Chapter 18: Heart-to-Heart

“You two, hurry up and get on the cart! It’s almost dark—do you plan on sleeping on the road?”
Lin Qingmei shouted at the two siblings behind her. If they kept dawdling, she was going to leave without them.

“Coming, coming! Weren’t you always the calm one? How come a short time apart and now you’re more irritable than me?”
Lin Qinglan lifted Lin Zheng onto the cart and sat on the edge herself.

“Hold on, we’re heading out.”
Old Lin, the bull cart driver, flicked his whip, and the ox began to pull forward.

Old Lin was a childless elderly man with mobility issues, so the village leader had assigned him to drive the bull cart.

Besides transporting people, the cart was used for hauling crops and fertilizer.
Only on scheduled market days each month did it carry passengers—on other days, villagers had to rely on their feet to reach the commune or county.

Today, she had paid one yuan to charter the cart, so the village head agreed to let Old Lin pick them up.

On the way back to Linjiawan, everything fascinated Lin Zheng.
While it was already snowing in the Northeast this time of year, people in Guangdong were still wearing short sleeves.

“Big Sis! Look—the leaves are still green!”
The last time Lin Zheng had visited Linjiawan was two summers ago when he was too young to understand the climate differences between the north and south.

“What’s so surprising? Harbin is freezing. We were lucky it didn’t snow the day we left—otherwise the train might not have even moved.”

It was already late October. Harbin was so cold that thick cotton-padded jackets were needed.
Over the past few days, they had gone from the northernmost point to the southernmost, changing from heavy coats to short sleeves.

“You little rascal, you’ve just never seen much. Wait till the cold front hits—you’ll know what magical cold attack means.”
Lin Qingmei didn’t like to admit Lin Zheng was her brother, but she held back because he had Lin Qinglan protecting him.

“Lin Qingmei, can you stop scaring him? You’re a grown woman picking on a child.”
Lin Qinglan rolled her eyes—her best friend was so petty. Lin Zheng hadn’t done anything to offend her, but she had been giving him the cold shoulder since they met.

“Yeah, yeah, keep defending him. You only love your brother and don’t care about your other sister. Clearly, I don’t matter to you at all.”
Hmph! She’d see how long Qinglan could stay mad—showering that brat Lin Zheng with love was enough to make her sick.

“Say another word of nonsense and I’ll kick you off the cart. Can’t you be quiet for once?”

An hour later, the bull cart finally stopped at the foot of a mountain at the edge of the village.

“We’re here, get off the cart.”
Old Lin helped the three siblings unload their luggage, then hurried off—he still needed to take his beloved ox out to graze.
Today had been rough on the old yellow ox. He nearly couldn’t lift one of those packages—who knows what heavy stuff they had packed.

Even though Lin Qinglan had memories of the old house, seeing it in person was a whole different shock.

“Qingmei… this house is so rundown, and you still dare live in it? Aren’t you afraid the wind might blow it over?”

“It’s just temporary. Grandma only just passed, and we won’t be able to build a new house until next year anyway.”
Qingmei was used to the place by now. Though it looked tattered outside, the building materials were sturdy—it wasn’t going to collapse anytime soon.

“That works. Since there’s not much work in the winter, we can start gathering building materials now.”
Lin Qinglan planned to build a solid house. It didn’t need fancy decorations on the outside, but she wanted the inside clean with a coat of limewash.
Adding some gelatin to the mix would make the walls appear whiter and brighter.

“I can get all the materials. I’ll arrange for someone to deliver them in a few days.”

“Alright, we’ll just make do until then.”

The old house only had three rooms. One had belonged to their late grandparents, one was now Qingmei’s, and the last had become a storage room.

Originally, Qingmei wanted Lin Zheng to have his own room while she and Qinglan shared.
But Lin Zheng was too scared to sleep alone and insisted on moving his bed into Qingmei’s room so the three siblings could stay together.

On their first night back in their hometown, Lin Zheng fell asleep early, while the two girls on the other bed quietly got up.

“Qingmei, want a drink?”

“Sure, let’s go out to the yard.”

Qingmei pulled a beach table and two beach chairs from her space and set them up.

The beer and snacks were Lin Qinglan’s job. Back in the apocalypse, her space had held more food than Qingmei’s anyway.

“Qingmei, when did you transmigrate? How have you been living these days?”

“About half a month before you. At first, I thought I’d never see you again. I was so heartbroken for days.”

“Did you inherit the original host’s memories? I think I might’ve taken over the body of someone who committed suicide.
When I woke up, I had no memory at all—just lying alone in a hospital bed. No one cared for me. It was so miserable.”

“What about Yao Yanfang? Didn’t she take care of you? And why did you commit suicide?
From what I remember, the old Lin Qinglan wasn’t weak—how could she just give up like that?”

“It’s all because of that greedy woman Yao Yanfang. She only gave a hundred yuan for Lin Qinglan to take Lin Zheng back to the countryside!
She’s obsessed with money—Lin Jianshe’s death benefit was 2,000 yuan, and the soldiers in his unit donated another 2,000.
That’s 4,000 yuan total, and she only gave 100 yuan to the two children. Isn’t that heartless?”

“I don’t believe you just let her off that easy. Tell me—did you take the money back?”
Qingmei didn’t even need to guess—she knew her bestie must’ve reclaimed the money.

That Yao Yanfang was a selfish woman. Only Lin Jianshe could’ve been blind enough to marry her.
She thought the old grandparents were useless bumpkins and never once visited them in the countryside.

A woman that short-sighted deserved to be abandoned by her own children.

“I only took the share that belonged to the three of us. I didn’t touch her portion.
She may be the mother of these bodies, and we shouldn’t go too far.”

Though Lin Qinglan didn’t like being taken advantage of, she wasn’t greedy.
Lin Jianshe was Yao Yanfang’s husband, so she was entitled to a share of his death benefit.

“You’re too soft-hearted. That Yao Yanfang caused the real Lin Qinglan’s death.
Since you inherited her body, you should avenge her.”

“And what do you suggest? Kill her? Qingmei, we’re living in a society ruled by law now. It’s not like the apocalypse anymore.”

Of course she wanted revenge. But Yao Yanfang hadn’t directly killed “Lin Qinglan,” so legally, she wasn’t guilty.
At most, people could scold her on moral grounds—but that was it.