Transmigration

This program is produced by Tomato Listening.

Transmigration.

A series of impatient knocks echoed against the door, followed by a woman's irritable voice: "Get up! Do you know what time it is?"

Lin Yuzhu struggled to turn over, squinting toward the window. Even without pulling back the thin curtains, she could see the sky outside was only just beginning to brighten. Lin Yulan, lying beside her, muttered impatiently, "What are you still dawdling for? Get up quickly, unless you want Mother to keep knocking!"

Lin Yuzhu closed her eyes to mask her irritation, took a deep breath, and finally shouted, "I'm up!"

The person outside stopped knocking and walked away, clearly dissatisfied.

The muttering that followed was barely audible, so Lin Yuzhu simply chose to ignore it.

She got up to get dressed. Every time she looked at these rustic, straight-legged cloth trousers and floral-print shirt, her hands trembled; they were just too dowdy!

Before she had even finished dressing, a voice urged from outside again, "Why aren't you out yet?"

Lin Yulan turned over heavily to express her extreme annoyance, pulling the quilt over her head to continue sleeping.

Lin Yuzhu rolled her eyes, stepped onto the floor to put on her shoes, and opened the door to the kitchen. The first person she saw was her "cheap" mother.

Lin Mother was standing with her back to her, kneading dough on a cutting board.

Calling it dough was a stretch; it was actually a mixture of cornmeal or other coarse grains combined with a small amount of white flour.

As for the taste, it was terrible.

Seeing Lin Yuzhu emerge, Lin Mother said unpleasantly, "Why are you so slow? Don't you know everyone in this house has to go to work soon?"

"How did I ever give birth to someone so lazy?"

Lin Yuzhu walked quietly to the earthen stove, slowly and skillfully starting the fire, her mood incredibly complex.

Thinking back a month ago, he had been a high-flying professional, stirring up the corporate world, only to blink and transmigrate into the 1970s to become a girl who tended the stove.

It really was a case of closing one's eyes and opening them to a whole new world.

When he first arrived, the scene he walked into was the whole family drinking corn porridge. You can imagine how panicked he was.

At the time, no one in the Lin Family paid him much attention, and because his head was spinning, he didn't have time to do anything out of character. He managed to muddle through and stay in the Lin Family.

He had been muddling along for nearly a month now. He hadn't inherited any of the original owner's memories, so he had to figure most things out bit by bit.

The original owner was the fourth child, with an older brother and two older sisters above her, and a younger brother below.

Through this month of observation, he had gained a rough understanding of the Lin Family's situation.

Let's start with his peers. The eldest, Lin Lisong, had a steady personality, much like Lin Father; he didn't speak up unless it was something important.

Lin Lisong was closest in age to the eldest sister, Lin Yumei, so the two of them had the best relationship.

As for his younger sister, who was six years his junior, they barely spoke a word to each other on a daily basis.

His "cheap" father was a veteran employee at the Steel Mill. Lin Lisong was born at just the right time.

Back then, the factory took care of employees' children; after graduating from junior high, they could be recommended for night school to earn a vocational diploma.

As the eldest son, Lin Lisong had a natural advantage. Being ambitious, he studied accounting and naturally entered the Steel Mill as a junior clerk.

He brought great face to Lin Mother.

Lin Father and Lin Mother were satisfied with this son in every way, except for one thing that worried them.

Lin Lisong had high standards. He was already twenty-three and still didn't have a partner. Every time he went on a blind date, he claimed he didn't like the girl, leaving Lin Father and Lin Mother's earnest advice to fall on deaf ears. The eldest daughter, Lin Yumei, had benefited from her uncle's connections and managed to get into the Supply and Marketing Cooperative as a formal employee.

In this era, getting into the Supply and Marketing Cooperative was like having smoke rising from one's ancestral grave.

Naturally, the defective goods available at the cooperative were mostly given to the uncle's family; otherwise, why would the uncle have arranged for her to get in?

You have to understand, the Lin Family's aunt had nearly caused a scene over this, as she still had two nieces on her side of the family without jobs.

In Lin Yuzhu's eyes, the eldest son and eldest daughter were the apples of Lin Father and Lin Mother's eyes, not to mention the status of the firstborn.

When Lin Mother and Lin Father were expecting their second child, they hoped for a daughter to make a "good" pair. Their wish was granted, and they had a daughter, whom they cherished more than the daughters born later.

When Lin Yumei was born, Lin Mother was actually quite disappointed. Since she already had a daughter, another one wasn't as precious. If Lin Second Sister hadn't been fair-skinned and sweet-talking, capable of pleasing her parents, her status in the house probably wouldn't have been any better than the unlucky Lin Yuzhu.

The person with the highest official position in the house was actually Lin Mother; she was the deputy director of the neighborhood Women's Federation. In this era, children could inherit their parents' jobs. As soon as Lin Yulan graduated from high school, Lin Mother got her in, and she was currently a temporary worker; becoming a permanent employee was only a matter of time.

This left only the original owner and the youngest brother without jobs. The youngest son, Lin Liyang, was also the apple of Lin Mother's eye; she would be happy to support him for a lifetime, let alone worry about him not having a job.

Naturally, that was an exaggeration. Based on Lin Yuzhu's understanding of Lin Mother, supporting the youngest son forever wasn't very likely, especially since Lin Liyang was still young and just starting junior high.

The original owner was truly pitiful. She had never been liked by her parents since she was a child, and she knew it clearly. Her personality had become somewhat timid, which Lin Mother, with her sharp tongue, despised. She would scold her for no reason, and the more she was scolded, the more afraid the original owner became. The more afraid she was, the worse she performed, and the worse she performed, the more she was scolded—a vicious cycle.

It was easy to see how the original owner's personality had developed; in any case, she was not well-regarded.

The original owner had just graduated from high school, and it was currently 1973. By 1973, the urban labor force was saturated, and most children of workers could no longer be assigned jobs. Lin Father and Lin Mother had pulled many strings since the original owner graduated, but they still couldn't secure a position. The original owner's situation at home became increasingly awkward, so she could only do more housework and try to be invisible.

The original owner wasn't stupid; she was anxious about not finding a job. This anxiety led to worry, and worry led to illness.

Lin Mother had been busy with work lately and, knowing the original owner was sick, had mixed her a bowl of brown sugar water. She told her to drink it and sleep it off. If she still wasn't better, well, in these times, families rarely went to the hospital for a minor headache or fever.

Although employees had medical booklets and medicine didn't cost much, there was still a registration fee of a few cents.

What was the concept of five cents? You could add a little more and buy half a box of matches.

Lin Mother just couldn't bear to spend that money. Why did registration have to cost money?

They felt that a child of that age would be fine after sleeping off a fever, and if it really didn't work, they could just go to the hospital to take a look.

Because of this delay, the original owner passed away; if Lin Yuzhu hadn't transmigrated over, the original owner would likely have died right at the dinner table.

When Lin Yuzhu arrived, her head was still dizzy and heavy, and it was only after she spoke to Lin Mother that they took her to the hospital.

Lin Yuzhu felt that Lin Father and Lin Mother were truly thick-skinned, as they couldn't even tell how miserable their daughter was.

Whenever Lin Yuzhu thought of the original owner's ridiculous cause of death, she felt nothing for the Lin Family.

Lin Mother was at least a deputy director, which counted as an administrative clerk. Back then, wages were graded, so even at the lowest level, Lin Mother's salary should have fluctuated around 20 yuan. Furthermore, Lin Father was also a veteran employee at the factory, having worked there for over 20 years, and his salary grade had been raised several times, so he could now earn 42.5 yuan.

Although the Lin Family eldest brother hadn't been working for many years, he had a technical secondary school diploma and was a junior clerk, so his salary was now on par with Lin Father's. After deducting the meal money paid to the cafeteria and his usual pocket money, he could give Lin Mother 35 yuan every month.

Because the eldest brother wasn't married, the Lin Family eldest sister's current partner hadn't been able to come and propose marriage. The custom at the time was basically that if the older ones weren't married, the younger ones couldn't marry either, so the Lin Family eldest sister was just stuck at home like that. She usually brought her own lunch to eat at her unit and handed over 20 yuan to the family every month. Come to think of it, her salary was 27.5 yuan, which was even one or two yuan more than the Lin Family eldest brother's pocket money.

Don't think that Lin Mother was doing this out of love for her daughter. Lin Yuzhu calculated it privately: there were leftover defective goods within the Supply and Marketing Cooperative, which was a form of internal benefit for the cooperative.

These defective goods couldn't be taken for free. To thank her uncle for finding her a job, the Lin Family eldest sister bought a few defective items every month to send to her uncle's house, which was the only way to shut her aunt's mouth.

Therefore, the pocket money fluctuated up and down every month, and on average, she couldn't save much private money in a year, making her even less comfortable than the Lin Family eldest brother.

Are you asking if Lin Yumei would keep buying things for her uncle's family like this?

Naturally not. She wasn't stupid. Once she got married and went to her husband's family, she wouldn't do this anymore; otherwise, her uncle's family would be drowned in the spit of Lin Fang from the neighborhood.

If a niece is already married, how could they still have the face to expect her to show filial piety?

The Lin Family Second Sister had a rigid and cunning personality, yet she still couldn't escape the palm of Lin Mother's hand.

The salary for a temporary worker was generally not high, only 3.5 yuan, and she could only get 1 yuan of pocket money each month.

Although she was dissatisfied, she was rebuffed by Lin Mother.

The words were spoken like this: if you don't want to eat at home, look at how much pocket money your brother and sister give the family every month; how can you have the nerve to ask for so much pocket money?

The Lin Family Second Sister was unable to refute this; she couldn't just run away from home, could she?

When it came to the original owner, Lin Mother said directly that she couldn't earn money and couldn't just eat for free at home. Now that she was so old, with everyone in the family either working or going to school, she should do some housework and help prepare breakfast in the future.

The other party's reasoning was powerful, and she was unable to refute it. Lin Yuzhu simply treated it as if she were a little nanny in the Lin Family to support herself. There was no other way; she had spent her spare time over the past month almost scouring the factory, but with nothing in her hands, she could only thicken her skin and pull strings.

In the end, the information revealed was basically that all the job quotas in the factory were already decided internally. For a high school graduate like her, wanting to get a job meant she could only rely on connections.

Lin Yuzhu had no moves left to play, so she could only wait quietly for the right moment.