Xia Xiaolan woke up to the sound of crying.
She remembered leading her subordinates in completing a challenging merger and acquisition case, followed by attending a celebration party. Under her subordinates’ repeated urging to drink, Xia Xiaolan had too much.
Though not completely muddled, on her way home, she overheard her new assistant talking to her boyfriend on the phone, “I’m sending Director Xia home. She lives alone, mm-hmm, she’s not married… Like you said, what’s the use of Director Xia earning so much money as a woman if she hasn’t managed to marry herself off?”
Half-drunk and half-awake, Xia Xiaolan didn’t confront her new assistant directly.
No matter how successful one’s career might be, without the embellishment of marriage, a career woman was always prone to gossip. Especially since Xia Xiaolan had a strong personality and ordinary looks, people in the company would talk behind her back, saying she was ugly, old, and had too high standards – it would be a miracle if she could get married. Xia Xiaolan didn’t mind people gossiping about her personal life, but this new assistant was loose-lipped and foolish, actually daring to discuss her boss’s personal affairs right in front of her, thinking she was drunk.
In a couple of days, she’d have her transferred and get a new assistant.
Back home, the hired housekeeper, Auntie Zhang, nagged about how Xia Xiaolan should drink less and take better care of herself as a woman.
Xia Xiaolan threw herself onto the soft bed and fell asleep immediately.
She had a strange dream where she became another person in the 1980s. Something unpleasant happened in the dream, and in anger, she crashed into a pillar. Xia Xiaolan found it amusing – she wasn’t the type to commit suicide at all. Given her years of experience building everything from scratch, those dream troubles were nothing.
But this dream was unusually vivid.
Xia Xiaolan heard a woman’s soft crying beside her ear, making her head throb terribly.
The blanket felt uncomfortably damp and wrapped around her body. Xia Xiaolan felt soaked in sweat, and when she finally opened her eyes, she was startled by a dark, sallow face!
“Xiaolan, you’re awake? Girl, you nearly scared your mother to death… *sob sob* Xiaolan, does your head still hurt?”
A dark, sallow face, with a frail body that looked like it could be blown over by a breeze.
Xia Xiaolan wondered why she hadn’t woken up from this dream yet!
The woman’s tears flowed freely: “Xiaolan, promise Mother you won’t do anything foolish again, all right?”
Xia Xiaolan nodded absently, and the woman wiped her tears with her sleeve, her worried face showing a slight smile:
“I’ll go make you something to eat, you wait here!”
The woman closed the door, and Xia Xiaolan fought through her headache to survey her surroundings. A dark wooden bed, straw rustling under the mat with every movement, a yellowed mosquito net rolled up to the bedposts with iron hooks, a faded blanket with four patches total, and a thin string beside the bed connected to a crude electric light.
Xia Xiaolan pulled the string once, and the light came on, probably not even 15 watts, leaving the room still dim.
Fighting her headache, she got out of bed. The only decent piece of furniture in the room was a dressing table by the window. The glass mirror reflected a small face: a pointed chin, large eyes, an elegant straight nose – every feature was beautiful! The blood-stained white bandage around her head only added to her delicate, pitiful appearance… Xia Xiaolan drew in a sharp breath – this was what people called a fox spirit’s beauty!
This certainly wasn’t her face!
If Director Xia had been even a third as pretty as this, she wouldn’t have been gossiped about behind her back.
Xia Xiaolan smiled, and the person in the mirror smiled back, her eyes rippling with a charm that could melt hearts. When Xia Xiaolan made grotesque faces, even then the face in the mirror couldn’t look ugly. This was unfair, Xia Xiaolan thought of her original appearance – calling it ordinary was being generous. Without spending huge amounts of money on packaging herself, she was quite ugly.
The world isn’t all about looks, though. The higher up you go, the more capability matters.
However, she came from a poor background with no external support, making her early struggles particularly difficult. During her hard work, while other female sales representatives with pretty faces got orders with just a coy smile despite having no professional skills, she spent nights studying professional knowledge yet couldn’t even get to meet with a manager… If she had been even slightly better looking, perhaps she wouldn’t have needed to work so diligently for almost 20 years before tasting success.
Houses, cars, savings, and position – she hadn’t enjoyed her hard-earned achievements for long. After just one sleep, she had become another “Xia Xiaolan.” Living in 1983, just turned 18, with an exceptionally beautiful fox-like face, yet inexplicably wanting to commit suicide by crashing into a pillar!
The original “Xia Xiaolan” had died, and for some unknown reason, the Xia Xiaolan from 30 years later woke up in this body. The memories received during sleep were jumbled, yet Xia Xiaolan could empathize with them.
Creak.
The door pushed open, and the skeletal, dark-skinned woman entered carrying a chipped enamel mug:
“Xiaolan, Mother steamed an egg for you, eat it while it’s hot.”
The woman was extremely careful, her attitude almost submissive. She was Xia Xiaolan’s mother, Liu Fen.
Xia Xiaolan opened her mouth, but couldn’t bring herself to say “Mother.”
She didn’t know how to treat Liu Fen, as in her memories, “Xia Xiaolan” had treated Liu Fen terribly. Should she continue being an unfilial daughter, or use this opportunity to claim brain damage from the impact and turn over a new leaf as a good daughter?
While Xia Xiaolan hesitated, the half-closed door was roughly pushed open.
Several people crowded into the room, led by Xia Xiaolan’s grandmother, accompanied by two daughters-in-law besides Liu Fen, and several grandchildren, all with hostile intentions!
The high-cheeked Grandmother Xia had a fire in her eyes as she snatched the enamel cup from Liu Fen’s hands and pushed her down.
“You gave birth to a little slut who sells herself, bringing shame to the entire Xia family, and you dare steal our family’s eggs to feed her? She pretends to crash into a pillar after being scolded a bit, thinking she can scare me. If you want to die, then die – if hitting your head doesn’t work, you can always jump in the river!”
Such venomous words were far from the loving tone a grandmother should have – she sounded more like Xia Xiaolan’s enemy.
Liu Fen crawled to Grandmother Xia’s feet, clutching her mother-in-law’s pant leg:
“Mother, the child just woke up, please give her a chance to live…”