Chapter 3: The Original Host’s Fiancé Was a 250-Jin Fatty

Talk about bad luck—out of all the random inspections, she had to get caught in this one.

Feng Mian quickly packed up her things and took off, dragging the large handcart with her.

Where should she run? People who frequented the black market knew what to do—just follow them.

She saw quite a few people dart into a narrow alley nearby, but the alley was too tight for the cart. With so many eyes around, she couldn’t just stash it into her space either, so she had no choice but to leave the big cart by the roadside and run in on foot.

A few young men ran ahead of her, nimbly scaling the wall.

But when it was her turn, disaster struck. She was slim and small, and no matter how she jumped, she just couldn’t get over the wall.

Feng Mian was panicking. The noise outside was getting louder—it sounded like they were closing in.

Since this road was blocked, she had to find another way.

Just as she was about to turn and run, someone suddenly called out to her from atop the wall.

“Hey, I’ll give you a hand.”

It was pitch black in the alley, so she couldn’t see who it was. All she could see was a hand reaching down.

The entrance of the alley was already swarming with enforcement officers. Feng Mian didn’t hesitate any longer and grabbed the offered hand.

With the help of that strength, she finally made it over.

But they had climbed up a bit too late—on the other side of the wall, market enforcement officers were already blowing whistles as they ran over.

Caught between a rock and a hard place, the person led her, crouching low, into a rundown attic at the end of the alley. Somewhere along the way, she hadn’t even noticed her headscarf had fallen off.

The surroundings were pitch dark and so silent you could hear a pin drop. Other than the faint commotion in the distance, the only sound was Feng Mian’s quiet, tense breathing.

It took a long moment before her racing heartbeat finally began to calm down.

“First time doing something like this?” the person beside her suddenly asked in a whisper.

Feng Mian gave a quiet “mm,” then asked, “You do this a lot, huh?”

“Yeah.”

Well, that figured. Otherwise, how could he have found such a good hiding spot in a pinch?

“What do you sell?”

“Cloth ration coupons.”

“Reselling ration tickets? That’s a serious crime if they catch you.”

“Mm, but I know how not to get caught.”

Wow. A seasoned pro.

“What’s your name?” Feng Mian asked.

“Gu Yuelin.”

“Gu Yuelin?” That didn’t sound rustic at all.

“Sounds like something a family of intellectuals would name.”

The person beside her fell silent. After a while, his voice came again from the darkness.

“My mom was a zhiqing. She was educated, and she gave me that name.”

Ah, so that’s why.

After the noise outside had died down for a while, the two of them finally left the pitch-dark attic.

Back at the same wall again, Gu Yuelin jumped down first. Feng Mian crouched on top, hesitant to follow.

In her previous life, she was the pampered daughter of a wealthy family—she’d never done anything like this before.

Seeing her frozen in place, Gu Yuelin guessed she was scared. He reached up to her and said, “Go ahead, I’ll catch you.”

Feng Mian said nervously, “You sure you can catch me? What if I fall on you?”

Gu Yuelin: “…”

“I just helped pull you up, didn’t I? You weigh less than my family’s dog. Just jump.”

I mean…

With him putting it like that, she felt a lot less worried.

Sure enough, Gu Yuelin caught her firmly, and she was filled with gratitude.

“Thank you so much for today,” she kept saying, thanking him again and again.

Gu Yuelin gave a slight smile. “You asked for my name, but you haven’t introduced yourself yet.”

“Oh, I’m Feng Mian.” Though she was truly grateful for his help, Feng Mian didn’t want to get too familiar with a stranger, so she used the excuse of having business at home and quickly left, dragging her cart from the alley.

After that, she stopped by the post office to buy a newspaper and a map, then went to a bookstore to buy a history book.

With everything in hand, she hurried back home.

…

This trip into the county town helped her pretty much memorize all the items that were commonly sold in the city.

After returning to the village, Feng Mian first returned the cart, then went home and shut the door to count her money.

A handful of coins—she’d only sold a few thousand rubber bands and made twenty yuan. Considering the cost was 9.9 yuan including shipping, she still made ten yuan. Honestly…

Well, it was a time of backward craftsmanship and material scarcity.

Besides that, there were combs, yarn, rubber bands, and barrettes… all together, this trip into the city brought in over sixty yuan.

What did sixty yuan mean? At the agricultural machinery station, a whole month’s salary was only a little over thirty yuan.

After deducting the cost of the newspaper, map, and history book, she still had more than fifty yuan left.

The information in the newspaper suggested this era was similar to the late 1970s from her original life—but some of the place names didn’t quite match.

She looked at the map again. The layout and provincial divisions were identical to her previous world, but the names were completely different.

For example, Shanghai was called Haicheng, and Beijing was Beicheng… almost every name was slightly off.

The history in the textbook matched up with what she knew almost exactly.

So what was this? A parallel world with 99% similarity?

Forget it. Since she was here, she might as well make peace with it. No point overthinking.

With money in hand, her mood was great. Humming a little tune, Feng Mian scrolled on her phone and placed an order for a retro-style mini stove.

It was clay-colored—at a glance, it looked like it had been smeared with mud from outside.

Then she found a matching clay-colored teapot, clay jar, stone pan, cooking plate… and smokeless charcoal for stoves.

Honestly, Taobao was incredible. You could buy anything.

After placing all the orders, she set up the items in the kitchen she’d cleaned up yesterday.

First, she lit the fire.

Using a charcoal fire starter made it super easy.

Then she realized—if she had to cook dishes and make rice, one stove wasn’t enough.

So she brought out a second stove. One was used to cook rice, the other to heat the stone pan and make two small dishes.

She’d gotten up early that morning and was starting to feel drowsy.

With her belly full, she took a nice afternoon nap, and when she woke up, she made herself a cup of milk tea and grilled some fruit on the stove.

What a cozy life.

She felt like she was on vacation.

Two peaceful days passed before her older cousin, Feng Xiaojing, came to visit.

“Mianmian, my mom told me to bring you to our house to talk about something.”

Seeing her cousin’s glum expression, Feng Mian already knew it couldn’t be anything good.

“Talk about what?”

That aunt never liked her. Back when her grandfather was still in charge, she could barely stay at their house.

After her grandfather became disabled three years ago and couldn’t manage the household, they didn’t want her around anymore.

Using the excuse that her older cousin was getting married and they had no room, they kicked her out.

“It’s about the engagement between you and the Gu family. They said… well…” Feng Xiaojing hesitated, unsure how to say it.

“What? Don’t stammer. Just spit it out.”

“Well, my sister wants to marry into the Gu family. She wants to switch places with you.”

Feng Mian took a deep breath.

At this time, the marriage law stated girls could marry at 18 and boys at 20—so she was indeed of marriageable age.

Earlier this year, Aunt Zhang arranged a marriage for her, intending for her to get married after the New Year.

The guy had five older sisters and was the only son—said to be from a good family and all that.

Later, the original host had asked around and found out that the boy was ridiculously spoiled and good-for-nothing.

In an era when people didn’t even have enough to eat, his family somehow managed to raise him to two hundred and fifty pounds.

They were interested in her because she was hardworking and obedient.

Her grandmother and the original host were interested in the match because the fat kid’s dad worked as a record keeper in the neighboring brigade—someone who calculated work points. That job would supposedly be passed on to the fat kid.

But Feng Mian knew land reforms were coming. The collective farming system would be replaced by a household responsibility system. That work point job would be worthless soon.

Plus, the fat kid had an uncle who worked at the county agricultural machinery station. They said if she married into their family, they could get her a job there—working for the state, an “iron rice bowl.”

Those conditions were hard to turn down.

Her grandmother and the original host hadn’t thought too deeply about it, but Feng Mian had been in the business world for years. She felt something was off.

Back then, there were plenty of hardworking, honest girls—yet families still avoided or looked down on orphans like her.