*Note: This is a work of fiction; please suspend your disbelief.*
“Lower, lower… hh, yes, just like that—hurry up, will you?”
In a narrow, deserted alleyway, dappled tree shadows fell across a young boy’s burning face.
Luo Xi shook her head. “No further. That’s as far as it goes.”
“Unless you pay!” she added solemnly.
“How can you be like this? I’ve already come this far!” The boy grew frantic.
Luo Xi stood firm. “Pay up!”
“Ugh—fine, fine!” The boy relented. “How much?”
“The full set?”
“Yes,” he said promptly.
“Alright. I’ll give you fifty percent off the whole set. Two yuan per book; ten yuan total for all five.” Luo Xi closed the album in her hands.
A fleeting glimpse revealed the illustration: a woman with wavy hair, one shoulder bare, and a neckline plunging deep enough to lose oneself in.
The boy gasped, then quickly lowered his voice. “You’re robbing me! Ten yuan is far too much!”
Luo Xi shook her head. “These are premium goods—obtained at great risk, hand-drawn and hand-bound. If you don’t want them, plenty of others are lining up to.” She turned as if to leave.
Two yuan was a substantial sum in this era, yet every page was drawn by hand and stitched together—truly a bargain.
Panicked, the boy blocked her path. “Fine! Ten yuan it is. Let me know next time you get more stock.”
A faint smile touched Luo Xi’s lips. Goods exchanged for money, she gave one last instruction: “These are meant to be enjoyed in private—wait until you’re home to look.”
The boy nodded; he’d already planned to lock his door and savour every page.
Only after he left did Luo Xi lift her gaze toward a certain spot. “Seen enough?”
Chu Yan perched atop the alley wall, frozen in place. He had just witnessed what he assumed was an illicit transaction of indecent material. Who would have guessed the seemingly harmless girl dealt in such things?
He hadn’t meant to spy—he’d come to the black market himself and simply stumbled upon the scene. Though disguised, he had recognised her; and clearly, she had recognised him too.
Luo Xi rolled her eyes inwardly and turned to leave.
“Red armbands up ahead,” Chu Yan called out. “I’d suggest climbing out this way.”
Luo Xi fell silent. Faint shouts drifted in the distance. Glancing up at the two-metre wall, she sighed. “Give me a hand?”
Chu Yan crouched and extended his arm.
Luo Xi looked up at him—sharp-featured, handsome enough ordinarily, though from this angle all she saw were nostrils. She placed her hand in his: long-fingered, calloused. A sent-down youth of barely half a month… already with hands like this? Hmph.
Then she was lifted clean off the ground. She had intended to brace against the wall and pull herself up—instead, she dangled like a chick in his grip.
Luo Xi had no words. She forgot to thank him, and decided she didn’t want to.
Once clear of the alley, they parted ways without a word. Luo Xi found a quiet corner to remove her disguise, then bought White Rabbit candies, stationery, and grain in town.
She had arrived in this body just three days ago, and the transition had been infuriating. She had been moments away from commanding a newly discovered planet—only to wake up in this backward era. A leading aerospace explorer, stranded in the 1970s.
Her new identity was no ordinary one: her father, Luo Huizhou, had been one of the nation’s top weapons scientists. The family had lived abroad until last year, when he answered the nation’s call to return. Assassinated en route, only his daughter survived. She shared her name with the original girl—seventeen, three years younger.
The mass movement of urban youth to the countryside was in full swing, and the circumstances that brought her here were tangled indeed.
Chu Yan was already waiting at the meeting spot, along with several other youths.
“Comrade Luo Xi! Over here!” Her hapless roommate Shi Yanlan waved her over. They had been assigned the draughtiest, most dilapidated room in the entire compound, and said nothing—just moved in.
Hence her new venture: earn enough money to build somewhere decent to live. The illustrations were entirely her own work—painstaking work, too. Fortunately, the spatial dimension she had brought with her remained intact, though emptied of all supplies. No one would trace the drawings back to her.
“You’re late,” Shi Yanlan took her backpack. “Lost your way?”
“Not used to the town yet,” Luo Xi smiled.
“Fair enough,” Shi Yanlan sighed. “We’ve only been here half a month. Hardly get a day off as it is.”
Soon everyone was accounted for, and they set off at a snail’s pace on an ox-cart bound for the production brigade.
Meanwhile, the boy hurried home. The house was empty; he bolted the door before reverently opening the first book to the marked page. Heart pounding, hands trembling—he turned to the next, expecting the beauty to reveal more…
*Before bed shines the moon’s light,*
*Keep such books locked out of sight.*
*I look up to the bright moon,*
*And guard my trousers day and night.*
The boy stared. He snatched up the second book—same woman, different waves, same neckline. The final page bore its own verse:
*Such books may give a fleeting thrill,*
*But they’ll land you in trouble, until—*
*I’ve tried to warn you, can’t you see?*
*This is for your own good, honestly!*
“I see nothing good about it—what the hell…!”
Bouncing along on the cart, Luo Xi felt every bone rattled loose by the time they reached Wushan Village. No sooner had she stepped into the courtyard than she felt a gaze fixed intently on her—sharp, reproachful, and unmistakeable.