At that time, only one child from a family needed to go to the countryside, so logically the eldest sister should go.

The parents thought the same way. The eldest sister, Fang Xue, had agreed at first, but just before registering, she suddenly got married to the son of the widow Zhang next door and said she wouldn't go to the countryside anymore, which stunned the whole family.

Her older brother, Fang Hai, volunteered to go to the countryside, but her parents, who favored sons over daughters, couldn't bear to see their son suffer in the countryside. So they gave up their jobs at the state-run restaurant to their son, and the position fell to Fang Qiao.

That year, the eldest sister Fang Xue was nineteen years old, the eldest brother was eighteen years old, and Fang Qiao's birthday was at the end of the ninth month of the lunar calendar, less than three months before the seventeenth.

Fang Qiao was happily going to the movie theater to collect bottles with her classmates that morning.

A small bottle can sell for half a cent, so two bottles are worth one cent. Sometimes, if you're lucky, you can collect ten or so a day.

She was still thinking that she would be able to go to high school in a few days. But when she got home that afternoon, she learned from her parents that she had to go to the countryside next Monday.

Next Monday was supposed to be the start of high school. She had collected small bottles all summer and used them to make cardboard boxes, saving up a little over six yuan, enough to pay half of her tuition. Her mother, Yang Fengxia, had promised to pay half of her high school tuition.

She was still a bit confused at the time and said to her mother, "But high school starts next Monday, and I have to go to school."

Her mother, Yang Fengxia, was cooking in the low shack when she heard this and interrupted her impatiently: "What's the point of going to school? You were already sent to the countryside back then. Whether high school is open or not has nothing to do with you."

"What about my older sister?" she asked. "Wasn't it agreed that she would go to the countryside?"

Her mother, Yang Fengxia, said coldly, "Your eldest sister got married and moved her household registration."

"Marriage? To whom? Why hasn't my family mentioned this before?"

"She never told me this before, so how am I supposed to know?" Her mother, Yang Fengxia, slammed the spatula on the cutting board with a loud crash, startling Fang Qiao and making her flinch.

Just then, her eldest sister, Fang Xue, came in from outside with a smile, arm in arm with Zhang the widow's son, Zhang Jun. When she saw Fang Qiao, she smiled and waved the things in her hand, saying, "Little sister, you're back! Perfect timing, your brother-in-law brought back a duck from the state-run restaurant. We're having a feast tonight."

Seeing the bright smile on her older sister's face, Fang Qiao finally realized that she had been tricked by her older sister.

If you didn't want to go to the countryside, couldn't you have said so earlier? A family can discuss things amicably.

She, on the other hand, didn't reveal a single word to anyone.

The two sisters slept in the same bed every day, but kept it a complete secret from her. They watched her go out early and return late every day to collect small bottles and paste cardboard boxes in order to go to high school. They just watched her foolishly dream about starting high school. They dragged it out until the time when she was sent to the countryside. Suddenly, she got married to someone and moved her household registration!

Everything that happened that day left a deep impression on Fang Qiao! She remembered it vividly!

So even after many, many years, Fang Qiao still remembered what gifts the two of them were carrying that evening.

Her eldest sister, Fang Xue, was carrying a roast duck wrapped in oil paper, while her newly appointed brother-in-law was carrying two bottles of Erguotou (a type of Chinese liquor) and two packets of pastries, one of which contained mung bean cakes and the other red bean pastries.

She rarely acted willfully, and threw a tantrum at her eldest sister. As a result, she accidentally spilled the pastries on the table and got a beating. When she finally boarded the train, there was still a red mark on the back of her hand that her mother had scratched with her fingernail.

Memories of the past are never pleasant, so Fang Qiao decided to stop thinking about them and turned to Cheng Baidong, saying, "Don't drive too fast later. I need to keep an eye out for post offices along the way, familiarize myself with the route, and buy some local specialties to send back to my hometown another day. Also, Xiaoyun keeps saying she wants to eat pastries from Beijing, so I need to buy some that will keep for a long time and send them back to her."

"Okay," Cheng Baidong replied.

Fang Qiao turned to Xiao Jing and said, "Xiao Jing, write a letter home tonight after you get home. I'll send it back to you along with my letter another day."

Xiao Jing nodded: "Okay."

Leaving the pharmaceutical factory, you walk straight ahead through vast stretches of farmland. The jeep drove for more than ten minutes until it reached the end of the road, where a left turn led to the residential area.

When passing through residential areas, Cheng Baidong deliberately slowed down.

Fang Qiao looked out the car window and soon saw the post office that Chen Guizhi had mentioned.

There was also a library next to the post office. When Fang Qiao first saw the sign hanging on the small building, she thought she was seeing things.

She was so surprised that even after the car had driven quite a distance, she was still looking back.

Cheng Baidong asked in confusion, "What are you looking at?"

Fang Qiao snapped out of her daze and shook her head: "It's nothing."

She couldn't very well tell Xiaojing that she had been shocked by the dilapidated state of the library she had just passed by.

In her previous life, Fang Qiao didn't return to Beijing until she was over forty years old, when her eldest sister's daughter was admitted to Peking University. By then, Beijing was a huge construction site, with demolitions and new buildings everywhere. The area around Peking University had been completely transformed, and the library was a newly built five-story building that was incredibly impressive.

She had never been to the northwest of the city when she was in her twenties. Although she knew that Beijing was dilapidated in the 1970s, she did not expect that even the library next to Peking University would be so desolate.

It's a library right next to Kyoto University, so why hasn't it been properly renovated?

The car drove east without stopping, passing the Xijiao People's Gymnasium, Beijing Zoo, Beijing Planetarium, and Beijing Exhibition Center, until it reached the intersection in front of Shuimen Station where they had gotten off the train the day before, before turning right and heading south.

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