Of Mountains and Rivers Chapter 8
I Must’ve Drank Too Much. He Explained His Loss of Self-Control With This Single Phrase.
They spent more than half an hour going through countless rounds of ‘you use sign language, I guess’, both of them like chickens speaking with a duck.
By the time they took a break, their mouths and tongues were completely dry. Two people, both at their wits’ end, sat opposite of each other; when big eyes stared into small eyes, Nanshan would pour out a cup of wine for him – this became the only way he could communicate his feelings.
After he drank the alcohol and moistened his throat, they’d continue signing.
Chu Huan gradually got used to the alcohol’s fishiness – there was even a hint of wild middle-grade medicinal mellowness to it – and in the end, he couldn’t even remember how many bowls he drank. Either way, the effects began to rear their head; he leaned against the head of the bed in a slightly drunken state, watching how Xiao Fang led the miming show with his up-and-down jumping.
He only saw this man store oxygen below his belly, straddle into a horse stance, and yell as he spread both hands, appearing as if he was blocking something’s way.
Chu Huan thought about it in confusion. “Stop? Don’t move? This road is impassable?”
Nanshan laughed heartily whilst Xiao Fang shook his head despairingly. Then, he closed his hands together, hung his wrists, and rhythmically shook them.
Chu Huan thought he understood this, and suddenly yelled, “Horse riding!”
Nanshan relayed his words to Xiao Fang, causing that dear friend to get so angry he suddenly revealed his throat and yelled a few times. He flashed his hammer-like fists, appearing as if he really wanted to smash out Chu Huan’s brain and wash it well.
Chu Huan smiled bitterly and touched his nose. “…It can't be Gangnam Style, right?”
Nanshan stopped Xiao Fang with a sound just in case he angered himself to death. Chu Huan found this handsome guy’s words to be very useful; just by opening his mouth, the indignant Xiao Fang immediately shut up with complete obedience.
Like a cornered beast, Xiao Fang angrily paced around a few times, still unwilling to give up. After a while, he stood still before stretching out a large bear paw and setting it up before him – he waved it like a fan, moving it back and forth.
Chu Huan: “Uh…”
The other two looked at him expectantly.
Chu Huan felt his teeth ache slightly. “Uh… A big slap on the face?”
The one with beautiful big eyes and the brother with braided hair seemed to lack any performance abilities, but God opened another window for him – judging from his performance, he must’ve had good skills for home robberies.
Chu Huan smiled with embarrassment. “May I ask what this friend’s name is?”
Xiao Fang didn’t understand, so Nanshan answered for him; to Chu Huan, it sounded like a string of endless and pleasant nonsense.
Only then did he understand the name ‘Nanshan’ was most likely assigned to him by someone who could speak Chinese. This person’s native name sounded slightly more complicated and odd.
Seeing Chu Huan’s expression waver, Nanshan warmly explained what the name meant. With a splendid smile, he opened the dictionary, pointed to the man with braided hair, gave a thumbs-up to express his appreciation, then spread out five bloody words in front of Chu Huan – ‘vicious’ ‘and’ ‘ferocious’ ‘hairy’ 'monkey’.
Chu Huan: “…”
Was, uh, ‘vicious and ferocious hairy monkey’ their peculiar aesthetic culture or did the handsome guy make another typo?
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It wasn’t until Chu Huan finished drinking Nanshan’s first jar of alcohol did he graze the doorway to communicate with the other.
“So, what you’re saying is, the person you intended to pick up at the station yesterday is a teacher meant to teach your clan because they work in a program that brings education to underdeveloped areas?” Chu Huan asked.
The moment the word ‘teacher’ was spoken aloud, Nanshan’s eyes suddenly lit up, appearing as if a small pair of golden crows settled in. Chu Huan thought he’d become drunk from these minority brothers’ home-brewed alcohol; he was so dazzled by those eyes he felt dizzy.
Nanshan swiftly found the characters ‘old’ and ‘handsome’ in the dictionary, not even checking the radicals before instantly flipping to the pages; it’s as if he was more familiar with these two characters than his own name.
…Of course, familiar didn’t mean correct.
“It’s ‘old’, ‘master’, not ‘old’, ‘handsome’1,” Chu Huan corrected. He stretched out his hand, intending to take the dictionary and point out the correct characters before suddenly remembering the serious attitude the other felt towards it.
There can’t possibly be a deity attached to this thing, right? Chu Huan whispered in his heart.
He felt he was being a bit rude, so he paused and retracted the hand he’d stretched out a few centimetres.
The motions of his hand reaching out before retracting happened in a flash, yet Nanshan somehow understood. He immediately lifted the scrappy dictionary with both hands and held it like a tribute towards Chu Huan, brimming with enthusiasm and even almost poking Chu Huan’s nose – his whole set of actions were as if he was offering a holy khata.
Chu Huan could only accept it; he turned its pages to the character ‘master’ and showed him. “This is the correct character.”
Nanshan: “Tea…cher.”
“Don’t,” Chu Huan coughed dryly, “You flatter me.”
Nanshan couldn’t understand what ‘you flatter me’ was. He devotedly grabbed Chu Huan’s hands, his movements conducted at lightning speed, causing Chu Huan’s entire body to become stiff. He forgot to avoid due to how dumbfounded he was.
Chu Huan caught the scent of sweet osmanthus again and immediately thought he was so drunk he’d become confused.
Chu Huan: “Hey – wait wait wait, no no no no, you… don’t get excited yet.”
Who exactly was more excited than who?
Chu Huan almost bit his tongue and his heart involuntarily beat a little faster; he used a clever trick to break free from Nanshan without leaving a trace.
“I,” he pointed to himself and used simple gestures to make his words as clear as possible, “Am not the person you’re looking for.”
Nanshan was taken aback.
Xiao Fang, who was by his side, couldn’t understand what had happened. When this person wasn’t acting like a fiend he appeared rather honest. He scratched his thatch-like hair, looking at Chu Huan’s expression with slight impatience.
Nanshan said something to him; when Xiao Fang heard it, his eyes widened and he moved closer to Chu Huan. He reached out his hand to draw a rectangle in the air before clenching his fists again to make a rolling motion; then, he alternated between two fingers to imitate the way people walked. Finally, he pointed at Chu Huan with a stretch of a finger.
This time, Chu Huan finally accurately received his message.
What Xiao Fang tried to say was: The only one who came down from the bus yesterday was you.
Chu Huan pinched his brows hard, trying to recall carefully. When he first got on the bus, there were dozens of people on board, all of which he’d subconsciously glanced at; thinking about it now, everyone’s characteristics were still in his mind.
Among the passengers, there was a worker taking a ride home from their city work, someone going to a nearby village to visit relatives, and someone who brought their luggage and children on the way to a county seat for study… En, there was one more person.
Chu Huan remembered. It was a young man with glasses, his skin soft and flesh tender; one could tell he wasn’t a labour worker with a single glance. He remembered the young man’s suitcase to be very big and heavy, appearing as if he was travelling far from home and had decided to stay awhile at wherever he planned on getting off at.
The young man got on board very early, yet he still chose to sit on the most uncomfortable side seat – probably to prevent his hands from leaving his luggage. He was nervous, standard to those who rarely travelled far from home; at every stop, the youth would crane his neck out to look at the sign, unlike someone visiting relatives or friends. It was probably his first time coming to this kind of place.
Oh, Chu Huan also remembered he was holding a third-grade literature textbook.
It should be him.
Since arriving at the terminal Chu Huan never saw that youth again – the young man probably experienced a profound understanding of what a remote and desolate place was halfway through his journey and felt the significant gap between his imagination and reality. Giving up, he got off the vehicle and ran away.
“The person you’re talking about, I may have…” Chu Huan paused. Looking at Nanshan’s expectant expression, he suddenly didn’t have the heart to continue.
For Chu Huan, this was another unfamiliar feeling; whether it was during his youth when he stirred trouble everywhere, or later when he sank into a path of carnage, Chu Huan never felt unbearable to doing something. But here, he actually carefully considered his words several times before speaking them aloud. He racked his brain, yet still couldn’t find a euphemistic yet still-understandable excuse to say.
For a while, he hummed and hawed.
Another while passed before Chu Huan slowed his voice and spoke almost gently, “I may have encountered your teacher, en… He wasn’t very tall and was holding materials for primary school students. Primary school students are children who are this tall and like to run around, and textbooks are books… You know books, right? It’s the same as the one you’re holding right now, but for children to read.”
After great difficulty, Nanshoon understood his words and frowned.
Chu Huan: “But I didn’t see him when I got off the bus. I’m guessing something happened on his way, so he temporarily changed his destination…”
Nanshan’s expression instantly turned bleak.
Xiao Fang couldn’t understand what was going on; he just looked at this and looked at that, his face flushed with anxiety.
Chu Huan immediately changed his wording. “But maybe he’ll arrive later, say, in a few days…
His comfort was futile; he wasn’t sure how much Nanshan understood.
Nanshan suddenly sighed and slightly raised his head, his eyes half-closed and his elegant face revealing hardened lines; he was like an entrenched yet lonely stone statue.
He hadn’t said a single word, yet Chu Huan could feel a heavy loss.
There wasn’t a need for language to convey it.
“I… I’m not good,” Nanshan said softly, “Didn’t come.”
His learning ability surprised Chu Huan – just then, when Nanshan used the dictionary to find characters, he made many mistakes. To make it easier to communicate, Chu Huan read out every character he pointed at. Unexpectedly, in the blink of an eye, he actually remembered most of it and made decent imitations of the pronunciations; although his sentence wasn’t very consistent and his choice of wording was horrendously simplified, Chu Huan could understand him.
Chu Huan hesitated before reminding him, “Actually, if you need a teacher, you can find your own administrative officer – similar to a village chief, patriarch, and such – and let them submit applications to the county seat. Every year, there will be college students who sign up to become teachers for programs that bring education to people in underdeveloped areas…”
After saying this, even Chu Huan thought the other party couldn’t understand; he couldn’t explain it clearly in any other way.
Yet, Nanshan smiled reluctantly and shook his head. “No good, don’t like to come.”
After he finished speaking, Nanshan stood up and reached out to gather the blanket for Chu Huan. He also brought over his glasses and clothing and put them beside the bed where it was easy to access. The blood on his clothes had already been cleaned up. As for the thing he brought with him… His bayonet and gun were still in their original positions; even his mini first-aid bag was still lying in his pocket as if these people really didn’t touch them.
Chu Huan: “Nanshan-”
Nanshan stretched out an index finger, stopping him, and brought over the boiled medicinal herbs for him to drink.
The content inside the bowl was green and slimy, appearing very sinister, but even Chu Huan himself couldn’t understand why he didn’t say anything before taking it and drinking it all.
Nanshan helped him lie down before walking towards the window side. He took out a leaf and the small tune continued again. This time, although it didn’t sound so cheerful and light-hearted anymore, it didn’t sound resentful or heavy either; the ending was just a bit drawn-out, making it sound a little lonely.
Chu Huan thought he wouldn’t fall asleep – even a cat walking over would wake him up, not to mention two living adults – but surrounded by the leaf flute’s melody, he inexplicably felt himself unwind; unconsciously, he’d already groggily fallen asleep.
The misunderstanding seemed to have cleared up. When he woke up, these two people should already be gone, right?
He really wanted to listen to the first tune, the one that could make someone feel happy.
In his half-awake state, a thought suddenly entered Chu Huan’s heart. What if I went with them?
He immediately thought this idea whimsical – what, should he go to some remote area to teach a minority some Chinese? This career wasn’t very suitable for him.
I must’ve drank too much. He explained his loss of self-control with this single phrase.
