By sheer coincidence, just a few days before graduation, she had met a man named Wu Mingkang.
Wu Mingkang looked strikingly similar to Butler Qin’s son, Qin Yue.
When she first saw him, a sense of familiarity and closeness had welled up in her heart.
Maybe it was because of that face, or maybe because she wanted to ease her parents’ burdens. In any case, at the time she had only two choices, get married or be sent to the countryside. Ignoring her parents’ objections, she had married Wu Mingkang within days.
Although her parents had not thought highly of him, they had still prepared a generous dowry for her to take along.
After the marriage, because Nan Mo had a father who was a factory director, her in laws had been happy to flatter her, and she had enjoyed a few peaceful days.
People in those days valued simplicity and thrift. One had to be careful in everything. Wearing a necklace that caught the wrong person’s eye could easily earn someone the label of capitalist. So she had hidden the pendant away.
The original novel’s heroine, Wu Mingyue, who was also Nan Mo’s sister in law, had disliked her from the moment she married into the family.
If this woman had not married her brother after only a few days of acquaintance, then the one sent to the countryside should have been her brother, not her, a girl.
She had even asked Nan Mo to speak to her father about arranging her a job, but Nan Mo had refused. Was it not just because she looked down on their family?
Seeing how much Nan Mo treasured the pendant, she had wanted to destroy it.
The night before she was to be sent to the countryside, she stole the pendant. After getting it, she suddenly found she could not bear to ruin it, so she secretly hid it and took it with her.
By the time little Nan Mo realized the pendant was gone, Wu Mingyue had already left for the countryside.
Even though the entire family knew Wu Mingyue had stolen it, they all felt that being sent to the countryside had already been unfair to her.
If Nan Mo’s family had arranged a job for Wu Mingyue, she would not have needed to go there. So not a single person was willing to stand up for Nan Mo.
Wu Mingkang even thought his wife was too sensitive for holding onto resentment over a single pendant.
Relying on the fact that she was a factory director’s daughter, she even dared show attitude toward her elders at home, which he felt embarrassed him.
The whole family kept Wu Mingyue’s countryside address secret just to stop Nan Mo from secretly going to find her, afraid Wu Mingyue might feel wronged.
Only Nan Mo herself knew how important that pendant was to her.
There had never been much affection to begin with, and the matter of the pendant had made her see clearly how selfish this family was.
Yet she feared her parents would worry, so she never dared tell them about her unhappy situation.
Nan Mo had refused to bear Wu Mingkang’s child. She had been waiting, waiting until after 1977 when educated youths gradually returned to the cities, so she could get the pendant back from Wu Mingyue and then divorce him.
If she had a child, things would become too troublesome.
Because she had not had children after years of marriage, and because of her aloof attitude toward everyone at home, her parents in law were full of complaints about her.
Meanwhile, Wu Mingyue often sent money and goods back from the countryside, while their daughter in law, the factory director’s daughter, had brought no benefit to their family at all. Naturally, the whole household stood on Wu Mingyue’s side.
After years of being neglected by Nan Mo, Wu Mingkang had begun an affair with Accountant Zhang from the factory.
Nan Mo did not care. All she wanted was her pendant back and to return to her parents’ side.
After finally waiting for Wu Mingyue to come back to the city, Nan Mo learned that she had married a fellow educated youth from the countryside two years earlier.
This return trip was because she had been admitted to a university in the capital. She had come back to see her parents, and afterward she would go to the capital with her husband to study and eventually settle there.
The moment Nan Mo saw her, she demanded the pendant. But the pendant had already been activated after being stained with Wu Mingyue’s blood.
Over the past few years, Wu Mingyue had been glowing with vitality and had made a fortune using the space. How could she possibly return such a treasure?
When Nan Mo saw she refused, she went mad and tried to snatch her luggage, attempting to reclaim the pendant.
Seeing the usually composed Nan Mo behave like this over a pendant, the family all rushed forward to stop her.
Wu Mingkang even slapped her hard across the face.
He had thought it through. Since Nan Mo refused to live properly with him, and now Xiao Zhang was already pregnant with his child, hitting her was no big deal. It also vented his resentment for all the years she had treated him like he did not matter.
Nan Mo, who had grown up cherished in both her past and present lives, had never suffered such humiliation.
Without another word, she rushed into the kitchen, grabbed a cleaver, and tried to hack that entire family.
The commotion drew many neighbors. When they saw the Wu family’s daughter in law holding a cleaver, they were terrified.
One meddlesome neighbor hurried out to call the police.
By the time the officers arrived, Nan Mo had already been pinned to the ground by the Wu family, unable to move. Wu Mingkang’s hand had also been slashed open.
Nan Mo’s parents rushed around using their connections to try to save her, and her brother even took leave to return to Shanghai in hopes of settling things privately with the Wu family.
Wu Mingyue’s husband’s family was powerful. No matter what methods the Nan family tried, Nan Mo was still sentenced to six years in prison.
Along with the verdict came her divorce certificate from Wu Mingkang.
Unable to bear seeing her suffer, her brother began gathering evidence of Wu Mingkang and Accountant Zhang’s illicit relationship, intending to have them executed.
Before he could succeed, he was framed and had his leg broken, forcing him to retire from the army.
Her father was also implicated because he had a daughter in prison and lost his position as factory director.
From that point on, the Nan family never appeared again in the story.
When Nan Mo had first read this novel, she had been furious.
Not only had she been disgusted that someone like Wu Mingyue, a thief, could be the heroine, she had also felt stifled by the plot where little Nan Mo had basically delivered a golden finger ability across time to someone else.
Now the one feeling stifled had become her. Would the plot still continue?
Since she had transmigrated here, could she avoid being sent through time? After all, the original transmigration point had already passed, had it not?
She spent more than an hour at the table. During that hour, not only had she overfilled her stomach, she had nearly overworked her brain.
Just thinking about possibly being sent to the 1970s made her scalp tingle.
Reading period novels was enjoyable, but personally experiencing that special era was another matter entirely.
Nan Mo was someone who always thought several steps ahead. Her mind was now full of the book’s plot. If she really did get sent there, what should she do?
Should she follow the original story and marry someone? Or go to the countryside? Or hide somewhere quietly until the situation improved?
No matter which path she chose, stockpiling supplies was absolutely necessary.
With that thought, she poured herself a cup of hot water and returned to her room.
With a thought, she first placed the cup inside the wooden house, then took out the apples she had left in the space earlier. She found they showed no sign of oxidation at all, meaning the space preserved freshness perfectly.
Now she just needed to test whether it preserved temperature. While waiting, she fell asleep.
“Mom, look. Is it pretty?” In her dream, Nan Mo saw a young girl twirling in a new dress for a woman to see.
When she walked closer, she realized the girl looked exactly like her, only about sixteen or seventeen years old.
If there was one difference, it was temperament. She herself was confident and radiant, while this girl seemed more delicate and sweet.
The two of them seemed completely unaware of her presence and continued chatting happily.
Realizing this, Nan Mo began observing the surroundings.
It was a three bedroom apartment with a living room, kitchen, and bathroom. In those days, such a layout was quite rare.
Apartments in residential compounds rarely had bathrooms, and most families set up stoves in the stairwell corridors for cooking.
The living room was small, only about ten square meters. A three seat wooden sofa and a dining table set nearly filled the space.
Looking around, she noticed photos hanging on the wall.
When she stepped closer, she saw that the middle aged couple in the photo looked extremely similar to the parents in her memories. Beside the photo were several certificates and a notice of military enlistment.
“Xiao Mo, Xiao Mo, come quickly. Look what delicious food Dad brought you today.”
She heard a cheerful male voice calling her.
She wanted to turn around, but found she had already awakened.
Now she was certain. She really had transmigrated into a book, and she would very likely still face the impending time shift.
Fortunately, she knew which era she would go to, which meant she knew what supplies she needed to prepare.
The only problem was she did not know when it would happen, and that filled her with urgency.
Just as she was about to get up, a servant knocked softly.
“Miss, Mr. Qin has arrived.”
“…Alright. Tell him to wait a moment. I will be down shortly.”
She checked the time. She had slept for over an hour, which meant more than ten hours should have passed inside the space.
Using her thoughts, she took out the cup of hot water and found it was exactly the same as when she had placed it inside. It seemed that whatever condition items were in when stored would remain unchanged when taken out.
After confirming this, Nan Mo prepared to go downstairs to meet this Brother Qin.
In the original story, Nan Mo had possessed an indescribable feeling toward Qin Yue. Otherwise, after transmigrating, she would not have immediately chosen Wu Mingkang, who resembled him.
But now that Nan Mo’s soul had changed, she felt no special emotions toward Qin Yue in her memories. At most, there seemed to be only trust.
After changing clothes and heading downstairs, she saw Qin Yue standing in the living room.