She met Li Fangqi at the bus station in the village, and the two boarded the same bus heading to town.
Although the two of them now dislike each other, because the minivan has limited space and only goes to town twice a day, Chu Nian and Li Fangqi sit in the front and back rows, next to each other.
Li Fangqi sat behind Chu Nian and said coldly, "Ling Nian, now that you've taken other people's money, your family won't force you to go on blind dates anymore to get money for your brother's wedding. Fine!" Her words were full of sarcasm.
Chu Nian responded with a cold laugh.
This Li Fangqi, we are all girls from poor families, and we all face the same pain and disaster. Why can't we help and support each other? Instead, she actually plotted to harm the original owner.
Chu Nian gave her a small lesson, but she didn't even think she was wrong, and even thought she was quite right!
Chu Nian couldn't be bothered arguing with someone like that; it felt like a waste of time. There would be plenty of opportunities later; she could teach her a lesson and be done with it!
It was almost 1 p.m. when the car arrived in town. Because transportation is far less developed than it will be in the future, students generally don't go home except for weekends during the busy farming season.
Li Fangqi took leave from school to go home in order to scheme against the original owner of the body, Ling Nian.
Ling Nian was picked up by her father. The teachers all thought she was going to be suspended from school, since many girls from Zhegutun were like that at the school, and they were used to it.
The school is not far from the station, only a ten-minute walk away.
Chu Nian walked ahead, and Li Fangqi, not wanting to enter the school with her, deliberately lagged behind by a few meters.
When Chu Nian arrived at the school gate, she saw a man in his early twenties who was of medium build and slightly overweight waiting there.
The person she recognized was named Zhou Chaoyang, a future business tycoon. He had already become a wealthy man in the area by being one of the first to start a private home appliance company.
Although people nowadays admire people like him, few have the courage to give up their formal jobs and go into business like him.
Because Li Fangqi had memories of the future, she knew Zhou Chaoyang was a significant figure, so she struck up a conversation with him early on. Two years ago, when Zhou Chaoyang's small appliance store had just opened, she had already invested in it.
Therefore, Zhou Chaoyang's visits to the school were most likely to be to see Li Fangqi.
Chu Nian could tell at a glance that this guy was a womanizer. Before, because Ling Nian and Li Fangqi were close friends, they almost always went home together and came to school together, so she also got to know Zhou Chaoyang.
Zhou Chaoyang's gaze towards Ling Nian was suspicious, but Ling Nian, being a naive girl, didn't think much of it. Chu Nian, however, discerned Zhou Chaoyang's intentions from the way his gaze lingered on her.
"Hey, what's wrong with you two today?" Zhou Chaoyang noticed the problem as he saw the two girls walking one after the other and asked with a smile.
As a businessman, he can easily offer a warm and welcoming smile to anyone who can bring him profit, thus concealing all his true intentions.
Chu Nian said coolly, "I broke up with her."
Previously, Ling Nian had been very polite to Zhou Chaoyang, if not enthusiastic. But Chu Nian's voice carried a chilling aura that made people want to stay away, a stark contrast to Ling Nian's previous attitude, which startled Zhou Chaoyang.
He quickly laughed and said, "You've had a fight? What kind of fight? Tell me, maybe I can help you settle this!"
"Don't ask anymore." Li Fangqi had already walked over and said, rolling her eyes at Chu Nian who had already entered the school gate, and asked Zhou Chaoyang, whose gaze was still following Chu Nian's graceful back, "You came to see me? Is there something you need?"
Zhou Chaoyang withdrew his gaze and smiled, "There's a very good opportunity..."
Although Chu Nian had started school, her ears were still perked up. She remembered that around this time, the city seemed to be planning some renovations to the city center, and a piece of land was going to be auctioned off. Zhou Chaoyang made a fortune off that land over the next few years.
It takes two hours to drive from the city to the town, but Zhou Chaoyang didn't mind the distance and came to find Li Fangqi. He probably felt that he didn't have enough money and wanted Li Fangqi to invest some.
Because technology is not yet advanced and doing business is not as convenient as it will be in the future, Chu Nian has never considered doing business. So even though she found Zhou Chaoyang talking to Li Fangqi about real estate investment in the city, she was not very interested.
When she returned to the classroom, many classmates thought that she had been picked up by Ling's father that day to go home for a blind date and get married. Unexpectedly, she came back a few days later, and some classmates came over to ask her what she had been doing at home these past few days.
Chu Nian laughed self-deprecatingly, "I didn't do anything, just attended a few blind date parties."
Her words were very trendy for that era, and the students around her all laughed.
Another girl asked curiously, "So, did anyone catch your eye?"
Chu Nian admitted frankly, "No."
Because this is the only high school in the town, students from all around come here to study. Many of the children come from poor families, and many girls, like Ling Nian, are facing blind dates, marriage, and so on at this age.
Hao Jia, Ling Nian's roommate, came over and asked in a low voice, "Your family let you come back to school after the blind date didn't work out?" Based on the experience of these girls, no matter whether the blind date went well or not, their families would try to find a way to marry them off so that they could get money to help their sons get married.
Chu Nian nodded and said "Mm".
Hao Jia was a little surprised and said, "Then your family is really good to you." After a moment of silence, she said sadly, "My dad wants me to go work at the shoe factory in the next town as soon as I finish this semester."
They won't let her continue her studies; she'll have to work and earn money, and she'll be married off in less than a year. Chu Nian looked at her with a hint of pity.
Regardless of whether these girls marry men they love, how many of them don't suffer domestic violence after marriage? Due to high living costs and outdated ideologies, good-tempered men are extremely rare. Many women have been beaten by their husbands, and many are frequently subjected to violence.
In those days, this was the common fate of rural women in this region. Although the old-fashioned preference for sons over daughters was partly due to this, poverty was the fundamental cause.
Chu Nian couldn't help but sigh.
In her first life, the original owner successfully entered a prestigious university, changing her destiny. Later, through accumulated experience and knowledge, she gradually came to understand the choices her parents had made. Only by changing the local economy and people's attitudes could a girl's fate truly be changed.
Unfortunately, although the original owner saw this, her abilities were limited. All she could do was bring her family out of this poor mountain village so that the descendants of the Ling family would not follow the same path.
But few of the women in the village who had played with her since childhood and helped each other with chores when they were four or five years old were able to leave this mountain village like her.
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