"Come in."

Lin Yueyu had hated many people, but as time passed, the hatred seemed to slowly dissipate.

When their family got into trouble, many people chose to protect themselves and keep their distance, which Lin Yueyu could understand.

She had heard some things since she returned. Not long after her family left, the Song family was eager to find a husband for Song Qing, and soon she got engaged and married to the Lu family.

From the perspective of Song Hai and his wife, they did this for their daughter's sake.

If Xiaoshu were in such a situation, Lin Yueyu believed she would make the same decision as them.

Even if the two families can never go back to what they were before, she will not hate them.

It's all fate.

"I..." Tian Qiaozhu wiped away her tears, countless words welled up but she didn't know what to say, so she could only force a smile and open the basket she had brought.

"This is beef we secretly bought in the countryside. We kept some for ourselves, and we brought the rest for you to try."

"No, you should take it back for the child."

Lin Yueyu refused, as meat was rare, and beef was even rarer.

“We’re fine, don’t worry. Over the years, Lao Chen and I have saved up some money, and we’ll be getting jobs soon. Xiao Qi has also become a worker through his own efforts, and he might be transferred back to Xin’an later.”

No matter what happened in the past, things will get better in the future.

Tian Qiaozhu nodded repeatedly with tears in her eyes. Before she came, she was afraid that the Chen family would not let her in. Even if there was a huge reason, it was they who had wronged the Chen family in the first place.

Unexpectedly, Lin Yueyu not only let her in, but also spoke very calmly without any reproach.

The two didn't chat for long. Tian Qiaozhu saw that she was cooking, so she sat for a while and then left with Song Hai.

So many years of distance cannot be melted away in just one afternoon.

She insisted on keeping the beef, and Lin Yueyu, seeing that she couldn't persuade her otherwise, only kept half of it, letting her take the rest.

Soon the living room returned to silence. Lin Yueyu looked at the beef on the table, and then at her son who had just seen the person off.

Do you hate them?

Lin Yueyu didn't hate the Song family, but she fully understood how others treated them, just like her husband, who had been in the study the whole time.

From the husband's perspective, it's normal that he doesn't want to have any more contact with his former friends, given how decisive they were in their actions.

She could understand whatever her son's answer was.

"What happened back then can't be blamed on the Song family, but even if you hate them and despise them, it's not your fault."

My son was only 18 years old at the time, which was when his feelings for his girlfriend were at their strongest, but he was forced to separate from her for that reason.

She always remembered the sight of her son searching for her in the crowd when they were parading through the streets.

"We don't hate them. We all know this has nothing to do with them."

Chen Yuqi did want to see her one last time, but he also knew that seeing her again under those circumstances would not be good for either of them.

"I'm glad that she wasn't affected by me."

After finishing his sentence, Chen Yuqi continued packing his luggage. He had taken his sister on a train journey that took several days to reach D province. Initially, they worked in the commune to farm and earn work points.

My younger sister was only 10 years old at the time. She was frightened by a series of events and developed many illnesses. The place they went to had almost no medical facilities.

He could only rely on the barefoot doctor to prescribe some herbal medicine. Fortunately, they could afford herbal medicine back then, otherwise he would have failed his parents' wishes.

The little boy gradually recovered and learned that he needed to work to earn food to support himself, and that he would go back to the fields after he recovered.

"I don't want you to die."

She saw that her brother was reluctant to eat, and always saved his food for her. Chen Yushu was afraid that her brother would die. Her parents were already gone, and she didn't want her brother to die.

"I won't die. I'll go when you're older."

Chen Yuqi had never done farm work before, so she had no way of supporting two people with work points.

Back then, the village children pointed at them and called them the "Five Black Categories," and the people in the brigade didn't like them either. They were always assigned the most tiring and difficult jobs.

Once, he was assigned to dredge the river ditch. Apart from him, all the others were strong men from the village.

He gripped the shovel, gritting his teeth with each shovelful of mud and sand. The river was so full of water that he could only manage half a shovelful each time.

Soon his hands were bleeding from the friction, and he couldn't even lift his back, but he could only grit his teeth and keep going.

It was soon noon, and while everyone else rested under the trees, he, being slow, could only stand in the ditch and continue shoveling.

The sunlight reflecting off the water stung his eyes, and tears streamed down his face along with his sweat.

The midday sun shone through my clothes and stung my skin; even though I was standing in the water, my throat was so dry it felt like it was on fire.

Many times he wanted to bend down and drink the muddy river water they had stirred up, but he could only lick his lips and resist the urge.

If you get sick from drinking this river water, it will be a real problem. Rural medical conditions are poor, and they don't have enough money to treat their illnesses. If they get sick, they can only leave it to fate.

Chen Yuqi had been holding on for several months, but was now almost at her last gasp.

It wasn't until the people resting under the tree realized what had happened that the thin young man who had been standing in the river was gone.

If they had discovered it any later, Chen Yuqi would have drowned silently in that ditch.

When they pulled the man out of the water and pressed on his stomach, they discovered that the young man was all bones.

Everyone knows that he has a sick 10-year-old sister to support, and seeing him like this makes people feel a little sorry for him.

Later, when assigning tasks to him, they would give him extra consideration, but even so, it took Chen Yuqi a long time to get used to the work, and the few work points he earned were still not enough.

In the first year, with the money and food coupons his parents gave him, he was able to keep his younger sister alive.

Later, when they ran out of money and tickets, the two of them became so hungry that they were pale and emaciated and even vomited yellow fluid. Chen Yuqi tried all sorts of methods.

When harvesting peanuts, I would secretly slip a few into my rolled-up trouser legs, or even sew a small pocket on the back of my clothes. I would quietly slip a few in each time, not daring to take more than that, for fear of being discovered.

The grains of rice that were put in when the rice was harvested were painfully prickly, but he could endure it all because he thought that if he could save up a few more times, he could cook porridge for his sister.

The person in charge of guarding the reservoir was a lazy man who rarely came out to patrol at night. Every night, he would sneak out and fish with a homemade fishing rod.

At first, my skills weren't good enough, and I didn't know what kind of bait the fish liked, so I often came back empty-handed.

Later, the old man who guarded the reservoir asked him to help. He demonstrated the method in front of him and told him what fish like to eat. Only then did he start catching fish.

They lived in that rural area for a year, and originally thought it would continue like that.

Fortunately, he met a benefactor who took him in as an apprentice because he was educated. The benefactor arranged for him to work as an apprentice in a machinery factory. Chen Yuqi supported his sister and himself with the 8 yuan he earned as an apprentice.