Chapter 3: Sent Back?

There were too many people and too much stuff in the train, and the smell was a mix of everything. Lin Qi felt nauseous, her small face pale and green.

“The train hasn’t even started moving yet, and you’re already carsick?”

A voice suddenly spoke beside her. Lin Qi slowly turned her head. Her beautiful eyes were dull, and her pale lips opened to slowly squeeze out the words, “Smells… awful.”

Ma Guizhi twitched her nose. “It really does stink. I’m Ma Guizhi. What’s your name?”

“Lin… Qi.” Lin Qi looked Ma Guizhi over. If she remembered correctly, this woman had five children at home.

Ma Guizhi was also sizing up Lin Qi. In just a few seconds, her gaze flickered with curiosity, surprise, sympathy, and disgust.

“You a stutterer?” she asked bluntly.

“She’s not a stutterer, she’s an fool,” said a voice from behind Lin Qi.

Lin Qi turned her head and saw a somewhat familiar face.

It was Zhao Haiyan, a friend of Lin Miaomiao’s. She had visited the Lin family a few times before.

As soon as Zhao Haiyan spoke, the noisy carriage suddenly fell silent.

An fool on the educated youth train?

An fool could be sent down to the countryside?

An fool building the motherland?

…

This was clearly someone dumping their family burden onto the state—onto the people! Outrageous!

In an instant, Lin Qi could feel the malice coming at her from all directions.

“Get off the train!” Ma Guizhi grabbed Lin Qi’s arm, trying to pull her out of her seat.

Lin Qi grabbed the window frame and used all her strength to resist. Her face turned red from the effort. “I… am not…fool!”

“You are. The whole neighborhood knows it,” Zhao Haiyan shouted righteously, pointing at Lin Qi. “Your sister bribed the local office to get you registered.”

Lin Qi looked at Zhao Haiyan in surprise, thinking, Aren’t you Lin Miaomiao’s friend? Why stab her in the back like that?

What Lin Qi didn’t know was that Zhao Haiyan and Lin Miaomiao weren’t that close. Although they knew each other, they were more rivals than friends—polite on the surface, but constantly competing in private. Zhao Haiyan’s hostility toward Lin Miaomiao had reached its peak once she found out Lin Miaomiao didn’t have to go to the countryside.

“If word gets out that there’s an fool in our Zhoucheng educated youth team, the reputation of Zhoucheng will be ruined,” a boy said with an ugly expression.

“We absolutely can’t let her into our team!”

“Kick her off the train!”

“Too late, the train has started moving!”

“……”

The repeated cries of “Besides, besides…” rang in everyone’s ears as the scenery outside the window kept changing. The others were momentarily stunned, and Lin Qi let out a sigh of relief.

“Kick her off at the next stop!” Zhao Haiyan spoke up.

The others nodded in agreement. “We must get her off the train.”

Lin Qi, who thought she had narrowly escaped a disaster: “……”

The once lively train suddenly turned quiet because of Lin Qi, the so-called fool. Everyone united in hostility, glaring at her angrily. If it had been an average person, they would’ve already been trembling with fear by now, or even burst into tears if they were a bit more timid.

But Lin Qi didn’t. In her past life, she had experienced all kinds of major scenes. This was nothing but child’s play.

“I. Am. Not. An fool.” She calmly corrected them. Her eyes were bright and clear — she truly didn’t look mentally impaired.

So, someone started to doubt.

“She looks fair and clean, and her eyes are lively. She really doesn’t look like an fool.”

“She looks like a celestial beauty. But so what? We can’t let beauty cloud our judgment! We must stay rational! Don’t be fooled by appearances. No matter how pretty she is, it doesn’t change the fact that she’s an fool!”

“Judging by how slow she talks, she must be mentally challenged.”

“Maybe she’s not a complete fool, just mentally deficient!”

“What can an fool or someone mentally deficient do? They’ll only drag us down!”

“She was abandoned by her own family. Don’t you think that’s pitiful? Her closest relatives gave up on her. Now we’re rejecting her too — what’s she supposed to do? Being born an fool isn’t her fault. We should help her.”

“Well said! We’re brothers and sisters, even if not by blood. We can’t abandon our own! We should help her!”

“Yes, we should help her. But I still suggest sending her back. We’re going to the countryside to provide support and build things. Bringing her along will just hold us back. And she’s an fool — she’s doomed to never make progress.”

“……”

Things were developing in a direction Lin Qi couldn’t understand.

A heated argument broke out in the train carriage. Faces were flushed, spit flew everywhere, and everyone passionately defended their own viewpoints. Ironically, Lin Qi, the very subject of the argument, seemed more like an outsider. Her small, thin frame shrank into a corner, momentarily forgotten by everyone.

The commotion grew so loud that, twenty minutes in, a train attendant and the conductor arrived to check on the situation.

Lin Qi silently lowered her head. If she had been more articulate, maybe she could have argued for herself, fought for a chance. But after witnessing the eloquence of the others, she gave up. Whether she stayed or was sent back — she left it to fate.

The “trial” lasted for half an hour, and the final verdict was: Lin Qi would continue to the countryside.

There were two reasons she had to go: First, the Educated Youth Special Train didn’t stop mid-journey — the train wouldn’t halt just for Lin Qi.

Second, her paperwork was legal and properly processed. Her information had already been sent ahead to the destination, and making changes at this point would be extremely troublesome.

The result didn’t satisfy everyone, but aside from accepting it, they had no better solution.

“Do your work properly. Don’t embarrass Zhoucheng,” Zhao Haiyan warned Lin Qi.

Lin Qi blinked and gave a delayed “mm” in response. The very next second, her stomach growled loudly, silencing a few people who were about to “advise” her.

“It’s already 10:30 in the morning!” someone said, pulling up their sleeve to reveal a watch.

In that era, watches were valuable items. Even the cheapest cost over a hundred yuan. And money alone wasn’t enough — you also needed ration coupons, which were even harder to get.

Once the watch appeared, everyone’s attention shifted from Lin Qi to the timepiece and its owner.

The watch owner was clearly pleased with the scene. Chin raised proudly like a peacock fanning its feathers, they basked in the envy and compliments from others.

Lin Qi glanced at the watch, then looked down and began rummaging through her own bag. Inside were three or four sets of clothes, a toothbrush, an aluminum lunchbox, an enamel cup, an enamel basin, Lin Mo’s small metal tin, and five tomatoes she had ripened overnight in a hurry.

The only edible items were those five tomatoes. Lin Qi didn’t know how long the journey would take, nor whether the tomatoes would last until the end.

The tomatoes were bright red, glossy, and as big as a grown man’s fist. The moment she took them out, a rich, fresh fragrance filled the air.

“What kind of fruit is that?” someone across from her was immediately drawn to the vivid red color.

“Tomatoes,” Lin Qi replied, holding one under her nose and taking a deep sniff. Her stomach felt noticeably better.

“That’s a tomato?” the man was clearly skeptical. In his mind, tomatoes were no bigger than a ping-pong ball, their colors a mottled mix of green, red, and yellow. He had never seen anything this purely red, this big, or this fragrant.

“Maybe she doesn’t know what it is and mistook it for a tomato,” someone else said.

“Could be — after all, she’s an fool,” a young man chimed in sincerely.

Lin Qi: “……”

She wasn’t the only one hungry. Everyone had gathered before dawn, and few had eaten breakfast. But unlike Lin Qi, the others were eating all kinds of pancakes, buns, and steamed rolls — some even had eggs if they were better off. Only Lin Qi was gnawing on tomatoes, juice dripping as she bit into them.

“My coarse grain pancake is a bit dry. A tomato would go perfectly with it,” said a male educated youth across from her.

“My steamed bun is dry too,” another chimed in.

Lin Qi’s eyes flickered with a hint of light. Tomatoes were tasty, but not a staple food. “Trade?” she offered.

The two educated youths exchanged glances, and each handed over a coarse grain bun or pancake in return for one tomato.