Wang Xiang grumbled to Zheng Kai, but Zheng Kai completely ignored him. He just kept eating while saying to Zhao Yuan, “Hey, bro, I want one more fish.”

Wang Xiang went to sit down beside Chen Wanxin and said, “Wanxin, could you please…”

Chen Wanxin exchanged a look with Zhao Yuan. Zhao Yuan spread out his hands and said, “I’m too tired to cook now.”

After a moment of thought, Wang Xiang went to beg Lin Wenxi. “Brother Wenxi, it’s my bad. I’m sorry. Please help me.”

Lin Wenxi pretended to misunderstand him and said, “But I don’t know how to fry a fish. How can I help you?” While saying this, he carefully picked the fish bones out before putting the fish into his mouth.

Wang Xiang bashfully whispered something into Lin Wenxi’s ear. The next moment, Lin Wenxi stopped eating and looked at Zhao Yuan.

“If you give me a sweet smile, I’ll cook the fish.” Zhao Yuan rubbed his hands gleefully and gave Lin Wenxi a covetous stare.

“Stop talking such nonsense.” Lin Wenxi smiled and then pretended to be angry. Zhao Yuan was excited upon seeing that. He heated the wok and poured some oil into it. A moment later, a fried fish was ready. Upon getting the fish, Wang Xiang was nearly moved to tears.

When Lin Wenxi put his fried fish into his mouth, he was stunned and thought, “This taste is so familiar, but I’m sure that I’ve never met this Zhao Yuan before. Did I meet this guy in my previous life or something? How come every now and then I’ll feel that I’ve met him before? I clearly remember this taste, but I just can’t remember when and where I tasted something like this before.”

For the girls on the team, they would have never come this far without the help from the boys. The boys often helped them carry their backpacks. They would even coax the girls into giving backpacks to them sometimes. The girls also had never expected to enjoy such tasty food cooked by a boy. When they eating the fish, they could not help but feel grateful for the boys’ help from the bottom of their hearts. The boys felt grateful to travel with these girls too. With them being around, they had a lot of fun and comfort all along the way. Zhang An’an would stitch up their broken clothes. Chen Wanxin and Shu Xiaoman would fold their clothes neatly and manage to fix them into their backpacks every day. With the help of the girls, the team remained neatly-dressed all these days.

After having such a nice meal, the team traveled fast in the afternoon. They went fishing again and caught several simple-minded fish from the river for dinner. After that, they never met such simple and naive fish again. When they were tired of walking in the afternoon, they ran into several students who got burned by the heat of the sun. The girls teased them and felt excited to continue their travel. The team walked along the main stream of the river in the beginning and then took a turn into mountains. After that, they walked along a small tributary river for two hours. In the late afternoon, they saw some smoke curling up from kitchen chimneys ahead. It was a mountain village. They walked along a meandering path toward the village. The grass beside the path had all turned yellow in the autumn. Gradually, they could see the houses in the village clearly. They were built with blue-green bricks and black roof tiles. Bamboo fences were built around every house. It was a quaint and peaceful village.

When they reached the village, the villagers receive them warmly.

“You don’t need to thank me anymore. Some soldiers came here and told us everything. You’re students and this trip is part of your military training. They told us to take a good care of you.” The villager who was in charge of receiving them said cordially and then treated them with all kinds of beans, dried peppers and wild fruits. The villager even wanted to cook the rooster who crowed every day at sunrise to treat the students.

Zheng Kai pointed at a group of hens in the villager’s yard and said, “From a biological perspective, the hens would feel sad upon knowing that their spouse died accidentally.

Wang Xiang added, “‘What’s love? We’ll remain in love until death tears us apart.’ From a biological perspective, once the cock dies, the hens may kill themselves for love. So please don’t kill the rooster.” The villager was stunned upon hearing that and said, “You people from the city are really strange…”

The villager could offer them only two bedrooms. The three girls agreed to sleep together in one bedroom, but the boys could hardly accept that four of them would have to sleep together in a room for the night. Zhao Yuan said that he would make a bed for himself on the floor, and Lin Wenxi said that he wanted to sleep in another house. After a while, a youth came to take Lin Wenxi to his home for the night. Although the youth was just a countryman, he looked quite handsome and elegant. Zhang An’an and Shu Xiaoman could not help wondering what was going to happen between this youth and Lin Wenxi tonight.

Lin Wenxi and the youth walked for about 10 minutes and reached a house on the top of a small hill. They rested in the yard for a while, and then the youth’s elder sister came back.

She entered the yard, carrying a basin of clothes. She was dressed in white clothes and looked like a fairy under the moonlight. Lin Wenxxi was somewhat stunned by her beauty, and the young woman also seemed to be a little surprised upon seeing Lin Wenxi. She introduced herself, “Nice to meet you, my name is Zhu Ziping.” Lin Wenxi whispered in classical Chinese, “Wide gooses flew into the clouds. Ziping returned under the moonlight.”

Zhu Ziping smiled while covering her face with a hand and said, “That’s a good line of a poem.”

The youth frowned slightly and said, “Sis, I really don’t understand the classical Chinese. I’ll go to boil some water.” With these words, he walked away, leaving Lin Wenxi and Zhu Ziping in the yard.

Upon seeing Zhu Ziping hang up the clothes to dry in the yard at night, Lin Wenxi was confused and asked, “Why don’t you hang up your clothes to dry during the day?”

Zhu Ziping replied smilingly, “It’s too hot during the day. At night, the dew will gather on the clothes and the wind will blow them dry. When they’re dry, they’re cool and comfortable to wear.”

Lin Wenxi was impressed and asked, “Why does someone so elegant like you live here in this small mountain village?”

Zhu Ziping smiled slightly under the moonlight with no expression on her thin face. “I’m tired of the life outside and happy to live here on my own. This is what I want,” said Zhu Ziping.

Lin Wenxi nodded and thought, “There must be something behind this choice of her, but she doesn’t want to tell it to anyone else. I’ll just stay here for a night. I’d better not ask too many questions about a woman’s personal life.” Lin Wenxi stood up and walked around, observing this place carefully. Zhu Ziping did not stop him.

When the water was ready, Lin Wenxi went to take a bath. As he had not taken a bath for days, he really enjoyed it. During the day, when his cellphone had been able to get some signal, he had received a call from his father, Lin Ziwei. He asked him to give a good performance but did not ask anything about his health. After talking to his father on the cellphone, he talked to his mother and shared some interesting things with her. Unfortunately, the signal went down all of a sudden, which made him feel quite sad. Now this bath made him forget about the sadness and feel happy again.

The electricity supply was cut off at about 9:00 at night. When Lin Wenxi and the youth were about to go to sleep, Zhu Ziping invited Lin Wenxi to her room.

Lin Wenxi followed Zhu Ziping into her room, which was dimly lit by a red candle. He sat on a stool and gazed at a big thing covered by a piece of blue cloth, while thinking, “It looks like a piano. But how come a piano is left in such a mountain village?”

“You created a nice poetic line for me the moment you met me. I’m really pleased to see you here. Although you’ll just stay here for a night, I still want to play a tune for you to repay your kindness and also as a way of saying goodbye to you.” With these words, Zhu Ziping removed the blue cloth, revealing a shiny grand piano.

Lin Wenxi was stunned and thought, “Grand pianos are usually used for concerts and rank among the most expensive pianos.” He approached the piano to observe it carefully. The wood was black and shinny, looking like a piece of black crystal. He opened the fallboard, which was thin and smooth, and removed a piece of blue, glossy cloth covering the keyboard. After that, he saw something on the piano. It was a big, shield-like mark with a gold-plated letter B on it. “What? This is a Bösendorfer piano?” Lin Wenxi’s face changed as he thought, “I first saw such a top-notch Bösendorfer piano back in a grand concert when I was a child. Every Bösendorfer piano from Vienna is made of best-quality spruce wood by skillful craftsmen. It’s said that it’ll take them several years to make such a piano. Even in China, spruce wood is very expensive, as spruce trees grow only in the northernmost part of the country, such as Heilongjiang Province. It’s an extraordinary piano. But how come it suddenly appears in front of me in such a mountain village?” Lin Wenxi was so impressed and could not help but take a step backward.

It was going to be an extraordinary night.