The loud, resonant singing poured out from the Supply and Marketing Cooperative’s broadcast: "Unity is strength, this strength is iron, this strength is steel..."
The road was lined with low-slung, old Republican-era buildings, their walls painted with bold red slogans: "Educated youth go to the countryside, the vast world offers great opportunities!"
Xu Qinghuan moved her legs as fast as she could, but the young man behind her caught up in a few strides and blocked her path.
"Qinghuan, you’ve misunderstood. Manman and I have nothing going on; it’s just a completely pure, revolutionary friendship!"
The young man was one meter eighty, wearing a fashionable side-parted hairstyle that exposed his broad forehead. Dressed in a white dacron shirt and grass-green military trousers, he stood before Xu Qinghuan, head bowed, his eyes filled with infinite remorse and deep affection.
"Nothing going on? A revolutionary friendship? Since she came back, what week have you two not met three or five times? She didn't know where the Yong'an Department Store was, so you took her there; you two browsed the shops together. She said she’d never seen a movie and didn't know what a cinema looked like, so you went to the movies together. She said she wanted to eat red-braised pork from the State-run Restaurant because she’d heard people talk about it since she was a child and it made her mouth water, so you treated her to red-braised pork, alone."
Xu Qinghuan looked at the young man with a sneer. "Jiang Chengxu, aren't you afraid of someone reporting you for engaging in illicit affairs?"
Three days ago, Xu Qinghuan had still been a master surgeon in the 21st century, having successfully completed three surgeries during a 24-hour shift. Just as the final operation ended, she had collapsed off the operating table.
She had saved others, only to lose herself.
Perhaps because she had saved so many lives and accumulated such immense merit, Xu Qinghuan had transmigrated into a period novel written by her best friend—a parallel world ninety-nine percent similar to the 1970s, though the prominent figures were different.
It was currently July 10, 1974, in Shen City, China.
In this day and age, even legally married couples dared not walk too close to each other on the street, yet these two had actually watched a movie with their heads resting on each other's shoulders.
Jiang Chengxu’s face changed. "Qinghuan, I am your fiancé and she is your cousin; that is the only reason I treated her a bit differently. I only see her as a younger sister."
Seeing someone chasing up from behind, Xu Qinghuan lost all desire to continue the conversation. She turned to leave, but Jiang Chengxu grabbed her again.
Xu Manman had already rushed up to them. With her hair in two thick braids, wearing a white dress and calfskin shoes, she and Jiang Chengxu looked quite a match standing together.
She glanced at Jiang Chengxu first, then said, "Sister, you really have misunderstood Brother Chengxu and me. He originally intended to invite you to today’s movie; he even bought the tickets. But since you said you were going with your classmates, and a movie ticket costs twenty cents—well, it couldn't just go to waste, could it?"
The reasoning was impeccable.
In an era where a worker’s monthly wage was only twenty or thirty yuan, a pound of rice cost eighteen cents with a grain ration coupon, and people generally struggled to have enough to eat or wear, forty cents was a huge sum of money.
"So, it’s my fault, then!"
Jiang Chengxu hurriedly shook his head. "Qinghuan, don't get stuck in a rut. We didn't mean to blame you. I promise that from now on, I will keep my distance from all female comrades and will never go out with Xu Manman alone again."
First it was "Manman," and now it had become "Xu Manman."
Xu Manman wore an expression of hurt and disbelief, tears swirling in her eyes. "Brother Chengxu, what did I do wrong to make you despise me like this?"
Jiang Chengxu looked at her, a hint of reluctance in his eyes, but he still turned his head away.
He had already seen the movie *The White-Haired Girl* today. He had found it rather dull while watching, so he had dozed off for a while. It was a dream of profound clarity, and when he woke up, he found it simply unbelievable.
In the dream, he and Xu Qinghuan were married, but they had no children. Later, after the Reform and Opening-up, he wanted a child. By then, he had achieved success and fame, while Xu Qinghuan was a stay-at-home wife. He had slept with Xu Manman, who had been pestering him.
Soon, his mother discovered the affair. Before she could drive Xu Manman away, Xu Qinghuan found out and firmly divorced him.
After the divorce, Xu Qinghuan re-entered society and overcame every obstacle to build a significant business empire.
Although he hadn't broken things off with Xu Manman, he never married her either; instead, he married Lu Nianying.
And the reason he and Xu Qinghuan had no children despite many years of marriage was that someone had been poisoning her food.Lu Nianying had borne him a son. To the outside world, he had married a woman from a family of equal standing, had a successful career, a happy family, and a mistress who was devoted to him. Only he knew that he had never found peace.
Xu Qinghuan was his lifelong regret and his pain.
In this life, he would never let go of Xu Qinghuan’s hand again.
Xu Qinghuan took a deep breath and looked away.
Given her temper, she should have broken off the engagement with Jiang Chengxu then and there. But she had no job, and according to the current, vigorous "Up to the Mountains and Down to the Countryside" policy, a high school graduate without employment was required to go to the countryside to farm.
Marrying Jiang Chengxu would allow her to stay in the city.
Xu Qinghuan had never been to the countryside, but she knew it certainly wasn't as good as the city. She didn't intend to make a hasty decision for now; she would think it over properly later. She cast a glance at Xu Manman, who was weeping like a flower in the rain. "I have things to attend to. I'm leaving."
Jiang Chengxu hurried to follow. Having lived through a lifetime of dreams, he only wanted to pull Xu Qinghuan into his arms and tell her, "Don't leave me."
"Brother Chengxu!"
Xu Manman grabbed the hem of his jacket.Jiang Chengxu closed his eyes, enduring it and not brushing her off; he truly could not bring himself to be too cruel to a girl who admired him.
"Xu Manman, I am your cousin’s fiancé."
"I know, Brother Chengxu. I don't have any other intentions. My feelings... you should understand them!" Xu Manman sobbed uncontrollably.
Xu Qinghuan’s footsteps faltered for a moment, but in the end, she strode forward. Her beautiful lips curved into a faint, mocking smile.
No matter how much Jiang Chengxu loved Xu Qinghuan, he would always harbor some sympathy for Xu Manman, because that was the fundamental tone of the book’s plot.
If Jiang Chengxu had been unswervingly devoted to Xu Qinghuan until death, her best friend’s book wouldn’t have reached two million words; it probably would have ended in two hundred.
She had been played by her friend. When her friend was writing and couldn't think of character traits, she had borrowed her name and based the character’s image on her own. That was likely the reason she had transmigrated here.
The character of Xu Qinghuan was neither a villainous female lead nor a tragic heroine.
She was a sacrificial lamb for the male lead’s pursuit of "true love," a wretch who turned grief and indignation into drive, a paranoid person who constantly wanted to slap the male lead in the face with money, and a bitter green-eyed monster who served to set off the heroine’s gentleness and magnanimity.
It wasn't until the very end that she transformed into a woman with a clear head who loved the nation more than the man.
Just as the male lead and the heroine were going through a life-and-death romance, getting pregnant before marriage, and finally about to enter the tomb—no, the temple—of marriage, Xu Qinghuan, with the help of a hidden powerhouse in the book, had achieved career success and built her own business empire.
She and the male lead had essentially lived out two parallel lines of mutual achievement and win-win lives.
Now, Xu Qinghuan didn't feel like she had just transmigrated into a book.
The life she possessed now was equally real, because the joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness of every person here were so vivid, and her own feelings were just as intense.
Seeing that Jiang Chengxu was about to catch up, a bus happened to pull over. Xu Qinghuan squeezed onto it, and the conductor, carrying a military-green bag, collected her five cents.
Through the bus window, she watched coldly as he chased after the bus for a mile.
He ran in front, and Xu Manman followed behind. When Xu Manman tripped and fell, Jiang Chengxu immediately turned around and dashed toward her.
Xu Qinghuan withdrew her gaze, an uncontrollable sourness welling up in her heart.
She didn't know if it was the residual emotion of the original owner or her own.
The bus turned right at the street corner and traveled another half-stop before arriving at the back door of the Red Star Cinema. Xu Qinghuan got off the bus, and Lin Xialan ran up to her quickly. "How was it? How was it? I saw Xu Manman chasing after you. Did she go to ruin things for you again?"
She was dressed in a green military uniform with two short braided pigtails, looking bright, spirited, and very capable.
In this era, clothing lacked bright colors; the mainstream was white, black, gray, and green.
Xu Qinghuan curled her lips. "You’re wrong. She didn't come to ruin things for us; she came to join us."
That was exactly how it went in the book. After Xu Qinghuan and Jiang Chengxu were married and remained childless for years, Xu Manman climbed into Jiang Chengxu’s bed, shamelessly justifying herself:
"I don't want to ruin your marriage. I just love you and my cousin too much. I cannot bear to see the two of you left with no one to carry on the family line after you are gone. Since I share the same blood as my cousin, I am the most suitable choice to carry your child."