Chapter 67 Qu Qingqing

He Caiwei has been in this world for six years. She has changed from Qu Weiwei to He Caiwei. She thought she had finally escaped the predetermined plot of the book.

Who knew that fate would play such a cruel joke, leading her to meet the original female protagonist, Qu Qingqing, once again, in 1955.

He Caiwei never expected Qu Qingqing to appear here. According to the plot of the original book, shouldn't she be intimately preparing to get married with her deputy factory director boyfriend right now?

But looking at her current disheveled appearance, she not only lacks the radiance one would expect from a factory director's wife, but even resembles an abandoned stray dog.

Did something happen that she didn't know about, unintentionally changing the original plot of the book? Why would Qu Qingqing appear on the beach in the fishing village, and judging from her appearance, she wasn't there for a vacation?

This year's Spring Festival falls in early February, which is just the beginning of the twelfth lunar month. The twelfth lunar month in the south is not as cold as in the north. At this time, there are still many villagers by the sea, and many of them are unfamiliar faces.

Zheng Mingyue invited them to come to the beach to collect seafood before the New Year, so a large group of more than a dozen people came again.

Looking at the usually empty beach, now filled with many unfamiliar faces, He Caiwei spotted the familiar Qu Qingqing among them. Qu Qingqing was probably the one among the three siblings who resembled Zhang Sumei the most, and Zhang Sumei was a special person in Qu Weiwei's eyes, so even after so many years, her impression of Zhang Sumei was still the deepest.

As soon as she saw Qu Qingqing's face, she recognized her immediately, but she couldn't understand why this person would be here.

In recent years, her appearance has become more like her past self, or more like He Yuping. The features that used to resemble Master Qu are no longer there. I wonder if Qu Qingqing will recognize her.

"Mingyue, why are there so many people today? Is there some kind of event?" Jiang Jiayi had never seen such a large gathering before. There must be at least a hundred people here. Could it be that there is some event she doesn't know about?

"No, no, Jiayi, keep your voice down. Let's talk later. Come on, let's go back to my house and play for a while." Zheng Mingyue quickly covered Jiang Jiayi's mouth and pulled her towards home.

Everyone tacitly kept their mouths shut and followed, secretly glancing at the sparse group of people. Seeing that they all looked hostile, they dared not stay there.

Back at Zheng Mingyue's house, everyone quietly found a place to sit down, waiting for Zheng Mingyue to tell them what had happened with those people.

"Mingyue, stop keeping us in suspense. We've been here so many times before, and we've never seen so many people. What's going on? Are they refugees? That can't be right." Jiang Jiayi was an impatient person, and she felt restless until she figured it out.

"Alright, alright, let me tell you. Actually, I didn't know this was happening here, otherwise I wouldn't have invited you guys to come. These people are trying to smuggle themselves into Hong Kong. Shh, keep your voice down, don't let anyone hear you." Knowing Jiang Jiayi's loud and boisterous nature, Zheng Mingyue quickly put her hand on Jiang Jiayi's mouth to silence her after she finished speaking.

"But is it really possible to swim such a long distance? What if we run out of energy halfway through?" Xu Jiajia asked in alarm. This was not the distance of a river, which could be reached easily.

"I don't know when it started, but things aren't going to be peaceful here anymore." He Caiwei sighed softly. If you can survive here, who would want to risk an uncertain future?

"My grandfather told me this when I came back last night. I heard it's been going on for over half a month. My grandfather and his colleagues have been hired by the police every day to retrieve those bodies. The most they've retrieved in one morning was about twenty. If I had known it was like this, I wouldn't have called you guys here. Now we can't even go to the beach." Zheng Mingyue was starting to regret it. Her grandfather shouldn't have told her about this sooner, otherwise she wouldn't have let her friends come.

He Caiwei looked at Zheng Mingyue, that silly girl. This was just the beginning; there was still much more to come.

Given the current situation, many people are struggling to survive. Starting January 1st this year, restrictions were placed on income from members' private plots and properties. Farmers outside the cooperative are prohibited from cultivating wasteland or abandoning agriculture to engage in business.

Those who own gold and silver jewelry will have it confiscated by the state. Taking advantage of this policy, more people will line their own pockets. Under such circumstances, who can survive?

In fishing villages like theirs, people can no longer fish at sea. They have to pay taxes on the little bit of land they cultivate, so how can they possibly support their families?

Of course, the police did try to stop these people from gathering here, but when they saw someone coming, they fled into the mountains.

After the police left, these people continued. Many of them came here without being able to swim, but they endured the cold and practiced swimming in the sea during the winter months.

"But will we really be able to eat our fill once we get there?" Xu Jiajia's question was very realistic. In fact, some people had considered this question as well, but compared to starving to death here, there was always some hope in going there.

Having studied history, He Caiwei knew that this was just the beginning, and that these places would be very lively for the next few decades.

History has a way of repeating itself, and who knows, the girls might not be staying here for long either.

I once read a history book that mentioned many places where villages had become deserted.

Because everyone is struggling to survive, and those closer to the port city can even see that the lives of people in the port city are many times better than their own.

After this incident, no one was in the mood to go beachcombing anymore. They quickly packed up and returned to the city.

When Lu Zhiheng saw that his daughter was in a low mood after returning home, he thought that the little girl had been bullied outside.

"What's wrong? Didn't we say we were going to go beachcombing today? Did you get bullied?" Lu Zhiheng pulled up a chair and sat opposite his daughter, asking with a serious expression.

“No, Dad, you don’t know, when we went to the beach today we saw a lot of people trying to smuggle themselves across the border. Zheng Mingyue said that Grandpa Zheng and the others have been helping to retrieve corpses recently. When we went there today, we saw the expressions on those people’s faces and didn’t dare to get too close, so we didn’t go beachcombing and just packed up and came back.” He Caiwei said listlessly, lying on the table.

"You're not allowed to go there anymore. These people can't survive, that's why they want to leave. How many days of holiday do you have left?" Lu Zhiheng said sternly, telling his daughter that she couldn't go to the fishing village anymore.

Those people have no sense of reason whatsoever. If you're unlucky enough to run into a few bloodthirsty ones, you might even be killed to silence them.

"It's only a few days away. The exams are in the next couple of days, and after the exams, we won't have to go to school anymore. I heard that it sounds like classes are going to be suspended. I don't know what's going on, but fewer and fewer people are going to school. There are only a few people left in the class." If it weren't for what happened today, He Caiwei wouldn't have connected the recent increase in students dropping out of school with this incident.