Depressed girl spends ten thousand yuan to build a 1,300-square-meter garden, takes her mother to flee to the mountains and forest, the whole family lives in a village in the mountains like a fairy tale

Every so often, Shaoyao sees someone head off to a pastoral life in the mountains and rivers, living the life they wanted.

The protagonist of the story keeps changing, it is just never you. Although everyone imagines that once they retire, they will take out the savings of half a lifetime, find a picturesque place, grow vegetables and drink water, and be happy and content.

But while most people are still imagining what things will be like decades from now, a girl named 33, who once lived a life of wandering, resolutely took her ill mother and ran off to the mountains, working and living there, living out the life of a Miyazaki fairy tale.

Warmth

 2018 The Voice of China Episode 9

Tiger 

00:00/03:00

{Shaoyao Girl Vol.899 }

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Mountain life

A while back, a post titled "Can't sleep, nothing to do, so I'll share my mountain life" suddenly went viral. Tens of thousands of people gathered to look, and the comments were all envious, saying, are you the heroine at the end of an idol drama?

The heroine who posted it, 33, had no melodramatic story to her name; her daily routine was simply: hoeing the fields, planting flowers, doing farm work.

But the moving moments she recorded in photos let people see that life could actually be lived this way.

The plants, rivers and streams here announce the seasons and the phenology,

Morning dew about to fall but not falling, cooking smoke rising, the sun setting,

and a day has passed.

In spring, cherry blossoms cover the mountains,

blooming so beautifully it makes your heart itch.

It feels as if you have become light yourself.

In winter, snow falls,

and the whole mountain goes quiet.

A casual snap,

and it is all oil-painting colours.

Only all things in nature

can speak of that unspeakable beauty.

Many people say, with such a big courtyard in the mountains, living a life like a deity, this girl must have been born lucky.

But in another post, "Can't sleep, nothing to do, so I'll talk about my story," we learn what she went through on the road from the city to the mountains.

33 grew up in a single-parent family, and she thought that after her mother went through divorce, changing cities and starting a business, good days for the two of them were finally arriving.

But then a sudden critical condition notice, plus the departure of her most beloved grandfather, pushed 33 into the abyss of depression - a mental illness that has 30 million patients in China yet is constantly misunderstood.

But it was also this experience that made 33 and her mother swap roles. Overnight, she grew up. She reminded herself that she had to live well, and could not let her mother, who had just recovered from a serious illness, go through the pain of losing her.

One day, 33 forgot to take her medicine and felt as if she were dying, unable to breathe. Yet although the room had light-blocking curtains drawn, she saw a beam of light; it was the closest she had ever come to death.

But after slowly regaining consciousness, she felt as if she had been reborn:"I must get better, I must defeat depression and live the way I like!"

Without a moment's hesitation, she took her mother and abandoned everything in the city, renting two mu of land in the mountains of Yunnan for more than 10,000 yuan a year, signing for 30 years, and officially becoming a "mountain person."

Only after moving into the mountains did 33 truly understand Hemingway's words: "The heart grows richer, the exterior grows simpler. In an age of ostentation, I hope to show the worldthat what humans truly need is actually very little.”

The most authentic connection with all living things, with complicated human relationships stripped away, slowly surfaced here.

She got to know a lovely older uncle.

Every morning around nine, he stretches, gets up and goes to herd the sheep,

and once he drives them up the mountain he stops worrying about them,

"They'll come back by themselves in the afternoon!"

He never cares how many he sends out or how many come back either,

and as time goes on there are fewer and fewer sheep...

Other people are anxious for him,

but the uncle just waves his hand with a smile and says

if they're lost, they're lost, don't worry about it.

Here there is the village bully, the big white goose,

with fighting power off the charts,

the pigs waddle around twisting their bottoms,

and they chase them all over the village,

putting on a terribly arrogant show.

33's two beloved dogs,

after leaving the cramped concrete room in the city,

bask in the sun freely and chase each other around.

When 33 is too tired from work and lies on the grass for a while,

the two dogs' fur is hot to the touch, yet they still stay by her side.

Once 33 saw a handsome little horse,

but unfortunately it gave a loud snort

and proudly turned its head away.

33 made a bold threat:

Next time I see you, I am definitely riding you!

Every day the little animals put on a 68-episode TV drama:

The big white goose that usually flaps its big wings,

upon seeing the soft, cute little sheep,

is also charmed into submission.

When the big white goose is not around,

the mighty big dog drools

as it chases the little sheep.

In the end, everything has something that subdues it.

The silly, naive-looking big dog gets a serious lesson:

The little sheep is a younger sister, no bullying her, understand?

The one disciplining the dog is 33's father, who "came into the mountains" to accompany 33 and her mother.

The dog says:

I feel wronged!

As she slowly moved closer to her childhood dream of being a zookeeper, 33 was also changing little by little.

"I try to become soft, not hard; fluid, not rigid; gentle, not cold; discovering, not seeking."

The life that had once been lost from her body because of exhaustion, busyness and illness came back under nature's inspiration.

With a bamboo basket on her back and a sickle in hand,

she went to gather herbs:

mugwort, Prinsepia utilis, Prunella vulgaris...

After pounding them, she mixed them with oil,

waiting for time to bring the medicinal soap to maturity.

Using special cream to create the effect of ink spreading on rice paper,

using a brush dipped in edible colour powder to paint on cakes,

the ink-wash-painting-like cakes make people reluctant to take a bite.

Every day she goes to pick flowers still covered in dew,

and carefully arranges them in vases, hence "a flower a day."

Though in the mountains one does not know how long the years are,

life still needs a sense of ritual.

Sometimes, with full power,

she uses a tiny sewing machine to finish in one day

five curtains for the home;

when the mood strikes,

she cuts herself a cute pair of seasonal sleep pants.

She picks fresh cabbage and mushrooms from the vegetable garden,

flames lick the bottom of the pot,

the aroma of food drifts through the kitchen,

and in a place with no takeout, she is self-sufficient.

Yet many people, after seeing her life, ask, is this hyping herself for fame? Is this hiding in the mountains to escape?

Shaoyao wants to say, "What decides who a person is is not their ability, but their choices.”

Even if one chooses mountain life, all the beauty does not fall from the sky, but is something 33 approached step by step.

You read that right,

even the concrete road was paved by herself.

Dripping with sweat, 33 comforts herself:

I can lose half a kilogram a day.

Young people in the city "eat dirt" because of buying, buying, buying,

but 33 transported in a cartload of sterile soil,

swinging a shovel every day.

In three months she wore out more than a dozen pairs of gloves,

rolling in mud every day, with never a clean moment for her clothes,

all for the little garden in her heart.

She mockingly calls herself "the little cow-dung queen of our village."

In order to turn the soil in the courtyard black,

she insisted on going to the lakeside every day to collect basketfuls of cow dung,

breaking it up and mixing it into the soil.

“Other girls stockpile cosmetics; I stockpile dung.”

And it is precisely because of 33

that this valley and village

gained so many, many beautiful flowers:

lupines, marguerites, Cynoglossum...

Faced with gossip, 33 believes, "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?"

In the end, everyone strives in different directions. And no dictionary has ever defined "success."

Now 33 says, "Though materially poor, I am spiritually rich." In the city, she never felt a sense of belonging; every time she walked among the endless traffic, she felt as tiny as a speck of dust.

Now in the mountains,a person is as important as a flower, a patch of water, a mountain.

Despite the gossip, more people feel as one comment under her Weibo says:

Every time I feel lost or depressed, I step into this little world of yours on Weibo, admiring the flowers, plants, mountain house, and colorful fields, the pigs and dogs playing with each other, a veritable paradise, as if I were in a dream. So happy.

In the mountains, the slowly drifting air and clouds, the naturally growing trees and flowers, make 33, who once fell to rock bottom, feel:

"Though I'm no longer young, I feelmy life has just begun. Every time the weather clears up, I'm so happy I want to dance in the wind."

She will continue to live here,

Next, she wants to plant a grove of cherry blossoms with saplings,

under the cherry trees as thick as a bowl's rim,

build a small wooden cabin of about ten-odd sq m,

farming on sunny days and reading on rainy ones.

She "loves every blade of grass and every tree here,

loves every little animal and every inch of land here."

Choosing mountain life

is the most correct decision she has made in her life.

It is also what many people want to do

but lack the courage to do.

And it is through her that we see:

People often regard socializing as a kind of ability,

yet overlook that solitude is also an ability.

If being poor at socializing is a weakness of character,

then being unable to tolerate loneliness is a defect of the soul.

It is National Day, some are wandering alone,

some are traveling afar.

Shaoyao wants to say, whether you are lonely and busy or leisurely and affluent,

you should pursue the life you love.

Because there is only one kind of success in the world -

living your whole life in the way you love.

An ideal life begins with doing what you love.

This autumn, follow Shaoyao to see the vast autumn colors of the desert!

Follow Shaoyao Guniang's Dunhuang study tour page,

"Dunhuang · Wild Growth" is now recruiting,

click the blue link to sign up!

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