The figure only flashed by, and Pei Manning didn't see the man's face clearly, but she could tell that the man was very tall.

She didn't know why the other party was following her. Was it a spur of the moment decision or had it been planned for a long time?

Pei Manning was very nervous. She pursed her red lips and tried to keep herself calm as she walked towards the crowd on the main street.

All the way to the department store.

There were still many people in the department store at this time. There were two toilets behind the side door on the first floor. They were originally provided for the sales clerks on the second shift in the department store. Occasionally, customers who were in a hurry could also use them for convenience.

Pei Manning walked into the women's restroom. There was only one woman inside. After the female volunteer had finished tidying up and left, she immediately entered the restroom.

She put away her books and newspapers and changed her clothes.

Two braids were tied at the back of the head and covered with a green floral headscarf. Then the exposed white skin was smeared with dark yellow delicate pearl powder to turn it into wax yellow. Black moles and spots were painted on the face with black ink, and the eyebrows were thickened and lengthened.

Not only did his face become uglier, but he also looked ten years older, as if he was a completely different person.

You probably can't recognize it, right?

When no one was in the restroom, she walked out nonchalantly, carrying a very thick floral bag.

She knew her heart was about to jump out of her chest!

When she passed a counter, she saw a tall, thin man in dark grey clothes with an anxious look on his face. He was standing in line behind the crowd, glancing in the direction of the women's restroom from time to time.

놛 had been paying attention to the toilet door and didn't notice her coming out.

Pei Manning breathed a sigh of relief. Her disguise was successful and no one recognized her.

The man had thick eyebrows, medium-sized eyes, a small black mole at the right corner of his eye, a straight nose, slightly thick lips, a tall stature, and was wearing clothes that were almost new.

Pei Manning frowned. She had never seen this man before!

놛Why have you been following me from Xinhua Bookstore?

In any case, she was lucky enough to avoid being followed this time, but she might not be able to avoid being followed next time. Besides, many people had seen her in the Xinhua Bookstore, and it was a mixed bag. She did not plan to go there again.

…

At the time agreed upon by 깊 and Xu Wenbin, she dressed up and went to the abandoned stone bridge in the east of 깊, carrying a black cloth bag. Although it was called an abandoned stone bridge, people were still walking on it. It was just a new mud road next to it.

road.

From a distance, I saw a man lying at the roots of an old locust tree beside the bridge, holding a piece of grass in his mouth and looking up from time to time.

"Big sister, are you here?" Xu Wenbin stood up quickly when he saw her, looked around first, and then brought a bamboo basket over. "I brought you everything you wanted, four chicks and three ducklings."

Pei Manning looked at the bamboo basket curiously. She had never seen such small chickens and ducks before. They were a small, furry, goose-yellow ball. She wondered if she could raise them.

"Don't worry, big sister. We picked the ones that are lively and active. They are easy to take care of."

She nodded, took the bamboo basket, and asked in a low voice, "Do you have any more tickets? I want to exchange them for some meat tickets."

Xu Wenbin nodded immediately, and said enthusiastically, "Of course, I guessed that you would want these things, so I saved them for you!"

He took out several meat coupons worth two taels, five taels, and one city's worth of meat, and counted them. "A total of three taels. Meat coupons are hard to come by recently, so these are all I have."

The spotlight has been on the rise these days, so I haven't dared to make a big fuss about buying and exchanging tickets, and there aren't many different kinds of tickets left.

"This is rice. Weigh it to see if it's enough." Pei Manning handed over the heavy black cloth bag. She felt sore after carrying it for so long.

Xu Wenbin held it in his hand and estimated its weight, which was no more than ten grams. "Okay, the weight is about right." He hesitated for a moment and asked tentatively, "By the way, sister, do you have more rice? If you don't want a ticket, I'll exchange it with you for money."

There is no shortage of demand for things like rice and flour, and they are very popular in the homes of officials.

Currently, a person with urban household registration has a food quota of 20 to 30 yuan per month, and the food supply standard for workers doing heavy physical work is only 40 yuan, of which only a few yuan are rice and flour, and the rest are sweet potato and cornmeal.

Those who have good family conditions and connections and do not want to eat coarse grains will secretly exchange them for fine grains.

I had younger brothers and sisters to support, so I was reluctant to eat fine grains. I would exchange the fine grains for coarse grains. One gram of fine grain could be exchanged for several gram of coarse grains, so that the whole family could have enough to eat.

Pei Manning shook her head. "No, I have been saving these for a long time. I will contact you when I have collected them." She knew that everyone's food standard was not high, and she did not dare to give out so many fine grains for fear of arousing suspicion from others.

Xu Wenbin was not disappointed. He just asked casually and didn't really think that she had it.

"Okay, big sister, if you have anything in your pocket in the future, remember to give me a secret signal, and I promise not to let you down."

Both

They didn't stay long. After the exchange of things, they each took their things and left.

…

There were chicks and ducklings. Pei Manning used the fence that had been used to grow flowers to pen them in the lower reaches of the stream and fed them with soaked rice and cold boiled water as the book instructed.

The entire Xumi Realm is not very large, with only a yard, a few acres and a stream. There is a mountain on the other side of the stream, but for some reason, I can never get there.

Pei Manning now lives on the Xumi world alone. She has planned several acres, planting some vegetables and grains, and some flowers and herbs.

Now, this place is kept lively and well organized by her.

But because of the sudden closure of the Sumi Realm once, she was always uneasy, fearing that a Sumi Realm would suddenly disappear, so she did not rely on it completely.

She must find a place to stay as soon as possible.

Pei Manning sat on the embroidery stool, making winter shoes while worrying that her household registration had not yet been completed.

During this time, she heard a lot of news. No matter in the city or the countryside, household registration cannot be done without going to the Public Security Bureau for verification and stamping. But Liao Weiguo is from the Public Security Bureau, and she does not do this in An County.

As she thought about it, she thought of the strange man who was following her.

I don't know who the other party is or what their purpose is.

She had to stay in Anxian. The longer she stayed in one place, the more people would know her and would sooner or later become suspicious of her.

The next day, Pei Manning went to the train station in the south of the city.

She heard that the train could go far away, so she wanted to go check it out today to see if it could go to Yangzhou and how much it would cost.

However, she didn't expect that there would be so many people in the so-called train station.

The exit of the train station was crowded with people, most of whom had just gotten off the train, carrying things of varying sizes and bags on their backs, squeezing out of the crowd in the dust.

Several men holding signs outside shouted loudly.

"Hongqi Commune, Hongqi Commune, are there any educated youth who came to Hongqi Commune to work in the countryside?"

"Yashan Commune, Yashan Commune, are there any educated youth from Yashan Commune?"

"All the educated youth from Jiuxi People's Commune, come here! All the educated youth from Jiuxi People's Commune, gather here!"

"Erlitun Commune, Erlitun Commune..."

Soon, they were surrounded by people carrying children of all ages, and were called out, asked to sign, and beaten.

Educated youth?

Pei Manning had read newspapers during this period and knew that young intellectuals were being encouraged to go to the countryside.

In order to demonstrate their spirit of enduring hardships and standing hard work, countless young men and women left the cities and went to the countryside to join the production teams.

She looked at the boys and girls curiously, then looked away and went about her own business.

The whole train station was noisy and crowded, especially because everyone had a lot of luggage. Some people even brought enamel basins, quilts, and buckets, and stuffed the buckets with things.

Pei Manning finally found a staff member and asked at the front of the line: "Bai Zhi, is there a bus to Yangzhou?"

The conductor took a look at her and saw that she was dressed in bulky and rustic clothes, with a blue floral headscarf covering half of her face. The exposed half of her face was waxy yellow and covered with freckles. He was stunned for a moment. This rustic country woman had a pretty nice voice!

"Yes! Take the train to Nanjing first, then transfer to Yangzhou in Nanjing. The ticket price is 2.8 yuan."

"Are there any cars available now?" Pei Manning asked immediately.

"The 11 o'clock train runs once a day. It has already departed today. You just need to wait until 11 o'clock tomorrow. If you want to go, prepare your household registration booklet and letter of introduction. Do you want to buy the ticket in advance?"

"No need for now, thank you for your willingness."

"If you don't want to buy a ticket, then move aside and I'll take over next!" After saying that, Pei Manning was pushed away by the people behind her.

Although she didn't buy a ticket, Pei Manning didn't leave the train station directly. She was still very curious about the train station.

I don’t know what the fast train that the book talks about looks like.

Two hours later, people at the train station had been picked up one after another, leaving only a few waiting to leave by train.

Not long after, a long dark green car with two yellow horizontal stripes in the middle drove slowly to the platform. After it stopped, passengers immediately boarded the car with their bags in their hands to grab seats.

Pei Manning also wanted to go into the train to take a look, but she didn't understand this thing and was a little afraid of this huge creature.

She didn't dare to go there rashly.

After all the passengers had left, the train started slowly, making a long beep, then accelerated faster and faster, and finally disappeared from the eyes of the people who were seeing it off.

Pei Manning was somewhat shocked. That speed was much faster than the thousand-mile horse that delivered border spy intelligence from the post station!

She was still observing the situation at the train station, completely unaware that she was being suspected for no apparent reason.

An County Public Security Bureau.

"Captain Liao, aren't you the Yuan Weicheng we were told to keep an eye on? Guess what?" After several days of plainclothes investigation, the young police officer finally found a clue. He was so excited that his face flushed. "We have a new discovery!"

Liao Weiguo motioned to close the door and said, "Tell me slowly, don't be impatient."