However, at dinnertime, everyone at the educated youth station still gathered together to eat. The meal consisted of nothing more than a large pot of sweet potato porridge and some pickled vegetables.
The veteran educated youths ate heartily.
The newly arrived youths, however, found the food almost impossible to swallow. After taking just a few bites, He Zhaoyue wanted to throw down her bowl and chopsticks.
At that moment, the station leader, Huo Huaijun, suddenly said, “Food must not be wasted. If someone reports you to the production brigade, you’ll have to bear the consequences yourselves. Whether you’ll be allowed to return to the city in the future depends on approvals from the brigade leader and the educated youth office.”
This time, He Zhaoyue was genuinely on the verge of tears. She held back for a long while before finally forcing herself to finish the bowl of sweet potato porridge and pickles.
To be honest, Qi Ziyue also thought the food was terrible. She desperately missed hot steamed buns, fluffy mantou, steaming siu mai, fresh pancakes—even a bowl of dumplings would have been wonderful.
And food was only one of the hardships of life at the educated youth station.
That night, as they lay down to sleep, Qi Ziyue heard someone quietly crying beneath the blankets. Some of the newcomers were unable to adjust to being suddenly sent to the countryside, while others were simply freezing.
The production brigade had a small state-run shop, somewhat similar to a supply and marketing cooperative, though much smaller in scale. It sold limited quantities of daily necessities and bedding. Unfortunately, many educated youths had arrived that day. Some of the city youths from well-off families had apparently not prepared bedding in advance, and now they were suffering for it.
He Zhaoyue’s group had arrived earlier than Qi Ziyue, so each of them had managed to buy a quilt. However, the quilts were quite thin; even using two together might not provide enough warmth. Of the four girls in He Zhaoyue’s group, only He Zhaoyue had managed to buy two quilts.
The others had only thin blankets. They were the ones crying beneath their covers.
“Mom…”
In the darkness, Qi Ziyue heard a soft voice call out.
She pulled the blanket more securely over the little boy and whispered threateningly in his ear, “Go to sleep quickly, or a tiger will come and eat you.”
What she didn’t know was that Qi Ning’an rolled his eyes at her.
Unlike ordinary children, he was long past the age of being frightened by tigers.
It was his first time sleeping beside his mother. Normally, he would already be asleep by this hour, but tonight he couldn’t sleep. One moment, he wanted to open his eyes and look at her; the next, he felt awkward and wanted to wriggle out of her embrace. Then, moments later, he would secretly move back into her arms.
Snow began to fall outside, but for Qi Ning’an, this was the warmest night of his life.
Yet amid this warmth, he heard someone quietly crying beneath the blankets.
He hadn’t cried in a very long time, so he found himself curious.
Adults cried too?
Unable to understand, he quietly asked his mother, “Why are they crying?”
He was referring to the girl next door who was sobbing under her blanket.
Qi Ziyue stroked his head. It was the first time she had heard him show concern for someone else. Startled for a moment, she smiled and whispered back, “They’re probably homesick. And they’re cold.”
People always find it easy to go from frugality to comfort, but difficult to return from comfort to hardship.
“Why?” Qi Ning’an asked.
“Their blankets are probably too thin.”
He squeezed the thick quilt covering them. It was warm and heavy.
Little Qi Ning’an didn’t know that when they had arrived late the previous night, even the thinnest cotton quilts had already sold out. His mother had only managed to buy a lightweight summer blanket and two white quilt covers patterned with red flowers.
After a sleepless night, Qi Ziyue woke early the next morning, and the little boy woke up as well.
She dressed An’an in his padded jacket and military coat, handed him a bag of snacks, and asked him to fetch some water while she secretly stored the thick quilt back into her spatial storage.
Since she hadn’t been able to buy a proper winter quilt, constantly taking the quilt in and out of her space was bound to expose her sooner or later.
She needed to buy a thick quilt as soon as possible.
There were also too many people around. Once she started working in the fields, An’an was still too young and could easily be bullied. If she took him with her, people would inevitably gossip.
For their safety, she could only tell others that An’an was her adopted son—for now.
But as the future dark villain of the novel, why had Qi Ning’an become so twisted?
The biggest reason was that he had been born without a father, while his mother had lost her sanity. When he was nearly five years old, a fire claimed the lives of his mother and all his maternal relatives.
Only one uncle remained, but that uncle wanted to kill him to avenge the family.
He had never received love. He had spent his childhood locked away with his mentally unstable mother, and his heart had gradually become distorted.
Later, the only person he still cared about—his mother—died by his own hand. That became another major factor in his psychological collapse.
The third reason was simple: from the moment he was born, he had never been accepted by anyone.
Qi Ziyue didn’t want An’an to use his extraordinary intelligence to commit crimes in the future. She wanted him to become an upright, honorable person and slowly help him grow into someone brighter and healthier.
To achieve that, she needed to avoid putting him in a situation where he would constantly be labeled an adopted child.
Given the circumstances of the times, she also wanted to prevent him from hearing words like “adopted son” as much as possible.
Which meant they needed their own home—and soon.
Just as this thought crossed her mind, An’an returned.
He had actually fetched water for her in a military canteen.
Standing there with his small frame holding the canteen, his dark eyes fixed on her, he said, “Mom, I’m back.”
“Mm, An’an is amazing.”
Qi Ziyue had already tidied up the bedding. She was indeed thirsty, but instead of drinking the water herself, she looked at him pitifully and said, “Mom is so thirsty. Can you help me drink some water?”
Her eyes blinked innocently, as if she might burst into tears if he refused.
Qi Ning’an froze.
He had intended to hand her the canteen, but seeing her reddened eyes, he couldn’t bring himself to refuse. Following her wishes, he held the canteen for her.
The water in this weather had only one quality—it was ice-cold, piercingly so.
The freezing water made Qi Ziyue’s teeth ache, but she still found time to praise him.
“An’an is incredible. Where did you find the water? That’s amazing—I didn’t even see a water tank.”
An ordinary child would have puffed out his chest and proudly replied, “Because I’m smart!” or “I just know!”
But Qi Ning’an wasn’t an ordinary child.
He was analyzing his mother’s intentions.
What did she mean by that?
In the end, he couldn’t figure it out, but he noticed the sparkle in her eyes.
She seemed happy.
So he asked, “Mom, do you like it when I help you drink water?”
Qi Ziyue nearly choked.
What adult enjoyed being fed water by a child? This was merely a way to cultivate his sense of responsibility and make him feel needed.
And yet this was the conclusion he had reached?
She wanted to collapse.
Seeing him still looking at her, she forced a smile and said, “Mom needs An’an. Here, you’re the only one Mom can rely on. You’re the little man of our family—the pillar that holds us up.”
If he was the family’s pillar, then surely he wouldn’t want to do bad things in the future and let that pillar collapse.
Qi Ziyue’s calculations clicked away in her mind.
Qi Ning’an pondered her words, then nodded.
“Mm.”
After that, he picked up a broom and started sweeping the floor, telling her to rest.
Qi Ziyue: ?
Actually, she didn’t need to rest at all.
By then, some of the girls in the neighboring room had already woken up.
Seeing Qi Ziyue and Qi Ning’an awake, they finally couldn’t resist speaking to her.
“You slept like that all night?”
The speaker was the shortest of the female educated youths, Ruan Tiantian. She had a small cherry-shaped mouth and dimples on both cheeks. She spoke softly, and the cashmere sweater she wore suggested that she came from a pampered family.
She had also cried the hardest the previous night.
Qi Ziyue didn’t dislike her, so she simply replied, “Yes.”
“But didn’t you say you didn’t have a quilt?”
“I did. It was just a thin blanket. But I slept holding the child.”
“Is it warmer when two people sleep together?”
“You can try it.”
As soon as she noticed He Zhaoyue waking up, Qi Ziyue locked her belongings in a cabinet, took An’an’s hand, and headed out to find breakfast.
From inside the room, she could still hear He Zhaoyue’s frustrated shouting and her scolding of the other girls, along with disparaging remarks about Qi Ziyue and An’an.
Qi Ziyue paid little attention to it.
She wouldn’t be staying at the educated youth station for long.
The immediate priority was filling their stomachs because the station kitchen didn’t provide breakfast.
Later, she asked some of the veteran male educated youths who weren’t working that morning and learned that breakfast wasn’t supplied at the station. Everyone usually prepared something for themselves before heading out to work.
Qi Ziyue: ?
This life was truly unbearable.
By the west bank of the river, Qi Ziyue washed the little boy’s hands and found a secluded spot behind a patch of reeds.
She took out two roasted sweet potatoes, roasted potatoes, and two boiled eggs for breakfast.
Eating secretly at the educated youth station was out of the question, so they had to come this far.
The sweet potatoes and potatoes had been roasted while she boiled the eggs earlier.
When Qi Ning’an asked where the eggs had come from, she casually said she had bought them from a villager.
Perhaps because he hadn’t eaten enough the night before, he didn’t ask further questions. He quickly finished one potato, one sweet potato, and an egg.
Qi Ziyue handed him the remaining egg.
He shook his head.
“Mom, you eat it. You’ll be hungry later.”
She stared at him for a moment before putting the egg into her own mouth.
The rich flavor spread across her tongue, and it tasted like the finest delicacy in the world.
Only when people are hungry do they truly appreciate good food.
She finished every last bite of the roasted sweet potatoes and potatoes. Afterwards, the two of them carefully cleaned up the eggshells and potato skins and threw them away before leaving.