Chapter 1

May 1971

In a park in the town, a man and a woman sat at opposite ends of a bench, separated by a wide gap as if a river lay between them.

The man was about 27 or 28 years old, wearing a military uniform and looking serious. The woman was around 17 or 18 years old, with two pigtails, looking young and beautiful. However, her eyes seemed distant, as if she was not fully present.

There was a long silence between them. The man, unable to endure the quiet, glanced at the woman and spoke first: “Comrade Jiang, my situation is special. I’m sure the person who introduced me to you has already explained that I don’t need a perfect partner. I just hope she can take care of the family and stay with the army after marriage.”

Jiang Xi snapped back to reality. After hearing these words, she felt a bit embarrassed and said quietly, “I’m sorry. My uncle forced me to come here today.”

The man’s expression turned disappointed. He said, “Comrade Jiang, please reconsider. I’m a battalion commander now, earning 75 yuan a month, which will increase over time. I’ll give my salary to you after we marry.”

“I’m sorry,” Jiang Xi said again.

The man sighed and said, “Then I’ll take you back.”

“No, no,” Jiang Xi quickly shook her head, stood up, bowed apologetically, and walked away. The man watched her leave, feeling annoyed but decided to follow her to see her off.

Unexpectedly, as he took a few steps, someone ran into him, causing her to stumble and fall to the ground with a cry of pain: “Ouch!”

The man stopped and asked, “Are you okay?”

The girl, looking about seventeen or eighteen years old and somewhat shy, said, “It’s nothing… I think I sprained my foot. Can you help me get to a clinic?”

The man agreed, and they left supporting each other. They attracted a lot of attention, and some people who knew them stared. The man felt uneasy under their gaze, but the girl kept her eyes down and smiled.

_

Jiang Xi didn’t know what happened there after she left.

She was very upset.

She had somehow traveled into a book!

Just ten minutes ago, Jiang Xi had been hit by a car. She didn’t even have time to feel pain before she found herself on the bench. She also had new memories of a girl named Jiang Xi, who had the same name and appearance.

Born in 1954, it was now 1971, and she was seventeen years old with two younger sisters. Their mother had them hoping for a son, but they only had daughters. Thankfully, their father treated all three daughters equally.

However, their father had died three years ago, and their mother had become increasingly focused on helping her brother, even though he was useless. Before the father’s death, he had kept the mother in check, but since then, she had become worse, taking valuable items from their home.

The original owner of Jiang Xi wasn’t alone; she had two younger sisters, one who was ten years old and the other seven. They lived off the savings her father had from his previous job as a worker and the death benefits he left behind. Now, her uncle had drained all their resources, leaving them unable to make a living.

Jiang Xi, originally expected to rely on a marriage arranged by her father, faced a problem. Her fiancé had been in a coma for the past month. Although he brought a large pension, he remained unconscious. Her uncle thought they would never get the money and decided it wasn’t worth marrying off a high school girl to him, given the ongoing medical costs.

Coincidentally, the uncle heard that a battalion commander from a nearby brigade was looking to marry a second wife and raise the children from his first marriage. Seeing this as an opportunity, he persuaded Jiang Xi’s mother to set up a blind date with him.

This led to the recent scene.

The battalion commander, Lu Jianguo, was introduced to Jiang Xi. She was stunned because the name Lu Jianguo, her own name Jiang Xi, the Jiang family’s reputation, and her fiancé Pei Hejun all matched details from a novel she had read.

Realizing she had traveled into a book, Jiang Xi found herself in a story about stepmothers. In the novel, the heroine Qin Yue, her high school classmate, was reborn. Unlike Jiang Xi’s troubled family, Qin Yue’s family was decent but older and pressing her to marry.

In her previous life, Qin Yue married a worker who later mistreated her. After his infidelity and their divorce, she lived a miserable life. In her rebirth, Qin Yue knew Lu Jianguo would become a leader and married him. Despite his wife’s support of her uncle, Qin Yue stayed with him. His children became successful, and the family was wealthy.

Qin Yue, now a stepmother, tried to build relationships with Lu Jianguo’s three sons, despite their difficult behavior. The novel described her life as chaotic, which Jiang Xi couldn’t tolerate. She found the idea of being a stepmother too distressing and decided against it.

In the story, Jiang Xi, the supporting character, failed to impress Lu Jianguo due to her family situation and honest nature. Returning home, she was accused of abandoning her fiancé, and her reputation suffered. Her uncle quickly married her off to another divorced man to get the bride price and she ended up stealing from her husband’s house to support her uncle. Her stepson grew up problematic, and she was eventually divorced and discarded. Her final fate was tragic, ending in suicide, while her younger sisters were sold as child brides and ended up in miserable situations.

Jiang Xi was infuriated by her situation.

Now, as the supporting character, she felt frustrated. She wasn’t sure if her situation was unlucky or fortunate, having traveled to this era and into the body of such an unfortunate person.

Her mother supported her brother and her younger sisters were still young. In 1971, even though it wasn’t an era of communal living, it was a time of collective labor and no free trade.

Jiang Xi, who couldn’t cook, farm, or do any practical tasks, felt hopeless in this era. She shuddered at the bleak future.

As she walked back to Jiangjia Village, she felt exhausted from the long journey. Her legs felt heavy, and she longed to rest at home. However, she found a crowd gathered around her house, discussing something animatedly.

She quickened her pace and saw a middle-aged woman with gray hair at her yard’s gate. The woman angrily pointed at Jiang Xi’s mother and said, “I didn’t expect you to be like this! My son isn’t dead yet, and you’re already trying to find a new home for your daughter!”

Jiang Xi’s mother, feeling guilty and exposed, tried to respond: “Sister-in-law, let’s discuss this inside.”

The woman refused, saying, “I won’t enter your dirty house! Zhang Xiuyun, I misjudged you!”

The woman, getting more upset, demanded, “Return the money you took for Jiang Xi’s schooling and the meat I sent her during festivals! I helped you because I thought you needed it, but I didn’t expect you to be so ungrateful!”

“Ever since the third child got into trouble, did I ever say that I wanted Xiaoxi to marry me? Didn’t I love this child, but I never said anything? And then how did you treat me? If you had been more generous and canceled the engagement openly, I would have thought better of it, but you did something like this secretly…”

The woman didn’t curse, but her voice was loud and full of resentment. She yelled at Jiang’s mother, Zhang Xiuyun, so fiercely that Zhang Xiuyun didn’t dare to respond and could only cry. The strange looks from the people around, who were watching the scene, made Jiang’s mother feel like she was being roasted on fire.

This woman is the mother of the original owner’s abandoned fiancé and also the person who collected the original owner’s body in the book.

Jiang Xi’s heart moved.

The original owner’s fiancé, Pei Hejun, was arranged by Jiang’s father before he died. He and Pei’s father were good friends. Pei Hejun was not young either, and marriage was always a concern for him. Jiang’s father, worried about his wife, arranged the marriage in advance, hoping that the Pei family would help his eldest daughter in the future.

And it proved to be true. In the three years since Jiang’s father passed away, the Pei family has indeed been helping the Jiang family. They paid for the original owner’s high school tuition and books, and took care of the two younger sisters as well.

Even…

Jiang Xi looked down at her black cloth shoes. These shoes were made by Pei’s mother. She was worried that her son was in the army and would rarely come home, so she made these shoes to make sure her future daughter-in-law would be comfortable and well taken care of.

If nothing unexpected happens, the original owner and Pei Hejun would have gotten married this year.

However, something happened to Pei Hejun.

Jiang Xi didn’t know if the original owner faced such a situation after returning from a blind date, but seeing the woman with grief and anger made her heart ache and her face flush.

The original owner must have been embarrassed, but she was too timid to resist.

Jiang Xi was not like that. She was looking for a way to escape from a difficult situation, but the appearance of Pei’s mother gave her hope. Moreover, the Pei family had been kind to the original owner, so it was neither fair nor moral to betray them now.

Pei’s mother had scolded enough but knew the situation couldn’t be changed. No girl would want to marry a man who might die soon. She came today because she was angry that the Jiang family betrayed so quickly and wanted to see this for herself.

Mother Pei glared at Zhang Xiuyun fiercely. With red and swollen eyes, she wanted to leave in despair: “Forget it, a forced marriage is not good. Zhang Xiuyun, return all the things from my Pei family, otherwise, don’t even think about letting Jiang Xi marry someone else—”

Jiang Xi quickly stepped forward, pulled Pei’s mother, and said, “Auntie, I won’t marry anyone else. I’m already engaged to Brother Pei San, and I won’t marry anyone else!”

Everyone gasped and widened their eyes: “!!!”

Is she’s crazy?!