After leaving the hospital, Wei Qiuxia accompanied Wei Nan back home.
That morning, the original owner of the body had gotten off the train and gone straight to the factory office without returning home. There, she learned that her mother had also passed away. Shocked and enraged, she lost control and fainted.
The factory office notified Wei Qiuxia, who had the closest relationship with the original owner’s mother, and together they sent her to the factory hospital.
No one could have expected that the person they sent was the original owner, and that when she woke up, she would be Wei Nan from the twenty-first century.
Wei Qiuxia escorted Wei Nan all the way to her doorstep and placed her luggage outside the door.
Then she pulled a bunch of keys from her pocket and handed them over.
“These were in your father’s pocket before he passed. The factory office found them and kept them safe for you. After your father died, to prevent Wang Sanhua from causing trouble, no one has gone inside this apartment since.
I don’t really know what’s inside either. Go take a look and let me know if anything’s missing. It’s not time to get off work yet, so I need to go back to the workshop. I’ll come by at noon to check on you.”
Wei Nan took the keys, thanked Wei Qiuxia, and carried her luggage inside.
It was a small two-bedroom, one-living-room apartment, the most common type of house in that era.
The total area was about seventy to eighty square meters, including a master bedroom, a secondary bedroom, a very small living room, a kitchen, and a bathroom.
But this apartment was different from most others because Wei Damin had remodeled it.
Since the apartment was on the first floor with a balcony facing the street, he had opened a new door on the balcony, knocked down the wall between the master bedroom and the living room, painted the area, and arranged tables, chairs, and stools, turning it into a small noodle shop.
It was clear that Wei Damin had poured his heart into this noodle shop, everything was neatly arranged.
Even though no one had entered for more than ten days, the dust on the tables and floor was only a thin layer; there was no accumulated grease or grime.
Wei Nan walked around the apartment and opened the locked secondary bedroom.
This was the only part of the apartment that showed any real traces of daily life.
But even here, the belongings were surprisingly few.
The entire room contained only a wooden plank bed set on top of two stacks of red bricks, placed against the wall. At the head of the bed sat a large wooden chest, its years of use evident.
Other than that, there was no furniture at all.
And that bed, it wasn’t even a proper size.
Even from a distance, Wei Nan strongly suspected that it wasn’t really a bedboard at all. Most likely, someone had taken a door from the old master bedroom, removed it, and used it as a makeshift bed.
Besides these two items, the only other object in the room was an enamel basin sitting on the wooden chest, its porcelain chipped, exposing rusty stains.
Inside, there was still a small amount of water, now long since turned murky.
A tiny room of just over ten square meters, and yet it felt completely empty.
Standing at the doorway, Wei Nan was stunned. She could not imagine how anyone could live in such a bare environment and meet even the most basic needs.
But deep down, she knew this would now be the place where she had to live.
By now, Wei Nan had accepted the fact of her transmigration and understood there was no going back.
Standing in this completely unfamiliar room, her thoughts drifted to her own home.
Her parents would probably have finished classes by now. Would they call her?
Her younger brother, Wei Ning, was in his final year of high school. That little crybaby, after learning she had disappeared, was probably hiding somewhere, quietly crying again.
The winter cold was piercing, but Wei Nan’s heart felt even colder, like it was soaked in ice water.
She slowly squatted down, burying her head in her knees, curling her body into a ball.
She couldn’t stop trembling, and tears streamed down her face, dropping onto the floor one by one.
“Mom… Dad… I miss you. I want to go home.”
She covered her mouth with her hands, but her sobs of grievance still slipped through her fingers.
Tears poured down her cheeks like a flood, drenching her face completely.
Finally, she lost control and collapsed onto her luggage, crying uncontrollably.
Unfortunately, even allowing herself a good, indulgent cry was a luxury Wei Nan couldn’t afford at this moment.
The apartment had been empty for so long that not even a stove had been lit. The chill seemed to seep into her bones.
Before long, her hands and feet went numb from the cold, and her tear-soaked face stung like it was being pricked with needles.
Sniffling, Wei Nan stood up from her luggage and wiped her tears.
Her eyes were already swollen, and the tip of her nose was bright red.
Yet her gaze was sharper, clearer than before.
Although she hadn’t cried for long, the release had eased much of the pressure in her heart.
At least now she felt she had the strength to face difficulties.
She stamped her frozen, numb feet and let her gaze fall again on the small room.
She wasn’t the previous girl, and she had no attachment to this father.
Not only was there no attachment, Wei Nan felt a strong aversion toward him.
Realizing she would have to live alone in the room he once occupied filled her with an irresistible sense of disgust, making it hard for her to step inside.
After standing there for a long while, she finally forced herself to enter.
She gritted her teeth and first carried the enamel basin into the kitchen to throw it away. Then she rolled up the bedding on the bed and stuffed everything into the wooden chest.
When she opened the chest, she saw that it contained only a few items of clothing, not even filling the bottom of the box. That was probably all that Wei Damin had owned.
Wei Nan couldn’t understand why Wei Damin had forced himself, or anyone, for that matter, into such a harsh, ascetic life.
Nor did she want to understand.
To her, he was an outsider, and she couldn’t be bothered to invest any thought or care in someone so loathsome.
To be honest, Wei Nan almost wanted to throw all his things out, to erase every trace of him from her life.
But reason still held her back. She knew that in this era, if she threw things around like that, someone would certainly scold her.
She had no choice but to temporarily suppress such thoughts.
Even so, Wei Nan gritted her teeth and, using all her strength, dragged the wooden chest out of the room and onto the balcony. She would rather let it occupy space in the noodle shop than leave it in the room where it was an eyesore.
After dealing with Wei Damin’s belongings, Wei Nan fetched a rag and scrubbed the entire apartment from top to bottom, even cleaning the windows.
The winter water was icy cold, and her fingers quickly went numb and ached as if they were carrots, jumping with pain. Yet she did not stop.
Wei Nan had been spoiled by her parents, but she was far from incapable of taking care of herself.
She and her younger brother had been required to share household chores since they were children. Although she really had no talent for cooking, tasks like washing clothes and sweeping the floor were things she could do easily.
It took her over an hour to make the apartment shine. Then she laid out the bedding the original owner had brought, rolling it neatly over the makeshift door-board bed.
Although she still felt some mental resistance to using the original owner’s belongings, there was no other choice.
She could only tell herself to endure it for now and, when the weather improved, take all the bedding outside to air and sun them properly.
When a person is busy, they lose track of time, and besides, she didn’t even have a watch.
It wasn’t until Wei Qiuxia came by with a lunchbox and knocked on the door that Wei Nan realized the factory had finished work and it was lunchtime.
“I got you some food from the canteen. Eat first. I’ll go home and bring some coal for you. This room is as cold as an icebox, you need to get the stove going quickly.”
Saying this, Wei Qiuxia set the lunchbox on the table and turned to leave.
“Sister, wait. How much is this food? I’ll pay you,” Wei Nan quickly called after her, grabbing her arm.
Wei Qiuxia shot her a glare. “Why are you worrying about this? Do you think I can’t afford a single meal for you?”
With that, she shook off Wei Nan’s hand. “You eat quickly before it gets cold. I’ll go get the coal. With this kind of cold, someone as small as you will catch a cold in no time!”
Without waiting for an answer, she went out and headed upstairs.
Wei Nan remembered that Wei Qiuxia lived in the same building as her family, her family on the first floor, Wei Qiuxia on the third, so going upstairs was convenient.
Since she couldn’t stop her, Wei Nan could only sit down and open the lunchbox.
The lunchbox held a portion of “big pot” stew and two steamed buns.
The stew contained napa cabbage, tofu, cellophane noodles, and several thick, large slices of fatty pork.
As soon as she lifted the lid, the steam carried a rich, savory aroma that hit her face.
Only then did Wei Nan realize how starved her body already was, so hungry that she was trembling uncontrollably.
The original owner had come home from the countryside, where she had been assigned to work. The train journey alone took nearly thirty hours, not counting the bus rides to and from the station.
In her memory, during that nearly two-day, two-night trip, the girl had eaten only two corn cakes, two sweet potatoes, and drank half a kettle of water.
Her earlier words were true: “I haven’t eaten a single grain of rice.”
She was genuinely starving.
Wei Nan grabbed a steamed bun and started eating heartily, alternating with the big-pot stew.
She felt as though she had never tasted anything so delicious, and had never experienced such a ravenous appetite.
Looking at the thick slices of pork, which she normally wouldn’t even touch, she felt a strange mixture of desire and satisfaction coming from her body, a sensation both new and oddly unsettling.
Wei Qiuxia didn’t take long upstairs and soon returned with a piece of honeycomb coal burning brightly in the tongs.
She carried it straight into the kitchen, and Wei Nan quickly set down her bun and followed her.
Seeing her enter, Wei Qiuxia naturally instructed, “Take the ashes out of the stove and put in a piece of base coal.”
Wei Nan nodded, but froze, completely not sure what to do.
She had no idea what “base coal” was, or what it even looked like.
Seeing this, Wei Qiuxia was a little surprised. “Xiao Nan, after all those years in the countryside, you don’t even know how to light a stove?”
Wei Nan suddenly remembered seeing period dramas on TV and an idea sparked in her mind. She lowered her head, embarrassed. “Back in the countryside, we always cooked with the host families. I never cooked for myself.”
Then she quickly added, “And all the households there used firewood.”
Wei Qiuxia nodded knowingly, but her anger toward the late Wei Damin deepened even more.
She sighed. “Ah, you’ve had it rough these past few years! But the good thing is you’re back now. Everything will slowly get better. This stove is easy to light, I’ll show you how.”
Saying that, she placed the burning piece of coal aside, walked around the room, and went to a corner of the balcony, lifting a curtain that was covering something.
Wei Nan finally saw hundreds of pieces of neatly stacked honeycomb coal.
Wei Qiuxia picked two pieces and brought them over, one to serve as the base coal. She then placed the burning coal on top and pressed another piece over it.
As she worked, she explained the process to Wei Nan.
Wei Nan listened carefully, but her heart was full of worry.
She was confident her eyes could follow, but her hands… not so much.
Back at home, she had a nickname: “Kitchen Killer.”
She could burn a pan while stir-frying, or even dry out a pot just boiling water.
Short-circuiting the steamer or making eggs explode in the microwave was even more common.
Her parents used to lock the kitchen when they left, just to make sure she wouldn’t blow it up while they were gone.
Even now, her family still had two large old-fashioned thermoses in the living room, specifically for her. Her mother feared that if she used the electric kettle, she might fry the entire house’s wiring.
Wei Nan stared solemnly at Wei Qiuxia demonstrating, masking her inner despair with a grave expression.
It all looked so complicated…
Wei Nan thought to herself that she might starve to death before that old woman Wang Sanhua even came looking for trouble.