“Wooo… Wooo…”
The steam whistle blared, and clouds of steam billowed.
The steam train, which had been running for three days, finally pulled into the Hu Shi train station at dusk as the last rays of sunlight faded.
As soon as it came to a steady halt, the doors of the sealed carriages opened amidst a cacophony of shoving and shouting.
With two waist-length braids and a rather disheveled appearance, Lin Ting held her breath and summoned her strength, shouldering her bundle and squeezing off the train with the surging crowd.
The platform was packed shoulder-to-shoulder, no more spacious than the carriage had been. Not daring to stand in the way, she painstakingly squeezed her way further out.
Only after breaking free from the crowd did she put down her bundle. Mimicking the travelers around her, she tucked her hands into her sleeves, plopped down onto her bundle, and stared blankly at the passengers climbing onto the train through the windows, her thoughts gradually drifting away.
She couldn’t figure it out!
Even though a day had already passed, Lin Ting still couldn’t understand.
Why had everything changed in the span of a single night’s sleep?
She was no longer Lin Ting, the high school English teacher from 2023, but Lin Ting, the newlywed runaway wife from 1967.
Well… strictly speaking, she was a runaway wife who had also absconded with the family funds.
Thinking about the story behind it all, Lin Ting felt her head throb and couldn’t help but sigh again…
“Comrade? Excuse me, comrade? Are you all right? Do you need some hot water?”
A crisp, clear female voice cut through the surrounding noise and reached Lin Ting’s ears. She snapped back to reality and looked up to meet a gentle, smiling face.
Her gaze shifted downward, and when she saw the large kettle the other person was carrying, she immediately forgot everything else and quickly replied, “Yes, I do. I do.”
As she spoke, she had already rummaged through her bundle for her enamel mug, stood up to receive the water, and said warmly, “Thank you, comrade.”
Only after experiencing it firsthand did Lin Ting realize that trains in this era had insufficient water storage, making it difficult to get water. That was why at every stop, staff members would carry kettles to distribute boiled water.
Seeing that the young woman had regained some of her spirit, the staff member didn’t ask any more questions. After pouring the water and saying, “Serve the people,” she moved on to the next traveler who was already holding out their mug.
Seeing this, Lin Ting sat back down on her bundle, cradling the mug in both hands and taking small sips.
Lin Ting was sensitive to the cold. The moment the warm water slid down her throat, she couldn’t help but squint in comfort, and even the exhaustion weighing down her body seemed to ease a little.
She really wanted to take the opportunity to rest a bit longer; the hard seat she’d endured for days had made her bones ache.
But she was even more aware that night was falling and she still hadn’t found a place to stay. It was no time to relax.
So after finishing the water, she picked up her bundle and headed out.
The late 1960s.
Hu Shi already had ‘turtle’ taxis. Although they were just three-wheeled electric vehicles, they were a lifesaver for Lin Ting.
The starting fare was 20 cents, and it cost 70 cents to reach the guest house closest to the train station.
In these hard times, when every penny had to be stretched, most people would rather walk than splurge on a taxi.
But Lin Ting was simply exhausted, her legs trembling as she walked.
Rather than feel bad about a few cents, she felt worse for herself for having to endure all this for no reason.
However, her moment of ‘extravagance’ didn’t last more than a few seconds. When the registration clerk informed her that there were single, double, and quadruple rooms available, and after confirming that the double rooms were for female comrades only, Lin Ting pragmatically chose the double room, which was half the price.
The clerk’s attitude was lukewarm, but the attendant who showed her to her room, Sister Liu, was a warm-hearted person.
After they entered the room, Sister Liu, who had a round, smiling face, spoke in Mandarin with a Hu Shi accent. She briefly introduced the room’s layout and the location of the hot water station, then added with a smile, “If no other female comrade comes to stay tonight, it’ll be just like having a single room for yourself.”
Lin Ting had been thinking the same thing. She smiled back, “Thank you, Sister Liu.”
“Don’t be so polite. It’s not easy for a female comrade like you to travel alone. I saw on your letter of introduction that you’re visiting family in the army. Are you going to see your husband?”
Accustomed to the social distancing of later generations, Lin Ting wasn’t quite used to such friendliness, but she still replied with a faint smile, “Yes, my husband is a soldier.”
“That’s wonderful! Soldiers are heroes… By the way, if you want to take a bath, you can go next door. There’s a bathhouse right next to the guest house. It’s 10 cents with a ticket, 20 cents without one.” The people had a natural respect for soldiers, and the already kind-hearted attendant instantly became even more enthusiastic.
Lin Ting thanked her again before asking, “Excuse me, is there a place to make a phone call nearby?”
“Yes, there is. Turn right when you leave the main entrance and walk straight for about a hundred meters. There’s a public phone booth. It wasn’t this convenient a few years ago; you had to go to the post office. But then the government implemented good policies, and now our city has over three thousand phone booths…” After this proud piece of trivia, Sister Liu glanced at her watch. “It’s too late today, the old man is off duty. You can go tomorrow morning. Someone will be there at 7 a.m.”
Lin Ting, who had thought she could only send a telegram from the post office, felt a wave of relief. A phone was good enough…
In the end, Lin Ting didn’t go to the bathhouse next door.
It wasn’t that she was unwilling to spend the money, but it was inconvenient to do so while carrying a huge sum of nearly a thousand yuan.
Even for dinner, she just went to a nearby state-run restaurant, bought some steamed buns, and ate them back in her room with water.
After filling her stomach and enduring the cold to give herself a quick wipe-down with a towel, she crawled into bed.
No matter how many worries she had, they would have to wait until she was well-rested.
Ugh… she was just too tired.
When she woke up again, it was already nine o’clock the next morning.
After sleeping for more than ten hours straight, the exhaustion had vanished, but she was ravenously hungry.
However, with matters weighing on her mind, she had also missed breakfast time.
So after washing up, Lin Ting just ate a few biscuits to tide herself over, then packed her documents and money and went out.
Sister Liu had been right; there was indeed a public telephone not far from the guest house.
There weren’t many people making or receiving calls, and Lin Ting’s turn came in less than five minutes.
As she put the receiver to her ear and waited for the other end to connect, even with her relatively steady temperament, she couldn’t help but feel nervous.
She had to be nervous. After all, she, Lin Ting, was the one occupying this body now.
Therefore, she had to bear the consequences of the original owner’s mistakes.
She just didn’t know where the original owner had gone. Could they have swapped bodies?
At this thought, Lin Ting shifted her feet restlessly and turned to face the street, which was steeped in the atmosphere of the era.
Speaking of which, the original owner was quite similar to her in some ways.
She came from a rural background, was loved by her family, and did well in her studies.
Even without great wealth, her life had been smooth sailing.
The difference was that Lin Ting in the future had gone on to graduate school and become a high school English teacher.
The original owner, on the other hand, had been admitted to the provincial normal university in 1964 at the age of 18, thanks to her excellent grades.
This was an era of material scarcity, and a university student was highly valued.
In everyone’s eyes, the original owner was a golden phoenix who had flown out of a mountain valley.
Everyone was certain that this girl would have a bright future.
Unfortunately, starting from June 1966, the original owner’s smooth life hit a rough patch.
A revolution not only suspended university classes but also implicated many students and professors.
Although Lin Ting was not affected due to her rural background, for a proud and successful young woman, even emerging unscathed was nothing to be happy about.
This was because without a university diploma, when she returned to her hometown, her job prospects were no different from those of a high school graduate.
That wasn’t entirely accurate.
Strictly speaking, for someone from a rural family like the original owner, even if she was talented enough, she couldn’t compete with those who had ‘connections’ and ‘backing’ for jobs in county factories or schools.
After more than a decade of studying, she, who had always been the pride of her parents and fellow villagers, ended up with no other option but to return home and work the fields.
On top of that, the boyfriend she had in university, due to his family’s political background, married the daughter of a revolutionary committee director and went off to support the border regions in Tibet.
The pile-up of these blows twisted the proud girl’s personality.
After a few months of farm work, she gradually started taking the words of the village aunties to heart, becoming convinced that no matter how capable a woman was, she still had to get married, and marrying into a high-status family was also a form of success!
But good prospects weren’t so easy to find, especially when compared to her university ex-boyfriend.
After several months of being picky, she finally chose Huo Xiao, a widowed military officer with children from the next village.
Huo Xiao was a handsome man. Although he was remarrying and had two children, he was already a deputy regimental commander.
An educated girl naturally understood what a deputy regimental commander in his twenties signified.
So even when Huo Xiao had to turn back to his unit midway through their wedding day for a mission and couldn’t even attend the banquet, the original owner just threw a tantrum before settling down to live a proper life.
But things didn’t go as planned.
Just one month into her peaceful and stable life, news of Huo Xiao’s death in the line of duty arrived back in the village.
Before the original owner even had time for grief or any other emotion, her heart was stirred by a letter that arrived at the same time from her ex-boyfriend, who wrote about ‘revolution’ and life.
And so, after just two or three exchanges of letters, three months after Huo Xiao’s death, the girl whose life had been a mess since leaving school developed an obsession.
She was going to Tibet!
She became fanatically convinced that if she could just see her ex-boyfriend, everything would go back to the way it was.
Once an obsession takes root, it’s like an incessant itch.
After another half-month of agonizing, the original owner stole several blank, stamped letters of introduction, took the family’s money, packed a few clothes, and ran away in the middle of the night.
She didn’t leave a single word behind.
By the time the whole village was mobilized to search for her, she was already on a train, planning to depart for Tibet from Hu Shi.
But for some unknown reason, after a nap on the way, her body was taken over by the Lin Ting from the 21st century.
Frankly, if the original owner had proposed a divorce, Lin Ting could have understood.
But running away with the money was a bit much.
Furthermore, going to find her ex-boyfriend was definitely the act of someone who had studied herself silly.
Although it was improper to say so while occupying her body, Lin Ting couldn’t help but think it.
Putting aside how many people who loved her she was letting down by doing this, the very idea of a single, beautiful young woman traveling to Tibet alone in the sixties and seventies was pure fantasy.
Not to mention the common altitude sickness in the Tibetan region, the endless expanse of withered grasslands and thick snow-capped mountains in deep winter could be fatal.
There were no oxygen tanks, no direct transport.
If she couldn’t hitch a ride along the way, she could be walking for a month.
So, what would she eat? What would she drink? Where would she rest?
Just thinking about it was suffocating.
Lin Ting didn’t want to die, so she certainly wasn’t going to the Tibetan region, let alone to find a married man with ill intentions.
But… she couldn’t go back to the village right away either.
After all, if she really couldn’t return to her own time, she was absolutely unwilling to live with a bad reputation.
So after much deliberation, Lin Ting concocted a slightly more presentable reason for the original owner’s flight with the money.
She used one of the blank letters of introduction, filling in the destination as Huo Xiao’s military unit.
The story was that she didn’t believe Huo Xiao had died and wanted to go to his unit to get a clear answer. If the news was true, she also had to collect his belongings.
Although this reason wouldn’t hold up perfectly under scrutiny, it was the only option for now.
The only fortunate thing was that Huo Xiao’s unit was in Rongcheng, and departing from Hu Shi was plausible route-wise.
But the thought of never seeing her parents again made Lin Ting, who had repeatedly told herself to make the best of her situation, feel incredibly wronged.
Just as she was restlessly shifting her feet and turning in another direction, the call to the Huo Family Village Commune, which she was dialing for the third time, was finally answered.
Lin Ting’s heart tightened, and she instantly pressed her lips together. A moment later, she discreetly let out a breath and said in a steady voice, “Hello, comrade, I’m…”