What should she do? Should she save him or not!
Li Baoling couldn’t see clearly who it was. Of course, even if she could, she wouldn’t recognize him; she could only vaguely make out that it was a tall man.
Wait a second, was that man throwing himself into the river? He jumped so decisively!
And he wasn’t struggling at all!
Forget it. Just as Li Baoling was taking off her shoes and preparing to jump, the other person suddenly began to splash violently, as if he had only just reacted.
“It’s okay, I’m coming down to save you right now,” Li Baoling said as she started walking into the river.
To her surprise, as if the man had heard her, he slowly began to swim.
Wait, he knows how to swim? Li Baoling felt a flash of irritation and returned to the shore. How redundant!
She watched as the man quickly swam to the riverbank. With a “thud,” water splashed everywhere.
“Hey, you! Jumping into the river to play like it’s a suicide attempt—you almost made me jump in to save you. Where are your manners!” Li Baoling accused.
Hearing her voice, Lin Mingyuan immediately wiped his face and looked around. Dammit, why was he still here!
“Wait a minute… Big brother, you look a bit familiar?” Li Baoling said, stepping forward. The more she looked at him, the more familiar he seemed.
Lin Mingyuan hadn’t expected that even after coming to this era, someone would use this kind of method to strike up a conversation. He was just about to retort when he looked up and realized: “You, you, you!!!”
Wasn’t this the unlucky soul he had dragged down with him!
At that time, his car had been parked on the side of the road while he waited for someone. Suddenly, a truck behind him went crazy and rushed toward him. At such a close distance, he couldn’t react at all; he could only be pushed forward by the truck. By the time he noticed a girl in front of him, he could no longer move, forced to watch as the car charged toward her.
In the second before he lost consciousness, he had locked eyes with this girl’s panic-stricken gaze. Consequently, over the past two days since he arrived, whenever he had a nightmare, it was this face he saw.
Who would have thought he would see the real person again today?
“You… you came over too, huh?” Lin Mingyuan instinctively scratched his head, feeling a bit embarrassed.
“What do you mean ‘I came over too’? Isn’t this all thanks to you? I was standing perfectly fine on the side of the road waiting for a bus, and you came straight at me, knocking me flying. Then, when I woke up, I was on a communal bunk in the youth point. Do you have any idea how I’ve spent these past few days!” Li Baoling hadn’t expected to meet the culprit who caused her to transmigrate into this book. Furious, she let out a frantic outburst.
“Well, I’m a victim too! First a truck hit me, and then I hit you, but I was on the verge of death myself then. I couldn’t control it at all.” Lin Mingyuan felt aggrieved as well.
When he woke up and found himself lying in bed, he thought he had been saved. He had wanted to ask how that girl he hit was doing, only to realize he wasn’t in a hospital at all.
While he was spiraling into a conspiracy theory about whether someone had successfully matched his organs and hired someone to hit him—taking them in this backward, primitive workshop before he had even stopped breathing—he discovered he could move, and nothing on his body hurt!
Looking closer, he realized there wasn’t even a single puncture mark on him!
Mom, I’ve encountered a supernatural event!!!
Lin Mingyuan scrambled up to rush outside, but before he could reach the door, it was pushed open. A kind-looking middle-aged woman walked in, carrying something in her hands.
“You little brat, you’re finally awake. All you did was save someone from the river and you fainted yourself. And to think you’re always bragging about how good your swimming is.” Although Sun Zhaodi was scolding him, she had been worried while her son was unconscious. Now that he was awake, it was fine.
“Quick, I just boiled an egg for you. Mom knew you’d wake up around now. Eat it quickly while your dad and the others aren’t home!” Sun Zhaodi thought that since her son had saved someone this time, what was wrong with him eating an egg?
“Don’t forget to drink a few gulps of water after you finish, otherwise your dad will catch on and scold you again. Work is almost over for the day, so Mom’s going to cook dinner now. You sit for a bit longer.” Seeing that her son was fine, Sun Zhaodi felt relieved. She left as quickly as she had arrived, looking as though she had only come to deliver the egg.
Lin Mingyuan stared blankly at the egg in his hand. Then, with a “crack,” he tapped the egg against his forehead.
As the eggshell broke, a flood of memories entered his mind.
As a trendy modern person, how could he not know about transmigration? Yes, he had transmigrated!
Now, he was the son of Lin Guoqing, the production team leader of Liujiatun Village in the Shengli Brigade. His name was also Lin Mingyuan.
Lin Mingyuan was a famously useless “pretty boy” in the surrounding villages. The work points he earned weren’t even as much as a child’s. He was also an oddity; to avoid working in the fields, he had insisted on finishing high school, making him the first in the ten-mile radius to do so.
People whispered about it in private, but no one dared to say it to his face. Everyone in the village knew that the fourth Lin child was the apple of Sun Zhaodi’s eye.
Furthermore, he had two older brothers and an older sister who all doted on their younger brother. Especially his sister, Lin Mingjuan—if anyone said a bad word about her brother, she would go to their house and smash their cooking pot.
The gossip had increased in recent years only because Lin Mingjuan had married out, but Sun Zhaodi was not someone to be trifled with either.
Fortunately, there was still one sensible person in the Lin family—the team leader, Lin Guoqing. He felt frustrated that his son wouldn’t live up to expectations.
A regular event in the village involved Lin Mingyuan running in front, howling, while Lin Guoqing chased him with a stick, cursing the “little brat” as he went.
Everyone was used to it; after all, Lin Guoqing was the only one in the Lin family who dared to beat Lin Mingyuan.
Following his memories, Lin Mingyuan finished the egg and rinsed his mouth with water to ensure no trace was left.
Something so precious—if Lin Guoqing saw his useless son eating it, he would surely scold him.
Heavens, one second he was a young master who never worried about food or clothes, and the next he was the “silly son” of a rural team leader who had to eat an egg in secret. The key wasn’t just that it was rural; it was the countryside in the 1970s!
Arriving in this era where one couldn’t eat their fill or wear warm clothes, there was only a dead end for someone like Lin Mingyuan!
But the reality was even harsher than he thought. The rice porridge at night was so thin that in ancient times, the officials in charge of disaster relief would have been executed for it. Then there were those dark, salty pickles; one bite was so salty he felt he might ascend to heaven on the spot. Even worse, his team leader father said that since he had been lying down all day, it was fine if he skipped dinner—he could save it for tomorrow morning so he’d have energy to work.
It was only because his kind-looking mother argued for him that Lin Mingyuan received a small bowl of porridge.
Heavenly Father, what kind of human suffering is this!
Lin Mingyuan endured another day of this life but truly couldn’t take it anymore. He wanted to go home!
No sooner said than done. Taking advantage of the time when everyone was finishing work to go home for dinner, he went near the youth point. Seeing the river where he had “saved” someone, and ignoring the person standing nearby, Lin Mingyuan dove straight in.
He didn’t struggle, letting his body sink. But after a moment, he felt he couldn’t breathe and was going to die!
It was too unbearable. Regardless of whether enough time had passed, he began to splash upward. Then he vaguely heard a voice saying they were coming down to save him. Lin Mingyuan quickly swam toward the shore, afraid of causing trouble for someone else.
The moment he opened his eyes full of hope, he found that the scene before him hadn’t changed at all. Despair!
Then he thought someone was hitting on him, only to realize upon closer inspection—wasn’t this face the other unlucky soul who had been appearing in his dreams?
“It’s too tragic. The two of us are just too tragic.” Li Baoling, after hearing Lin Mingyuan’s story, shed a bitter tear for them both.
“Wait, that’s not right. Why are you the son of a powerful team leader, while I’m a poor female youth who isn’t loved by her parents and is being plotted against by her whole family? This isn’t fair!” Li Baoling sized up the man in front of her. He really was a “pretty boy”—he looked better than the male lead, with more refined features and fair skin. He looked just like the clean-cut idol boys she used to follow in modern times, and he must be over 180cm tall.
Li Baoling wanted to slap herself. At a time like this, she was still looking at his face! What she should be noticing was that he clearly ate better than her and looked much healthier. Unlike her, who looked malnourished.
Li Baoling had looked in the mirror; her appearance was almost identical to her original self, but on closer inspection, she was darker, thinner, and her cheeks were a bit sunken, as if from malnutrition.
Then again, look at what the original owner of this body had been eating!
An acerbic Baoling: “Your complexion is quite rosy. You must usually eat quite well, right?”
A socially oblivious Mingyuan: “Don’t even mention it. I have to be all sneaky just to eat an egg.”
“What? You actually get to eat eggs!” Li Baoling felt unbalanced again.
“Besides my team leader father, the others in the family treat me pretty well,” Lin Mingyuan remarked.
Li Baoling believed him then, but she would only realize much later that this man’s lack of sensitivity was truly profound!
Li Baoling then told him about life at the youth point. Lin Mingyuan listened in a daze, eventually sighing that he did indeed seem to be a bit better off.
“So what are we going to do? It seems jumping into the river won’t take us back. Besides, given how badly we were hit, we might just be dead if we did go back,” Li Baoling said despairingly.
“In that case, we should just take things as they come. Let’s work together and live well!” As Lin Mingyuan wrung out his clothes, he marveled, “Don’t you think it’s amazing? We actually came here together.” He actually had this kind of miraculous encounter.
“Yeah. You blink, and the era has changed. It’s quite miraculous,” Li Baoling agreed, looking up at the same blue sky.
“It’s like Heaven gave us an extra life. And think about it, we have an advantage! Even if we don’t remember small events, we know that the College Entrance Exam will be reinstated in ’77!” Lin Mingyuan had made an effort; once he was certain he couldn’t go back, he instantly shifted his mindset to encourage himself. He had to be strong!
Li Baoling saw that he was quite optimistic. Then again, in this situation, how else could one live? She whispered, “And we know the future will definitely be bright.”
Though her voice was low, Lin Mingyuan heard her. He couldn’t help but nod—the future was bright.
“Let’s cooperate!” Li Baoling was debating whether to tell him that this wasn’t a simple transmigration, but a book.
“Okay!” Lin Mingyuan was quite excited. He’d seen others transmigrate alone, but Heaven had been kind to him by giving him a companion.
Looking into his clear eyes, Li Baoling was just about to speak when she heard someone calling her.
“Wait a moment, I have something to tell you.”
It was Zhang Lihua.
“What are you doing here?” Li Baoling didn’t let her come over. Lin Mingyuan’s clothes were still wet; there was no telling what Zhang Lihua would cook up if she saw him.
Zhang Lihua had come out specifically to find Li Baoling. She wanted to ask what Li Baoling meant by those things she said to Brother Xiangyang. She had walked for a while without finding her until she met a child on the road who told her that the female youth who fell into the water was talking to Lin Mingyuan by the river.
Lin Mingyuan? It took a moment for Zhang Lihua to realize he was the one who saved Li Baoling—the useless son of Team Leader Lin Guoqing.
“I came to get you to go back for dinner. Geng Jiajia said since you didn’t work this morning, you don’t need to eat, but I saved a little for you.”
“By the way, Baoling, are you still not working this afternoon? I heard that the team leader was a bit unhappy when he heard you were still asking for leave after waking up.” Zhang Lihua looked at her, praying that Li Baoling would go.
“I’m not going,” Li Baoling said curtly.
“But didn’t you rest this morning? Besides, Geng Jiajia is keeping an eye on you. She’ll definitely report you. You should really go.” If Li Baoling didn’t go, who would help Zhang Lihua with her work?
Li Baoling was getting annoyed again. One after another—Geng Jiajia was watching her, terrified she might eat an extra bite of food or use a drop of extra water, while Zhang Lihua was watching her, terrified she might do a bit less work, treating her like a workhorse.
Even if she told them to get lost later, the rooms at the youth point were only so big. They would still have to live together, and she’d have to be sneaky about everything she did. The thought made Li Baoling feel despair.
“It’s none of your business. Just leave.” Zhang Lihua was driven away, looking back every two steps.
Li Baoling thought about how to break this deadlock. She really couldn’t live at the youth point anymore.
Turning around, she saw that Lin Mingyuan was still waiting for her, and he looked quite well-behaved.
Li Baoling made up her mind. She stepped forward, looked at him, and said:
“Let’s get married.”