Chapter One: Rebirth in the 1990s

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At the beginning of 1999, around one o’clock in the afternoon, a string of classic songs, imbued with the memories of a bygone era, echoed through an apartment building of the silk factory’s staff quarters:

“When the mountain peaks are no longer jagged, when the rivers cease to flow, when time stands still and day and night are no more…”

Half-awake, An Songyu furrowed her brow and muttered subconsciously:

Could it be that her husband was once again rummaging through old things today, and happened to dig out that ancient Walkman from who knows when?

Irritated, she turned over in bed, wanting to shout toward the storage room:

What are you doing, making a mess in the middle of the day!

All that useless junk from who knows when should have been thrown away long ago!

But thinking of her husband’s sentimental nature, An Songyu drew a deep breath and forced herself to open her eyes.

The moment she opened them, she was stunned.

The room before her was utterly different from the spacious, habitually lived-in bedroom she shared with her husband, whose décor was all solid wood—simple but not exactly fashionable.

The current room had shrunk by more than half, and its furnishings were stripped to the bare necessities, nothing more.

The whitewashed walls and cement floor were something she hadn’t seen in ages.

But behind the tightly closed yellow wooden door, secured with an iron latch, hung a brand-new, oversized poster of “Princess Pearl, Part One.”

An Songyu blinked for a long while.

She rummaged through her memories, trying to recall the familiar yet unfamiliar look of this room.

Wasn’t this the very room she lived in for years before she got married—her maiden’s room?

If she wasn’t mistaken…

With a jolt, An Songyu tried to sit up, completely forgetting she was now on the lower bunk of a double bed.

As soon as she raised her head, she smashed it hard against the underside of the upper bunk.

She gasped in pain, clutching her forehead with trembling hands, unable to react for a long moment.

From the upper bunk, her sister An Songxiang, awakened by the commotion, looked down at her with sympathetic eyes.

All annoyance melted away.

After An Songyu finally collected herself, her sister asked curiously, “Sis, what’s wrong? You were napping just fine, why the sudden outburst?”

“I…” An Songyu dazedly turned toward the voice.

The girl’s face, still plump with youth, made An Songyu hesitate to recognize her.

It was only after An Songxiang pressed her again, full of confusion, that she finally snapped out of it.

An Songyu parted her lips, instinctively wanting to ask what year it was.

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But she realized such a question would seem far too odd.

So she forced a smile. “I just remembered something really important!”

“What could be so important that you can’t even sleep peacefully at noon?” An Songxiang muttered, but she could tell her sister wasn’t eager to talk.

Or maybe, seeing her so lost and distracted, perhaps it wasn’t something important at all, but just a quarrel with her boyfriend?

When it came to her sister’s romantic affairs, An Songxiang had no desire to get involved.

Though she was two years younger than An Songyu, she had already been working for a year.

With all those bold, chatty older women at her workplace, An Songxiang figured she knew all she needed to know.

Girls like her sister, who went through the trouble of getting into college only to start dating early, usually fell into two categories in those women’s eyes…

Either they seized a good opportunity to fall in love—

Though, regarding her sister’s boyfriend, An Songxiang wasn’t so optimistic.

Or, they were simply easy to fool.

An Songyu had no idea what her sister was thinking.

Seeing that her sister had lain back down, she tiptoed quietly out of the room.

Passing by the three-door wardrobe with a mirror in the middle, An Songyu caught a glimpse of her current self.

The girl in the mirror looked impossibly young.

An Songyu couldn’t help but gently stroke her own face in amazement.

Only when she saw the red mark on her forehead did she lower her hand.

She stepped out into a nearly square living room.

There were two doors on the opposite side.

Looking back, next to the sisters’ bedroom, there were also two more doors.

She glanced around, searching for anything that could confirm what era she’d landed in.

Very soon, the thick wall calendar hanging beside the entrance caught her eye.

It was the old-fashioned kind, with the lunar calendar on it—a fat stack of pages, each one thin, meant to be torn off day by day.

March 20, 1999—Dragon Head-Raising Day, in the second month of the lunar calendar.

March 1999?

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An Songyu swallowed nervously and took down the thick stack of calendar pages.

Her hands were shaking with excitement as she held it.

She steadied herself and looked again and again, just to be sure.

The date had not changed at all.

Only then, overwhelmed with disbelief, did An Songyu gulp and look around.

Could it be that the idle thoughts she’d had before sleeping had actually come true?

Afraid it was all an illusion or a dream, An Songyu steeled herself and slapped her injured forehead hard.

The pain made her cry out instantly.

Clutching her head, she squatted on the floor, gasping.

That noon, An Songlin, who had returned home with their father specifically to discuss marriage arrangements, witnessed his little sister’s antics from start to finish, and couldn’t help but grimace and wince along with her.

Hearing him, An Songyu looked up through her tears.

When she saw her brother’s familiar silhouette in the backlight, she instantly stood up.

She knew exactly what time it was now!

Seeing his little sister suddenly charge toward him with uncharacteristic urgency, An Songlin instinctively swallowed and took a step back.

“Brother, did you come home today to discuss buying a house with Mom and Dad?” An Songyu asked eagerly, regardless of his reaction.

An Songlin paused, a complicated look flashing in his eyes.

But thinking of his lifelong bond with his two sisters, he didn’t hide anything, as his wife had suggested.

When he nodded just as she expected, An Songyu took a deep breath, looked him in the eye, and asked,

“Brother… do you trust me?”

“Huh?” An Songlin was even more bewildered, but under his sister’s uncharacteristically intense and forceful gaze, he nodded. “Of course, I trust you!”

“Then wait here. I’m going to call Mom, Dad, and our little sister. We need a family meeting!”

With that, without waiting for his reply, An Songyu went straight to her parents’ and sister’s rooms.