Lin Qiuman watched Shen Linghua leave in a flustered hurry and felt relieved that, in this life, she had not put him in a difficult position.
Making amends to the two brothers did not mean she had to marry into their family.
With that thought, she pulled herself together, climbed down from the kang bed, and paced back and forth on the ground a couple of times. She wanted to settle down as soon as possible so she could start doing something for the two brothers.
The old village chief came in and cleared his throat as a reminder.
“Let’s go. I’ll take you to meet Teacher Li and hand over the work. She won’t be coming to work tomorrow.”
“Alright, I’m coming right away.” Lin Qiuman hurriedly nodded, picking up her meager luggage and following behind the village chief.
“Here’s some cornmeal, about ten potatoes, and a few sweet potatoes. Consider it an advance on your work points. It’ll be deducted when the grain is distributed.
“It’s not much, so eat sparingly. If it’s really not enough, go to the foot of the mountain and look for some wild vegetables.
“This little rice container is mine. You can use it for now.”
The old village chief carried a bag from the kitchen as he walked and explained, “As for firewood, just go to the foot of the mountain and pick up some branches. Cooking for one person isn’t hard.”
“I understand.” Lin Qiuman nodded. She also knew that this small amount of food had been taken from the old village chief’s own supplies to help her get through the transition.
After all, it was neither the autumn harvest nor the wheat harvest season, so the production team was not distributing grain.
“Hey! You little rascal! Everyone else is in class—why are you sneaking out?” the old village chief shouted when he saw a boy tiptoeing out of the small school.
Following behind him, Lin Qiuman had been thinking about the edible wild vegetables she had seen along the mountain path.
Suddenly hearing the village chief shout startled her. She looked up and saw the boy’s panicked little face.
Shen Lingkang…
“Grandpa Village Chief, I want to go home and see if my brother has left yet.” Shen Lingkang tugged nervously at the hem of his patch-covered clothes, swallowing hard. He didn’t even dare raise his head to look at the village chief’s expression.
Lin Qiuman’s eyes reddened. She lifted her arm slightly, but in the end she suppressed the impulse and stood quietly to the side.
He was still alive and well. From now on, she would have plenty of opportunities… to make amends.
“Your brother’s still at home. For the next few days, he won’t be leaving. Go back and focus on your class.” The old village chief frowned, patted his shoulder, and pushed him back toward the school.
The so-called primary school was really just a courtyard slightly larger than an ordinary house. There was no wall—only three yellow-mud houses, two large and one small.
Even without Teacher Li introducing it, Lin Qiuman already knew that the school had forty-four first-grade students. Grades one through three were taught in one room, while the upper grades were in another.
In her previous life, Wu Jianxun had worked here as a substitute teacher, and she had often come here. Naturally, she knew the situation very clearly.
As Teacher Li introduced things one by one, Lin Qiuman’s gaze drifted toward the classroom.
It was only six in the afternoon, but the light inside the mud-brick house had already grown dim. There were no light bulbs in the classroom—once it got dark, it was time to dismiss school.
The students held their little heads up, leaning over desks made of wooden planks and lumps of yellow earth. Some had already packed their schoolbags.
It looked like they planned to run off to cut pig grass as soon as school ended, earning work points to help support their families.
Through the window she saw Shen Lingkang sitting in the corner. He was bent over his notebook, writing something. The pencil stub in his hand was so short that it was hard to tell whether he was even holding a pencil.
“My lesson plans and textbooks are all here. You’re well educated—you’ll understand as soon as you read them. You don’t need to listen to my lecture, right?” Teacher Li glanced at Lin Qiuman indifferently, revealing neither liking nor dislike.
The old village chief looked at the slanting sunset and reminded her, “No need to listen to the lecture. It’s getting late. Hurry and gather some firewood and tidy up.”
“Alright. I’ll go clean up first. Later tonight I’ll prepare my lessons. If there’s anything I don’t understand, I’ll come ask you.” Lin Qiuman nodded respectfully.
In her previous life, although her high-school grades had been very good—good enough to get into university—so many years had passed. She needed to carefully prepare her teaching plans and couldn’t delay the education of so many students.
After leaving the school, she headed straight toward the foot of the mountain.
The rations given by the old village chief amounted to barely over ten jin. Even if she only ate two bowls of thin porridge a day, it would be difficult to last until the wheat harvest. So she first gathered some wild vegetables. While picking up firewood, she accidentally scraped her fingertip on a sharp broken piece of wood.
“Hiss—”
Feeling the pain in her fingertip, Lin Qiuman quickly covered it with her hand, but blood still flowed down from her finger.
“A red string?”
Lin Qiuman stared blankly at the flat-knotted red cord on her wrist. Why would it be on her wrist at this time?
In her previous life, after she married Shen Linghua, she often argued with him and sulked because she disliked his roughness.
At that time, Shen Lingkang had only been ten years old. In order to keep his sister-in-law from being angry, he secretly saved some pig grass while cutting it on the mountain, traded it with a female classmate for a red string, and asked Shen Linghua to give it to her as an apology…
Back then, she had looked disgusted and casually stuffed it into her pocket.
It wasn’t until she went to prison in Wu Jianxun’s place that she found the red string while sorting through the two sets of clothes she brought with her.
From then on, she treasured it like a precious possession. Over the next forty years, no matter where she worked, she always wore that red string.
But this red string should have appeared only after she married Shen Linghua.
After being reborn, she had been too busy examining her surroundings and hadn’t noticed the extra red cord on her wrist.
Now, with reddened eyes, she kept touching the red string with her blood-stained left hand.
Suddenly, a blinding flash of light made her instinctively close her eyes.
When she opened them again, she found herself inside the shopping mall where she had worked before her death.
She had been a cleaner in that large mall. At that very spot, she had once seen a little boy who looked strikingly similar to Shen Lingkang run into a construction area where workers were replacing a billboard. She rushed in to push the boy aside—but couldn’t dodge in time and was crushed to death.
Why had she returned here again?
Could this be the cheat ability Heaven had given her?
After leaving prison in her previous life, she had worked in many factories—electronics plants, leather factories, textile mills, and more. Most of her coworkers were young girls who had dropped out of school to work, and she often heard them discussing rebirth novels.
They said that female protagonists who died tragically in their previous lives would usually be reborn with powerful assistance.
So when she was reborn on the refugee train, she had felt extremely guilty.
The tragedy of her previous life had been entirely her own fault. She had even feared that Heaven might have made a mistake by letting her be reborn.
Maybe at any moment she would be taken away to be reincarnated again, so she had never dared to think about whether she might have some kind of support.
She hadn’t expected that her support would be the entire shopping mall!
After all, she had worked there as a cleaner and knew every corner of the place.
The second basement level was a parking lot with many luxury cars.
The first basement level was a supermarket—full of groceries, vegetables, fruits, general merchandise, and daily necessities.
The first floor held car exhibitions, gold and jewelry, and luxury goods.
The second floor was entirely women’s clothing, divided into high-end and affordable sections.
The third floor was the men’s and children’s clothing area.
The fourth floor had home appliances, furniture, gaming, and educational training stores.
The sixth floor was for food and movies.
The seventh and eighth floors were duplex levels with a sky garden.