Chapter 1

Looking at the centipede crawling quickly in front of her, Lin Yun expressionlessly picked it up with her fire tongs and dropped it into the plastic bucket she was carrying. By her estimation, there were probably already over a hundred centipedes in there — the result of her three or four hours of work tonight.

Looking at these things she never would’ve touched before, they didn’t seem quite so scary anymore when she thought about the money they could bring. Right now, money was the most important thing in her life.

“Jie (big sis), how did you know there’d be so many centipedes at night? I had no clue. If I’d known, I wouldn’t have bothered flipping rocks on the mountain all day.”

“I read it in a book. Centipedes are carnivorous and afraid of light — they usually come out at night. You’d know that too if you read more…”

“I want to study too, but I’m not like you. That stuff just doesn’t stick in my brain. It’s not like I don’t try…”

Before Lin Yun could finish, Lin Yonggang cut her off. He was really afraid of his sister now. He had always known she was great at studying, but recently she had developed this habit of trying to convince him to study too.

Still, looking at all these centipedes — which would normally take seven or eight days of climbing mountains and flipping rocks to catch during the day — Lin Yonggang began to waver.

After all, no one ever came out to catch centipedes at night. Everyone just went to the mountains during the day when they had nothing else to do.

Just then, Lin Yonggang noticed his sister, who had been walking normally, suddenly stop and start trembling all over. He quickly rushed over.

“Jie, what’s wrong? Why did you stop all of a sudden?”

Then he saw his sister’s lower body seemingly frozen in place, eyes locked on something ahead.

Following her gaze, he saw a snake slowly slithering toward them. It looked like it was shedding its skin.

“It’s just a snake. Why are you so scared? Jie, when did you become so timid?” Lin Yonggang didn’t think much of it and even seemed a little happy. After all, a single snake could sell for way more than dozens of centipedes — he wouldn’t mind catching a few more.

Then Lin Yun watched as her younger brother, full of energy, stepped forward and skillfully picked up the snake with fire tongs, tossing it into a snakeskin bag tied around his waist — she didn’t even know when he put it there.

Any good mood Lin Yun had from catching all those centipedes evaporated. In her past life, she couldn’t even look at a picture of a snake without getting sick.

And yet just now, a snake was shedding its skin less than a meter away from her feet. She hadn’t screamed — only trembled. That alone made her feel pretty proud of herself.

“Let’s call it a night. We’ve walked far enough,” she said to her brother.

“Huh? We’re going back already?” Lin Yonggang was reluctant.

“We only just started a few days ago. There’s still a long way to go. Besides, we’ve been out long enough.” Truthfully, Lin Yun really just wanted to go back by herself — but the countryside at night was pitch black. Once you turned off the flashlight, you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face.

Even though the original host had lived here for more than ten years, Lin Yun just didn’t feel safe at night in this place. So if she was going back, she’d definitely bring someone with her.

Seeing that his sister was firm about it, Lin Yonggang didn’t argue anymore — today’s haul had already far exceeded his expectations.

“Okay, Jie, let’s head back. You wait here — I’ll go get Big Sis.”

As Lin Yun responded absentmindedly, her thoughts had already drifted elsewhere.

She had been in this world for almost a month now, but the earlier days had felt like a daze. It wasn’t until recently, when she started making money, that it all began to feel real. That feeling came from knowing her actions now could actually earn her money.

In her past life, Lin Yun had grown up like any average kid — peacefully and steadily. Her life wasn’t luxurious, but she was comfortably middle-class.

She never imagined that after falling asleep one night, she’d wake up as a 15- or 16-year-old girl in the early 1980s.

At first, Lin Yun simply couldn’t accept it. One minute she was living comfortably in modern times, and the next she was in a place where you couldn’t even eat enough, had to carry water back from the pond, and the toilets — if they could even be called that — were just a hole in the ground with two wooden planks across it. Sometimes, you could even see squirming white maggot-like fly larvae nearby.

Lin Yun was sure that no one used to modern life would ever want to live like this.

Her first time seeing that “toilet” had nearly broken her. Even though she inherited the original host’s memories, knowing and seeing were two very different things.

Squatting on those flimsy-looking wooden planks, Lin Yun had almost burst into tears.

Her reaction caught the attention of the original host’s older sister, but the sister only thought she was upset about being forced to drop out of school and didn’t think too much of it.

“Mei (younger sis), are you okay? Mom isn’t saying you have to quit school — it’s just that we really can’t afford to send two kids to school. And besides, our little brother is a boy, he’ll carry on the family line…”

Listening to her sister’s rambling outside, Lin Yun, already on the verge of mental collapse, nearly exploded.

But she held herself back — after all, she was still in the toilet, and she had no desire to discuss sexism in this kind of place. So she simply replied from inside, “I’m fine. I just bumped into something and got a little startled.”

Hearing her sister’s calmer voice, Lin Yumei finally left — the smell there really was unbearable.

She had only come because she was genuinely worried about her sister, who had been listless ever since dropping out.

As for Lin Yun, she couldn’t explain why, but just a few days in this world had completely shattered any romantic fantasy she’d had about transmigration. The sheer difficulty of survival here was just too brutal.

If basic survival was already this hard, then the issue of education loomed even larger for the future.

Having lived in modern times, Lin Yun knew just how crucial education was in this era. A college degree back then was practically a guarantee of class mobility.

After sorting through the original host’s memories, she realized that dropping out of school wasn’t even due to some big event — just cold, hard reality: no money.