Inside the dimly lit office, Chu Xia finished counting the forms and grinned so widely her face practically disappeared into the pile.

Lin Xiaohan turned to look at her, expressionless, and asked, “Are you done laughing yet?”

Hearing his voice, Chu Xia straightened up, still smiling. “Do you know how many students we’ve enrolled in total? Let me tell you—sixty! A full sixty!”

Compared to what was written in the original novel, the number had nearly doubled!

But Lin Xiaohan replied blandly, “Are you stupid? Whether you teach ten or a hundred, the pay’s the same.”

Chu Xia blinked at him, stunned.

Before she could respond, Lin Xiaohan slung his bag over his shoulder and said, “Let’s go report back to Captain Liang.”

Snapping out of her daze, Chu Xia grabbed her backpack and the enrollment forms, and followed him out of the school.

Lin Xiaohan locked the school gate, and together they headed to the brigade office to find Liang Youtian.

Liang Youtian was still there when they arrived.

Chu Xia and Lin Xiaohan greeted him and reported, “Captain Liang, we’ve completed the student recruitment. It went really well—we’ve got sixty in total.”

Liang Youtian’s face lit up. “I knew we didn’t misjudge you two. I just knew you’d pull this off. Better than expected!”

Lin Xiaohan handed over his backpack. “All the tuition and fees are inside.”

Following suit, Chu Xia offered him the enrollment forms.

But Liang Youtian waved them off. He didn’t take the bag or the forms.

Looking at the two of them, he said, “No need to hand those over. You keep them. We’ve already set everything up on our end. From here on out, the work’s still yours to handle. Tomorrow, take the tuition and forms to the county education bureau and collect the textbooks. The day after that, just like you said, hold the opening ceremony. Classes start the day after. How’s that?”

This was clearly an assignment, and Chu Xia and Lin Xiaohan had no objections.

Besides, they were actually thrilled to have a reason to go to the county.

Since arriving in the countryside, they hadn’t left the Tanxi Brigade once.

They both tucked the forms and money away again.

Lin Xiaohan quickly replied, “Since you trust us, Captain Liang, we’ll make the trip tomorrow and bring back the textbooks for the kids.”

Liang Youtian’s eyes showed genuine trust.

He handed over two pieces of paper. “Here’s your introduction letter for the county. Keep it safe—you absolutely can’t lose it out there. The county’s far; you can’t walk it. Take the team’s donkey cart tomorrow. You haven’t been to the county before, have you? Want me to send someone with you?”

“No need for that,” Chu Xia and Lin Xiaohan said in unison.

After a brief pause from Chu Xia, Lin Xiaohan continued, “Captain Liang, it’s not worth assigning someone else for such a small task. We know the direction to the county, and we can just ask along the way if needed.”

Captain Liang chuckled and praised them, “You city kids really are capable.”

If this had been given to the local village kids who had never left the countryside, they would’ve been completely dumbfounded.

Chu Xia wasn’t thinking about saving manpower—she just didn’t want someone tagging along. It was a rare chance to go to the county, and having someone else around would only make it awkward to take care of a few personal matters.

And so the matter was settled.

Chu Xia and Lin Xiaohan left the brigade office together.

They walked side by side back to the educated youth quarters.

On the way, Chu Xia asked, “So what time are we leaving in the morning?”

“As early as possible,” Lin Xiaohan replied.

The journey was long, and they needed time to handle their tasks and return the same day—better to have a head start.

Chu Xia nodded. “Alright.”

These past few days, Chu Xia and Lin Xiaohan had gone out every night after dinner. But now that enrollment was officially wrapped up, they stayed in after the evening meal.

Grateful for a break, Chu Xia returned to her dorm, washed up, and lay down.

The others in her dorm had gone over to the boys’ quarters to hang out. All the noise was on the other side, leaving this room quiet.

Lying in bed, Chu Xia blinked up at the ceiling, thinking about what she’d do in the county tomorrow.

Mainly, after finishing the task from the brigade, she planned to go to the post office to send a letter back to Beijing. Then she’d stop by the state-run store and the Xinhua bookstore to buy a few things.

Because she was getting up early and had been exhausted from the past few days, she quickly fell asleep while thinking.

She didn’t know how long she’d been asleep when the sound of the water pump startled her awake.

Jumping out of bed, she rushed to the window to check.

Sure enough, Lin Xiaohan was already up, washing up in the yard.

So she got up quietly, folded her quilt, dressed, tied her braids, and went outside with her toiletries to freshen up.

After washing up and having breakfast, the two packed their bags and set off.

They first stopped by the brigade office to retrieve the donkey cart that Captain Liang had mentioned.

As they were leading the donkey cart out of the yard, Chu Xia suddenly looked a little worried and asked, “Have you ever driven a donkey cart before?”

Lin Xiaohan replied, “Even if I haven’t eaten pork, I’ve at least seen a pig run, haven’t I?”

He sounded so confident that Chu Xia decided not to press the issue.

The cart came to a stop, and the two climbed on.

Lin Xiaohan sat on the front left, holding a dry twig in one hand and the reins in the other.

Chu Xia didn’t sit on the right like expected—instead, she climbed up and sat cross-legged on the cushion right beside him.

Lin Xiaohan didn’t care how she sat and simply set off with the donkey.

After a while, Chu Xia saw that he was handling it fairly well and relaxed.

So the two of them rode along leisurely toward the county.

Along the way, they stopped occasionally to ask for directions, just to be sure they weren’t heading the wrong way.

As the rhythmic clopping of hooves echoed, the stars gradually faded, the morning star flickered in the east, and the sun slowly peeked over the horizon.

Chu Xia, growing tired of sitting, yawned and murmured, “Life in the countryside really isn’t easy…”

Lin Xiaohan turned to her and added, “So just how foolish does a person have to be to give up a job opportunity in the city and come all the way out to the countryside for someone who doesn’t even like them?”

Chu Xia: “…”

Of course she knew he was talking about her.

She looked at him and stubbornly said, “That’s called risking everything for love. What would you know?”

Lin Xiaohan gave a cold laugh. “You’re right—I don’t understand at all.”

Chu Xia was about to respond, but before she could, the cart suddenly jolted forward.

Lin Xiaohan noticed it at the same time. They both looked ahead and saw a long, steep downhill slope in front of them.

While they were talking, the donkey had started down the hill, and the cart was now following at increasing speed.

“!!!”

In the blink of an eye, the cart sped up drastically.

Neither of them had time to react before the speed became overwhelming.

Frightened, Chu Xia instinctively shouted, “Lin Xiaohan, brake! Hit the brakes—hurry!”

Lin Xiaohan was exasperated. “This isn’t a bicycle! There are no brakes! How am I supposed to stop it?!”

The slope was still long, and Chu Xia felt like her heart was about to leap out of her chest.

Just then, the cart wheel hit a pothole and bounced violently at high speed.

Chu Xia screamed, terrified. As her heart nearly stopped, she instinctively turned and clung to Lin Xiaohan, burying her face in his chest and shutting her eyes tight.

The flatbed cart jolted and bounced wildly behind the donkey as it barreled down the hill.

Lin Xiaohan struggled to stay on without being thrown off, while still yelling, “Tang Chu Xia! Let go of me!”

But Chu Xia wasn’t listening—she just held on tighter, her face buried deep against him.

The primal fear for her life overrode any rational thought. All she could do was cling to the only solid thing near her.

The donkey’s four hooves pounded the ground, pulling the cart in a wild sprint down the slope.

Even after reaching level ground, it didn’t stop right away. The momentum kept it going for quite a distance until Lin Xiaohan finally managed to rein it in and bring the cart to a gradual stop.

Holding the reins, Lin Xiaohan exhaled deeply.

Once he caught his breath, he looked at Chu Xia—who was still clinging to him with a death grip, half her body curled against his chest.

He didn’t say a word this time. He simply reached out, pried her arms off, and pushed her away.

Only after being pushed back did Chu Xia realize the cart had stopped. She opened her eyes, visibly shaken and pale—truly frightened out of her wits.

After calming down a little, she blinked at Lin Xiaohan.

Lin Xiaohan didn’t look panicked or frightened—instead, he seemed more annoyed than anything else.

Both sides of his face were flushed red, and his ears were even redder, as if they were about to bleed.

Thinking back on what she had just done, and remembering how picky he usually was about everything, Chu Xia instinctively shrank her neck and said softly, “S-Sorry… I was too nervous just now… I didn’t mean to…”

Lin Xiaohan turned his eyes away, looking elsewhere, and forced down a deep breath.

He didn’t respond. A moment later, he looked back, raised the tree branch in his hand, and gave the donkey a light smack on its rear.

With a crisp snap, the donkey started walking again.

Chu Xia felt like that strike had landed on her instead, and she reflexively shrank her neck even further.