Chapter One: Transmigrated into a Novel

Summer, 1975.

In a dilapidated earthen house of the Fengtian Brigade, a woman lay soaked to the skin. She was the Zhou family’s daughter-in-law, just carried back from the riverbank by a few young men from the team.

“Mother, do you think she’s dead?”

“She shouldn’t be. That river’s not deep. Xiaoxi, go boil some water. If your sister-in-law wakes up, she’ll need to bathe.”

“Alright, Mother.”

Hu Ailian gazed at the woman lying on the bed, a trace of discomfort in her heart. “My son is so outstanding—how did he end up marrying you?”

She thought of her son, far away in the mountains serving as a soldier, and could not help but feel proud. In these days of hunger and want, any family with a soldier was regarded with respect.

But she was never truly satisfied with this daughter-in-law. If her son, home on leave, hadn’t saved her from the water, and if she hadn’t threatened them with her compromised reputation, forcing her son to marry her, none of this would have happened. Now, five years had passed, and her son hadn’t returned even once.

“Sigh, what a sin.” No matter her misgivings, Hu Ailian couldn’t just let her die sick in bed, so she turned to the kitchen to cook.

Gu Wenwan heard voices through a haze and slowly opened her eyes. Above her was a gray, dusty ceiling. Around her, a single bed, a battered wardrobe, and only the quilt covering her seemed new. Where was this place?

Hadn’t she just been fighting zombies in the jungle? Why was she here? Gu Wenwan, trained in the vigilance of a special forces operative, quickly scanned her surroundings.

Suddenly, memories that didn’t belong to her rushed into her mind. She’d transmigrated into a novel! What’s more, she’d become the notorious villainess with the same name in a book she once saw at the base: “Rebirth in the Eighties: Three Babies in One Birth.” So, she was the male lead’s troublesome wife—the one who, after being saved by him, blackmailed him into marriage. On their wedding night, she forced herself on him, and in a fit of anger, he returned to the army and never came back.

At home, she bullied her mother-in-law and siblings-in-law, terrorized the village, and even the stray dogs avoided her. She was the scourge of the Fengtian Brigade. And now, retribution had found her: she’d drowned in the river, and Gu Wenwan—a capable youth of the twenty-first century—had arrived in her place.

Gu Wenwan rapidly sifted through the original owner’s memories and realized she’d been pushed into the river by Shen Simin, a sent-down youth who would later marry the male lead. Shen Simin was clever, capable, and filial. After several years of hardship in the countryside and sending off her mother-in-law, she was finally taken by the male lead to the army, where they fell in love, had three children in one birth, and lived happily ever after, eventually becoming a high-ranking officer’s wife.

Judging by today’s events, the heroine must have been reborn and was trying to kill her to marry Zhou Sinian.

Gu Wenwan would not allow herself to be a stepping-stone. She was determined to survive, dump the male lead herself, and create a prosperous future.

She steadied herself at the bedside and went before the mirror, nearly startled by her reflection.

“Is this two hundred pounds? Why am I so dark?”

Gu Wenwan could hardly believe her own appearance. She touched her damp clothes and decided to change.

Opening the wardrobe, she found it stuffed with clothes, and in the lower compartment, there were egg cakes and wheat milk.

“No wonder the original owner was so fat—she ate all the good things. This family is pitiful, letting the villainess walk all over them. All the money and ration tickets Zhou sent home were squandered by her.”

But perhaps she didn’t realize the original owner was a force to be reckoned with—no one in the village dared provoke her. The last time Liu Laizi tried to molest her, he ended up bedridden.

After changing, Gu Wenwan lay back down to rest. Falling into the river had left her body weak; she needed proper recuperation.

Unlike others who transmigrate into novels and get magical spaces or spirit springs, she seemed to have nothing.

As she was inwardly complaining, a needle pricked her finger accidentally, and a drop of blood fell onto the red birthmark on her wrist. In an instant, the shabby earthen house vanished, replaced by a luxurious villa.

“Wow, isn’t this the mansion I saw on TV? Heaven does not treat me poorly.”

She walked into the kitchen, opened the fridge, took out milk and bread, and ate her fill before sprawling contentedly on the sofa.

“This is what life should be.”

After a good rest, she pushed open the door to find a farm outside the villa—herds of livestock and fields full of grains and fruit.

“No more worries about food now.”

Outside the villa, a flowerbed boasted a crystal-clear spring, water gushing forth.

“Could that be the legendary spirit spring?”

She scooped up some water and drank—her exhaustion vanished at once.

“Wonderful.”

Afraid someone might discover her absence, Gu Wenwan flashed back to her room. Two hours in the space had translated to just five minutes in reality.

“Sigh, if only I could stay in there forever.”

She was still daydreaming when a knock came at the door.

“Sister-in-law, may I come in?” Zhou Xi cautiously pushed open the door and saw her sister-in-law lying in bed.

“Sister-in-law, Mom made sweet eggs.” Zhou Xi’s eyes were fixed on the eggs. Ever since her sister-in-law married in, she hadn’t tasted a single egg.

Gu Wenwan noticed her little sister-in-law practically drooling and pushed the bowl toward her.

“You eat. I’m not hungry.”

Zhou Xi, thinking she’d offended her sister-in-law, stammered, “I didn’t mean to steal a look. I’ll leave now.”

Terrified, Zhou Xi quickly fled—not out of cowardice, but because her sister-in-law’s fighting prowess was legendary. She’d flattened grown men; everyone was afraid of her.

Gu Wenwan touched her own face. “Am I really that scary?”

Just as she finished bathing and was about to sleep, the door creaked open and a small head peeked in.

Zhou Jiayu entered cautiously, approached the bed, and touched her hand.

“Mom, what’s wrong?”

Gu Wenwan kept her eyes closed. “Mom? Can someone tell me whose child this is, and why he’s calling me mother?” A stream of memory flooded her mind.

It turned out, this child was conceived when the original owner forced herself on the male lead. The boy was pitiful—never loved by his biological mother. After the original owner’s death, his stepmother treated him with affection in public but abused him in private. In the end, he became the main villain in the novel, killed by the heroine’s three children.

Now that she was here, she would never let her child be hurt.

“Mom.” Zhou Jiayu climbed into bed and lay beside her.

Gu Wenwan opened her eyes and saw a frail little boy curled up next to her.

“Mom, you’re awake.”

“Mm. Baby, were you playing outside? Why are you covered in mud?”

Zhou Jiayu scrambled off the bed in panic. “Sorry, Mom. I just came back from cutting pigweed. I didn’t mean to get on your bed. Please don’t be angry.”

Even someone with a heart of stone would feel a pang seeing such a cautious boy.

“I’m not angry. Come here, eat this egg.”

Zhou Jiayu stared at the sweet egg, swallowing hard. But eggs at home were only for his mother—he’d once sneaked a bite and was beaten half to death.

“Xiaoyu won’t eat. Mom should have it.”

Gu Wenwan seethed at the memory of the original owner’s cruelty and itched to slap her.

“Mom can’t finish it. Help me eat it, will you?”

“Okay, I’ll eat it.”

Gu Wenwan noticed Zhou Jiayu’s patched clothes and shoes with holes showing his toes, which made her even more determined.

Now that she was here, she wouldn’t let her son suffer. Her main goals were to lose weight and make money, so the whole family could live a good life.

But in this era, with the crackdown on superstition, she had to be careful not to expose her secret space.

Watching her child finish the egg, Gu Wenwan drifted into a deep sleep and didn’t wake until the next morning.