Early summer, in the famous Lin family mansion of Jinmen City, a twelve- or thirteen-year-old girl wearing a blouse, a skirt, and little leather shoes watched coldly as another girl struggled in the lake.
As the girl in the water was about to sink, she feigned panic and shouted:
“Someone, help! Lin Suyu has fallen in! Quick, save her!”
Splash, splash—two women skilled with water jumped in and soon pulled the girl struggling in the lake out.
“All right, she’s safe now. Lin Ma, you live with Suyu, so take good care of her.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Lin Ma had once been a servant in the Lin household. After the founding of the Republic of China, most of the servants were dismissed, leaving only the head steward and Lin Ma, now hired as a driver and a nanny.
“Alas, such misfortune. Suyu, you must get better soon. In a few days, the master will send us all away. By then, I won’t even be able to care for you.”
Lin Ma carried the girl back to her room. After changing her clothes, she had the steward summon a doctor to take her pulse and prescribe medicine. Once the busy work was done, she finally had time to wash the girl.
Thinking of their current situation, Lin Ma worried for herself—and even more for Lin Suyu. After fretting for a while, she hurried off to tend to other chores.
“Please… help me. Please help me survive. Sister, I give you my body. I must go now. The immortal told me my next life will be happier and more complete, so I don’t want to live here anymore.”
A blurry shadow said goodbye in her dream, regardless of whether Lin Susu wanted to stay or not. After a long while… Lin Susu opened her eyes on a thin, patched wooden bed.
“What the…? I was supposed to have passed away peacefully. How am I awake here? This is terrible—definitely not a good era.”
Lin Susu wasn’t naive. Having read decades of novels, she quickly filtered the sudden influx of information in her mind and understood what had happened.
It was early summer of 1960. In the past two years, natural disasters had led to a nationwide famine in China. The masters of the Lin household could no longer endure the meager lifestyle and were planning to leave.
Lin Xinyao, the legitimate daughter of the Lin family’s main branch, learned from the madam that the family planned to donate the mansion and shops to fund the entire family’s emigration.
She didn’t want her half-sister Lin Suyu to leave with them, so she schemed to make Lin Suyu fall into the water, hoping she would fall ill and miss the chance to emigrate.
In truth, Lin Xinyao’s plan was unnecessary. As one of the last half-daughters born before China’s liberation, Lin Suyu had lived a life worse than the servants. No elder of the Lin family had ever cared for her.
It was this unnecessary scheme that allowed Lin Susu—a woman who had lived to eighty and passed away in the 22nd century—to travel back in time.
Tsk tsk, half-daughter Lin Suyu, legitimate daughter Lin Xinyao, the 1960s, Jinmen City, the century-old wealthy Lin family… everything matched the plot of a novel she had read before.
The novel told of Lin Xinyao, the main branch’s legitimate daughter, who, at thirteen, went abroad with her family. Despite hardship, she never gave up, and using the jade pendant’s planting space, she became a wealthy tycoon. In the early 1990s, she returned to invest and established a vast commercial empire.
The original Lin Suyu, in the novel, was described like this:
Before leaving the country, Lin Xinyao’s half-sister Lin Suyu supposedly fell into the water and died. (Actually, she didn’t. The author had fabricated it to glorify Lin Xinyao and her family. Otherwise, would Lin Suyu have exploded, grabbed the jade pendant, and let her family run off?) Lin Xinyao, unable to mourn, hurried abroad with her family while holding the identity jade pendant of Lin Suyu.
When Lin Xinyao later used the pendant to remember her half-sister, the madam claimed the jade pendant was a long-lost family heirloom and even called Lin Suyu a thief—not worth Lin Xinyao’s concern.
“Shameless! The jade pendant was clearly given by Lin Suyu’s mother. How dare the Lin family call the poor girl a thief!”
The irritable Lin Susu nearly jumped off the bedboard recalling the novel.
This memory reminded her—the jade pendant on her neck was a precious space. She had to pierce her finger, let it bleed, and bind it to herself.
Lin Susu tried to get up, but her body felt like paste. She struggled to lift a needle from the bed netting, and even this simple action exhausted her.
“Damn it… In my last life, I wasn’t this weak before death. Ugh, Lin Suyu’s body is so fragile. In this era of scarcity, I don’t even know if I can raise it.”
She pricked her finger with the needle. Her shriveled finger didn’t bleed. Pressing harder, she smeared blood onto the jade pendant.
“Enter!”
The scene changed instantly. Lin Susu now lay beside a well in a courtyard.
…Really? Couldn’t it have let me enter standing up? Barefoot, she stood and examined the well. She scooped water with her hands and drank.
Sweet… and then nothing happened…
What about the promised body-strengthening effects? The rejuvenation? Nothing? Oh well—at least she had a mansion, a well, fields, and forests in the space. That was enough.
Dragging her still-weak body, she opened the house door. In the spacious main hall hung a huge portrait. Below it, on a table, was a painted basin, from which a faint divine aura rose. In the center floated a glowing white sphere.
“Splash!” Lin Susu hurried over and knelt, bowing three times with deep reverence.
The portrait flickered, and a spiritual consciousness shot into her mind. Memories and instructions about the space poured in. Lin Susu massaged her throbbing temples and turned her gaze to the painted basin.
According to the spiritual consciousness, the basin contained sacred spring water. Though it was only half full, it had accumulated years’ worth of drops from the space.
“I can use my spiritual sense to operate within the space. Let’s try taking a drop of the sacred spring water!”
As soon as she spoke, a droplet shot from the basin into her mouth.
It melted instantly, transforming into energy. Pain shot through Lin Susu as gray-black grime rose from her skin. She fell to the ground, her body feeling rotten and stinking as if pulled from a cesspool.
After ten minutes, a warm current surged from her heart to her limbs, filling her with strength.
When Lin Susu stood again, she no longer cared about prior hardships. She grinned from ear to ear—what a steal!
The sacred spring water had transformed her body. Weakness and innate deficiencies no longer existed. She could run, jump, and had boundless energy.
Exiting the house, she used her spiritual sense to draw well water and bathe before leaving the space. She emerged standing on the same floorboards—true to the rule that the entry point is also the exit.
After closing the door, she pulled a set of coarse cloth clothes from a worn chest to change into. The room’s door rattled violently.
“Lin Suyu! Open the door! Hurry and come out—don’t make your cousin Xinyao wait!”
When the door opened, her cousin Lin Haoyu shoved past her, jabbering unpleasantly about how Lin Suyu didn’t deserve the concern of her elder cousin Lin Xinyao, and how Lin Xinyao was kind, generous, and tolerant.