“Lin Shuyao, do you really intend to go support the Southwest frontier? The altitude there is incredibly high. Plenty of people have gone and died there. Don’t be foolish!”
“Didn’t Professor Chen just agree to give you a chance… to date him?”
Lin Shuyao tucked the official red-headed document, now freshly stamped, into her cloth bag. Without answering any of the questions, she waved her hand at the crowd. “Comrades, the mountains are high and the rivers are long. We shall meet again if fate allows.”
The moment she stepped out of the gates of the Kyoto Academy of Agricultural Sciences, she felt as if the very air had turned fresh.
The wind swirled with fallen leaves, lightly brushing against her shoulder, and the autumn sun was perfectly mild.
That’s right—Lin Shuyao had transmigrated into a book!
She had entered a “period novel” set in the 70s called The Cold Professor’s Sweet Pampered Wife, becoming an incredibly tragic piece of cannon-fodder.
The original owner of this body was also named Lin Shuyao. Twenty-two years old and a graduate of a Workers, Peasants, and Soldiers University, she was a genuine college student who had secured a job at the Kyoto Academy of Agricultural Sciences upon graduation.
Not only was her job respectable, but she was also intuitive, talented, and hardworking—a true high-level intellectual for this era.
Because of her excellent personal circumstances and her pretty looks, she had been introduced to and married the youngest battalion commander in the Kyoto Military Region two years ago.
If the original plot had followed its proper course, she should have had a wonderful life. But unfortunately… she met the novel’s male lead, Chen Zhiheng.
Chen Zhiheng was a seed expert transferred from out of town. He was refined in appearance and well-spoken; in the eyes of outsiders, he was a brilliant and promising young talent.
The original Lin Shuyao was obsessed with Chen Zhiheng, believing him to be the best man in the world. She had willingly handed over all her research ideas, experimental data, and cultivated samples to him without a second thought.
She had even taken the initiative to push all the credit onto him in front of the director and superiors, claiming she was merely his assistant.
She even regretted the timing of her life… She felt terrible about being married and had once told Chen Zhiheng right in front of her new husband: “Zhiheng, I don’t know him at all. We only met once on the day we registered our marriage, and he left for a mission immediately after. It was all forced by my parents. How could a brute like Lu Chengjing ever be worthy of me? You’re the only one in my heart. I’ll divorce him immediately!”
Just like that, she lowered her standards again and again, humbling herself almost to the point of being a speck of dust.
In the end, all she received was endless exploitation and perfunctory treatment.
Chen Zhiheng enjoyed the fruits of her labor with a clear conscience, accepting everyone’s praise without ever saying a single word of thanks to her. Whenever someone mentioned Lin Shuyao, he would merely wave his hand dismissively and say, “It’s just some trivial chores; anyone could do it.”
What was even more ridiculous was that, in the end, she was arranged by him to take the fall for someone else’s crime, dying tragically in prison!
The person she took the fall for was the novel’s female lead, Su Man—the woman who would later conduct research alongside Chen Zhiheng, the two of them hailed by the world as a celestial couple.
Meanwhile, the original Lin Shuyao—the one who had poured out her heart, soul, and hard work—became nothing more than a backdrop on their path of romance and a stepping stone for their promotions. Even her family’s reputation was destroyed, and they were forced to make a miserable exit.
Lin Shuyao sighed, clasping her small hands behind her back and shaking her head like a wise old sage. “A foolish girl… such a foolish girl!”
She didn’t feel too much sentimental sorrow. She just felt that this cannon-fodder fate was truly melodramatic.
“Though, I’m quite pitiful myself…”
Lin Shuyao’s own life had indeed been tragic. After over twenty years of grueling study, she had finally earned her PhD and secured a spot in a national key project, only to die suddenly from a sudden illness.
Still, being able to live another life in a field that matched her expertise was something to be happy about, wasn’t it?
Even in the 1970s, where food and clothing were scarce, she intended to live well.
Lin Shuyao had been here for a while now. Her choice to make a decisive break was a desperate necessity—the power of the plot was simply too strong!
She had discovered that as long as she stayed near Chen Zhiheng, she would uncontrollably do stupid things. No matter how she tried to change, the plot would naturally revert to its course, pushing her toward her inevitable death.
As for fleeing to the Southwest, that was also her only choice.
Although her job at the Kyoto Academy of Agricultural Sciences was prestigious, for Lin Shuyao, it was a death trap!
However, getting a remote transfer was extremely difficult. If she insisted on a transfer, the only place she could go was the Southwest frontier—because her husband in name, Lu Chengjing, was there.
The Southwest Grain Seed Experimental Station had recently been established and had a job vacancy; it was currently the only location she could apply to be transferred to.
It was now 1977, the most difficult of times for China. The Southwest was situated on a high plateau, and compared to a capital city like Kyoto, it was lacking in every possible way. Choosing to go there required immense courage, but anything was better than dying.
As for Lu Chengjing, he was also a cannon-fodder character who received very little mention in the book.
Two years ago, he had given up his position in the Kyoto Military Region and headed for the Southwest frontier. It had happened right after the original Lin Shuyao had said those hurtful words.
Whether he left because he was cooperating with organizational orders or because he was leaving in a fit of pique, Lin Shuyao didn’t know.
Regardless, she planned to go there and have a proper talk with the man. At the very least, she needed him to sign the papers to finalize her job transfer. If things really didn’t work out, they could just get a divorce.
“Dad, Mom, I’m back.”
“Yaoyao is back? Has the certification for your job transfer really come through?”
“Of course.” Upon arriving home, Lin Shuyao slapped the red-headed document onto the table and raised her eyebrows proudly.
When they first learned that Lin Shuyao wanted to give up her “iron rice bowl” job to head to the Southwest, her parents hadn’t approved, though they didn’t forcefully oppose her either.
“It’s for the best. It hasn’t been easy for our son-in-law to be there all alone. I heard the Sino-Burmese border is very chaotic; the soldiers are fighting with their lives on the line. Sigh~”
Lin’s father was good-natured. He forced himself to look on the bright side and eventually came to terms with it.
But Lin’s mother was different. She had a fiery temper, and the more she thought about it, the angrier she got. She slapped Lin Shuyao across the back!
“It’s all your fault, you useless thing! Day in and day out, you were shameless, circling around that pretty boy, practically forcing your husband to go to that backwater place! Now look at you—you’re losing such a good job and you’ll have to go there to suffer yourself!”
“Hey, hey, hey…” Lin Shuyao hurriedly twisted her body to dodge. “Mom, watch what you’re saying! You’re the director of the West District Women’s Federation; how can your political awareness be so low? Am I going there to suffer? I am responding to the national call to contribute my strength to the motherland and the people!”
“Contribute your strength? I think your head is empty! You’re all style and no substance!”
Lin Shuyao ducked behind her father, grinning at her mother. “Mom, don’t look down on me. Others might not make it, but I guarantee I will!”
“You’ll make it? My foot! With all the great resources at the Kyoto Academy of Agricultural Sciences, I didn’t see you achieve anything, and yet you’re going to the Southwest!”
Lin Shuyao raised a finger and wagged it. “If I said… the reason I have no achievements is because I was being low-key, would you believe me?”
Lin’s mother couldn’t listen to another word and tried to slap her again, but Lin’s father quickly pulled her back. “Zhiling, calm down. The girl is grown now; don’t go hurting her.”
“Look at all her flaws! It’s all because you and your son spoiled her!”
“Alright, alright. The Southwest is the most barren plateau region; breeding superior grain seeds is an urgent priority. If Yaoyao doesn’t go, someone else’s child will have to. Now that things have come to this, we can only support her and believe in her.”
Lin Shuyao nodded vigorously in agreement.
She was a PhD in crop science from the twenty-first century—a perfect, high-level match for this work. Before her death, her main focus had been the genetic breeding and cultivation of plateau crops.
She wouldn’t say she had reached the absolute peak of the field, but compared to the current level of agriculture in this era, she was on an entirely different level.
Therefore, Lin Shuyao’s words weren’t an exaggeration at all.
She truly wanted to—and truly could—shine and thrive in the field she excelled in.