Qiao Qingqing felt there were some things she absolutely had to tell her family.
Whether or not they ended up in the same production team, those people needed to be watched carefully.
Especially someone like Xu Peiling—a venomous snake who would bite when cornered—and Lin Xiaomei, who looked honest on the surface but was secretly calculating.
The Qiao family was already enemies with the Lin family now, so of course her family needed to know.
“The matter of Lin Chaohai taking gold bars was exposed. The Revolutionary Committee searched his house and caught them red-handed,” Qiao Qingqing whispered to Chen Liping.
“He has a military position, and his cousin Lin Jianjun works in the Revolutionary Committee, so he barely managed to get himself out of trouble. But Li Xiulian and Lin Xiaomei, who were involved, couldn’t escape and got sent down together.”
Qiao Qingqing analyzed quietly, “The transfer orders were issued at the same time, so they probably won’t be sent far away from us. We need to be careful around them in the future.”
Chen Liping understood immediately.
“They might think the gold bars were what ruined them and end up blaming us. Yes, we definitely need to be careful.”
Afterward, Chen Liping turned and quietly repeated everything to Qiao Yimin.
Once he heard the explanation, his expression became serious.
He had always been a very intelligent man. It was just that most of his thoughts had previously been devoted to research. Now, after listening to his wife, he quickly grasped the situation and said in a low voice:
“If they had kept their promises, treated Qingqing properly, and not done unnecessary things, how would the news ever have leaked? Sounds like they brought this on themselves.”
Later, Qiao Yimin also told Qiao Fangyu and the others.
Qiao Fangyu looked thoughtfully at his younger sister for a long moment before saying:
“Lin Chaohai’s cousin works for the Revolutionary Committee, which means it would’ve been easy for him to investigate our family. That man is far more complicated than he appears. Thankfully Qingqing didn’t marry him. He’s not someone suitable for marriage.”
Then he asked seriously:
“Did anyone bully you during these past few days?”
Qiao Qingqing smiled at him.
“Of course not. The worst possible outcome was being sent down. If I’m not even afraid of that, what else would I be afraid of?”
Thinking about the suffering his daughter would have to endure, Qiao Yimin couldn’t help sighing.
Only Qiao Junnian remained carefree. He even reached over and lightly slapped Qiao Qingqing’s shoulder.
“Don’t worry. Your second brother’s strong enough to earn work points for you. I won’t let you suffer too much. Besides, I don’t think the world will stay like this forever. Things will definitely get better someday.”
Qiao Fangyu glanced at him.
“You really are optimistic.”
“What else can I do?” Qiao Junnian replied. “As long as you’re alive, there’s hope. As long as you don’t starve to death, life can go on. Worrying too much won’t help anyway, right?”
His words made Qiao Qingqing’s heart tighten painfully, and she secretly clenched her fists.
That cheerful, optimistic second brother really had starved to death in her previous life.
His frozen body had only been discovered years later, his stomach filled with dirt and tree bark.
Qiao Qingqing forced the memory away and picked up the canteen to pour water into his cup.
“Second Brother’s right.”
Qiao Junnian happily drank the water his little sister poured for him. Perhaps it was just his imagination, but somehow the water tasted especially good—slightly sweet.
Probably just psychological.
That night, the overhead lights went out. Only the faint lights near the carriage connections remained, leaving the rest of the train swallowed by darkness.
The train continued rumbling across the wilderness.
Closing her eyes, Qiao Qingqing finally had time to organize the contents of her spatial storage.
She could either enter the space herself or manipulate objects inside it mentally. Now that everyone else was asleep, it was the perfect opportunity.
First, she rearranged the items to create several straight pathways for easier movement.
That way, if she needed to move invisibly through the space or follow someone while hidden, it would be much more convenient.
Previously, she had often been blocked by piles of items and forced to take detours.
The larger items were easy enough to move. Next came inventorying supplies.
Most importantly, the huge pile of delivery boxes.
Back then, she had emptied all her savings, maxed out every credit line she had, even borrowed from obscure online platforms.
She bought anything she saw.
In order to save time, she had practically ordered things mindlessly, then tossed everything wholesale into the storage space without organizing any of it afterward.
So Qiao Qingqing began frantically opening packages.
Books. Clothes. Shoes and socks. Quilts. Medicine. Nutritional supplements. Mosquito repellent. Sanitary pads. All kinds of daily necessities. Cotton. Fabric.
Honestly, unpacking deliveries with mental powers was surprisingly satisfying.
A cardboard box floated into the air. With one swipe of a knife, it split open, and the contents were sorted neatly by category.
Qiao Qingqing became so absorbed she could barely stop.
Before she realized it, the empty boxes had piled into a mountain.
She unpacked until deep into the night before finally becoming too sleepy to continue.
The next morning, Qiao Qingqing woke with a jolt when her head knocked painfully against the iron bars covering the train window.
Looking up at the position of the sun, she realized it was already close to noon.
She had really slept well.
Chen Liping handed her an enamel mug.
“Go rinse your mouth.”
Qiao Qingqing nodded and took it.
There was no toilet at the rear of the carriage, so she had to walk all the way to the other side of the train. Along the way, she passed Xu Peiling and the others.
All of them stared at her fixedly.
If they hadn’t been warned just yesterday and didn’t fear causing trouble now, Qiao Qingqing suspected Li Xiulian would already have lunged at her.
In fact, that was exactly what Li Xiulian wanted.
She had been holding back her resentment toward Qiao Qingqing for a long time, waiting for the Qiao family to be sent down so this little bitch would lose her support and she could finally settle accounts.
Instead, she herself had been sent down too.
Li Xiulian had never suffered such a crushing loss in her entire life. How could she possibly swallow that anger?
Xu Peiling’s eyes were red as well.
No woman could generously forgive the slut who stole her man.
Half her current misery, in her mind, was Qiao Qingqing’s fault.
But again—afraid of disciplinary punishment, neither of them dared make trouble now.
Qiao Qingqing ignored their murderous stares completely. Instead, she quietly glanced at Wu Xia.
Wu Xia sat with her eyes closed, pretending to rest while clutching her food bag tightly against her chest, guarding it fiercely.
A faint smile curled at Qiao Qingqing’s lips.
It looked like Wu Xia had truly hardened her heart against Xu Peiling.
Wu Xia was connected to the redemption value in her spatial system. Right now, that redemption value remained stuck at one and hadn’t moved.
Qiao Qingqing still didn’t understand what would happen next, so for now she could only continue observing.
The moment she opened the toilet door, however, her smile vanished instantly.
She had used it once yesterday, and it hadn’t been this unbearable then.
But now…
The second she shut the door behind her, she immediately escaped into her storage space.
Before sleeping last night, she had set up two tents inside the space as a temporary living area.
There was no need to wash her hair or face, but brushing her teeth and rinsing her mouth were absolutely necessary. After sweating so much, her whole body smelled awful anyway, so she might as well take a quick shower and change her underwear too.
After using the toilet, she packed the dirty waste into spare cardboard boxes and stacked them in a corner to throw away later when she found an opportunity.
After washing her hands, Qiao Qingqing left the space feeling refreshed and stepped back out of the toilet.
Just then, Qiao Yimin was taking food out again. Seeing him opening the bag of peanuts, Qiao Qingqing quickly stopped him.
“Dad, roasted peanuts with shells can last a long time. Save them for later. Eat the food from my side first—mine won’t keep for many days.”
As she spoke, she once again “took out” scallion pancakes and boiled eggs from her burlap bag, along with sliced braised beef tucked inside.
The family enjoyed another satisfying meal.
Not just them—everyone else in the carriage had also started eating whatever food they had, almost with the mentality of enjoying a last meal while they still could.
By now, everyone understood the rules.
As long as nobody caused trouble or shouted loudly, the escort team didn’t care about normal eating and conversation.
Gradually, people relaxed. Voices became normal again.
If not for the iron bars nailed across the train windows, the carriage almost looked like an ordinary long-distance train ride.