After stockpiling everything she needed, Chen Xiaolin finally relaxed and began enjoying her little daily life. During this time, she had been so busy hoarding supplies that she hadn’t had the chance to properly sit down and have a meal with her beloved mother.
Driving her favorite car, Chen Xiaolin planned to stop by the mall first to buy her mom a gift, then head home to visit her. It had been quite a while since they’d last seen each other, and she found that she missed her a little.
When Chen Xiaolin reached the intersection near the mall, a three- or four-year-old boy suddenly broke free from his mother’s hand and ran into the road. By the time Chen Xiaolin reacted, it was already too late to brake. In order to avoid hitting the child, she swerved and crashed straight into the roadside barrier. The last thing she heard was the mother’s piercing scream before everything went dark.
When Chen Xiaolin woke up again, her head was spinning badly. As soon as she opened her eyes, she nearly fainted from shock.
Hadn’t she been in a car accident? Why was she lying in a dilapidated house? Shouldn’t she have been sent to the hospital? Staring at the wooden beams on the ceiling, she fell into deep thought. This was already the twenty-first century—how could there still be such a rundown house? Could she have been trafficked? That didn’t make sense either. There had been so many people on the street—human traffickers wouldn’t dare be that bold, right?
Suddenly, a flood of memories belonging to a sixteen-year-old girl surged into her mind. Only then did Chen Xiaolin realize—she had transmigrated, into the body of a sixteen-year-old girl whose parents had both passed away.
The original owner of this body was also named Chen Xiaolin, sixteen years old this year. Her father had been a soldier and had already reached the rank of regiment commander before his death. Her mother was a researcher at a military industrial factory.
Some time ago, her father received orders from his superiors to go to the military factory to protect her mother. Unexpectedly, last month, while protecting an important research achievement, both her father and mother were killed in an explosion carried out by enemy agents.
The original Chen Xiaolin had fallen ill because the night before she had thought about her parents and been overwhelmed with grief. She developed a high fever that lasted all night, but no one noticed—and just like that, she burned herself to death.
Chen Xiaolin touched her forehead and realized that her fever still hadn’t subsided. She hurriedly took a fever-reducing medicine from her space and swallowed it.
After taking the medicine, she could no longer hold on and collapsed back into sleep. In her half-dreaming state, she seemed to see the little girl from the memories. The girl said she was going to find her parents and asked Chen Xiaolin to live well in her body.
Chen Xiaolin jolted awake. Only then did she notice she was drenched in sweat, and her body no longer felt as hot as before. It seemed the fever was finally breaking. Since she was already here, she decided to accept it—starting today, she was Chen Xiaolin of the 1970s.
In the modern world, the only person she truly worried about was her mother. But her mother had already remarried and had a life of her own now. She hoped her stepfather would take good care of her mother and keep her from being too heartbroken.
Out of habit, Chen Xiaolin reached toward the bedside for her phone—only to come up empty-handed. That was when she remembered she had already transmigrated to the 1970s.
She glanced at her watch and realized it was already noon. No wonder her stomach was growling with hunger.
She quickly took out a bowl of preserved egg and lean pork congee from her space and finished it in one go. Only then did she feel a bit better. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to eat something else, but over the past half month, ever since her parents’ deaths, she’d had no appetite at all. She was afraid that greasy food would upset her stomach.
After eating, Chen Xiaolin planned to return to her room to rest a bit more. Her head was still dizzy, and her entire body felt sore and weak.
By the time she woke up again, the sun was already close to setting. She went to the kitchen first to wash the pot and boil some water. Although she didn’t plan to cook, she still needed to make some smoke—otherwise people would start wondering what she was eating if her household never cooked.
Now that her fever was gone, her appetite returned with a vengeance. She took out a portion of old hen soup and a few meat buns from her space. That evening, she planned to eat something light.
After dinner, Chen Xiaolin decided to take stock of everything in the house.
She opened the drawer in her room and found her pocket money inside—four hundred twenty-one yuan, five cents, and eight fen—along with a stack of various ration coupons.
Then she took out a box from the wardrobe. Inside were a savings passbook and two thousand yuan in cash.
The passbook held ten thousand yuan, which was the compensation money her parents had received after their deaths. The two thousand yuan in cash had been pooled together by her father’s comrades-in-arms.
Looking at so much money, Chen Xiaolin was overjoyed. In this era, rice only cost thirty fen per jin. With more than ten thousand yuan, she could live comfortably for a very long time.
She opened the original owner’s wardrobe and saw that the clothes were all about eighty percent new. There were six dresses, two wool coats, five or six shirts, three pairs of black trousers, and two brand-new sets of women’s military uniforms. Those two uniforms had been a birthday gift from her father earlier that year. The original owner had treasured them so much that she never wore them—they were still completely new.
Chen Xiaolin didn’t mind at all wearing clothes the original owner had used. After all, it was the same body—what was there to be picky about?
After tidying up her own room, she went to clean up her parents’ room as well.
In her parents’ bedroom, Chen Xiaolin took out a large box from a hidden compartment near the bed. Following the method her father had taught her, she opened it.
Inside were two savings passbooks—one with thirty thousand yuan, the other with fifteen thousand yuan—along with six hundred twenty yuan and five cents in cash.
She placed the passbooks and cash back into the same box, then stored everything in her space. After all, nowhere was safer than her space.
There was also a letter inside the box. It was likely written by her father.
Chen Xiaolin opened it and read:
My dearest daughter, Linlin. When you see this letter, your mother and I should already be gone. Do you remember the place I took you to when you were little? Beneath Daddy’s room, there is a secret chamber. Inside is the dowry your grandmother left for you. Don’t take it out for now—wait until the time is right, then come back and retrieve it. Staying alone in the city isn’t very safe for you right now. You can pack your things and return to our hometown. I’ve already asked your grandfather to help renovate the old house there. You can live in our own home…
Chen Xiaolin finished reading the letter in one breath, deeply moved. The original owner’s parents truly loved her—they had planned out her future path long in advance, afraid that their daughter might suffer after they were gone.
As the one benefiting from all this now, Chen Xiaolin felt immense gratitude toward them. She planned to follow the path they had arranged for her. As for the items in the secret chamber, she intended to take them all with her as well—after all, nowhere was safer than her space.