Chapter 11 third quarter

In the deep mountains filled with thick fog, my colleague Mr. N fell under a big tree.I leaned over to make sure he was still breathing.So he called his name and shook his shoulder vigorously.His eyelids trembled slightly two or three times, and he woke up. "what's wrong with me?" "We just slipped and fell off this steep slope" The two of them looked up at the steep slope that seemed to be pulled out by a huge spoon. They fell down like this and survived. This made Teacher N, who was feared by the students like a devil in school, twitch his face and couldn't help but feel scared.

He groaned as he stood up.His feet were so swollen that he seemed unable to walk any further. "it does not matter." He was sweating from the severe pain, while hiding the pain, he forced a smile and said to me. We are now in the mountains near our hometown, but we are still far away from the places where we played as children. The mountain path that seems to be haunted by wild animals stretches all the way to the top of the mountain, walking down along the gradually clear sound of water flow, unexpectedly there is such a slope on the side of the road.No one has climbed this mountain since a long time ago, so information about the topography of the mountain is very poor.This must have been more or less influenced by the legend about the woman.

It is impossible to climb this slope with Teacher N who cannot walk on his back.Seeing that the sun was about to set, the sunlight that was still shining on his body just now was slowly covered by the surrounding dense leaves, so it was not an option to just sit here and wait. In the end, I decided that I would climb up alone to find rescue, and Mr. N would stay here and wait for a few hours. However, the plan was completely shelved.The soil on the slope was very loose and slippery, and I was like an ant who fell into a bowl-shaped sandpit and couldn't climb up.It seemed impossible to return to the previous path.It wasn't completely dead, though, as there was a gravel path down the ramp in front of us.Although I don't know where this road leads, but since there is a road, someone must have walked through it.

So I carried Teacher N on my back and walked down the mountain along this road. I told Mr. N that I was going to climb the mountain during the summer vacation in the staff office of the middle school.It was the busy period before the holiday, and he came to me to inquire about the school's summer vacation arrangements, so we chatted. We are from the same town (one of the local administrative divisions in Japan, larger than a village and smaller than a city in terms of population size), and both teach at our alma mater. Teacher N is one year older than me, teaches social studies, and lives very close to the school.

When I chatted with him for the first time, I told him that my father’s house was also in that town, in the area beside the mountain. He stroked the beard on his chin and said with a complicated expression: “Ah, that area I used to go there by bike when I was young. But, even so, I think you and I have known each other since middle school. If you had joined the judo club at that time, as a junior, I would have taken good care of you. .” I joined the art department when I was in school, and now I have become a consultant for the art department. We quickly chatted very speculatively, so we decided to hang out together during the summer vacation.

"I go mountain climbing every summer vacation." "Mountain climbing? You're really good at doing such a tiring thing. I'm out of breath even climbing the stairs at school." As an art teacher, I was grading students' homework one by one.It is a sketch of eggs for them to better grasp the treatment of light and shade.I am full of doubts about the practice of judging a student's painting skills only by such a painting.But in order to end this boring work as soon as possible, I quickly and scribbled to score each painting. I am going to have the students draw some landscapes for their summer homework.I don't know how many students will be able to complete it seriously this year.As a teacher, I am very tired of looking at the works of students.Their drawings are as lifeless as mine.The people in the painting don't feel like they are breathing in the campus.Such a picture is not worth looking at.

Just casually responding and chatting with Mr. N, somehow, it finally turned into him and me going mountain climbing together. Early this morning, we chatted about the reasons for climbing the mountain. He came to my house in light attire.My uncle brought out tea.Now it's just me and my uncle living together.Because Teacher N often comes to my house to play, he and my uncle are also very close.All three of us are bachelors. I went to climb the mountain to find my mother's body.Teacher N became excited after hearing this. "Things are getting interesting." "Forget it, you, as a teacher, it's inappropriate to be interested in this kind of thing."

It is said that my mother never came back after she went to the mountains.I heard about this incident when my father passed away three months after I graduated from high school.It was my uncle who became my only relative told me.When I was young, the story that my mother died of illness was just a lie. My mother kept a few photos of her smiling beautifully, and they were on my desk until I was twenty.Since elementary school, the only memories of my mother are these few photos. In addition, I also know that my mother is a photographer, that's all. "She is a very beautiful woman! She is far more beautiful than the photos." The uncle said regretfully, "Although she is not well-known, she still hopes to continue to be a photographer even after giving birth to you."

When my father took me back to live with my grandparents, my uncle was still a high school student.Couples quarrel.The reason is simply because my mother doesn't care much about me.My father and my father's parents did not understand my mother's love of photography.They insist that mothers should give up their hobbies and concentrate on housework. But my mother does not intend to give up her photography career, and firmly believes that one day her works will be recognized by the world.In the end, he broke with his father. "That night, she said she hoped to see you, so she came, but you didn't know anything at the time, and slept peacefully under the mosquito net."

My uncle said that my mother was standing in the porch and crying, saying she wanted to see me. "My mother, your grandma, looked at your mother and said: 'You are really out of place, if the neighbors see it, it will be a shame to our family. This child will never see you again in his life. If you come near him again, we'll call the police'. I've never seen such a stern look on my mother's face." After a while, the mother's crying could be heard even from the uncle's room.After the crying stopped, the uncle opened the window and saw the exhausted mother slumped on the ground.Three hours later, when my uncle opened the window to look again, my mother remained in that position without moving.

"She was gone in the morning. Then rumors began to spread among the neighbors that before dawn, a woman in red was walking into the mountains." However, no one came back from the mountains afterwards, so people outside my father's family thought that they must have read it wrong. The woman in the rumors is probably my mother.My uncle recalled that the mother he saw standing in the porch that day was wearing red clothes.My mother must have been troubled by my affairs and the fact that her photography works were not recognized by the world, and other troubles made her lose all hope, and finally thought of death. Shortly after that, the mother's photobook was published.After reading the photobook published by my mother, I was immediately and deeply attracted.Although I am not in the same field as me, so I can't make an accurate evaluation, but at least, in my opinion, my mother is already the closest person to my ideal photographer. "What about the royalties from the photobook?" Teacher N, who had been listening quietly, asked. "My father took it all. Because no one knew about my mother's suicide, my mother was believed to be a missing photographer." Teacher N stares at the picture of his mother.My mother's attire that night was probably the same as the one in this photo.The mother in the photo is wearing a red dress with a big sunflower embroidered on her chest.Finally, Teacher N sighed and said, "No matter what, she is really a beauty, alas." Before long, we were surrounded by darkness on all sides.I originally planned to go back at dawn, so I didn't bring any lighting tools. Now I can barely see the road under my feet with the dim and flickering starlight. Although Teacher N is a judo master, he is not a burly man, but a man with smooth muscles and a well-proportioned figure.Therefore, I can still walk with him on my back, but it is almost reaching the limit for my not-so-strong body. Before, he only said "thank you very much", then closed his eyes and never opened them again. He didn't know if he passed out or fell asleep. The road seems to be a gentle curve.He was clearly walking in the direction of going down the mountain, but now he seemed to be heading in the completely opposite direction. The fog is getting thicker. Suddenly, he heard the sound of something heavy being dragged behind him.I looked back and found that Teacher N's ​​legs were hanging down.It seems that I am far more exhausted than I imagined.Probably because the hand supporting him has no strength, so unconsciously it became a state of dragging him. However, what I was more worried about was Teacher N, who dragged his injured leg like this, but didn't utter any painful groans.I thought he might be dead, but when I looked carefully, I found that my eyes were tightly closed and I was sweating continuously.After confirming that he was still alive, I immediately breathed a sigh of relief. "Hurry up and find a place where you can take a good rest," I thought anxiously. Suddenly seeing a glimmer of light in front of my eyes, it was like piercing a hole in the dense fog with a needle.Maybe there are people.No, it has to be someone else. I recited Teacher N and walked towards the light.When I finally groped my way, I was so exhausted that I was about to die.She just walked forward step by step relying on inertia, as if stepping on soft ground, or walking on a cushion covered with the floor. As it got closer and closer, the ray of light gradually enlarged in the blurred vision, and I felt as if I saw countless motionless figures around the light source.