“Not everyone has the same sense of responsibility as Comrade Dong. If all our comrades had your sense of responsibility, Comrade Dong, our country would have a wonderful future!”
Wu Tong said this, but didn’t forget to shoot Li Wenjing a glare.
Li Wenjing wasn’t about to let him get away with it. She glared back like a knife and made sure to threaten him, too.
“If you can’t keep your eyeballs from glaring at people, I don’t mind helping you pluck them out. No need to thank me.”
“You… You… How can a female comrade like you be so… so vicious!”
“Right, Comrade, that’s not very nice of you. This male comrade hasn’t even done anything to you!”
Li Wenjing glared at Dong Xia, who had just spoken. “Why don’t you shut up? If you’re so eager to be an ugly man’s lapdog, then go ahead and lick to your heart’s content. Just don’t drag me into it. It’s fucking disgusting!”
Dong Xia’s eyes instantly reddened as Li Wenjing tore into her in front of so many people.
“You… You… You’ve gone too far! I’m not a lapdog!”
Dong Xia didn’t know what “lapdog” meant, but from Li Wenjing’s tone and expression—and the fact that it had the word “dog” in it—she knew it had to be an insult.
The old Li Wenjing wouldn’t have known what “lapdog” meant, either. She had picked up all these newfangled words while doing missions for the System in many worlds more advanced than this one.
She had to admit, words like that made it especially satisfying to put people in their place.
“I can be even nastier. Want to hear more?”
Dong Xia’s eyes were rimmed with red. She glared hatefully at Li Wenjing, then looked at Wu Tong, who was still sitting in his seat and showed no sign of coming to her defense. A surge of anger rose inside her.
She grabbed her luggage and left.
When Wu Tong heard Li Wenjing call him ugly, he’d wanted to stand up and fight back. But the moment he saw Yao Lili’s look, he wilted, sat back down, and didn’t dare say a word.
That didn’t make his expression any friendlier, though.
After that little incident, the rest of the journey was unexpectedly quiet.
Li Wenjing enjoyed the brief peace and looked out the window with interest.
She had no idea what awaited her in the future.
…
After four days and three nights, the train finally reached its destination.
Li Wenjing gathered her belongings and took a padded jacket out of her bag to put on.
She’d heard that the weather in the Northeast was very cold at this time of year.
She didn’t want to freeze into an icicle the moment she got off the train.
Wu Tong gave Li Wenjing a disdainful look, unable to hide the scorn in his eyes. A pretty young girl dressed like a bear!
Would Li Wenjing let him get away with that? Of course not. She glared right back at him.
Hmph. Just you wait!
The weather outside would teach them all a lesson in how to behave.
Sure enough, as soon as the train arrived and the doors opened, a bitter wind came rushing inside.
In that instant, everyone finally understood what the real Northeast was like.
Though it was already March, the weather there was still bitterly cold.
The young people shivered and shook, stamping their feet nonstop.
Those who had extra clothes set their luggage on the ground and rummaged through it without a care for appearances. Those without anything warm could only shiver.
Li Wenjing: See? Bet you’re all regretting laughing at me now!
Everyone…
Everyone could only watch as Li Wenjing picked up her luggage and walked toward the group waiting to meet the arrivals.
How did she know who was there to meet them? She used her eyes, of course.
She hadn’t completed 999 missions for nothing.
She was headed to Qingshan Brigade, Hongqi Commune. Her biological parents lived in that village.
Soon, she spotted her target in the crowd.
She hadn’t expected them to show up with a little tractor. Weren’t all the other brigades using ox carts?
In those days, a brigade having its own tractor meant it was doing pretty well—very well, in fact.
“Get on! Hurry up!”
Li Wenjing looked at the person in front of her, bundled up so thoroughly that only two eyes showed. She couldn’t tell whether to call him Uncle or Old Man.
But now wasn’t the time to worry about that. She obediently tossed her luggage into the trailer and climbed up after it.
She had just climbed aboard and was about to make her way into the trailer when she felt someone tugging hard at her. She turned around and saw that it was none other than Comrade Dong Xia, the one who liked being a lapdog.
Clearly, Dong Xia was up to no good. She wanted to pull Li Wenjing back down so she could get on first and claim a good spot.
Was Li Wenjing going to let that happen to her? Of course not. Without a second thought, she kicked Dong Xia right off.
“Li Wenjing!”
Dong Xia had just taken a stance as if she were about to fight when the heavily bundled-up comrade spoke. “Are you getting on or not? If you are, hurry up. If not, get lost. Don’t hold everyone else up!”
Li Wenjing looked at Dong Xia’s face, which was purple with cold, and flashed her a big smile.
Dong Xia glared furiously at Li Wenjing, who had already settled in and was smiling at her. Her eyes reddened.
Wu Buqiang cursed to himself.
“Fucking hell, they’ve dumped another bunch of troublemakers on me!”
“Look at them, all skinny as sticks. What good are they for?”
Once everyone had boarded, the tractor soon started off with a “putt-putt-putt.”
Before long, it had taken all the educated youths to the places where the various brigades’ ox carts were waiting to pick them up.
The brigade leaders had originally planned to take ox carts into the city to collect the newcomers. As Wu Buqiang happened to have business in the city, they got to enjoy a free ride on his tractor.
Li Wenjing was headed to Qingshan Brigade. Maybe it was fate—or bad luck—but among those going there with her were Dong Xia, Yao Lili, and Wu Tong, as well as the quiet little girl in patched clothes, Yuan Pandi, and another male educated youth named Zhu Jialin.
The roads were all country tracks, and the tractor bounced and jolted, tossing everyone up and down. Everyone except Li Wenjing, Yuan Pandi, and Zhu Jialin was shaken so badly they vomited nonstop.
It wasn’t that Li Wenjing had a strong stomach. As soon as she got on, her spiritual sense had gone straight into her personal space. Everyone else had simply seen her curled up in a corner, asleep.
They arrived at Qingshan Brigade at noon.
Wu Buqiang climbed down from the driver’s seat. The moment he saw his beloved tractor covered in vomit and looking a right mess, he flew into a rage.
“Which of you threw up? Clean it up!”
Li Wenjing was the first to jump down from the tractor with her luggage on her back.
Of course, she didn’t forget to call out to Wu Buqiang, “Mister, don’t look at me. I didn’t throw up!”