After dinner, it was already dark. Hutao looked at the time and it was past nine o'clock.
The village chief took them to a small house behind his house.
"I feel sorry for two teachers to stay here tonight. I thought two male teachers would come, so I only prepared one room."
After the village chief finished speaking, he led them into the house.
It’s still a wooden house, but it’s obviously a new house, and you can still smell the fragrance of wood.
There is a fire pit in the middle of the room. Next to the fire pit are two beds with neat quilts spread on them.
The fire in the firepit was burning brightly. Although there was no light, the flames illuminated the whole room very brightly.
The fire should have been started not long ago by the village chief's wife.
The village chief said sheepishly: "This is the wedding room I prepared for my eldest son. No one has lived in it yet. I packed it out when I knew you were coming. But there is no light, so I have to torture you all night.
It’s relatively cold here, so I sleep with a fire burning at night. You can rest assured that the firewood will burn all night long, so you don’t have to get up in the middle of the night to add more firewood.”
The village chief said some precautions and left, leaving Hu Tao and Ling Yeshen alone.
The room suddenly became quiet, and neither of them knew what to do.
Hutao doesn't know how to talk to him.
Ling Yechen, on the other hand, was debating whether to sleep in the car for the night.
After a while, Hutao spoke first: "Where do you sleep?"
Ling Yeshen finally spoke this time: "Go to sleep, I don't want to sleep."
Hutao said oh, chose a bed, put his backpack on the bed, then sat down on the bed and gave it a try.
Although it is a bed, it is made of wooden boards, with a layer of straw mat spread on top. I am afraid that only Hutao knows about this. You can use a mat made of straw to place it under the bed.
There is a thin layer of cotton padding on the straw mat, and then there are sheets, which are slightly hard.
But it was too normal for Hu Tao, and I didn’t think there was anything wrong.
For Ling Yechen, it was a bit unacceptable. He had never seen anything so backward since he was a child.
Although his grandmother's home is in a rural area, it is also a large villa with a big bed, and the conditions are no different from those in the city.
What he saw today somewhat subverted his understanding.
Seeing Hu Tao naturally putting away his things and lying on the bed, he frowned and said, "You go to sleep, I'll go back to the car and sleep."
Then he closed the door and left.
Hu Tao said oh, but she had no objection. It was just right for him not to sleep, so as not to embarrass the two of them.
Today was the first time the two of them had met, and she didn't know what kind of person he was, so she wouldn't have to worry about a boy sleeping next to her.
After he left, she locked the door and lay peacefully on the bed to sleep.
She left home this morning and took the car here in the afternoon. She had been tired for a whole day.
I drifted off to sleep.
Ling Yechen, on the other hand, was curled up in the back seat of the car, tossing and turning but couldn't fall asleep.
When he went out, luckily his mother stuffed a thick blanket into the car, which could keep out the cold.
His mother not only stuffed him with a blanket, but also seemed to have a trunk full of food, just in case he was hungry, but he hadn't opened it yet to see what was in it.
He huddled in the car and thought about what he had encountered today, such a difficult road, seeing so many dirty children, and the unpalatable food.
His patience reached its limit.
He just couldn't figure out why the girl named Hu Tao could adapt to life here so quickly.
She sleeps soundly, eats well, and greets a group of dirty children with a smile.
After much deliberation, he still couldn't sleep, wondering if the little girl was okay.
That house is like a deserted house outside Jianwai. There are no lights and no walls. Wouldn’t it be unsafe?
Considering that she came with him, he has to be responsible for her safety.
He got up from the car again, picked up the blanket and walked towards the small house.
He thought he was crazy and couldn't figure out why he would do such a thing.
As soon as he walked near the house, he saw a man wandering in front of the house. When he saw him shining a flashlight on him, the man left quickly.
He didn't know what that person was here for, but he was sure he was a good person, otherwise there would be no one hanging around in front of someone's house in the middle of the night.
When Hutao heard someone knocking on the door, her heart tightened, and then she heard Ling Yechen's voice. She felt inexplicably relieved and quickly opened the door from the inside.
I saw him entering the house with a blanket wrapped around him, and then locked the door.
"Is that you the person walking outside the door just now? It almost scared me to death." Hutao began to complain about him.
Ling Yechen raised his head and looked at her, his face flushed by the fire.
After hearing what she said, she realized that the person outside the door had scared her. It seemed that she was very smart and could at least sense the danger in advance.
He could feel that the moment he came in, she was pleasantly surprised and felt a little relieved.
It can be seen that she is happy for his arrival.
From the moment Hu Tao saw him, she felt really relieved.
When he just left, she was happy and thought she could sleep peacefully, but she didn't expect that she would be awakened.
Before he came in, she clearly felt someone approaching, and she saw a man wandering in front of her room through the cracks in the room.
She was very frightened. Before coming here, the teacher had warned them that there were many drug dealers in these places who specialized in sneaky things because they had no money. Girls should be more careful when going out.
Before coming here, the village chief also reminded them to lock the door before going to bed at night. Fortunately, the door here can be blocked with a wooden stick from the inside. Unless it is smashed with great force, it cannot be opened from the outside.
She already had a burning firewood in her hand, ready to deal with the person outside.
Unexpectedly, Ling Yechen would come over with a flashlight in the middle of the night.
When I heard him say open the door, my heart suddenly relaxed.
In fact, he was a little lucky that he came here in the middle of the night, otherwise he wouldn't know if something terrible would happen.
Both of them were lying on the bed, with a fire burning in the middle, and they could only hear the sound of crackling wood being burned.
"Why are you here again?" Hutao couldn't help but ask.
This time Ling Yeshen answered: "It's too cold outside."
Hu Tao said: "It is indeed a bit cold, especially now it feels even colder. It is completely the opposite extreme from the temperature during the day."
It is true that there is a big temperature difference here. It may be very hot during the day, but at night it feels like winter.
People here don’t have thick quilts, so they always light fires to keep warm.
And Ling Yeshen does feel much warmer here than in the car. It seems that lighting a fire is still very useful.
Ling Yechen was still not used to such a bed. It was so hard that it was uncomfortable to sleep on.
I looked at her to the side and found that she seemed to have fallen asleep, quietly, and I could only hear her steady breathing.
He gave up talking to her.
Because he couldn't sleep, he originally wanted to chat with her. Although the two just met today, from the current point of view, she is indeed the person he is most familiar with here.
This chapter has been completed!