She Only Cares About Cultivation-Chapter 904 - 820: Famine Era 61

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For the past half month, the eldest son has been taking care of his younger siblings, and some kind-hearted people secretly brought them food. Even so, when she got home, the children were all dizzy from hunger, showing just how much they had suffered.

Through her previous connections, she found a minor official she once saved who helped her discover that Tong Zhan was sent to the rural areas of Yunan Province.

Yunan? Isn’t that her hometown?

Ye Huan felt a moment of excitement and began repeatedly submitting applications, requesting a transfer back.

She signed Tong Zhan’s divorce papers because she had to protect her family, which required her to do so.

But despite the divorce, her heart remains loyal to him, and she will wait for him while taking care of the children.

However, her application was rejected. Tong Zhan had gone to Yunan, and the authorities would not permit her return there.

Ultimately, Ji Huzi helped her transfer to Jibei.

"Ye Huan, Jibei is somewhat closer to Yunan; you stay there for now, and we’ll discuss it together once we return."

Apart from Tong Zhan, Ye Huan herself had no issues. Her ideological awareness was high, technical skills advanced, and her prompt signing of the divorce papers greatly satisfied the authorities. Hence, she smoothly arranged a transfer to J Hospital in Jibei Province.

Yet, only she and the children knew the pain she carried in her heart.

Of course, there were plenty of people criticizing her behind her back. But this was a mutual decision between the couple. She preferred to bear the stigma rather than doing otherwise.

Burdening family is not a wise move.

Only by learning self-preservation can she care for her family and children.

During these five years, the food stockpiled years ago was long gone. In her space, apart from medicinal materials and fruits and vegetables, there was no meat or eggs left.

Fortunately, the children have grown up. She had already withdrawn the couple’s wages and vouchers, storing them in the space.

Before leaving Xinjiang, she exchanged food stamps for grain, secretly taking whatever she could. What couldn’t be taken was given to kind people who had previously helped them.

Then she took her three sons and two daughters and embarked on the train back to her hometown.

This year, her youngest brother turned 21. He was a junior at Harbin Military Industry University, also the most promising boy in their family.

Fourth Brother, Seventh Brother, and Eighth Brother were also doing well in their respective fields.

Third Brother rose to the position of finance section chief at the Luoyang Grain Bureau, and Third Brother’s wife was now a Chinese teacher in a key junior high school. The couple was doing well.

Their eldest son, Ye He Ping, turned 21 this year, currently studying at Harbin Military Industry University. The second son, Ye He Feng, was 17, a senior in a key Luoyang high school. Although the third son, Ye Hechang, did not excel as much in his studies, he would likely have no problem attending a vocational school. As for the youngest two, whether they could smoothly enter college remains uncertain; unless it’s a military school or a university within the system.

Brother Five and Brother Six nearly emptied the Ye Family for betrothal gifts back then, yet the wives they gained were grateful. Not only did they give birth to children for the brothers, they also became the heads of both the household and the fields, earning work points and raising children with enthusiasm.

...

Without Tong Zhan’s supplement, Ye Huan began to cut her expenses. She retained her J registration, enabling her to utilize connections to purchase sleeper tickets. Yet she did not do so, instead traveling with the children in hard seats. The eldest was ten, and the youngest only two or three. Dragging a line of little ones like gourd babies from Xinjiang back to the mainland took ten days, half a month, or even longer. Imagine the hardships involved.

At J Hospital in Jibei Province, where she had once studied, her medical skills had settled over the years. Though she couldn’t claim to have reached expert level, attaining the director level shouldn’t be a problem.

No crying, no pestering, decisively severing ties. She decisively embarked on her journey home.

Initially, she considered visiting Beijing General Hospital, but Ji Huzi advised her, "Don’t go back; it’s all changed now..."

Ye Huan had turned 36 this year, and Tong Zhan was already 46. After delaying for ten years and returning, what would the situation be like? She dared not even imagine.

...

But now she can do nothing because she doesn’t even know where he is.

After much effort, she returned to J Hospital in Jibei Province, thinking she could be assigned a house, but they didn’t even care about her.

"This job, if you can work, then work; if not, then leave. Want a house? That’s definitely not happening."

The attitude was so bad, it was probably just the beginning. Ye Huan had endured five years in Xinjiang, how could she be easily defeated?

However, the salary also dropped from the original thirty-two to eighteen. Thankfully, she and the children’s grain relations were transferred back. Although the future days might not be as good as before, they wouldn’t starve.

Without assigning a house, she had no choice but to rent one. It couldn’t be far, because she had to work night shifts. After several twists and turns, she finally found a single room near the hospital, similar to a tube-like building. Cooking was done outside, and the toilet and water pipes were communal. There was no heating in winter, and conditions were very poor, but given their current situation, it’s better to keep a low profile.

The single room wasn’t large, just fifteen square meters. The walls were severely peeling and dirty, so she had to hire someone to repaint and change to new curtains.

Afterward, she bought three old bunk beds, one desk, and one dining table, along with a heap of miscellaneous items. The room quickly ran out of space, and not to mention those stored in her space, one could see how small the house was.

It took three days just to organize this small home. Then she spent a week handling the children’s school admission and daycare.

The cost for five children to attend school alone exceeded her salary. Her salary was 18, but the admission fee was 20 yuan, so the shortfall had to be made up from the couple’s savings, including daily necessities.

If she didn’t let the children attend school, she would save money, but it wouldn’t benefit their future development. So, no matter how tough it gets, they must attend school.

After settling the children, she wrote letters to her parents, brothers, and Ye Yu to explain her and the children’s situation.

Fortunately, Liu Hongqing was already ten years old, and the twins were seven. With these three older ones helping to care for the two younger ones, the household managed to stay functional.

The children didn’t need her to pick them up; the older ones picked up the younger ones after school. Now they were all in primary school and preschool, and their dismissal times aligned, so even if preschool ended later, it didn’t matter. This way, she never missed work.

However, when she bought groceries after work, either there was nothing available or what was left were rotten vegetable leaves. She saved the monthly two jin meat tickets for the end of the month to buy meat. As for vegetables, she bought them every day, lining up at the right time, and ate what she got. If she couldn’t buy any, she would supplement from her space. This step couldn’t be skipped, otherwise, who knows what others would think of their living conditions!

Since everyone cooked in the hallway with coal balls, everyone could see what each household was eating or doing. In such a situation, when she wanted to supplement her children’s diet, she had to prepare in advance in her space, secretly taking it out after returning with groceries, and covering it up with various excuses.

For the better vegetables, fruits, white rice, white flour, cornmeal, those revealing outside were always coarse grains—radishes, cabbages, potatoes, vegetables with high yield, low cost, and easy availability. Of course, if she wanted to eat vegetables, she would look at what was available at the vegetable station and cook accordingly, seeming that she bought them, while the actual quality was N times better because she picked fresh.

Their household saved on coal usage, which sufficed for daily needs. There was coal in the space, saved up before going to Xinjiang. Initially, they burned firewood, crop straw after arriving in Xinjiang, and later used picked-up dung after raising livestock, rarely using coal unless for a treat, so over the years, they hadn’t used much coal.

As for oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar, she could press her own oil in the space, make her own soy sauce and vinegar. Anyway, buying these daily necessities wasn’t expensive except oil and salt; the other two were quite cheap, two cents for a bottle.

Even if the space’s grain was finished, it didn’t matter; she could continue to save. Not saying eating fine grains daily, but at least one fine meal for the children a day.

Fruits and vegetables needed supplementation too, the only impossible to achieve being the meat, eggs, and side foods.

The children’s clothing was simple, all sewn by her stitch by stitch. There was still fabric left in the space, with abundant cotton too, so as long as she saved a little, their future couldn’t be worse than in Xinjiang. After all, being inland made buying anything convenient.

Buying conveniently and exchanging conveniently, her possessions could turn into money.

The only thing she worried about was Tong Zhan. Knowing early that years outside wouldn’t change this fate, why did she struggle like that back then?

Unable to decide if it was regret or annoyance, Ye Huan couldn’t sleep night after night. Open eyes or closed eyes, she was thinking about where Tong Zhan could be...

Although during those years outside, his wounds fully healed under her care, there was no guarantee he wouldn’t get new ones. Could such a proud person endure?

After entering a certain year, she had given Tong Zhan precautionary advice, hence they wisely cut relations, foreseeing what they would face in the future, yet unable to predict what pain Tong Zhan would endure.

She and the children could endure anything, after all, their body and spirit weren’t simultaneously tortured, only tired. But what about him?

She wrote letters to her relatives and friends also to inquire Tong Zhan’s whereabouts, but from autumn to winter, even until the New Year, no news arrived.

Many years outside without returning home once. This certain year’s Spring Festival, before she could arrange to return, her parents, brother, and sister-in-law had already brought the children to Jibei Province, to find them. At the moment of family reunion, only the heavens knew how painfully Ye Huan cried...