Chapter 1: Transmigrated into a Starving Ghost

Li Yiyi’s forehead was pounding, the pain so intense it felt like her head was about to explode. The noise and wailing around her only made it worse.

Then, she vaguely heard someone calling “Mom.” Mom? She hadn’t even gotten married yet—where’d a kid come from?

She clearly remembered that when the apocalypse struck, she had stuffed the supermarket downstairs into her spatial storage. Maybe she’d done it too hastily, or maybe something else had gone wrong. Her vision had gone black, and she’d lost consciousness.

Enduring the splitting headache, she forced herself to lift her eyelids, which felt like they weighed a ton. What she saw shocked her even more—a skinny, dirty little girl was clutching her arm, crying and calling her “Mom.”

Looking around, she saw they were in a house made of mud bricks, with spiderwebs hanging all around. Having grown up in cement buildings, she’d never even seen a house like this before.

Before she could say anything, a flood of unfamiliar memories rushed into her mind.

When the pain finally subsided, she realized she had transmigrated—into the 1970s—and into the body of a woman who was known for being lazy and gluttonous.

And this woman had actually starved to death because of it.

Thinking about how she, an unmarried young woman, had suddenly become someone’s wife and mother of two kids made Li Yiyi’s headache return with a vengeance.

Still, after recalling the horrors of the apocalypse, she figured being reborn here was actually a blessing in disguise—at least she was alive again.

It was then that she noticed something stuffed in her mouth. Spitting it out, she realized it was a piece of dried sweet potato.

The original owner of this body had died from hunger—there was no way she’d have had the strength to put food in her own mouth. So someone else must have done it.

“You gave this to me?” Her gaze quickly locked onto the little girl standing beside the bed.

“I gave it to Mommy so you’d get better faster,” Jiang Yueyue said with a sweet, innocent smile.

Though the words weren’t meant for her, Li Yiyi—who’d grown up an orphan—suddenly felt a strange warmth in her heart. She was actually touched by a child’s kindness.

Looking closely at the little girl next to her, she recognized her as the original body’s eldest daughter. A younger boy stood beside her—her son. They were only five and three years old.

Their innocent eyes staring up at her made Li Yiyi’s heart ache. They had no idea their real mother had already died, and the soul inside the body now belonged to someone else.

She understood better than anyone what it meant to have no real family.

As for their father, the memories told her he hadn’t returned home in three years. He might as well not exist.

Just then, one of the kids’ stomachs let out a loud growl.

Both children lowered their heads, embarrassed.

Li Yiyi, feeling a surge of sympathy, found herself starting to accept the two little ones.

Seeing them bow their heads shyly, she gave them a gentle smile. “Hungry, huh? I’m hungry too. Let’s go cook something to eat.”

She got up, dizzy and light-headed, and stumbled into the kitchen. Opening the rice jar, she was greeted by a depressing sight—it was completely empty. Not a single grain of rice.

Searching her inherited memories, she pieced together the original owner’s life.

Turns out, her laziness and gluttony ran in the family. After scamming her husband into marrying her, she had constantly sent the money he earned back to her own parents. And since she refused to work, there was never a penny left at home.

Li Yiyi wanted to curse the original owner out loud—what a damn fool.

Just then, she remembered the supermarket she’d stored in her space before she blacked out. Could it have come with her?

She quickly closed her eyes and relaxed completely. When she opened them again, the familiar storefront of the supermarket appeared before her.

Staring at the fully stocked shelves, Li Yiyi nearly jumped for joy. With this treasure trove, how could she ever worry about starving in this era?

She went straight for the rice section and packed five pounds of Thai jasmine rice, grabbed a Jinhua ham, and picked up some oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar.

But when she tried to leave the supermarket, the alarm blared, and an invisible wall blocked her path.

The sound was so piercing it nearly deafened her. Panicked, she dashed back into the supermarket, and the alarm stopped.

Just then, she spotted the self-checkout machine. The screen displayed a balance of zero.

She hesitated, then scanned the items in her arms. One by one, the prices popped up. When she finished, the machine showed a total amount—followed by a conversion rate: 1 to 1000.

After a moment of thought, Li Yiyi remembered the fifty-cent coin in the original body’s pocket. She inserted it into the machine.

Miraculously, the screen that had previously shown a zero balance now displayed a large 500.

She got it now—money from this era could be exchanged at a rate of 1 to 1000 inside the space!

She quickly hit the checkout button, and the balance dropped by 350.

This time, when she carried the items out, there was no alarm, no invisible wall. She walked out freely.

So that was the rule. The supermarket wasn’t a free-for-all—you had to “buy” the goods, just like in the future. But thanks to the exchange rate, a single yuan here could buy 1000 yuan worth of goods inside.

Sure, it was a bit of a scam, but thinking about how much the store held and how she could now earn money in this era to make purchases, it was basically free food.

Returning from the space, she was just about to cook when the sight in front of her made her jump.

The pot was absolutely filthy. Who knew what had been cooked in it? It was moldy inside. And the layer of grime on the lid—she could probably use it to plaster a wall.

Rubbing her growling stomach, she gritted her teeth and scrubbed the pot clean.

After cleaning both the pot and the rice, and slicing up the ham, she faced a new challenge—starting the fire.

She was used to gas stoves—how would she know how to light a wood-burning stove? The fire in the stove would ignite, but every time she added wood, it would die out again.

Meanwhile, in the fields of Jiang Family Village, a group of women were working the land.

Suddenly, one of them looked toward the village and gasped. “Old Lady Jiang, look! Isn’t that smoke coming from your youngest son’s house? Wait—wasn’t your daughter-in-law known for being lazy? She’s lived with you for six years and never once cooked. Is she burning the house down or something?”

Old Lady Jiang’s expression changed the moment she heard that. She dropped her tools and ran toward the smoke.

Jiang’s eldest and second daughters-in-law also put down their work and followed.

When the three of them finally arrived at the youngest son’s courtyard, smoke was pouring out everywhere.

“Mom, you don’t think the house is really on fire, do you?” the eldest daughter-in-law asked worriedly.

Ignoring her, Old Lady Jiang rushed inside, moving so fast the two daughters-in-law couldn’t stop her.

She found her two grandchildren standing by the kitchen door.

“Grandma!” Jiang Yueyue and Jiang Xiaobao called out in unison.

She knelt down and anxiously examined them. “Are you two okay?”

The kids shook their heads.

Jiang Xiaobao happily pointed toward the kitchen. “Grandma, Mommy’s cooking something yummy!”

Though only three, Xiaobao spoke clearly.

Old Lady Jiang stared toward the kitchen, stunned.

At that moment, a series of harsh coughs echoed from the kitchen, followed by a figure stumbling out.

Li Yiyi’s eyes were red from the smoke, as if she had just cried.

After coughing for a bit, she looked up and saw three new people in the courtyard.

She paused, quickly digging through the original owner’s memories. Only then did she recognize them as the two sisters-in-law and mother-in-law.

“So it’s Mom and my two sisters-in-law! What brings you here? Come in and sit!” she greeted them with a smile.

The three women stared at her cheerful, warm expression as if they’d just seen a ghost.