Chapter 1: Blind Date Failure

“Who’s cooking? It smells amazing!”

“Who else could it be? The Lin family, of course. But I don’t get it—there’s no smell of meat, so why does it still smell so good?”

“Exactly. People are starving these days. Anyone with food should be thanking the heavens. But look at the Lin family—they can make even old vegetable stems smell delicious.”

“Must be the third child of the Lin family cooking, right? That one’s cooking skills are truly something else, even better than the chefs at the state-run restaurants.”

“What good is being good at cooking? Still just a little fool.”

“Sigh, such a pity.”

“…”

In the upstairs hallway, Lin Qi—thin as a piece of paper—clumsily scooped the boiled greens into a large enamel basin, filling it to the brim. There was only one basin of vegetables, served with another basin of wild vegetable cakes. This was dinner for the five-person household.

By the time Lin Qi brought the food back and cleaned all the cookware, Mother Lin had returned home.

“Mom, wash, hands, eat, food!” Lin Qi struggled to get each stiff word out of her mouth, one syllable at a time.

Before saying anything, Mother Lin swallowed hard. “Your dad, brother, and sister—are they back yet?”

“No. Sister, not, come.” Lin Qi still spoke one word at a time, her mouth movements exaggerated and awkward. But Mother Lin was already used to her slowness and didn’t mind. Compared to the past, when her daughter couldn’t even speak and had zero response to the outside world, the fact that she could now talk and cook for the family was already a huge step forward.

After all, for the past sixteen years, they had thought she would stay like this forever—simple-minded until the end of her life.

This current state was something she never even dared dream of back then. She should be content. That’s what Mother Lin told herself to feel better.

But the truth is, humans are never satisfied. Now that her daughter wasn’t simple-minded anymore, she started to think—how wonderful it would be if her daughter could live like a normal person, live a normal life, get married, have children…

“Sigh~” Mother Lin shook her head and sighed.

Inside the house, Lin Qi paused when she heard that sigh, then walked into the room as if nothing had happened. She opened the drawer of the desk and took out a glass bottle filled with a brightly colored substance.

“Didn’t you say the ketchup was all gone yesterday?” Mother Lin asked curiously.

Lin Qi raised her eyes and gave her mother a faint look. “Sister… took it.”

If she didn’t say it was gone, her sister would keep pestering her until she got what she wanted. Only when she managed to take the last bottle of ketchup would she stop.

Thinking of how her eldest daughter had done the same thing before, Mother Lin sighed. “Last time she took two bottles of ketchup, and who knows who she gave them to? Could it be she’s seeing someone? Qiqi, did your sister ever mention it to you?”

Lin Qi shook her head, took out an empty bowl, and began pouring the ketchup into it. As she poured half the bottle, her mother cried out in alarm, “That’s enough, that’s enough—it’s too much!”

“No. More! Brother… likes!” Lin Qi kept pouring until the bowl was completely full before she stopped.

Her older brother, Lin Mo, liked sweet things. The three years of hardship had just passed, and the autumn harvest hadn’t come in yet. Even getting enough to eat was still a struggle. Sugar was more expensive than oil—sometimes they wouldn’t have any for a whole month. But only her homemade ketchup, sweet and tangy, eaten with wild vegetable cakes—was her brother’s favorite.

“You’re always spoiling your brother. Careful or your sister will get jealous!” Mother Lin tapped Lin Qi on the forehead with a finger, eyes full of affection. “Just one tomato plant in that little flowerpot, and it’s been producing for over half a year without dying. How do you do it?”

Thanks to that one tomato plant, their family had been eating either cold tomato dishes or ketchup for over half a year. Not once had they run out. If word got out, no one would believe it!

Her little daughter wasn’t simple-minded anymore. Although she still didn’t speak smoothly, she had a skill others didn’t. She was self-taught at growing flowers, herbs, vegetables—you name it. She was no different from real farmers now.

That little flowerpot had once grown flowers, then vegetables, and after learning her brother liked ketchup, she had been growing tomatoes ever since.

If they lived in the countryside, she could probably support herself just fine.

But the countryside…

Mother Lin shook her head. Life in the countryside was hard. She couldn’t bear to let her youngest daughter suffer like that.

Before Mother Lin could sit down, Father Lin and Big Brother Lin had already returned home.

“Why the frown?” As soon as they walked in the door, Mother Lin sensed that something was off between the two of them.

“It’s nothing,” Father Lin replied as he rolled up his sleeves and walked toward the faucet. “Let’s eat first.”

Mother Lin watched his back, then turned to look at her eldest son. But Lin Mo kept his head down and avoided her gaze.

“Something definitely happened,” she muttered, a wave of unease rising in her heart. After enduring the three hard years, the family had nothing left. They couldn’t afford the slightest mishap now.

Meanwhile, Lin Qi quietly set the table. In her mind, nothing was more important than filling one’s belly.

Each of the four had their own concerns, but it didn’t stop them from having a good appetite. The vegetables, wild vegetable cakes, and even that entire bowl of ketchup were all eaten clean—nothing was left.

When Lin Qi stood up to clear the dishes, Mother Lin beat her to it. “Let me. You’re so slow. By the time you’re done, it’ll be dark out.”

Lin Qi wasn’t upset at being called slow. She stood up and said, “I… bathe.”

“You bathe every day—don’t you ever get tired?” Mother Lin grumbled but didn’t try to stop her.

“No… not tired.” Lin Qi returned to her room to grab her clothes, towel, and a bar of soap. Then she picked up a basin and slowly made her way downstairs.

There was a public bathhouse nearby. A hot bath cost ten cents, but a cold one only cost two. The three working members of the Lin family received quite a few bath coupons each month, and Lin Qi used theirs—so it didn’t cost her anything.

By the time she returned upstairs, an hour had passed. When she got to the second floor, she saw her second sister leaning against their door, ear pressed tightly to the wooden panel.

“Sister,” Lin Qi greeted.

“Shh!”

Second sister Lin Miaomiao raised a finger to her lips, giving Lin Qi a warning look.

Lin Qi wasn’t afraid of this sister, but she was curious about what the three people inside were talking about. So she obediently kept quiet and pressed her own ear against the old wooden door.

“Weren’t you supposed to meet this weekend? Why did you meet today instead?” Mother Lin recalled the expressions on father and son’s faces when they came home, and a bad feeling rose in her heart. “Did something happen with that side—?”

“Mom, we’re not a good match,” Lin Mo interrupted, clearly not wanting to talk more about it.

“What do you mean not a good match?” Mother Lin grew anxious. “You didn’t like her?”

“She didn’t like me,” Lin Mo said as he headed toward his room.

Mother Lin’s eyes widened. “She’s twenty-three, you’re twenty-two. She doesn’t have a job—you do. Her family has nine people in two rooms, we have five in two larger rooms. Three people in her family have jobs—so do we. She’s under 1.6 meters tall, you’re 1.8. Her face is covered in spots, you have thick brows and big eyes… What makes her think she can look down on you?!”

Her chest heaved with anger. Her child had been rejected—what mother could bear that?

She had already lowered their standards…

“It’s because the eldest said he’d live with the third child too, and the girl didn’t agree,” Father Lin, who had been silent, finally spoke. He let out a heavy sigh. “She didn’t want to, so that’s that. We’ll just look again. The three hard years have just ended. There are plenty of families rushing to marry off their daughters—we’ll definitely find someone who’s willing to accept the third.”

During those three difficult years, even feeding one’s own family had been a struggle. Anyone who didn’t starve to death was considered lucky—no one wanted an extra mouth at home. So marriages had almost completely come to a halt. Now that those years were over, weddings and matchmaking were happening everywhere.

Upon hearing that her youngest daughter was the reason for the rejection, Mother Lin frowned. “The third one isn’t simple-minded anymore. She can cook. Your dad and I are here to support her—there’s no need for you to do it. Didn’t you tell the girl’s family that?”

“He didn’t. I was the one who mentioned it,” Father Lin said with a bitter smile. “But they made it clear—if she marries in, they want to split the household.”

Their home only had two rooms—how would they split the family?

Besides, if she was already pushing for separation before even marrying in, trying to drive a wedge between their eldest son and his parents and sister, then that kind of daughter-in-law—they didn’t want her either.

“I’ll take care of my sister. I’ll take care of you and Dad too. If no one can accept that, then I’d rather not get married at all,” Lin Mo said, his voice firm and resolute, making it clear he was standing by his decision.

“You’d rather not get married?! You little brat!” Mother Lin was so angry she raised her hand and smacked her eldest son on the back. “Your dad and I aren’t old—we don’t need you to take care of us! Your sister doesn’t need it either!”

“……”

Outside the door, Lin Qi stood up straight, her lips tightly pressed together.

“Did you hear that?” Lin Miaomiao cast a sideways glare at her “foolish” sister, her voice full of resentment. “Because of you, this is already the sixth time our eldest brother has been rejected. If it weren’t for you, with our brother’s job at the machinery factory, he could marry any woman he wanted.”

The sixth time rejected?

Lin Qi’s feelings were complicated. Although she had only been in this body for a year, during this year the people who treated her best—aside from Mother Lin—were Lin Mo and the brother-sister bond they shared. Hearing that Lin Mo was considering not marrying because of her, Lin Qi felt a warmth in her chest and a sting in her nose.

Lin Miaomiao, standing nearby and watching her silent foolish sister, was immediately filled with anger. She grabbed Lin Qi’s arm and dragged her downstairs.

Clumsy in her body, Lin Qi stumbled and nearly fell several times, her left foot tripping over her right. Once outside the yard, her older sister grabbed her by the collar and lifted her like a little chick—thin, weak, and powerless—and pressed her against the wall.

“For the sake of our brother, you have to leave our family!” Lin Miaomiao gritted her teeth and stared Lin Qi in the eyes. If her sister showed even the slightest displeasure, she would beat her up.

Surprise filled Lin Qi’s eyes at first, then she found it reasonable. If she stayed, it would not only harm Lin Mo’s marriage prospects but also Lin Miaomiao’s. After all, having a foolish sister meant no one could guarantee they wouldn’t have foolish children.

Seeing it this way, leaving would be better for everyone in the family.

“Go where?” Lin Qi asked after coming to terms with it, no longer resisting the idea of leaving.

“Don’t worry. You’re still my real sister—I wouldn’t harm you. Since you’re good at growing things, go be an educated youth in the countryside.” Lin Miaomiao said with a tone of ‘I’m doing this for your own good,’ tinged with regret. “I originally planned to register you with the military corps. The educated youths there get fixed rations and subsidies for grain and oil, plus a monthly salary. But that recruitment is full now. Your ketchup wasn’t impressive enough, and we couldn’t pull the right strings.”

Lin Qi looked up. Military corps educated youth? What was that?

Having not stepped outside the front or back door in less than a year in this body, Lin Qi knew very little about the world. But judging from Lin Miaomiao’s tone, being an educated youth in the military corps was probably better than just going down to the countryside.

After Lin Qi agreed, Lin Miaomiao didn’t even go back home, she turned and left immediately. Her anxious and hurried demeanor clearly showed her determination to send away her foolish sister. Before leaving, she reminded Lin Qi, “Keep this a secret—don’t tell Dad, Mom, or eldest brother.”

“If you don’t starve to death, you’ll be sent away by your family—and in the end, you still won’t survive,” Lin Qi thought sadly in her heart, feeling sorry for the foolish original owner of the body.

Foolish and simple-minded, she had lived until sixteen and finally starved to death on a cold winter night.

For her, death was perhaps a kind of release.

May you have a smooth and peaceful next life.