This special train for educated youth had two destinations.  

One was Heilongjiang, where Yi Chichi was headed, and the other was a farm on the border of Inner Mongolia.  

The train couldn’t go straight there—it had to detour to Qiqihar first to drop off the youths assigned to the farm before continuing onward.  

In the 1970s, trains ran at a speed of 60 to 80 kilometers per hour, and the journey from Lincheng to Qiqihar was over two thousand kilometers long.  

Good grief—better not do the math. The thought alone was enough to make her despair!  

Just imagining how long this train ride would take made her feel like her lower half would disappear by the end of it.  

As Yi Chichi calculated the time with a pained expression, the sweet-faced girl sitting across from her—round-eyed, with flushed cheeks and dimples from crying—sniffled and said, “If you want to cry, just cry. It’s everyone’s first time leaving home for somewhere far away. No one will laugh at you.”  

Yi Chichi: “……” She wasn’t in the mood to cry. The ones who should be crying right now were Yi Jing and the others.  

Barring any surprises, the Educated Youth Office should have already delivered the notice to her family.  

The thought of Yi Jing also being forced to go to the countryside made the little figure in her heart dance a cheerful hula, though her face remained perfectly calm as she replied mildly, “Thanks for your concern.”  

Not a word more.  

The sweet girl’s expression softened. “You’re stronger than me. Oh, by the way, my name is Pu Yu. I’ve been assigned to the Construction Corps. What about you?”  

The Construction Corps was a great placement—they even paid a salary, something like twenty or thirty yuan a month, which wasn’t a low income even in the city.  

A pang of envy rose in Yi Chichi’s heart, but she kept it off her face as she smiled and said, “I’m Yi Chichi. I’m going to the countryside as a sent-down youth.”  

“I’m An Hao. I’ve been assigned to a forestry center.”  

Once someone broke the ice, the girls who had been lost in the sorrow of leaving home quickly shifted their attention and started chiming in.  

They were all teenagers, full of bright hopes for the future, and since the train cars were separated by gender, their temperaments were generally agreeable. Everyone got along quite well.  

They could help each other keep an eye on their luggage. There were no human traffickers, no petty thieves—just smooth sailing all the way into Heilongjiang.  

Then, the train ran out of food.  

Just as Yi Chichi and the others were getting dizzy with hunger, the train arrived in Qiqihar, and supplies were replenished.  

A batch of bread—donated by the people of Qiqihar.  

It didn’t taste all that great, but it filled their stomachs.  

Yi Chichi wasn’t picky. She ate with relish.  

Beside her, An Hao—a delicate girl with neat white teeth, slender fingers, and a well-put-together appearance—was a bit spoiled, having never suffered much hardship in her life. But at heart, she wasn’t a bad person.

She took a bite and immediately scrunched up her little face, muttering softly, “This bread is so gross.”  

It was dry and rough—terrible texture.  

“Even if it’s bad, you still have to eat it. Better than starving,” said Yin Meiyun, her hair cut in a youthful bob, speaking with the gravity of an elder. “If you really can’t stomach it, you don’t have to finish it. But don’t throw it away. Save it—you can use it to build goodwill when we get to the forestry center. It won’t go to waste.”  

An Hao gave a quiet “Oh.” Seeing how eagerly Yi Chichi was eating, she nudged her lightly with an elbow. “Chichi, do you actually like this bread?”  

She didn’t.  

But disliking it didn’t change anything. In this era, having enough to eat was a blessing in itself—there was no room for pickiness.  

Besides, the way she’d been raised didn’t allow for wasting food.  

“It’s alright. I need to eat my fill, or I won’t have any strength left when we arrive.”  

“Why would you need strength once we’re there? Won’t we just hop on a ride with whoever comes to pick us up?” Pu Yu blinked her big round eyes, adorably naive.  

“We might have to walk,” Yi Chichi said simply. “Not every production team has a tractor. We’re newcomers—we can’t drag our feet and leave a bad impression.”  

It would make fitting in harder.  

When in Rome, do as the Romans do.  

Since they were being sent to the countryside, if they wanted to live comfortably, they’d have to be sharp and adaptable.  

The girls present were all clever. Hearing her words, they silently finished their bread without another complaint.  

An Hao, after swallowing her last bite, even patted her stomach and murmured, “Actually… now that I’ve eaten it all, it wasn’t that bad.”  

Yi Chichi and the others smiled but didn’t comment.  

By late September, the temperature in Heilongjiang had already dropped. At night, it was so cold they could hardly sleep.  

Luckily, they’d arrive tomorrow morning. Just a little longer to endure.  

At a little past eight the next morning, the train finally reached its destination.  

Amidst loud, spirited calls to assemble, Yi Chichi and the others gathered their belongings and stepped off the train.  

“Chichi, we’re about to split up… I’m really going to miss you,” said Pu Yu. The girl was a genuine sweetheart—what made her even more remarkable was her cheerful, easygoing nature.  

She had a sharp understanding of social dynamics and impeccable sense of boundaries.  

Compared to the somewhat delicate An Hao, Yi Chichi liked her much more.  

Hearing this, she smiled. “Who knows? Maybe the places we’re going aren’t too far apart.”  

Pu Yu sighed. “I hope so.”

But when they reached the dispersal point and asked the cadres who had come to meet them, they learned that Pu Yu’s Construction Corps, the forestry center, and the farm were all far from Yi Chichi’s destination, Kaoshan Village—the farthest over a hundred kilometers away, the closest at least forty.  

Any hope of visiting each other was completely dashed. After exchanging addresses, they had no choice but to go their separate ways.  

Yi Chichi carried her luggage and followed the crowd out of the station.  

The train station was packed, and announcements blared nonstop over the loudspeakers.  

Amid the noise, it took her a while to pick out a voice calling, “Educated youth assigned to Bao’an County, gather here!”  

Five minutes later, she stood at the Bao’an County Educated Youth Office checkpoint.  

The officer in charge checked her name against the register, verified her documents, then pointed to an army-green Liberation Truck parked behind him. “Get on the truck and wait.”  

Exhausted, Yi Chichi climbed onto the Liberation Truck bound for Bao’an County.  

There were already over thirty educated youth on board. Since not everyone had arrived yet, they wouldn’t be leaving anytime soon.  

It was too noisy to sleep, so they passed the time chatting and exchanging information.  

Bao’an County had farms, forestry centers, and a Construction Corps—most of the youth on the truck were assigned to one of those three places.  

Only Yi Chichi and a young girl named Zhou Qiuyu were headed to Kaoshan Village.  

Perhaps because they shared the same destination, Zhou Qiuyu automatically grouped herself with Yi Chichi, swapping seats to sit beside her.  

When Yi Chichi glanced over, the girl offered an ingratiating smile.  

Her features were plain—one might call them delicate—but her eyes stood out.  

Clear, bright, and earnest, the way she looked at Yi Chichi with that eager-to-please expression gave her the lively charm of a young deer in the woods.  

Yi Chichi curved her lips into a faint smile. “Close your eyes and rest for a bit.”  

“Okay.”  

Obediently, the girl hugged her small bundle, leaned against the truck beside Yi Chichi, and promptly fell asleep.  

Within moments, she was even snoring—her ability to sleep so soundly was downright enviable.  

Especially when the truck started moving, jolting so violently it felt like they might be flung out—yet she still didn’t wake up. That only deepened the envy.  

After four hours of rattling along, they finally reached Bao’an County.  

They disembarked, transferred to another vehicle, and after more chaos, boarded a tractor even bumpier than the Liberation Truck. By a little past two in the afternoon, they arrived at Bao’an Commune.  

This time, there was no need to switch vehicles again. Yi Chichi took Zhou Qiuyu’s hand and headed to the Kaoshan Village pickup point, where they met Liu Chengqi, the brigade leader who had come to fetch them.  

At the sight of the two young girls standing before him, the brigade leader frowned.