Qiao Qingqing had long since lost count of how many times she had taken trains from Ningcheng to Hei Province.
Scorching summers. Brutally cold winters.
From old green-skinned trains to high-speed rail, from winds blowing through open windows to sealed air-conditioned cabins, the world had changed day by day.
Only she had remained standing still in the same place forever.
And this journey was the most unusual—and quietest—of all her trips.
It couldn’t be helped. Armed escorts patrolled the train every hour. Even the most unruly people behaved themselves under the threat of rifles. Only a fool would provoke trouble at a time like this.
Everyone kept their voices low, and the Qiao family was no exception.
More than two hours had passed since departure. Many people were hungry, and one after another they began taking food out of their bags.
Although the Qiao family’s relatives had all avoided them, before departure one neighbor from the same research institute had still come to see Qiao Yimin off, giving him a bag of cornmeal buns and a packet of peanuts.
Qiao Yimin had always buried himself in research and left family matters to Chen Liping. Chen Liping, meanwhile, was famous for being generous and easygoing. Whenever relatives needed help, she had never hesitated if she could lend a hand.
Yet now the whole family had been exiled, and not a single relative had come to visit them. They weren’t even as kind as a neighbor. It was hard not to feel cold-hearted toward them.
Qiao Yimin took out several buns.
This tiny amount of food was all the family had, and nobody knew what conditions would be like once they reached Hei Province, so naturally they had to ration it carefully.
Qiao Qingqing’s burlap bag sat at her feet. Pretending to rummage through it, she quietly pulled out several strips of jerky and passed them to Chen Liping beside her.
Understanding immediately, Chen Liping wrapped the jerky inside the cornmeal buns before handing them to the others. At the same time, she warned softly:
“If you have food, just eat it. Don’t make a fuss.”
That warning was mainly directed at Qiao Junnian.
Sure enough, when Qiao Yimin and Qiao Fangyu bit into the buns and realized something was different, they merely paused slightly before showing no further reaction.
Only Qiao Junnian widened his eyes in shock.
Chen Liping glared at him.
“Eat your food. No talking.”
The jerky was a little tough, but fortunately it had almost no smell. Only after chewing could they taste the rich meat flavor mixed with spices.
After starving for days, forget meat—even a hot meal had been impossible to get. Now, biting into a bun stuffed with meat strips was delicious enough to make someone cry.
Seeing tears almost welling up in Qiao Junnian’s eyes as he ate, Chen Liping found him both irritating and amusing.
Luckily, their seats were tucked into the corner at the rear of the carriage, and the two brothers, Qiao Fangyu and Qiao Junnian, sat with their backs facing the rest of the passengers. Otherwise, with Qiao Junnian’s expression, his face practically screamed “I’m eating meat!”
“Why can’t you learn from your brother?” Chen Liping scolded quietly. “Look at Fangyu. His face doesn’t change at all.”
Qiao Junnian swallowed hurriedly, stuffing the food into his mouth so fast his words became muffled.
“Of course he has no expression. His facial nerves are slow to react. Basically facial paralysis.”
After finally filling their stomachs a little, the exhaustion on everyone’s faces eased somewhat.
Stretching her neck to look ahead, Chen Liping noticed steam beginning to rise from the kettle on the stove and quickly said to Qiao Fangyu:
“Fangyu, hurry and get some water.”
Taking the military canteen she handed him, Qiao Fangyu headed toward the back of the carriage.
Normally, one or two coal stoves were placed near the connections between train cars to provide boiling water.
But hot water wasn’t always available. Usually, the kettles were filled before departure, and once the water was gone, nobody bothered refilling them. Even ordinary passenger trains were like that—let alone a transport train like this one. Naturally, it was best to act fast.
Since they were already seated at the rear of the train, the stove was only a few steps away. Once Qiao Fangyu started filling the canteen, other people noticed and gradually followed.
He returned with the canteen filled to the brim.
This slow transport train carrying both people and supplies would take nearly four days and three nights to travel from Ningcheng to Hei Province. Chen Liping had already prepared herself for the worst-case scenario—that this might be the only water they got the entire journey—and carefully screwed the lid shut.
Qiao Qingqing whispered in her ear:
“Don’t worry. There’s plenty of water.”
Chen Liping nodded slightly.
“Then we’ll refill it tonight.”
And so the journey passed without incident. The family took turns sleeping and occasionally stood up to stretch.
In the past, trying to sleep sitting upright like this would have left them aching all over. But after several days of confinement, simply being able to sleep at all already felt fortunate.
By evening, the smell of food once again spread through the carriage.
One family opened their bundle and began eating meat buns. The rich aroma of meat drifted everywhere, making everyone else drool as they stared at them.
After a while, the others came to the same realization.
Most of their food had been given to them by relatives and friends before departure. In the hot weather, it wouldn’t keep for more than a few days anyway.
If they refused to eat it now, who knew whether it would even remain theirs once they arrived?
At least on the train there were escorts. After an entire day, the militia members actually seemed decent enough. As long as nobody broke the rules, they walked past without even glancing sideways. Compared to being in the hands of the training squad, this was much safer.
If they didn’t eat now, then when?
One by one, everyone began taking out their food.
Qiao Qingqing seized the opportunity to “take out” some scallion pancakes and peeled boiled eggs from her bag.
The boiled eggs were hidden inside an enamel cup, only visible once held in the hand.
The rich fragrance of scallions blended into the many other food smells in the carriage and didn’t attract attention. But once eaten, the flavor was incredible—high-quality wheat flour mixed with egg batter and fresh scallions, pan-fried in hot oil until crispy outside and soft inside.
The high-calorie carbohydrates brought intense satisfaction to their starving bodies. Even Chen Liping felt she had never eaten scallion pancakes this delicious in her entire life.
Qiao Junnian devoured his in just a few bites.
Even after finishing, he was still savoring the taste.
“So fragrant… so good.”
Seeing how carefree he still was, Qiao Yimin could only shake his head helplessly.
Qiao Qingqing pulled another scallion pancake from her bag and quietly handed it to him.
“Don’t rush. I still have more.”
Qiao Fangyu frowned slightly.
“Qingqing, save some for yourself. We still have another two or three days on the road.”
“It’s fine,” she replied. “I bought a lot. Enough for us these few days. If nobody eats them and they spoil, wouldn’t that be a waste?”
The three men all thought she made sense, so they each ate a little more.
Everyone carried enamel cups. Whenever they wanted water, Qiao Qingqing poured some from the canteen for them.
She had even secretly added a small amount of white sugar to the hot water. It tasted faintly sweet, though not enough to be obvious.
After eating and drinking their fill, the family rested again to conserve energy.
Once everyone else had fallen asleep, Qiao Qingqing picked up the canteen and pretended to go refill it at the back of the train. She lingered beside the stove for a while.
Her gaze swept across the carriage until she located Li Xiulian and Xu Peiling.
Compared to a carriage full of strangers, those were the people she felt most wary of.
…
Seven rows away, Li Xiulian, Lin Xiaomei, and Xu Peiling sat together in a three-person seat.
Across the aisle, in a two-person seat, sat Wu Xia and her son Cui Haiqing.
There was no special reason for it. Since they all knew one another, they had instinctively gathered together. Lin Xiaomei and the others didn’t know why Xu Peiling had been exiled, and Xu Peiling also had no idea what exactly had happened to the Lin family.
Both sides were utterly confused.
The entire carriage was eating, including Li Xiulian and Lin Xiaomei, who had just finished some egg flatbread. Only Wu Xia sat motionless like a corpse.
Clearly there was food in her bag, yet she stubbornly acted as if she were dead.
When Xu Peiling saw her take out a boiled egg, she assumed it was meant for her.
Instead, Wu Xia peeled the shell and fed it directly to that idiot son of hers.
The fool bit off half, then left the remaining half for his mother.
And that was it.
Xu Peiling waited and waited, but none of it was for her.
The egg pancakes smelled wonderfully fragrant, and Li Xiulian and her daughter devoured theirs like starving ghosts reincarnated, finishing everything in moments.
Xu Peiling felt so wronged she was about to explode.
Things weren’t supposed to be like this…
Deep down, she felt she should never have suffered any of this.
In her original plan, only Wu Xia and her son were supposed to be exiled. But somehow Lin Chaohai—the very person she had used to report them—suddenly found trouble in his own family.
For reasons she still didn’t understand, his mother and younger sister were suddenly sentenced to labor too, and that Qiao Qingqing family was also involved.
And she herself had somehow inexplicably been labeled one of the “Five Black Categories” along with them.
Xu Peiling had demanded a divorce, wanting to sever all ties with Wu Xia and her son. She had originally hoped her natal family would help her.
And they really had gone to the Cui family to make trouble.
After something like this happened, bringing their daughter back home to work—or remarrying her off—would still be better than being exiled.
But nobody in the Cui family was easy to deal with. Divorce was possible, they said—but only if the bride price was returned.
After endless arguing, the Cui family eventually demanded half the bride price back, but even then no agreement was reached.
And so the divorce matter simply fell apart.
Before being escorted away, Xu Peiling had finally managed to find Lin Jianjun and asked to see Lin Chaohai.
The mocking, sarcastic expression on Lin Jianjun’s face at the time was something she still couldn’t forget.
“He’s got troubles of his own now. Why would he have time to worry about you?”