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In the first semester of her junior year, Tang Yin’s classes gradually became fewer, with only three or four days of classes per week, making her life more relaxed.
Not living on campus was much better; it was very comfortable in terms of hygiene and other aspects, and no one bothered her.
While most of her classmates were dating, the department organized a volunteer teaching activity.
Business English belonged to a non-teacher training category, but there were still spots for volunteer teaching. Moreover, the foreign language department’s program was for exercise, with no specific requirements, just decent academic performance.
Tang Yin also signed up, and her name was indeed on the list when it came out.
She and Zhao Le were assigned to a place called Wuyuan Village, located almost in the suburbs. The school specifically gave them half a month of vacation time for this, meaning they only had to teach for half a month.
The capital city was naturally developed, but there were always poor areas, and these were where the schools they needed to teach at were located.
She looked it up online and found that Wuyuan Village mostly consisted of left-behind elderly and children. It had even been featured in social news. It shared a school with two other nearby villages, and each grade in the elementary school had only two classes.
It could be said to be very small.
Zhao Le was naturally optimistic. “Tang Yin, have you told your doctor about this? You won’t see each other for half a month; he’ll be worried sick.”
Now in their junior year, two years had made her clearly aware that her classmate’s daily life was so sweet it would make others’ teeth ache.
Tang Yin, backlit, seemed to glow. Zhao Le was swallowing, then she heard her say, “He’ll agree.”
Zhao Le thought, Of course he’ll agree, what hasn’t he agreed to?
She said, “Your doctor won’t bear to see you suffer. Going to the countryside means half a month without air conditioning, no Wi-Fi, and maybe no signal.”
Tang Yin didn’t speak, just smiled.
________________________________________
The person in charge above was explaining some situations. After the meeting, she went directly to the medical school.
It was eight o’clock in the evening. Many classes were still ongoing in the teaching building, with all the lights on. The medical school often had people going to the lab at night.
Even more so, to train them, teachers would have them attend anatomy classes at night.
After everyone had left, Tang Yin went in. Lu Chi was packing up.
She found a spot nearby, glanced at the human anatomy model in front of her, and said, “Lu Chi, I applied for volunteer teaching. I’m leaving the day after tomorrow for half a month.”
Lu Chi’s hands paused. He turned around and looked at the person opposite him, his dark eyes somewhat eerie.
Tang Yin felt a little guilty: “It’s only a dozen days.”
Lu Chi finally sighed, “Why didn’t you say something sooner?”
Tang Yin twirled her fingertips and whispered, “I was afraid you’d be unhappy.”
Lu Chi put down what he was holding, moved from his side to hers, stared into her eyes, and said in a deep voice, “I won’t be angry.”
Tang Yin walked around the model in front of her to Lu Chi’s side and said with a smile, “Then I’ll take that as your agreement. While I’m gone, you’re not allowed to get close to other girls, not allowed to...”
She listed several things, and Lu Chi listened silently.
But as time passed, a fire ignited in his heart, burning hotter and hotter, making him feel as if his whole body was ablaze, very uncomfortable.
He turned to her opening and closing lips, his Adam’s apple bobbed. His actions spoke louder than his thoughts as he pressed her against the glass cabinet behind her, his lips meeting hers.
Tang Yin was a little stunned, her lips slightly parted.
Lu Chi gently licked her soft lips, then plunged in, engulfing her wet, tender tongue, sucking heavily, like a punishment, or like a confinement.
Only the two of them were in the cold laboratory, with occasional footsteps passing by outside.
Tang Yin couldn’t help but lean against Lu Chi.
She was only wearing a dress in the summer. The air conditioning in the lab was set very low, and she shivered upon touching the cold glass.
Lu Chi’s body was much warmer.
Gradually, she vaguely felt something pressing against her lower abdomen. She blinked lightly and pushed Lu Chi, who was rubbing against her lips.
Behind them were specimens, and they were kissing.
Lu Chi’s breathing deepened. He pressed her head against his shoulder and said in a low voice, “Don’t do that again next time.”
He would worry.
Tang Yin lay on his shoulder, her voice muffled: “Okay.”
After a while, Lu Chi pushed her away, blushing, and mumbled about the restroom, then walked straight out of the lab, more flustered than anyone.
Tang Yin was truly amused by him. Just a moment ago, he was so domineering, but every time afterward, he became incredibly shy.
On the way back, Lu Chi spoke even less, his voice still faint.
________________________________________
The weather was cool on the day of departure, which brought relief to many.
The person in charge rented a large bus. There were three people going to Wuyuan Village: Tang Yin and Zhao Le, two girls, and a male English major from the teacher training program, a tall and sturdy guy whose name happened to be Ma Gao.
They drove all the way from the city to the suburbs, finally bumping along for nearly an hour before the bus stopped on a dirt road.
Zhao Le groaned, leaning against the window, “Oh my goodness, this is the first time I’ve experienced such a bumpy road; I feel like throwing up my stomach.”
Tang Yin was fine. “I told you to bring preserved plums, but you didn’t.”
Her grandmother used to live in the countryside, and although the roads there were very well built, the roads here were very bad.
Zhao Le said with a bitter face, “I never thought of it, luckily we’re here.”
Ma Gao, the male student, also looked pale and couldn’t say a word. He got out of the car and went to the side to throw up.
The villagers were very happy to have teachers come to teach, whether it was volunteer teaching or something else, for them, teachers were good.
When Tang Yin and Zhao Le got off the bus, a group of children and several elderly people stood at the village entrance, their faces full of smiles, which overwhelmed them.
The children were really small. Their clothes weren’t patched, but they weren’t new either. Their eyes looked bright black, and they seemed very energetic.
To welcome them, the village chief prepared a meal.
In Wuyuan Village, it was considered a luxurious meal. For Tang Yin and Zhao Le, although the hygiene was a bit poor, it was acceptable, and they had done their best.
In the afternoon, they visited the school.
The school was relatively well-built for the village; it had what it needed, but compared to schools in the city, the gap was huge.
________________________________________
The next day, classes officially began. Tang Yin taught fifth-grade English. She was pretty and had a pleasant voice. The children in her class all liked her and listened very attentively in class.
Ten days of volunteer teaching passed, and Tang Yin felt like she was integrating into this peaceful little village.
The signal was poor, occasionally getting better. The small slope at the village entrance had the best signal, though even that “best” was quite bad, but it was good enough to send WeChat messages.
On the evening of the twelfth day, she squatted on the small slope as usual.
Zhao Le brought a cup of water, walked over, and said, “Messaging your doctor again, huh? Here, water.”
Tang Yin took it, smiling. “Thanks. I heard Ma Gao scared a little girl into crying this afternoon, didn’t he?”
Zhao Le also laughed. “He’s tall and sturdy, and his expression gets a bit scary when he’s serious. He teaches third graders, so it’s normal for him to scare someone. He was so flustered, hahaha.”
Her phone vibrated. It was Lu Chi’s reply: “Be careful.”
Tang Yin held the water cup, about to reply, when a jolt spilled water onto the small slope. She stood up quickly, shaking it off her clothes.
Unexpectedly, Zhao Le suddenly swayed and clutched her arm.
The next moment, both of them swayed, and a sudden unease filled their hearts. The water in Tang Yin’s cup had already spilled out.
She asked, “Is the ground shaking?”
Zhao Le answered tremblingly, “It seems so...”
Like an illusion, the shaking sensation just now disappeared, and both of them breathed a sigh of relief, suddenly not knowing what to say.
________________________________________
The next moment, a sudden tremor threw both of them off the small slope.
Tang Yin threw the cup aside, her phone still in her hand: “Find an open space and stay there. I’ll go into the village to notify others.”
Zhao Le was too scared to speak, she could only follow Tang Yin’s instructions and ran to the nearby open ground, her phone screen still lit up.
Lu Lu Lu: Are you eating well tonight?
Zhao Le looked at Tang Yin, who had already run into the village. The ground was shaking. With trembling hands, she typed a line and sent it: “Dr. Lu, there’s an earthquake.”
She was about to type “Tang Yin” when the ground beside her cracked open, scaring her so much that she immediately ran to the other side. She didn’t know when her phone had turned off, and she couldn’t open the screen.
Tang Yin ran and shouted, “Earthquake!”
Some children playing at the doorway screamed in panic. Tang Yin pulled one over, “Everyone go to the open ground by the village entrance! Teacher Zhao is there!”
The village wasn’t big. Ma Gao ran over from the end of the village. He had just been playing with the children and finally reacted, “Tang Yin, are you two okay?”
Tang Yin shook her head. “Where are the other villagers?”
Ma Gao said, “I just yelled. A few are still in the fields over there.”
The fields were very open, better than here. As he spoke, a few people swayed precariously, almost falling if they hadn’t held on.
There weren’t many children in the village. One or two ran out, all knowing to come to the adults. Soon, a large circle gathered around Tang Yin.
“You take them to the village entrance first, Zhao Le is there. I’ll go check if there’s anyone else,” Tang Yin decided on the spot.
Ma Gao hesitated: “I’ll go, you take them.”
There was no time to argue. Tang Yin directly placed the children’s hands in Ma Gao’s and rushed towards the village.
________________________________________
Fortunately, the tremors weren’t too severe yet. She quickly checked house by house; most people had already run out, except for one baby in the village.
The baby was only a few months old, still breastfeeding. Her mother had gone to the next village that afternoon, and only her grandmother was home, who surely hadn’t left yet.
Tang Yin’s guess was right. When she ran there, half the house had already collapsed, making a chaotic noise. The old woman was walking out tremblingly, holding the baby.
She immediately scooped up the baby. Just then, Ma Gao had returned, carrying the old woman on his back. The two of them went straight to the village entrance.
Almost everyone from Wuyuan Village was sitting on the open ground at the village entrance.
The village chief wasn’t home today. Tang Yin had a good memory; she counted them one by one. Except for those who weren’t home, everyone else was accounted for.
She held the crying baby, comforting it while asking, “Zhao Le, have you called the police?”
Zhao Le nodded, stammering, “Yes, I did. They said they’d be here soon and told us to stay safe first.”
Like watching TV, a house collapsed, almost instantly, completely crumbling with a deafening roar, dust everywhere.
A once peaceful village was destroyed just like that.
Accompanying it were various flashes of lightning and thunder. The wind was strong enough to blow people away. The ground trembled more and more frequently, one tremor after another, and the cracks widened.
Not long after, it started raining again, then turned into a downpour. The children on the open ground shivered from the cold, but each one was strong and didn’t cry.
No one dared to go into the half-collapsed houses in the village to take shelter from the rain.
Tang Yin looked around and found a large plastic sheet, which she heard was used to cover vegetable fields and had been abandoned.
She pulled Ma Gao to pick up some waist-high branches nearby and used them to prop up the plastic sheet. Although it was leaky, it could at least block the rain. A few older children took turns holding it up with them.
The ground was muddy. This was the first time Tang Yin had been so disheveled. Her hair was wet and stuck to her face, itchy and uncomfortable. Her palms had abrasions from the branches.
It was already dark outside. Only a faint light from a phone was visible here. She didn’t know when the rescue team would arrive.
Zhao Le squeezed closer and whispered, “Tang Yin, your doctor sent a message earlier, and you ran back into the village, so I just replied.”
Tang Yin’s voice was a little hoarse: “I know. It’s okay.”
She also wondered if Lu Chi would come or not, if he was worried about her now and dying of anxiety...
Tang Yin scoffed. What was the point of thinking so much useless stuff?
Her phone had completely lost signal. The battery, which was 80% charged in the afternoon, should last for a while.
The troublesome part was these small children; they would definitely have a fever the next day after being soaked and chilled all night.
Zhao Le spoke weakly, “Who knew there’d suddenly be an earthquake... It’s stopped now, but I still can’t relax, I’m so afraid of aftershocks...”
She had lived a stable life since childhood and had never experienced natural disasters like earthquakes or floods. For a moment, she couldn’t react at all. Tang Yin was like a pillar holding up the sky in front of her.
Tang Yin squeezed her wrist. “I haven’t encountered one either. But luckily, no one in the village has been injured for now...”
A small hand pushed her from behind. “Teacher Tang, there’s a light back there.”
Tang Yin squeezed out from under the makeshift shelter and indeed saw the approaching light. A huge weight lifted from her heart.
Her biggest fear was that the nearby mountain would suddenly landslide, which would make rescue efforts very difficult. Seeing this now, it was good.
A few minutes later, firefighters and police arrived, along with medical rescue personnel. Even an excavator was brought in. Tang Yin quickly reported the few missing people who weren’t in the village.
The road was extremely muddy. Tang Yin stepped into a pit and sank in, pulling her foot out with great effort, her shoes covered in mud.
Busy people were everywhere. Lights flickered, now here, now there. The rain was heavy again, and her eyes hurt a little. She had to squint to see anything clearly.
In a daze, her shoulder was tightly gripped, with great force. A familiar scent wafted into her nostrils.
Then she lost consciousness.
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