Xu Peiling simply couldn’t understand how her luck could possibly be this terrible.
If the Lin family hadn’t run into trouble at such a critical moment, she would already have been rescued.
And the more she thought about how the Lin family had fallen apart, the more convinced she became that it had something to do with that woman, Qiao Qingqing, which only fueled her anger further.
Back when the Lin family came to propose marriage, neither side had been willing to compromise over the bride price. But Xu Peiling knew very well that, at Lin Chaohai’s age, he should have been married long ago. The Lin family had been eager to bring home a daughter-in-law.
If Qiao Qingqing hadn’t suddenly interfered, maybe Lin Chaohai wouldn’t have broken things off with her so decisively.
If they had haggled over the bride price a little longer, perhaps the Lin family would eventually have given in.
But now everything was ruined, and she herself had ended up in this situation too!
Who was to blame?
Why was she the only one suffering such misery?
But if she hadn’t reported Wu Xia and her son, then once the child was born and Wu Xia caused a scene, the villagers would have gossiped behind her back forever. How could she possibly have lived with that?
At this moment, Xu Peiling hated herself deeply.
Why had she been so stupid? Why had she let Lin Chaohai sweet-talk her into sleeping with him in the cornfield?
He had promised to take care of her for the rest of her life.
Well then, where was he now?
And that Qiao Qingqing—what a disaster she was! A leftover capitalist brat who lacked for nothing, yet still had to steal another woman’s man!
Serves that whole family right for ending up like this.
The more Xu Peiling thought about it, the angrier she became, until tears streamed uncontrollably down her face.
Beside her, Lin Xiaomei saw her suddenly start crying and immediately worried Xu Peiling might ask her for food, so she quickly shifted farther away.
Xu Peiling could no longer hold back. Turning toward Wu Xia across the aisle, she snapped:
“Mom, take the food out already. I’ve been hungry all day.”
Wu Xia continued pretending to be dead, as though she hadn’t heard a thing.
Cui Haiqing glanced at her but didn’t dare speak.
Xu Peiling exploded in anger.
“Mom, I saw flatbread and three boiled eggs in your bag! Why won’t you take them out? I’m pregnant! If I don’t eat, the baby in my stomach has to eat too!”
The moment she mentioned pregnancy, Li Xiulian immediately looked toward her stomach, her eyes filled with both envy and scrutiny.
They had only been married for two months at most, and she was already pregnant?
Not only Li Xiulian—even the nearby passengers all turned to look at them.
If they hadn’t been on a transport train, people would probably already have started openly gossiping.
Everyone knew life would be miserable after being sent down. Once the food brought from home was gone, nobody knew when they’d taste oil or meat again.
For a mother-in-law to withhold food from a pregnant woman like this—it was simply too heartless.
Under so many staring eyes, Wu Xia actually began to panic a little.
In the past, she probably would have tried to smooth things over and handed Xu Peiling the flatbread.
But now…
Wu Xia looked at her clueless son beside her. He knew nothing—not where they were going, not why they were on the train. He was simply following her obediently.
At a time like this, if she still couldn’t stand up for herself, then what would happen once they arrived in Hei Province?
Thinking this, Wu Xia stiffened her face and replied firmly:
“Don’t you have food of your own? If you’ve been hungry all day, why weren’t you willing to take it out?”
Xu Peiling instantly exploded.
“That was given to me by my family!”
“My family are poor peasants with spotless class backgrounds! I only married into your family two months ago, and now I’m being dragged down because of you people!”
“I’m even carrying a child! Isn’t it only natural for me to eat some of your food? What right do you have to covet the little bit my family gave me? That food is for nourishing my body!”
“So are you going to care about the child in my belly or not? Say something!”
Who didn’t love watching a scene unfold?
Not only the nearby passengers—even people five or six rows away stretched their necks and pricked up their ears.
Being pointed at and cursed like this made Wu Xia tremble with anger.
She had already seen Xu Peiling’s cruelty—and now she had also seen the depth of her shamelessness.
Digging her nails into her palms, Wu Xia refused to back down and raised her voice:
“You know perfectly well what’s going on with the child in your belly!”
Those words hit Xu Peiling like a bucket of icy water poured directly over her head.
“Y-you…”
She truly hadn’t expected Wu Xia to expose the matter publicly like this.
Had she gone crazy? Did she not care about living anymore?
After a brief moment of speechlessness, Xu Peiling quickly regained her confidence.
Wu Xia had no evidence!
The child was still in her womb. On what grounds could Wu Xia suspect anything? Where was the proof?
And besides, they weren’t back in the village anymore. Xu Peiling still had the Cui family behind her. Right now there were only the three of them, and Cui Haiqing was an idiot. As long as she denied everything, then there was nothing wrong with the child.
So Xu Peiling suddenly stood up and burst into tears toward Wu Xia.
“What do you mean by that? Tell me—what do you mean?!”
Xu Peiling knew that among the people in this carriage, some would eventually end up settling in the same place as them.
She couldn’t retreat. She had to cry out her grievance loudly and preserve her reputation.
“What did I ever do wrong? I got dragged down by you, and now you’re smearing dirt on me too! You’re trying to drive me to death!”
Covering her face, she sobbed dramatically.
“What’s the point of living? I might as well die!”
Wu Xia’s face flushed red with anger.
“Did I drag you down, or are you suffering the consequences of your own actions? Let me tell you right now—I won’t give you a single bite of food. Give up on that idea. From now on, we’ll each earn our own work points and live our own separate lives!”
The argument escalated rapidly until it finally attracted the attention of the escorts.
Two armed militia members strode over and barked sharply:
“Quiet! Who’s causing trouble? Step forward!”
As they spoke, the muzzles of their rifles lifted.
Just moments ago Xu Peiling had been crying that she wanted to die, but now she instantly shut her mouth, trembling like a quail and not daring to utter a single word, terrified she’d be shot on the spot.
Wu Xia was equally frightened. Her legs went weak as she stood up, face pale.
On the very first day of the journey, the two women were made examples of. Not only were they forced to stand as punishment, they also had to publicly criticize themselves for their mistakes.
When the escorts warned that any further disciplinary violations would result in formal punishment being recorded against them, the entire carriage fell silent, quiet as cicadas in winter.
Being sent down to a labor farm already made them lower-class citizens.
If they received an official disciplinary mark on top of that, they’d practically sink another level lower altogether.
How could anyone survive like that?
“I…” Xu Peiling originally wanted to say she was pregnant and ask to be excused from standing punishment.
But one glare from the soldier made her lose all courage. The words stuck in her throat and were swallowed back down, leaving only resentment burning inside her.
Naturally, the Qiao family had watched the entire scene unfold.
Qiao Qingqing leaned close to Chen Liping and whispered:
“Mom, who do you think is in the right? And who isn’t?”
“That’s hard to say,” Chen Liping replied after thinking for a moment. “We don’t understand the full situation, so how can we jump to conclusions?”
Qiao Qingqing admired her mother’s cautious attitude immensely.
Lowering her voice, she said seriously:
“Dad, Mom, big brother, second brother—I need to tell you something. Don’t be too shocked.”
Qiao Fangyu immediately looked at Qiao Junnian.
“Hear that?”
Qiao Junnian took a deep breath and relaxed his body.
“Got it. Do I really seem like the type to overreact?”
“So what is it?” Chen Liping asked.
Qiao Qingqing inhaled softly.
“The woman who was arguing just now is named Xu Peiling. She used to be involved with Lin Chaohai. The one beside her is Lin Xiaomei—Lin Chaohai’s younger sister. And the other one is Li Xiulian, Lin Chaohai’s mother. They’ve all been sent down too, and there’s a high chance they’ll end up in the same place as us.”
“Even if we’re not assigned to the same production team, we probably won’t be very far apart.”
The amount of information packed into those few sentences was overwhelming.
Before Qiao Junnian could speak, Qiao Fangyu immediately clamped a hand over his mouth, cutting off any chance of him blurting something out.
He pressed his lips together silently, apparently deep in thought.
Qiao Yimin and Chen Liping were even slower to process it.
Especially Chen Liping.
She had never met Li Xiulian before, but she knew the woman’s family had been poor peasants for generations, and her son even held a military post.
So how in the world had they ended up being sent down too?