Prologue
"Some might say that 18 years of life is long, some might say it's not. However, for a couple who have been teaching in a village sitting on a cliff 2,800 meters above sea level for 18 years, it's definitely a long time and with deep meaning..."
On the night of February 2, 2009, the "2008 Touching China Award Show" presented by China Central Television (CCTV) attracted hundreds of millions of Chinese viewers. Using the above opening remark with suspense, the prominent CCTV host Bai Yansong directed the attention of TV audience towards a husband and wife, arousing the curiosity about what had happened to the couple in those 18 years.
The TV screen then moved to the Canyon of Dadu River, showing the roaring waters, and then the vast mountains surrounded by soaring clouds.
Albeit the ordinary natural scenes and plain narration, the story told was neither ordinary nor plain.
The scenes shown on TV could not be more familiar to Li Guilin – the great canyon, the dangerous mountain paths, and the students full of vigor in the primitive and peaceful Yi village. But when he watched these scenes on TV at home now, they seemed to him familiar yet strange, stirring mixed bittersweet feelings in his heart. He sat in front of the TV silently, his mind tossing with the waves and torrents.
His wife, Lu Jianfen, sat next to him, caressing the hair of her younger son Li Xiang. The elder boy Li Wei had gone to school, and Li Xiang would also go back to school soon. For Jianfen, the two sons meant a lot to her.
The seats facing the TV set directly were reserved for Guilin's parents, with others sitting around them. They keep this seating pattern whenever the family has a rather rare chance to sit together.
Beside the TV cabinet, a bouquet of flowers –sunflowers, baby's breaths and carnations – stood quietly in a vase, giving forth a delicate fragrance.
"They have kindled a torch of knowledge on the remote mountain paths and helped children climb up the ladders on high cliffs leading to school. For 18 years, they have lived a modest life, persistently toiling in the field of hope to make miracles happen." This was the presentation remark delivered by the Organizing Committee of "Touching China Award" to Li Guilin and his wife Lu Jianfen.
Guilin stood up and put his arms around his wife for a long while. When he took his arms away, he suddenly saw her face all in tears –a face no longer looking young.
Silently, Guilin walked out.
He just wanted to cool himself down in the breeze. However, an amazing view aroused a new surge of emotion in him – he saw a meteor shooting across the dark sky like a fireball, drawing a brilliant curve.
Guilin didn't believe he could see such a rare view. He rubbed his eyes very hard. But when he opened his eyes again, the meteor had disappeared into the distant horizon.
The place where the meteor fell was his another home – Erping Village across the Dadu River valley where he and his wife had set up a primary school and spent 18 years developing and protecting it.
Eighteen years ago, he made the toughest decision in his life. He left his home in Hanyuan and moved to Liangshan along a remote mountain trail, a trail that seems long enough to take his whole life to go.
He felt a throb in his heart. Isn't that meteor like himself, living far away from home? Doesn't that curve just resemble his past 18 years devoted to the mountainous area?
