“Lin Yuyan, what do you think you’re doing? Let go of Yue’er immediately!” Lin Father shouted in a panic.
Jiang Yuyan barely listened and continued hitting Lin Yue.
After a while, sensing movement behind her, she instinctively jumped aside.
Bang!
Lin Mother struck Lin Yue with a heavy stick before she could dodge. Lin Yue screamed in pain and immediately fainted.
Jiang Yuyan quickly distanced herself, feigning innocence: “This has nothing to do with me. Madam Lin hit her herself. Such a heavy strike… mother and daughter really do love each other deeply, huh.”
Lin Mother and Father were speechless.
Lin Mother trembled with anger, wanting to curse, but afraid this little brat might do something else.
Jiang Yuyan quickly retreated: “I’ll go pack my things. Once I finish transferring my household registration, I’ll leave and stay out of your sight.”
She rushed into her room, shut the door, cutting off the noise outside.
She pulled out the bundle of bills she had quietly taken from Lin Yue—at least 200–300 yuan.
Jiang Yuyan recalled Lin Yue’s first appearance at the Lin household, in tattered clothes with a tiny, palm-sized bundle.
Clearly, that money wasn’t her own. Could it be—this money was stolen from the original owner’s biological family?
Hmph. If so, she’d better keep it.
She pulled out the bag her brother had given her. The original owner had few clothes, and Lin Father and Mother didn’t care about her. Most of her clothes and accessories had been bought by Lin Shiping.
After packing two or three outfits, the bag still had plenty of space.
She looked around the room and decided to drag out a bamboo trunk as well. She packed Lin Shiping’s gifts: cotton clothes, bedding, various hair ornaments, face creams.
Everything in the room that could be taken went into the boxes.
Besides her brother Lin Shiping, she owed no loyalty to the Lin family.
Since these items were gifts from Lin Shiping, she would not leave them for Lin Yue, the scheming, reborn girl.
Jiang Yuyan remembered from the book: the reborn Lin Yue was jealous not only of the original owner’s beauty but also her luck—everyone protected her.
Lin Yue felt that if Lin Yuyan hadn’t taken her identity, all this would belong to her. She didn’t deserve to live happily or freely.
So after chasing the original owner away, she even arranged for people to intercept her halfway to the train station, selling her deep into the mountains, never to return.
The original family also suffered. The day after Lin Yue left, Lin Shiping lost both legs in a mining accident, the second brother was caught taking risks for money, and the third brother was nearly beaten to death by thugs—all seemingly linked to the original owner.
Thinking back, Jiang Yuyan realized the series of misfortunes was too coincidental to be random.
Repeated accidents suggested someone wanted the family trapped in the village forever.
Who that person was, Jiang Yuyan didn’t know—the novel’s ending hadn’t reached her.
But now that she was here, she wasn’t afraid of a small rural village, not with her knowledge as a 25th-century herbalist and advanced agricultural researcher.
After packing, she stepped out. Only Lin Father remained in the living room; Lin Mother must have taken Lin Yue to the hospital.
Lin Father said nothing, glanced at her bags, and led her to handle the household registration transfer.
With all documents in order, and it being 1978, when many sent-down youths were returning to the city, the registration process took less than fifteen minutes. She came out with a new household booklet.
Jiang Yuyan looked at her name, “Jiang Yuyan,” and finally relaxed, carefully putting it away.
“You… how did you know your real family’s surname is Jiang? Did you already know—”
“Comrade Lin, my household registration is transferred. I no longer call you father, so I won’t explain further. You can pretend you understand.”
“And how did I know my real family’s surname is Jiang? Hah, Lin Yue told me. She was very ‘happy’ to tell me that I didn’t deserve the Lin surname, only Jiang, a peasant’s child.”
Jiang Yuyan ignored any reaction, picked up her luggage, and headed to the train station.
At the ticket counter:
“Are there any tickets to Huasheng Cultural Commune?” she asked.
“…There’s one at 6 a.m. tomorrow and another at 5:30 p.m. Which do you want?”
“The 6 a.m. ticket,” she decided.
With the ticket in hand, she booked a small single room in the nearest inn, dropped off her luggage, then headed to the department store.
She remembered that the Jiang family lived in a remote rural area. To buy anything, she would need to go to town. Transportation options were walking or the collective’s ox cart.
Meanwhile, back at the Lin household, Lin Yue woke up, only to find Jiang Yuyan had already left. She was so furious she nearly fainted again.
After resting, Lin Father and Mother went to work.
What they didn’t know was that Lin Yue, immediately after they left, hired some ruffians, giving them five yuan of her pocket money:
“…Find this woman. I don’t care if you do it yourself or sell her off. Just make sure she never comes back in front of me.”
On the train, Jiang Yuyan struggled with her boxes but finally placed them in her seat and breathed a sigh of relief.
Not long after departure, she noticed people staring at her—not just one pair, but several.
Jiang Yuyan lowered her head, pretending to sort her bag, but glanced back.
Two men on her right and middle kept watching her and her boxes, as if some treasure lay inside.
Tsk. Lin Yue really was desperate. She had just boarded the train and was already trying to steal her money and capture her. She didn’t want her alive for a moment.
Half an hour later, Jiang Yuyan went to the restroom for about five minutes.
Coming out, she encountered a man with a large mole on his nose guarding the door, his eyes shifting nervously. Seeing her, he turned around, pretending to look elsewhere, but his peripheral vision tracked the people behind.
Back at her seat, Jiang Yuyan took out a steamed bun and ate slowly.
Suddenly, a woman screamed from behind:
“It’s him! He stole my money and ticket! Officer, that’s our family’s lifesaving money! You must help me get it back!”
A middle-aged woman grabbed the man with the mole, shouting angrily as if he were her family’s mortal enemy.
Jiang Yuyan smirked, watching the scene unfold while eating.
The matter ended with the man paying a few yuan. When he sat back, his expression suddenly changed:
“Who the hell stole my package?”
No one responded, thinking he was causing trouble.
No one noticed that Jiang Yuyan had given the woman a coin during her restroom trip, continuing the deception.
Three days later, Jiang Yuyan disembarked easily. The two men who had been tailing her were caught by the railway police while trying to steal money out of hunger.
Unbeknownst to her, back at the Jiang household—reeking of the collective’s latrines—a family conflict erupted. Her biological parents were about to be evicted from their own home.