A gentle breeze carried the faint warmth of early summer, rustling the lush green leaves on the branches.
The afternoon sunlight filtered through the gaps between leaves and branches, casting dappled, dancing shadows on the ground.
Beneath the shade of a tree, a young girl lay sprawled on the ground. Her long, delicate eyelashes fluttered slightly, as if she had been struggling for a long while, before she slowly opened her eyes, which were hazy with confusion.
Instinctively, she raised a somewhat weak hand to shield her eyes from the glaring specks of light filtering through the foliage. Propping herself up with her elbows against the slightly damp ground, she slowly sat up.
A wave of mild dizziness hit her, and Su Yun had to close her eyes for a moment to recover.
Gradually releasing her hand from over her eyes, she squinted for a good while before her vision slowly adjusted to the surrounding scene.
The unfamiliar environment made her heart tighten. She warily scanned her surroundings.
“I’m actually alive?” Su Yun’s pupils trembled slightly, a flicker of disbelief and astonishment crossing her eyes. She clearly remembered dying.
All she could recall was leaning comfortably against her airplane seat, headphones on, binge-watching a new crime drama.
Suddenly, the plane jolted violently, tossing passengers around until they were dizzy. Some luggage even fell from the overhead bins.
The passengers began to grow restless and uneasy. Flight attendants tried to maintain order, but panic spread like a plague.
Within moments, the cabin was filled with crying, shouting, and praying.
Then came an even more violent tremor, followed by a sudden sensation of weightlessness. Before Su Yun could feel any more fear, she had already lost consciousness.
She remembered thinking in the last moment before her awareness faded: I’m definitely dead this time! If only I hadn’t taken this flight. Give me one more chance, and I’ll never go traveling again! I’ll be a total homebody—stay put and read my novels and watch my shows!
Her consciousness was slowly pulled back to reality by the harsh sunlight. Could it be that she hadn’t died? Or did people really go to another world after death?
Su Yun got up from the ground, brushed the dirt and grass clippings off her clothes, and looked around with a bewildered expression.
Before her was a rather run-down little courtyard, about thirty square meters—roughly the size of a living room. The ground was packed earth, still damp and muddy from rain a few days earlier.
By the western wall stood a not-very-sturdy pine tree. Behind her was a red-brick tiled-roof house that looked steeped in history. The walls were thinly coated with rough cement, some parts of which had already peeled away, revealing the dark red bricks beneath. The red paint on the wooden window frames was also chipped and faded.
It was completely quiet all around—no human voices, no wreckage of the plane, no sign of rescue workers.
Su Yun’s mind, still groggy from just waking up, was now clearing a bit. She carefully replayed the details before the plane crash and was certain there was no way she could have survived that!
So what was this situation now? Had she been rescued? But this place didn’t look like a hospital at all.
She usually read a lot of novels—time travel, rebirth, system stories were her favorites—but those were just for fun and killing time. Su Yun never took those stories seriously. But now she was confused. Could time travel actually be real?
It was then that Su Yun remembered to look down at her own body.
She carefully examined herself from head to toe. She was wearing a coarse, yellowish-gray set of shirt and trousers. The fabric was rough, and the sleeves and pant legs were a bit short, exposing her thin wrists and ankles. Her skin had an unhealthy pallor.
Both elbows and knees had patches of a slightly darker color, sewn on with messy stitches—clearly, her original family was very poor.
On her feet were a pair of half-worn black cloth shoes, the toes already scuffed, stained with dirt and grime that looked impossible to wash off.
The only silver lining was that, judging by the size of this body’s hands, feet, and overall frame, she wasn’t a child. Otherwise, if she’d transmigrated into some little brat of a few years old, she wouldn’t have an ounce of personal freedom.
She looked up at the red-brick house before her and suddenly sensed something was off.
She had no familiarity with this place whatsoever—not even a basic sense of direction.
She had no idea where this was! Who was this body? Who else was in the family? What era was this?
No way—she’d transmigrated and didn’t even get any memories?
Su Yun inwardly wailed. This outfit clearly marked her as a girl from a poor family. She had no clue what time period this was, or if it was some alternate world entirely.
In the novels she’d read, the female leads or supporting ladies who transmigrated were always princesses, noble daughters, or pampered misses from wealthy families—dressed in finery, feasting on delicacies, living in grand mansions or palaces, surrounded by flocks of servants.
But here she was, and the vibe had taken a nosedive!
Why was she so unlucky?!
This setup screamed “do the laundry, cook the meals, and work the fields” right from the start—and she’d probably have to take care of a few precious little brothers too!
Just thinking about the backbreaking farm work and the patriarchal families described in those farming novels made Su Yun’s vision go dark.
Oh, heavens! I don’t want this!!!
Still, Su Yun accepted the whole transmigration thing pretty quickly. After all, she didn’t have any other choice.
Back in high school, when academic pressure was crushing, her only escape outside of studying was reading all kinds of novels—she’d dabbled in every genre.
In college, with even more free time, she and her roommates would occasionally roast each other over the ridiculous plots in web novels. They used to joke about what they’d do if they ever transmigrated, saying they’d need to learn how to extract salt, distill alcohol, make cement, and produce glass.
She’d always been a homebody since childhood—never liked going out, preferred staying in to read or watch movies. After her parents passed away, she lived with her grandmother, and after her grandmother died, she sank even deeper into her own world.
The only reason she’d taken this flight was because she’d always loved the scenery of Jiangnan. She’d planned to rent a homestay in Suzhou for a while and soak in the atmosphere of little bridges, flowing water, and quaint homes—which was really just changing locations to stay indoors for a bit longer.
Su Yun didn’t have many close friends either. Her best ones were probably just a few college roommates, but after graduation, everyone went their separate ways and contact gradually faded.
Her life was just staying home—eating, sleeping, and staying up late binge-reading novels and watching shows.
You could say she was a seasoned bookworm of seven or eight years. She’d read plenty of transmigration, rebirth, cultivation, period dramas, and palace intrigue—pretty much every type. When she got really into it, she even tried writing her own novel on a website, but ended up abandoning it midway. So she was well-versed in all the tropes.
She just never expected that one day, she’d actually transmigrate for real.
Logically, she should have the original owner’s memories—that was the standard package for transmigration.
But no matter how hard she tried to recall, her mind remained a complete blank. She didn’t even have a clue what this body’s name was. How was she supposed to act? Would she be burned as a monster if she slipped up?
Su Yun glanced at the pine tree beside her—the trunk looked awfully hard. Should she bash her head against it and pretend to have amnesia?