“What are you doing?”
Lin Xiyun swung herself up onto the desk and sat there, letting out a mocking laugh.
“I quit this sweatshop of a company. Pay me every cent I’m owed for this month—salary, meal allowance, transportation allowance, attendance bonus, everything. Otherwise…”
“Otherwise what?”
Lowering her head, she leaned close to Hu Youmei’s ear. With a chilling smile, she whispered words that made one’s scalp tingle.
“Supervisor Hu, I’m a lunatic. I’m unmarried, childless, and have nothing to lose. If you cut off my way out, what do you think someone like me would do if you pushed me too far?”
People with nothing to lose aren’t afraid of those who have everything to protect.
Hu Youmei spent her days comfortably sitting in an office, sipping tea while collecting a generous salary. Whenever she was in a bad mood, she could scold anyone she pleased. She had a happy family and children.
She’d have to be an idiot to risk her safety over a few thousand yuan against a desperate college graduate like Lin Xiyun.
After scheming against others for years, she’d finally been outplayed herself.
A dark glint flashed through Hu Youmei’s eyes. News traveled fast within the industry. She would make sure Lin Xiyun never had an easy time finding another job.
But for now, no matter how humiliated she felt, she had no choice but to swallow her anger.
After thinking it through, Hu Youmei forced the words out through gritted teeth.
“Fine. I’ll write you a slip so you can collect your pay from the finance department.”
Meeting Lin Xiyun’s threatening gaze, she added,
“Everything you asked for.”
The fat on her face trembled painfully.
That was money that could have ended up in her own pocket!
Lin Xiyun wasn’t worried that she’d try any tricks. After all, someone as stingy as Hu Youmei could always squeeze that little bit of money out from somewhere.
In the end, Lin Xiyun collected more than three thousand yuan in salary and various allowances before dragging herself back to her rundown little rental apartment.
“First day after graduation, and I’m already unemployed. Lin Xiyun, you’re such an unlucky loser.”
Throwing herself onto her four-and-a-half-foot bed, she emptied her mind, feeling miserable and on the verge of tears.
Time passed little by little.
The sorrowful sounds in the room gradually disappeared.
Replacing them…
Were faint snores.
Hugging her soft, fluffy pillow, Lin Xiyun slept soundly.
Her warm, rosy cheeks even rubbed against it unconsciously.
As for being unemployed?
She’d deal with that later.
She’d been getting up before dawn every day. Sleep was far more important.
But this nap lasted a little too long—and left her strangely exhausted.
In her dream, Lin Xiyun felt weightless, drifting through a sea of dense fog. Dizzy and disoriented, she had no idea where she was floating, only that she seemed to pass countless people.
The clothes of the pedestrians gradually changed…
Becoming shades of gray, black, and blue, as though an entire era had slipped by before her eyes.
Then a sharp pain exploded at the back of her head, and she blacked out completely.
As she lost consciousness, she fumed inwardly.
Which bastard dared attack me?
Just wait until I wake up. I’m giving you the slap of your life!
Huaguo, 1974.
Inside the family housing compound of the Rongcheng Machinery Factory, a woman lay in a simple yet spacious room, her head wrapped in bandages.
Lin Xiyun’s head throbbed as consciousness slowly returned, but her eyelids felt too heavy to open.
Outside the room, two skinny little girls peeked through the window.
The younger one, around five or six years old, rested her chin on the half-open windowsill and tilted her head.
“Big Sis, do you think Fourth Aunt will wake up?”
When Fourth Aunt had been carried home, Er Ya had secretly taken a peek.
There had been so much blood.
It had terrified her.
The older girl, Lu Da Ya, was sweeping the courtyard with a broom nearly as tall as she was. Without even looking up, she skillfully continued working despite her young age.
Hearing her sister’s question, she thought of the woman who lived the most comfortably in the entire Lu family and snorted unhappily.
“Er Ya, you’d better be careful. If that woman wakes up, she’ll definitely come after you for stealing her malted milk.”
Lu Er Ya panicked.
She only drank it because she’d often seen her aunt enjoying it. The rich milky smell had made her mouth water, and she simply couldn’t resist…
Blushing, she muttered,
“Fourth Aunt has so many nice things. She wouldn’t hit me over just that.”
Even so, she obediently shut her mouth and went to help spread soybeans out to dry.
Their conversation drifted into the room, making Lin Xiyun’s ears ache.
She abruptly opened her eyes.
Exposed wooden ceiling beams—completely devoid of modern decoration—came into view without warning.
She froze.
Blinking blankly, she hurriedly looked around.
An old-fashioned electric fan.
A sewing machine in the corner, covered with a cloth.
She was wearing a white blouse and dark navy straight-leg trousers.
Feeling the fabric, she recognized it as synthetic fiber.
Her family had been poor growing up. She vaguely remembered wearing something similar as a child.
What was it called again…
Dacron?
Where was she?
Had burglars kidnapped her and sold her off to some remote mountain village?
“Ow…”
She had gotten up too quickly. Her vision spun, and the back of her head hurt so badly that she instinctively reached up to touch it.
Instead of hair, she felt thick bandages.
Her fingers came away stained with blood.
“So getting hit on the head in my dream wasn’t fake after all.”
The pain felt terrifyingly real.
Rubbing her dizzy head, she suddenly felt a flood of unfamiliar memories pouring into her mind.
They seemed to belong…
To someone else.
The chaotic memories pounded against her brain.
It took quite a while before she finally sorted through them.
“1974? And… I’m a married woman?”
Lin Xiyun stared in shock.
Something as ridiculously rare as transmigration had actually happened to her?
And she’d ended up in the resource-starved 1970s.
Halfway through sitting up, she let out a dry laugh and flopped right back onto the bed.
She no longer wanted to live.
She’d rather endure the brutal grind of twenty-first-century society than survive in the 1970s, where there was nothing to eat, nothing to use, and everyone had to work the fields.
Just as she desperately wished this was all a dream, the voice of a little child suddenly echoed inside her mind.
【Ding! Welcome to the 1970s, Host! I’m the kind, adorable little, little, little… Tuanzi!】
“What kind of demon are you?!”
Lin Xiyun immediately became alert.
…
Silence.
There was nothing there.
Tuanzi: The host doesn’t seem very bright…
Huh?
It wasn’t an actual voice?
Lin Xiyun’s eyes lit up.
Could this be her transmigration cheat?
The surprise came so suddenly that she almost didn’t know how to react.
Seeing her standing there grinning foolishly, Tuanzi only wanted to finish its task and clock out as quickly as possible.
So it sighed helplessly before speaking again.
【Host, I’m the voice inside your consciousness.】
Following Tuanzi’s instructions, Lin Xiyun tried communicating with it mentally.
Sure enough, her consciousness entered a mist-covered space.
She looked around.
It was about eighty square meters—two or three times larger than the tiny apartment she had rented in modern times.
A cloud of mist floated overhead, constantly wobbling.
Lin Xiyun guessed that was Tuanzi.
Curiously, she reached out to poke it.
Her finger passed straight through the mist without touching anything.
“So your name is Tuanzi? Do I get a beginner’s gift pack?”
Tuanzi answered mysteriously,
“Welcome to your Spirit Spring Space. Inside is a Spirit Spring, an eighty-square-meter storage space, and one little surprise waiting for you to discover. Touch the red mole on your right wrist whenever you want to enter or leave. Good luck!”
Before Lin Xiyun could ask another question, the cloud of mist vanished without a trace.
She reached out instinctively, only to grasp empty air.
“…”
That’s it?
“Are you rushing off to another job or something?”
“Tuanzi!”
No response.
Left alone, a discouraged Lin Xiyun began examining this rather unreliable cheat ability by herself.
The space was completely empty except for a small Spirit Spring in the distance.
She crouched beside the spring, rubbing her chin thoughtfully.
A Spirit Spring…
As an avid web novel reader, she naturally knew what that was.
Time to figure out exactly how it worked.
Afraid its effects might be too miraculous and attract suspicion, Lin Xiyun only fetched a small drinking bowl from outside and scooped up a little of the spring water.