My wife and I are both time travelers.

Chapter 94 The Runaway Sisters (Long chapter, please subscribe and vote!)
Subconsciously, she looked in the direction of the argument. The place was not far from Lin Ying, and a large crowd had gathered outside to watch the commotion. Lin Ying couldn't see what was going on inside.

Curious, she pushed her cart over, listening intently as she went. One of the arguing parties spoke with a Shanghai accent, repeatedly cursing the other as a country bumpkin, lacking manners and upbringing. The other party was a young girl, also cursing, and cursing particularly fiercely, spewing out artistically rich phrases like "idiot," "clumsy," "idiot," "idiot," "face like a corner of a city wall," and "frog," one after another.

"Strange, why does that voice sound so familiar?"

Lin Ying felt something was off as she listened. At first, she had just come over out of curiosity because of the accent from the Northwest, but after listening for a few sentences, she suddenly realized that the young girl who was cursing sounded very familiar.

Lin Ying quickly parked the car and locked it. She hurriedly squeezed into the crowd of onlookers. When she got to the front and looked inside, she was stunned. She could hardly believe her eyes.

There were three people in the crowd. One of them, a well-dressed woman who was clearly from Shanghai, was pointing at two girls and cursing.

The two girls, dressed in patched, drafty cotton-padded coats and carrying luggage, were clearly from out of town. One of them had a long braid and looked to be about sixteen or seventeen years old, while the other was younger. The two girls looked alike and were obviously sisters.

The other girl had a bob haircut that reached her ears. Although she looked slightly younger than the girl with the long braid, she was very assertive. With her hands on her hips, she didn't back down at all when facing the woman and kept cursing back like a machine gun.

"Third brother? Fourth brother?"

Lin Ying never expected to run into her two younger sisters on the streets of Shanghai. The one with the long braid was none other than her third sister, Lin Pandi. And the one younger than Pandi, arguing with someone, was none other than her fourth sister, Niandi.
Weren't they in their hometown? How did they suddenly end up in Shanghai? And they're even arguing with people in the street? What's going on?
For a moment, even Lin Ying's brain seemed to freeze.

Lin Ying's gaze fell on her two younger sisters. She couldn't understand why they were here. But before she could go up and acknowledge them, Pan Di seemed to sense Lin Ying's gaze. She subconsciously looked back and immediately saw Lin Ying in the crowd.

"Second Sister?!"

Pandi was stunned for a moment. She could hardly believe her eyes and subconsciously raised her hand to rub her eyes.
Lin Ying has changed a lot since she was in the Northwest. Compared to her previous petite figure, Lin Ying is now not only slightly taller, but her face is also much rounder.

Today, Lin Ying was wearing a gray women's coat with a small collar, over which she wore a bright red cardigan. The collar of a snow-white shirt with light blue floral patterns peeked out from the cardigan's V-neck. She wore black women's trousers and round-toed leather shoes. A crossbody bag was slung over her shoulder, and her long hair was tied in a ponytail. She looked very youthful and energetic, dressed like a city girl, completely different from how she looked back in her hometown.

Even so, Pandi recognized Lin Ying at a glance; after all, she was her second sister!
"Second Sister? It's Second Sister!"

"What second sister?"

Lin Niandi was busy arguing with someone when Pandi suddenly tugged at her, excitedly calling out something like "Second Sister."

Lin Niandi didn't react for a moment. She subconsciously turned her head to look in the direction Pandi was pointing. But when she saw Lin Ying, Niandi was stunned. Just like Pandi before, she rubbed her eyes in disbelief. Was the person in front of her really her second sister? She looked like her, but she didn't quite look like her.

"Third brother! Fourth brother!"

At this moment, Lin Ying, who had come to her senses, hurriedly stepped forward, looked them up and down, and asked anxiously, "How did you get here? How did you get here? When did you arrive? Why didn't you tell us before you came?"

"Second sister! It really is second sister! Second sister, we've finally found you... Waaah..."

Before Lin Ying could figure out what was going on, Pandi and Niandi burst into tears.

The two girls hugged Lin Ying from both sides, jumping and laughing, crying and laughing, with tears and snot streaming down their faces, and no amount of persuasion could stop them.

Seeing their state, Lin Ying felt helpless.

She had originally planned to act like the older sister and ask them directly for clarification, but she hadn't expected them to act this way. Looking at their pitiful appearance, Lin Ying sighed softly, raised her hand to pat their heads, and thought she should ask them about the specifics later.

At this moment, the woman who had just been arguing with Pandidi and Niandi was also dumbfounded. How did a woman suddenly appear, and she was the second sister of these two girls from out of town? Looking at Lin Ying's clothes and then at the two little girls crying together, the woman hesitated for a moment and lost the will to continue arguing.

After all, their argument was just over a trivial matter, and there was no deep-seated hatred between them. Moreover, seeing the two girls crying so pitifully now, it wouldn't be right for him to keep arguing with them. If everyone criticized him, he would only end up making a fool of himself.

Thinking of this, the woman lost her will to stay any longer and turned to squeeze out of the crowd.

Seeing that the person involved had left, the onlookers lost interest in continuing to watch. Lin Ying comforted Pandi and Niandi, patiently waiting for them to cry for a while until they calmed down a bit, and then she took them away from there as well.

He led them aside, took out his keys to unlock his bicycle, put their luggage on the bike rack, tied it with a rope, and then pushed the bike, beckoning them to follow him.

They finally found Lin Ying. After crying a few times to vent their grievances, Pandi and Niandi were fine. They followed Lin Ying, curiously looking at her trendy clothes and the bicycle she was pushing.

"Second sister, you've struck it rich?"

The lively Niandi couldn't help but ask, "You look even prettier than the county officials! I almost didn't recognize you just now."

"Tsk tsk, if Pandi hadn't had such a sharp eye, I wouldn't have recognized you. What's this fabric? It feels so soft and smooth! And the flowers on your shirt look like they're embroidered on! Oh, and this bicycle—I've never seen such a nice bike in the whole commune! How much did you pay for it? Was it expensive?"

Niandi was like a walking encyclopedia of questions, chattering away nonstop. Pandi, though not asking directly, also showed great interest in these questions with her curious gaze. Seeing them acting like curious children with endless questions, Lin Ying was both amused and exasperated.

"How did you get here?"

“I came by train,” Niandi replied matter-of-factly.

Lin Ying didn't hold back and smacked her on the forehead. Niandi covered her head and grimaced, "Second sister, what's wrong with you? Why did you hit me?"

"I want to beat you up too!"

Lin Ying was furious. Did they come by train, plane, or on foot? What kind of talk was that? Lin Ying knew that her fourth daughter was a fierce girl when she was at home, but she never expected that she would become more and more brainless as she grew up. Apart from being quick-witted, she was nothing else.

"Second Sister means she's asking how we got here," Pandi quickly explained, being the clever one.

Touching her head where she had been hit, Niandi muttered indignantly, "Why didn't you just ask? You didn't even ask clearly before asking how we got here. Was it wrong for me to answer that we came by train?"

"Fine, fine, you're not wrong, it's all my fault, okay?" Lin Ying laughed angrily, deciding to ignore Nian Di and ask Pan Di directly instead, as it would be more reliable.

“We escaped,” Pandi replied, twisting her long braid with both hands and bowing her head slightly.

"Escaped? What do you mean?" Lin Ying was taken aback and asked in confusion.

“My father wanted to marry me off, but I didn’t want to, so I ran away secretly.”

"Get married?"

"Um……."

"Whom shall I marry?"

"The second son of the Lao Niu family in the next village."

"Niu Lao Er?" Lin Ying's eyes widened instantly. She knew this guy, but didn't he have a wife?
“His wife fell into the river and drowned last year,” Niandi continued. “After his wife died, Niu Lao Er became a bachelor. This spring, he asked around to find a wife for him. I don’t know why, but our father took a liking to this marriage and wanted to marry our third sister to Niu Lao Er.”

"Has Father gone mad?"

Lin Ying simply couldn't imagine what her original father, the living person she was in, was thinking. How could he have such a plan?
Although Niu Lao Er is better than Zheng the Cripple whom Lin Ying was going to marry, the problem is that Niu Lao Er is not young anymore, and he also has two children at home.

Lin Ying remembered that Niu Lao Er's deceased wife had given birth to two children for him, one five years old and the other four.

It's fine for Niu Lao Er to remarry after his wife's death, but he can't treat Pan Di like this! Putting aside the age gap between them, Pan Di has just turned seventeen this year. A seventeen-year-old virgin is going to become the stepmother of two children as soon as she marries into the family? What kind of mess is this!

"He's not crazy."

Niandi pouted and said from the side, "Our father has really planned this out. We're just a money-loser at home, but Niu Lao Er is willing to give the family fifty yuan as a bride price. That's more than the bride price you received when you married your brother-in-law, Second Sister. With this money, Father would be willing to marry off Third Sister, or even another one."

"Where's your older sister? Isn't she married yet?" Lin Ying asked.

“My eldest sister is still at home, working as the team’s scorekeeper. Dad can’t bear to marry her off so early. The scorekeeper gets a lot of work points every month, and he can still have influence in the commune. That’s why he’s taken a liking to my third sister.” Hearing Niandi’s words, Lin Ying frowned and didn’t know what to say for a moment.

Judging from her own experience, Lin Ying realized that she had refused to marry Zheng Laosan back then for the same reason. If it weren't for the fact that Zhou Jiye had also transmigrated, and Lin Ying had seized the opportunity to have Zhou Jiye step in and rescue her from her predicament, Lin Ying really didn't know what she would have faced.

Even Lin Ying didn't have a good solution in this situation, let alone Pandi and Niandi?
A girl in the prime of her life, marrying a widower and becoming a stepmother to two children? No one would willingly do that.

Given this situation, it's quite normal for Pandi to run away from her hometown to escape the arranged marriage. As for Niandi, Lin Ying guessed a thing or two from her words. Pandi and Niandi are only one year apart in age. Once Pandi runs away from home, given Old Lin's personality, he would definitely use Niandi as a scapegoat and force her to marry Niu Lao Er. Niandi is usually fierce and has a lot of courage. She would definitely not sit idly by and wait for death. It's even very likely that Niandi was the one who suggested that the two of them run away together.

"Where did you get the money for the train tickets? Where's the letter of introduction? How did you get to Shanghai? By the way, if you were going to leave, why didn't you write me a letter beforehand? And why didn't you come to find me after you got to Shanghai?"

When Lin Ying asked about this, Pandi and Niandi's eyes instantly reddened, and they told Lin Ying that they were able to escape thanks to Zhou Jiye's second brother, Zhou Jimin.

Since Lin Ying married Zhou Jiye, the Zhou family has taken good care of the Lin family. In addition, they arranged for the eldest sister to be the scorekeeper, so the family's living conditions have improved a lot compared to before.

The two families became in-laws, and the younger generation visited each other more often. Although the Zhou family looked down on the character of Lin's father, they still took good care of Lin Ying's sisters.

Zhou Jiye's second brother, Zhou Jimin, is the militia captain and often organizes militia training. Last year, Pandi and Niandi became activists under Zhou Jiye's care. Although they are not yet able to be assigned to the militia organization, they have this title. During the militia training, they go over to help cook and get a few full meals along the way, which can be considered as a favor.

For this reason, when they decided to elope, Niandi and Pandi discussed asking Zhou Jimin for help. After learning about this, Zhou Jimin was very disgusted with Old Lin's actions, but it was, after all, a family matter. Even though they were relatives because of Lin Ying, it was not appropriate for him to interfere.

So Zhou Jimin agreed to Niandi's request, secretly obtained letters of introduction for them, bought them train tickets to Shanghai, and even secretly picked them up from the village during the militia's training exercise, putting them on the train without anyone noticing.

Everything was arranged perfectly. When Zhou Jimin saw them off at the train station, he gave them Zhou Jiye and Lin Ying's address in Shanghai and prepared some money.

As for not writing to Lin Ying and Zhou Jiye in advance, it was because time was tight and there was no need to write. Besides, after getting off the train, we arrived in Shanghai and could just go directly to the address. Writing a letter or not made no difference.

But plans can change in an instant, and Niandi and Pandi never expected that they would be robbed on the train.

Having never traveled far from home, the two were completely unprepared for the outside world. The next day, they were robbed on the train. Not only was most of their money stolen, but even the piece of paper with Lin Ying's address in Shanghai on it disappeared.

This left the two of them dumbfounded; without an address, they were completely lost.

They had originally planned to try and find out where Lin Ying lived after arriving in Shanghai. But after getting off the train and looking at Shanghai, a city with a population of over ten million and an astonishingly large area, Niandi and Pandi were completely dumbfounded. This was completely different from what they had imagined. Finding someone in such a big city was like finding a needle in a haystack.

And so, after arriving in Shanghai, the two wandered around the city. They didn't know where they had been these past few days. They just followed their intuition and walked along the streets, asking around as they went, trying their luck to find Lin Ying's place.

Because they had little money and nowhere to live, they could only find shelter under bridges or other places to stay for the night. As for food, they survived for a few days on the dry rations they had saved when they went out. After the rations ran out, they could only find a few cents on their pockets. Without food coupons, they could not buy anything and had no choice but to beg on the streets to get by. They managed to survive day by day for almost a week.

They don't know how they got through these days, and they feel more and more desperate each day.

Shanghai is just too big, and the chances of finding Lin Ying are getting slimmer and slimmer. The two girls are almost at their breaking point, and their mental state is about to collapse. Today, Pandi, who was walking unsteadily on the street because she was hungry, accidentally bumped into a passerby. The passerby was disgusted by Pandi's dirty clothes and started cursing at her.

Originally, they were in the wrong, but this scolding aroused Niandi's grievances and anger. She, who was originally fierce, suddenly exploded and attacked the other party without any regard for the consequences. Just as Pandi saw that more and more people were watching and was afraid that things would get serious if the argument continued, she was about to persuade Niandi to apologize to the other party. But unexpectedly, she ran into Lin Ying, who had also come to watch the commotion.

There's always a way out. Life is full of coincidences. If Lin Ying hadn't impulsively gone to East China Normal University today, and hadn't stayed there until this time to sell calculators instead of taking her usual route home, or if she had simply cycled past the red light and left without hearing the familiar accent, they would never have met by chance.

Perhaps this was God's arrangement, allowing Pandi and Niandi to meet Lin Ying on the street in this way. Thinking of this, Lin Ying couldn't help but sigh at fate.

"Second sister, where are we going now?"

After walking with Lin Ying for a while, Pandi couldn't help but ask a question.

"go home!"

"Are we going to your place? How far is it from here? I can't walk anymore." Niandi asked as well. The two of them were exhausted after walking for a while, mainly because they hadn't eaten anything all day and had just had an argument with someone, which had used up most of their strength.

Lin Ying then realized that she hadn't noticed this before. Now, seeing her two younger sisters looking listless and with their stomachs growling with hunger, Lin Ying stopped and looked around.

"Come on, let me take you to get something to eat first."

Lin Ying spotted a small eatery not far away and led them there. She parked the car at the entrance, told them to go inside and find seats, then paid with money and ration coupons at the counter and bought half a jin of pan-fried buns and two bowls of wontons. They took their food tokens, picked up their meals from the window, and placed the food on the table where they were sitting, pointing to it and telling them to have something to eat first.

"These are pan-fried buns, somewhat similar to the pan-fried buns from my hometown, but they're very juicy. Eat them with vinegar, and be careful not to spill any. These are wontons, and they taste a bit different from the ones from my hometown. I don't know if you'll like them, but try some first."

"Thank you, Second Sister!"

The two had been eagerly anticipating this moment, and when they saw the food on the table, they couldn't resist any longer. They immediately picked up their chopsticks and started stuffing food into their mouths like raindrops.

The two girls devoured the pan-fried buns and wontons like starving ghosts, their mouths stuffed like hamsters. In the blink of an eye, they had eaten most of them, leaving the customers nearby speechless with amazement.

"Mmm...delicious...mmm..."

Pandi was slightly better, but Niandi ate especially fast. She almost choked because she ate so fast that Lin Ying quickly got up and got her a bowl of noodle soup. She gulped down half a bowl before Niandi calmed down.

"Eat slowly, no one's going to take it from you."

"Second sister, you don't know, third sister and I haven't had a proper meal for the past few days. We've been surviving on two flatbreads since yesterday. If we hadn't met you today, we don't know what we would have done," Niandi said to Lin Ying while wolfing down her food. Pandi, standing beside her, nodded repeatedly. Lin Ying felt very sorry for her two younger sisters looking like this.

Pandi and Niandi devoured half a pound of pan-fried buns and two bowls of wontons in no time, even drinking the wonton soup clean.

Touching their bellies, the two of them felt much better, as the presence of something inside their stomachs made them feel much more energetic.

"Second sister, can you buy some more? I don't think I'm full..." Niandi said somewhat embarrassedly.

"And you? Third brother, have you eaten yet?" Pandi didn't speak, but the longing for food in her eyes betrayed her.

"You can't eat anymore if you're not full."

Lin Ying said seriously, "You've been starving for days. If you eat too much at once, your stomachs won't be able to handle it. Come on, let's go home first. We can digest on the way. When we get home, I'll cook you something soft to soothe your stomachs. You'll be fine in a couple of days."

"Yes, yes, we'll listen to our second sister."

Pandi and Niandi nodded in unison. Lin Ying got up and led them home. Since they were walking, their speed was naturally not as fast as Lin Ying's usual bicycle ride. Moreover, the two girls had been searching for Lin Ying's whereabouts since they arrived in Shanghai, and had no time to properly explore the city.

Now that they had finally found their second sister, a huge weight had been lifted from their hearts. With their minds at ease, they finally had the time to take in the sights of Shanghai. Looking at the wide roads and the buildings of various shapes on both sides, as well as the people riding bicycles and cars passing by from time to time, they had countless questions in their minds.

They walked and talked like this until they finally arrived at the neighborhood where Lin Ying now lives.

After entering the community gate, Pandi and Niandi looked around at the houses. These houses looked different from those in their hometown, but they were quite nice-looking. Each house had a small yard in front of it, but why was it so strange? Why weren't vegetables planted in these yards? Many of them were bare or piled with all sorts of things, which was a real waste of the land.

Looking around, they soon arrived at the small building where Lin Ying lived. When they reached the door, Lin Ying hesitated for a moment before leading them up the steps.

On the way back, Lin Ying remembered what Aunt Tang had said: Fang Manxia didn't like outsiders coming to the small building. Since moving in, both Zhou Jiye and Lin Ying had always abided by this rule and had never brought outsiders into the building.

But today she had to make an exception. Pandi and Niandi had nowhere to go, and Lin Ying couldn't find a place to put them. Moreover, the two girls were unfamiliar with the area, and Lin Ying was worried about leaving them there. She couldn't just abandon them, could she? So today she had no choice but to bite the bullet and bring them back.

"Don't talk nonsense once you're inside. Just answer whatever they ask. This is a place your sister and brother-in-law are staying at. The landlady is an old lady. If you upset her, not only will you not be able to stay, but your sister and I and your brother-in-law won't be able to stay here either."

Before entering the house, Lin Ying turned back and gave her two younger sisters some instructions. Pandi and Niandi nodded as if they understood. Looking at their expressions, Lin Ying sighed inwardly, took out her key, opened the door, and led them into the small building.

(End of this chapter)