In 1977, autumn in Ancheng was much colder than usual.
Yan Qianqian sat on the soft, warm upholstered chair in her second uncle’s home. She looked around but did not see the cousin she was looking for, Yan Sisi. She turned to her second aunt and asked in confusion, “Aunt, where’s Sisi?”
According to her memories, at this point her cousin should have just fallen into the water and been rescued. She had not yet gone through being forced into an engagement, then having that engagement broken off, and ultimately, under a storm of rumors, falling into depression and committing suicide.
Mother Yan, who had just returned from the hospital, replied with a slightly hoarse voice, “That girl went out to play.”
The fewer people who knew about her own daughter’s accident of falling into the water and getting injured, the better.
Mother Yan turned her body slightly to block her niece’s probing gaze. At the same time, she worried that Sisi, who was lying in the room, might suddenly make a sound. With her heart held tight, she only hoped the visitor would leave quickly. On the surface, however, she remained calm and asked, “Qianqian, when did you come back from the countryside? How come we didn’t hear your parents mention it?”
Counting the time, this girl had gone down to the countryside for about five or six years already.
Speaking of it, the eldest sister-in-law was really heartless, she had actually made her sixteen-year-old daughter replace her eighteen-year-old son and go down to the countryside. A previously neat and delicate young girl now looked sallow-skinned, with dry, cracked lips, and clothes patched who knew how many times. It was truly a sin.
When Yan Qianqian heard her second aunt mention the words “the countryside,” her expression stiffened slightly. She changed the subject and said, “They probably forgot. Aunt, where’s my second uncle?”
When Mother Yan heard her mention her husband, her nerves instantly tightened even more. She brushed it off and said, “Your second uncle is working overtime at the factory. I just came back to grab something and I’m about to leave again. Why don’t you come over another day when Sisi is at home to play?”
Separated by only a wall, Yan Sisi had no idea that someone had suddenly come to her home. The fine hair on her forehead was soaked with sweat. Her eyes were tightly shut as she lay on the wooden plank bed, her delicate brows alternately knitting together and relaxing.
She had no idea how much time passed. At some point, the voices talking in the living room disappeared.
Yan Sisi, lying on the bed, suddenly felt herself plunging violently into a pitch-black abyss. Her body jerked hard, and she shot upright. In the next second, she opened her brown eyes and began to gasp for breath.
She gripped the bedding tightly with one hand, her gaze fixed on the red cabinet in front of her. She raised her right hand and pinched herself hard. The sharp pain instantly surged to her brain, and in the next moment, moisture welled up in her eyes.
It hurt, but she was happy. Feeling pain meant that she had finally escaped that strange dream.
In the dream, from childhood to adulthood, she had always been compared to her cousin Yan Qianqian. Her own family had only her as a child, so her parents doted on her deeply, satisfying almost anything they could.
Her cousin’s family, on the other hand, had three older brothers, one older sister, and one younger brother. Her uncle’s family also strongly favored sons over daughters, so her cousin had been oppressed ever since she was young.
But everything changed after her cousin asked her for a wooden bracelet. From then on, her cousin’s life began to go smoothly, first marrying the child of a high-ranking official, then taking the college entrance examination and getting into a school in the capital.
As for her, on the day her cousin returned to the city, she accidentally fell into the water. Shortly afterward, when her cousin came to visit her, she took a liking to the wooden bracelet and bought it from her with money. After that, she began to face forced matchmaking, was harassed by a petty hoodlum with no job who stole and cheated as a way of life, and even her original fiancé hurriedly broke off their engagement.
After experiencing forced marriage and a broken engagement, she grew increasingly silent under the onslaught of rumors. Finally, one day, provoked by a neighbor, she took her own life.
After her death, she discovered a book in a space filled with drifting mist. Only then did she learn that she was merely the “foil” in a time-travel period novel. The female lead was her cousin. The wooden bracelet that had been bought from her was actually a space bracelet capable of storing supplies. After obtaining it, the female lead’s life went smoothly, even her intangible luck improved, while Yan Sisi’s own luck became disastrously bad.
Yan Sisi covered the back of her head, which throbbed faintly with pain, and endured the headache as she continued to recall what the book said about her:
After thinking for a long time, she could only remember that following her death, her father fell into deep despair. His already injured body deteriorated further, and within just a few years in the book, he also passed away. Her mother, unable to withstand the double blow of losing both her daughter and her husband, soon followed them in death.
Yan Sisi was just about to keep recalling when loud, violent knocking, bang, bang, came from outside the room.
Mother Yan, who had just sent people away and was stewing bones in the kitchen, hurriedly called out when she heard the knocking, “Coming, who is it?”
As the door opened, Su Dani and two others standing at the entrance barged straight in, shouting loudly, “This is Yan Sisi’s house, right?”
Seeing the three people rush in uninvited, Mother Yan recognized one of the familiar faces and immediately panicked. She ran over to try to stop them, her voice trembling slightly. “What are you here for?”
Startled by the commotion inside, Yan Sisi heard someone outside mention her name. Enduring the headache, she walked out and asked, “Mom, who’s here?”
Mother Yan, standing in the living room with a grim expression, turned back and saw Sisi walking out. Her heart tightened instantly. She rushed over and used her body to block her daughter, at the same time pushing her back toward the room with her hands, shouting sharply, “Hurry back inside. Don’t come out.”
Still not understanding what was going on, Yan Sisi was pushed back a few steps when Su Dani, who had hurried over from behind, grabbed her arm. Dazed, she only felt a sharp pain in her arm, and the next second a loud voice rang in her ears: “This girl must be Sisi, right? Just like Jiajun said, she’s quite good-looking.”
As soon as Su Dani finished speaking, she began squeezing and prodding Yan Sisi’s body with both hands, while her cloudy eyes scanned her up and down. She spoke critically, “This child is far too skinny. She doesn’t look like she’ll be good for bearing children.”
Her face was fair and clean enough, but that frail, delicate body that looked like it could break with a pinch, how was she supposed to carry on the Zhou family line?
Looking at the familiar yet somehow strange face in front of her, Yan Sisi abruptly yanked her arm free and cut her off. “Who are you? What are you doing barging into my house?”
Su Dani’s expression immediately turned cold. But remembering what her son had instructed before she came, she put on what she thought was a friendly smile and said, “I’m Zhou Jiajun’s mother. My son rescued you from the river a few days ago. You haven’t forgotten, have you?”
Mother Yan stepped forward and stood in front of her daughter, staring at them coldly. Knowing they had come with ill intent, she demanded angrily, “You’ve already taken the things. What else do you want?”
Another middle-aged woman who had been walking behind them quietly moved closer to Mother Yan and grabbed her arm. She deliberately glanced back toward the door, looking at the neighbors outside who had heard the commotion and were peeking over. Lowering her voice, she said, “Sisi’s mom, ever since my nephew rescued your daughter and brought her back, he hasn’t been able to sleep at night. He’s afraid people might gossip about your daughter, so he asked me to come over and propose marriage.”
Yan Sisi froze in place after hearing this, because every word they said was exactly the same as in her dream. Mother Yan, whose arm was being held, shuddered all over. She shot a fierce look at the woman who was speaking, then immediately went to shut the door, blocking out the neighbors’ curious stares. Turning back to them, she lowered her voice and said, “Back then, you took the things and promised this matter wouldn’t be spread around. So why are you going back on your word now?”
Thinking of that night a few days ago, when her daughter had been soaked from head to toe and brought home wrapped in clothes by her father, Mother Yan had already been scared half to death. Now this shameless family had come knocking again, clearly, this wasn’t going to end well.
Standing in the living room, Su Dani showed not the slightest hint of embarrassment. Her yellowed eyes kept roaming over the items in the room as she flatly denied it, saying, “What things? Our family never received anything. Besides, my son taking a liking to your daughter is her good fortune. Otherwise, for a family like yours with no sons at all, an extinct household, who would want her?”
After speaking, Su Dani’s gaze landed on the television on a nearby cabinet, half covered by a cloth, and greed immediately filled her expression. Once her son got married, she’d have him move that TV into their room.
Su Dani wandered around the room, touching this and fiddling with that. The alarm clock could be placed on her cabinet later; this piece of cloth looked quite nice and could be used to make shoes for her daughter.
Sure enough, her son was truly capable, to be able to marry the daughter of a dual-income worker family. Still, this girl had such a fox-like look about her; once she was brought home, Su Dani would have to keep a close watch on her for her son’s sake.
Li Xiaohua, who had come along with her mother-in-law Su Dani, chimed in at this moment, “Your daughter was pulled out of the water by my third brother. If she doesn’t marry him, who else could she possibly marry?”
She finished with a thinly veiled threat: “If you agree now, your daughter’s reputation can still sound decent. If you don’t, then who knows what kind of gossip might start circulating outside.”
Mother Yan was so angered by their shamelessness that her hands began to tremble. Yet she was also afraid that if she refused, these people really would go out and ruin her daughter’s reputation. For a moment, she didn’t know what to do.
Watching the scene unfold exactly as it had in her dream, Yan Sisi knew that in the past she might have reacted the same way, frightened, worried, and easily manipulated by them. But not this time.
Yan Sisi casually picked up a stick nearby and, in front of everyone, snapped it in two with a sharp crack. “Let me see who dares spread rumors.”
The three women, who had been about to continue shouting, immediately fell silent. Su Dani, who was standing closest, looked at the stick broken cleanly in half in Yan Sisi’s hands and involuntarily took a step back.
Cursing inwardly, she thought: That little bastard, he didn’t even bother to find out what kind of person she was before egging me on to come here.
Seeing that she had cowed them, Yan Sisi continued calmly, “The [1]Chairman Mao Zedong, the founding leader of the People’s Republic of China. In that era (especially the 1960s–1970s), people often quoted Mao’s sayings to justify arguments or assert authority … Continue reading jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_1757020_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1757020_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });Chairman himself said that marriage is a matter of free choice. Is your son trying to blackmail our family?”
She clearly remembered that she had been pushed into the water, not that she had fallen in, and yet the book hadn’t mentioned this at all, simply stating that she had fallen into the water.
“I’d really like to see who, besides my son, would marry trash like you that’s already been held by another man!” Su Dani spat out the words viciously. Then she took her daughter-in-law and sister-in-law, opened the door, and snarled at the onlookers outside, “Move aside. What’s there to stare at?”
Seeing that they had come and gone just as quickly, Mother Yan turned toward the neighbors still gathered at the doorway. She hurriedly schooled her expression, suppressed the worry in her heart, and shooed them all away. Turning back to her daughter, she sighed and said, “Since when did you get so strong? And if Weiming’s mother finds out about this, what are we going to do?”
Yan Sisi tossed aside the stick in her hand. “Mom, that stick was already cracked. I just used it to scare them. Don’t worry about Weiming for now. Where’s Dad?”
When Mother Yan heard her daughter mention her husband, she immediately thought of the bone soup still simmering in the kitchen. She rushed over and lifted the pot lid, thankfully, the soup hadn’t boiled dry.
Yan Sisi followed her over and asked again, “Where’s Dad?”
At this point in her dream, her father seemed to have been ambushed, beaten under a sack, and hospitalized.
Mother Yan ladled out a bowl of the finished bone soup and handed it to her daughter to nourish her. Seeing Sisi staring straight at her, she knew she couldn’t keep it from her any longer. “Your father was jumped last night, someone threw a sack over him and beat him.”
Yan Sisi froze as soon as she heard that. What had happened in her dream was coming true again. Worried that her father might be seriously injured, she hurriedly asked, “How badly was Dad hurt? Is it serious?”
Mother Yan turned and packed the bone soup and some coarse-grain steamed buns into aluminum lunchboxes while saying, “It’s not too bad. His arm will need a cast, and the rest of him will just need to stay in the hospital for observation.”
After speaking, she picked up the two lunchboxes, stepped around Yan Sisi, and continued, “I’ll stay at the hospital tonight with your father. Then we’ll figure out what to do about that family.”
“I’ll go with you,” Yan Sisi said, placing the bowl on the table and preparing to follow her mother out.
“You hurt your head, don’t run around. Stay home, lock the door, and if anything happens, go next door to Aunt Gu. I’m leaving now.” Mother Yan reached out to stop Sisi, spoke the instructions in one breath without waiting for a reply, and slammed the door shut.
Forced to stay home and recover, Yan Sisi touched her still-throbbing head and had no choice but to turn back to the table, slowly finish the bone soup, and then lie back down to rest.
Back in bed, she remembered the task she had interrupted earlier. She got up, retrieved the wooden bracelet from her desk that she had taken off some time ago, and examined it carefully. Looking at it, she didn’t see it as any kind of magical “cheat item.”
After all, what kind of magic item would look so dull and gray, with only faint carvings of branches on its surface? If it weren’t for her grandmother having given it to her, she probably would have put it away long ago.
She had worn this wooden bracelet for nearly ten years without anything unusual happening. So why did it open a space after only a few days in the female lead’s hands?
In the book, her cousin opened the space because blood accidentally dripped onto it. Could her own blood activate it too?
Thinking of this, Yan Sisi could no longer contain her excitement. She ran to her mother’s room, dug out a sewing needle from a drawer, and returned to her room. Sitting cross-legged on the bed, she joined her hands and offered prayers to every Eastern deity she could think of, before finally gritting her teeth and stabbing the needle into her thumb.
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