“When she comes back after buying her things, your father won’t let her off. Now that we have no money or ration coupons left, you’ll have to be careful with your spending once you get to the countryside.”
Wang Cuihua worried endlessly about Ye Bailian.
Ye Bailian could only nod.
She searched Ye Qinglan’s room again but still couldn’t find a single cent.
“Old Ye, what about Qinglan’s job?” Wang Cuihua asked, hoping to benefit from it as well.
“We’ll wait until that ungrateful girl comes back. I’ll make her sell the job. We’ll keep the money for our retirement. If she refuses, we’ll cut all ties with her.”
Ye Wei spoke as if everything would go exactly as he planned.
Wang Cuihua was very satisfied.
After all, Ye Wei was her biological father. Surely that girl would eventually give in.
“Old Ye, do you think Qinglan stole the money and everything from the house?” Wang Cuihua asked.
“I don’t think so. Too many things disappeared. She couldn’t have done it by herself. Besides, she took the sleeping pills too.”
Even Ye Wei had once suspected Ye Qinglan.
Meanwhile, Ye Qinglan was leisurely shopping at the department store.
She spent all of her local ration coupons.
There was no point saving them because local coupons were useless outside the area.
National coupons, however, could be exchanged on the black market.
It looked like she needed to make a trip there.
It was now August 1972.
The original owner had just turned eighteen and graduated from high school.
This was a small city in southern China.
Living conditions were fairly good, and supplies weren’t especially scarce.
After walking to a deserted corner, Ye Qinglan stored everything she had bought inside her space.
Then she went to the black market behind the hospital and exchanged two hundred yuan for national ration coupons.
Most of them were national grain coupons, along with meat coupons, cloth coupons, and cigarette coupons.
At noon, she went to a state-owned restaurant.
She ordered braised pork and large meat buns.
The food really was as delicious as everyone claimed.
That afternoon, as soon as Ye Qinglan returned home, Ye Wei and her stepmother stopped her.
Ye Bailian secretly listened from inside her room.
“Qinglan, what happened to your job?” Ye Wei asked with a forced smile.
“I sold it yesterday. What does that have to do with you?”
Ye Qinglan smiled faintly.
“I’m your father. Hand over every cent of that money. Otherwise, we’ll cut off our relationship.”
Ye Wei shouted angrily.
“Are you sure?”
“Then let’s write a severance agreement.”
After speaking, she calmly went to her room and brought back paper and a pen.
“Qinglan, how can you be so selfish? What are we supposed to do now that there’s no money left at home?” Wang Cuihua asked anxiously.
“What does that have to do with me?”
“Ye Wei never raised me for a single day.”
“Everything I’ve ever used was paid for with the money my mother left me.”
Ye Qinglan truly felt sorry for the original owner.
“Don’t you want to return to the city one day? Hand over the money, and we’ll help you.”
Wang Cuihua was still trying to trick her.
“No thanks.”
“I think life in the countryside sounds much better.”
“At least there won’t be a shameless woman like you there.”
As soon as she finished speaking, Ye Wei furiously wrote the severance agreement.
Both sides signed it and pressed their fingerprints onto three copies.
They then went to the police station, where Ye Qinglan officially transferred her household registration out of the family.
Afterward, they also had to publish the announcement in the newspaper.
“That’s it.”
“From now on, we’re no longer father and daughter.”
“Don’t ever come looking for me again.”
Ye Wei turned around and left without looking back.
Ye Qinglan returned home, packed her belongings, and walked away.
The neighbors whispered among themselves.
She paid them no attention.
She had no intention of ever coming back anyway.
Carrying her luggage, she checked into a guesthouse using her notice to report to the countryside.
She rented a single room and took a nap.
That night, Ye Qinglan wrote two anonymous letters reporting Ye Wei and Wang Cuihua.
She accused them of having an illicit affair.
Ye Bailian’s existence was proof of their relationship.
Early the next morning, she mailed both letters.
She intended to make them infamous throughout the factory.
During this era, jobs were extremely scarce.
Adultery was a serious crime.
If the accusations were proven true, prison was almost guaranteed.
Two days later, Ye Wei and Wang Cuihua were each sentenced to twenty years.
They were sent to work on a state farm in the far northwest and wouldn’t be allowed to return home until their sentences were complete.
The day finally arrived for everyone to leave for the countryside.
Ye Qinglan carried a large backpack on her shoulders while holding her bedding and luggage in her hands.
After arriving at the train station to collect her ticket, she happened to run into her stepsister, Ye Bailian.
The hatred in Ye Bailian’s eyes made it seem as though she wanted to kill her.
“Little Sister, we’re being sent to the same place.”
“I’ll make sure to take very good care of you.”
Ye Qinglan whispered beside her ear.
“Big Sister… please spare me.”
“I’ll never cause you trouble again.”
Ye Bailian was genuinely frightened.
She was certain that her parents’ downfall had something to do with Ye Qinglan.
Ever since Ye Qinglan woke up in the hospital, she had become like a completely different person.
“Ye Bailian, don’t ever come looking for trouble again.”
“Otherwise, I’ll have someone kill you.”
“Or I’ll marry you off to an old mule driver.”
Ye Qinglan had no intention of ruining her all at once.
“Alright, Big Sister.”
“I’ll never bother you again.”
Although she agreed obediently, Ye Bailian secretly hated her even more.
After collecting their train tickets, the two went their separate ways.
There were many educated youths traveling this time.
It was said that there were more than a hundred of them.
Soon, the train arrived.
Ye Qinglan walked to the sleeper carriage.
She quietly slipped the conductor five yuan and upgraded her ticket to a sleeper berth.
The trains of this era were painfully slow.
It would take at least five or six days to reach Northeast China.
Sitting upright the entire journey would have been exhausting.
This was not the kind of money worth saving.
Ye Bailian never saw where Ye Qinglan had gone.
She stared blankly at the empty seat.
Thinking about the sleeper compartment made her feel miserable.
She only had twenty yuan left.
She was truly poor.
She believed Ye Qinglan still had money.
Once they reached the Northeast, she would probably have to rely on her.
Otherwise, she might actually freeze to death.
True to her name, Ye Bailian looked like a delicate white lotus.
She wasn’t exceptionally beautiful, only fairly pretty.
However, she was very good at pretending to be innocent and speaking in a sweet, pitiful way.
Whenever men saw her, they instinctively wanted to protect her.
Throughout the journey, Ye Bailian hadn’t brought any food.
The men sitting nearby constantly gave her things to eat.
Seeing this, the other girls kept their distance from her.
Without Ye Qinglan, Ye Bailian wouldn’t have been worried at all.
After all, she had the powerful plot armor of the novel’s heroine.
Unfortunately for her, it didn’t work on Ye Qinglan.
Ye Qinglan wasn’t originally from this novel’s world.
She was an outsider.
Suddenly, Ye Qinglan remembered the novel she had read before transmigrating.
The female lead’s name had been Ye Bailian.
Only then did she realize the truth.
She hadn’t simply transmigrated.
She had entered the world of that novel.
No wonder everything had seemed strangely familiar.
Ye Qinglan’s sleeper berth was the middle bunk.
The upper bunk was occupied by a well-behaved little boy who quietly read a book without saying a word.
The lower bunk belonged to a middle-aged woman who looked like a government official.
She appeared to be the boy’s mother.
Across from them were three young people who were probably also educated youths.
They had just boarded the train.
Judging by their appearance, their families were fairly well-off.
The three of them obviously knew each other.
“Hello. Are you also an educated youth?” the only girl among them asked.
“Hello. Yes, I’m also heading to the countryside, just like you.”
Ye Qinglan noticed that the girl’s eyes were bright and sincere.
She was so cute that Ye Qinglan almost wanted to pinch her cheeks.
“My name is Tan Siyu. I’m eighteen years old.”
The girl introduced herself first.
“My name is Ye Qinglan. I’m eighteen as well.”
The two smiled at each other.
“My name is Zhu Guohua. I’m nineteen.”
The young man was about 173 centimeters tall and wore a pair of gold-rimmed glasses.
He looked refined, but there was something calculating about him.
“My name is Ran Xiangrong. I’m nineteen too.”
“The three of us are classmates.”
He appeared honest and straightforward.
“Hot water’s here!”
“Everyone, take out your cups!”
The train attendant shouted loudly from the aisle.
Only then did Ye Qinglan realize that sleeper carriages in this era even provided hot water service.
She found it rather fascinating.
After all, in her previous life, people simply drank bottled mineral water.