The green trains of the 1990s and the high-speed trains of the future are worlds apart. First of all, the air is unbearable. Not long after you sit down, the people next to you start smoking and eating breakfast, and some even take off their shoes. The aisle is filled with the smells of sweat, feet, and cigarettes, mixed with the smell of food.
Shu Yan leaned closer to the window and took a small breath. Luckily, the window could be opened, otherwise she really would have thrown up.
This time, the destination was the South City. Before deciding to leave the West City, Shu Yan had already bought a national map and studied it carefully.
She herself is thirty years old, but her life experience is not very rich. After graduating from university, she returned to her hometown. Two years later, she returned to the city where her university was located. The job she found was not the kind that was very challenging. She earned a salary that was not enough to make a living, and drifted along aimlessly.
If she were alone, it wouldn't matter where she went, but now she has two children, so she has to consider the children before doing anything.
Without any doubt, she chose the city where she went to university. Firstly, she was familiar with that place. Although this world and her own world were parallel worlds, it was just a small turn in history. The earth was still the same earth, and the country was still the same country. Only the place names were different, but the geographical locations were the same.
While many minor details may change, the overall direction remains the same. For example, Nancheng will still be a top-tier metropolis in China; its geographical environment is what it is, and that cannot be changed. However, some minor changes may occur within Nancheng itself. For instance, the original subway line may be replaced by a different route, or a place that was originally slated for demolition may no longer be demolished.
These are all just Shu Yan's guesses, and they might not be too different from her own world. Anyway, in Nancheng, she can just buy a few old houses in the suburbs, and when they are demolished, she'll get a dozen or twenty houses as compensation...
The houses in the south of the city will be incredibly expensive in the future. She can just lie at home and count her money. Just thinking about it is so exciting.
"Mom, I need to pee," Ye Tianbao said in a small voice.
Perhaps Ye Zhiqiang's blow to him was too great. The child has been unusually well-behaved these past few days. If the child is too noisy, it's annoying; if he's too quiet, she's afraid something might happen to him. It's true what they say, children are born to collect debts. Shu Yan now truly understands this deeply.
The security situation was not good at that time, and Shu Yan was worried about leaving Ye Jingjing on the seat. So she carried Ye Tianbao and took Ye Jingjing to the toilet.
"Mom, the bag?" Ye Jingjing wanted to take the bag.
"No need, it's just a few old clothes, let's go." She sewed the valuables into the inner pockets.
They didn't have much luggage, just a backpack containing old clothes for the mother and her three children. They had originally planned to take their daughter to buy clothes, but they were too busy and it got delayed. Then they thought that they were about to leave Xicheng, and it was already difficult to take two children with them, so they decided to travel light. They could buy clothes anywhere with money, and they would buy new clothes after they settled down in Nancheng.
As for herself, she doesn't plan to buy clothes for the next six months. After settling down, her first priority is to lose weight. She'll buy clothes after she's slimmed down to avoid wasting money.
After Ye Tianbao finished using the toilet, Shu Yan told Ye Jingjing to squat down as well. It's inconvenient to do anything with a child, and using the toilet is even more troublesome.
Across from Shu Yan was a middle-aged couple with simple, unassuming looks, around fifty years old. The man didn't talk much, but the woman was very talkative.
"Hey girl, where's the baby's father? Why isn't he with you?"
Shu Yan's heart tightened. As a woman with two children, she was definitely easy prey for human traffickers. She had to be careful; you can't judge a book by its cover, so it was always better to be cautious.
Shu Yan calmly smiled and said, "The children's father works in Ningcheng. He said he misses the children and asked me to take them to play."
"Ningcheng is a great place. What do you do? You must be making a lot of money, otherwise why would I let you go? The round-trip fare isn't cheap," the woman said casually.
"He's just a poor migrant worker who didn't go home for the New Year, so he missed his kids. The two kids also wanted to go out and have fun, so I took them." Shu Yan gently stroked Ye Tianbao's head and whispered in his ear, "Don't talk."
Ye Tianbao clung to Shu Yan's chest in fear, while Ye Jingjing clung tightly to her mother's clothes.
Children are very sensitive and can perceive adults' emotions.
“That’s right. You know, we earn money all for our children.” The woman smiled and looked at her two children. “Your two children are so good-looking, it’s just that your daughter is a little thin. Here, these are some tea eggs that I cooked myself, have some.”
Shu Yan became even more wary and smiled faintly, "No need, no need." She quickly pushed the bag back, "We brought our own." She took out a bag of tea eggs from her pocket and gave them to the two of them instead, "My family prepared some. I was worried that we wouldn't be able to finish them because of the hot weather. You can try some of mine."
"We have some too, let's save it for the kids."
The two pushed and shoved the eggs back and forth, and four tea eggs rolled onto the ground. "Oh dear! This... I'm so sorry, I'll give you a few more."
"No need. You young people are just too clean. It's still peeled, isn't it? You can eat it just fine after peeling it." The woman waved her hand, picked up the tea egg, peeled it, and ate it with her husband.
Isn't she a bad person? Or is she being too cautious? Regardless, it'll be too late to regret it if something goes wrong.
Shu Yan smiled sheepishly, "My two children have always had weak stomachs since they were little."
"If your spleen and stomach are not in good condition, you need to take good care of them, otherwise you will suffer a lot." After finishing the tea eggs, the woman took out a lot of red dates from her pocket. "These are dates that we grow ourselves. If we can't finish them, we dry them. These are good for women and children. They are very sweet. You should try them."
"We have this too." Shu Yan felt that this person was being overly enthusiastic.
Just then, a flight attendant came over, and Shu Yan quickly asked, "Excuse me, are there any sleeper berths left?"
I bought the tickets in a hurry and couldn't get sleeper tickets. I originally thought it would only be a dozen or so hours and I could just bear with it, but now I'm trying to find a way to change them to sleeper tickets.
"Sorry, I don't know either." The flight attendant shook her head.
"Comrade, could you please make an exception for me? Look at my two children, they're not feeling well." Shu Yan nudged Ye Jingjing, and the little girl, quick-witted, immediately coughed, looking quite uncomfortable. "Could you check if there are any empty seats for me? I'll buy a ticket."
Actually, trains usually reserve sleeper berths to deal with emergencies or to give favors, but they are hard for ordinary people to buy. After all, this body had died once, and her complexion was particularly poor. She was also traveling with two children, the little girl was thin and small, and the child she was holding also had a pale face. The train attendant couldn't help but feel sorry for her, so he took them to the train conductor to explain the situation and then gave her a sleeper berth.
"Did she figure something out?" The woman asked the couple opposite Shu Yan as they left.
"It's all your fault for being too hasty. A woman with two children is bound to be careful when she goes out alone," the man complained softly.
"What a pity for such a fat sheep. I saw it clearly. The man who took them to the train was driving a car, wearing a watch and a big gold chain. Look, he just bought a sleeper berth without hesitation. He must have had a lot of money on him." The woman said with great regret, "The two children are also good-looking, especially the little boy, who is fair-skinned and chubby. He can definitely fetch a good price."
"Shut up, as if you're afraid others won't hear you?" The man glared at her; this trip was a waste.
After moving to the sleeper berth, we found that three beds were already occupied. The empty one was theirs, the upper bunk. On the left below was an old man, and on the right was a young man. Above him was a young woman.
Shu Yan smiled at them, hesitated for a while, but still didn't suggest changing berths. She figured it was just a little troublesome, and she would just remember to buy tickets in advance next time she went out.
First, she helped her daughter climb to the top bunk, then carried her son up. After they were seated, Shu Yan breathed a sigh of relief, patted Ye Tianbao's back, and whispered to Ye Jingjing, "Are you scared?"
"I'm not afraid." That's what she said, but she kept clinging tightly to Shu Yan's arm.
"Don't be afraid, Mom is here." Shu Yan hugged Ye Jingjing in her arms as well. "Remember, when you go out in the future, don't accept anything from strangers, especially food."
Seventeen hours later, the train arrived at the South Station. Shu Yan, carrying a backpack, holding Ye Tianbao, and holding Ye Jingjing's hand, followed the flow of people out of the train station. They had finally arrived.
"Comrade, are you staying at a hotel?"
"Comrade, do you need housing?"
"Comrade, do you need a ride?"
"Comrade, where are you going?"
"Are you going or not? We're just missing you. If you go, we can leave right away."
As soon as Shu Yan exited the station, many people surrounded her and asked her questions. They had everything. Shu Yan didn't linger. She took her child outside to find a bus stop. When she saw the old bus stop in the same location, Shu Yan breathed a sigh of relief. Thank goodness it hadn't changed.
There weren't many routes, so Shu Yan found the place she was most familiar with and waited for more than half an hour before the bus finally arrived. There was nothing she could do; buses were scarce these days, and it wasn't as luxurious as having one every few minutes.
Upon arriving at her destination, Shu Yan finally revealed a faint smile. This was the university town she knew best. She had checked the location of the university when she was preparing to come to Nancheng. It was just like her own world. She also knew roughly how all the buildings around the university had changed. For example, Xuefu Street, which was not far from the school, was an old street with more than 100 years of history and would become one of the attractions in Nancheng in the future.
Since it's a century-old street, it's naturally not much changed. When Shu Yan arrived, she found that this was indeed the case. It looked like the hotel her parents stayed at when they brought her to register for school. It was now open. She took her child inside and found that the owner was not the same person.
Back when she first transmigrated, Shu Yan called her father's factory, but the number was disconnected and there was no such factory. Now that the boss is not the same person, it's understandable; no matter how similar they are, they are not from the same world.
Hello, do you need accommodation?
"Yes, give me a room, how much per night?" Shu Yan asked, not seeing the price list.
"Would you like a single room or a double room? A single room is five yuan, and a double room is eight yuan," the shopkeeper said with a smile.
"Could you show me the rooms? I'd like to make a comparison." Shu Yan followed the owner upstairs. The rooms were actually quite similar, except the double rooms were larger and had bathrooms. Without hesitation, she chose the double room, closed the door, and let out a long sigh.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
