The summer sun hung fiercely overhead in 1984, scorching the earth, while the incessant buzzing of cicadas made everyone feel irritable.
Along the stone-paved path beside the Qingliu River, several women were squatting by the water, beating their laundry against the stones.
Suddenly, there was a loud splash, followed immediately by a child’s piercing scream.
“Someone’s fallen into the river! A child’s fallen in!” the women by the river shouted.
The heat was unbearable for Hua Mei. When she saw a pair of little hands flailing in the water, her legs moved before her brain could catch up. Her sandals flew off, and she plunged headfirst into the river.
The water was lukewarm. Only after jumping in did Hua Mei realize that she couldn’t swim at all!
Her survival instincts kicked in, and she thrashed her arms and legs with all her might. Somehow, she managed to grab the child. Fortunately, the water wasn’t too deep for her.
Holding the child with one arm, she desperately slapped at the water with the other. She swallowed several mouthfuls of river water and struggled with all her strength before finally managing to get the child to shore.
The child looked about four or five years old, and his face had already turned deathly pale.
Hua Mei turned him over and laid him face down across her lap, then pounded his back with all her might. After several hard slaps, the child finally vomited a large amount of water and began to cry.
Only then did Hua Mei feel relieved enough to collapse onto the ground, gasping for breath. Her clothes were completely soaked and clung tightly to her body, leaving her looking utterly disheveled.
“Stop bawling.” She had nearly sacrificed her own life in the process. With a sigh, Hua Mei reached out to touch the child’s face.
Which family in the military compound did this little boy belong to again?
Before she could figure it out, someone shoved her away violently.
“Hua Mei, you again!”
Auntie Liu charged out of the crowd and pulled the child into her arms. Glaring at Hua Mei, she snapped, “What have you done to my Xiaojun? You heartless little wretch!”
Hua Mei was shoved off balance and fell to the ground. She stared at the woman in bewilderment.
“I didn’t… I was the one who saved him…”
“You saved him? Why don’t you take a good look at yourself in a puddle and see what kind of person you are! You loaf around all day long. Since when have you ever been kind enough to save a child? I bet you were the one who pushed Xiaojun into the river in the first place!”
“Exactly! You little girl, as if someone like you could have such a kind heart!”
“You never do anything useful, and you’ve squandered your entire family’s fortune! Just the other day, you smashed Widow Li’s pickle jar. And now you expect us to believe you saved someone?”
“Maybe she’s planning to extort money from the family! Pretending to be a good person, are you? Tsk, tsk, tsk. Young girls these days…”
Every accusation stabbed at Hua Mei, leaving her head aching and her heart aching even more. She opened her mouth to explain, but her mind was in such a muddle that she could barely think straight.
“It wasn’t me…”
“Xiaomei, are you all right?”
Just as Hua Mei was struggling helplessly to defend herself, a young woman pushed her way through the crowd.
She looked to be in her early twenties, dressed in a light blue polyester shirt, her hair tied back in a ponytail that revealed a fair, delicate face. Her features were so exquisitely beautiful that they looked almost as though they had been drawn by an artist. There was a sharp, intelligent glint in her eyes, and she looked neat and polished from head to toe.
Standing among the crowd of drab, dusty-looking people, she stood out remarkably.
“Sister Mingxi…”
Hua Mei murmured the name.
The woman before her was Wei Mingxi, the daughter of Director Wei of the military district’s Political Department. She had graduated from a secondary vocational school in the provincial capital and recently returned to work at the supply and marketing cooperative beside the military compound.
She was beautiful, kind-natured, and universally praised by everyone in the compound.
Hua Mei’s reputation, on the other hand, was the complete opposite.
A heavy feeling clogged Hua Mei’s chest. An inexplicable wave of envy rose from deep within her, impossible to suppress.
“Auntie Liu, I saw Xiaomei jump into the river from the bridge just now,” Wei Mingxi said.
She wrapped both arms around Hua Mei’s shoulders, shielding the younger woman’s drenched body from view.
“Mingxi, I know you have a kind heart. But your family is a cadre’s family, and you’ve only just returned. You don’t know what she’s really like! Let me tell you, this matter isn’t over. I’m going to report her to the security office!”
Wei Mingxi was about to say something else, but Hua Mei could no longer hold herself together.
Her vision went black, and she fainted.
She had swallowed too much water while in the river, and the scorching sun had taken its toll on her as well. Her entire body alternated between chills and feverish heat. Wei Mingxi’s voice gradually faded into the distance.
When Hua Mei regained consciousness, she found herself lying on a hard bed.
Above her was a ceiling covered with old newspapers. Several large patches of plaster had fallen from the walls, exposing the dark bricks underneath.
This was her home, a room at the westernmost end of the row of houses in the farthest corner of the military compound.
It was less than twenty square meters, divided into two rooms. The outer room contained a cooking stove connected to a square dining table. The inner room held a bed and a cabinet, with a round mirror hanging from the cabinet door. There was also a small courtyard outside.
Sigh.
She had done a good deed without even thinking it through, only to have no one believe her.
Feeling utterly defeated, Hua Mei lay motionless on the bed.
【Ding! Loading host information. It has been detected that the host is Hua Mei, a character in the novel The Road to Prosperity in the 1980s. Character designation: Vicious Female Supporting Character.】
The voice didn’t sound as though it were coming through her ears. Instead, it seemed to speak directly inside her skull.
Hua Mei abruptly sat up.
Could I have gotten water in my brain just now and started hallucinating?
She shook her head and sat upright, but the voice continued.
【Character Profile: Hua Mei, eighteen years old. Both parents deceased. Her father, Hua Jianguo, was a technician at the military district’s logistics department repair workshop. He passed away three years ago. Her mother, Zhao Xiulan, was a military dependent who died of illness two years ago, leaving behind a breakfast stall.】
【After the deaths of her parents, Hua Mei had no urban household registration, no formal employment, no established work-unit position, and no relatives to rely on. She became a si wu renyuan—a person with none of the four essential social foundations—and was subjected to widespread discrimination in the military compound.】
【Out of jealousy toward the female protagonist, Wei Mingxi, for her beauty, talent, and business acumen, Hua Mei repeatedly schemed to frame and harm her. However, none of her schemes succeeded. Eventually, she became alienated from everyone and died of freezing in a bridge underpass in Chapter 123 of the novel.】
Hua Mei’s eyes widened.
She was actually living inside a book?!
When her parents had still been alive, she hadn’t been like this. She had been carefree, considerate, and hardworking.
But after they passed away, she had become lazy and listless. Even the breakfast stall her mother had left behind was run sporadically—she would work for three days, then slack off for two.
As for Wei Mingxi, Hua Mei had to admit that she really did envy her.
How could someone be so capable, so intelligent, and so fortunate?
【Important Information: The female protagonist, Wei Mingxi, is a transmigrator from the twenty-first century. She possesses modern business knowledge and extraordinary intelligence. She will seize the opportunities brought about by the Reform and Opening-Up era, establish the first privately owned garment factory in 1985, become a renowned entrepreneur in the province by 1990, and develop her business into a multinational private enterprise group after 2000…】
The mysterious voice continued listing Wei Mingxi’s achievements.
Listening to that impressive résumé, Hua Mei was practically ready to burst into tears.
In the novel, I’m actually so overconfident that I dare to scheme against Wei Mingxi? Shouldn’t I be trying to build a good relationship with her and get on her good side instead?
Besides, Wei Mingxi was such a kind person. She had even gone out of her way to help Hua Mei time and time again.
How could Hua Mei have been so utterly ungrateful?
No wonder she was labeled a vicious female supporting character!
No way. I can’t do this job!
【Special Notice: In view of the host’s awakening self-awareness and her willingness to risk her life to save a drowning child, her actions have deviated significantly from the original plot, triggering a hidden reward mechanism.】
【The host is hereby granted the ability to understand baby language. The host will be able to fully comprehend the vocalizations, crying, and body-language expressions of infants and toddlers aged zero to three. This ability is exceptionally rare and valuable in the current era. The host is advised to make good use of it.】
Baby language?
Hua Mei had thought it was English!
But how was she supposed to make use of this ability?
She had no intention of dying a tragic death. As long as she stopped provoking Wei Mingxi from now on, she should be fine, right?
【Host, please be advised: The original plot possesses a certain degree of inertia. Even if the host has no intention of committing malicious acts, external circumstances and interactions with other characters may still push the host toward her predetermined fate. The host is advised to proactively change her survival strategy.】
“All right, then.”
With a sigh, Hua Mei got to her feet and walked over to the mirror to examine her miserable appearance.