Chapter 6 Chapter 6 Sister-in-law exchanges food coupons with you
The little baby was crying heartbreakingly. The conductor said, "Feed her. Tell her to suckle and she will stop crying. Don't make her cry too much."
The mother was so anxious she was on the verge of tears. Her face was pale and swollen, so how could she possibly have milk to feed her child? Su Yan watched for a moment and felt truly sorry for the mother and the child. She wanted to help them. However, there was no milk powder in the space. There was some soy milk powder that Su Yan disliked, but she didn't dare take it out because of the packaging. She still had a dozen White Rabbit candies in her pocket, which she fished out. Seeing that the mother had been persuaded to leave by the train conductor, she hurried after her.
The mother stood at the door of the carriage and did not return to her seat. The child continued to cry. Su Yan took out five candies and said, "Sister-in-law, give the child some candy!"
The mother was obviously knowledgeable. She took out her own money and food coupons and said, "Thank you, sister. Thank you, sister. I'll trade you the food coupons. These days, ordinary people wouldn't buy this, and even if they bought it, they wouldn't eat it. I can't take advantage of you."
Su Yan wasn't being rude. Thinking she needed the money and food coupons, she declined briefly and accepted the gift. But it was only eighty cents and a pound of food coupons. The mother peeled a candy and placed it in the baby's mouth. The baby cried at first, but after licking it twice, it began to suck.
Seeing this, Su Yan said, "Sister-in-law, you'd better hold the other end of the candy yourself, so as not to choke on it and get it stuck in your throat."
Su Yan's mood darkened after encountering this incident in the middle of the night. She'd only been in this era for two days, and while she'd initially been nervous and scared, she'd calmed down a bit. She opened the window a tiny crack. Even in the sweltering summer heat, the evening breeze was hot. She watched the vast night sky speed past outside the train and sighed: Perhaps for decades to come, I won't be able to enjoy White Rabbit candy! In just one night, material life had regressed by decades. The second season of the new TV series she's following hasn't even aired yet!
She dozed off against the window, and when she woke up, her head was tilted back against the seat, her hair and face covered in coal dust. Su Yan touched her hands, and even her hands were black. She shook her head: "I really can't pretend to be sad. Why open the window when I'm fine?"
The journey from Qingyuan to Jiangzhou normally only took eight hours, but the two trains had stopped in the middle of the night to make way for other freight trains, so Su Yan didn't arrive in Jiangzhou until eight in the morning. At seven-thirty, the conductor banged on the train door with a wrench: "Attention, attention, we're almost at the station. Everyone, take out your tickets. This is the final ticket check. Passengers who have lost their tickets, please report it to the conductor and ask for a replacement. Passengers who have lost their tickets, please report it to the conductor and ask for a replacement. If you're caught evading the fare, you'll be fined!"
After a full twelve-hour train ride, Su Yan's thighs were numb. She clutched her bag, pulled her ticket from her pocket, and after checking in, she got off the train. This was Jiangzhou, where Su Yan attended high school, but only for two years. Later, her mother resigned to start her own business, and she followed her to another school. Before high school, Su Yan's mother hadn't worked here either. Despite her two years there, she was completely clueless about Jiangzhou in the 1960s. Looking at a map, she only recognized a few street names.
There were no taxis or subways at the train station at that time. Fortunately, Jiangzhou was a relatively large city, and the bus service was convenient. She asked someone on the street, "Uncle, could you tell me which bus to take to the Jiangzhou Machinery Factory?"
The uncle didn't even raise his eyelids: "Bus No. 3, it's only six stops away."
Su Yan thanked him, but was still a little worried. She walked a little distance away and asked another person. She got the same answer, and then she got on bus No. 3 with peace of mind.
In just ten or twenty minutes, Su Yan got off the bus and arrived at the Jiangzhou Machinery Factory. There were five big red characters on the factory, and the whole factory was undoubtedly very impressive in this era. The office building on the left was a five-story building, and it was obvious that the factory was very profitable.
Su Yan knew that if she had truly traveled back sixty years, then there must have been a Lu Yingzi here, and she could impersonate her without any problem. However, if it wasn't simply a matter of time going back sixty years, but for some other reason, Su Yan couldn't be sure that there really was a Lu Yingzi here.
She stood outside the factory and observed for a while. Seeing that there were only a few people working in the factory, she did not dare to go up and say that she was Lu Yingzi.
Su Yan stood in the shade of the tree for a long time and heard two workers talking: "You must be careful when you leave the workshop and enter the second warehouse today. Something happened to the Lu family, and this family is finished."
Another said, "Although it's tragic, I still have a little daughter studying at a university in Shanghai. How can I say it's all over?"
Su Yan secretly thought that there really was a Lu Yingzi, and she felt a little relieved.
After hesitating for a while, she saw that more people were coming to the factory gate, so she tried to follow the crowd and sneak in. Unexpectedly, the guard was very sharp-eyed and grabbed Su Yan at a glance, saying to her, "Little girl, what are you doing in the factory? We can't let people in casually. You have to register first and get a letter of introduction to register."
Su Yan took out the letter of introduction and went to the guard: "Hello, comrade, I'm Lu Yingzi. We live in Room 205, Building 3, Family Quarters. I received a telegram from my mother saying that my father and brother are in trouble."
The security officer didn't recognize Lu Yingzi and asked her what her parents' names were and who was in her family. Su Yan had no idea and pretended to be angry: "I grew up in your yard since I was a child. How could I be a liar? I told you my parents' names and you let me in? You go to our house and ask my mom to come over, and then you know if I am Lu Yingzi? How could my mom not recognize me?"
Su Yan pretended to be very angry and spoke loudly, attracting the attention of the workers who had gone into the factory to work. One of them said, "Hey, isn't this Yingzi?"
Su Yan turned around and saw a man in his forties. He said, "Uncle, what happened to my dad and brother? My mom sent me a telegram asking me to come back quickly."
The man obviously knew Yingzi. He sighed and said, "Hey, why don't you go to the hospital to see your mother first." He happened to be riding his bicycle. "Come on, Uncle Xu will take you to the hospital first." At the same time, he said to his coworker, "Old Wang, tell Director Zhao that the Lu family's youngest daughter is back. Please ask for half a day off so I can take her to the hospital to see her mother first."
Su Yan sat on the back of the bicycle for a long time, and her buttocks started to hurt. She asked, "Uncle Xu, what happened to my mother? What's wrong with her? Where are my father and brother?"
Su Yan had visited Lu Yingzi's mother and heard that everyone in her family had died in the 1960s. Su Yan had a bad feeling, and sure enough, Uncle Xu sighed, "Yingzi, there was an accident at the factory. Your father and brother were already dead when they were taken to the hospital. Your mother couldn't handle the shock, and with your sister-in-law running away, she's completely lost and doesn't even recognize anyone."
Su Yan was surprised: "Don't you recognize me?"
Xu Shuen sighed, "At first, she kept silent all day and didn't greet anyone she met. We thought she was just heartbroken. But who knew, these past few days, she's been taking apart stools at home to cook and eat, and she even thinks your nephew is your dad and your niece is your sister-in-law. That's why we sent her to the hospital. The doctor said it was a mental problem and she was so traumatized."
Su Yan remained silent. No wonder she rolled her eyes when she visited the old lady, not looking at anyone or talking to them. It turned out she had a mental problem. But if she had a mental problem, how could she have gone to the city where Lu Yingzi was studying at university to find her?
Uncle Xu continued, "Your mother only remembers one thing now, and that's asking if you've returned. She even sneaked out of the hospital yesterday, wanting to look for you. She didn't recognize anyone, and she didn't even remember taking a train to Shanghai. The people at the train station saw she was talking incoherently, so they asked her where she worked. She actually remembered she was a worker at the Jiangzhou Machinery Factory, so they called the factory to pick her up. If she had returned home, she would have tried every way to escape, so we had no choice but to leave her in the hospital."
Su Yan nodded, not knowing whether to be happy or sad. For her, Lu Yingzi's mother's unconsciousness was a good thing. However, for Lu Yingzi's mother, the death of her husband, son, and daughter was the true destruction of her family.
When we arrived at the hospital, it was obviously a mental hospital. There was only a small door with a guard at the door. Uncle Xu was only allowed in after he showed his work certificate from Jiangzhou Machinery Factory.
This mental hospital only has three floors. The stairs between each floor are equipped with iron gates, and each iron gate is locked. The two people shouted for a nurse through the iron gate. After a while, a nurse came and asked, "Who are you looking for?"
Uncle Xu said, "Ge Hongmei, we are Ge Hongmei's family, and this is Ge Hongmei's daughter."
He handed over his work ID from Jiangzhou Machinery Factory. The nurse took a look and said, "Didn't they issue visitation passes to your family members? Where's your ID?"
Uncle Xu said, "Comrade Nurse, Ge Hongmei is home alone with her daughter, who just returned to Jiangzhou today. Our unit handled her visit to the hospital, and the visit certificate is with the office director."
The nurse looked at Su Yan: "Her daughter is back? Is her name Lu Yingzi?"
Su Yan nodded: "It's me, I'm Lu Yingzi!"
The nurse opened the iron door and said, "Okay, come in. Your mother wants to escape and find you every day. Go and see her right now. She's very emotionally unstable."
From time to time, there were shouting and screaming sounds in this mental hospital, and emotionally unstable patients were crying and laughing. When Su Yan arrived at the ward, she found that Lu Yingzi's mother Ge Hongmei was lying on the bed with her limbs tied to the bed with medical gauze, and a nurse was feeding her medicine.
Ge Hongmei probably wouldn't eat the normal medicine. The nurse took a small piece of steamed bread, broke a small hole in it, and put all the white pills in it: "Ge Hongmei, it's time to eat, it's time to eat."
Ge Hongmei ignored them at first, but when she heard it was time for dinner, she turned around, her mouth drooling all the way onto her pillow, and she smiled foolishly, "It's time to eat, it's time to eat. I want egg noodles with more chili, and no scallion whites, just the green ones."
The nurse smiled and said, "Okay, after you finish the steamed bread, I'll make you egg noodles." She fed the steamed bread to Ge Hongmei, but she didn't even chew it, just swallowing it whole. The nurse who brought Su Yan in smiled and said, "You see, your mother is quite particular. When eating noodles, she doesn't want the white part of the scallion, she only wants the green part."
Su Yan walked over to the bed and asked, "Do you still recognize me? I'm a university student in Shanghai. I came back by train."
Ge Hongmei probably didn't recognize Su Yan at all. At first, she didn't even look at her. When she heard Su Yan talking about Shanghai, university, and taking a train, she finally reacted: "Yingzi is in Shanghai, Yingzi is in Shanghai, I want to take a train to Shanghai!" Then she struggled and made a big fuss: "I want to take a train to Shanghai, I want to take a train to Shanghai..."
Su Yan was startled and took a step back. The nurse said, "Don't be afraid. Your mother probably won't recognize you now."
Su Yan asked: "When will she get better? Will she get better?"
The nurse shook her head. "I don't know. Anyway, your mother has been like this for nearly half a month, and she's been staying here for ten days. You'll have to ask Doctor Liu about her specific condition. He's the attending physician."
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