As fascinating as things were, other than her grandfather, she never met another Variant—at least not knowingly. Perhaps it wasn’t a bad thing; at least it kept her life from being overtly complicated.
Anyway, the next step in this life would be leaving this place by becoming a sent-down youth again, but to a different place from her past life.
The sent-down youth program was a mass campaign that started nearly a decade ago, aiming to send millions of urban youths to rural villages and frontiers so they could learn from peasants and be ’re-educated’ through going through rural life.
The intent could be said to be reasonable—they wanted the ’city folk’ to understand the importance and difficulties farmers faced. The slogan was to ’build the homeland,’ making sure the ’pampered’ urban children would also be part of the process.
Another was the fact that resources were so scarce; urban areas simply could not support idle people.
It was just that life in the rural areas was much harder than it looked, especially for people who had never lifted a hoe before. Many youths sent out never returned, either getting married there, or dying, or just living a horrid life, especially in the eyes of urban people.
Even those who managed to return were described to have lost their luster, aged several years, if not decades, due to long-term manual labor and sun exposure, further cementing the ’horror’ of living in the farms.
There were also plenty of true horror stories due to ideological problems. Many, many villagers still believed in feudal superstitions and extreme patriarchal views, especially in remote villages.
There were, unfortunately, many cases where women lost their innocence, forced to marry rough village men they did not like, living horrible lives in turn.
It had morphed into a major life event that no one wanted their children to experience.
But to Su Qinghua, it was the only way she could escape this cursed family. In her past life, she went to run away from an unwanted marriage arrangement. At least this time, she had time to plan.
She dragged herself to the hospital, getting a full checkup, asking for medical certificates, and checking herself in with the 10 yuan she took from her mother’s cabinet.
She was not a worker or a student, so her hospital bills had to be covered by herself. Without surgery or serious treatment, this money should allow her to stay in the comfy hospital bed for a day or two.
She went missing, but that family probably wouldn’t make a big fuss for now. It was embarrassing; they would not want to air out dirty laundry.
These days, a young girl being unaccounted for overnight was a scandal. A girl’s innocence was very important in the marriage market. Since they were selling her as a bride, they had to keep her reputation.
Knowing them, they probably thought she wouldn’t survive outside on her own anyway.
This certificate was proof that she was injured and went to get treated, which would double as her alibi and proof of the abuse.
While there were already laws protecting women’s rights since the 1950s, the execution of the laws was still imperfect. Most prominently, there was the big, big factor of culture and societal habits. If something counted as a family matter, then the police wouldn’t intervene aggressively.
However, with a medical certificate on hand, she could—perhaps—even push it towards attempted murder.
Hmph!
If they dared open those dirty mouths, she’d show them how to truly throw dirty water on someone’s face!
...
Hospital.
After recovering a little, she finally managed to drag herself to the nearest county town half an hour away on foot.
It was a torturous half hour. There were times she literally had to drag her feet because the pain recurred.
She also purposely kept her hair unkempt. Combined with the genuine pain and wounds, she looked a little crazy, making people—including hoodlums—actively avoid her, which was just as she wanted.
When she arrived, she was immediately handled by the nurses, especially when they realized she was just a young girl.
As expected, the injuries on her body were very serious, and there were very explicit signs of severe malnutrition.
This was already her state after awakening, which had healed her body to a certain degree. This was in contrast to how it was in her past life. Back then, without her space, she was bedridden for more than a week while trapped in her room while her so-called family prepared for that unwanted wedding.
The doctor and nurses, knowing the records, all looked at her with complex expressions.
They looked at the thin girl who had obviously suffered long-term abuse and felt pity in their hearts.
"What...what happened?"
"I...I keep misbehaving at home," she said, eyes reddened with tears, looking as if she were guilty. "I forgot to cook the rice yesterday..."
The doctors and nurses felt heartbroken and indignant for her. "This...you might want to report this."
Since she was fine and conscious, the hospital couldn’t report it themselves. Besides, this kind of thing was not uncommon, and many even took it for granted, but they wanted to give advice to the girl.
"I know...it’s why I want certificates...." she said. "If they do it again, I will report them."
"Okay..."
They were relieved; at least it wasn’t one of those girls who were so severely brainwashed that they did not dare go against their abusive families.
If Su Qinghua knew what they were thinking, she would sniffle a little and then feel ashamed. She had been one of those severely brainwashed girls, after all.
Anyway, she was placed into a ward for four, with another old person diagonally across her and another young child on the side.
Both had a family member on their side, which made the contrast of her lone self...that much starker.