"Cough, cough, cough..."
Amid her haze of consciousness, Xia Xiaoqing felt a pungent smoke assault her senses. She abruptly sat up, instinctively covering her mouth and began choking violently.
At this moment, the room was filled with thick, swirling smoke. Not far from her was a pile of wood, ablaze and ferociously burning, with the vigorous flames threatening to reach the rooftop.
"Oh my goodness!"
Without a chance for second thoughts, she swiftly snatched up the dipper nearby, scooping up a ladleful of water and tossing it towards the fire!
The intensity of the fire slightly lessened, but the thick smoke within the room lingered, refusing to disperse any time soon. All the while, she continued coughing violently, fumbling her way towards the door.
Finally reaching the door, she didn't have time to ponder and hurriedly unlatched the traditional bolt before dashing out of the room.
At the moment when she took in her first breath of fresh air, she experienced a sensation akin to a miraculous escape from death.
She stood in the courtyard, taking in gulps of air. To her surprise, a considerable amount of people were gathered in the courtyard, curiously peeking towards her direction.
"Oh, what was Xia Xiaoqing burning in her house? How did she manage to set her home on fire?"
"I've never seen her do a single thing right at home, always causing trouble for others!"
"Is she trying to stir up divorce proceedings with Captain Feng again? Could she be threatening him with this tactic? Could she... Could she have intentionally set her house on fire to force Captain Feng into a divorce? Such behavior is absolutely disgraceful."
As the chatter went on, a group of men hurriedly rushed into the house with buckets of water, assisting in extinguishing the fire.
Meanwhile, the crowd of prying female spectators continued their gossip.
"I can't understand what Captain Feng was thinking when he married a woman like Xia Xiaoqing."
"Isn't that so? I heard she had a lover in town before she married to Captain Feng. They've been married for such a long time and he isn't even allowed a touch."
"Really? Poor Captain Feng. He marries a wife and can't even touch her. This lady is certainly worth her weight in gold!"
"She's just taking advantage of the fact that Captain Feng is honest. In my opinion, she needs a good spanking to put her in her place!"
"Exactly, such a woman deserves punishment!"
...
Hearing these derisive, offensive remarks buzzing in her ears, Xia Xiaoqing was left dumbfounded.
What are these people saying?
Who is Captain Feng? And something about a divorce?
Why can’t she understand a single word?
But before she could react, a series of images flooded into her mind compelling her to accept memories that were not originally her own.
It took her a long while to recover from the shock stirred by those memories.
She had time-travelled!
She was supposed to be en route to an international medicinal surgery exchange conference when she got into a car accident. She had never expected to wake up in the 197s, embodying a young married woman who has the same name as her.
1977, a year when everything was scarce and even eating was problematic.
Moreover, her current body is already a married woman.
The original Xia Xiaoqing was a city girl. Three months ago, she got married to Feng Yanqing, who is a team captain in charge of security work in a secretive nuclear engineering unit.
The young couple lived in mountains about 200 kilometers away from the city, their marital relationship was chilly.
Xia Xiaoqing quickly recalled the memories of the original host, using the word "chilly" to describe their relationship was an understatement; they were practically at daggers drawn.
Feng Yanqing was from the rural area, whereas the original Xia Xiaoqing prided herself as a urbanite and looked down on him, always thinking he smelled of soil. She would ridicule him whenever she had the chance, with no respect at all.
She wouldn't let Feng Yanqing touch her, or even allow him to eat at the same table.
Whenever she wasn't happy, she'd make a huge fuss, throwing and smashing things around. Each time, Feng Yanqing would keep silent and dodge, never having argued back.
Her relationship with the neighbors was another matter entirely.
In this small family housing complex, it was full of Feng Yanqing's coworkers, and most of their wives were from rural areas too.
The original host despised Feng Yanqing and looked down on the "country bumpkin" dwelling within the complex even more. Every time she saw them, she would put on a cold face, not even willing to greet them.
No wonder these women stood up for Feng Yanqing in front of her.
However, despite the original host's behavior, Feng Yanqing never flared up at her once. He could be considered a forgiving man indeed.
Xia Xiaoqing just couldn't understand why the original host, who was so reluctant to live with Feng Yanqing, hadn't applied for a divorce yet.
The men who had previously carried in water buckets came out again, carrying their buckets: "The fire's out, everyone should disperse."
Having said that, they didn't give Xia Xiaoqing a look and started walking home with their buckets.
Xia Xiaoqing sighed, and resigned herself to heading back to the house she had just run out.
The thick smoke in the room had almost dispersed, she carefully examined the layout of the room. It was not too large, just two rooms in total.
The inner room was where the previous host lived. Other than a simple double bed, a bedside table and a small desk, there were no other pieces of furniture.
In the outer room, positioned against the wall was a military cot with military green blankets folded neatly like tofu blocks. It was where Feng Yanqing slept.
After they got married, they slept separately.
Next to this was the dish cupboard, stove, and a small dining table.
As she looked at the pile of firewood in the corner, completely charred, and the damp earthen floor, Xia Xiaqing let out a long sigh.
She had yet to consider how to solve her living issues in this age where everything was rationed and required tickets for purchase. Just dealing with the mess before her, she did not know where to start.
The curious spectators had mostly dispersed, leaving just a few curious women crowding at the doorway peeking in.
“Oh dear, it's burned like this? Seems like it will need some cleaning up.”
“The young lady from the city probably doesn't even know how to tidy things up, look at her standing there cluelessly.”
“That lady is a missy. Reserved as gold, how can she do this kind of heavy work?”
“She isn’t doing the work, she must be waiting for Captain Feng to handle it when he returns. How lazy!”
Xia Xiaqing turned around without expression, her gaze sweeping across the faces of the group of women.
Although she couldn’t put a name to these women, she had once argued with each of them on behalf of the original host.
The lady in blue, who had just commented about her being more precious than gold, lived next door. She had once cooked with such strong-smelling oil that it choked the former host. The infuriated host had poured a basin of water directly into her pan and had a spat with her for quite some time.
Speaking of that woman called the lazy wench, she was a round-faced, small-eyed woman who seemed rather honest. Because of her child's tantrums at night, crying till the wee hours, disrupting the sleep of the original host, the original host vented half-a-day worth of frustrations at her in the courtyard.
She even insulted the woman by saying she couldn't raise her child and eventually suggested she help to do away with him; these harsh words were all spoken out loud.
These women had their fair share of grievances with the original host, but due to nobleman Feng Yanqing’s high status, they just expressed their dissatisfaction indirectly rather than resorting to open conflict.
The poor original host had offended too many people, faced with everyone’s snide remarks, Xia Xiaoqing didn't know how to respond for the moment.
Seeing that unusually quiet Xia Xiaoqing, who seemed a bit disheartened, these women didn't dare to say anything more.
After exchanging glances with each other, they quickly dispersed and went their separate ways.
Xia Xiaoqing sighed heavily, and then there was a growl from her stomach.
She then remembered that the original host caused a riot last night, didn't eat dinner, and didn't wake up in the morning either.
It was not until she was dizzy from hunger that she got up to light the stove and cook something for herself. Unfortunately, the original host was so hungry that she was groggy, and she accidentally set the pile of firewood next to the stove on fire.
Xia Xiaoqing guessed that the original host might have died from asphyxiation from the thick smoke, and thus her soul could “possess” its body.
For now, she couldn't find a way to go back, so she could only accept her fate and stay here.
As she was thinking this, just as Xia Xiaoqing squatted on the ground to start cleaning up the mess, a tall and towering figure suddenly barged in...
