"I've got you a position as a temporary teacher," his uncle continued. "There are only two free positions in the whole area and dozens of people who want the jobs, so I wasn't able to confirm that it was yours until yesterday. Hurry up and pack. After breakfast I'll take you up to report in at Jieling Elementary School."
Yingcai's ears pricked up. "Jieling?"
His mother couldn't believe it either. "There are so many schools around here, why does he have to go up that huge mountain to the back of beyond?"
"It's precisely because nobody wants to go there that they're short on teachers. They need temporary teachers," Station-Head Wan replied.
"What about the other job?" Yingcai's father asked.
The station head looked surprised. "There is a position at Central Elementary School, but after consideration the education station decided to allocate it to Lan Fei from Xizhang village."
Yingcai's mother saw his father's face change and interrupted quickly. "It can't have been easy for Lan Xiaomei to bring up a child on her own after she lost her husband. Looking out for them is the right thing to do."
His father looked at her. "So go and fetch me a bottle of insecticide, and let's see who looks after you once I've drunk it."
Station-Head Wan was annoyed. "You want to be served the choicest cut, I take it? Look, if you don't want the job, I can give it to someone else. The children's education is the most important thing."
Yingcai's father relented at once. "I didn't mean anything by it. Everyone wants to do better for themselves, it's like they say: even the Prime Minister dreams of being Emperor."
His mother cut in. "Yingcai, go and pack your bags now."
Yingcai had not said a word thus far, but now turned to look at his mother. "Pack my bags, my ass! You just want your little brother to get his way, so you're happy to send your own son to Jieling to suffer as a community teacher. It's not even a proper job like a state teacher."
"You don't have a town residency permit and you didn't get into university, so what makes you think you're qualified to be a state teacher? To put it nicely, you're lucky to get a job as a temporary community teacher. To put it less nicely, it's only thanks to your uncle's position as the head of the education station. You can't have things too easy now, or how will I explain it to the authorities when I help you in the future?"
His father chipped in. "If you don't want to teach, that's fine, I could do with some help at home."
His mother went to get Yingcai's things together, leaving uncle and nephew alone in the main room. Yingcai moved his chair closer to the station head's and whispered in his ear, "I saw … I saw you go to Xizhang yesterday." After a pause, he continued. "Supposing I go to that godforsaken place, what will I do if you lose your job?"
That caught Station-Head Wan's attention. "Stop shooting in the dark, Yingcai. I've played chess for decades. The role of the soldiers is to keep their heads down and advance according to orders. You'll go to Jieling and then we'll talk. I worked there for years as a community teacher myself, you know. It's a good place to learn your trade. After I was made state teacher I was able to work my way up and eventually became the head of the education station. Oh, and remember: the people up there feel differently about teachers. As long as you've got chalk dust on your hands, even the most vicious local dog won't bite you."
Station-Head Wan took a pair of glasses with near-sighted lenses from his pocket and told Yingcai to put them on. Yingcai thought it was odd—his eyesight was fine, surely wearing glasses was just asking for trouble. It took a long explanation before he understood that his uncle had used his nephew's "exceptionally poor eyesight" as a reason to give him the temporary teacher job.
"If you want to get something done, you need to have a reason," the station head said. "You'll struggle without one, no matter how good your connections are. It doesn't matter how flimsy the pretext is, it just has to be plausible."
Yingcai felt dizzy, he couldn't see a thing with the glasses on. He wanted to take them off but his uncle wouldn't let him—he said he'd intended to visit a few days earlier, to give him time to get used to the glasses, but he had been delayed and now every second counted. He added that nobody at Jieling Elementary School wore glasses, so they would respect him a little more for his short-sightedness—and it would make him look more experienced, too.
Yingcai stood up and took a few steps. "I can't do this! I can't!"
Not knowing the reason for the outburst, his parents came rushing in. "What are you doing saying no at this late stage?" his father grumbled. "You must have been a camel in your previous life, you seem to enjoy suffering so much."
"You don't understand anything." Yingcai wiped his glasses and went to his room, coming back a moment later with his novel. "Let's go, Uncle."
