Leaving Old Lady Yao’s green-brick house, Chen Qiaoyu plucked some wild grass and vegetables by the roadside and laid them over the basket before heading back to the old house.
She had returned early today. Qingyang had gone up the mountain with Zhong Sinian, and Zhou Quan had gone to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy a farewell gift for Qi Xiangdong.
Qi Xiangdong himself had gone to say goodbye to a few educated youths in other villages.
Only Chen Qiaoyu was at the old house.
She locked the eggs inside Chen Qingyang’s room, took out just four of them, and put them into the basket along with the clothes she had bought last time and the vegetables from Second Aunt Jin. Then she went into the kitchen.
This time, she was careful. She placed only one egg in the basket and laid her hand over it.
The next moment, she appeared in the abandoned back kitchen of the Chen family’s old house in the modern world.
Chen Qiaoyu pressed her palm against the small round indentation in the stove. As expected, nothing happened.
She placed the second egg inside and pressed her palm down again.
The next second, she was back in the Chen family’s old house in 1979.
“So it really is about the eggs…” Chen Qiaoyu didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
She put the remaining two eggs into the small round indentation, then picked up the denim shirt and black wide-leg pants she had bought last time and went to the modern world once more.
Actually, for Chen Qiaoyu, her “present” was 1979. But Zhou Xiaoling, Brother Cheng, and the others, as well as the slogans on the walls of the soon-to-be-demolished village, all talked about “modernization” and “modern facilities.”
So Chen Qiaoyu just went along and called it the “modern world.”
She arrived in the modern world again.
Chen Qiaoyu put on the denim shirt over her floral-print sleeveless cotton undershirt, then changed into the black wide-leg pants behind the stove.
With her slender figure, the loose denim shirt and wide-leg pants gave her a rather dashing look.
She undid her braids and simply tied her hair back in a ponytail. In an instant, she no longer looked like a country girl at all.
The sun was about to set. The evening glow streamed through the broken kitchen window, casting a warm red light over Chen Qiaoyu’s face.
She folded her discarded clothes, put them in the basket, and hid the basket under the stove. Then she packed the vegetables she had brought into a plastic bag and left through the back door of the kitchen. Climbing over the small hill, she headed toward the pedestrian street.
The summer evening still carried a hint of heat, but thankfully, the mountain breeze brought occasional coolness, making Chen Qiaoyu’s steps feel light.
There were far more people at night than during the day. After descending the mountain and passing through a few buildings, Chen Qiaoyu melted into the bustling, never-ending flow of the street.
Relying on her memory, she found the sock stall she had visited last time. The elderly couple had just opened for business and were laying out bundles of socks and stacks of underwear and vests on their wooden display boards.
Chen Qiaoyu walked over. “Grandma Han! Grandpa Han!”
The two elderly people turned around slowly, and when they saw Chen Qiaoyu, warm, kind smiles spread across their faces. “Oh, it’s Qiaoyu.”
Chen Qiaoyu set down the things in her hands, helped Grandma Han and Grandpa Han arrange their goods, and then bent down to pick up the plastic bag. She opened it to show the two elderly people.
“Grandma Han, Grandpa Han, you gave me so many socks last time, and I don’t have anything to repay you with. Please take these vegetables and eat them. They’re all fresh.”
The elderly couple knew better than anyone what fresh vegetables looked like. Grandma Han took the bag, pinched a leaf with her fingers—it was crisp and tender, couldn’t have been fresher.
She was pleasantly surprised. “These are wonderful! You can tell these are local, in-season vegetables, not the kind grown in greenhouses.”
Chen Qiaoyu was curious. “Greenhouses?”
“Yes, so many vegetables these days are grown in greenhouses. They don’t follow the seasons. They’re all watery—not flavorful, not sweet.”
Grandpa Han clutched the vegetables Chen Qiaoyu had brought, his crow’s feet deepening as he grinned. “These are good. Really, really good.”
Grandma Han and Grandpa Han tried to pay Chen Qiaoyu, but she absolutely refused. “These aren’t worth much.”
A single pair of socks could buy several dozen catties of vegetables!
Afraid the elderly couple would insist on paying, Chen Qiaoyu dropped off the bag of vegetables and ran off as fast as she could.
The two old people stomped their feet in frustration behind her. “This kid! Honestly!”
Chen Qiaoyu didn’t stop until she had run past two alleyways. Then she began searching for Zhou Xiaoling’s place by the building numbers.
Most of the buildings along the street had been turned into shops. The colorful, flickering neon signs of all different heights made it especially hard for Chen Qiaoyu to find the numbers.
On top of that, the layout of the urban village was complicated. Many buildings had been squeezed into whatever space was available, jutting out at odd angles. Navigating the twists and turns was exhausting.
But luck was on her side. Chen Qiaoyu eventually found Zhou Xiaoling’s rental building.
The iron door on the first floor was shut. Chen Qiaoyu pushed—it didn’t budge. She pulled—same result.
Most of the buildings in this alley were five or six stories tall, packed tightly together. Every ground floor had this kind of shiny iron door.
It was nothing like the village, where every house had double doors that swung wide open. When people went out to work, they just pulled the doors shut—no need to lock them.
“Everyone’s equally poor anyway. There’s nothing worth stealing at home…” Chen Qiaoyu muttered to herself.
People were coming and going, but Chen Qiaoyu didn’t dare follow anyone inside. She was afraid the door would lock behind her and she wouldn’t be able to get out.
With no other option, she squatted downstairs across the street from Zhou Xiaoling’s building to wait.
“If all else fails, I’ll just leave the vegetables by her door and borrow some paper and a pen to leave a note,” Chen Qiaoyu thought.
Back home, whenever you visited someone and they weren’t in, you’d leave the things by their door or ask a neighbor to pass them along.
Chen Qiaoyu didn’t know Zhou Xiaoling’s neighbors, and she couldn’t tell who among the passersby was trustworthy, so she just waited dumbly.
But luck was truly on her side. After only about ten minutes of waiting, Zhou Xiaoling showed up.
Zhou Xiaoling walked into the alley carrying two plastic bags and was just about to take out her keys when she noticed a vaguely familiar figure squatting across the street.
“…Qiaoyu?” Zhou Xiaoling called out uncertainly.
Chen Qiaoyu looked up and was startled. “Xiaoling? What happened to your hair?”
Zhou Xiaoling was now sporting a head of shiny, curly brownish-yellow hair—curly as sheep’s wool!
Zhou Xiaoling giggled and came over to pull Chen Qiaoyu to her feet. “I got my hair dyed today. Did you come looking for me?”
Chen Qiaoyu couldn’t take her eyes off Zhou Xiaoling’s dramatic hair. She replied blankly, “Yeah. I brought you some vegetables.”
Only then did Zhou Xiaoling notice the large plastic bag Chen Qiaoyu was carrying—it held at least four or five catties of vegetables.
Zhou Xiaoling felt a bit sheepish because she didn’t cook much, but she warmly invited Chen Qiaoyu to come up to her rental room.
Chen Qiaoyu watched as Zhou Xiaoling pulled out a small blue plastic fob and waved it in front of the iron door. Then the door made a beep—and opened.
Chen Qiaoyu was inwardly stunned. In just a few decades, our country’s technology had already advanced this much?
Judging by how casual Zhou Xiaoling was about it, this wasn’t even considered impressive high-tech.
Chen Qiaoyu felt a mixture of emotion: moved, gratified, and also a little sad. Why was her own hometown still so poor and bitter?
Once inside the building, climbing the stairs, Chen Qiaoyu’s excitement never let up.
The stairs were a bit steep, but they had lights—lights that turned on when they detected sound!
Chen Qiaoyu struggled to contain her amazement. She made it all the way to the fifth floor. The first door on the left was Zhou Xiaoling’s rental room.