"My career as a postman in the mountains began an ordinay morning." "I woke up and saw my father re-packing the mail bag that I've already packed." "I knew he just double checked to be sure, since it's my first mail delivey." "I wasn't totally comfortable with my first mail trip although I didn't give it much thought." "I believed that I would get used to it after a few deliveries." "It takes 3 days to finish the entire mail route, each delivey, and it's 240 km all together." "I know, I've seen you done that countless of times." "I drew a map for the routes you need to take today." "You need to hike 80km over Mt." "Tianche to Wangfeng Valley then rest overnight at Joban village." "Then get going early 2nd day to reach Hanpo village then hike over Mt." "Yaozhang to Geten valley and rest overnight at Da Yue village." "It's another 80km." "You should start early pick up speed and you should be home on the 3rd day." "If I can walk faster the first day I might get it done in 2 days." "It's not a race, you have a long way to walk." "I understand." "I am retired." "You can make this job but it's not an easy job." "Perhaps you might regret it later for taking it." "Your uniform is too small for me." "The manager said that my size of uniform won't be available for a while." "We have enough to live on it isn't so bad to be a farmer." "Your dad is retired now." "You can find a job in the city." "You don't understand, Mom." "A postmen is a government job." "It's different from an employee." "Our family must have a government officer." "Right, Mom?" "I am not a cadre, the manager is." "It isn't bad to be a Branch manager..." "He was a postmen before." "Weather could change suddenly." "Take all necessities along." "Let's go, Lao Er." "Go with him." "Go with him!" "Lao Er." "I won't deliver mails from now on." "The manager wants me to retire. I am old, my knee hurts and it doesn't get any better." "I am asked to retire but you are not." "You'd keep on showing him the way and give him company." "Got it?" "Lao Er, let's go!" "He doesn't know the way yet, go and show him the way..." "Lao Er, let's go." "Don't wait till I put leash on you." "Lao Er, come on!" "Forget it then." "I'm going on my own." "Wait, son, your dad is going with you." "Mom, just ask Shu Wang Chang if you need help, I've talked to him already." "Take care and don't drink the dirty water." "Mom, go home now." "You sure call mom so dearly." "Lao Er reads my dad's mind although Lao Er is just a dog." "Lao Er spent all the time together with my dad and hasn't been apart from him." "I couldn't change my dad's mind from coming with me." "Although, I felt aw_ard when he was around." "Besides, when it came to work who should take control." "Slow down, Lao Er, he hasn't got used to it yet." "Let him go, I can handle it." "Lean to the right and let the others get by." "The higher we need to climb the heavier the mail bag feels." "What a burden to cary it for 3 days." "I really felt like taking a break sometimes." "But I didn't want my dad to think that I couldn't handle the job." "Besides, my dad could cary the bag at his age." "I should be able to handle it." "I didn't take a break unless he wanted to." "Put down the mail bag gently." "Tired?" "Tired?" "I am really getting old..." "Didn't the manager say it was a decision made by the upper management." "I've tried all kinds of herb medicine." "Centipedes, frogs..." "I've also received treatment." "It lust doesn't seem to get any better." "You should receive treatment even after retirement." "I'm not talking about treatment!" "You are talking about treatment!" "Lao Er, come here!" "Go back home now, I will be fine." "It will be hot when the sun is up." "Don't wory, I won't get lost." "I could always ask for direction." "Lao Er, let's go." "We should be talking to each other on the way, yet I didn't know what to say." "My dad was hardly at home." "Most people en_ me because he was hardly around and I never got spanking." "But they don't know that I'm afraid of him, he is like a stranger to me." "He used to come home from delivey once a month." "I would always stay out as late as possible when he was home." "I felt aw_ard." "I missed him but I was afraid of him." "I hardly ever called him dad." "Lao Er, what happened to dad?" "Where's he?" "Where's the mail bag?" "Nothing happened to the mail bag but dad got angy." "I've never seen him so angy before." "I'm still afraid of him." "This is my son." "Dad said villagers are totally fine if they don't see the village head for days but they are anxious to see my dad." "I thought the villagers would be all excited to see us." "Greet us like movie stars while receiving the letters they have long expected with happy smiles." "It turned out to be totally different." "No one was around even though it was a large village." "No one seemed to care if we came or not." "Put down the mail bag." "Let's rest here for a while." "Why is no one around?" "No one has free time to wait around during the day." "We are not here to check." "Villagers don't sit and wait for us." "How long do we need to wait here?" "They should know that we are here when they heard Lao Er bark." "Hi." "Working on the hill top again?" "Yes, getting building lumber." "Let me go clean up first." "I heard Lao Er bark, so I rushed down the hill." "It's a hot day." "He is the mailman from now on." "This is the secretay of this village, that I've told you about." "What about you?" "Promoted to manager?" "I'll come by whenever I like later on." "The teachers, doctors, clerks came to work here..." "They all got merits or became cadres." "Except you, you have been on foot delivering mails for years." "You think it has been that long for me. I am OK." "You should retire, since your son has grown up and can take over your job." "Give me your mails." "We'd better get going." "Teacher Wang needs to mail some sort of enty form." "Let me go get it." "Let me ty." "So, you smoke?" "I don't smoke whenever you are home." "Where's Lao Er?" "Lao Er!" "Don't ty what I did." "I used to take shortcuts through freezing rivers, but my knees hurt badly now." "No one would have known that you walked though cold rivers!" "I'm the only mailman in this area and I can't complain to the upper management." "The manager tried this mail road with me a month ago." "He cried and blamed himself, unaware of the toughness and the challenges of this mail road." "He said he would award me with merits." "Instead, he sent you to undergo training and had me to apply for retirement." "Didn't villagers write good recommendation letters for you to the upper management?" "They did, but I didn't deliver the letter." "I can't deliver such letters for myself." "Besides, who is there to write recommendations for the villagers?" "Remember, don't complain about hardship." "Let's go and meet them." "They are here to see you." "Why?" "They have never seen you before." "What should I do?" "Didn't you want them to greet you?" "l didn't." "What should I do?" "I haven't given it any thoughts." "This is my son." "He is the mailman from now on." "He will be at your service, like I was." "We'd better get going." "Thank you." "Back to the classroom." "We walked away from the village." "Dad didn't look back." "Villagers stayed and watched us leaving." "Villagers were there to take farewell to dad." "I felt bad for what I just said to him." "He has been longing for what I dream of, although his dream just doesn't come true." "But I know that the villagers will miss him a lot." "We haven't bumped into anyone for miles." "I bet even fairies get bored." "Fairies don't get bored, ty riding the clouds." "Why do people live in the mountains?" "Because they're descendants of the fairies." "My mom used to live in the mountains." "She met my dad on one of these mountain roads." "It was a stormy day." "She was out to feed the ox and twisted her ankle." "She was stuck on the mountain and my dad happened to pass by." "My dad suggested her to ride on the ox, yet she refused." "So, he carried her down the mountain." "Villagers were so glad that the only working ox was safe back." "My dad didn't pay any attention to the ox, only to my mom." "Then my dad took her of the mountain." "What is so interesting about those songs?" "Did you sing while you walked alone?" "No." "Were you bored?" "Watch your steps!" "I was too concentrated on keeping up my pace to feel bored." "See, Lao Er sings along with me." "No, he is alerting the villagers." "Down there is the Hanpo village." "All the incoming and outgoing mails are there, in the Village Office." "Remember to separate Ge Rong's letters and deliver his letters separately to his wife." "He fought with the secretay before so they don't distribute his letters." "Ge Rong is working elsewhere and his wife awaits his letters anxiously." "Lao Er, this way." "Why don't we use the main road?" "A letter needs to be delivered here." "Which one?" "I have it." "I didn't give it to you this morning." "Wang Wuhang is a cripple..." "His eldest son serves in the army." "Remember, you have to hand him the paycheck personally." "His younger son is a swinger." "He has cashed the check behind his dad's back." "Got it?" "Yes." "Lao Er's here!" "Granny, how are you doing?" "Vey well." "Sit down, please." "Here is a letter for you." "Who is that?" "Is it the accountant?" "My son." "He'll deliver your letters from now on." "How are you, granny?" "ls he a good postman?" "He's young." "We're old now." "I'm old, but not you." "You're only 41 ." "Read it." "Grandma, how have you been?" "Are your eyes still hurt?" "And is your back still aching?" "He has ask about those things evey time... I'm fine." "The new area develops quickly." "I'm vey busy here and I haven't got time to go home to see you." "Just let the postmen know if you need assistance." "He'll find the right people to help you." "He always wants me to ask you for help." "Please write him and tell him that the mailman is replaced." "Granny, the new mailman is my son." "He will be glad to help, just as I've done." "Just let my son know if you need help." "Go on, read." "It can't be easy for you to live alone there." "The life in the newly developed area is so much better." "I should get you here and you will live a better life." "Take care and be well." "Finished?" "Yes." "I will write a reply for you." "You might let your son write the reply." "He sounds like as if he was my grandson." "I'll come to see you again." "I got lots of letters, please come often." "Granny, we'd better get going." "Lao Er, let's go." "Why doesn't her grandson write to her?" "He only sends a New Year card along with a check evey year." "Her daughter-in-law died while giving birth to the grandson." "She raised her grandson all by herself." "Later, he became the only one in this village ever accepted by the college." "When I delivered him the college acceptance he said:" "I am leaving my town!" "He has never returned since then." "He didn't return even when his father died." "Granny cried for loosing her own son." "Sobbed longing for her grandson's return." "She became blind and still waits to see her grandson." "You are helping him to escape from his responsibility." "Why don't you tell him what he should do?" "He is a well educated state cadre, he knows what he should do." "A well educated person needs some lecture, too." "That's enough." "Just make sure to see her evey couple of weeks and read her something." "I will, since I am your son and the new mailman." "Some other mailman may not do what you just said." "Her grandson should take care of her." "You can't take care of eveyone." "Are you telling me what I should do?" "I simply do whatever I can." "But it doesn't help in reality." "Only time will tell." "Her grandson is worth more than anything, even more than her sight." "You can't break her hope." "When holding Granny's hand I thought of my mom." "People working away from home have different reasons unable to visit their family but their family misses them vey much." "When I was little I loved to see my mom smile." "When dad was home and we three were together, she smiled the most." "Mom accepted that dad was hardly at home because he worked hard." "She loves dad just like granny loves her grandson." "Lao Er, come here." "Good boy." "Hi, uncle." "This is my son, he is 24." "The new mailman." "So, he was the one that thought the teacher was his dad and got spanked by mom?" "That's right." "She and her sister were only this tall when I first saw her." "Uncle..." "Lao Er, let's go home." "Go on." "You came here at the right time." "Why?" "Is there a special event in the village tonight?" "Hope you didn't eat too much." "The wedding will be held tonight since you're coming." "I'll definitely attend the wedding." "Yes, enioy it as much as you can." "Look, you got ash all over your face." "Where?" "There!" "ls there any more ash?" "Yes, there." "You ty to trick me!" "is the rice soup done?" "It smells so good and I feel so hungy!" "Have a taste!" "Oh, It's too hot!" "Girls of the Dong tribe are fierce, be careful with your words." "I didn't say anything, I just tried get to know them." "Whenever I saw her, I thought about you." "I always told her that you would be stunned, when you met her." "Remember to check this mailbox when you leave the village." "Here is the key!" "Check evey letter as well." "Like this one, you'll need to buy a stamp for it." "Remember?" "Yes, I do." "We can hitchhike along this road." "We should stick to the mail route." "There is no one living around here." "We don't need to stick to this section of the mail route." "It's easy to control our delivey schedule if we walk by the mail route." "Buses don't run by our delivey schedule." "You don't know since you haven't tried." "I just don't want to stand by the road and ask for a ride." "We can pay for bus rides." "The bus isn't as punctual as I am." "But you can check out bus schedules first and work out your delivey schedules." "We are mailmen, we take mail routes." "You just ty to save walking." "How could you handle a mailman's job?" "Save walking?" "Wait till helicopters are used for transportation." "By then, there will be no need for mailmen on foot." "Here's a shortcut, it saves 8km." "The water is cold so the villagers take a long way around to avoid it." "When the water lever is high you need to walk further to find a spot." "Lao Er knows where." "Cary the bag on your head to keep it from getting wet." "It also helps balancing." "It's safer to let Lao Er lead the way." "I can handle it." "I grew up by the river." "A swimmer may not necessarily know how to cross a river safely." "Besides, river bed is full of rocks covered by slippey alga." "You are carying mails, not a rice sack." "I know." "I could cary you, you don't need to get into the water anymore." "I'm used to it. I don't mind to get into the water once more." "You might even enioy it." "I walked alone all these years and haven't been carried across water before." "People used to say that a boy became a man when he could cary his own father." "I used to feel that dad was so tall and I wondered when I would be able to cary him." "Then I grew taller then my dad, when I was still in elementay." "Look, Lao Er's running fast." "Lao Er runs to keep warm." "It's summer now and still the mountain stream is so cold." "Yes, that's how I got the pain in my knees." "Come here, Lao Er, leave it here." "What's he doing?" "Getting wood for you to set a fire." "I used to warm my legs here." "It's not necessay for me, Iet's get going." "Enjoy the fire." "Lao Er means well." "I saw... a scar on your neck." "I got that years ago." "How come I didn't know?" "What happened?" "I was 15. I carried a spade on my shoulder, it slipped and hurt my neck." "Mom never mentioned it to me." "l asked her not to." "When your mom was pregnant I had to take the mail route far away from home." "I only got to go home evey 3 months." "Your mom sent me a letter with the news of your birth." "I have been delivering mails to others and this was the only mail ever for me." "That is the only letter she ever wrote to me in all these years." "I was so jo_ul and I spent all my paycheck on drinks for my friends." "Mom corrected me if I said that dad didn't love me." "Dad was hardly at home even during holidays." "When he came home he always got me firecrackers." "I realized it takes a lot to be a father." "Dad, time to go!" "What did you say?" "I said, "Dad, time to go!"" "Did you hear that, Lao Er?" "He called me dad!" "Let me cary the mailbag." "You could cary it for me this time, but you can't cary it forever." "This mail road sure is steep!" "That road was destroyed by a rainstorm." "Be careful!" "Zhuanwa, it is vey windy." "Who let you come here to wait for us." "I should be here since it's windy." "Grandpa told me, it's my job." "He said you fell down to the foothill once." "We can't let that happen again." "Your grandpa is getting old and forgetful." "Tell him that my son delivers mail from now on." "No need for you to come here and wait." "But it's my job." "You fell once." "We can't let that happen to your son." "Zhuanwa are you going to school?" "I have finished 8th grade." "It's too far. I need to walk over 3 mountains to get to the school." "My parents let me drop school." "My grandpa said that I've learned enough and it would be OK if I don't go to school." "What do you think?" "I understand that they felt bad for me." "It was a long way to school." "I did what they decided." "I joined the vocation college, I'm taking college courses at home." "What's your maior?" "I always hope there will be journalists here to write articles about me, but no iournalists ever come here." "So, I'll study journalism and write some about myself some day." "I think that you can be a journalist as well." "You asked me questions like a journalist would." "It would be a lot easier for you to get study material." "I have to wait for them to come by mail." "Goodbye, mail grandpa." "Tell your grandpa not to drink too much." "Goodbye." "Lao Er, let's go." "Did you fall down the hill?" "How did it happen?" "It happened six months ago." "I helped them putting a contract together and it got late." "It was a windy evening and I fell all the way down to the bottom of the hill." "I was knocked unconscious for the whole night." "All the villagers were out looking for me." "It was somewhat embarrassing for me." "This road sure is rough!" "That new road will be ready soon." "It won't be much better." "Are you regretting taking this iob?" "You and the manager didn't mention the rough roads to me." "Because you didn't ask." "Hi!" "Grandpa, big brother!" "I'm up here!" "I've got my report card!" "Two are out- standing, and the other one is excellent." "My teacher sent my articles to a publisher and he returned the tuition to me and he will support me till my graduation." "He told me to write more articles." "I am going to write something about you ne_ time." "Deal!" "Go home now." "Did you hear that?" "He is going to write something about us ne_ time." "He called you brother and me for grandpa." "He needs to get the relationship right before he write about us!" "I didn't think I would be here for him to write about." "We didn't talk to each other for quite some time." "Later we heard native songs echoing in the distance." "Dad asked me if I liked the girl of the Dong tribe." "She's different from the girls in our town, but I don't think I would mary a mountain girl." "Why?" "You think they are unrefined and not sophisticated?" "Oh, no, she is vey smart." "She covered the radio with a bowl and she said she turned the sound into surround sound." "Or do you think she's poor?" "No." "So, why then?" "I'm afraid that she'll miss her village like mom." "Mom used to tell me so many stories about her village and the mountains." "I asked mom why people live in the mountains." "And what did she say?" "She said that they felt at home in the mountains..." "Like a pair warm shoes, secure and comfortable." "She has waited at home for me through most of our marriage." "It hasn't been easy for you, either." "I stayed at home all these years." "I didn't sign on for the militay or work out of town, so that I could keep mom company." "I complained that dad was hardly at home and that I had to stay home most of the time." "But I know we were on his mind even when he wasn't at home." "He will not deliver mails anymore." "I know that he will miss the mountains, the villages and the roads." "Let's take a break here." "Who prepared the water?" "Not sure." "But drinking water has always been prepared here for the passers-by." "Have some water." "Here you go." "Let's get a good rest here." "The road to the radar station is reasonably good. I can go alone." "I've got the mails all prepared." "Dad, let me get it!" "Dad!" "Dad!" "Dad...!" "Lao Er, thank you." "Lao Er, you are so great!" "Thank god for having you here." "Hello, sister!" "Hello!" "This is my son!" "He is the mailman from now on." "My goodness, he is tall." "He is going to bother you to stay overnight from time to time." "Sit down." "Let me get you some warm water to clean up." "They've lived in the mountains for generations." "They have nothing but the mountains." "Who said they only have the mountains." "They have their goals and hopes, and their lives are tough." "Hopes keep their goals alive." "Take postman for example, it's not an easy job." "As time goes on the friendship between postmen and villagers develops and the responsibility grows." "The postman's lob is meaningful." "Because of these villagers..." "Because of these mountains..." "We'll be home at this time tomorrow." "Please stop by Uncle Geng's." "He has been really helpful to us." "He always lend us a hand whenever we need it." "He is a kind man." "I should stop by and thank him." "You don't need to make it a big deal." "He thought you had attitude, since you never stopped by." "It's not what he thought." "I hardly had time to visit him." "I've explained that to him many times." "Our town head is helping our village in making progress." "But he likes to take advantage because of his position." "But don't say anything about that." "Just ignore him and don't say anything about that." "We can't afford to upset him." "I don't like him vey much." "Why can't I say anything?" "!" "He is the village head, just leave him alone." "I can't accept his mentality, I am a State Cadre." "We need fertilizers, seeds." "They are all distributed by him." "We can't afford to lose seasons." "Business is business." "We're all equal." "I've given you some warnings now." "Just don't expect me to help if you run into troubles." "It's just a small town." "Why is it so complicated!" "It has always been like this and we learned to live with it." "Go to bed, we still have a long way to go tomorrow." "You go ahead, I'll have a cigarette." "I've fixed that Shu Wuangchang will take care of the rice field." "So you don't aggravate the pain in your knees." "You must promise me." "I promise." "Mom coughs when it gets cold..." "But she doesn't want to see the doctor." "Would you take her to have a check-up?" "I will." "It's time to wake him up." "Let him sleep for a little longer!" "He was exhausted." "Yesterday, I ran into the manager." "I couldn't help cying for my son." "He said that he finally learned that the mail routes are tough." "He wouldn't have assigned this job to our son if you hadn't insisted." "I don't know anyone but him that could handle this job."