branches.

Their eyes were filled with curiosity and wariness as they looked at Xu Nian, this outsider.

After all, it's a secluded little mountain village, so the appearance of unfamiliar faces is a very novel thing.

However, after being introduced by Qi Yu and the village chief, they quickly lowered their guard and greeted Xu Nian warmly, shaking hands with her.

The group passed through the center of the village and arrived at the power distribution room on the mountainside.

Despite being called a power distribution room, it was actually just a small hut built of stones with a roof to shelter it from the wind and rain; it looked extremely rudimentary.

Because the generator produces a lot of noise when it's running, the power distribution room was set up on a hillside about 100 meters away from the village to avoid disturbing the villagers. A long power line was used to transmit the electricity generated by the generator to the village.

Inside the stone house, a generator that had stopped working lay quietly, covered in a layer of dust.

Qi Yu put on rubber gloves, squatted down, picked up pliers, and slowly untangled the wires wrapped around the generator.

He wanted to move the broken generator out, but the stone house was too small, and he couldn't turn around properly. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't move it.

"Brother Xu, come lend a hand," he called out to Xu Nian outside the house.

"Okay."

Xu Nian took a step inside, placed her hand on the generator, and together with Qi Yu, one inside and one outside, they huffed and puffed as they carried the generator out.

Then, they carried the new generator into the stone house in the same manner.

Qi Yu skillfully connected the wires, poured in gasoline, carefully checked everything, and only started the generator after confirming that everything was fine.

"Buzzing..."

The generator started running, emitting a low, rumbling noise.

"All done." Qi Yu wiped his sweat and crawled out of the stone house.

Xu Nian stared at the broken generator in front of her, speechless with astonishment.

"You say you're so handy? Why don't you fix it? It would save you the trouble of carrying this heavy thing up the mountain."

Qi Yu gave an awkward laugh.

"I'm a teacher, not a plumber. How would I know how to fix this? If I really knew how, I wouldn't have gone through all this trouble to replace it with a new one."

As he spoke, he rubbed his aching lower back and hissed.

"Are you alright?"

Xu Nian pinched his waist twice.

"It's alright."

Qi Yu waved his hand.

"It's an old problem; just apply some ointment when you get back."

As they were talking, the village chief, his body hunched over, slowly walked over, carrying a dim, yellow lantern.

"How's it going, Village Chief? Is the light on in your house yet?" Qi Yu looked at him expectantly.

The village chief shook his head: "Not yet."

"What about the other people's houses?"

"No, not either."

Upon hearing this, Qi Yu immediately frowned.

"This is bad."

"What's wrong?"

Xu Nian asked.

Qi Yu returned to the stone house, squatted down, and patted the buzzing generator.

The machine was running faithfully, emitting a slight vibration, and seemed to be working perfectly.

"The generator is fine, so the power lines on the road must be broken."

He looked at the power line that extended from the generator and connected to the village for hundreds of meters, and suddenly felt a chill run down his spine.

"So what do we do now?"

Xu Nian looked at the wire wrapped around his neck, her expression grave.

Fortunately, Qi Yu had anticipated that the power lines might be damaged, so when he bought the generator in town, he also bought a new power line.

With his rudimentary electrical skills, he figured the problem could be solved simply by replacing the potentially faulty wires with new ones.

The problem is that the total length of the power lines in the village is several hundred meters.

Even if we determine that the problem lies in the bus line from the generator to the village because every household is not turning on their lights, that bus line alone is over a hundred meters long.

The electrical wire that Qi Yu brought was only a dozen meters long at most, which was not enough to make a simple replacement.

"What can we do then? We can only investigate segment by segment."

Qi Yu instructed the village chief to bring him the ladder.

"Would you investigate this?"

Xu Nian raised an eyebrow. He didn't know anything about electrical engineering, but he had seen electrical work done.

To find out which part of the wire is causing the problem, you need to use a bunch of tools such as a test pen.

The only tool Qi Yu had was a pair of rusty pliers.

"Of course."

Qi Yu patted him on the shoulder and gave him a wicked smile.

"I'll cut the wire in half and throw you the end that's connected to the generator. If you scream from the shock, then that part of the wire isn't broken; otherwise, it is."

Xu Nian glared at him, annoyed.

"Haha, actually I'm not sure either."

Qi Yu shook his head helplessly.

"We can only try and see if we can get lucky."

The two waited for a while, and then the village chief came carrying a ladder. It wasn't a sturdy triangular ladder, but just a simple straight ladder. The wood was old, and it wobbled on the ground, looking dangerous.

Qi Yu dropped his playful expression, turned off the generator, climbed the ladder into the air, and grabbed the power lines.

The night was dark, and the mountain was pitch black. He couldn't see anything, so he could only carefully run his fingertips over every inch of the wire's insulation to check for any breaks.

Xu Nian and the village chief stood on the ground, holding the ladder one in front of the other, and nervously looked up at Qi Yu.

Although they had tried their best to keep the ladder steady, the top of the ladder inevitably wobbled due to the lever principle.

In addition, they needed to constantly move around to check the power lines in different sections. Qi Yu swayed back and forth on the ladder, like a kite string about to fall from the sky at any moment.

Fortunately, after some effort, Qi Yu managed to find a small dent in the wire.