Chapter 6

Another sleep until dawn

Lin Wanmei’s hand injury was aggravated by the intense exercise at night, so today the two of them went to the hospital to see their hands.

While Ming Hai and Lin Wan Mei were out, Ming Shu used her mental power to scan their rooms. Her purpose was, of course, to find the letter and the money. She wouldn’t believe anything Ming Hai said.

Mingshu discovered only two iron boxes: one in the closet and one under the bed. The iron box under the bed was hidden more discreetly. It was hard for ordinary people to find. It was embedded under the wooden board.

She took out the iron box from the closet. There was no envelope, just some household registration books, food coupons, industrial coupons and the like.

Mingshu didn’t find the letter here, so she put it back in its original place.

He bent down again and took out the iron box from under the bed. When he opened it, he saw an envelope.

Mingshu searched through the envelopes but found no money, only envelopes, more than twenty in total.

She picked up the top letter and saw that the writer was Comrade Mingdong and the recipients were all Minghai.

Mingshu took out all the letters and read them. The words between the lines revealed their concern for Mingshu, their hope for her academic success, and their hope that she could write to them.

Mingshu raised her head and took a deep breath. This Minghai was really damnable. He had never told Mingshu anything.

Come to think of it, they both asked her to change her parents. How could they let her know?

And over the past decade or so, the couple has sent nearly 7,000 to 8,000 yuan.

The last time I sent a thousand yuan, I asked Minghai to help me find a job for Mingshu. The date on it was May of this year, which was three months ago.

When Mingshu saw this, a sneer appeared on her lips.

Nowadays, buying a job costs no more than 700 yuan, and the extra 300 yuan is obviously a subsidy for the couple.

In this era when the average wage is only 20 to 30 yuan, 300 yuan is the annual salary for a formal worker.

But these two were greedy and not only confiscated all the money, they also wanted to marry her off to seek welfare for the whole family.

Such greed is really like a snake swallowing an elephant.

Mingshu put all the envelopes into the space and used her mental power to detect it again, but there were still only two iron boxes.

Mingshu lowered her head in thought for a moment, then stood up and walked to the table by the window. She saw photos of their family of six placed under the glass. Mingshu was not in any of them.

She had never been in this room before and hadn’t paid attention to these things, otherwise she would have noticed the clues long ago.

She lowered her head and looked at the photos carefully, then looked from the side, and suddenly saw another piece of paper at the bottom of the photo. She quickly moved the glass away and saw several pieces of paper placed under the group photo.

Mingshu picked them up and examined them, discovering they were all bank certificates of deposit, each with a different amount, totaling several thousand yuan. All the certificates were in the name of Minghai.

Her uncle is extremely cautious.

Mingshu put the deposit slip into the space and put everything back in place, making the room look exactly the same as before she came in.

She returned to the small dark room, carefully felt the deposit slip, and put it back in her space. She’d talk about it later.

A few days before going to the countryside, Mingshu had not spoken to Minghai’s family. Mingguo tried to speak to her several times but hesitated, but Mingshu ignored him.

These days, whenever Lin Wanmei goes out, she is pointed at by the aunties outside, and some homeless people even touch her.

She was so scared that she dared not go out. She took leave and hid at home on the pretext of a hand injury. Some idle men even hid outside the couple’s window at night to eavesdrop on them, wondering if it was really that intense.

Minghai finally realized the meaning of those people around him who were smiling at him with ill intentions for no reason, and he suddenly felt angry and ashamed.

In addition, the leader heard the news and accused him of setting a bad example, so he asked him to go home and rest for a few days.

After he returned home, he was furious at Mingshu’s small dark room, accusing her of having a vicious mind and wanting to destroy his entire family.

Ming Shu didn’t take it seriously. She put everything in the small dark room, including her high school textbooks, her quilts from the past few years, and her clothes, into the space. She then went to pack some of her personal belongings.

She used her mental power to stare at the small dark room where she had lived for seven years, feeling a little reluctant. Although there was no light in this room, it was always the place she considered the safest.

Before Mingshu came here, she lived an ordinary life because she had enough to eat and her biological parents sent her a lot of money.

She was not hungry before the famine started. It was only after the famine started that they decided to starve Xiao Mingshu to death.

Later, Ming Shu wore her body and got all her memories. She would not let herself starve.

If Lin Wanmei wanted to withhold Mingshu’s food, Mingshu would steal food from her sons.

Over time, whenever Mingshu needed something and Lin Wanmei didn’t provide it in time, she would beat her sons. After all, she had many sons, so she could take turns beating them every day or take turns for several days.

As a result, her sons became more and more afraid of her, and Lin Wanmei no longer dared to have any thoughts of withholding money.

These past few days, Minghai didn’t even notice that his deposit slip was missing.

Mingshu continued to pack her luggage calmly.

He took out the tickets given by Director Wu and took a closer look. There were quite a few food tickets, industrial tickets, sugar tickets, cloth tickets and various other tickets. It seemed that Director Wu’s position was very lucrative!

She sighed and put all the tickets back into the space.

Mingshu’s train departure time was 3:30 a.m. She had already prepared a few pancakes and meat sauce, a dozen hard-boiled eggs, and a water bag for herself to eat and drink on the train.

Of course, the meat threatened Lin Wanmei to give her the ticket to buy it herself.

At 3:30 in the morning,

Mingshu walked to the train station carrying a big bag, a small bag and a cloth bag. No one from the family came out to see her off.

Mingshu doesn’t need this hypocrisy, and she will probably never come back here again.

The train station is bustling with people.

It is now advocated that educated youth go to the countryside. Some family members see them off for 18 miles, reluctant to let them go. Some people like Mingshu come alone.

Mingshu walked quickly towards her car, carrying bags in both hands and a small bag of food on her back.

After boarding the bus, she found an empty row of seats, so she chose a window seat and put her bags away. As soon as she sat down, she saw the man who had saved her the other day sitting across from her. He must have noticed her gaze and looked back at her. Their eyes met.

Mingshu looked for a while and when she saw that the man didn’t come forward, she closed her eyes and rested.

The man saw Mingshu sleeping with her eyes closed, so he didn’t want to disturb her. He had something else to do now, so he decided to come see her later.

The train moves forward slowly.

Mingshu, who was resting with her eyes closed, was pushed awake. She opened her eyes and looked up at her with squinted eyes.

Seeing Mingshu didn’t say anything, Wang Meiying smiled and said, “Hello, my name is Wang Meiying. I got on the bus in Beijing. You are also an educated youth who went to the countryside, right? The six of us who were traveling with us were also educated youth.”

Ming Shu frowned and said in a deep voice, “Something happened.”

A hoarse voice just after waking up came over with a sense of oppression.

Wang Meiying’s heart trembled when she heard this, and she forced a smile and said, “The six of us want to take care of each other on the road, so we want to sit together. In the whole carriage, only your seat has six seats connected together. Can you move to that seat and leave this one for us?” As she spoke, she pointed to an aisle seat diagonally opposite.

Mingshu looked up and saw that the place the woman was talking about was right next to the man.

She looked at the men and women standing in the corridor, three men and three women, all dressed appropriately. She lowered her eyes, folded her arms across her chest, leaned back in her chair, closed her eyes and said, “No need to change.”

“Comrade, we are all educated youth, and it is fate that we meet here. We should help each other and carry forward the spirit of Lei Feng,” said a man in blue clothes and a watch with a smile.

Mingshu closed her eyes and said nothing.

Several men and women looked at each other, and one of them, a man with a crew cut and a green military uniform, said, “Whatever you ask for, as long as it’s not too high, I can agree to it.”

Ming Shu opened her eyes and looked at the man who said this. He was wearing a brand new military uniform, carrying a large leather bag, and also had a watch on his wrist. His words showed that his family was well-off. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have said such a thing.

Seeing Mingshu open her eyes, several people looked her up and down at her in her old coarse blue clothes. They smiled at each other. I thought, you’re so poorly dressed, and you were just pretending to be noble!

Mingshu withdrew her gaze, turned her head to the window, closed her eyes and remained silent.

Wang Meiying pushed Mingshu again, but Mingshu didn’t open her eyes this time.

She looked back at her companions and asked, “What should I do?”

“I’ll do it,”

The man in military uniform took out a box of steaming dumplings from his bag and handed it to Mingshu, “Here. I’ll give you this box of dumplings. Do you want to exchange them?”

Ming Shu looked up at the six men and women and said, “Don’t bother me.”