Chapter 1 : Traveling through time?

Su Xieqiu opened her eyes in pain.

What she saw was a low, cramped adobe house!

She was lying on a dusty earthen bed, covered with an old, worn-out floral quilt.

She blinked and looked around in confusion.

Where is this?

Wasn’t she sleeping in her newly bought house?

How did she end up here?

The house was shabby and old. The country house she lived in as a child was better than this.

Am I dreaming?

But this dream feels too real, doesn’t it?

Su Xieqiu tried to get off the kang, but felt dizzy and weak.

She slapped her face with her hands, trying to wake up.

But the calluses on her hands made her instantly open her eyes wide.

No, this wasn’t her hand.

She was so frightened that her body tensed up, and suddenly, a memory that didn’t belong to her appeared in her mind.

Su Xieqiu felt as though she had been struck by lightning, and the blood in her body froze.

She couldn’t suppress her inner panic and had no idea how to describe what she was feeling at that moment.

After graduating from college, she had worked hard in the workplace for several years before buying her own house.

But just a few days after moving in, she was miraculously transported through time, to the 1970s during the planned economy period.

According to the memories of this body, she was in Northeast Ning Province, Wenshan City, Nanping County, Hongqi Commune, Sanhua Village, which is now changed to Sanhua Brigade.

This body belonged to someone from Haicheng who came to Sanhua Brigade as an educated youth last winter.

Su Xieqiu lay on the kang, feeling like crying but without tears.

If she had known she would be transported here, why had she worked so hard for a house?

Now that she’s gone young, she wonders which old man will get her newly renovated house for free.

Su Xieqiu in the 21st century had a childhood that was not tragic, but not entirely complete either.

Her parents were college graduates from rural areas. After graduation, they got married and stayed in the provincial capital.

Whether it was due to a breakdown in their relationship or some other temptation, they divorced when she was very young.

Not long after, they each started new families, and Su Xieqiu was left in the care of her grandparents in the countryside.

Two years before the divorce, her parents occasionally sent her some clothes and money during the Chinese New Year and other holidays.

Once they had their own children, they forgot about their daughter from the countryside.

Over the years, they paid little attention to her.

Su Xieqiu had been living in the countryside with her grandparents.

Although the two elderly people were somewhat biased towards boys, they still provided her with basic meals, though nothing more.

Even so, Su Xieqiu was very grateful to her grandparents.

At least they gave her shelter from the wind and rain when her parents didn’t care about her.

It would have been fine if things had continued like this.

But when she was in the second grade of junior high, a flood hit her village, causing a landslide that buried her house.

Su Xieqiu was at school at the time, so she escaped the disaster.

But the grandparents, who were napping at home, were lost forever.

Her irresponsible father handled the funeral arrangements for her grandparents, hired someone to clean up the house, and prepared to return to the city.

Had he ever considered how his daughter would live alone in the countryside?

Su Xieqiu was very scared and followed her careless father all the way to the town.

After he got on the bus without looking back, she returned home with red eyes.

Staring at the empty yard, Su Xieqiu sat there and began crying.

Although her grandparents hadn’t loved her much in life, at least she had had elders at home who provided her with some sense of stability.

Now she was all alone. She was only fourteen at the time, and no one wanted her to work.

Moreover, Su Xieqiu didn’t want to become a child laborer so early, she wanted to go to school.

She had understood from a young age that for a child like her, who had no one to care for her, the only way out was through education.

She thought about it for a few days and then decided to go to the city to find her parents.

She was still a minor, so they had to take care of her.

But when she arrived in the city, her parents treated her like a nuisance and refused to let her stay.

Seeing how heartless they were, Su Xieqiu was completely disillusioned and no longer cared about dignity.

She first went to the street office where they lived and then cried at the entrance of their workplace.

The two were so annoyed with her that they reluctantly agreed to pay her tuition and living expenses under the mediation of the neighborhood office.

They were also worried that she would affect their current family life in the city, so they insisted she return to the countryside to study.

Su Xieqiu had no objections, as she didn’t want to be disliked by them.

As long as her tuition was paid on time, she could study anywhere.

This continued until she went to college. Apart from sending her money begrudgingly every semester, her cold-hearted parents never visited her once during those years.

When she was in college, her parents suggested she apply for a student loan.

Originally, Su Xieqiu had considered this option, but then she thought, why should she?

Her parents could afford it, so why should they burden the state with a loan?

So, she continued to ask for tuition and living expenses. If they didn’t give her the money, she would stay at their house and refuse to leave. Sometimes, she would even go to the street office to chat with people.

Her parents, being well-known and influential, weren’t afraid of being embarrassed, so why should she, an orphan with no one to rely on, be afraid?

She didn’t believe that family disgrace should be kept secret.

If they didn’t say anything, how would others know that they lived a glamorous life but didn’t even care for their own daughter?

After her constant nagging, her scumbag parents had no choice but to compromise and reluctantly continued to pay for her college education.

After graduating from university, Su Xieqiu was accepted by a well-known company.

When her parents found out, they breathed a sigh of relief.

They weren’t happy for her, but they were relieved to finally be rid of this big trouble.

Su Xieqiu was also very tactful and never visited the two families again from then on.

She hadn’t even seen them in the past few years, but during the Chinese New Year and other holidays, she would send them gifts.

Occasionally, she would call to check in, but only said a few words before hanging up.

Thinking about it made her want to cry.

It wasn’t that she couldn’t bear to leave her scumbag parents, but she felt sorry for the new house she had only lived in for a few days.

She had lived in a three-bedroom apartment in the city center for less than two months before she traveled through time. She wondered who ended up getting the house for free.

It would have been fine if she had been reincarnated into a good family, but the original owner of this body had the same name and surname as her, yet lived a life worse than her own.

Moreover, the original owner wasn’t very ambitious, had a weak and cowardly personality, and was a bit confused.

Her older sister stole her boyfriend in the city, and her mother was afraid that the scandal would ruin the family’s reputation.

So, the name that was originally meant for her sister when she went to the countryside as an educated youth was changed to hers.

Perhaps they feared she would cause trouble by running away, so they moved her from near Haicheng to the Northeast, thousands of miles away.

Once the original owner arrived in the countryside, her beauty caught the attention of a well-off male educated youth at the institution, who passionately pursued her.

This caused quite a stir. Several other female educated youths were envious and jealous, so they devised a plan to marry her off to Han Zhenyu, a local gangster.

Although everyone called Han Zhenyu a gangster, he actually treated the original owner very well.

He never asked her to do anything, gave her pocket money every month, and sometimes brought her delicious food when he returned.

But the original owner had a lover in the city and looked down on Han Zhenyu, who had no stable job.

Despite being married for several months, the two had barely exchanged a few words, let alone slept together.

Although Han Zhenyu had a bad reputation, he was a man with high aspirations.

Even though they slept on the same kang, one at the head and the other at the foot, Han Zhenyu didn’t even touch her.

On their wedding day, he told the original owner that if she wanted a divorce, she could ask for it anytime and he would cooperate.

Though the original owner didn’t like him, she didn’t dare to divorce.

She was afraid she would have nowhere to go and that the other educated youths at the Youth League Home would bully her even more.

However, Han Zhenyu’s family was also complicated. His biological mother died during childbirth, and the woman he lived with was his stepmother. His father was terrified of his wife.

He had two younger brothers and a younger sister, all born to the stepmother, and none of them were easy to deal with.

After the original owner married into this family, her life became miserable.

Fortunately, Han Zhenyu was capable otherwise, she would have been exploited by the family.

No one dared to bully her while Han Zhenyu was around.

But no one knew what Han Zhenyu was up to outside the house. He would leave every two or three days, sometimes coming back after seven or eight days, staying home for one night before leaving again. He spent more than 20 days a month outside.

Everyone in his family said he was just avoiding work and fooling around.

When Han Zhenyu was absent, the family openly bullied the original owner.

All the dirty and exhausting chores were pushed onto her, and she was treated like a maid.

Even her second brother’s wife, another educated youth, acted two-faced.

On the surface, she appeared kind to her sister-in-law, but secretly looked down on her.

She often instigated others to target her, spoke ill of her in the village, and teamed up with others at the Youth League Institute to isolate her.

Just the day before yesterday, the original owner was pushed to the ground by her sister-in-law, Han Meili.

She suffered a deep cut on her head, and a lot of blood flowed out.

The original owner was angry, frustrated, and ashamed, and didn’t leave the house for two days.

It just so happened that Han Zhenyu wasn’t home, and no one cared about her, not even calling her to eat.

Whether it was hunger or anger, the original owner simply died like that.

And then, the one who woke up was Su Xieqiu from the 21st century.