When she woke up, she had become her.
Shi Meiqing suddenly felt uneasy. The girl had been living her life perfectly fine, and now she had taken over her body. Wasn’t that… kind of immoral?
Well, to be fair, she’d never considered herself some saintly person with impeccable morals. But this girl hadn’t done anything wrong, nor had she ever offended her. Taking over her body like this really did feel excessive.
Not to mention their personalities were worlds apart. Once she went back home, wouldn’t the family notice something was off almost immediately?
She knew very well that during this era, there were plenty of spies disguising themselves as other people in order to carry out shady activities.
If she suddenly started acting completely different, would people think she was a spy and arrest her? She didn’t even dare imagine the consequences.
Maybe she should try her best to act the part. In a couple of years, once she was old enough, she could volunteer to go to the countryside and get away from this family.
But honestly, she wasn’t all that confident in her acting skills.
How could someone keep up an act for an entire lifetime? A day or two, maybe she could manage. But after enough time, she’d definitely slip up.
What a headache.
She leaned back against the fence behind her in frustration, only for the back of her head to bump against it.
“Hiss—”
She reached up and touched the back of her head. There was a huge lump there, and her fingers came away sticky. No wonder it hurt so much.
Wait a second.
If she remembered correctly, the girl had hidden here after getting frightened. She hadn’t fallen or anything, so why was there such a huge bump on the back of her head?
Holy crap.
There was so much blood on her hand. This injury had to be serious. She’d been too shocked after arriving to notice anything wrong with herself.
A wave of dizziness suddenly hit her. Shi Meiqing quickly closed her eyes, and another fragment of memory surfaced.
A young man and a short man were talking to each other. The girl hadn’t understood what they were saying, but Shi Meiqing absolutely did.
They were speaking Japanese.
The original girl hadn’t understood, so she hadn’t paid attention. Probably because she wasn’t especially sharp to begin with, she hadn’t even thought to avoid them. She simply walked past the two men on her way to buy things.
The moment she appeared, panic flashed across both men’s faces. The original girl probably never noticed it and just thought they were random people chatting by the roadside.
But the two men followed behind her the entire time.
Eventually, after she became frightened by the public struggle session, she instinctively hid in the alley behind her, peeking nervously toward the street outside.
She never noticed danger approaching from behind.
In the end, she was struck on the back of the head with a club and knocked unconscious. The man who hit her was probably the tall young one.
After knocking her out, the man had checked her breathing. Once he confirmed she wasn’t breathing anymore, he escaped through the other end of the alley.
Holy shit.
That was the real reason she had woken up here.
The original girl had probably been killed by that man.
Shi Meiqing looked down at the stone she was sitting on. Sure enough, there were traces of blood on one side.
The bloodstained part had sharp edges and corners. Earlier she’d already found it strange — in this era, even a large stone could be useful, so how could there just happen to be one sitting perfectly in this alley for her to sit on?
If she guessed correctly, those two men were spies. During their exchange, the girl had accidentally overheard them. The two men had decided it was safer to kill the wrong person than let anyone go.
This was bad.
If she simply walked home awake and unharmed, there was no guarantee the man who tried to silence her wouldn’t still be watching. If he realized she hadn’t died, he might come finish the job.
But if she were found unconscious and later woke up claiming memory loss because of the head injury… maybe she could avoid suspicion that way?
Probably not.
She’d heard spies during this era were incredibly ruthless. Better to kill the wrong person than leave loose ends.
Another wave of dizziness hit her.
Forget it. No more overthinking. At this rate she’d really die here. She had finally gotten a second chance at life — she absolutely did not want to die again in less than a day.
Anyone who had experienced death knew exactly how terrible it was. Right now, she truly didn’t have the courage to face it a second time.
She forced herself to stand and staggered toward the alley entrance.
The moment she stepped out onto the street, she only had enough strength to shout a single word:
“Help—”
Then her entire body collapsed onto the ground.
The street immediately erupted into chaos. Through her fading consciousness, Shi Meiqing vaguely sensed several people carrying her to the hospital. She could smell the distinctive scent unique to hospitals.
Only then did she finally relax and let herself sink completely into unconsciousness.
…
“Old Shi! Old Shi! Shi Shengli!”
A man came rushing upstairs, shouting loudly as he ran.
Shi Shengli had been reading the newspaper. In another short while, it would be time to get off work. Earlier today he’d managed to trade for a sugar coupon, and on the way home he planned to buy milk candies for his daughter.
He touched the sugar coupon in his pocket and grinned foolishly to himself.
Just imagining his daughter’s beautiful big eyes curving into crescent moons when she received the candy made him ridiculously happy.
As for his younger son? What was that? Just another debt collector. Only daughters were truly precious little padded jackets for the heart.
The sudden shouting startled him out of his thoughts. He’d been happily daydreaming, and now someone was yelling right before quitting time. Hopefully it wasn’t some annoying problem.
“Old Shi, you…”
“Huff… huff… why didn’t you answer when I called you from outside your office?”
“Huff… didn’t you hear me?”
The middle-aged man leaned against the office doorway, panting heavily. Clearly the type who never exercised.
Shi Shengli looked him up and down before his eyes landed on the man’s belly.
Good lord.
In this day and age, anyone who could grow a stomach like that was definitely eating very well.
Tsk tsk. What a corrupt capitalist belly.
“What’s the matter? Why’re you in such a rush? Look at your age — how can you still be this unsteady?” Shi Shengli deliberately put on a stern face while teasing him.
Old Yu took several deep breaths before finally speaking again.
“Enough joking around. This is serious. No time for messing about.”
“Your daughter’s been hospitalized. Someone already informed your wife. I was afraid nobody told you, so I rushed over.”
Shock and disbelief instantly filled Shi Shengli’s face. He shot to his feet so suddenly he didn’t even notice the newspaper falling to the floor.
“What? What did you say? My daughter’s in the hospital? What happened?”
Old Yu shook his head. “The person who came to notify us was in a hurry too. Didn’t explain clearly. Sounds like the child got hurt and was found by people on the street who sent her to the hospital.”
“Your wife panicked and ran straight out of the factory. I figured nobody would remember to tell you, so I hurried over myself.”
“You’re still standing there asking questions? Hurry up and go already!”
Mainly because even he barely knew anything. His impatient temper was making him anxious on Shi Shengli’s behalf.
Shi Shengli looked utterly panicked, suddenly unable to decide whether he should formally ask for leave or just run out immediately.
Watching him hesitate made Old Yu so frustrated he nearly exploded.