Kindwater Village

This program was produced by Tomato Listening.

Shanshui Village. The auntie was a talkative one. The moment she got on the train, she asked question after question and chatted nonstop. Even though the others only gave perfunctory replies, their mouths still went dry, and they all wanted to fetch some water in their canteens.

Then, when the auntie saw them return with water, she slapped her thigh and said she had forgotten to bring a canteen and was feeling a little thirsty herself. It was clear enough—she wanted to borrow one of their canteens for a drink.

To put it bluntly, when they were not close, what girl would want to share a cup with someone else? The female lead and Zhang Yanqiu both looked rather unhappy. In the end, the male lead helped smooth things over by lending his own canteen to the auntie. For the rest of the journey, that canteen practically became the auntie's personal property.

At mealtime, the auntie took out some scallions and fermented bean paste wrapped in unknown green leaves. She was truly something else. Scallions dipped in bean paste, eaten with cornbread—she ate with great relish. The train already had a strange smell, and with the scallions and bean paste added to it, the female lead nearly gagged.

The book did not dwell much on the male lead's expression. It only mentioned that after they arrived at the village, the female lead and the others never saw the auntie use that canteen again.

Lin Yuzhu looked at the auntie's plain, guileless face. The auntie sat squeezed onto the seat with a broad smile, while Li Xiangwan and Zhang Yanqiu sat pitifully on the inside. Lin Yuzhu touched her nose. So cool. Absolutely the coolest!

Sure enough, after sitting down, the auntie kept asking where they were from and what they were going to do. When she learned they were educated youths, she asked where they were headed.

Sitting directly opposite the auntie, Lin Yuzhu could not avoid chatting with her a little. But this auntie was truly far too good at talking.

Lin Yuzhu had gotten up early, and she was genuinely tired by then. Before long, she could barely keep up and stopped talking much.

But that was fine. The auntie simply began talking about her family on her own.

The auntie was visiting relatives—her older brother's family. Then she began complaining that her sister-in-law did not know how to run a household and looked down on her for being from the countryside. Unlike these young people, her sister-in-law was not approachable at all. In the end, she even added, "They're all city people, so why is the difference so huge?"

Lin Yuzhu smiled and seized an opening to pretend to be asleep.

Zhang Yanqiu was more honest and kept chatting with the auntie until noon. When she and Li Xiangwan became thirsty and went to fetch water, the auntie predictably slapped her thigh. "Oh dear, I left my canteen back there."

Lin Yuzhu nearly laughed out loud. She dared guarantee that this auntie had never brought a canteen at all. Canteens required industrial coupons to buy, and where would rural people get industrial coupons? Even if they had any, they would spend them on necessities. Who would be willing to buy something as impractical as a canteen?

When entertaining guests, serving water in a bowl was enough.

Li Xiangwan and Zhang Yanqiu exchanged glances, both looking unhappy. At that moment, they were incredibly envious of Lin Yuzhu, who appeared to be sleeping soundly. Had they known, they would have pretended to sleep too. How nice that would have been.

Neither of them wanted to lend her their canteens, and both tried to play dumb and muddle through. The atmosphere grew awkward. Fortunately, the male lead took out his own canteen to ease the situation and slowly offered it to the auntie. "Auntie, would you like to use this?"

The auntie was not picky at all. Why would she care whose canteen it was?

She accepted it with a smile and went to fetch water.

Then the auntie began eating, taking a bite of cornbread, then a bite of scallion dipped in paste, drinking water as she ate. Her mouth smacked loudly.

Lin Yuzhu stopped pretending to sleep. "Oh, little sister, you're awake. Want some scallions?"

Naturally, the auntie was unwilling to share any cornbread. Scallions grew beside her own wall and cost nothing, but grain was precious. The auntie was not that generous.

Lin Yuzhu glanced at the auntie's canteen. There was not even a trace of steam coming from it; it was clearly cold water. At that time, most trains did not provide much hot water. Having cold water to drink was already pretty good.

Lin Yuzhu gave up the idea of fetching water too. The water Mother Lin had brought for her was boiled and cooled, so there was no need to go out of her way.

Watching the auntie eat so heartily, the others were actually getting hungry too. But the smell on the train was truly unpleasant, and none of them had much appetite. Besides, it was a long-distance train, and even going to the toilet was a torment. If they could avoid eating, they would avoid it for now.

Lin Yuzhu could now understand the psychological trauma the female lead and the others must have suffered back then. To be fair, in her previous life, the female lead had traveled by plane and car. When had she ever suffered like this?

By then, her face had already become listless.

Lin Yuzhu was doing better. When she went home from university during breaks, people with standing tickets would be so exhausted at night that they sat on the floor to sleep. If someone wanted to go to the toilet, they had to grip the seatbacks and hop their way through. One wrong move, and they would step on someone sleeping on the floor.

Other than the train's slow speed being torturous, things were actually not too bad right now. The attendants were simply not very diligent and did not clean often.

There was a strange odor throughout the carriage, and the auntie's scallions smelled far too strong.

Lin Yuzhu looked at the window. Unfortunately, the ones near them could not be opened.

She sighed. Protagonists did not have lucky halos all the time. Sometimes, they were pretty unlucky too.

As expected, the auntie's troubles never ended. After eating, she wanted to use the toilet. She searched through her luggage for a long time, her expression growing darker and darker as she muttered, "I clearly packed some paper at home last night." Yet after searching for ages, she could not find any.

The auntie's face gradually turned ugly, with a faint trace of anger. "My sister-in-law must've taken it! So stingy!"

Unfortunately, toilet paper also required coupons to buy. Those coupons were mostly issued to workers' families. Mother Lin usually only let them use toilet paper when they had their periods; at other times, newspapers were enough.

Why use toilet paper?

For some families, toilet paper was a luxury.

When there was no oil or fat in one's diet, even going to the toilet was difficult.

The auntie looked at the three girls and asked with a smile, "Girls, do you have any paper?"

The auntie wanted to relieve herself and even symbolically rubbed her stomach.

Zhang Yanqiu's family was not well-off. The toilet paper she had brought was meant for special times.

Usually, she used newspapers. With everyone watching, especially the male lead, she did not want to expose something like that.

Lin Yuzhu was not much better off than Zhang Yanqiu. Only then did she remember that she had forgotten to bring newspapers. She truly could not bear to lend the auntie any toilet paper.

Seeing that neither woman spoke, Li Xiangwan furrowed her pretty brows. She suspected the auntie was deliberately taking advantage of them, but still took several sheets of toilet paper from her pocket and handed them over.

At that time, toilet paper was sold by the stack, with good and bad varieties. It was not sold in rolls.

How many sheets a stack contained depended on the Supply and Marketing Cooperative's rules.

Lin Yuzhu knew the female lead's transmigrated-into family was rather bizarre—worse off than hers.

She had gone to the countryside in place of her original owner's younger brother. Her sister-in-law also despised the original owner for eating too much and had long wanted to drive her out.

The fact that the female lead could take out toilet paper now meant she must have gone to the Black Market to resell goods.

A skilled person was bold. Even the worst modern toilet paper was several times better than what existed in this era, let alone the kind the female lead had bought in her previous life.

After coming here, Lin Yuzhu naturally did not dare use the toilet paper in her space casually, much less give it to others.

Resting her chin on her hand, Lin Yuzhu thought that female educated youths only received one toilet paper coupon a month. It definitely would not be enough for daily life.

She sighed. It truly was an era where eating, drinking, relieving oneself, and sleeping were all difficult. A nameless melancholy rose within her.

To improve her quality of life, Lin Yuzhu was actually considering getting involved in the Black Market too.

The auntie continued causing one situation after another. When she finally got off the train, all four of them let out a sigh of relief. But the strange smell inside the carriage was truly suffocating.

Fortunately, several windows had remained open for ventilation. Otherwise, it was hard to imagine how unbearable it would have been.

When they got off the train, exhausted in body and mind, and breathed in fresh air, it felt as though they had been reborn.

They arrived early in the morning. There was no need to rest at a guesthouse; they had to go directly to the bus station, take a bus to the county seat, and then transfer to the town.

Fortunately, people were very straightforward then. After asking around, they found the bus station, then each used their letters of introduction to buy tickets.

Things did not become easier once they boarded the bus. There was nowhere to put their luggage, and the small bus was packed with passengers headed for the county seat. It was crammed full. If the journey had been any longer, they probably would not have been able to endure it. There were no seats left, so everyone could only stand.

The smell of gasoline inside the bus was overpowering, and the road was uneven.

After arriving at the county seat, the three girls nearly vomited bile when they got off.

They had barely eaten anything on the train. Li Xiangbei seemed fine, but the three girls were not. Their faces had already turned waxy yellow.

Li Xiangbei only had two hands. Besides carrying his own luggage, he could only help the female lead with hers.

When traveling far from home without friends, they had to rely on themselves.

Lin Yuzhu was extremely grateful for Mother Lin's foresight. At least she still had enough strength left to carry her luggage.

Zhang Yanqiu, on the other hand, had quite a lot of luggage. She carried two large bags in her hands, another on her back, and an everyday cloth satchel in front of her. Walking was quite difficult for her.

When she saw the male lead helping Li Xiangwan carry her luggage, her expression could not help dimming. But no one looked very well at the moment, and the male and female leads naturally had no time to pay attention to her. Even if they noticed, they would probably pretend not to.

Seeing how difficult it was for Zhang Yanqiu to walk, Lin Yuzhu could not help saying, "I'll carry one of your bags."

She was not particularly tired yet. This body had good physical fitness, and she was young and strong—far stronger than in her previous life.

She was still feeling rather pleased with herself, unaware that once she got to the countryside, this little bit of strength would amount to nothing.

Zhang Yanqiu smiled gratefully, and her expression finally improved a little.

After another transfer, they took a bus to the town. Only after the group finally reached the local Educated Youth Office did they breathe a sigh of relief.

People from Shanshui Village had arrived long ago. A young man wearing glasses smiled and waved at them. Li Xiangbei quickened his pace toward him, and the two could not help embracing before exchanging a manly greeting.

Lin Yuzhu roughly guessed that this was probably the male lead's childhood friend, Comrade Wang Yang.

Wang Yang was also the son of a military family. However, because his father had been affected by the political turmoil, he had no choice but to go to the countryside early to help build up rural areas.

The male lead had similarly been forced to go to the countryside because of the times. But once this era passed, the two men's family backgrounds would naturally become unreachable.

Sure enough, when the young man introduced himself, he said, "Hello, my name is Wang Yang—Yang as in sunshine."

He really did have a sunny, cheerful temperament, with the air of a friendly boy next door.

The three girls introduced themselves in turn.