Chapter 40: The Rural Train Sets a New Story in Motion

Night had fallen.

The train platform was crowded with streams of people coming and going—bustling, lively, full of noise and movement. A tall, slender young woman, dressed in a green short-sleeved shirt, black trousers, and soft-soled flats, made her way through the throng. In one hand she carried a large wooden trunk, in the other a hefty woven bag. She followed the crowd boarding the train, pressing forward with the surge.

"Excuse me, make way please, make way!" Her voice was clear and crisp. She wore her hair short, just brushing her ears, and half of her face was concealed by gauze, leaving only a pair of bright, almond-shaped eyes visible. In the cramped carriage, she managed to carve out a path with sheer force of will.

Once she found her seat, she stowed the trunk on the luggage rack and slid the woven bag beneath her seat. Lin Xiaodou let out a deep breath. In times like these, even catching a train was no easy feat. Thankfully she was nimble; otherwise, she might not have squeezed aboard at all.

She had barely settled when a friendly, honest voice spoke up beside her: "Comrade, are you also a youth going to the countryside?"

The speaker was a young man in a gray short-sleeved shirt.

"Yes," Lin Xiaodou replied.

He grinned. "I already asked around—everyone in this carriage is heading to the countryside. We're all comrades in the revolution. Just thinking about going out to the vast fields and making a difference fills me with excitement!"

He looked utterly enraptured by the prospect. Lin Xiaodou felt a complex mix of emotions.

It was the summer of 1970, scarcely more than a year since the great movement to send educated youth to the countryside had begun. Many of these young people had little understanding of rural life; they rushed to volunteer, fired by nothing but enthusiasm. Naively, they believed they were truly going to help build a new countryside and would be back in the city in two or three years. They had no inkling that the very best years of their youth would be spent bent beneath the sun, facing the earth.

She made no judgment on this decade-long movement. Every era of history has its own significance, beyond simple notions of good or bad.

Lin Xiaodou couldn't help but glance around. The young men and women in the carriage, though tinged with sadness at leaving home, were mostly brimming with excitement. She guessed it wouldn't be long before these same people would be weeping and begging to return.

Suppressing her thoughts, Lin Xiaodou lowered her gaze. None of this concerned her. All she needed was to live her own life well.

Going to the countryside was a plan Lin Xiaodou had settled on long ago. Both her adoptive and biological families had been thoroughly upended by her; everything in their homes had mysteriously vanished. Since she was involved in both households, it was inevitable that suspicion would eventually fall on her. Moreover, the scar on her face could not be repaired by medicine in this era. Her only choice was to start over somewhere else, presenting a new face to the world.

Before boarding the train, Lin Xiaodou had already swallowed a Jade Skin Pill from her spatial trove. She had glanced in the mirror at the time—

And in that instant, she had been struck by her own beauty. Words failed her; she didn’t know how to describe it. If she were a man, she would have fallen in love with herself at first sight.

To avoid causing a sensation, Lin Xiaodou chose to keep her face covered with gauze. She was used to doing so anyway, and even in the sweltering heat of midsummer, she didn’t mind it.

The original owner of this body had long, dry, unruly hair that was difficult to manage. Lin Xiaodou herself disliked washing her hair, so a few days ago, she had gone to the barbershop and cut it into a student’s crop. It was, as always, a miraculous, youthful style—her whole demeanor seemed younger once her hair changed. If not for her height, nearly one meter seventy, someone might have mistaken her for a girl of fourteen or fifteen. But she was only seventeen now, five years younger than she had been at twenty-two in her previous life in the modern era. Lin Xiaodou was content with that.

Before the green train rattled into motion, the three empty seats opposite her were finally taken. By the window sat a girl with braided hair, who, from the moment she sat down, chattered incessantly, apparently trying to ingratiate herself with the girl beside her in the middle seat. On the aisle was a young man, leaning forward and smiling as he tried to engage the same girl.

But the girl in the middle remained unmoved by their overtures.

Lin Xiaodou paid them no mind; she was busy sorting the medicinal herbs in her spatial trove with her consciousness. The more frequently she used the space, the more adept she became. Whereas before she had to enter it physically to manipulate its contents, now she could manage everything with a mere thought.

The Lin family's medical lineage had left behind a trove of treasures: antler velvet, ginseng, fo-ti, lingzhi mushrooms, bird’s nest, cordyceps, seahorse—each an exceptionally rare medicinal, all over fifty years old and of inestimable value. Lin Zhengming, ever shrewd, had hidden these in an unremarkable cellar. If Lin Xiaodou hadn't searched thoroughly, she would never have found them.

After she finished organizing the herbs, Lin Xiaodou's consciousness withdrew from the space, and she cast a glance at her companions across the aisle. As her eyes fell on the girl in the middle, she suddenly noticed a string of words floating above her head—and Lin Xiaodou felt a jolt of numbness run through her.

She never would have imagined it: after just escaping the melodrama of the "real and fake heiress" novel, she had landed in the next era novel!

Yes, the girl sitting in the middle across from her was none other than the female protagonist of this story: Chu Ling.

Lin Xiaodou could see only the title and synopsis of the book, but even the title left her speechless.

Title: "After Abandoning My Husband and Child to Return to the City, I Was Reborn Back to the Seventies"

Lin Xiaodou: What? People like this, who abandoned their husbands and children, deserve a second chance at life?

If the protagonist had been happy in her previous life, would she ever have regretted her choices? Of course not. She would have forgotten all about the rough country bumpkin and the child she left behind. Her regret came only because her new life didn’t go as planned, making her long for the warmth she once received in the countryside. For a woman so duplicitous, seeking out the male lead after rebirth, wasn’t he just being set up as a fool?

Lin Xiaodou couldn’t understand it. How was this any different from a cheating man regretting his divorce and begging his ex-wife to take him back?

She read the synopsis—and was even more bewildered.

Chu Ling, the protagonist, originally had a job in the city, but went to the countryside for a scoundrel, hiding it from her family. Once there, she didn’t settle down, but fought with the supporting female for the scoundrel’s affection. After accidentally falling into a river, she was saved by the village’s rugged Han Guoqiang, and, under social pressure, was forced to marry him. She conceived twins at once, but blamed Han Guoqiang for ruining her love, creating constant chaos in his family.

Later, when the college entrance exam was reinstated in 1977, the protagonist was admitted and immediately abandoned her rural husband and children to follow the scoundrel back to the city. But the man turned on her, took off with her money, and ended up with her best friend. In the end, nine months pregnant, destitute and alone, she froze to death in the dead of winter.

Only at the moment of death did the heroine regret it all. She remembered her husband and children in the countryside and was suddenly wracked with guilt. Then she opened her eyes and discovered she had been reborn—back to 1970, on the very train taking her down to the countryside.

This time, she sought out the male lead, acted sweetly, and got along with him as if they were made for each other. They ended up marrying and living happily ever after. As for the scoundrel and the villainess, the protagonist used the male lead’s hand to get rid of them all.

In short, it was just another era novel of sweet revenge and pampered love.

But Lin Xiaodou still couldn’t understand it. Someone so impulsive and selfish in her last life—could anyone expect her to become wiser just because she’d been reborn? Lin Xiaodou simply didn’t believe it.