Song Niannian woke up feeling weak all over. As she gazed at the somewhat familiar ceiling and the furnishings in the room, her heart skipped a beat in shock.  

Wasn’t this her childhood bedroom from her teenage years at home?  

She propped up her frail body and sat up, scanning the room. When her eyes landed on the calendar on the wall, which read March 7, 1973, she froze.  

She had come back!  

Never did she imagine she would return to the age of fifteen.  

Song Niannian got out of bed and walked to the door. Peering through the crack, she caught sight of Song Suisui busily working in the courtyard, and for a moment, her expression turned complicated.  

Originally, after graduating high school, both sisters were supposed to be sent to the countryside. However, just before leaving, she had managed to secure a job. The family scraped together five hundred yuan to buy that position for her.  

With the job, she could stay in the city, which meant Suisui would be the only one sent to the countryside.  

In the end, it was their eldest brother who gave up his job at the recycling station to Suisui, sparing her from being sent away.  

But this meant their eldest brother had to go instead.  

With his intelligence and capabilities, life in the countryside shouldn’t have been too hard for him—at the very least, manageable.  

But he signed up too late and was assigned to a terrible place.  

A bad location was one thing, but who could have known the village he was sent to was a destitute, backwater hellhole that devoured people without spitting out their bones?  

Their brother was forced to marry a local village woman. Even sending letters home was done under surveillance.  

The village was tightly knit, and their attitude toward educated youths was hostile.  

Their brother had once tried to escape, only to be caught and have his legs broken.  

By the time the family found him in that remote mountain village in 1977, their brother, who should have been a vibrant twenty-two-year-old, looked no different from a weathered fifty-year-old man.  

Their parents were heartbroken. The family went to great lengths to secure a divorce for him.  

But after years of suffering, their brother was a shadow of his former self, his spirit utterly crushed.  

Meanwhile, their youngest sister, consumed by guilt after hearing what had happened to their brother, returned the job to him and left alone for the south with nothing but a bundle on her back. From then on, she was never heard from again.  

Plagued by guilt over their son and worry for their youngest daughter, their parents’ health gradually deteriorated. By the time they passed away, Suisui had still not returned. What was once a happy family had been completely torn apart.  

As Song Niannian looked at her little sister in the courtyard, her nose tingled with sorrow.  

It had been decades since she last saw Suisui.  

But she had never forgotten her little sister’s voice or smile.  

…

Song Suisui was sweeping the yard when she heard the sound of Song Niannian’s door opening. She turned her head to look.  

With just one glance, she could tell that this Song Niannian was no longer the same one she had seen a couple of days ago.  

They say the eyes are the windows to the soul—and this Song Niannian’s gaze carried the sharpness of someone who had once held authority, as well as the joy of reuniting with her long-lost sister.  

“Sister, are you feeling better?” Song Suisui asked.  

“Much better,” Song Niannian replied. She didn’t know why she had been reborn.  

This hadn’t happened in her past life, so she could only respond vaguely.  

Truthfully, she still felt extremely weak and exhausted.  

“Low blood sugar?” she muttered to herself.  

Though she hadn’t suffered from low blood sugar in her youth, she had developed it later in life.  

Had she brought that condition back with her when she returned?  

“Oh~” Song Suisui nodded but still advised, “You should rest a little longer. I’ll handle dinner.”  

Song Niannian gave a small smile. “Then I’ll help you with the fire. Lying around doing nothing is boring anyway.”  

“Sure, if you feel up to it.”  

After finishing her sweeping, Song Suisui headed into the kitchen, with Song Niannian following behind.  

The Song family’s kitchen wasn’t large, but thanks to Ma Xiumei and Song Niannian’s diligence, it was always spotless, without a single untidy corner.  

As Song Suisui stir-fried the vegetables, she kept an eye on Song Niannian, who sat by the stove feeding the fire.  

Her sister seemed lost in thought, her expression distant.  

Song Suisui knew she had just been reborn and hadn’t fully processed everything yet.  

Meanwhile, she herself had adapted to reality within a day of transmigrating—seemed like her ability to accept things was way stronger.  

Hehe~  

She mentally patted herself on the back with a little smugness.  

As the sun set, workers from the city’s factories began returning home.  

When Ma Xiumei arrived, she peeked into the kitchen and saw Song Suisui wielding a spatula, tossing the vegetables in the wok.  

“Oh? Suisui’s cooking today?”  

Song Niannian stared at her mother’s youthful face, momentarily stunned.  

Noticing this, Song Suisui smoothly interjected, “Mom, Sister doesn’t seem too well today. Can you check on her…?”  

Ma Xiumei, who doted on her daughters, immediately stepped closer and pressed a hand to Song Niannian’s forehead.

Song Niannian quickly called out, “Mom!” Seeing her tearful eyes, Ma Xiumei thought she was sick and asked anxiously, “Sweetheart, what’s wrong? Tell me where you’re feeling unwell.”  

Song Niannian tightly grasped Ma Xiumei’s hand. In her past life, her parents had spent years searching for Suisui.  

By the time she had achieved success in her career, her parents were already terminally ill, beyond any cure.  

There was no greater pain than wanting to care for one’s parents only to find them gone.  

Her eldest brother, broken by years of torment, also fell into poor health. He passed away just a few years after their parents.  

In the end, only she and her second brother remained in the Song family. No matter how much money she had, she could never bring her family back together.  

This was Song Niannian’s greatest regret.  

Now that heaven had given her a second chance, she would seize it without fail. She would never let her eldest brother go to the countryside again.  

And as for Suisui—she would arrange things for her as soon as possible. Having made up her mind, Song Niannian felt much more at ease.  

She shook her head, still holding Ma Xiumei’s hand. “Mom, I’m fine. I just went out earlier and got a little tired. Suisui’s just worrying too much.”  

“Really? Nothing’s wrong?” Ma Xiumei asked skeptically.  

“Really, nothing,” Song Niannian replied firmly.  

“Alright, as long as you’re okay.”  

With that, Ma Xiumei turned her attention to Song Suisui. After all, as a mother, she knew exactly how skilled her younger daughter was in the kitchen.  

If she didn’t keep an eye on her, she was afraid she’d end up eating half a bowl less at dinner tonight.  

Noticing Ma Xiumei’s intense stare, Song Suisui said helplessly, “Mom, is my cooking so bad that you have to watch me like this?”  

“Do you really have no idea how bad your cooking is? If I don’t keep an eye on you, you’ll ruin the entire dish.”  

Song Suisui: “…”  

Though Ma Xiumei complained about Song Suisui’s cooking, she didn’t snatch the spatula from her hands to take over.  

Children needed room to learn and grow, and Ma Xiumei had no intention of raising a lazybones.  

That said, none of the six members of the Song family were lazy to begin with.  

In her past life, Song Suisui hadn’t been an overachiever, but she was far from lazy. So she couldn’t understand why she had been bound to a Slacker System of all things.  

And a stingy Slacker System at that—its rewards were pitifully meager.  

Hearing Song Suisui’s complaints, the Slacker System couldn’t stay silent.  

Yes, it was a Slacker System, but it absolutely wasn’t a cheapskate!  

The system refused to take the blame for being “stingy”—it was clearly the host’s terrible luck.  

If Song Suisui knew what the system was thinking, she would never admit it.  

How could her luck possibly be bad?!