Chapter One: The Whole Family Wore It

After waking up, Su Yanchu found herself in an unfamiliar environment. The room was roughly three square meters, with old newspapers and portraits of great leaders pasted on the walls, which were otherwise made of raw earth bricks.

Suddenly, a sharp pain pierced her forehead, and a flood of memories surged into her mind.

Upon inheriting the original owner’s memories, Su Yanchu realized she had transmigrated into a vintage-era "Big Heroine" entrepreneurial novel, and in a stroke of bad luck, she had become a cannon fodder character. Not only was she cannon fodder, but the entire three-person family she belonged to was destined for the same fate.

The story was set in 1962, a time when city dwellers relied on grain rations and rural areas operated under production teams, where members lived off work points. The heroine, Su Qiqi, was a tough, resilient woman who dared to love and hate. She fought against the "extremes" in her family, eventually riding the wave of the Reform and Opening-up policy to become the richest person in the world.

In contrast, Su Yanchu’s family was portrayed as constantly tormenting Su Qiqi’s family. After a period of conflict, the three of them met miserable ends—some died, others were crippled; none of them fared well.

When reading the book, Su Yanchu had never agreed with the author’s moral compass. Although her father, Su Dawei, was a bit gluttonous, he worked every single day. Both he and her mother, Qin Jiuhong, handed over their work points and earnings to the family collective, so their tragic end seemed unjustified. Furthermore, Su Yanchu felt that the true culprit behind the chaos in the Su household wasn't her parents, but Grandma Su—the "Poison Queen" at the top of the family food chain.

Grandma Su was so extreme that, in an era where children were raised to provide for one's old age, she treated her four sons and two daughters merely as tools to earn money and serve her like an empress. She didn't just leech off her sons; she even demanded a portion of food rations from her married daughters. If a daughter gave her rations to her mother’s house, it inevitably caused friction with her husband’s family.

However, there was one exception in the family: Su Yaozu, the son born to Grandma Su when she was fifty. Su Yaozu was the same age as Su Yanchu and the heroine, Su Qiqi, but the treatment they received was worlds apart. Every resource in the Su house was funneled toward Su Yaozu. The only reason Grandma Su had considered letting a granddaughter go to school was to pave the way for his future.

Grandpa and Grandma Su originally wanted to send Su Qiqi, but Su Dawei refused. He rebelled against Grandma Su daily, inciting Qin Jiuhong to go on strike, declaring that if Su Yanchu weren't allowed to go to school, he would stop working altogether. He even stole half a can of malted milk extract and a bag of peach blossom cakes that Grandma Su had locked in her cupboard. Fearing he would continue stealing and refuse to work, Grandma Su finally agreed to let Su Yanchu attend school.

From Su Qiqi’s perspective, Su Dawei was lazy, greedy, and a rogue who stole her opportunity to study. But to Su Yanchu, Su Dawei had no real flaws; though he loved his food, he was a qualified father who stood up for his daughter’s education.

The true source of all these problems was Grandma Su. That the heroine chose to target them instead of Grandma Su or the pampered Su Yaozu seemed rather extreme. As for the original heroine, Su Yanchu had nothing to say—if it came to a fight, so be it. She would take it as it came.

"Clang, clang, clang!"

"Wake up! Everyone get up! You must have been born as lazy ghosts in your past lives!"

Grandma Su’s urging cries echoed outside, followed by hurried footsteps. Soon, the door to Su Yanchu’s room was pushed open.

"Ten years to sharpen a sword?"

Su Yanchu whispered a code to the middle-aged woman standing at the door.

In their previous lives, they hadn't been very lucky; the apocalypse arrived just as Su Yanchu graduated from college. Fortunately, their family of three stayed united, surviving the end of the world and hoarding quite a bit of wealth. They had agreed on this code in case they were ever separated. If the woman before her was truly her mother, Qin Jiuhong, she would certainly know it.

"Five years to grind a fragment."

Qin Jiuhong quickly replied, rushing forward to pull Su Yanchu into a tight embrace.

"Mom, where’s Dad?" Su Yanchu’s primary concern was her father.

"That's right, where is your father?" Qin Jiuhong tapped her own forehead. Logically, all three of them had died at the same time, bitten by zombies. If the mother and daughter had transmigrated, Su Dawei should have arrived as well, and if he had, he would surely come to find them.

"Could he have been reincarnated elsewhere? Let’s enter the space and see."

Qin Jiuhong had finished absorbing her new memories. In this life, her maiden family was in the neighboring production team, and she had married Su Dawei in the late forties. Because she had suffered a severe hemorrhage during Su Yanchu’s birth, leaving her with chronic health issues, they had never had another child.

Just as Su Yanchu was about to comfort her mother, footsteps approached again. Both women looked toward the door, where a man in a blue coarse-cloth shirt stood, looking at them with nervous uncertainty.

"Ten years of life and death, vast and boundless."

Qin Jiuhong looked at the man, who resembled her husband from their previous life by eighty percent, and immediately tested him with the code.

"Five years of life and death, one glimpse of uncertainty."

Su Dawei quickly finished the phrase.

"Dawei, I knew you would transmigrate too!" Qin Jiuhong threw herself into his arms.

"Xiao Hong, you’ve become young again!" Su Dawei patted her back.

Su Yanchu felt conflicted. The good news was that their family was reunited; the bad news was that they had all perished together in their past life!

"Dad, Mom, let’s see if our space is still..." Su Yanchu began. In their previous life, they had a storage space filled with supplies—daily necessities, various fabrics, iron pots, you name it, they had it.

Before she could finish, Grandma Su’s roar cut through the air: "Third daughter-in-law, why aren't you up to cook yet? Were you born a lazy ghost?"

"You two go into the space first, I’ll go out," Qin Jiuhong said before heading out.

Inside the room, Su Yanchu and Su Dawei heard Qin Jiuhong complaining to Grandma Su: "Mother, if you want to wake people up, just call them. Don't bang the basin, it makes you look like a beggar."

"You lazy woman, you have too many words! Look at the clock on the wall, do you know what time it is?" Grandma Su glared at her.

Back in the room, Su Dawei whispered, "Chuchu, your mother is adapting to her identity quite quickly! She really has a sharp tongue—calling your grandmother a beggar."

"Dad, I think you’re adapting just as well as Mom," Su Yanchu replied, before shifting the subject. "Dad, let’s check if our space is still here."

"Right." Su Dawei nodded.

In no time, father and daughter sensed the space and stepped inside. It was identical to the one from their past life—a simple storage space with a small wooden cabin, a kitchen, pots and pans, and all their hoarded supplies. The space’s greatest utility remained: it kept food fresh, and they could still light a fire to cook inside.