At around one o’clock in the afternoon in early 1999, a series of particularly classic songs—yet ones carrying memories of an old era—rang out in a family dormitory building of a silk factory:
“When mountains lose their edges, when rivers no longer flow, when time stops and day and night are no longer distinct…”
In a hazy state, An Songyu frowned slightly and muttered instinctively,
Could it be that her husband was sorting through old things again today and had dug out a Walkman from who knew when?
Irritably, she turned over, subconsciously wanting to yell toward the storage room:
It’s the middle of the day—what’s there to organize?!
Those bits of junk from who knows when should have been thrown out long ago!
But thinking of her husband’s nostalgic nature, An Songyu took a deep breath and still opened her eyes.
The moment she did, she froze.
It was completely different from the large bedroom she and her husband were used to—done in solid wood, decent but not particularly fashionable.
The room in front of her eyes was clearly less than half the size.
From the decor to the furnishings, it was so simple that apart from the necessities, there was almost nothing else.
Plain white walls and a cement floor—things she had not seen in a very long time—came back into view.
Yet behind the tightly closed yellow wooden door fitted with an iron bolt, there was a huge, brand-new poster of My Fair Princess, Part One.
An Songyu blinked for quite a while.
Only then did she dig out from her memory the familiar yet unfamiliar look of the room.
Wasn’t this… the bedroom she had lived in for many years before getting married?
If she wasn’t mistaken…
An Songyu immediately rolled over, trying to get up—but she had completely forgotten that she was currently sleeping on the lower bunk of a bunk bed.
The instant she lifted her head, it slammed hard into the underside of the upper bunk.
Hissing in pain, An Songyu clutched her forehead with trembling hands, unable to react for a long while.
On the upper bunk, An Songxiang—who had been woken by the noise—looked at her sister with a face full of sympathy.
All of her anger vanished in an instant.
When An Songyu finally came back to herself, An Songxiang asked curiously,
“Sis, what’s wrong with you? You were sleeping just fine at noon—why such a big reaction all of a sudden?”
“I…” An Songyu looked toward the upper bunk along with the voice, still somewhat dazed.
The girl’s face, full of youthful collagen, made An Songyu hesitate for a moment, barely daring to recognize her.
It was only after An Songxiang urged her again, confusion written all over her face, that An Songyu finally reacted.
An Songyu parted her lips slightly, instinctively wanting to ask what year it was.
But realizing how strange that question would sound, she forced a small smile instead.
“I just thought of something very important.”
“What could be so important that even you can’t sleep properly during a nap?” An Songxiang muttered again.
But she could already tell that her sister didn’t really want to talk about it…
Or judging by that somewhat vacant look, maybe it wasn’t that she remembered something important, but simply that she had had a disagreement with her boyfriend?
As for her sister’s love life, An Songxiang didn’t want to comment on it at all.
Though she was two years younger than An Songyu, she had already been working for two years.
With those outspoken older sisters at her workplace who talked about everything, An Songxiang felt she already knew what she was supposed to know.
And cases like her sister’s—finally getting into university, only to start dating so early—
In those older sisters’ eyes, there were only two explanations…
Either she had seized the perfect opportunity to fall in love.
Or else… she was simply easy to fool.
An Songyu, however, had no idea what An Songxiang was thinking.
After sensing that her sister had already lain back down, An Songyu carefully got off the bed, lightening her steps as she walked toward the door, trying not to make any noise.
Passing by the three-door wardrobe with a mirror in the middle, An Songyu finally saw her current appearance clearly.
The girl in the mirror looked unbelievably young.
So much so that An Songyu couldn’t help raising her hand and lightly touching her face in a daze.
Only when she saw the red mark on her forehead did she lower her hand.
Stepping out of the room was a nearly square living hall.
Opposite it were two doors.
Turning around, right next to the sisters’ room, there were also two doors.
An Songyu glanced around casually, then began looking everywhere for something that could help confirm the era she was in.
Very soon, her eyes were drawn to a thick wall calendar hanging on the wall next to the front door.
It was the old-fashioned kind, printed with the lunar calendar—a thick volume made up of thin pages, meant to be torn off one by one each day.
March 20, 1999—an auspicious day, the second day of the second lunar month.
March 1999?
An Songyu swallowed hard, hardly daring to believe it, and took down the calendar, which still had a thick stack of pages left.
Once it was in her hands, she realized they were trembling so much she could barely hold onto it.
After steadying herself, she examined it again and again.
Confirming that she really hadn’t misread it—
That the date on it truly hadn’t changed at all—
An Songyu swallowed, still filled with disbelief, and looked around.
Something she had only casually thought about before falling asleep had actually come true?
Afraid that this was just an illusion or a dream, An Songyu steeled herself and slapped her injured forehead hard.
The pain made her cry out immediately.
Clutching her forehead, she crouched down on the floor, gasping for breath in discomfort.
It was that noon when An Songlin—who had deliberately come back with their father to discuss marriage matters—
Saw his eldest sister’s actions from start to finish and couldn’t help baring his teeth and hissing in sympathy along with her.
Hearing the sound, An Songyu turned her head with tears in her eyes.
When she finally saw her brother’s familiar figure standing against the light, she sprang to her feet.
She knew it now—she knew exactly what time this was!
Seeing his eldest sister suddenly charge at him with such fierce momentum, An Songlin instinctively swallowed and took a step back.
“Brother, did you come back today to discuss buying a house with Dad and Mom?” An Songyu ignored his reaction and asked eagerly.
An Songlin froze for a moment, a complicated look flashing through his eyes.
But thinking of the bond he had shared with his two younger sisters since childhood, he didn’t follow his wife’s instructions to hide it from them first.
When An Songlin nodded, just as she had expected, An Songyu took a deep breath and looked at him.
“Brother… do you believe me?”
“Huh?” An Songlin was even more confused now, but under his eldest sister’s unusually firm gaze—so different from her usual self—he still nodded.
“Of course. Of course I believe you.”
“Then wait here. I’ll call Mom, Dad, and our little sister—we’re having a family meeting!”
After saying this, An Songyu didn’t wait for An Songlin’s response and went straight to her parents’ and sister’s rooms.