Summer 1977, the canteen of the Capital Third Machinery Factory.
It was time for the shift to end, and the factory workers were lining up with their lunch pails to get their food.
In the long queue stood a tall female worker. The way she wore her uniform was unlike the drab, shapeless look of the others; instead, it highlighted her curvaceous figure.
As she stood in line, the gazes of several men serving the food drifted over her, some more subtly than others.
Jiang Shutang was naturally aware of the attention, but she couldn’t care about that right now. It wasn’t even the end of the month yet, and the money and coupons in her hand were almost gone.
There were three mouths at home waiting to be fed, and the mere thought of it gave her a headache.
“When is the factory going to fire this slut? She’s a disgrace to our Third Machinery Factory. It’s bad enough she got pregnant out of wedlock, but now she’s got three sons and flaunts that face of hers to swindle people every day. Did you hear? Xiao Wang gave her three jin of grain coupons last week.”
“Don’t even get me started. That Xiao Zheng finally got ahold of a one-jin meat coupon, and he gave it to that woman too.”
“These men are beyond saving. We have to keep a tight leash on our own men; we can’t let them provide for this tramp!”
“Look at her uniform. She must have altered it with a sewing machine in private. Ours fit so flat, but her chest is bursting, her backside is prominent, and that waist is so thin. Who is she trying to seduce?”
“You’re telling me. Even her eyes are different—they’re blue. And her nose is so high. No wonder her family doesn’t like her; she looks like some kind of mixed breed.”
Several female workers huddled together, the subject of their discussion being none other than the most eye-catching person in the queue, Jiang Shutang.
If Jiang Shutang had heard this, she would have felt incredibly wronged. She hadn’t altered her uniform at all. Could she be blamed for having a good figure? She couldn’t exactly slice off half her chest and backside, could she?
While they weren’t entirely wrong—she had indeed used her looks to borrow quite a few grain coupons—it wasn’t like she had a choice. Besides, it wasn’t as if she wasn’t going to pay them back.
Jiang Shutang had transmigrated here six years ago. Right after arriving, she had ended up sleeping with a total stranger. Of course, it hadn’t been voluntary; both of them had been heavily intoxicated and unconscious of their actions at the time.
The most hateful part was that by the time she woke up, the man was nowhere to be found. A month later, she discovered she was pregnant.
Naturally, she couldn’t keep the child and wanted to have an abortion. But without a marriage certificate or a proper reason, the health clinic wouldn’t perform the surgery.
As her belly grew day by day, Jiang Shutang instantly became a “broken shoe.” In this era, getting pregnant out of wedlock was equivalent to handing yourself a death sentence.
Not only were her parents and family shamed, but she herself could no longer hold her head high.
However, because Jiang Shutang had been forced, people—though despising her in their hearts—found it hard to kick her while she was down.
Later, Jiang’s mother, truly pained for her daughter and fearing she wouldn’t survive after having the child, secretly gave her own factory job to her. When Jiang’s father found out, he forced her to sever ties with the family.
Ten months later, Jiang Shutang gave birth to the children—triplets, all boys. At that moment, she truly felt like dying.
Back in the twenty-first century, she had been living a good life in a luxury villa, eating and drinking the best of everything, and being chauffeured around in luxury cars. She had simply gone to sleep and woken up in the food-and-clothing-deprived seventies, only to be immediately burdened with three children.
The problem was that doing business wasn’t allowed at this time; it was considered “speculation and profiteering.” Over the past few years, Jiang Shutang had resorted to all sorts of desperate measures to raise the three children.
Her monthly salary at the factory was a pittance, nowhere near enough to cover their expenses.
The three children were at the age where they were growing fast and ate even more than she did. Eventually, Jiang Shutang cast aside her shame, using her striking figure and exquisite face to entice the men in the factory into proactively giving her grain and coupons.
However, she recorded every single debt in a notebook. After earning extra money by working overtime, she would find ways to pay back some of it. But even so, she still owed a mountain of debt.
Jiang Shutang did have a bottom line, though. She only borrowed from unmarried young men; she wouldn’t even look at married men.
Over the years, her reputation in the machinery factory had been completely ruined. Everyone called her a vixen behind her back.
During this brief interval, Jiang Shutang had finished getting her food. She planned to eat her fill first and then pack the rest to take home to her three sons.
Just then, Xiao Wang, who had previously given her grain coupons, approached her.
“Shutang, have you used up the grain coupons I gave you last time? Do the children have enough to eat lately?”
Jiang Shutang had been looking downcast, but seeing Xiao Wang approach, she immediately straightened her back. With this movement, her ample chest appeared even more prominent, and the expression on her face became charming.
With snow-white fingers, she gently tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear. Jiang Shutang lowered her gaze, her dark eyelashes casting a soft shadow, leaving Xiao Wang momentarily dazed.
“Don’t even ask. I’m worrying myself sick. The grain coupons are almost gone, and I don’t know how we’ll make it through the month.”
She looked up and gave a bitter smile. “Brother Wang, I was already so grateful when you lent me three jin of grain coupons last time. I haven’t even paid those back yet; I absolutely cannot trouble you again.”
Jiang Shutang’s display of playing hard to get left Xiao Wang completely infatuated. In these times, everyone’s life was tight; who wasn’t living with a tightened belt?
But seeing the beauty lamenting before him, how could he just stand by? He gritted his teeth and immediately made a promise. “Don’t worry. I’ll think of something and help you get a few more jin of grain coupons so you and the kids can make it to the end of the month.”
Jiang Shutang’s eyes sparkled as she looked at Xiao Wang with admiration. “Brother Wang, you are too kind. Chairman Mao said that comrades should help one another. You are truly a living Lei Feng. I’m so grateful to you!”
Xiao Wang was floating on air from Jiang Shutang’s praise. He didn’t even care about eating anymore and went off to find a way to gather grain coupons.
As soon as she saw Xiao Wang leave, Jiang Shutang’s face immediately dropped. She felt a strange sense of guilt; she didn’t know when she would ever be able to repay Xiao Wang’s kindness.
She poked at the food in her bowl listlessly with her chopsticks, feeling that her life was more bitter than the cabbage she was eating.
Jiang Shutang sighed again and again. She never expected that an ambitious youth like herself would end up in such a state.
She thought that by sitting in a corner, her actions just now wouldn’t be seen by anyone.
Little did she know that the entire scene had been witnessed by a man not far away.
The man was wearing a Zhongshan suit, his clothes meticulously arranged. His face was exceptionally handsome, yet he radiated an aura that warned others to stay away.
Even while sitting, it was clear he was tall—at least 185 centimeters.
Gu Zhengnan’s brow furrowed slightly. Had he only been abroad for a few years for the social climate to become this liberal?
Even the blonde-haired, blue-eyed foreign girls abroad weren’t as bold as this female worker across from him. He had overheard the gossip of the female workers earlier and had found it hard to believe at the time, thinking it was just female comrades exaggerating their conflicts.
But after seeing Jiang Shutang’s series of behaviors just now, he realized he had been too narrow-minded.
Jiang Shutang had finished her meal by now and stood up, intending to get food for her three sons.
However, just as she stood up, her gaze inadvertently swept forward, and she spotted Gu Zhengnan not far away.
Upon seeing his face clearly, Jiang Shutang felt as though she had been struck by lightning.
If she remembered correctly, the man who had done as he pleased with her in the guesthouse six years ago was this beast!
Even if that face were turned to ash, she would never forget it.