A stunning beauty arrived on the island; she invented everything from childcare to babysitting.

Compared to later generations, the variety of snacks in the 1970s was only a fraction, but Chen Hai somehow found out and directly took An Ning and Xiao Ni'er to knock on the doors of the nearby villagers.

An elderly man with gray hair opened the door. He looked around warily before asking, "What can I do for you?"

"Grandpa, we just came from the island and we don't have any food coupons with us, so we can't go to the state-run restaurants. Could we pay for a meal here?" Song Wenyuan asked.

The old man recognized Song Wenyuan's voice: "Have you been here before?"

“I came here once when I was on a business trip two years ago. It was a local guy who brought me here. I don’t know if you remember me.”

"I think I vaguely remember. Please come in first."

It's unclear whether the old man genuinely remembered or not, but he seemed much more relaxed than before. After the two adults and one child entered the yard, he immediately closed the door and bolted it shut.

"What do you want to eat?"

While asking questions, the old man brought out a small square table and three long benches.

Song Wenyuan ordered the food with practiced ease: "One flatbread, one pancake, one rice noodle roll, one pig intestine rice, one bowl of eight-treasure rice, and two bowls of mixed noodles, that's all."

"We can't finish so much," Anning said. "How about we just leave the two pancakes?"

"It's alright, you can give me what you can't finish. I can eat it, and even if I can't, I can take it with me on the train. Besides, those two pancakes are for the child, why are you making the decision for her?"

An Ning couldn't find a reason to object, so she could only purse her lips and say, "If you have too much money and nowhere to spend it, then do whatever you want."

"You can't say that. We get a daily allowance when we're out here, and these are all deducted from that allowance. If we eat too much today, we can just eat less tomorrow. Why not spend it?"

The old man called out to the house, poured water for Anning and the others, and then went inside to busy himself. Before long, he brought out bowls of food.

Song Wenyuan went into the house with the old man, and when he came back, he called Anning and Xiaonier to start eating.

"How much did it cost?" Anning asked him.

Song Wenyuan held up five fingers.

"Five yuan?" An Ning frowned.

"Five cents."

"so cheap?"

Song Wenyuan served the eight-treasure rice to his daughter, and then gave Anning a bowl of mixed noodles, saying, "It's our own stuff, and we won't get a good price if we take it to the supply and marketing cooperative. We might as well sell it to someone who's passing by and wants to eat."

An Ning took a bite, and the taste was indeed quite good, but the portion was a bit small.

But at this price, what more could you ask for?

She preferred local snacks to the elaborate dishes served in state-run restaurants.

After the apocalypse, she hadn't eaten this kind of local specialty snack for a long time.

How do you know about their family?

“I’m always on the ship, right? Sometimes the ship has to wait for cargo, so it stays here for a few days. Although the ship reimburses food and lodging, we don’t need to report the expenses. The money is a fixed amount, and we use less of it. The rest is our own money, so many people eat at the homes of the local villagers to save money. This family has good cooking skills and is honest, and then word spread among the crew. I was brought here by the captain at the time.”

"That's really good."

"Mom, can I have a bite of your rice noodles?" After eating a few bites of eight-treasure rice, the little girl set her sights on the mixed rice noodles in front of Anning.

Although the eight-treasure rice is sweet and delicious, the mixed rice noodles have a lot of ingredients and look very appealing.

Anning had already mixed the chili peppers, so she only picked out a small piece for her.

"Be careful, it's spicy."

Children's taste buds are the most sensitive. They can not only taste more delicious foods than adults, but they also feel that spicy food is spicier than adults.

Sure enough, Shen Changle took a bite and her face turned red.

However, she insisted on eating two more bites before obediently going back to eat her eight-treasure rice.

Song Wenyuan rarely spent time with his wife and daughter like this. He usually ate at state-run restaurants, and when ordering food, he always considered the children's preferences. He had never seen this scene before.

He found it somewhat amusing and pushed the other three non-spicy dishes towards his daughter, saying, "These three aren't spicy, you can try them."

"Okay."

Both the water cake and the hezi cake are savory and fragrant. The rice noodle roll is filled with eggs, steamed until tender and smooth, and then drizzled with a special sauce. It tastes quite good, and the kids love it as soon as they eat it. Unfortunately, their stomachs are too small, so they can't eat much.

Just as Song Wenyuan said, he ate all the leftovers by himself, leaving not even a drop of soup.

There wasn't much of a nightlife in the small county town, so the three of them went back to the guesthouse after finishing their meal.

The next day at noon, they set off for Guangzhou.

Upon arriving at the train station, Song Wenyuan explained their upcoming itinerary: "There are no direct trains from the peninsula to Guangzhou. We'll have to transfer in Zhan City. It takes about two and a half hours from here to Zhan City, and more than eight hours from Zhan City to Guangzhou. With the transfer time, we might not arrive until 1 a.m. But don't worry, I've contacted Zhan... a friend, who will pick us up at the platform and take us directly to the guesthouse. The journey might be a bit boring, so I've brought you some books to read on the train."

Chen Hai's thoughtfulness temporarily put aside An Ning's doubts. She had also traveled far from home and knew that there were many troubles when traveling. Chen Hai's meticulous planning of every step, even including finding places to eat in advance, made the trip very comfortable.

She smiled and said, "It's not like I've never traveled far before. Why bother preparing two books? Isn't it tiring to carry them in my bag?"

Chen Hai's bag wasn't very big. An Ning originally thought it only contained a few clothes, but she didn't expect it to also contain books.

Song Wenyuan looked at her with a smile: "I'm not tired. You forgot, I..."

"Can you run five kilometers carrying fifty kilograms of weight?" An Ning answered quickly this time.

"So, this little bit of stuff is nothing at all."

As we chatted, it became time to board the bus.

With Anning's luggage in one hand and the child in the other, Song Wenyuan walked towards the car.

"You can take the luggage, let me carry the child!"

An Ning wanted to pick up her daughter, but Song Wenyuan dodged her.

"It's inconvenient to exchange with so many people, and they might get lost. I'll give it to you once you get on the bus."

An Ning had no choice but to follow him to the car.

Train stations were always packed with people back then. I don’t know if it was because there were few trains or something else, but every time I came here, it felt like there were a lot of people.

Many people were unprepared when boarding the bus, looking flustered and confused. You could hear people arguing, children crying, and all sorts of other noises around you.

The train tickets the army bought for them were for two seats, not far from the entrance, which was more comfortable than the three-person row of seats. Shen Changle was too young to buy a ticket and could just sit with the adults.

Song Wenyuan, being tall and strong, placed his luggage directly on the luggage rack and quickly organized the things they brought. He also helped the elderly person sitting next to him put down their luggage.

Anning sat down and noticed that the child's crying, which she had heard from outside the car, was getting louder and louder. She turned her head and saw that the crying child was sitting opposite them. The child's mother seemed to be trying to make formula for the child, but the child was very restless and she was making a mess of things.

A child's crying can certainly affect the mood of passengers, but having lived a second life, Anning understands the difficulties of being a single mother and didn't say much.

"Give way, please give way."

A short, stocky man with a stubble beard walked from one end of the carriage to the other. Anning glanced at him once and then looked away.

However, just as the man walked up to their row, something unexpected happened.

The mother in the opposite seat had to lay her baby flat on the empty seat opposite her in order to make milk, which conveniently benefited the short, stocky man.

He grabbed the baby's swaddling clothes and rushed out of the car, before anyone could stop him.

"My child, my child!"

In her panic, the mother spilled milk all over herself and then tripped over the luggage at her feet, leaving her helpless to watch as the man rushed into the crowd.

This was the first time Anning had ever seen a child snatched in broad daylight; it was utterly lawless.

Song Wenyuan reacted quickly, putting his things on the table: "Keep an eye on the child, I'll be right back. If I don't make it back in time, wait for me at the guesthouse near Zhan City Railway Station. Don't go to Guangzhou alone, it's chaotic there."

By the time An Ning heard the second half of his sentence, Song Wenyuan was already under the car.