The small mountain village in the early morning was shrouded in a thin layer of mist. The crowing of chickens and the barking of dogs echoed faintly, along with indistinct human voices. From many households, wisps of cooking smoke had already begun to rise from their kitchens.
This was Chaoyang Village, located in the southern region of China.
When Lan Sisi woke up, her head still ached slightly.
“Sis, you’re finally awake.” A somewhat childish voice sounded by her ear.
Lan Sisi lifted her eyes and saw a boy of five or six standing by her bed. His complexion was sallow and his body thin, his clothes hanging loosely on him. It was obvious at a glance that he had been malnourished for a long time.
She then turned her head to look at the room she was in. Aside from the wooden bed beneath her and the dark, musty-smelling quilt covering her, the place was practically bare.
What was going on? She had only gone to sleep in her own home. Could she have encountered human traffickers?
“You’re awake?” a woman’s voice sounded from a corner of the room. Only then did Lan Sisi notice that there was someone else sitting inside.
When the woman walked closer, Lan Sisi saw that she was in her forties, with a somewhat sharp and mean-looking face.
“You’re far too weak. How are you going to carry on Old Ge’s family line like this?” the woman complained.
“Who are you?” Lan Sisi frowned.
“Oh right, you haven’t met me before. I’m Weimin’s mother. Back then, my Old Ge was kind-hearted and agreed to become in-laws with your father. Who would have thought your father was so short-lived and just died like that. Now, it’s not impossible for you to marry into our family, but you’ll have to bring one hundred yuan as dowry money. There won’t be any betrothal gifts, and also, you can come, but your younger brother cannot come with you. Who has the capacity to raise an extra idle person these days? Within one year, you must give me a grandson, otherwise don’t blame me for having Weimin divorce you.”
The woman rattled off a long string of words, and Lan Sisi felt her head ache more and more.
“Get out.”
The woman’s voice came to an abrupt stop. She stared at Lan Sisi in disbelief. “What did you say?!”
“Can’t you understand human speech? I told you to get out,” Lan Sisi repeated.
The boy at the side also picked up a broom nearby and made a motion as if to drive her away.
“Well, well, I think you’ve lost your mind. Since that’s the case, don’t even think about marrying into our family anymore! Let’s see who would dare marry a jinx like you in the future. Ouch!”
Before her words had even finished, the boy’s broom had already struck her. Though the boy looked small and thin, he had quite a bit of strength, beating the woman until she cried out repeatedly.
The woman was driven out the door. She stood outside with her hands on her hips, cursing for quite a while before finally leaving.
The boy came back in holding the broom and cautiously glanced at Lan Sisi, as if afraid she might be upset.
After calming down, Lan Sisi still felt completely confused. What exactly was going on now?
Before she could think it through, a large flood of memories that did not belong to her surged into her mind. The fragmented images made her frown continuously.
It turned out she had not been abducted by traffickers, but had instead encountered something from novels, transmigration. She had transmigrated into a rural girl who shared her exact name, yet had lived an extremely difficult life.
The girl was fifteen years old this year and had graduated from junior high school. Lan Sisi’s father, Lan Aimin, was the second son in the family. After marrying her mother, Chen Shi, they had been separated to live on their own. The eldest and third branches of the family still lived with the elders in the old house.
(T/N: Just to clarify, “Chen Shi” (陈氏) isn’t actually her mother’s full name. The “Shi” (氏) is a traditional suffix used to refer to a married woman by her surname, so it simply means “of the Chen family” or “Madam Chen.” Her actual given name isn’t mentioned in the text.)
The second branch had originally received very little when they were divided out. Building a new house had nearly exhausted all their savings. Every year when grain and money were distributed, the few catties of refined grain and pork they received were taken away by Lan Sisi’s grandmother, Liu Guihua, under various pretexts to subsidize the eldest and third branches. Even a portion of their coarse grain had to be handed over to Liu Guihua as “support for the elderly.”
Life for Lan Sisi’s family of four had been extremely tight. Within just a few years, Chen Shi’s body had been worn down by exhaustion, and she fell ill, bedridden. Using her dowry, a foot of cotton cloth had been exchanged for a few doses of medicine, but she still failed to survive the winter.
After Chen Shi died, life became even more difficult. A few years later, Lan Aimin went up the mountain hoping to hunt some wild game to nourish the children, but he accidentally lost his footing and tumbled down the mountain. When he was found, his body had already been mangled beyond recognition by wild beasts. Not long after the funeral was completed, Lan Sisi, exhausted in both mind and body, fainted. When she opened her eyes again, her soul had already been replaced.
As for that woman earlier, her son was the fiancé Lan Aimin had arranged for Lan Sisi not long before his death. His name was Ge Weimin, from Gejia Village next door. His looks could barely be considered handsome, and he was an honest person, but unfortunately, he was a mama’s boy.
Lan Sisi let out a breath of relief. Fortunately, she had driven the woman away. They were not even married yet, and the woman was already so arrogant. If they really got married, who knew how unbearable it would be.
After sorting through the memories, Lan Sisi sighed. She accepted the fact that she had truly transmigrated and that she would have to live properly in this place. She turned to look at the boy beside her, her only remaining relative, Lan Sinian. He was nine years old this year, yet looked about the size of a five or six-year-old child.
At this moment, Lan Sinian was looking at her with concern. Lan Sisi gave him a small smile to show that she was fine. However, this smile made Lan Sinian feel both surprised and flattered, as his sister had not smiled at him for a long time.
Seeing this, Lan Sisi could not help but feel a pang of sorrow. The original owner had long suffered from hunger and cold, and had to endure bullying from her cousins as well as scolding and dislike from her grandmother. Her heart had already become twisted, and she had even begun to take out her frustrations on her younger brother, never giving him a kind expression. Yet Lan Sinian liked this sister very much. Whenever there was work to be done, he would rush to do it. When their grandmother scolded them, he would quietly stand in front of his sister to shield her. If there was anything good to eat, he would always save it for her.
“I’m fine. Don’t worry,” Lan Sisi said, reaching out to gently pat Lan Sinian’s soft hair.
Lan Sinian nodded, then suddenly seemed to remember something. His eyes reddened. “Sis, do we no longer have a father?”
Lan Sisi felt her heart ache. The lingering emotions of the original owner nearly overwhelmed her. She clenched her teeth and forced the tears back. “Sinian, from now on, I will take good care of you.”
“Sisi, Sinian, are you at home?” At that moment, a woman’s voice called out from outside.
Lan Sisi got off the bed, put on her shoes, and walked out.
Standing at the doorway was a thin woman in her forties, holding a bowl in her hands.
“Aunt Sun, you’re here.” This woman lived in the neighboring courtyard. She had a good relationship with Chen Shi and genuinely pitied the two frail children.
“Sisi, you’re awake. That’s good. If your father sees that you’re fine, he can close his eyes in peace,” Aunt Sun said, wiping away her tears as she stuffed the bowl into Lan Sisi’s arms. “I cooked two sweet potatoes for you and Sinian. Eat them while they’re hot. I still have work in the fields, so I’ll go first. Just leave the bowl at the door later.”
“How can that be, Aunt Sun? You’ve already helped us so much. We can’t keep eating your food,” Lan Sisi said as she hurried after her, trying to return the sweet potatoes.
“You child, why are you being so polite with me?” Aunt Sun waved her hand and strode off. Lan Sisi could not catch up, so she stopped insisting. She silently remembered Aunt Sun’s kindness, then carried the bowl back home.
Lan Sinian came out of the room and asked, “Sis, what did Aunt Sun come for?”
“She brought us sweet potatoes.”
Upon hearing the words “sweet potatoes,” Lan Sinian’s eyes immediately lit up. The siblings took stools and sat in the courtyard. Lan Sisi handed the larger sweet potato from the bowl to Lan Sinian and kept the smaller one for herself.
The sweet, fragrant taste filled her mouth, and Lan Sisi finally felt how hungry she truly was. The sweet potato was not large, and she finished it in just a few bites. Seeing this, Lan Sinian broke off a piece from his own and handed it over. “Sis, I’m small, I can’t eat that much. You should eat too.”
Although he said that, his eyes remained fixed on the sweet potato, and he swallowed hard.
Lan Sinian was so sensible that it made one’s heart ache. Lan Sisi pushed the sweet potato back to him. “You eat it. I’m full.”
After several rounds of refusal, the sweet potato ultimately ended up in Lan Sinian’s stomach.
Taking the opportunity, Lan Sisi looked around the entire house. Their home was made of rammed earth, with a small courtyard that was completely empty, save for a few scattered weeds growing on the ground.
She went to check the kitchen. The stove was blackened with soot, and there was only a worn iron pot. The grain jar was nearly empty, containing only a few sweet potatoes, a small bag of coarse cornmeal, a small bag of brown rice, and some wild vegetables, all coarse food.
Lan Sisi frowned. There were still more than two months before the end-of-year grain distribution, yet they had so little food left. Most of the remaining money at home had also been spent on Lan Aimin’s funeral. How were they supposed to make it through?
Every year when grain was distributed, most of it had been given to Liu Guihua. Her honest and dutiful parents had only known how to be filial to their elders, never considering how to support a family of four with so little food left. In her memory, the children of Eldest Uncle and Third Uncle lived much better lives. The eldest cousin from Eldest Uncle’s family and the fourth cousin from Third Uncle’s family could even eat an egg every day. The laying hen had been obtained by Liu Guihua through feigning illness in front of Lan Aimin and Chen Shi.
In those days, eggs were a rare commodity. People were reluctant to eat them, preferring to save enough to exchange for money at the Supply and Marketing Cooperative. Although the amount earned was not much, even a small gain was still something.
The eldest cousin was attending high school in the county, while the fourth cousin was in primary school in the production team. Their tuition alone cost several yuan a year.
In comparison, the lives of Lan Sisi and Lan Sinian were far too miserable.
Lan Sisi had already made up her mind that when the next grain distribution came, she would no longer foolishly hand over their share to Liu Guihua and the others. At the same time, she needed to find a way to improve their living conditions. Although her previous life had not been extremely wealthy, she had never lacked white rice or meat at her meals.
Although this was not the 1970s she was familiar with, based on the original owner’s memories, it was generally quite similar.
Just as Lan Sisi was deep in thought, a voice suddenly sounded.
“Binding host… binding successful.”
The mechanical voice seemed to ring right by her ear, startling Lan Sisi. She quickly looked around, but there was no one there. Lan Sinian had gone next door and had not yet returned.
“Who’s there?”
At that moment, a flash of white light passed, and Lan Sisi, who had been standing in the kitchen, suddenly disappeared into thin air.
She lowered the arm she had raised to shield her eyes from the light and found herself standing in a vast, open field. The surroundings were completely silent, with no one in sight. Above her was a blue sky with white clouds, and beneath her feet was fertile land.
The land was divided into square plots. Four of the plots were planted with wheat, which had already ripened, the heavy ears of grain hanging low on the stalks.
Beside it was a large stretch of green land. On it stood a lone small wooden house, and next to the house was a chicken coop with four chickens inside.
What was going on? Had she transmigrated again?