Ren Chaomei had refused to spend the night in Wang Ergou’s production team. She had insisted that the production-team cadres immediately tie them up, take them to the police, and settle the matter that very night because she felt unsafe there. After all, that place was the enemy’s home turf.
Now that she was at the commune and Wang Ergou and the others had been dealt with, Ren Chaomei no longer had so many concerns and could finally relax.
At the beginning, she had already prepared herself for the worst-case scenario—that the production-team cadres would protect the fraudsters. She had been on edge the entire way to the commune.
Fortunately, fortunately, she hadn’t been tricked into some remote backwater where the emperor was far away and the production-team cadres could do whatever they wanted. The cadres here actually followed the rules.
But even though she was safe now, Ren Chaomei still tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep.
Even though she was exhausted to the point of collapse, she hadn’t forgotten to pray silently in her heart. In a tiny voice, she pleaded, “System? Are you there? Doesn’t everyone who transmigrates get a golden finger? God, please, please give me a system.”
“System, stop fooling around. Come out already. With all my years of reading novels and watching short dramas, I know you’re definitely here!”
The little person in Ren Chaomei’s mind clasped her hands together and begged humbly for a long time. She was practically about to roll around on the floor in desperation, yet nothing strange happened.
By the end of her begging, Ren Chaomei completely lost it.
“Hmph! It’s just a golden finger. Who cares? Even if you gave it to me, I wouldn’t want it. I’ll take it myself.”
She was going to steal it from the heroine of the original novel—her cousin, Ren Ganying.
During the campaign to destroy the “Four Olds,” Ren Chaomei and the other children had followed the older boys and girls to the production team’s old ancestral hall and smashed it to pieces.
The ancestral hall had been built by a former wealthy landlord family. It was said that their ancestors had produced high-ranking officials and great fortunes. But when the family saw that the political situation was turning against them, they had fled overseas with their wealth before Liberation.
The main force smashing the ancestral hall had been teenagers around eighteen or nineteen years old. Ren Chaomei and her cousin Ren Ganying had merely gone along for the excitement. When the smashing started, the two girls hid behind everyone else.
Even so, Ren Ganying still gained something from the chaos.
She picked up an old, worn-out coin purse that had fallen from a beam in the ancestral hall. It happened to land right on Ren Ganying’s head.
Something had also hit Ren Chaomei on the head—a broken roof tile that split her scalp open and left her bleeding on the spot.
Because Ren Ganying followed Ren Chaomei home to have her wound treated, she didn’t stay until the end to throw the purse, along with the ancestral tablets, into the fire.
Instead, she took the purse home.
The purse was covered in gray grime. After being washed, it was barely presentable.
At first, Ren Ganying was simply curious because she had never used a coin purse before, so she put some little toys inside it.
But then she discovered something strange.
An old dog tooth she placed inside came out brighter and sharper. Dried flowers she put inside retained their fragrance for an incredibly long time…
With the limited conditions in the countryside, Ren Ganying could only put cheap things such as face cream and honeysuckle into the purse for now.
Later, when she ventured out into the wider world and encountered the great wave of Reform and Opening Up, her purse became a miraculous tool for improving and restoring the quality of jade and jadeite.
A broken bracelet could be repaired simply by putting it inside. A jadeite with a glutinous texture could be transformed into ice-grade jadeite…
From then on, she never lacked money again.
Even now, Ren Ganying was already using the purse to keep herself fair-skinned, plump, and fragrant.
Later, relying on her beauty and dowry, she married into the city. Then she married a military man, and later a senior officer. From then on, she reached the pinnacle of life.
As for the original owner, she had carried a grudge in her heart from a young age. She often fought with her cousins, Ren Ganying and Ren Guodong, and she didn’t like staying at home.
Exposed to wind and sun and constantly getting into fights, Ren Chaomei looked rough and wild compared with her cousin Ren Ganying.
But her facial features were exceptionally beautiful, and her eyes were bright. Even with dark skin, dry yellowish hair, and a thin frame, she was still a pretty wild girl.
Ren Chaomei had already looked in the mirror.
The facial features of this body were exactly like hers. With proper care, she would grow into an absolute beauty.
The original owner had been named Ren Chaomei because she was born during the special period when the names Ganying and Chaomei were popular.
As for Ren Chaomei herself, she had been given the same ridiculous name because even as a newborn, her superior facial features had already made it obvious that she would grow up beautiful. Her mother was a joker too, so she had gone along with it and given her the absurd name Ren Chaomei—literally something like “super beautiful.”
After being teased about her name for so many years, it had unexpectedly become one of the most ordinary and common names in this era.
Like the original owner, she had also lost both parents.
The difference was that she had already been twelve when her parents died and was capable of taking care of herself. With the laws of the modern era in place, she didn’t go to an orphanage or move in with relatives. She lived alone on the inheritance her parents had left behind.
They both suffered from the same lack of security.
But Ren Chaomei had been able to spend money learning Taekwondo, Muay Thai, and Chinese martial arts. The original owner had never had anyone to teach her and could only rely on brute strength and wild punches.
That was why Ren Chaomei had been able to overturn the Wang family’s table, while the original owner had never managed to do so.
She didn’t know whether it was because she had inherited the original owner’s memories or because of their similar experiences of losing both parents, but she could completely understand the emotions of this body.
Now, whenever she thought about her uncle Ren Dahe, she got annoyed.
Thinking about her aunt, Wang Xiaoqin, annoyed her.
Thinking about her cousin Ren Ganying annoyed her even more.
And thinking about her younger cousin Ren Guodong annoyed her the most…
“When I get home, I’m taking Ren Ganying’s purse! If I can’t get it, I’ll throw it into the fire and burn it.”
“I’m taking the house and the money too. If I can’t get them back, I’ll burn them.”
“They want to move to the city and enjoy a good life? Dream on. Let’s see if I can ruin that blind date!”
The original owner had simply been too young, with no one to teach her. On top of that, knowledge was extremely scarce in this era, and she had no way to learn principles and life lessons from books.
So the original owner had been filled with anger but had no idea where to direct it.
All she could do was fight for an extra mouthful of food at the dinner table or fight over a new piece of clothing whenever fabric coupons were distributed…
Ren Chaomei was different.
She had read classics, novels, watched television dramas, and short videos. She had consumed all of them.
Especially novels—she had stayed up all night reading them.
People always said smartphones had ruined the younger generation, but many of the most important lessons Ren Chaomei had learned about life had actually come from her phone.
Even without parents pushing her, she had followed the advice of helpful strangers online, studied hard, and eventually got into a good university.
Unfortunately, just before graduation, she had indulged herself a little too much and somehow transmigrated.
But it didn’t matter.
She had been alone anyway. Wherever she lived, it was all the same.
Before transmigrating, she had been somewhat lost.
Now, however, she wasn’t lost at all.
She had a very clear goal:
Go home and become a troublemaker—a troublemaker far more formidable than the original owner.
If she didn’t stir up this entire family until they could no longer live in peace, then she would have lived this second life on behalf of the original owner for nothing.