The two of them could be said to depend on each other for survival.
Here in the countryside, at this educated-youth station, they lived on—life was hard, yet they endured it with grit.
Meng Luosheng didn’t mention what had just happened. Following Wang Xiaoli’s push, she was guided out of the kitchen.
Calling it a kitchen was generous—it was merely a small corner built with a makeshift stove.
She leaned against the wall, exhausted.
“Are you feeling any better?”Wang Xiaoli squatted on the ground.
“A little better,” she replied.
But her face was flushed alarmingly red—nothing like what her words suggested.
Meng Luosheng frowned slightly.
“If it really won’t do, then go to the clinic. I still have a bit of money.”
Wang Xiaoli immediately refused.
“No need. I can push through it. There’s no need to waste money.”
Meng Luosheng’s tone hardened, leaving no room for refusal.
“Save where you should, spend where you must. Life is the capital of the revolution. If you collapse here, I’ll be left alone.”
At this moment, she hadn’t yet been driven to a dead end.
She had no thoughts of betraying the past in any way.
Though outwardly somewhat hypocritical, she was still full of kindness.
Wang Xiaoli muttered under her breath.
“Money with nowhere to spend.”
She, who once spent money freely, now couldn’t even bear to spend it when she was sick.
Meng Luosheng didn’t say anything more.
She herself wasn’t feeling well either—her entire body was worn out.
The exhaustion in her bones, the fatigue of her body, the strain on her spirit—all of it nearly left her unable to breathe.
Leaning against the wall, her legs could no longer hold her.
She squatted down, burying her head in her knees.
She thought, I’ll just close my eyes for a bit.
Until her body tilted and her head struck the ground, she still didn’t wake up.
Wang Xiaoli was frightened and cried out in alarm.
“Shengsheng!”
She tried to help her up, but she herself had a fever and no strength at all.
Tears flowed uncontrollably as she hated herself for being so stingy with that little bit of money.
If only she were healthy now—then she’d have the strength to carry her.
After quite a while, just as despair set in, Meng Luosheng slowly came to.
Ignoring the pain on her forehead, she smiled and joked,
“You cry so easily. If Xing Ran found out, he’d laugh at you again.”
Xing Ran was her fiancé—a sharp-tongued, scheming man since childhood. His favorite things were bullying her, teasing her, and mocking her.
Unfortunately, like her fiancé, she too was now undergoing “reform” at a farm.
Wang Xiaoli wiped her tears and said fiercely,
“He wouldn’t dare!”
She reached out and pushed Meng Luosheng.
“Hurry up and get up!”
But she herself collapsed onto the ground, her body limp, unable to rise for a long time.
With barely anything to eat and hard labor every day, her body had long since reached its limit.
Meng Luosheng quickly stood up and helped her up.
Her own physical exhaustion had already been thrown to the back of her mind.
“To the clinic,” she said.
She quickened her pace, went into the room, and took the money.
Altogether, there was only one yuan and twenty cents—and she took it all.
Wang Xiaoli couldn’t stop crying.
She hated her own frail body.
Meng Luosheng stood in the room until the crying outside finally stopped, then walked out.
She supported Wang Xiaoli with both hands.
The two of them left the courtyard, walking along one muddy dirt path after another.
At last, their view opened up, and the clinic appeared before them.
It was a small, dilapidated courtyard with only two rooms.
A sign hung on the door, bearing three crudely written characters: Clinic.
Meng Luosheng raised her hand and knocked on the door, supporting Wang Xiaoli as they went inside.
An elderly man sat in a rocking chair, humming an unfamiliar tune.
Seeing them enter, he didn’t get up.
He pointed to a chair nearby.
“Whoever’s sick, sit there.”
Meng Luosheng helped Wang Xiaoli sit down.
“Uncle, she has a fever. Her forehead and body are burning hot, and she has no strength at all. Please take a look at her.”
Xu Xiangshan slowly rose to his feet.
“Hand,” he said.
Wang Xiaoli extended her left hand.
One second… two seconds… three seconds…
Xu Xiangshan withdrew his hand, turned around, and went into the room.
After about five minutes, he came back out, holding something wrapped in oiled paper.
“Boil one bowl morning, noon, and night.”
Meng Luosheng took it and pulled the money from her pocket.
“Uncle, how much is it?”
“One mao (ten cents).”
It was almost like he wasn’t charging at all.
Meng Luosheng pressed her lips together, handed him the ten cents.
The remaining money was tucked back into her pocket.
As they were leaving, she said softly,
“Thank you.”
Only after the two of them disappeared from sight did Xu Xiangshan shout loudly toward the inside.
“You little brat, come out.”
The sound of a wheelchair rolling across the floor followed, and Xu Qingyan emerged from inside.
The first thing he said was a sharp question.
“Grandpa, why did you charge her money? She helped me—she’s my benefactor.”
Xu Xiangshan was so angry his beard bristled and his eyes widened.
“You little rascal! At my age, I go up the mountains to gather herbs—if not merit, then at least hard work! Always taking outsiders’ sides—are you still my good grandson?”
More importantly, if he didn’t charge them, that girl would never come back again.
He could see clearly—she was no ordinary person.
She was different from people like them, villagers from the countryside.
And he could also see his grandson’s feelings.
He sighed.
What a sin.
A phoenix, no matter how fallen, is still a phoenix.
Ordinary people can’t reach that height.
What’s more, his grandson’s legs were crippled.
Whether he could even have children was still a problem.
Xu Qingyan pushed his wheelchair and turned away.
“I’m sorry, Grandpa.”
Xu Xiangshan’s expression was complicated.
He could save his grandson’s life—but he couldn’t restore his legs.
This was his lifelong regret.
One he would carry with him to the grave.
On the way back, both Meng Luosheng and Wang Xiaoli were silent.
Occasionally, when they saw a few villagers standing at their doorways eating from their bowls, they would lift their faces into smiles and greet them warmly.
Both of them were quite well liked in the village.
Aside from a few disgusting, filthy individuals, almost no one would dare raise their voice in front of them.
Meng Luosheng was gentle and beautiful, like the bright moon in the sky.
Wang Xiaoli was pure and sweet, like a dreamlike, adorable girl.
They were a kind of beauty the villagers had never seen before—something they could only yearn for.
No one could even bring themselves to harbor improper thoughts; they could only admire them from afar.
After returning to the educated-youth station, Meng Luosheng closed the door.
“I’ll go boil the medicine. You go lie down in the room.”
In such a short time, she had learned how to cook.
She had done many things she had never done before.
From a delicate, pampered young lady, she had become someone capable of doing anything.
Wang Xiaoli could no longer hold on and nodded.
Her weak body carried her toward the room. When one foot crossed the threshold, she turned back.
Her eyes shimmered with tears.
I’m sorry, Shengsheng. I’ve always been holding you back.
While boiling the medicine, Meng Luosheng thought of many things from the past.
Back then, she hadn’t yet been sent down to the countryside.
She had been the recognized beauty of the residential compound.
The most doted-on girl in the entire family.
Everyone who saw her either bowed and scraped or fawned over her.
Then disaster struck without warning.
Her parents, her older brother, and other relatives were taken away for strict investigation; her grandfather was imprisoned.
Her fiancé’s family suffered the same fate.
With nothing they could take with them, she and her fiancé were hastily sent to the countryside together.
Fortunately, Wang Xiaoli was with her during that journey.
Wang Xiaoli was the daughter of one of her father’s subordinates.
They had grown up together since childhood.
Not biological sisters, but closer than sisters.
This place was a level of poverty she had never imagined.
Life in the countryside was a kind of hardship she had never conceived of.
She stretched out her hands and raised them before her eyes.
No longer as fair as before, they were covered in many cuts.
The deepest one had once split the flesh open.
Now, it had already healed.
As she looked at them, she smiled.
A trace of helplessness flashed across her gentle, delicate face.
The past she could never return to—what was the point of thinking about it again?
It only brought more trouble.
She met Xu Qingyan again two days later.
She was drenched in sweat as she walked back toward the educated-youth station, her hair sticking to her forehead, looking disheveled and haggard.
Upon seeing him, she subconsciously raised the smile she always showed to everyone.
“Comrade Xu.”
Seeing again the face that haunted him day and night, Xu Qingyan’s face twitched, his pupils shrinking sharply.
Afraid she might notice, he lowered his head.
“Comrade Meng.”
Suppressing his urge to move closer, he kept his voice low. His face was thinner than before.
Meng Luosheng looked him over and noticed, from his looser clothes, how much weight he had suddenly lost.
But she didn’t ask anything. She merely nodded and was about to leave.
“Comrade Meng.”
Xu Qingyan clenched his fists and called out to stop her.
Meng Luosheng turned back, her brows and eyes curved in a gentle smile.
“Comrade Xu, is there anything else?”
“If anyone bullies you, you can come to me.”
Meng Luosheng raised an eyebrow and nodded.
“Thank you, but the villagers are all very friendly. No one has bullied me.”
She trusted no one.
That included him.
As an outsider, she only wanted to live each day here in peace— until the day she could return to the city.
Xu Qingyan nodded in restraint.
“Mm.”
After Meng Luosheng left, another person stepped out from the side.
Xu Rong’er wore a look of concern.
“Second Brother, don’t see her anymore. I’ve observed her—no matter how difficult the person she faces, she always maintains a gentle, friendly attitude. She’s completely fake, not sincere at all. At a glance, you can tell she’s scheming and harboring ulterior motives. You won’t be able to outplay her.”
She was sincerely advising him. With her straightforward temperament, she deeply despised someone like Meng Luosheng—a hypocrite who was sweet on the lips but false at heart.