When Yun Qing regained consciousness, he felt dizzy. It was as if he had been thrown into a washing machine, spinning wildly until he felt like vomiting.
Yet his heart was filled with wild joy. He had succeeded! He had crossed over into another world.
After resting for quite a while, the dizziness finally faded, and Yun Qing opened his eyes to examine his surroundings.
It was deep in the night, when all was silent. The room was pitch-black, and two sleeping youths lay beside him. Judging by their breathing, they were already fast asleep.
“Xiao Liu, transmit the memories.” Yun Qing called out to the System in his mind.
“All right, Brother Qing.” The mechanical voice of the System, Xiao Liu, rang out.
Soon, a flood of memories entered his mind. If his divine sense had not been powerful, he would certainly have fainted again.
Yun Qing began sorting through the Original Host’s memories.
The Original Host was named Zhou Yunqing. He was from the capital city and was sixteen by nominal age this year. Born in 1948, he was currently a second-grade middle school student, with only half a year left before the high school entrance examination.
（All ages in this book are nominal ages, meaning actual age plus one. This will not be explained again later.）
The Original Host’s Father, Zhou Hongjun, was currently a second-grade welder at the First Machinery Factory. His mother, Chu Ying, had died in childbirth when giving birth to him.
Half a year after Chu Ying’s death, Zhou Hongjun married Zhao Hongmei, a widow from the neighboring household. She brought along a boy one year older than the Original Host, who changed his surname and was renamed Zhou Yunxue.
Half a year after entering the family, the stepmother became pregnant and gave birth in 1950 to fraternal twins. The boy was named Zhou Yunxi and was the older brother. The girl was named Zhou Yunlan and was the younger sister.
The Original Host had no maternal relatives. His mother, Chu Ying, had fled famine and been picked up by Zhou Hongjun. At that time, the capital city had not yet been liberated, and his grandmother’s family was already large, struggling even to put food on the table. They could not possibly afford to find Zhou Hongjun a wife. Since a woman who cost nothing had appeared, they were naturally happy to accept her.
Besides, Chu Ying had delicate, attractive features and was pleasing to the eye. With nowhere else to go, she became Zhou Hongjun’s good fortune.
The Original Host’s grandmother was a vicious woman. Seeing that Chu Ying was alone, she tormented her relentlessly. This was also one of the reasons Chu Ying later died in childbirth. She was pregnant, malnourished, and still had to serve the entire extended family every day, washing clothes and preparing meals. It would have been strange if she had not suffered complications during childbirth.
Zhou Hongjun was a male chauvinist. He always turned a blind eye, believing that housework was what women were supposed to do. Why would they need to be so pampered?
Later, Zhou Hongjun entered a factory through worker recruitment and became a laborer. He then acted even more like an Uncle. After returning home, he did not lift a finger. He expected clothes to be handed to him and meals to be brought to his mouth. This was also a common phenomenon in the capital city at the time: no household’s men cooked or did housework.
Zhou Hongjun treated Chu Ying this way, and he treated Zhao Hongmei the same way. He really did keep things perfectly equal.
After entering the factory, Zhou Hongjun was assigned housing by the factory. It was a large communal courtyard, and because his family had many children, they were assigned two eastern wing rooms.
The couple lived in one room, while the other was divided into two smaller rooms, occupied by the four siblings.
The Original Host failed to get into high school after middle school and began taking odd jobs. After 1969, he was forcibly sent to the countryside. Half a year later, he died in a mountain flood, at only twenty-three years old.
After the Original Host died, his Soul drifted back to the capital city, where he learned some truths he had never heard before. It turned out that his biological mother, Chu Ying, had left him an inheritance: ten gold bars in total, along with a jade thumb ring.
Before her death, she had instructed Zhou Hongjun to leave half of the gold bars to her child. The other half was payment for Zhou Hongjun, in the hope that he would treat her child well for the sake of the gold. The jade thumb ring was a token for identifying their kin; her family would certainly return to look for her.
After getting drunk once, Zhou Hongjun let the secret slip, and Zhao Hongmei learned of it. She then humbled herself and fawned over Zhou Hongjun, using those things to pave the way for her own children.
Zhou Yunxue used the gold to marry and buy a house. Zhou Yunxi used it to enter a factory, and even used it to start a business after the economic reforms. More shamelessly, when the Chu family returned to the country to search for their relative, Zhou Yunxi learned of the matter by accident and conspired with Zhao Hongmei to pull off a substitution.
And under Zhao Hongmei’s sweet talk, Zhou Hongjun actually agreed.
They moved house and changed Zhou Yunxi’s household registration. They not only switched his name with the Original Host’s, but also switched their ages.
And so, Zhou Yunxi became Chu Ying’s child. By then, the Original Host had been dead for more than a decade, and many people no longer remembered that someone like him had existed. On top of that, they had moved, so the new neighbors did not know that the family had once had another child.
With the jade thumb ring as proof of identity, the Chu family did not investigate further. They had been pressed for time when returning to the country, so they believed the Zhou Family, gave Zhou Yunxi a large sum of money as compensation, and hurriedly left.
Zhou Yunxi used the money to invest in and establish a factory. In the blink of an eye, he became a Big Boss, one of the earliest people to grow wealthy.
The Original Host could not accept this injustice. His resentment energy accumulated, and that was how the System detected him.
After sorting through the memories, Yun Qing also felt somewhat depressed. This was another Cannon Fodder, someone who had provided resources for others.
“Xiao Liu, why is there no plot? Zhou Yunxi should be the male protagonist, right?” Yun Qing asked.
“Brother Qing, this is a normal Small World with no plot. The Original Host’s wish is to reclaim what belongs to him, not die young, live well, and not let anyone else replace him in his own life.
“As for the Zhou Family and the Chu family, he has no particular demands. Deal with them as you see fit.”
“That’s right. With such a perfunctory maternal family, it is clear that they do not have much genuine affection. They merely want peace of mind. Whether they acknowledge him or not is unimportant.
“As for the Zhou Family, such relatives are truly disgusting. By the way, what was the payment the Original Host offered?” Yun Qing asked with a sigh.
“Ten points of Merit. He once saved someone who later became a scientist and made outstanding contributions to the development of this country. That is why he possessed Merit,” Xiao Liu replied.
“All right, I understand. For the sake of his ten points of Merit, I’ll deal with the Zhou Family while I’m at it.” After Yun Qing finished speaking, Xiao Liu entered standby mode.
Lying on the heated brick bed, he pondered the situation. It was now just after the 1963 Spring Festival, during the second-grade winter vacation. He had half a year left before graduation. There was still time for everything.
The suspension of the Gaokao was still more than three years away, so trying to enter high school was impractical. It would be better to take the secondary technical school entrance examination. Upon graduation, he would receive a cadre Official Establishment position with guaranteed assignment, and he would not have to be sent to the countryside.
Although he was not afraid of hardship, he did not want to suffer needlessly. If he could work as a laborer in the capital city, who would willingly go to the countryside to endure hardship? It was not that he looked down on farmers; farmers at this time truly suffered, unable to eat their fill or dress warmly.
The history of this world broadly followed the same course as that of his original world. Its name was the Dragon Nation.
He also had to reclaim the things his mother had left behind. He would not leave even a single thing to that old bastard, let alone half. What kind of foolish dream was that? Did he deserve it?
However, for now, he should modify his body first. Its foundation was far too poor. It had only just endured the Great Famine, which had ruined it. The mission specifically required him to live well, so he could not die young.
As Yun Qing thought this, he turned his head toward the two brothers. They were sleeping soundly. He transformed his divine sense into needles and pierced the sleep acupoints of both brothers. They absolutely would not wake before dawn.