Chapter 32.1

“Are you really planning to go to the border with your fourth brother?”

After dinner, once everyone in the family had washed up and returned to their respective rooms, Cao Qiuhua, still a little uneasy, carried an oil lamp into her daughter’s room.

Inside the bedroom, the faint glow of a candle lit the space, and Chen Nongmo was busy organizing her belongings.

At some point, she had developed a habit: whenever her emotions fluctuated significantly, she would start tidying up her room.

Pan Hui had been dealt with just like that!

During the day, she had been too caught up in excitement, but now, in the quiet of the night, an unexpected sense of unreality crept in.

Everything had gone too smoothly, so smoothly it felt almost unbelievable.

What lingered in her heart as well was the thought that, after nearly three years apart, no matter how much her parents had reassured her over the phone or in letters, she couldn’t truly feel at ease until she saw them with her own eyes.

Finally, the time had come, and she was wide awake. Unsure of what to do with herself, she instinctively took out the supplies she had been gathering for her parents and began to sort them.

When her mother, Qiuhua, came in, Chen Nongmo reached out to take the oil lamp and placed it on the table. She gestured for her mother to sit on the bed beside her and, while folding clothes, smiled and said, “I’ve been planning this for quite a while.”

Cao Qiuhua also smiled. “I know. You’ve talked about going to the border so many times… It’s not that I don’t want you to go. It’s just that right now only your fourth brother has the time to accompany you, and, well, I really don’t trust his temperament.”

Chen Nongmo took down two more sets of clothes from the top of the wardrobe and began refolding them. “That’s not what I meant.”

“Then what do you mean?”

Hearing this, Chen Nongmo stopped what she was doing, sat down next to her mother, and said, “With the way my parents are, if they’re letting me come to see them, it’s already a big deal. You’ll see—they’ll probably send me back in no more than half a month.”

Cao Qiuhua laughed and gently gathered her daughter’s long, flowing black hair to the back. “Your parents just don’t want you to suffer.”

Chen Nongmo glanced at the hair her mother had pulled back, which soon slipped loose again. She opened the bedside drawer, took out a hair tie, and loosely tied a low ponytail to keep it from flying about on its own.

To be honest, she didn’t particularly like having long hair. It looked nice, sure, but it was undeniably troublesome.

However, her mother had somehow found a recipe for hair care, and after two or three years of use, her already good hair quality had turned silky smooth, like satin.

Especially against her jet-black locks, her snow-white skin and rosy lips stood out even more, making her reluctant to cut it.

How should one put it? If time and money were no issue, what girl wouldn’t want to look her best? She was no exception—just an ordinary person.

“…My sister-in-law is due in March or April next year. You mentioned before that you’d go to the military unit a month before her due date to help take care of her. By then, I’ll go with you. If we count it this way, I can head to the border now, and by the end of October, just before the heavy snow blocks the roads, I can return. I’ll spend the winter here at home, then go to my sister-in-law’s place after the New Year. Doesn’t that timing work out perfectly?”

Cao Qiuhua tapped her daughter’s forehead. “You sure know how to calculate.”

Understanding that her mother had tacitly agreed, Chen Nongmo leaned against her mother’s shoulder, her eyes curving into a smile. “Don’t worry. Fourth Brother is reliable when it comes to important matters. Besides, if you don’t trust him, surely you trust me? I wouldn’t lose him.”

“You little trickster!”

Young people always have a strong desire to explore the unknown.

Compared to Chen Nongmo, it was Chen Jun who was even more excited about the possibility of going to the border.

Sure enough, after a few days of relentless persuasion, the elders on both sides finally agreed to the trip. Once the approval came through, he was practically jumping with anticipation, eager to hop on a train immediately.

Today, they had to go to the county’s Supply and Marketing Cooperative to buy travel essentials. After all, a one-way trip would take about fourteen or fifteen days.

They also needed to contact their eldest brother to help arrange train tickets.

This time, they weren’t fleeing hardship, so they could afford to buy sleeper tickets.

While Chen Nongmo was having breakfast, still chewing on a mouthful of porridge, her fourth brother kept urging her to hurry. She responded with a muffled grunt and quickened her eating pace.

“Smack!”

Sitting nearby, Cao Qiuhua, who had been watching Chen Jun pester her daughter repeatedly in just a couple of minutes, finally lost her patience. She raised her hand and smacked his arm.

Chen Jun winced, rubbing his arm with a look of grievance. “Mom! Why are you hitting me?”

Cao Qiuhua picked up a boiled egg and began peeling it, not even bothering to lift her eyelids. “What’s the use of rushing Yuyu? She still has to wait for me. What, can’t I even have a peaceful breakfast? If you keep making noise, forget about going to the border altogether.”

At this, Chen Jun, who had been sulking moments ago, immediately shrank back, not daring to act up anymore.

He cast a pitiful look at his sister, squirming in his seat as if bitten by a bug.

Meeting her brother’s gaze, Chen Nongmo gave him a helpless look and took a bite of the egg her mother had just peeled for her.

The train tickets were purchased.

The departure was set for August 25th at 3 p.m.

From H Province to the Tibetan border region—over four thousand kilometers away.

There was no direct train, so the siblings had to first take a train to J City to transfer.

Of course, J City also didn’t have a direct train to the Tibetan region, so they would need to transfer again…

From the detailed travel guide provided by Big Brother’s friends in the Tibetan region, it was clear that this journey to visit family was almost as complicated as a pilgrimage to the West.

If it weren’t for Big Brother’s connections, who had arranged for a friend to meet them when they arrived at the LS train station, the siblings would have been on their own.

Given the vast distance and the complicated route, not only would Chen Demao and Ji Mo not agree to let the two children go alone, but even Cao Qiuhua and Chen Zong wouldn’t have allowed it.

Even though they had reduced the travel risks as much as possible, in the days leading up to the trip, Chen Nongmo and Chen Jun were closely watched and given numerous reminders.

Not only did Chen Demao and Ji Mo, far away in the Tibetan region, call them, but even Shao Zheng made a special call to inform the siblings of the contact details of his friends in the region.

He assured them that in case of any emergency, they would be able to seek help.

On the day of departure, the weather was favorable.

Worried that the luggage might be too much to handle during the journey, most of the items prepared for Chen Demao and Ji Mo were sent by mail.

The siblings only carried small cloth bags, traveling light.

Chen Yi stayed behind to look after the house, while Cao Qiuhua and Chen Zong saw the two children off to the train.

Once they found their sleeper cabin and settled the two of them in, there was another round of earnest reminders. Just as the train was about to depart, the group, urged by the conductor, got off the train with the other people who were seeing them off.

The steam train chugged off into the distance, and only then did Chen Nongmo slowly pull her head back from looking out the window.

She wanted to look back at her parents, but she couldn’t bring herself to leave Mother Qiuhua, especially since she seemed to have seen her wipe away a tear just now.

At that moment, the scene and time seemed to overlap with the moment two years ago when she was sent away by her parents during the escape.

Though the people bidding her farewell had changed, her feelings were just as heavy as before.

She… didn’t like farewells.

Even though the purpose of this trip was clear, at the moment of parting from her family, Chen Nongmo’s heart felt tight with sadness.

Thus, the girl, increasingly pampered, raised her hand and “smack!” hit her fourth brother, who had been acting carelessly like he had ADHD since they boarded the train.

It was Chen Jun’s first time on a train, and he was so excited that he almost wanted to lie down on the floor to look at everything closely. Suddenly, he was slapped on the back, completely unprepared, and let out a loud “Ow!”

A middle-aged couple on the opposite bunk, who had been chatting, looked over with smiling faces. “What happened?”

The young man, realizing that his reaction had been a bit too dramatic, quickly turned red and stammered, “It’s nothing, I just bumped into something.”

The couple was headed to J City, so they would be traveling with the siblings for four or five days.

People in those days were generally very simple, and after receiving a favor from Cao Qiuhua and her husband, they couldn’t help but pay extra attention.

After hearing the explanation, they understood that the young man was on a train for the first time, so they kindly chatted a bit, then didn’t say anything further.

Once they noticed that the couple had turned their attention elsewhere, Chen Jun stretched out his hand and pinched his sister’s cheek, grumbling, “Why did you hit me?”

Chen Nongmo, quick to react, dodged the pinch, and when her fourth brother reached for her again, she kicked off her shoes, climbed up to the upper bunk in just a few swift movements.

She then leaned her head out and looked at the annoyed young man before justifying herself confidently: “I don’t like the way you look.”

Chen Jun…?!

He was so angry!