They were in Dingxi. She knew Dingxi was a small county in Yu City, but it was her first time here. There was probably no train to Sea City from here, so she would have to go to Yu City first.
She fished out her ID and joined the queue. When it was her turn, she passed her ID to the conductor. Her face was still wrapped in bandages, but the conductor didn’t make her take it off. She looked around and realized there were many others dressed like her. Some were wearing masks. She figured the checks weren’t that strict because of the cold weather.
Besides, it wasn’t unusual for someone to look different from their ID photo. She was very skinny, and her protruding cheekbones did look somewhat similar to Liu Hua. Saying that they looked alike was a stretch, but they both looked like skeletons at a quick glance.
She consulted the train ticket. From the boarding time, she figured it would be noon soon. Hugging her bag, she found a seat and sat down. She took out a flatbread pancake from her bag and began eating. Then, she walked to the water dispenser in the train station and filled a cup of hot water for herself. Finally, something hot after an entire day of drinking cold water.
Who would have thought that the ragged woman, with a large bundle on her back, in this tiny train station was the best actress, Yan Huan? Not even Yan Huan herself. She was even more pitiful and unfortunate than Qinghua.
There were many people like her in the train station. It was a small station, but there were many people heading to other cities for work. They sat or stood in their own corners, using their woven bags as pillows, much unlike city dwellers who play with their phones at every chance they get.
Yan Huan herself used to be one of those people. Now that she thought about it, wasn’t communicating face-to-face better? People use phones to close the distance between one another, but that only causes their hearts to drift further apart.
Most of these passengers, coming from small villages, didn’t own any handphones. Yan Huan didn’t have one either. She didn’t have many belongings, apart from the shirt she was wearing and a small bag. She cuddled the bag closer. There was four thousand bucks at the bottom compartment of the bag. She had left 4000 bucks for the Liu Family—500 that was given to her, along with 3500 bucks of her own—as a token of gratitude.
As for Changsheng’s mother… well, she could fend for herself, Yan Huan supposed. Jin Gen’s mother was doing fine without her son, no? Besides, it wasn’t as if anything had happened to Changsheng. Perhaps she was overthinking. Maybe Jin Gen really had some way of helping Changsheng strike it rich and marry a city girl.
She lifted the bandage up and ran her fingers across her face gently. The scar went from the corner of one eye to the center of her face, an uneven line that split her face in two.
Ugly, isn’t it, she thought in bitter self-amusement. She wondered if anyone could recognize her.
Suddenly, she felt afraid, afraid to leave, afraid to go home.
She waited for about three hours before the train finally arrived. She stood up and dug out the ticket. The name on the ticket was Liu Hua, not Yan Huan.
She stood up, scooped up her bag and hugged it in her arms before joining the crowd milling towards the ticket office. None of the officers looked at her face or ticket. They made a quick snip on her ticket and waved her through.
Her ticket didn’t include a seat, so she placed her bag on the floor and took out a bag that had all her food—flatbread pancakes and water—in it. She then sat down on the floor.
It was a bumpy ride. She hugged the bag tightly, peering at the unclear receding scenery.
It would take two hours to reach Yu City, from where she could take a direct train to Sea City. The trip would take 48-49 hours—two days and two nights—in total. She wanted to buy a sleeper ticket, but that would cost her around 500 bucks, which wasn’t a small amount since she only had less than 5000 bucks.
She could sacrifice comfort for a regular ticket or a standing ticket, but she would nonetheless prefer a sleeper ticket. It wasn’t that she couldn’t endure hardships, but that she wanted to treat herself better now that she was going back to the Sea City. She wanted to make her complexion look better, too. With how ugly she was, “gaunt” would be an understatement if she spent two days and two nights on the train without proper rest.
The train pounded along bumpily. She was drowsy but dared not to sleep, so she made herself stay awake for two entire hours. By the time she got up, she felt as though her waist was about to snap.
She followed some people off the train and bought a ticket at the train station.
She was lucky; Yu City turned out to be the first station, so getting a sleeper ticket wasn’t hard at all. When the ticketer asked her if she wanted a regular or a sleeper ticket, she replied sleeper ticket without thinking, and was a little surprised when she actually got it.
It was over 500 bucks—expensive.
Even 500 bucks was expensive to her now. She had never been this poor in two lives, especially her current one, where she had been living large.
But now, even 500 bucks was expensive to her.
Only a housewife knew the importance of household necessities, and only a poor person knows how hard it is to earn money.
A life of decadence had corrupted her and made her out of touch with reality. Now that she thought about it, Little Bean’s monthly upkeep could last an average family for a few months.
I have to be more thrifty in the future, she reflected. Could this be karma for her extravagance?
It was noon, and her train was leaving at nine, so she left the station to wander around.
It wasn’t that cold outside. She stroked her tummy and realized she was a little hungry, so she stopped by a small restaurant and ordered a bowl of noodles. Nowadays, one filling meal was enough to last her for a day. She still had to head to the stores to load up on supplies. It wasn’t her first time taking a train, so she knew what she needed for the ride.
