Qin Weidong had thrown himself into his work.
He poured all his energy into the mine. Now that he had taken over, the responsibility of supporting both himself and Fang Li rested squarely on his shoulders. To Qin Weidong, the two of them were inseparable. He had to prove himself to Xu Jianchuan. He couldn’t afford the consequences of failure—nor could he let himself waste an entire year.
Fang Li wasn’t idle either. He wasn’t used to staying at the mine for so long. The longer he remained, the more suffocating it felt—his chest tight, his breathing shallow. But he gritted his teeth and pushed through. Once he’d managed to lift his spirits a little, he learned from the cook—a local auntie—that there was an elementary school not far below the Xiahe Gully that had been without teachers for years.
Even though Fang Li hadn’t finished high school, he could handle the basics of primary school teaching. He asked Qin Weidong to help him get a secondhand bicycle from another mine, and he rode it to the school.
The school was a crumbling building, technically receiving subsidies, but what trickled down after passing through layer after layer of hands was pitiful. When the principal saw someone so young willing to teach, he immediately offered to share a portion of his own salary just to get Fang Li to stay. Fang Li agreed.
During the day, he taught reading and writing to the kids. There were only five students in total, of all different ages, and Fang Li taught every subject.
More than a month later than Xu Jianchuan had originally said, his nephew finally arrived.
Feng Hui was the son of Xu Jianchuan’s younger brother, though he carried his mother’s surname. He’d been interning at his father’s factory, but everyone knew he was the boss’s son and treated him accordingly. He hadn’t learned much of anything.
Worried the boy would turn out aimless and useless, his father had sent him off to this mountain mine to follow Xu Jianchuan and learn something useful.
Xu Jianchuan was too busy himself, so he sent the kid to Qin Weidong instead—on paper, to get hands-on experience and learn the ropes of mining. In reality, he wanted someone to keep an eye on Qin Weidong and handle the bookkeeping.
Feng Hui had grown up in the provincial capital and hated the idea of coming to this poor, remote place. But in the end, he couldn’t go against his father. He finished smoking a cigarette before Qin Weidong finally came back up from the mine.
“I’m Feng Hui. ‘Hui’ as in ‘morning light.’ My second uncle sent me here,” he said.
“Qin Weidong,” the other replied.
Qin Weidong took off his miner’s helmet and stepped into the office. He pulled the ledger out from the drawer.
“This is Wang Xiaohu’s. Boss Xu still hasn’t settled this one—it’s still hanging. And this is the one I’ve kept, with all the current expenses and income recorded from scratch.”
Feng Hui took it from him. He had no idea how to read a ledger, but he couldn’t let Qin Weidong see that he was clueless.
“Alright,” he said. “My uncle sent me here to take care of this. Start by telling me where the major recent expenses went. Got receipts?”
“One of the pneumatic drills broke and had to be replaced. We rented four thirty-ton rollers—here are the receipts. Also, the transport cost for the last 600 tons of ore to the refinery needs to be settled. The rest is food expenses. I haven’t looked into those, but they’re a fixed daily amount.”
Qin Weidong pulled out a stack of neatly clipped receipts from the drawer. Feng Hui flipped through them. They were organized by date, and a glance confirmed that every entry matched the ledger precisely—even down to the decimal points.
“Oh… let me take a look…”
As he turned the pages, Qin Weidong added, “We’re still short-handed at the mine. We need to hire one more to handle reagents, and another for slag removal.”
“Hire two more? Can this mine really use that many people?”
He had just checked—there were already eleven or twelve workers.
“With gold and mercury prices both climbing, and mercury essential for refining, we’d better move quickly.”
Better to act now than get stuck when one price shoots up faster than the other and our costs go through the roof.
Feng Hui didn’t know enough about mining to make the call. He told Qin Weidong to hold off and went outside to call his uncle, Xu Jianchuan.
Ever since last month when the mine brought in over eighty thousand in a single month, Xu Jianchuan had started taking real interest in Qin Weidong’s abilities. He’d even spoken to the refinery’s owner recently, and the man had asked if Xu Jianchuan had switched mines—sounded like he was interested in getting involved too.
So when Xu Jianchuan heard that Qin Weidong wanted to hire more people, he approved it right away.
Feng Hui was surprised at how quickly his uncle agreed. He went back to find Qin Weidong, only to see him glance outside and set down the ledger.
“I’ll come find you at lunchtime,” Qin Weidong said as he got up and left.
Feng Hui let out a short laugh and looked toward the back. He saw Qin Weidong walking quickly downhill—with a boy trailing behind him.
“You didn’t ride your bike up?”
“A student wanted to learn this morning, so I let him try. Didn’t teach him well—he fell, I fell, hurt like hell. Chain popped off too.”
Fang Li rolled up his pants leg, revealing a bloody scrape on his knee. A chunk of skin had been torn off by a rock, and the wound was still bleeding.
“What the hell were you thinking?!”
Qin Weidong barked the words harshly, then scooped him up onto his back and carried him outside to find alcohol and gauze. Fang Li sat on the hard cot, rubbing his leg and muttering, “Yelling at me won’t fix anything… heartless jerk…”
When he first fell, it hurt. He’d walked such a long way alone that the injured skin had gone numb. But now, as soon as the wound was exposed, perhaps because he saw Qin Weidong, the pain came rushing back.
There was only alcohol at the mine—no iodine. Qin Weidong found the cleanest stack of gauze available.
“Don’t move.”
Frowning deeply, Qin Weidong squatted in front of Fang Li, soaked the gauze in alcohol, and just as he got close, the fumes stung the open wound. Fang Li immediately cried out, jerking his leg away. “Ow, ow, ow—don’t touch it! Don’t touch it!”
He curled up, trying to retreat up the bed. “Forget it! Forget it! This’ll kill me! I’ll skip the disinfecting—it’ll heal on its own in a few days!”
Qin Weidong grabbed hold of him and scolded, “Stop squirming! What if it gets infected if you don’t disinfect it?”
Fang Li usually had no issue yelling at or even hitting Qin Weidong, but in terms of sheer strength, the gap between them was too big. He couldn’t break free, and afraid of the pain, he kicked his feet on the bed—several of those kicks landed on Qin Weidong’s face.
Qin Weidong finally managed to pin him down. “Lili, I’ll be gentle, okay? Really gentle.”
Fang Li’s clothes were in disarray from the struggle, sweat beading on his skin. One ankle was still tightly gripped in Qin Weidong’s hand, never having escaped.
He panted, exhausted, and tried pleading, “I’m so hungry… can we eat first, and then do the disinfecting?”
Qin Weidong saw right through him. Fang Li always had a habit of putting off things he didn’t want to face—delay first, deal later. Qin Weidong knew he was scared of the pain, so he coaxed him patiently. “We disinfect it, wrap it up, and then you can eat. I’ll even buy you some candy.”
If he’d stopped at that, it might’ve been fine—but with the candy added, Fang Li’s face turned beet red. What was he, still a kid who needed bribing with sweets?
Embarrassed, he loosened his leg a little. “…You have to be gentle. And warn me before you touch it.”
Qin Weidong nodded.
Fang Li screamed countless times before Qin Weidong finally wiped away the grime from the wound with alcohol-soaked gauze. Qin Weidong’s own face and neck had taken several kicks, and he’d ended up sweating more than Fang Li.
Fang Li curled up under the covers, wailing, “It hurts like hell…!”
“You insisted on teaching even when I told you not to.”
Qin Weidong tossed the dirty gauze into the trash.
Fang Li mumbled, “Aren’t you going to the sorting plant this afternoon? Don’t forget to bring my bike back from the school—the chain’s broken. Fix it for me.”
Qin Weidong went outside to scoop a bowl of rice, sat down at the edge of the bed, and fed it to Fang Li. “You’re hurt. Don’t go anywhere these next few days.”
“If I don’t go, I won’t get paid… And I already feel bad about taking the principal’s share. If I take more days off, what use would I be to them as a teacher…?”
Fang Li took a bite, then switched, feeding Qin Weidong in turn. After they finished eating, Qin Weidong took the dishes outside and told Fang Li to get some rest in bed and not go to the school in the afternoon.
Fang Li’s leg couldn’t walk anyway. Luckily, it was Friday, and after the morning classes, the kids had already gone home—at least he could rest for two days.
Qin Weidong didn’t have that luxury. After lunch, he drove the mine’s van down the mountain to the sorting plant to check the quality of the stones they had processed last time.
Fang Li, bored in the afternoon, stepped outside and saw Feng Hui bent over a cardboard box, playing with his pet rabbit.
Feng Hui waved a sprig of grass in his hand. “Is this yours?”
Fang Li nodded. Feng Hui smiled. “My sister had one when we were little. But once it started pooping, the smell was so bad my mom gave it away.”
“Yeah, its poop stinks. I used to keep it indoors, but the smell kept me up at night, so I moved it outside.”
Most of the workers had gone down into the mine, and the roar of the gold-crushing rollers and slag carts was deafening. Feng Hui moved closer and asked, “Is Qin Weidong your friend?”
Fang Li didn’t usually have anyone to talk to at the mine, so he plucked a piece of grass too and joined him in playing with the rabbit. “We’re from the same hometown.”
“Same hometown, huh. He seems way harder to talk to than you.”
Fang Li smiled.
Despite his bad temper, Fang Li’s appearance was undeniably attractive. Feng Hui looked at him and, for all his half-baked education, couldn’t find a better word for it. “Handsome” didn’t feel quite right—he was… beautiful.
Yes, beautiful like a little fox! And when he smiled, he had two little tiger teeth that peeked right out instead of hiding like most people’s. A faint smile was enough to show them.
Seeing Fang Li, Feng Hui suddenly thought of someone and quietly turned his head away.
Fang Li brushed his hair back. The weather had been warming lately, and his hair had gotten a bit long.
“You’re not heading down into the mine?”
“Your uncle didn’t hire me. I came with Qin Weidong.”
Feng Hui nodded, then looked Fang Li up and down once more. Fang Li gave a slight smile. “Not disabled—just a little problem here.” He pointed at his chest. “The doctor said there’s a hole. Who knows what kind of hole. Qin Weidong’s worried something might happen to me, so he wouldn’t let me work.”
Feng Hui thought to himself—if a hole in the heart was just a ‘small problem,’ then what counted as a big one?
“Sounds like Qin Weidong’s really loyal. Helping you out like that. Back when I was at school, even if I got an extra meal, I had to pay it back.”
“Where’d you go to school?”
“Jinyang No.1 High.”
Fang Li was a little surprised. “That’s in the provincial capital, isn’t it? How’d you end up here?”
Feng Hui clearly wasn’t thrilled to talk about it. “You think I wanted to? This place is in the middle of nowhere—can’t even find a karaoke bar, nothing like home. I failed the college entrance exam twice, didn’t do well either time. I didn’t wanna study anymore, so I worked at my dad’s factory for a few months. Then he just tossed me to my second uncle and sent me here.”
“Oh, right—can I take the rabbit home for a couple days tomorrow night? My sister likes rabbits. She’ll be thrilled to see it.”
Fang Li said, “Sure, no problem. Tomorrow morning’s fine too.”
“She’s busy in the morning. She works as an accountant at my dad’s factory during the day, then has to go to night school.”
“Night school?” Fang Li asked.
Feng Hui couldn’t hold back the urge to smoke anymore and just pulled one out. Reaching into his pocket, he realized he didn’t have a lighter. “Yeah, lots of people are going these days. It’s popular in the city. My sister’s really ambitious, and way better at studying than me. She’s been a model student since she was little.”
He asked Fang Li, “Got a light?”
Fang Li shook his head. “I don’t smoke.”
“You don’t smoke? What kind of man doesn’t smoke?” Feng Hui had been feeling stifled lately, with no one to talk to. He handed a cigarette to Fang Li and told him to wait here while he went to find a light.
There was a communal lighter on the dining table nearby, used by the workers. Feng Hui grabbed it, lit his own cigarette, then lit one for Fang Li. “Just do it like me—inhale, just like that.”
The cigarettes Feng Hui carried were decent—none of that loose tobacco sold in sacks on the mountain, but a proper brand: Spring Thunder, two yuan a pack. The smoke had a harsh edge. Back when Fang Li had occasionally gone to the mines in Chongsi, he couldn’t stand the smell. Qin Weidong smoked too, though he rarely did so in front of Fang Li.
Fang Li took a drag, holding the cigarette between his lips. He inhaled, but the smoke caught in his throat, making him squint and cough as he exhaled.
Still, as if men were born with an instinct for cigarettes, he took another puff. This time, he tried to let it pass into his lungs. It felt like his nerves twitched as the smoke sank in.
“You’re a quick learner,” Feng Hui said. “I’m gonna take a leak.”
With a cigarette hanging from his mouth, Feng Hui headed to the toilet.
When Qin Weidong returned from the refinery, what he saw was Fang Li with nothing but a cigarette butt between his fingers.
He slammed the car door shut and strode over, snatching the cigarette right from Fang Li’s mouth. His face was dark. “Who told you to smoke?”
“Feng Hui gave it to me. I said I didn’t know how, and he told me to try…”
The smoke was getting to Fang Li—his head felt foggy. He exhaled a cloud from his lungs. Qin Weidong stubbed the cigarette out and dragged him inside, the smoke clinging to Fang Li’s clothes.
“Fang Li, do I need to keep you in my sight all the time?” Qin Weidong growled.
“It’s just a cigarette. You started when you were what—fourteen? I’m already nineteen.”
Fang Li didn’t think it was a big deal. Qin Weidong stared at his mouth—those lips moving as he spoke lit a fuse in his chest. Then he noticed Fang Li’s collar: he’d probably napped earlier and forgot to button it. The top two buttons were undone.
Qin Weidong’s expression darkened further. He reached out and started buttoning up Fang Li’s shirt, all the way to the top. Fang Li pulled away. “It’s choking me. Fine, I won’t smoke if you hate it so much. I’m not hooked.”
Qin Weidong didn’t stop. He buttoned the very top one too. “From now on, keep it like this.”
Fang Li was speechless. He’s a grown man—what’s wrong with leaving a couple buttons undone? Qin Weidong has to be the most high-maintenance person on this damn planet.
After he finished buttoning him up, Fang Li said, “Qin Weidong, I want to go to night school.”
Axolotl Translations 
Leave a comment