“Something’s happened, Hua’er! Someone from the neighborhood office is here. They want you to go to the countryside. Get up, quickly!”
Lin Wenjin’s anxious and worried voice reached her ears.
“Who is it? So noisy!”
Yun Hua’s mind was still foggy from being abruptly woken before she could naturally wake up. She almost cursed out loud, but the moment she opened her eyes, she became completely alert.
Wait… what?
Was this right?
Why was she in such an unfamiliar place?
Although the room was fairly well furnished, Yun Hua could immediately sense that something was off.
Why did the entire room have such a strong sense of the times?
It looked exactly like something out of a period drama.
Could it be that after she performed an act of bravery and saved the cat, some kind-hearted person had rescued her?
But if that was the case, this family’s taste was rather… unique.
“What are you still sitting there for, child? The people from the neighborhood office are already here urging us. You’re leaving for the countryside by train this afternoon. Hurry up and get out of bed and get ready.”
Standing in front of her was a beautiful woman wearing a blue cotton shirt, loose black cotton trousers, and cloth shoes.
Yun Hua was still completely bewildered.
“Mom knows this news came too suddenly, and it must have been a shock. Your father and I will find a way to bring you back as soon as possible. You have to take good care of yourself in the countryside. Don’t get too close to any young men, or you might get deceived. Mom will regularly send you food, money, and ration coupons. Don’t try to save on food or clothing. Oh, my poor girl… Wuwuwu…”
“All right, stop crying. Hurry up and pack everything she’ll need. Our daughter has never been away from us before. We have to make sure she has everything she needs. We can’t let our girl suffer.”
A tall, handsome middle-aged man wearing a Sun Yat-sen suit gently tried to comfort the woman beside him.
The beautiful woman gradually calmed down, though she continued packing without stopping.
Yun Hua’s mind was in chaos.
What was going on?
Hadn’t she just finished her night shift?
Hadn’t she only been hit by a truck because she was trying to save a cat?
And then she had somehow ended up here?
Three hours earlier.
Yun Hua had been working the night shift at the hospital. After finishing work, she dragged her exhausted body across a crosswalk.
Suddenly, she saw a calico cat about to be hit by a truck.
She didn’t know whether it was because the surgeries she had performed during the day had drained her mentally, or because she had worked too late into the night and was exhausted. Whatever the reason, her mind was extremely foggy at that moment.
Yet she had rushed forward without the slightest hesitation and pushed the calico cat out of the way.
And then she became the person hit by the truck.
Just before she lost consciousness, she felt an unbearable pain throughout her body. Then her body gradually grew cold, filling her with fear—a kind of fear she had never experienced before.
Before she completely lost consciousness, she looked back on her entire life.
She had grown up without parents.
When she was a baby, the director of an orphanage had found her at the entrance. Apparently, when she was discovered, she was already freezing to death.
The director had carefully held her in her arms and later devoted herself to caring for and raising her.
Together with the other children at the orphanage, Yun Hua grew up under the director’s loving care.
She had probably been luckier than most. She was beautiful and had excellent grades, so she received financial support from a wealthy benefactor.
Later, she successfully entered medical school. She studied diligently and almost always ranked first in her class. On top of that, with her striking beauty and excellent figure, she was voted the campus beauty.
But she had never forgotten the director who had raised her or the friends she had grown up with at the orphanage.
She wanted to live a good life herself, but she also wanted the director and her childhood friends to live better lives.
So when countless admirers competed to confess their feelings to her, she rejected every one of them.
Eventually, she was hired by one of the country’s top hospitals because of her outstanding academic performance.
She had a good job and an excellent platform on which to build her career.
There, she put her superb medical skills to use, earning wealth and recognition in return.
She also helped countless patients regain their lives.
It wasn’t until she finally felt that she could settle down that she accepted the advances of the hospital director’s son.
She didn’t particularly like him, but at least she didn’t dislike him. She decided to give the relationship a try.
After all, the director’s son had always been a respectable man who kept himself out of trouble. He was also tall and handsome.
As far as she knew, he had only dated one woman before, so he seemed like the type who would remain devoted to one person.
Although Yun Hua felt that, as someone who had never been in a relationship before, she was giving up a little by dating the hospital director’s son, he was still the hospital director’s son, after all.
There was, ultimately, a gap between their family backgrounds.
Yun Hua had no choice but to face that reality.
But then his ex-girlfriend came back.
Apparently, she regretted leaving him and had returned to win him back.
Watching the hospital director’s son become increasingly torn, Yun Hua chose to withdraw.
She threw herself into her work instead.
She had finally been willing to try a relationship, only to end up caught in a situation that made all three of them miserable.
She didn’t want a relationship like that.
She only wanted a sweet romance.
Love was merely a seasoning in her life, not the main course.
Her goal was to make money and live a good life.
What did love matter?
It wasn’t something she needed.
So she had been working at the hospital for several days.
Eventually, the conflicted hospital director’s son finally made up his mind.
He called Yun Hua and told her that he had completely cut ties with his ex-girlfriend and that from then on, Yun Hua would be the only woman in his life.
But Yun Hua didn’t believe him.
The hospital director’s son then pulled out his trump card.
He proposed marriage.
Yun Hua felt that if his ex-girlfriend had never appeared, she might have gritted her teeth and agreed.
After all, she had already spent so much time with him.
She had hoped that her efforts would eventually be rewarded.
But his ex-girlfriend had returned and told Yun Hua all about how intimate and loving the two of them had been.
She even mocked Yun Hua for being with him for so long without managing to win him over.
She said that she and the hospital director’s son had slept together within a month of getting together.
Yun Hua merely smiled and asked her, “Is that something to be proud of?”
The woman seemed extremely proud of herself and said that the hospital director’s son was very fond of her body.
Yun Hua nearly felt sick.
In the end, she blocked the hospital director’s son’s contact information.
Perhaps because Yun Hua was a highly skilled doctor with an excellent reputation, the hospital director never caused her any trouble.
In fact, Yun Hua knew that the director thought highly of her and hoped she would marry his son.
But Yun Hua didn’t want to wrong herself.
So she used work to numb herself. After all, she would get over it after some time.
It wasn’t as though she had loved him deeply, but they had been together for more than half a year, so she had inevitably developed some feelings for him.
Perhaps she had simply pushed herself too hard, leaving both her body and mind exhausted.
That was probably why, in a moment of inexplicable impulse, she had risked her life to save that cat.
When she regained consciousness, she had assumed that some kind-hearted person had rescued her.
Instead, the conversation between the beautiful woman and the middle-aged man in front of her proved that she was now their daughter.
Then she noticed the calendar hanging on the wall.
September 27, 1975.
Whatever hope Yun Hua had been clinging to finally died.
She had no idea how she had ended up here.
While her parents were busy packing her luggage, she quietly slipped over to the dressing table in the room and examined her new face.
Fortunately, she looked about eighty percent like her original self.
This body’s features were slightly more delicate, and there was a small red mole at the outer corner of her left eye, giving her an especially charming and alluring appearance.
However, this body seemed to be ten centimeters shorter than her original one.
She had been a standard 1.72 meters tall.
Now she was only 1.62 meters.
Still, for the 1970s, that wasn’t considered short.