Take My Breath Away

To get to the Southon Village, Debbie and her schoolmates had first taken a two-hour ride on a high-speed train. Then they transferred to a bus, which took them seven hours. By the time they arrived, it was already dark. The bus had bumped all the way along the rugged mountain roads, jolting the passengers on it badly. Debbie never had carsickness, but this time, she couldn't help but feel dizzy. She bent down on the roadside and retched a few times, but didn't vomit.

A few of her schoolmates had begun vomiting as soon as they got off the bus.

The pungent smell of vomit and the disgusting sight of it only made things worse for Debbie. Just when she felt she was safe, her stomach churned violently, and in one loud retch she threw up.

Dixon opened the lid off his water bottle and handed it to Debbie to wash her mouth. "There's no hot water right now. Just take a few sips of this bottle of water first," he said.

Debbie took the bottle and rinsed the taste out of her mouth with the water. Now that she felt much better, she was finally in a mood to appreciate the scenery.

As they stood up high and looked around, the students could see the small village in the distance—dozens of houses lined up at the foot of the mountain. Most of the houses were smallish one-storey houses, with the tallest standing only three-storey up.

Still feeling exhausted from the journey, Debbie stretched herself. It was refreshing to finally breathe the clean air of the countryside.

But the biggest problem was... the piercing coldness in the mountain area.

A gust of cold wind blew over, threatening to freeze them into icy stumps sticking out of permafrost.

Although they all came in warm clothing, they were not prepared for biting cold. The girls soon began to complain. Even some of the boys found it worse than they had expected.

Once the villagers learnt of the students' arrival, many of them, especially children, stood at the entrance of the village to welcome the group. As Debbie and her schoolmates walked towards the villagers, they were shocked to realize that the children's faces and hands were turning red from exposure while they waited. And it really gripped Debbie's heart that the kids wore old, worn-out cotton clothes, which were far from enough to keep them warm in such harsh weather. Worse still, some of the children wore thin, baldly beaten shoes.

With wide eyes, the children stared curiously at the visitors from the big city. Expectation and eagerness to learn about the outside world were obvious on their faces.

Behind the children, there stood a group of old or middle-aged women, wearing genuine, welcoming smiles on their tanned faces. They raised their gnarled hands and waved enthusiastically.

The scene moved most of the students close to tears. Born and brought up in affluence, they were jolted, coming face to face with such abject poverty for the very first time.

Even though they had already mentally prepared themselves before they came, the squalid living conditions here were way too unsettling.

The donated relief supplies would arrive at the village tomorrow, so the students would start their work from tomorrow. After greeting the students, the village head led them to the host families,

meal, the village head's wife came to the dinner table after finishing her housework. A student stood up and politely ceded his seat to her. But she shook her head and chose to sit next to Debbie.

As Debbie was relishing the special flavor of the peach blossom wine made by the villagers, she finally got to know why the village head's wife chose to sit next to her. She realized that she was specially treated by the village head's wife. The woman happily greeted in her local dialect and proceeded to add more food onto Debbie's plate.

Although Debbie didn't understand her language, she could feel the hospitality in her tone and suppressed the urge to stop the woman from adding food onto her plate.

Seeing how the two got along so well, Jared said jokingly whether the village head's wife wanted Debbie to stay and marry her son. Debbie would probably have a dotting mother-in-law.

Amidst amused giggles, everyone's eyes turned to Debbie, who pretended offense at Jared's joke.

After dinner, the village head took them to attend a campfire party. The bone chilling cold on the way made them yearn for the bonfire so much that when they finally arrived, they couldn't hide their excitement.

A group of young boys and girls dressed in cultural costumes were on the site to entertain their visitors with dance and song. Beaming with glee, they greeted and invited the students to dance together.

Debbie joined the dancing group too. On her left hand was a pretty girl dressed in a yellow cultural costume; while on her right hand was the handsome son of the village head, also dressed in a cultural costume and a large woven hat on his head.

The young man and a few of the young villagers had basic compulsory education, so they at least had enough conversational fluency in standard Mandarin to have chit chat with the students. It was sheer fun to finally have locals to talk to, ask questions and learn about the culture.

After the campfire party, Debbie went back to her room, feeling thoroughly entertained. But she shivered in cold again when she went back to her room. In a few minutes, without washing her face, she quickly went to her bed.