God's Gift

"I saw Ah Chou go up that mountain. She must know where the Ten Thousand Faces Buddha Temple is!" The clan leader's daughter-in-law told Chen Qingqiu excitedly with gleaming eyes.

When Chen Qingqiu heard this, he also showed joy on his face. He nodded to the clan leader's daughter-in-law, turned around and ran quickly towards Ah Chou's house.

Ye Li and Shen Minghua looked at each other and saw shock in each other's eyes. They didn't expect that they had missed such an important thing.

The two quickly followed.

Chen Qingqiu ran to Achou's house to look for her, but did not see her, so he searched the village for several times and finally saw Achou in the field in front of Grandma Li's house.

Ye Li and Shen Minghua followed over, only to see Yu Youyou, Lu Keming and Fang Ziang sitting in a row by the field, as if they had been waiting there for this drama.

Achou was picking beans in the field. She didn't seem to expect Chen Qingqiu to come to her, and a look of surprise appeared on her face.

She quickly put the beans down, wiped her hands on her clothes, and looked at Chen Qingqiu nervously, but she heard Chen Qingqiu say:

"Do you know where the Ten Thousand Faces Buddha Temple is on the mountain? Can you tell me how to get there?"

Ah Chou, who was originally happy, gradually lost the smile on his face after hearing Chen Qingqiu's words. He fell silent again and listened to Chen Qingqiu's speech without saying a word.

"It turns out that the girls who asked for leave these days were taken to the mountains by the villagers. Today, the tribe leader's daughter-in-law came to me and I found out the reason."

Chen Qingqiu talked for a while, and when he saw Ah Chou's expressionless face, his excitement gradually calmed down. He stared at Ah Chou and asked, "Do you know?"

Ah Chou did not answer. She looked away and took out a neatly folded letter from her pocket. She said in a flat voice:

"Teacher, I know you will be leaving in a few days. This is your last letter. I will never bother you again."

Chen Qingqiu looked at the letter she handed over with a bit of disbelief in his eyes. He pushed her letter aside and continued, "Tell me where the Buddhist temple is. Those students are all on the mountain. There is not much time left."

Ah Chou was silent for a second, but seemed not to have heard it. He handed the letter to Chen Qingqiu again and said as if he was talking to himself:

"You said that the student has changed his confession. You will be cleared of all charges immediately. No one will insult you anymore. You can go back to being a teacher. That's great."

"It's only two days. You can leave soon. Forget everything here."

"Achou!" Achou was still muttering, but Chen Qingqiu suddenly interrupted her, "Those children are still on the mountain. If I leave, they will only have a dead end. How can I leave?"

Hearing Chen Qingqiu calling her name, Ah Chou was stunned for a second, and a crystal tear flowed from the corner of her eye. She shook her head and stuffed the letter into Chen Qingqiu's hand.

"Go, go, teacher. Don't worry about anything here. Leave as soon as possible. The sooner the better!"

As if he couldn't bear it anymore, Chen Qingqiu pushed Ah Chou's letter to the ground and raised his voice.

"You are the only one I can find now. Those are your classmates, they are all children about your age, but now they are going to be killed. Why don't you tell me where the Buddhist temple is?"

Ah Chou looked at the letter that fell to the ground, clenched it tightly with both hands, his body began to tremble, and suddenly he looked up at Chen Qingqiu.

"What does the life and death of those people have to do with me! What does it have to do with you!"

"They're dead, so why should I help them? Why should you save them? Those people framed you and cursed you behind your back. Now they're going to die. It's all their own fault. They deserve it!"

Chen Qingqiu listened to Ah Chou's words with an increasingly incredulous look in his eyes, as if he didn't know her, and said:

"Those are the lives of dozens of girls. Am I going to watch them die just because they said a few words to me?"

"So what? Will you be rewarded for doing good things?" Ah Chou looked at Chen Qingqiu's shocked eyes, but he was merciless. He pointed at his broken leg and said angrily:

"Have you forgotten why you became what you are now? What did you get in return for saving that female student? She slandered you and turned you into a beast that everyone wanted to kill. Has anyone ever spoken up for you? Has anyone ever believed you?!"

"Sacrifice has existed for so many years, and so many girls have tried to escape, but how many have succeeded? Those who failed to help them escape were beaten to death. You are about to clear your name and have a bright future, so why are you getting involved in this mess!"

"These people are not worth saving!"

Chen Qingqiu listened to Ah Chou's hoarse words and his body began to tremble. He seemed unable to accept what Ah Chou said, and seemed extremely disappointed. He asked in a trembling voice:

"Is this what I taught you? Have you forgotten everything I told you before?"

Ah Chou looked at Chen Qingqiu's disappointed eyes and wiped away the tears on his face. "You taught me well, but I am such a selfish person. I have already rotted in the quagmire. No one can pull me out."

"You should have just ignored me and let me live on my own without any hope. It would have been better than what's happening now!"

Chen Qingqiu's eyes gradually turned red as he looked at Achou's self-destructive look. He gritted his teeth and slowly raised his hand to slap Achou.

The people on the edge of the field saw Chen Qingqiu raising his hand, but did not step forward to stop him like they did last time.

Fang Ziang coughed lightly in embarrassment. This time he was closer and finally heard the conversation between Achou and Chen Qingqiu clearly. He remembered that he was indeed a bit reckless last time.

Yu Youyou turned her head to look at Fang Ziang, then looked in the direction of Chen Qingqiu and Achou.

Ah Chou raised her head and closed her eyes, waiting for Chen Qingqiu's slap in the face, but Chen Qingqiu's hand did not fall on her. When the sound of the slap came, the pain was not on her face.

When Achou heard the sound of the slap, he immediately opened his eyes, only to see that the slap that Chen Qingqiu was supposed to give Achou fell on his own face instead.

"Teacher!" Achou's pupils dilated and his eyes widened.

The tears in Chen Qingqiu's eyes finally fell. He shook his head and murmured, "It's my fault."

"You have only had me as your teacher in these eighteen years. Now that you say such things, it is my fault that I did not teach you well. It is my responsibility, not your fault."

Ah Chou's tears rolled down his cheeks, and his voice broke down: "No, teacher, it's my fault."

"I have been your teacher for two months. Now I will give you the last lesson." Chen Qingqiu took a step back, tears still in his eyes, but his voice was firm:

"You said they insulted me, so they deserved to die and were not worth saving."

Chen Qingqiu shook his head. "But they never knew the truth of the matter. In their eyes, I was a teacher who molested students. And because they have justice in their hearts, they get angry when they see evil deeds and accuse me."

"But this doesn't mean they have become evil people. They are just ordinary people who have been deceived."

"When you said that they were not worthy of being saved because they had insulted me, you were actually considering those insults to be equal to their lives."

"But this logic itself is wrong. Every person's life is too heavy, so heavy that a few insults can't even compare to it."

"As for whether it's worth it or not, everyone has their own criteria for judging, but for me, it's worth it."

Every word of Chen Qingqiu's was audible to her. Just as he forgave her with all his tolerance as usual, it made Ah Chou unable to speak any more.

"I know you said those things for my own good, and I'm very grateful to you, but I have to do this." Chen Qingqiu closed his eyes, turned and walked towards the village entrance.

The sky turned grey again, dark clouds gathered overhead, and a cold wind blew across the harvested wheat fields, blowing bleakly across Ah Chou who was still standing there.

The rain gradually began to fall again, exactly the same as it had been the day before.

The few people who had listened to the conversation between Chen Qingqiu and Achou at the edge of the field were silent for a long time. The cold rain from the sky dripped on their bodies, leaving circular water stains on their clothes.

Lu Keming withdrew his gaze indifferently, picked up Yu Youyou who was still staring at Achou, and was about to go back to Granny Li's house. His eyes casually swept towards the forest opposite, but his steps suddenly stopped.

The forest opposite had lost all its dead leaves, leaving only dead branches, but yellow leaves were growing again.

He originally thought that the retrospection would start from tomorrow, but he didn't expect it to start from the time Chen Qingqiu left.