The scene before Lin Shu’s eyes flashed by in an instant. Still shocked, she memorized the date before getting up and heading toward the bathroom.
“I’ll get you some medicine to clear the internal heat. Splash some cold water on your forehead and the back of your neck.”
She bent down to wash herself. Just as she reached out to clean the bracelet as well, a strange white light suddenly flashed, causing her to freeze in place.
She watched as the blood on the bracelet merged into it, and the emerald-green bracelet instantly gained a streak of red.
Even more astonishingly, the water was continuously being absorbed by the bracelet.
After trying several times, she finally confirmed that she had obtained the “spatial dimension” described in novels from later generations.
As for why she had just seen the scene involving the secret documents, it was probably also because of this bracelet.
Lin Shu immediately turned around and picked up an unopened bar of soap to experiment. With just a thought, the soap disappeared from her hand.
“So it works through my thoughts. If that’s the case…”
In the blink of an eye, the bar of soap appeared out of nowhere beside her feet.
After quickly tidying herself up, she walked out. For the time being, this secret could only be known to her.
Taking the medicine to clear internal heat that her sister-in-law had brought her, Lin Shu swallowed it all in one gulp with some warm water.
“Sister-in-law, I want to tell you something.”
Jiang Jie felt that her sister-in-law was probably up to no good, but she still sat down with her son in her arms.
Lin Shu made up a story, exaggerating the tale about a wild ghost having stolen her body. Jiang Jie got goosebumps all over just listening to it.
“Sister-in-law, don’t be afraid. That thing is gone now.”
Jiang Jie carefully looked Lin Shu over. After confirming that she seemed fine, she still didn’t dare let her guard down.
“I was wondering how the little girl who used to run around behind me all day could have turned into such an unreasonable, spoiled brat.”
“Sister-in-law, you mustn’t tell anyone else.”
“Don’t worry. Things are sensitive right now. I won’t let anyone get hold of anything they can use against you.”
Once she had some free time, Lin Shu remembered that families with politically problematic backgrounds like theirs would occasionally be subjected to inspections.
To deal with those troublesome Red Guards, she first put everything in her room that shouldn’t be left outside into her spatial dimension. What remained was the family study and some personal belongings belonging to her father and brothers.
Especially her older brother. He had always kept in contact with his foreign classmates, and the two of them had discussed some work-related matters.
The letters themselves were completely ordinary, but jealous colleagues who resented her father and brothers’ achievements had spread rumors about them. Those letters had become key evidence accusing her brother of betraying the country. They all had to be burned!
Besides that, they would need plenty of daily necessities.
Thinking of how her sister-in-law still had to work in the dead of winter wearing only thin clothes, and how she had collapsed from the cold in the snow several times, Lin Shu couldn’t help shedding a few tears.
Actually, her sister-in-law could have published a divorce notice in the newspaper and completely cut ties with the family.
But instead, she would rather suffer and endure hardship than abandon her older brother.
Remembering this, Lin Shu returned to her room and searched through her credit union passbook, only to be hit with a harsh reality.
Ever since her personality had changed drastically, she had become insatiably greedy and spent money recklessly.
To curb her behavior and prevent her from bringing trouble to the family, her family had stopped giving her spending money several years ago.
The money in her savings had all been squandered by the wild ghost, leaving her without even a single ration coupon.
On the verge of tears, Lin Shu knelt on the floor, her upper body slumped against the wall.
Where was she supposed to get so much money now?
If she asked her family for money, they would never believe that she had truly changed for the better not in such a short period of time.
“Are you feeling uncomfortable?”
Shen Huai’s voice came from behind her.
Lin Shu turned around, and when she saw Shen Huai, it was as if she had seen her savior.
“Shen Huai, can you lend me some money?”
The moment he heard this, Shen Huai’s previously cheerful expression darkened.
“So that’s what this is about…”
He muttered to himself.
Realizing that he had been deceived again, Shen Huai gave a helpless smile. As long as she needed him, that was enough. As for whether she loved him… that wasn’t important.
“How much do you need?”
“Can you lend me all of it?”
She asked tentatively.
Shen Huai had merely been passing by. Remembering that she had been worn out by him the entire previous night, he had specifically come upstairs to check whether she was feeling uncomfortable anywhere.
Who would have thought the result would be this…
“Sure.”
He took out his credit union passbook from the bottom drawer of the cabinet.
“Whatever you need, I’ll give you…”
There was a great deal of helplessness in his voice. Shen Huai was always falling at her feet, picking himself back up, only to repeat the same cycle over and over again.
Lin Shu calculated the balance in the passbook and discovered that it was just about enough. She could always pester her sister-in-law into lending her a little more later. It should be enough to get the whole family through several years after they were sent down to the far northwest.
“Thank you! I’ll pay you back once I make some money!”
Overjoyed, Lin Shu grabbed Shen Huai’s hand and shook it. The softness of her little hand made Shen Huai instinctively want to pull her into his arms.
“Is it enough? If it’s not, I can borrow some more for you.”
He blurted it out despite himself.
Lin Shu shook her head.
“It’s enough. Shen Huai, you really are my treasure!”
Holding the passbook, Lin Shu excitedly rambled on for a while before running downstairs with it. She completely failed to notice the lone man behind her, whose ears had turned crimson because of what she had said.
Lin Shu had been disconnected from the real world for five years, so she had no idea about the current market situation.
The moment she got the money, she went out with her sister-in-law, who was going to buy vegetables.
Jiang Jie had spent the entire morning observing her sister-in-law, trying to determine whether she had really changed. In the past, Lin Shu had also pretended to behave herself whenever she wanted to achieve a certain goal.
Her husband, Lin Hui, had already been fooled several times because of this. This time, she wanted to see whether the story her sister-in-law had told about ghosts and spirits was actually true.
After saying goodbye to Shen Huai, Lin Shu took her little nephew along and went out.
“Ride in our car. We happen to be passing that way.”
“That works. Nannan, get in.”
Jiang Jie called her son into the back seat.
As Shen Huai’s best friend, Meng Fan silently complained to himself:
We’re not going that way at all, okay?
Instead of properly serving as a soldier of the people, he insisted on marrying the daughter of a fallen capitalist family.
He came running to the Lin family every single day, to the point that people were calling him the Lin family’s live-in son-in-law. It looked bad and had even gotten him talked to by his superiors.
The last time, Captain Zhang, who had earned merit alongside him, had already been promoted one rank.
And this idiot just kept shamelessly going over every day to wait on her hand and foot.
If the two of them were mutually in love, Meng Fan, as his friend, wouldn’t have anything to say.
The problem was that Lin Shu treated Shen Huai like a sucker. She didn’t even like him.
Meng Fan wasn’t the only one who was anxious. None of Shen Huai’s superiors or comrades could understand him either.
The organization had already decided to talk to Lin Shu soon.
Meng Fan stepped on the gas and drove the group to the entrance of the vegetable market.
“Are you feeling uncomfortable anywhere?”
There were people coming and going all around them. Lin Shu’s face turned bashful.
“You still have the nerve to ask… My legs hurt like crazy.”
“Sorry. I’ll be more careful next time. When we get home tonight, I’ll massage them for you.”
Lin Shu nodded.
“Mhm. Go on and get back to work.”
Shen Huai drove away, but Lin Shu remained standing there for a long time.
“Auntie, if you don’t leave soon, all the good vegetables will be gone.”
“Nannan, you even know that? Auntie will buy you some fried sugar cakes.”
She didn’t know what her nephew liked to eat, but children generally loved sweet things.
“Auntie… but Mommy won’t let me eat them. She says I’ll become a little chubby if I eat any more.”
“Auntie says you can eat them.”
Lin Xiaonan looked at her expectantly.
“Thank you, Auntie. But Auntie, can you please not turn back into the old you? You’re being so nice to Nannan today…”
Hearing her nephew’s words, Lin Shu couldn’t help feeling sorrowful.
Just how many terrible things had that wild ghost done to her family over the years?
But it seemed that fate wouldn’t allow Lin Shu to remain lost in thought.
In the blink of an eye, she saw a dark-skinned man. He was one of the men who would later lead the raid on their home. He was pointing and gesturing toward something, a red armband wrapped around his arm.
And the direction he was pointing toward was none other than where the Lin family lived!!