Chapter 14: Noticing Something Unusual

At dawn, the people in the brigade woke up to the sounds of clucking hens.

In these times, very few families raised roosters since they didn’t lay eggs and were only good for meat, making them an impractical choice. Instead, every household kept hens.

With a chorus of clucks filling the air, a new day began.

The spring plowing holiday had ended, and the children had to return to school.

Mu Mian was roused from sleep by her mother’s voice. The sky outside was bright, and the room was well-lit.

She stared at the ceiling for a couple of seconds before suddenly remembering something. She shot up, crawled to the foot of the bed, and grabbed the small box from the top of the larger one.

Pressing the bottom panel again—

Click!

The hidden compartment popped open once more, revealing the small golden nuggets.

Mu Mian with her hair sticking up in a messy nest, giggled excitedly. Her large, round eyes sparkled like stars, completely exposing her little money-loving heart.

After confirming that she hadn’t been dreaming last night, she picked up a gold nugget and weighed it in her palm. It was small and not particularly heavy, but still—this was gold!

If she exchanged it for money, she wouldn’t just be a kid with a measly ten-cent savings anymore.

Novels didn’t lie! The junkyard really did have treasures!

As Mu Mian basked in her delight, Liu Shuangcui’s voice rang out from outside.

“What’s taking you so long? If you don’t get up soon, your grandma and I are going to finish all the food!”

Mu Mian: “……”

Oh right, she had school. She was still just a second-grade elementary student.

She quickly shouted back, “I’m up, I’m up!”

Hastily, she returned the gold nuggets to the hidden compartment and shut it. Feeling a bit uneasy, she placed the small box inside the large one and locked it.

Locking a box inside another box—perfect.

After all, the small box didn’t have a lock. The latch had broken, so she would have to fix it when she had the time.

—

By the time Mu Mian came out, Liu Shuangcui and Old Lady Zhao had nearly finished eating. They had left a bowl of porridge for her.

Mu Fugui had already gone to the slaughterhouse. He usually left at dawn, so the house only had the three of them at the moment.

Liu Shuangcui glanced at her daughter. “What took you so long? Is your stomach still feeling unwell?”

Mu Mian, holding her bowl of porridge, grinned with her eyes curved into crescents. “Hehe~ No, I’m fine. I felt better last night.”

Liu Shuangcui: “……”

If she was fine, then why was she giggling so foolishly?

Old Lady Zhao reached out to feel her granddaughter’s stomach. “That raw sweet potato from yesterday must have been a bit moldy. There isn’t much left, but I’ll go check the cellar later and make sure the rest of the grain isn’t affected.”

Liu Shuangcui immediately said, “I’ll do it, Mom. You don’t have to.”

Without wasting time, she grabbed a ladder and headed toward the cellar. There was still some time before she had to leave for work, so she could take care of it.

Mu Mian took a big bite of the last mouthful in her bowl. “Mom, I’ll light the way for you.”

Their family had a metal flashlight.

Liu Shuangcui didn’t turn around. “The flashlight is in the house.”

Not long after the mother and daughter came up from the cellar, the work whistle sounded outside.

There was also Xu Lele calling from outside. “Sister Mianmian~ Sister Mianmian! Have you left yet?”

Zhao Meihua called her inside. “She hasn’t left yet, she’s in the house.”

Mu Mian placed two sheets of old newspaper into her satchel. Upon hearing the voice, she slung the bag over her shoulder and walked outside. “Coming, coming.”

The two little girls chattered away as they walked together.

The brigade’s elementary school was built next to the square, where there was a large open space. Whenever there was an important announcement, the brigaders would gather there.

The school itself wasn’t very big or formal since it was built by the brigade. The first and second grades shared a classroom, as did the third and fourth grades.

Their province combined elementary, middle, and high school into nine years in total, following a 5-2-2 system.

The fifth grade had its own class because students needed to prepare for the middle school entrance exam.

There was no other way. If each grade had its own class, there wouldn’t be enough students or teachers.

For the brigade to have its own elementary school was already considered fortunate. Some brigades didn’t have one at all, and children had to walk long distances to attend school in a nearby brigade.

—

Before the school bell rang, many children ran towards the school in groups. At an intersection, Mu Mian came across her fourth uncle Mu Xingwang’s two daughters.

Mu Wan was in third grade. Mu Qiu, thirteen years old, was in fifth grade and was the only student in her class with a real chance of getting into middle school.

Their family had two other boys who didn’t attend school. Mu Qing, at fifteen, had already finished elementary school but didn’t pass the middle school entrance exam. Now, he worked at home with his parents, and in a few years, he would be looking for a marriage match.

The youngest, Mu Shi, was old enough to start school but refused to go. He insisted on waiting until next year to start with Xiao Chengzi.

He claimed that good brothers should go to school together, but in reality, he just didn’t want to go. He preferred running around the mountains all day.

It didn’t make much difference whether he started a year earlier or later, so the adults let him be.

As soon as Mu Wan saw her, she abandoned her older sister and ran toward Mu Mian. “Xiao Mian!”

Mu Mian stopped and waved. “Sister Xiao Wan.”

She also greeted Mu Qiu. “Sister Xiao Qiu.”

Mu Qiu smiled at her. She was a calm and steady girl, just like her father.

Mu Wan, on the other hand, ran up and grabbed Mu Mian’s arm.

Lowering her voice, Mu Wan whispered excitedly to her cousin. “Did you get a call from Brother Zhuo yesterday?”

Mu Mian beamed. “Yes! And my brother got promoted to squad leader!”

Mu Wan was full of admiration. “Wow! Big Brother is amazing!”

She nudged Mu Mian’s arm. “And? And? Did you go to the state-run restaurant?”

Mu Mian nodded again. “We had dumplings.”

Mu Wan looked envious. “Wow! Uncle and Aunt are the best!”

“When we visited my aunt’s house last time, we passed by the commune on the way back. I was starving after walking all morning, but my mom refused to let us eat at the restaurant. She said it was a waste of money.”

“How much money can you waste when you don’t even get to eat out once a year?”

Mu Wan went on and on.

Mu Mian also found her fourth aunt a bit much. Tang Cuixiang wasn’t a bad person, but she was incredibly stingy.

Before marriage, she had simply been frugal, and the people in the brigade praised her as someone who would be good at managing a household. That was why Old Lady Zhao chose her as a daughter-in-law.

Who would have thought that after getting married and having children, with household expenses growing, Tang Cuixiang’s frugality would escalate into outright stinginess?

Just how stingy was she? She once tried to save a single yuan in tuition fees by refusing to let Mu Wan go to school, saying that Mu Qiu could just teach her at home.

In the end, both Old Lady Zhao and Mu Xingwang gave her a scolding.

It was normal in those days for younger siblings to wear hand-me-downs from their older ones. Some children might grow up without ever having a new set of clothes because their families simply couldn’t afford it.

But expecting a child to learn second-hand education was a bit too much. Their family wasn’t so poor that they couldn’t afford that one yuan.

Mu Mian glanced at her cousin, who still held a grudge against her mother. She whispered, “Grandma brought some dumplings home yesterday. Come to my house after school.”

The old lady had saved them from her own portion, saying, “Take these back for the little ones to have a taste.”

By “little ones,” she probably didn’t mean Mu Qing, but the younger kids would definitely get some.

Mu Wan stomped her feet excitedly and squeezed Mu Mian’s arm. “Really? Really?”

Mu Mian squeezed her back. “Really, really! Why would I lie to you?”

Mu Wan grinned. “Grandma is the best!”

The two girls huddled together, giggling.

Xu Lele, who had been left behind, pouted and called out loudly. “You two are whispering without me!”

She had tried to squeeze in earlier but couldn’t keep up.

In her cheerful mood, Mu Wan pulled Xu Lele over. “I was complaining about my mom to Xiao Mian, so we couldn’t let you hear.”

Mu Mian took Xu Lele’s other arm and nodded seriously. “Exactly.”

Mu Qiu, who had already walked ahead to get to the classroom early and read: “………”

—

The elementary school was very close, and their chatter made the journey feel even shorter.

Mu Mian and Xu Lele were in the same grade. The only reason Xu Lele started school so early was because all her older siblings were boys, leaving her with no one to play with.

Even with first and second grade combined, there were only about thirty students, and girls were a rarity, barely enough to count on two hands.

Before long, the school bell rang, and Shi Xiaozhu entered the classroom with a book. She taught the first graders while the second graders sat on the side, reading on their own.

The entire elementary school in Qingfeng Brigade had only three teachers. Besides Shi Xiaozhu, the other two were educated youths.

One of them had graduated from junior high school, while the other had finished high school. The high school graduate was responsible for teaching fifth-grade Chinese and math, while the junior high graduate, Qian Xun, who was also Mu Mian’s current math teacher, taught first through fourth grade along with Shi Xiaozhu.

The elementary school teachers in the brigade were not salaried. Like the people in the brigade, they earned work points.

Classroom discipline wasn’t exactly strict. The group of students who were not currently in class but sitting and reading books would always have some whispering to each other.

As Shi Xiaozhu start teaching, Mu Mian took out an old newspaper from her bag.

She really couldn’t bring herself to listen to first and second-grade lessons. Instead of wasting time, she might as well do something else—like reading the newspaper to keep up with current affairs.

She had actually considered skipping grades before. But when she thought about the chaos that would hit the cities in a few years, she decided against it. It was safer to stay in the countryside and keep a low profile.

Elementary school classes only lasted half a day, so she just had to get through it.

Mu Mian had only been reading for a couple of minutes when Xu Lele leaned over and whispered, “Why are you reading a newspaper? What does it say? I don’t recognize any of the words.”

Mu Mian hadn’t forgotten that she was only eight years old now. Some things had to be done step by step. She couldn’t just suddenly know all the characters. So she replied vaguely, “I don’t feel like reading the textbook, so I’m just looking at it for fun.”

Xu Lele nodded in deep agreement. “I don’t feel like reading either.”

Mu Mian could tell that this little girl was the type who couldn’t sit still. She liked to glance around the classroom during lessons.

Barely two minutes later, Mu Mian felt a nudge on her arm. That familiar little head leaned in again, and the next second, Xu Lele whispered excitedly, “Look, look! Isn’t that Shi Xiaolian at the door?”

Mu Mian shifted her gaze from the newspaper. Sure enough, there were a few children standing at the doorway. One of them had herbal medicine applied to her head, and some greenish juice had dripped onto her face. It was Shi Xiaolian.

Xu Lele sounded very curious. “Why is she sitting at the door? Can’t her sister teach her at home?”

Although the brigade’s elementary school tuition was only one yuan per semester, not every child could afford it.

So, it was common for children to sit at the doorway and listen in on the lessons. Some were girls whose families wouldn’t let them attend school, but they snuck in to learn whenever they had free time after finishing their chores. Others were boys from poor families whose parents couldn’t bear to spend that one yuan, so they were told to learn by eavesdropping.

As long as the children didn’t cause trouble, the brigade leader and teachers usually turned a blind eye.

Shi Xiaolian didn’t attend school, but she clearly wasn’t in either of those categories. She could learn at home from her sister.

Mu Mian shook her head and whispered back, “I don’t know either.”

Speaking of which, she had overheard Cao Chunfeng talking about the Shi family’s situation by the river yesterday afternoon.

Apparently, Shi Xiaolian had woken up, but she seemed different. The little girl was now gloomy and stuck to her sister’s side wherever she went, likely because she had been badly frightened.

It was also said that when Old Lady Shi saw that Shi Xiaolian was awake, she tried to get the compensation money back, but she didn’t succeed.

Thinking about this, Mu Mian glanced toward the doorway again—only to meet Shi Xiaolian’s gaze.

For a moment, Mu Mian was startled. That expression didn’t look like a frightened seven-year-old girl clinging to her sister. It looked more like…

Curiosity?

???

Curiosity about what??

Mu Mian stopped reading the newspaper and glanced at Shi Xiaolian again, but the girl had already looked away.

At that moment, Shi Xiaolian was anything but calm inside.

She never expected that after dying, she would get to live again—returning to the spring of her seventh year.

At this time, her family was still intact. Her mother was fine, and her sister was fine.

In her past life, this was the year when everything started to go wrong. After being beaten by Shi Dabao, it didn’t take long before her wretched grandmother accepted a betrothal gift from a family in the commune and secretly arranged for her sister to marry.

The groom was not only ugly but had also lost a previous wife—rumored to have been tormented to death by her in-laws.

Of course, they had refused the marriage and even reported it to the Public Security Bureau. But the old woman played dirty—she brought the man straight to the brigade and took advantage of a moment when her sister wasn’t paying attention to knock her unconscious.

Later, her sister jumped into the river. Her mother went mad and struck the old woman dead with a hoe. Since she had killed someone, her mother was arrested.

Her mother’s health had always been poor. She didn’t last long in prison before she passed away.

That left only Shi Xiaolian, who had to beg for food from one household to another just to survive.

Thinking about all this, Shi Xiaolian’s gaze darkened.

At the front of the classroom, Shi Xiaozhu glanced at her sister with concern during a pause in the students’ reading. She didn’t know what was going on—her sister had never been this clingy before.

Now, she even followed her to class, as if they hadn’t seen each other for ages and she couldn’t bear to be apart.

Meeting her sister’s gaze, Shi Xiaolian restrained her emotions and gave a small smile.

There was still time. Her sister was still fine. Nothing had changed yet.

No… some things were different from her past life.

With that thought, Shi Xiaolian looked toward Mu Mian and Xu Lele, who were sitting in the middle of the classroom.

She clearly remembered that in her past life, Mu Mian and Xu Lele had never been found. Mu Mian’s grandmother had died, and Uncle Fugui and his wife had sold their jobs, spending months searching throughout the county and city for them. They were even planning to look elsewhere.

By then, her mother and sister were already gone.

Uncle Fugui, perhaps out of pity or because she reminded him of his own daughter, had secretly given her ten yuan. After handing her the money, he didn’t say anything—just left.

Feeling that gaze, Mu Mian turned her head, and their eyes met unexpectedly for two seconds.

Mu Mian: “???”

Something felt off.