Outside, the sky had gone completely dark.
The old woman had a thin jacket wrapped around her. The wind had tousled her white hair, and she clutched a dark blue cloth bundle tightly in her hand.
She walked up to Pu Yu and roughly undid the knotted cloth fastening.
From inside, she took out a stack of banknotes wrapped in red cloth.
There were a few hundred-yuan notes, along with some fifties and twenties.
But most were tens and fives, every one of them worn.
"Take it." Li Suhua shoved the bundle of money into Pu Yu's hands, her tone as gruff as ever. "There's over a thousand here. Use most of it for your tuition, and keep the small change for this month's living expenses."
Pu Yu's hands trembled slightly, as though something had burned her palms.
"I saved this up doing sewing work over the years." Li Suhua turned her face away and went into the main room to sit down. "I'm not giving it to you for free. Once you've gone to college and found a job, you'll have to pay me back with interest. You hear me?"
Pu Yu nodded hard, her voice choked with tears. "I hear you. Thank you, Grandma..."
"What are you thanking me for? Thank your mother."
"My mother?"
Li Suhua pointed at the old sewing machine in the corner, making a rare mention of the past.
"We were poor back then and couldn't afford anything decent. When your mother married into the family, I wanted to give her this sewing machine as a betrothal gift."
"But that silly girl wouldn't take it, no matter what. She insisted it wasn't easy for me to live on my own, and that keeping it would let me do a little sewing to help make ends meet."
"If she hadn't cared about me back then, this old woman would've starved to death long ago. How would I have any spare money to lend a little girl like you?"
Pu Yu remembered how, when her mother was alive, she had always spoken fondly of Grandma-how capable she had been when she was young, how beautifully the clothes she made fit.
She had never understood how her father could have fallen out with such a good grandmother so badly that they never spoke again, even if they weren't related by blood.
Seeing that Grandma didn't want to say any more, Pu Yu asked no further questions.
She carefully put the stack of money away, placing it solemnly in the innermost compartment of her schoolbag.
That night, Pu Yu slept fitfully.
In her dream, her mother was arguing with her father, their voices drifting near and far.
She reached out to hold on to her mother, but her fingertips met only cold air.
Pu Yu jolted awake, her face wet with tears.
Dawn had yet to break outside the window, and gray-blue morning mist hung over the town.
She heard Grandma opening the door next door and hurriedly wiped away her tears, trying to compose herself.
Li Suhua had a coat draped over her shoulders, her graying hair slightly mussed. Her voice was hoarse with sleep. "What's wrong? What are you crying for in the middle of the night?"
"I'm fine, Grandma." Pu Yu sniffed, wiped haphazardly at the tear tracks on her face, and forced a smile. "It's just... I nearly got lost coming back from school yesterday. I was a little scared, so I had a nightmare."
She didn't want Grandma, who had just taken out her savings to help her, to have to worry about her too.
So she told a white lie.
Li Suhua paused, then grumbled in her dialect, sounding rather speechless. "You look like a clever girl, so how come you're such a little fool? This town only has a handful of roads, and you still managed to get yourself lost?"
"All the alleys look alike..."
Pu Yu defended herself in a small voice, then took the opportunity to ask, "Could you take me to school again this morning, Grandma? Sorry for the trouble."
Looking at her pitiful expression, Li Suhua didn't know whether to be annoyed or amused.
"Can't even find your way around, but somehow you manage to study."
Being scolded actually made Pu Yu feel a little lighter.
She knew that meant Grandma had agreed.
After breakfast, the sky was only just beginning to brighten.
Li Suhua didn't take her through the winding alleys that only longtime residents knew. Instead, she deliberately went around to the wider main road.
Though it was called a main road, it was really just a stone-paved lane wide enough for two three-wheeled vehicles to pass.
"See? Turn left and keep going straight."
"Go through this old street. The post office is up ahead, and that's the supply and marketing cooperative. Your school isn't much farther."
Pu Yu held a dark blue notebook, jotting things down and sketching in it.
Li Suhua glanced at her notebook, utterly exasperated. "You certainly inherited your mother's terrible sense of direction. The first time she came to town, she was just like this. She went around in circles and still couldn't figure it out. In the end, the grocery shop owner noticed she was a stranger and asked her a question, then brought her over."
"But you're a little better than she was. At least you found your own way to our door."
Huh?
Pu Yu lowered her head in embarrassment.
She hadn't told Grandma that, on her first day here, she had knocked on the wrong door and stumbled straight into the aloof boy's territory next door.
Five in the morning.
Pu Yu was already waiting outside the teachers' office.
She was the first student in the entire school to arrive, and the corridor was deserted.
Cheng Siyi had just arrived with her insulated mug and looked surprised to see her. "Pu Yu? Why are you here so early?"
"Grandma showed me the way, and I came to pay my tuition while I was at it."
"Has everything at home been sorted out?"
"Yes, it has." Pu Yu smiled, her eyes curving. Compared with her gloomy expression yesterday, she looked so much sweeter.
Cheng Siyi studied her expression.
Only after making sure there was nothing forced about that smile did she feel reassured.
After paying her tuition, Pu Yu was about to head back to the classroom to prepare for morning self-study when Cheng Siyi suddenly stopped her. "Oh, Pu Yu."
"Yesterday, the Chinese teachers and I read your prizewinning essay-'Though I Know the Vastness of the World, I Still Cherish Every Blade and Leaf.' Your writing is sensitive, your storytelling flows well, and the ideas are profound. We all think you have a real gift for the humanities."
Cheng Siyi chose her words carefully. "With such a strong foundation in the humanities, why did you choose the science track? Would you mind telling me why?"
The smile that had just appeared in Pu Yu's eyes faded a little.
Cheng Siyi noticed at once and asked regretfully, "Was that because of your family too?"
Pu Yu was silent for a moment before nodding gently.
"The track selection form needed a parent's signature. I wanted to choose humanities, but my dad was drunk that day and filled it in any old way. Later, my teacher called him to discuss it, and he said..."
The girl's voice grew quieter. "He said I could either take it or leave it, and if I didn't want to study, I should go work and earn money. I didn't dare bring up changing it again."
Cheng Siyi's heart clenched with both anger and sympathy.
She stood up and gave Pu Yu a gentle hug, like a friend, then stroked her head. "It's all right. Studying science is good too. Since you're here, let's make the best of it. We'll work hard this final year and bring up your math and physics grades."
"Once you get a good score on the college entrance exam, you'll have far more majors to choose from than you would on the humanities track. And the choice will be yours."
"Yes!" Pu Yu smiled again. "I'll work hard, Teacher Cheng."
By the time the bell rang for morning self-study, Pu Yu was already sitting in the classroom.
Xu Suiran turned around from the row in front, her eyes wide. "Yu, what time did you get here? You were already in the teachers' office when I arrived!"
"I got up a little early," Pu Yu said with a smile.
Xu Suiran slumped sleepily over her desk. "I can never get up. Sure, I'm sitting right in front of you, but my brain is still fast asleep in bed."
As soon as the midday dismissal bell rang, Xu Suiran grabbed her and rushed toward the cafeteria.
But Pu Yu stopped at the door. "Suiran, go on ahead. I'll grab something and be right there."
Before you continue