September 15, 1971.
Su City People’s Hospital, Ward 301, Bed 2.
Shen Jingyao slowly opened her heavy eyelids, immediately feeling dizzy and muddle-headed. From her ear, she could faintly hear the sound of someone crying.
“I’m not dead?” Shen Jingyao murmured aloud.
“Yaoyao, you’re awake. It’s good that you’re awake. You scared Mom to death.” The beautiful, crying woman beside her broke into a smile through her tears, looking at her with a trace of pleasant surprise on her haggard face.
“Mom?” Hadn’t her mother passed away when she was a child? She had even gone to the police station to identify the body back then.
When Zhao Yunxiu saw her daughter’s dazed expression, as if she didn’t recognize her, she was so frightened her hand trembled. Could the fever have damaged her brain?
She wiped away her tears and quickly stood up to run outside. She had to find a doctor to check on her daughter.
What would happen if her beautiful daughter had become a fool?
Shen Jingyao slowly sat up in bed and reached out to rub her temples, her mind clearing up a little.
She remembered being in a car crash on the way home after attending the ribbon-cutting ceremony for her own shopping mall with A Yan.
At that time, a large truck had rushed out from the opposite direction, crashing straight into the car they were in.
At the last moment, A Yan had held her tightly. She only heard a loud bang before losing consciousness.
Right, where was A Yan?
Shen Jingyao hurriedly looked around, searching for Zhou Muyan’s figure.
She realized this was not a modern hospital. Everything around her was so unfamiliar; the decor and furnishings were all so old, like scenes from the period dramas she used to watch.
Just then, a commotion erupted outside.
“Doctor, please go take a look at my daughter! She woke up and doesn’t seem to recognize me. Is there something wrong with her brain?” Shen Jingyao heard the voice, which seemed to belong to the woman who had just called herself her mother.
“Comrade Zhao, don’t worry. I’ll go with you to take a look.”
When Zhao Yunxiu returned to the ward, she found that Shen Jingyao had already sat up in bed. She immediately went over and held her by the shoulders. “Yaoyao, why did you sit up? Lie down quickly.”
Shen Jingyao looked at this unfamiliar woman, yet her body did not reject her closeness.
She still felt very dizzy and had many questions, so she obediently lay back down.
The doctor walked to the bedside, pried open Shen Jingyao’s eyes to examine them, and asked her a couple of questions.
Turning to Zhao Yunxiu, he said, “Comrade Zhao, your daughter has just woken up from a high fever, and her body hasn’t fully recovered yet. She’ll be fine with more rest.”
Hearing the doctor say this, Zhao Yunxiu’s heart finally settled. Her voice was filled with emotion, “That’s good, that’s good. Thank you, doctor, thank you.”
“You’re welcome. It’s my duty to serve the people.” Seeing that she was fine, the doctor left the ward.
Lying down, Shen Jingyao heard the doctor’s phrase “serve the people,” and saw their clothing and style. A voice in her heart told her that she had transmigrated.
But if she had transmigrated, had A Yan transmigrated too? Where was he now?
Zhao Yunxiu sat by her bed, gently stroking her head. “Yaoyao, you must be hungry. Mom will go down to the cafeteria to get you some porridge, okay?”
That morning, she had found Yaoyao unconscious at home with a fever and had rushed her to the hospital in a panic. She hadn’t prepared anything, only grabbing a lunch box on her way out.
Shen Jingyao’s mind was a complete mess right now. She also wanted some time alone to sort through the memories that were flooding her mind.
“Okay,” she replied weakly.
Hearing her answer, Zhao Yunxiu said, “Good, Mom will go right now. You just lie here and rest.” She picked up the lunch box from the bedside table and left the ward.
Shen Jingyao lay in bed with her eyes closed, her mind racing.
All the memories rushed toward her like a tidal wave. Shen Jingyao resisted the urge to scream, merely gripping the blanket so tightly that the veins on the back of her hands bulged.
At this moment, it was as if there was a sponge in her head, absorbing everything frantically. It only stopped when the sponge was completely saturated and couldn’t absorb another drop of water.
It turned out she had really transmigrated, and it was a soul transmigration.
The original owner’s name was the same as hers, also Shen Jingyao. She was seventeen this year, a recent high school graduate.
She was the youngest in the family, with two older brothers.
In her memory, her eldest brother, Shen Jingzhou, was twenty-three this year. After graduating from high school, he had been accepted into Su City’s machinery factory and had been working there for several years now.
He was already married to the daughter of a leader at his workplace. Her sister-in-law, Xu Zhiyi, was an elementary school teacher.
In Shen Jingyao’s memory, her eldest brother and sister-in-law were a well-matched, good-looking couple who were very much in love.
The only regret was that they had been married for three years and still had no children. Although Father Shen and Mother Shen were anxious, they never pressured them.
Her second brother, Shen Jingyuan, had been rather mischievous since he was young. After graduating from high school, he was sent by Father Shen to join the army, who said his temperament needed to be properly corrected in the military.
It had been three years since the year he joined the army.
From the original owner’s memories, Shen Jingyao knew that during holidays, Father Shen and Mother Shen still missed their second son. The original owner had seen Mother Shen secretly wiping away tears.
As for Father Shen, Shen Guorong, he was a veteran employee at the Su City Steel Factory and an eighth-grade fitter. He had also recently been promoted to workshop director.
Mother Shen, Zhao Yunxiu, originally worked at the department store, but she had a difficult childbirth when she had Shen Jingyao, which damaged her health.
Because both Father Shen’s and Mother Shen’s parents had passed away early, and their siblings had their own families, there was no one at home to help.
Having to take care of a child and work at the same time, Mother Shen soon collapsed from exhaustion.
Father Shen felt sorry for her, so he had her quit her job, selling the position to a relative, and stay home to care for the young Shen Jingyao.
Because Shen Jingyao was Shen Guorong and his wife’s youngest and last child, and a girl at that, they had doted on this daughter since she was little.
They were afraid she would melt in their mouths or be hurt if held in their palms.
Therefore, the original Shen Jingyao’s ability to handle stress was extremely weak. Yesterday, someone from the neighborhood committee had come to their door to mobilize her, saying she had to go down to the countryside.
In her terror, the original owner developed a high fever that very night.
As a result, when she woke up, she had been replaced by the Shen Jingyao from the 21st century.
The Shen family also found it strange. Why had the neighborhood committee targeted their family?
It turned out that it was because of Father Shen’s rivals, who had jointly written a report letter.
It said that their family did not support the “Up to the Mountains and Down to the Countryside” policy, creating class opposition and freeloading off socialism.
In the Steel Factory’s family courtyard, almost every family had a child who had gone down to the countryside.
With none of the Shen family’s three children having gone, it was indeed quite conspicuous. Plus, Shen Jingyao was unemployed and idle at home, so the factory leaders couldn’t even speak up for them.
It was only because Father Shen had an acquaintance at the neighborhood committee that they were informed and told to quickly think of a solution.
They either had to buy a job for Shen Jingyao or quickly arrange a blind date for her to get married.
The situation in the city was becoming increasingly tense, and jobs were scarce, with each position filled. It wasn’t that easy to buy a job.
At this, Mother Shen became quite upset. If she had known, she shouldn’t have sold her job to someone else; it would have been so much better to leave it for her daughter.
As for the second option, matchmaking and marriage, her daughter was still young. Moreover, with such a tight deadline, where could they find someone to entrust her life to?
A woman’s marriage was like a second reincarnation; it had to be treated with the utmost caution. Father Shen and Mother Shen did not want to ruin their daughter’s life.
Father Shen and Mother Shen didn’t sleep all night, tossing and turning. In the morning, they discovered their daughter had a high fever and hurriedly sent her to the hospital.