Chapter 5

Xu Di got off the bus and entered the family housing compound of the Red Star Machinery Factory.

The Red Star Machinery Factory in Beijing was a large factory, with over ten thousand employees and complete supporting facilities.

There was a factory hospital, a factory primary school, middle school, high school, a bathhouse, a cinema… You name it, all the facilities you could expect in the 1970s and 1980s were there.

“Xu Di is back, I heard from your mother that you were hospitalized for saving someone. How are you feeling, are you better?”

“Grandma Wang, I’m fine, look, I’m bouncing around.”

Xu Di had memories of this old woman in her mind. She was a neighbor downstairs from the Xu family.

Xu Di’s father was an old employee of the machinery factory, and her mother and older brother were also employees of the factory.

A few years ago, when they were allocating housing, the Xu family was fortunate enough to get a large apartment, a three-bedroom, one-living room unit with a bathroom.

The people living here were all factory leaders and skilled workers like Xu Di’s father, eighth-level fitters, eighth-level machinists…

“It’s good that you’re fine, don’t be so reckless in the future. Saving people is important, but your own life is also important. If something really happened, your parents would be heartbroken.”

Grandma Wang was a family member of a revolutionary martyr, her son had sacrificed his life, so she had a deep understanding of this.

“I know, Grandma Wang, I’ll be careful in the future, don’t worry too much.”

Xu Di waved her hand and climbed upstairs. Her family lived on the third floor.

Grandma Wang listened to Xu Di’s footsteps going upstairs, knowing that the girl was fine. She liked this girl from the Xu family, she was diligent and clever.

Xu Di took out her key, opened the door, and entered the house.

The wooden sofa in the living room, the peony flower tea tray on the coffee table, the five-drawer chest by the wall, the radio on top of the five-drawer chest, and the framed photos on the wall, with one-inch and two-inch black-and-white photos…

Everything made Xu Di realize that she had truly arrived in the 1970s. These things she had seen in TV dramas were really in front of her.

There were three bedrooms, one for Xu Di’s father and mother, one for her older brother and his family, and the largest one was divided into two rooms. Xu Di shared a room with her sister, and her younger brother, Xu Jun, had his own room.

Xu Di pushed open the door to her room, and the first thing she saw were two single beds and a desk placed between the headboards.

Xu Di’s sister, Xu Mei, had gone to the countryside, but her bed and belongings were still in their original places.

The room wasn’t big, apart from the two single beds, a desk, and a small wardrobe.

Perhaps because she was home, Xu Di felt a little tired. She had changed into new clothes when she was discharged from the hospital, and she had also washed her body briefly in the hospital.

Lying on the simple single bed, with a small floral pillow, Xu Di wasn’t sleepy, she couldn’t sleep, she closed her eyes and rested.

She thought about the time travel novels she had read before, wondering if there were any parts she could learn from.

In many novels, the female protagonists have cheat codes.

Like spaces, supermarkets, beauty-enhancing well water, automatic planting and harvesting farms, ranches, extra-large kitchens, and even old houses that traveled with them…

Did she have any of these essential time travel tools?

Otherwise, with her intelligence, it wouldn’t be easy to live comfortably in the 1970s.

Xu Di couldn’t sleep lying down, so she thought back, did the original Xu Di have any old objects like bracelets, rings, necklaces, pendants, etc.? Isn’t that how spaces usually come about?

She racked her brains, but couldn’t think of anything the original Xu Di had that could be a space.

Since there were no objects, she would search her body, see if she had any plum-shaped birthmarks, red moles, maybe the Lotus Jade Maiden had to be lotus-shaped.

Xu Di sat up suddenly, first checking her arms, forearms, wrists, even her fingers, nothing.

Then she rummaged through a small round mirror, not even the size of her palm, from the drawer of the desk by her bed.

She looked at herself in the mirror with difficulty, there was no mole between her eyebrows, but it allowed Xu Di to see the original owner’s appearance.

In the 1970s, the type of woman most favored by her in-laws was the one with a round face and a plump, sturdy figure, looking like she could bear children easily.

But the original owner had an oval face, willow-shaped eyebrows slightly bent downwards, almond-shaped eyes, and a smiling face, her overall appearance was good. She wasn’t a stunning beauty, but she could score over 80 points.

Not bad, she was much prettier than her previous self. Her skin was a normal complexion, not glowing white, but she definitely had plenty of collagen, after all, she was only seventeen years old.

She got sidetracked, she hadn’t found the signature mark yet.

There was nothing on her face, and her neck was clean, not even a freckle.

Her collarbone was pretty good, her figure wasn’t fat or thin, you could faintly see her collarbone, it was quite beautiful.

She buttoned up her shirt and checked her whole body, but couldn’t find any signs of a space.

Did heaven just let her time travel once, without giving her any benefits, just threw her here?

She tried everything, and she was sweating from all the effort.

Xu Di sat up and took off her socks.

Oh my!

What did Xu Di see? On the sole of her foot, there was a faint lotus-shaped pattern, not obvious.

If she hadn’t felt itchy on the sole of her foot and scratched it a couple of times, she wouldn’t have noticed it.

After all, who would look at their own feet for no reason.

Xu Di calmed herself down, gently tracing the pattern on the sole of her foot, silently chanting, “Enter, enter…”

With a whoosh, Xu Di truly entered a strange place.

She saw a space the size of a school football field, with black soil, looking very fertile, but nothing else.

No spiritual springs, no spirit pets, no lotus dripping with dew… None of the space descriptions she had read before.

Xu Di sat on the black soil, baffled. A fragment appeared in her mind.

The Lotus Jade Maiden had cultivated a patch of wasteland in a corner of her palace in the Nine Heavens, planning to grow vegetables. She firmly believed that since the Nine Heavens could grow lotus flowers, it could also grow vegetables.

She had exhausted all her energy to dig out a one-meter square piece of land, her hands were trembling with fatigue. That’s why she accidentally broke the glass lamp while on duty.

When she was punished to descend to the mortal realm to experience the cycle of life and death, the Lotus Fairy also sealed this small piece of land in the Lotus Jade Maiden’s sole. Unfortunately, the original owner had never awakened her past memories, so this space had never been activated.

Now, she had gotten lucky.

Because the last memory of the Nine Heavens left in her mind was this space that was given to her.

People should learn to be content, it’s better to have something than nothing.

Xu Di silently chanted “Exit,” and she was back on her bed. As for how long she had been gone, Xu Di didn’t have a watch, so she couldn’t calculate it.

She tried it a few times, making sure she could enter and exit freely, and that she could take things in and out at will. Xu Di was relieved.

Having this life-saving space in this strange world, Xu Di felt more at ease.

As for whether she could use the space to do something in the future, Xu Di didn’t have any ideas yet. At most, she would plant some grains and vegetables, make some out-of-season vegetables, earn some money, and buy two small courtyards while the house prices were cheap, as a plan for her future retirement.

She didn’t remember when house prices in Beijing started to rise, it had to be after the millennium.

By then, she would be almost sixty. If she was healthy, she could still enjoy life for a few more years.

Xu Di fell asleep, she slept soundly, without any dreams, neither from her previous life nor her current one!