Zacaojing | Yanzi

I first met Yanzi at her stall on Foreigner Street. She sets up her second-hand book stall there every evening, and also has a regular stall at Sanyue Street every week. I thought that old books priced at five or ten yuan probably don't make much money, but she, who calls herself the "Dali Roll King", shows up on time every night.

Although Yanzi has a buzz cut, her face is clearly that of a delicate girl. However, I came to find her because a friend who knew her said she was very strong, loved hiking, and even loved reaching the summit. When hiking with friends, she would carry a big watermelon in a basket on her back, and then take it out to share after reaching the top. Upon hearing this description, the first thought in my head was that I had to go find her.

For the rest of that summer, Yanzi became my work partner. Every day, the two of us would carry hot tea, fruit, and other things as tea break snacks. I carried a 1000 ml water bottle, while Yanzi insisted on carrying a 2000 ml big one. If a child couldn't walk anymore, she would carry them down the mountain with one arm. Her thin-looking body hid the strength of a big man.

I remember that summer, we each wore out two pairs of rain boots. After Yanzi's second pair split open at the mouth, she still continued to wear them.

At first, when I led tours with Yanzi, I was a bit unaccustomed to it, because she would instantly switch to social mode the moment she saw the guests. Yanzi knew a lot, talked about this and that, and had an endless supply of topics. Basically, after one tour with Yanzi, the guests would hear all her life experiences from childhood to the present.

This was quite different from the way I usually got along with guests. Therefore, witnessing Yanzi's entire tour process, I felt that her social mode was tiring. And I, being presumptuous, said to her after the first tour ended, "Actually, you don't need to say so much, if you don't really want to say it in your heart."

But later, thinking about it, maybe this is just her personality. I find talking a lot tiring, but she might feel that more output and communication like this actually makes her more comfortable.

However, after spending more time with her, I discovered that although she seems very talkative and sociable, Yanzi indeed has an opposite side. As long as the tour ends and the guests leave, once she fully relaxes, she stops speaking altogether, as if she automatically enters another mode.

One day, I, Yanzi, and Yang Mi went camping in the mountains. We collected firewood, made a fire, sat on the ground, and talked about our childhoods. Coincidentally, all three of us were left-behind children who grew up in rural areas. The difference was that although Yang Mi and I also had hard childhoods, we still missed that time very much.

Yanzi said, "I don't understand why everyone likes to recall their childhood. I don't think there was anything good about my childhood at all. In my childhood, I just wanted to grow up and leave my hometown."

"When I was over ten years old, I decided to take a bus to Tibet. Before leaving, I took my little sister to see a movie as a farewell, because I heard that going to Tibet would be very rough, and maybe I wouldn't come back."

She went to Tibet with this illusion, and later drifted to Lijiang and Dali, where she has lived alone for over ten years.

Yanzi's hometown is in Nanping, Fujian. In her stories about her hometown, I heard many realistic versions of the movie "Blind Mountain". Yanzi tells these stories vividly. Because she can't describe them in writing, once when Yanzi was telling stories to Yang Mi, I recorded an audio clip.