In the hidden pocket of the padded vest was a stack of money.
All big bills.
Wei Nan counted them, fourteen in total, one hundred and forty yuan.
Staring at that small stack of notes, Wei Nan almost couldn’t believe her eyes for a moment—
Wei Damin actually hid money?
Wasn’t he always trying to scrape together everything for his mother and brothers?
Wei Nan thought for a long time but still couldn’t figure out why Wei Damin had kept this money.
Was it backup funds for running a small restaurant?
Or was it to pay off debts sooner?
But no matter what the reason, this money now belonged to the two sisters!
“Tomorrow, we’re buying a bed!”
Looking at the stack of bills, Wei Nan said boldly, feeling rich beyond belief.
“I’m in!”
Wei Pei nodded firmly, agreeing, “Buy a bed!”
“And clothes too! I’ll buy you a padded jacket!”
“Buy a padded jacket!”
The two girls grew more and more excited as they talked.
No matter what Wei Nan said, Wei Pei followed along with full admiration, convinced that whatever her sister said had to be right.
Thanks to this unexpected windfall, even though that night the two of them still squeezed onto the tiny doorboard, they didn’t feel uncomfortable at all.
There’s an old saying: “Having children makes everything complete.”
Wei Nan thought it should be revised for them—
Having money is what truly makes everything complete!
She went to sleep with a smile, but had a nightmare.
In her dream, she was once again in that bare little room.
The perpetual calendar on the electronic clock had advanced another day.
This time, the bottom row showing how many days until a certain date had changed to 13.
Obviously, this clock was connected to real-world dates.
But exactly how, Wei Nan couldn’t figure out at all.
If it were just seeing the clock, it wouldn’t be so shocking, after all, she had seen it before.
But today, the blank white wall opposite the electronic clock suddenly turned into a glass curtain wall.
Through the glass, Wei Nan saw something she never expected.
Her body jolted violently.
She stared at the screen in disbelief, then suddenly ran forward and threw herself against the glass wall.
She screamed, “Mom!”
Yes, through the screen, Wei Nan saw her mother from the modern world.
Her mother sat on the bed in Wei Nan’s bedroom, holding the pajamas Wei Nan had worn before crossing over, gently stroking them.
Her expression was numb, her face pale, and tears had not yet dried at the corners of her eyes.
Just two days apart, and yet she seemed to have aged several years.
“Mom! Mom!” Wei Nan pounded on the glass, tears streaming uncontrollably.
She knew it was a dream.
But she couldn’t bring herself to believe it was just a dream.
The scene before her was so real, so vivid, that she knew—
This was happening in the modern world.
Her parents had already realized she was missing.
In the modern timeline, Wei Nan was a senior in college. Ding ding.
Since she had taken the entrance exam for the same school where her parents worked and their home was in the campus residential compound, she had not stayed in a dorm during college.
When she had no classes, she would often just stay at home.
By senior year, her schedule was almost empty, and she had already secured a guaranteed postgraduate spot, so her parents hardly paid attention to her.
Before crossing over, Wei Nan had been bored out of her mind, lying in bed playing on her phone.
She had been wearing the same pajamas that her mother now held in her hands…
For the past two days, Wei Nan had been thinking about how she had mysteriously come here, replacing that unfortunate girl.
What about her modern self?
Had the unfortunate girl crossed over and taken her place?
But seeing her mother’s pained expression on the other side of the glass wall, Wei Nan realized things were not as she had imagined.
Her modern self… must have disappeared.
At that thought, tears streamed down Wei Nan’s face uncontrollably.
“Mom… I’m sorry, I’m so sorry…”
Through the glass wall, she whispered her cries, her heart aching as if cut by knives.
The pain and helplessness pressed down on her chest, making it hard to breathe.
“Sis? Sis? Wake up, what’s wrong, wake up!”
Wei Pei had been awakened by her sister’s crying.
Seeing Wei Nan with her eyes closed, sobbing, tears streaming down her face, she was instantly terrified.
She shook her sister’s body with all her strength.
“Mom!” Wei Nan shouted, and finally woke up.
When she opened her eyes, she saw her little sister’s face red from crying.
“Sister, you miss Mom? Don’t think about it. I’m here with you, I’ll always be with you from now on.”
Seeing her sister awake, Wei Pei sobbed loudly.
She threw herself onto Wei Nan, her small body shaking, trembling from the sadness that coursed through her.
Wei Nan instinctively patted her sister’s back to soothe her, but her mind was still blank, and it took a long, long time for her to regain focus.
The scene she had seen in her dream had been so vivid, so real, that she could barely tell what was dream and what was reality.
It wasn’t until the chill from the already ice-cold blanket they had been tossing in stirred their teeth to chatter that the sisters finally got out of bed.
Outside, the sky was only just beginning to lighten.
After getting up, Wei Pei stoked the fire and scooped some of the large pot of corn porridge they had made yesterday to heat it up as breakfast for the two of them.
Wei Nan took the bed sheets, covers, and the removed netting she had washed and hung in the kitchen overnight, and moved them out to the small courtyard on the balcony to air out.
Just as they finished, Wei Qiuxia came down from upstairs.
Seeing the netting Wei Nan had hung outside, she frowned.
“This netting has hardened, it’s stiff as it is, just hanging it won’t help. You need to beat it again! Otherwise, no matter how long you sun it, it won’t get warm.”
In modern times, although her family rarely used quilts anymore, Wei Nan still remembered her parents taking the family bedding on a bicycle to the cotton-beating shop to make the netting.
Hearing Wei Qiuxia’s words, she quickly asked, “Sister Wei, is there a place to beat cotton in our courtyard?”
“There isn’t in the courtyard, but if you go east out of the residential compound and turn into that alley, there is one. Right behind the Qingxiang Beef Noodle Shop.”
Wei Qiuxia gestured for Wei Nan: “Go early so it’ll be ready by the afternoon and won’t delay your use tonight.”
She glanced at her watch. “I have the morning shift today, so I won’t stay to explain. In the afternoon, bring the netting back and set it aside; when I finish work, I’ll help you do it.”
Wei Nan thanked her quickly, feeling relieved.
Although she had seen her grandmother sew small quilts before, she had never actually done it herself.
She wasn’t confident she could make the blankets properly on her own.
With Sister Wei’s help, Wei Nan felt more confident.
She gathered the cotton batting, stacked it neatly, and tied it together with hemp rope. The two girls carried it out the door.
Since there was no bicycle at home, they each held one end of the rope, struggling to carry it across the entire residential compound to the cotton-beating shop.
In the freezing cold, both were sweating by the time they arrived.
The shop had only just opened. They set the cotton down and arranged a pickup time with the shop owner before stepping outside.
The alley where the cotton shop was located had a spontaneous morning market, and now it was at its busiest.
With nothing pressing at home, the sisters decided to browse a bit.
The market was crowded, mostly with people buying vegetables. Since the fields behind the textile factory were nearby, many villagers sold the vegetables from their own plots.
These vegetables were fresher than what was in the shops, priced similarly, and popular with the surrounding city residents.
Wei Nan, who didn’t know how to cook, paid them no attention. Even though her sister dropped countless hints, she kept a blank expression, pretending not to notice.
Her gaze lingered more on the occasional fabric vendors along the roadside.
Being so close to the textile factory, some skilled people could always find a way to sell fabric with minor defects, despite the factory’s strict controls.
The quantities were small, and the flaws sometimes obvious, but at least it didn’t require fabric coupons.
Wei Nan decided to buy some fabric there to make a couple of sets of clothes for herself and her sister.
She was currently wearing the cotton jacket and pants Sister Wei had made for her, but that was the only set she had.
Coming from the modern era, Wei Nan’s mindset was different from the people of this time; she couldn’t stand wearing the same set of clothes all winter without a change.
She led her sister to a fabric stall that looked slightly larger than the others.
The vendor had laid a large oilcloth on the ground, neatly stacking a dozen or so pieces of fabric on it.
She crouched down on the ground and began sorting through the fabric.
Just as she settled into a squat, she overheard a conversation behind her.
One person seemed to be there to buy fabric, while the other was a middle-aged woman who had just come out from the small temporary shop behind the stall.
The middle-aged woman appeared to know the buyer and approached, asking, “I heard someone from your factory’s ‘one and only beauty’ family got into trouble?”
“Which one?” the buyer looked puzzled.
“The one from the weaving and dyeing workshop, the fair-skinned girl, surname Wei.”
“You mean Wei Jing?!”
The buyer laughed, “Yep, it’s true, something happened. Her cousin went straight to the factory director, insisting that their family repay the debt. I heard Wei Jing and her dad even signed the IOU, and now she has to help her dad pay every month!”
“Oh, why should kids pay for adults’ debts? That little Wei must be careful with her own money now! Even if it’s her father, what can he do? Won’t she need money for her dowry when she gets married?” The middle-aged woman shrugged dismissively.
“Are you feeling sorry for her or just for your own wallet? You’re afraid Wei Jing won’t have money to treat you later, right?”
The buyer laughed heartily at that remark, mimicking her tone and teasing back.
The middle-aged woman looked a little embarrassed but didn’t hide it. She explained, “Oh, it’s not just about money. Mainly, little Wei has real taste and knows how to look good. When she wears my clothes, it makes me look good too.
Don’t let her plain white shirt and blue pants fool you, she may look like the other workers, but her clothes are special. The waist is tailored, the fabric is the best, and even the collars and sleeves have tiny hidden ruffles.
You think her reputation as the factory’s beauty came for free? Go watch, when she walks with others, even if their outfits are similar, she’s always the most eye-catching one.
How did that happen? It’s all built on money!”
The middle-aged woman grew more exasperated as she spoke, looking as if she had just lost her most important customer.