Chapter 1: Pale Skin and a Slim Waist

Summer of 1990, Capital City

Dahuaishu Alley

The sun scorched people’s faces with a burning sting. The sky above was a clear, spotless blue.

Passersby hurried along, and even the cicadas had cried themselves hoarse.

The old pagoda tree outside the alley stood like an elderly man in his twilight years, trembling as if welcoming a long-lost child home.

That tree had lived for over a hundred years. Back in her previous life, even during the demolition, the developers hadn’t dared touch it. Yet once the alley was torn down, it suddenly withered and died all on its own.

Rushing out from the public latrine, Xu Meng ran a long way before she could finally catch her breath in big, gasping mouthfuls.

She never would have expected that, the moment she opened her eyes, she’d actually be back here.

The woman beside her, seeing her frozen in place for so long, had even kindly torn out two sheets from her exercise book for her.

Xu Meng hadn’t used this kind of paper in ages. In a fluster, she quickly cleaned herself up and ran out.

The air was dry and refreshing, which reminded her of the summers down south—humid and stifling. She had lived in the south for thirty years, yet still couldn’t get used to the climate there. The stickiness clung to every pore of her body.

Just as she stepped outside, her foot landed in a puddle. Fortunately, it hadn’t rained in the past few days, so it was dry.

In her memory, this place had always been a muddy road. Every time it rained, water would collect easily. She’d heard that it wasn’t until the millennium that any improvements were made. Later, she heard they paved it with concrete, but just a few years after the road was fixed, demolition began.

This particular alley was torn down sometime in the early 2000s.

With the joy of the successful Olympic bid, many of the old alleys in the capital were incorporated into urban renewal projects. By then, Xu Meng had already been living in the south for many years. Somehow, she got pulled into a QQ group by her old neighbors, where many people were furiously venting their indignation.

And rightfully so—people had been living comfortably near the Second Ring Road, and the compensation, if one wanted to put it nicely, was just a few hundred thousand yuan.

But what could a few hundred thousand buy?

The original homes were close to people’s workplaces, and it only took a short walk to get to work or school. Everyone had lived here for decades and had long grown accustomed to the way of life in this place.

After a period of noisy protest and back-and-forth, they eventually realized that an arm could never twist a thigh, and in the end, everyone signed the agreement one after another.

As the demolition work came to an end, that QQ group gradually quieted down too.

Occasionally, someone would still strike up a conversation, but there were fewer and fewer topics they had in common.

Then one day, someone in the group asked, “Xu Meng, are you in Shenzhen? Xu Jia is in Shenzhen too these days. Has she contacted you?”

At the time, Xu Jia wasn’t in the group, but the neighbors were stirred up again, reminiscing about the past.

“Xu Jia, huh? She was the first to sign the agreement when her house was being demolished. Her family got lucky and bought a place near the Olympic Village. That whole area skyrocketed later. The last time I saw her, she was driving a big Benz, looking all high and mighty.”

But the demolition back then wasn’t like in later years, where people struck it rich overnight. Most of the old neighbors who had lived in the alley didn’t have very big houses. The compensation wasn’t even enough to buy a commercial apartment within the Third Ring Road. There were also families who owned multiple properties and received more compensation, but ended up squandering it all on gambling or keeping mistresses, ruining everything.

Xu Jia, however, was part of the small group who managed to do well.

The group began chattering away, and the topic naturally shifted to Xu Jia.

After signing the demolition agreement, Xu Jia had pretty much vanished. She never attended any of the old neighbors’ gatherings, nor did she keep in touch with anyone from the group. Everyone just assumed she had done well for herself and didn’t want to associate with her old friends anymore. People like that were fairly common in society, and everyone could more or less accept it.

Someone said Xu Jia was now teaching at a university and had already become an associate professor.

Someone else said she later flipped a few properties and now had a net worth in the hundreds of millions, at the very least.

Seeing those chat records, Xu Meng’s thoughts drifted back to more than thirty years ago.

Xu Jia was the daughter of her second uncle, Xu Xiangqian. The relationship between the two of them was somewhat delicate.

The Xu family had three brothers. Xu Meng was the adopted daughter of the youngest, Xu Jiefang. After she failed the college entrance exam, her adoptive mother suddenly passed away. Her grandmother was the first to act, forcing this granddaughter with no blood ties to be married off. At the time, she was only eighteen, with no one to rely on. She secretly ran away from home and ended up in the south, doing small business here and there. Unexpectedly, she managed to make it work.

She had originally thought that after leaving that circle, some people and some things would naturally fade away.

But there would always be someone who brought it up in front of her. Only when the wounds on her body were peeled open layer by layer did she realize she hadn’t truly let it go.

She had just been deliberately avoiding it.

But how did Xu Jia become an associate professor?

Others might not know, but having lived in the same room, Xu Meng knew Xu Jia very well.

Back in middle school, Xu Jia had excellent grades, but starting from the first year of high school, her performance began to decline. She was prideful and refused to admit defeat, so she maintained her grades by cheating. After the college entrance exam, Xu Jia suddenly became secretive.

Xu Meng had once thought Xu Jia had some kind of hidden trick. When she looked into it, she found that the university listed on Xu Jia’s résumé was the very same one Xu Meng had applied to back then.

That made things even stranger—Xu Jia hadn’t applied to that university.

A vague sense of suspicion rose in Xu Meng’s heart. She went on to ask a few classmates from those days, and her doubts only deepened.

Back then, she never received an admission letter. When she went to the school to inquire, they told her she had missed the cutoff by one point.

These mysteries had haunted Xu Meng, keeping her awake for several nights.

It wasn’t until she saw Xu Jia at a public event that things began to unravel.

By then, Xu Jia had clearly become a successful woman. Her permed hair was styled to perfection, and she was elegantly dressed. Two elderly individuals with the air of intellectuals accompanied her. They weren’t her parents, yet she interacted with them with an affectionate familiarity. Xu Meng walked over to greet them.

The moment Xu Jia saw Xu Meng, the expression on her face cracked.

There had never been any major conflict between them, so Xu Meng couldn’t understand why she would react like that.

After the banquet, Xu Meng unexpectedly received an invitation from Xu Jia.

It was November in the north, and a thin layer of ice had already formed over the pond.

The two of them hadn’t seen each other in years since their parting. Xu Jia had so much she wanted to say.

But all she asked was, “How did you end up studying at the University of Economics and Trade? I remember you didn’t apply to that school.” In an instant, Xu Jia lost control. She started swearing, ranting nonsense—saying how her life hadn’t been smooth either, as if Xu Meng’s reappearance was somehow meant to ruin her life.

In the midst of her tirade, Xu Jia suddenly reached out and shoved her. Xu Meng fell backward, and in that instant, icy water surged over her head.

Even now, just thinking about that moment, Xu Meng’s body would tremble uncontrollably.

She had feared water since she was a child—and Xu Jia knew that.

She had thought through so much, but never had she imagined that Xu Jia would commit murder.

The two of them had never been especially close since childhood, but it hadn’t been to the point of wanting to kill each other.

Clearly, she had now returned to the time when she was eighteen, back to that little alley she once lived in. Walking along the damaged path dotted with small dirt pits, her body still felt as if it were trapped in the winter of 2024.

That kind of cold pierced every bone in her body.

And now, she could no longer tell whether the scenes from her previous life were dreams or reality.

But here she was, breathing in the warm air of 1990, stepping once again onto the scorching earth of that year—she had returned.

————

Xu Meng walked up to the doorway of the familiar house.

It was just about the time people were getting off work, and the courtyard was bustling with life. Someone was lighting the stove to cook, while others were chasing after their children in a commotion of chickens flying and dogs barking.

Xu Meng paused in her steps, and her eyes instantly welled up with tears. The scene before her looked like an old photo on a computer screen.

“You’re back.”

Xu Meng spotted a small mirror on the broken window next door and thought to herself, if this were a dream, it was far too real.

This was the home of Chen Dapao next door. One year, someone had set off firecrackers and blown a hole in his window. Chen Dapao’s mother had casually grabbed a broken mirror to patch it up. All these years, it had never been replaced.

Xu Meng looked at herself in the mirror. The face reflected back at her was bright and striking—exactly how she looked as a teenager.

She had always been pretty, a natural beauty from a young age. Her skin was fair, and her facial features were bold and defined, the kind of strong beauty that left a lasting impression. She had a slim waist and a perky figure. By the standards of old-fashioned folks, she was just a little too alluring.

When people heard that Xu Meng had returned, several doors along the alley creaked open.

Xu Meng looked over each one—every face was familiar—and her heart stirred. “Auntie Dapao, have you seen my mom?”

“Your mom was just looking for you earlier. Go on, let her know you’re back,” Chen Dapao’s mother called out, chuckling under her breath, “Still calling out ‘Mom’ all the time. How old are you now and still doing that?”

These houses had been allocated by the housing bureau after Liberation. Altogether, more than a dozen families lived here. The Xu family’s place was a forty-square-meter single large room at the very end of the alley. Later on, the room had been partitioned into four separate spaces.

At first, the house had been spacious enough. But as each of the older generation started their own families, the living space quickly became cramped.

Xu Meng darted into the courtyard, skillfully weaving around the people outside as she made her way through, greeting everyone along the way.

She had always been sweet-tongued since childhood, calling out “Uncle,” “Auntie,” “Grandpa,” and “Grandma” as she passed. These people still looked just as she remembered them, their familiar faces filling her with warmth. They were neighbors who had lived together for decades, and the bonds between them ran deep. One call was all it took for a group of people to come forward and lend a hand.

Seeing Xu Meng hurrying inside, someone quickly told her that her mom had gone out looking for her.

Xu Meng immediately turned around and rushed back outside.

This alley was narrow, and going back and forth took some effort. By the time Xu Meng finally made it to the entrance, she heard someone speaking—and then saw that familiar figure of Feng Yanwen appear before her.

She was still wearing that faded white dress, with two long braids hanging down. Her skin was fair, her figure tall and slender—when she was young, Feng Yanwen had also been a beauty.

Although Feng Yanwen was her adoptive mother, she had been more devoted than many birth mothers. This mother, only in her thirties now, looked even younger than most women her age.

This was the mother as Xu Meng remembered her—and in that instant, her eyes turned red.

Feng Yanwen’s life had ended at thirty-seven.

Xu Meng stared greedily at the woman in front of her, trying to etch her current appearance deep into her heart. The grief she had felt in her past life when the family was struck by sudden misfortune, when her mother had passed away without warning—that heart-wrenching memory came flooding back like a tidal wave.

And after that, she had become like the old tree—no matter how hard she tried to save herself, she had withered all the same.

But now she had come back, and her mother was still alive.

She hadn’t even moved yet when Feng Yanwen happened to turn her head and caught sight of her.

Xu Meng’s tears could no longer be held back. They poured down like a stream.

Never before had she felt so strongly just how wonderful it was to be reborn.