The women boarded the enormous iron train.
With a shrill whistle and a deep, clattering rumble, it lurched forward, dragging them away from everything they had known—and toward a future none of them could yet imagine.
The novelty alone was enough to leave them giddy.
For women and children who had never once left Houjia Village, whose world had extended no farther than muddy paths and crumbling courtyards, this experience was overwhelming in the best possible way. They pressed their faces to the windows, pointed excitedly, laughed, gasped, and whispered to one another.
They had no idea that what carried them forward was a technological miracle that no other place on earth possessed.
Only Gao Family Village had this.
But precisely because they did not understand, they were able to enjoy it fully.
Those who knew too much were often lost in shock and disbelief; those who knew nothing could simply feel joy.
Before long, the train slowed and rolled into Han City Station.
It would stop here for a quarter of an hour.
Passengers disembarked. Others boarded.
Even with the logistics soldiers, women, and children together, the carriage wasn't full. A handful of ordinary travelers came and went, adding to the quiet bustle.
Among them was a man dressed in merchant's robes.
On his chest, embroidered in gleaming gold thread, was the image of Dao Xuan Tianzun.
The moment he entered the carriage, his eyes lit up.
"Well, well—if it isn't Little Zhuge!"
Zhuge Wangchan turned and laughed.
"Who else could it be but Boss Teng Yifeng! Aren't you supposed to be buried in your cement factory over in Chengcheng County? What brings you all the way to Han City?"
Teng Yifeng chuckled, patting his belly.
"After all these years of development, Chengcheng is nearly saturated. Cement sells fine, but growth has slowed. If I want the silver to keep flowing, I have to open factories where development is still booming."
Zhuge Wangchan smiled.
"Boss Teng's expanding everywhere. You'll be raking it in."
Teng Yifeng waved a hand modestly.
"It's all thanks to Dao Xuan Tianzun's guidance."
As the two men chatted, the women nearby listened quietly.
One of them, sharper-eyed than the rest, noticed something peculiar.
Boss Teng's Dao Xuan Tianzun emblem was embroidered in gold thread.
Zhuge Wangchan's, by contrast, was done in plain cotton thread.
The difference was striking.
She crept over to a logistics soldier and whispered, "Big brother… does the embroidery mean rank? Gold for high status, silver for the next, cotton for the lowest—like official robes in the imperial court?"
The soldier laughed softly.
"Nothing like that. Gao Family Village doesn't rank people that way."
"Whatever thread you use is entirely your own choice," he explained. "If you like gold, use gold. If you like cotton, use cotton. Naturally, people with more money tend to use gold—but it's not a rule."
He leaned in conspiratorially.
"Take San Shier, our chief administrator. He's one of the highest-ranking people in the village and certainly not poor, but he insists on using colorful cotton thread for his Dao Xuan Tianzun embroidery."
"And Gao Sanwa?" the soldier continued, grinning. "That little rascal didn't embroider anything at all. He spent a pile of money hiring a craftsman to cast a copper badge with Dao Xuan Tianzun's face carved into it."
The soldier shrugged.
"The Dao Xuan Tianzun himself encourages everyone not to show class distinctions through clothing or appearance. Freedom matters more."
The women didn't quite understand phrases like class distinctions.
But they understood something very practical:
Gold thread cost money.
Cotton thread was affordable.
When it came time to choose a man… they would have to look carefully.
While they were still pondering this, Teng Yifeng glanced toward them.
"Little Zhuge," he said casually, "where did you recruit these women from?"
Zhuge Wangchan sighed.
"Why does everyone say 'recruit'? These are refugees rescued by Dao Xuan Tianzun."
Teng Yifeng's eyes brightened immediately.
"Refugees? Then they'll need work once they reach Gao Family Village, won't they?"
"They will," Zhuge Wangchan replied.
Teng Yifeng didn't waste a second. He turned to the women with an eager smile.
"Ladies, would any of you like to work at my factory? My new cement plant needs cooks and cleaners. The pay is three catties of flour a day. Room and board included. Year-end bonuses, zongzi during the Dragon Boat Festival, mooncakes at Mid-Autumn—everything included."
The women froze.
"…Huh?"
They had heard these exact words once before—in Jishan County, from a refined young lady of a great household.
At the time, they had been certain it was a scam.
Now, hearing the same promises from a man in merchant's robes, their minds spun.
One woman finally gathered the courage to ask, "Are… are wages here always so generous?"
Teng Yifeng winced.
"G-Generous? Please don't say that, I'll be embarrassed. These wages are actually quite ordinary."
He hesitated, then added, "Tell you what—at the end of the month, I'll add another five catties of flour as a bonus."
The women gasped as one.
Seeing their expressions, the escorting logistics soldier chuckled and leaned in.
"To be honest, these wages really aren't high. Grain prices in Gao Family Village are very low. A catty of flour costs only seven or eight copper coins. Three catties a day is just over twenty copper—less than seven hundred a month."
The women stared at him blankly.
"What… what did you say?"
The soldier lowered his voice.
"Cooking and cleaning are unskilled labor, so they're paid subsistence wages. But if you know weaving, sewing, or embroidery—don't work for Boss Teng."
"Go to the textile factory instead. Skilled female workers earn three taels of silver a month."
"Three taels?!"
"Three taels!!!"
The words struck like thunder.
In Houjia Village, no one earned that much. They had only heard of the village chief's distant relative—an oil merchant in Qinzhou—who earned four taels a month.
Every time the village chief mentioned him, his chest would puff with pride.
Once, when that oil merchant visited, all the women of Houjia Village had rushed to see his wife.
She wore a floral cotton-padded jacket.
She had a silver hairpin in her hair.
That jacket alone cost five taels of silver.
The women had envied her so much it hurt.
And now—
One woman whispered, voice trembling, "If I earned three taels a month… and food and housing were provided… why would I need to marry?"
Her eyes slowly brightened.
"I could raise my children myself. I could buy a five-taels cotton-padded jacket—for me and for my child. I could even wear a silver hairpin."
For the first time since fleeing Houjia Village, the thought crossed their minds—
Perhaps… a man was no longer the only way to survive.