【Purely fictional setting】
“Shen Zhao, who do you think you are?”
“I’ll beat you to death, you useless good-for-nothing! It’s just sending you to the countryside, why are you acting like you’re going to die? You’re disturbing the peace of the whole family.”
Accompanied by a piercing scream, Shen Zhao felt her head grow heavy and her body burn with pain.
She slowly opened her eyes, only to see a woman with a ferocious face, grabbing a stick and viciously beating her.
How dare you!
Shen Zhao instinctively raised her leg, violently kicked the woman over, and quickly pounced on her. Her fingers dug into the woman’s neck, and a crisp bone-snapping sound echoed.
The woman instantly lost all signs of life.
The next moment, she too lost all strength and fainted.
Just before losing consciousness, a memory that did not belong to her surged into her mind.
The original body, Shen Zhao, her birth mother had died of illness long ago.
Her father quickly remarried, and his new wife had a pair of twins, only one year younger than her.
This year, the stepmother’s children graduated from high school and had no jobs. The family had to send someone to the countryside.
So, the stepmother secretly registered her at the neighborhood office to go to the countryside in place of her own daughter, and also embezzled her countryside subsidy.
The timid original owner resisted for the first time after finding out, but was beaten to death.
Until I took over this body.
After receiving the memories, she couldn’t help but complain, this world… is so feudal.
Shen Zhao slowly opened her eyes and got up from the dead woman.
Looking at her stepmother’s corpse, she sighed softly.
She was no longer the Empress who held the power of life and death over the world, but an ordinary common person in an unknown world.
Tsk.
So frustrating.
However, it was fortunate that the space that had accompanied her since birth had also followed her.
Shen Zhao put the corpse into her space.
She found a clean set of clothes to change into, and then put all the valuable items in the house into her space.
She put on a woolen hat and scarf, wrapping her facial injuries tightly.
She took the household registration book and went to the neighborhood office.
With a "snap!", she slammed the household registration book onto the table.
“Comrade, I’m registering my younger brother and sister to go to the countryside!”
Since going to the countryside was irreversible, how could the stepmother’s children stay in the city to enjoy life?
If we are family, we should all go together, shouldn’t we?
“Ah? You… are you sure? Once registered, it can’t be changed.” The staff member at the neighborhood office looked at Shen Zhao, then at the names on the household registration book, and knew exactly what was going on.
Everyone in this alley knew about the Shen family’s affairs.
The stepmother abused the child from her previous marriage, often beating and scolding her, making her stand in the courtyard in the summer heat, and forcing her to wash clothes with snow water in the winter. The biological father didn’t intervene at all.
However, this was none of their business. One more person going to the countryside meant one more quota fulfilled; they didn’t care about anything else.
“I’m sure,” Shen Zhao’s voice was very calm, “My siblings and I are willing to respond to the country’s call and go to the countryside to build a new socialist countryside.”
Seeing this, the staff member said no more and directly filled in the names Shen Jun and Shen Wan.
“They’re going to Sichuan Province with you?”
Shen Zhao thought for a moment and said, “Shen Jun will go to Heilongjiang Province, and Shen Wan will go to Northwest China. She’s a girl and young, she’ll be afraid of the cold.”
The staff member’s mouth twitched. Afraid of the cold and going to Northwest China?
She quickly completed the procedures and handed them, along with the household registration book and the countryside relocation subsidy, to Shen Zhao.
“Comrade, please take your relocation subsidy.”
Shen Zhao nodded, took it, and used the thick pockets of her winter clothes to put the money into her space before turning and leaving the neighborhood office.
She went straight to the bank and withdrew all fifteen hundred yuan from the savings passbook.
A large portion of this money was the subsidy given by the original owner’s mother after her accident at the factory, and a small portion was the savings her father had accumulated over the years.
After putting the money into her space, Shen Zhao went to the vegetable factory again.
The original owner inherited her mother’s job at the vegetable factory, washing vegetables. Over the years, her hands had become rotten and sore, and in winter, they would ache and itch terribly.
Anyway, whether she went to the countryside or not, she had no intention of continuing this job.
Shen Zhao went directly to the director’s office and stated that she wanted to sell her job.
In those days, city jobs were scarce, and every family had relatives who needed work.
It was already 1974, unlike a few years prior when the enthusiasm for educated youth going to the countryside was so high.
If they could stay in the city, no one would be willing to suffer in the countryside.
As soon as she mentioned it, the director’s face lit up with a smile.
“I thought you would give the job to your sister.”
“She’s also going to the countryside with me, so this job is not needed.”
The director was stunned for a moment, then suddenly laughed, “In that case, I’ll buy this job. I’ll handle the follow-up matters, is that okay?”
Shen Zhao showed a slight smile and nodded, “Yes, thank you, Director.”
“Then come home with me to get the money.” She hadn’t brought much money with her when she came to work.
Shen Zhao nodded and followed the director home.
She gave Shen Zhao five hundred yuan and three jin of cotton tickets.
The work at the vegetable factory was very tiring and not very desirable, so this price was the market price.
Shen Zhao took the money and tickets, “Then Director, you go ahead. I still need to go to the supply and marketing cooperative.”
“Alright, go ahead. I heard Sichuan Province is damp and cold, so prepare well.” She felt quite sympathetic towards this girl; she was diligent when working at the factory, but just didn’t have a good father.
As the saying goes, a stepmother means a stepfather.
His bias was extreme, and he only had eyes for his own two children.
Shen Zhao then went to the supply and marketing cooperative and saw that many canned goods and fabrics were locked in cabinets.
An Auntie sat at the counter knitting a sweater. Without even looking up, she said, “What do you want? Don’t touch anything if you’re not buying.”
What kind of attitude is this!
She took a deep breath, suppressing the urge to kill, and constantly reminded herself that the situation was beyond her control.
It was just a bad attitude, not a crime punishable by death.
This world is just like this…
“I want three jin of white sugar, two jin of brown sugar, a toothbrush, toothpaste, and a towel, paper…”
Even though she was in the same body as the original owner, she was unwilling to use things the original owner had used, especially daily necessities.
Besides these, she bought everything that required a ticket.
She also used the three jin of cotton tickets.
She was lucky enough that a new batch of cotton had just arrived.
She didn’t stop until she had used up all the Beijing City tickets she had.
Before leaving, Shen Zhao’s fingertip brushed past the Auntie.
This person didn’t deserve to die, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t hold a grudge.
It was just a little itching powder; enjoy it.
She heard that Sichuan Province was all mountains and difficult to travel out of, so Shen Zhao ran to three more clinics, using the excuse of her sister’s fever and her own injuries.
She asked the doctors to prescribe some medicine for inflammation, fever, and bruises to take with her.
By the time she finished all this, it was already evening.
The sky was gloomy.
Shen Zhao sat in a State-run Restaurant, eating noodles and looking out the door.
It was just after work, and many workers in blue overalls rode their bicycles past her.
Occasionally, red and white buses drove by.
Everything felt novel to her.
This was a completely different world from Jiang Country.
There were no nobles or emperors here; poverty was glorified as honor. Food and clothing all required tickets, and the countryside still used work points for meals.
Her Majesty Shen Zhao expressed… incomprehension, but respect.
This system of operation might not lead to wealth, but it did, to a certain extent, reduce the risk of people starving to death.
After eating, she returned to her doorstep.
She saw that the house door was wide open. As Shen Zhao stepped into the main hall, a glass cup flew towards her, accompanied by an enraged roar.
“You useless good-for-nothing, where have you been? It’s so late and you haven’t even cooked.”
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