Chapter 1

“You heartless wretch! I told you to take good care of your sister, and this is how you take care of her? My Nianzi, oh my Nianzi…”

Jiang Nianzi’s head throbbed with pain. As soon as she regained consciousness, she heard a commotion and a woman’s voice filled with anguish.

“Ma, Sister’s awake.” The young man, who had been berated and poked on the head, noticed Jiang Nianzi blinking. His bloodshot eyes widened in surprise, and he immediately rushed to the bedside.

Ding Hongmei, upon hearing this, quickly sat down at the head of the bed and embraced Jiang Nianzi. “Nianzi, my precious girl, what happened? Are you alright?”

Jiang Nianzi was still a bit groggy. She looked around her surroundings with confusion.

The ceiling was made of wooden beams with dark planks overhead. The surrounding walls were made of white mud, with many mottled marks.

The young man squatting before her bed, looking anxious, was dark-skinned and his clothes had patches on them.

Where was she?

Suddenly, Jiang Nianzi remembered the voice she had heard in her mind before falling asleep.

The voice said: “Go back, return to where you belong…”

“This is…” Jiang Nianzi instinctively spoke.

“Zi-zi, you’re finally awake.” Before she could finish her sentence, the young man squatting by the bed suddenly burst into tears. “If you didn’t wake up, Ma was going to beat me to death.”

Ding Hongmei slapped her son on the back. “Cry, cry, cry! All you know is how to cry. It’s a good thing Zi-zi is alright. If anything happened to Zi-zi, I’d make sure you suffer the consequences.”

Jiang Nianzi followed her gaze. The young man, despite being hit, didn’t say anything. He just scratched his head and “hehe” laughed, looking both simple and silly.

Still unsure of the situation, Jiang Nianzi didn’t dare to speak.

Ding Hongmei, worried for her daughter, who had always been frail and sickly and now had fallen into the water, saw her pale and weak and hurriedly said, “Nianzi, rest for a while. Ma will go get you an egg.”

She placed Jiang Nianzi back on the bed and patted her son again. “You stinky boy, why aren’t you going to start the fire yet?”

“Oh, coming.”

After everyone left, Jiang Nianzi finally had the chance to process the situation.

Just now, the woman called the man Jiang Cheng, right?

And she called her Nianzi…

Looking at the surroundings, with their strong sense of the past, Jiang Nianzi covered her face. If she wasn’t mistaken, she had transmigrated into a book.

A period novel she had been reading before she fell unconscious.

It was a story told from the male lead’s perspective. The original character was named Jiang Nianzi, the male lead’s deceased white moonlight.

A typical sickly beauty, frail and weak.

Not long after the male lead, Shen Cheng, fell in love with her, she passed away.

Because they shared the same name, Jiang Nianzi felt a sense of connection. She didn’t read the later chapters.

But she remembered that the original character had a mother, Ding Hongmei, who favored daughters over sons. She also had an overprotective brother and sister, and a younger brother. Her brother’s name was Jiang Cheng. Her father had passed away early, and she hadn’t seen anyone who looked like a father.

Thinking about this, Jiang Nianzi quickly got out of bed and grabbed a mirror from the cabinet to take a look.

Seeing the face in the mirror, identical to her own, Jiang Nianzi breathed a sigh of relief.

The next second, her eyebrows shot up.

This…

Sickly beauty?

The woman in the mirror was much thinner than her original self, but also darker.

She raised her arm and turned her head. There wasn’t a single muscle, as thin as a black chicken.

Before she could even comment, Jiang Nianzi coughed violently, her body swaying. A dizzying sensation washed over her.

Fortunately, she was right next to the bed.

She managed to reach out and grab the headboard, taking a deep breath.

Had she really become a sickly beauty?

This was too weak!

Before transmigrating, Jiang Nianzi was a world champion in martial arts.

Suddenly arriving in the 1980s and becoming so frail, Jiang Nianzi found it hard to accept.

This must be a dream, it has to be a dream!

After lying down for an afternoon and eating two poached eggs, Jiang Nianzi accepted reality.

There was nothing she could do about it. If she didn’t accept it, what could she do?

Ding Hongmei and Jiang Cheng went out to work, leaving only her five-year-old brother to stay by Jiang Nianzi’s bedside.

Jiang Nianzi and her dark-skinned younger brother stared at each other.

Through her subtle probing, Jiang Nianzi learned from the little guy that it was the 1980s, specifically 1981.

She remembered that while the book was set in a fictional era, it was largely similar to the real 1980s.

She hadn’t had much hope initially, after all, what could a five-year-old know? It was just a casual inquiry.

But the little guy actually knew, probably overheard something from the adults.

“Sister, do you want some water?” Jiang Doudou asked with his big, dark eyes, in a childish voice.

The little guy’s clothes were even more ordinary, full of patches, and the fabric was rough.

Jiang Nianzi lay on her side, supporting her head with one hand.

Although the little guy was standing by the bed, talking to her, his eyes never left the bowl on the cabinet.

It was the bowl with the leftover soup from her poached eggs.

His big, round eyes were almost peering into the bottom of the bowl.

“Gulp…”

A loud rumble echoed from Jiang Doudou’s stomach. He was startled, immediately clutching his belly and turning his head to look at Jiang Nianzi in astonishment.

“Sister, I didn’t want to steal your food.” His eyes were filled with pity.

Jiang Nianzi couldn’t help but let out a “pfft” and laugh.

The initial frustration of accidentally transmigrating was dispelled by this little incident.

“Go ahead and drink it, Sister’s full.”

“Really?” Jiang Doudou looked at Jiang Nianzi with his round eyes, full of joy.

With Jiang Nianzi’s permission, Jiang Doudou no longer hesitated. He excitedly picked up the bowl and drank the soup in large gulps.

He drank quickly, making “glug glug” swallowing sounds, as if he hadn’t eaten in a hundred years.

Looking at his thin frame, it was true that he seemed like he hadn’t eaten enough.

Jiang Nianzi sighed. She had really transmigrated into the period novel she had read, all the characters matched up.

After reading the prologue of the book, Jiang Nianzi knew how poor this family was.

While the initial shock of accidental transmigration was hard to accept, after calming down, Jiang Nianzi felt a glimmer of anticipation for the first time in years.

Her grandfather was a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner, and her father was a martial arts fighter.

She had been carrying the hopes of her father and grandfather since she was young, constantly striving for excellence.

She became a world champion in martial arts and a renowned doctor.

But she had never seriously thought about what she wanted to do. Her grandfather and father didn’t care either.

Only when she saw her best friend being doted on by her family did she feel a pang of envy from within.

She couldn’t help but wonder, was it because her obsession was too deep that it led her to transmigrate into the family she had always dreamed of?

Undeniably, the original character was the apple of her family’s eye.

After realizing this, Jiang Nianzi’s initial rejection turned into a sliver of anticipation.

Could she truly live the life she had always wanted?

When Ding Hongmei and Jiang Cheng came back in the evening, it was during dinner that Jiang Nianzi truly understood the extent of this family’s poverty.

They were poorer than she could have imagined.

Thin corn porridge, with no side dishes, just a plate of unsalted pickles.

Jiang Doudou and Jiang Cheng ate happily, both of them gobbling down their food at lightning speed, as if they had been starving for a long time.

This was what they ate as a family. But on Jiang Nianzi’s table, there were still two eggs in her bowl.

Eggs were a rare delicacy in this era.

Just by looking at their food, Jiang Nianzi could tell how precious those two eggs were.

Jiang Doudou looked at the eggs in her bowl with envy several times, constantly swallowing his saliva.

(Note: The female lead is the original character)