Old Mrs. Song is reborn; get out of here, you scumbag husband and illegitimate child!

When the old woman heard that she was Song Yidao from the slaughterhouse, she gave up her desire to torment her.

Pouting:

"Fine, don't change it then. Why are you being so fierce?"

We didn't arrive at our destination until midday.

Song Xianglan carried the sack and hurried to the train station to buy a ticket. She saw a bus and took it to the train station for five cents.

There are only two trains a day to Nancheng, and the other one is at 4:30 pm.

She quickly spent a penny to use the outhouse.

They complain that everything in the city costs money, and even a hero can be brought down by a single penny.

The waiting room was crowded. Song Xianglan got some water for the chickens and ducks in the snakeskin bag and fed them some carrot tops.

He took another piece of flatbread to eat and drank some cold water.

She asked someone nearby to watch it for her while she refilled the kettle.

The train is stopping at the station.

Everyone pushed and shoved forward, and Song Xianglan, carrying her load, shouted all the way, "Make way! There's no room for negotiation if a carrying pole hits someone. This old woman has no money to pay for it, please make way!"

"Who dropped their money? Don't push, there are a lot of pickpockets at the train station."

"Losing money is not worth it."

She shouted with great energy the whole way, squeezing herself onto the train like an eel.

We found a connecting area between the carriages.

She unloaded the things from the carrying pole, took a small stool from the burlap sack, and sat down. She leaned against the burlap sack on either side, with a cloth bag and a canvas bag at her feet.

People kept getting on the bus.

Many people, like Song Xianglan, had no seats and had to stand.

"Clang... Clang... Waaah..."

The train started moving.

On the platform, someone ran alongside the train, saying, "Take care, ma'am."

"Those who are being given away should jump out of the window immediately."

Several young men jumped from the train window onto the platform.

It went on until midnight.

People kept passing by Song Xianglan's place, and several middle-aged men kept staring at the chickens and ducks in her snakeskin bag.

Song Xianglan took out a gleaming boning knife.

"Young man, look how fat my chickens and ducks are! I'm a master at deboning; a three- or four-hundred-pound fat pig will die in a minute in my hands."

She turned the boning knife.

Those people slunk away.

Seeing that Song Xianglan had scared others away with just a few words, a young woman squeezed through with a five or six-year-old girl.

She smiled apologetically:

"Auntie, may I sit here with my child?"

Song Xianglan glanced at it scrutinizingly.

She hurriedly explained:

"I'm taking my daughter to visit relatives in Nancheng. My husband is a naval officer on an island, but we can't accompany him. My daughter misses her father, so I'm bringing her along."

Seeing that she hadn't brought much luggage, Song Xianglan asked suspiciously:

"Judging from your accent, you seem to be from Ningcheng. It's quite a distance to Nancheng, why didn't you bring any luggage?"

The little girl answered quickly:

"Mom got hit by Grandma. We sneaked over to find Dad."

The woman's eyes reddened, and she explained in a tearful voice:

"Auntie, I was also coming to visit relatives. It was because of this that I argued with my mother-in-law. She and my sister-in-law beat me up."

As he spoke, he rolled up his sleeves, revealing that his arms were bruised.

Song Xianglan understood.

Ningcheng and Qingyang are in the same province, and in their area, the suffering that mothers-in-law endure often makes their daughters-in-law suffer even more.

"What's your name?" Song Xianglan took an egg from her cloth bag and gave it to the little girl.

The little girl didn't take it, her lips pressed tightly together as if afraid she might accidentally drool while going for a walk.

"Grandma, my name is Zhou Xianu."

"Xiaxia." Song Xianglan didn't miss the fleeting embarrassment on Xiaxia's mother's face. "Have an egg."

After seeing her mother nod, Xiaxia thanked her repeatedly and accepted the eggs.

She handed it to her mother, saying, "Mom, peel the egg for me."

Xiaxia's mother thanked her repeatedly and peeled an egg for Xiaxia. She also took out two ripe starfruits from her pocket.

"Auntie, would you like a couple of starfruit? They're from our own garden, and we fertilized them last year, so they're really sweet."

Song Xianglan ate a star fruit and played with Xiaxia for a while.

Xiaxia then nestled in her arms and fell asleep.

Ningcheng is known for its beautiful women. Xiaxia's mother is very pretty, and she unconsciously leaned against Song Xianglan, resting her head on her shoulder and falling asleep.

People passing by on the train assumed they were a family.

No one pushed them to sit down anymore.

It's even noisier on the train at midnight.

The sounds of snoring, teeth grinding, and farting mingled with the clanging of the train.

When Song Xianglan woke up, she was a little dazed, as if she saw the days a few years later when she started running a clothing store on smuggling.

The train stopped for half an hour halfway through the journey.

The sky was already beginning to lighten, and the sunlight streamed warmly through the car windows.

Song Xianglan twitched her nose and smelled the aroma of porridge.

She quickly nudged Xiaxia's mother, "Keep an eye on things, I'm going to buy something to eat."

"Auntie. It's illegal to sell things privately where the train stops." Xiaxia's mother was timid and grabbed Song Xianglan's arm in fright.

"It's alright. It's not a transaction, it's an exchange."

Song Xianglan pushed away the hand that was grabbing her. It was just exchanging money for food, not buying or selling.

Squeeze to the train window and open it wider.

Along the railway, some daring farmers from the neighborhood carried wooden buckets filled with sweet potato porridge. The sweet potatoes were shredded and cooked with rice, and several large pieces of sweet potato were also added.

The bowl next to it contained boiled clams and boiled shredded carrots.

"Give me two lunchboxes of sweet potato porridge."

Song Xianglan brought her own lunchbox and turned to ask Xiaxia's mother, "Did you bring a lunchbox?"

"I brought it."

Xiaxia's mother took the lunchbox, which contained only half a tortoise cake.

It was clearly a tortoise-shaped cake made with cudweed, filled with ground peanuts. She took out the tortoise-shaped cake and gave the lunchbox to Song Xianglan.

"Auntie, I'll pay you back when I get to Nancheng."

Xiaxia's mother wasn't afraid of being hungry, but she couldn't bear to see her daughter hungry. She was also worried that if her daughter ate too much turtle cake, she wouldn't be able to digest it and would cry because she couldn't poop.

Song Xianglan nodded.

"Please scoop out more sweet potatoes, and two more servings of clams, and one serving of shredded carrots."

Clams and shredded carrots were wrapped in clean banana leaves.

Song Xianglan handed it to Xiaxia's mother in the carriage.

Train attendants have been walking around with loudspeakers, shouting: "Do not buy food from roadside vendors. Those who ignore this warning will bear the consequences."

Startled, Xiaxia's mother rushed over to pull Song Xianglan away.

She had already paid and sat down in her original spot with the banana leaf in her hand.

"Auntie, can you hear the loudspeaker?"

"I heard you."

Song Xianglan placed the lunchbox and banana leaves under the cloth bag, and the train conductor called out through a loudspeaker all the way.

There weren't many people buying porridge in their carriage.

Most people wouldn't be willing to spend five cents to buy a bowl of porridge.

Wait for the train attendant to leave.

Song Xianglan took out a banana leaf and put half a shredded radish into her lunchbox. She also gave each person a serving of clams. "Xiaxia, you eat with your mother."

Xiaxia nodded blankly, then smiled, revealing two dimples.

"Thank you, Grandma."

After finishing a bowl of sweet potato porridge, he casually ate some sea snails. "It's not the season, I've lost a little weight."

She complained that all she could eat was salty.

After eating their fill, they went back to sleep, finally arriving in the southern part of the city in the afternoon. What would have been a two- or three-hour high-speed train journey in later generations would have taken a whole day on a traditional green train.

It stops at the station, and it also stops before reaching the station.

The longest stop was one hour, and there were many people and a lot of things in the workshop.

Her legs went numb from sitting so long.

I got off at the train station.

The three of them traveled together again, all heading to a place called Qingshan Island, located on the southern tip of the island. After getting off the bus, they first needed to go to the ferry terminal to buy tickets to Qingshan Island.

The mountains are vast, and they are home to land, sea, and air forces.

Xiaxia's father is in the navy.

The farthest place Song Xianglan had ever been in her life was the county; her memories of her previous life were long gone.

Even after getting off the train, I couldn't tell which way was which.

The three bewildered faces—an old man, an adult, and a child—exchanged glances. "Which way?"

Song Xianglan was still carrying her load, and Xiaxia's mother had slung the large canvas bag over her shoulder. She held Xiaxia's hand tightly, "Auntie, there are so many people at the South City Railway Station."

"Ask for directions."

Song Xianglan and the other two exited the train station.

I found a man dressed like a local and asked him for directions.

"Go straight along this road, and when you see two banyan trees on your left that are too big for one person to hug, turn right. After walking for about two or three miles, when you see mango trees on both sides of the road, turn left and walk for about ten minutes to reach the pier."

Song Xianglan thanked her.

"Xiaxia's mom, let's go."

"Comrades, you'd better catch the last ferry, or you'll have to spend the night at the dock until tomorrow," the person giving directions shouted.

Xiaxia turned her head and smiled, "Thank you, Uncle."

Fearing they would miss the last ferry, the three of them didn't dare to stop for the entire journey.

Xiaxia's mother stared in surprise at Song Xianglan, who was walking ahead.

Carrying two large sacks on her shoulder pole, the pole pressed down on her thin shoulders, and the sacks swayed rhythmically with her steps. Her steps were unwavering.

She quickly picked up Xiaxia, gritted her teeth, and rushed over.