Chapter 1: Fortunately, Not A Dump Truck
Grumble…
Xiang Chuan reluctantly opened her eyes to the hunger rumbling in her stomach.
Yesterday after getting off work and leaving the company, she bought three big bags of caramel fried seeds at the fried goods shop in the vicinity, went home and snacked on them while waiting for takeaway. After National Day when she returned to the company from her hometown, her mother stuffed her with two boxes of bagged snail noodles, which made her very happy. Having gotten used to the rice noodles from her hometown, she couldn’t get accustomed to the ones outside, so being able to cook them herself was naturally the best.
But ideals are plump while reality is skinny; the period from after National Day to before New Year was the busiest, snacking on some seeds before bed and watching classic old dramas was already the greatest luxury, let alone the two boxes of snail noodles from her mother that required soaking rice noodles oneself.
With a job that only had Sundays off, that was the only rest day, but on this day she was either called out to play by colleagues or forcibly given work by her superior and could only work overtime at home, with almost no time to properly enjoy snail noodles.
So, having reached the end of her patience, she decided to decline all invitations this week, set the company WC to do-not-disturb mode, and was determined to properly enjoy a day of rice noodles. For this, she specially went to the vegetable market before going to work on Saturday to buy some water spinach, plus there were eggs in the refrigerator, so today at least she could eat a complete version with duck feet and duck kidney snail noodles, or at minimum a standard water spinach fried egg snail noodles.
Harboring expectation was already a long-lost feeling for Xiang Chuan; even in her dreams, the starry sea was made of quail eggs as stars, the galaxy as the surface of snail noodles, Saturn shaped like a fried egg, and a few meteors streaking through the dream—upon closer look, they were actually shaped like braised eggs, making her pray on the spot that she could enjoy a long-awaited gourmet food every week.
For this, she was even willing to get up early on her rest day!
When she sat up from the bed, she froze, then lay back down, closed her eyes, and thought, could this be a dream of dozing off?
Last week when the pressure was too great, she had once been tormented by a half-asleep, half-awake dozing dream during her Sunday nap, unable to get up.
This time it was better; her brain and chest didn’t feel too uncomfortable—sure enough, the power of gourmet food was this magical!
She thought.
“Get up quickly, Xiao Chuan.”
A suddenly ringing familiar voice directly startled her awake; this voice was one she was more familiar with than could be—
“Brother Xiang Qi…?”
She opened her eyes full of question marks and found no one in front of her, and the surrounding scenery was still the same as what she had just seen: a 3D floating clock hanging on the wall, a vase on the cabinet in the wall corner with a rose inside that slowly bloomed and then slowly reverted to a bud, and patterns on the wall flowing slowly like cross-sectional waves.
No matter how you looked at it, this wasn’t her rental room!
But where did Brother Xiang Qi’s voice come from?
Xiang Chuan looked around left and right; on the bedside cabinet next to her, a round gadget was continuously flashing light. Though clearly very unfamiliar, her hand subconsciously operated on the round gadget, and a floating screen popped out.
On the screen was her brother Xiang Qi who should originally be working in the northeast!…in his youthful appearance!
The Xiang Qi in front of her was still that youthful and high-spirited look from her youthful memories, completely unimaginable that he would become mediocre years later.
“Xiao Chuan? Haven’t woken up yet?”
Xiang Qi on the screen looked at her doubtfully.
“Huh? Ah, I’m awake, I’m awake.”
Xiang Chuan hadn’t yet recovered from the shock of “holy crap, my brother actually became young again (wrong) returned to youth (big wrong),” and could only nod woodenly in response.
“If you’re awake, hurry downstairs to eat; Xiao Xue has already finished washing up and is just waiting for you.”
Xiang Qi turned the screen, and her first glance caught the little beauty sister sitting at the dining table—not the middle-aged woman disguise seen when returning to her hometown during National Day, but the student-era look from her youth always following behind her butt.
“Oh, oh, coming, going down right away.”
After Xiang Qi hung up the call, she stared blankly at the round thing in her hand.
Xiang Qi, her brother four years older than her, was an outstanding student in the mouths of teachers and parents during his student days, infinitely glorious from childhood to adulthood, but after university graduation, due to several unpleasant experiences, he ultimately chose to go far away to work in the northeast, only seeing each other once a year during New Year, becoming more and more dispirited each year.
Xiang Xue, her sister three years younger than her, perfectly inherited her mother’s beauty and (supposedly) her father’s youthful fit figure, a little beauty who was the center of attention at school. In her second year of work, she got married; in the third year, she gave birth to twins. Every year when going back, her parents would use her as a reason to urge Xiang Chuan to get married and have kids, but seeing her sister busy with a frazzled appearance around the stove and her children and husband made her lack motivation to start a family even now.
Now, both appeared on the high-tech screen in their youthful appearances.
So had she… transmigrated back?
But there was no such high-tech stuff at home before?
Xiang Chuan’s mind was a mess; gradually, she found some strange things appearing in her mind. She was startled, thinking it couldn’t be the previous owner’s memory often seen in transmigration novels? But after two minutes, recalling her childhood memories, she didn’t find anything extra; the hometown in her memory was still that small county’s three-story private house, not this high-tech room in front of her.
What exactly was going on?
She got out of bed doubtfully, thinking she should go downstairs and take a look first.
Now she needed to wash up—how to do that?
Walking to the door, she used the button on the wall to open the door to the room’s bathroom.
Xiang Chuan was startled by the idea that suddenly popped into her mind. She hesitated a bit, followed it, and found the door indeed opened; inside was a small washroom, about the same size as the one attached in the hotels she stayed in during business trips.
Looking at the stick and toothpaste on the washstand, just as she was wondering how to brush her teeth, a new idea emerged in her mind. Considering the previous experience, Xiang Chuan followed it.
She squeezed the toothpaste onto the stick; this toothpaste was more transparent and soft than the one in her cognition, but still with that familiar mint scent. After putting it in her mouth and moving it up, down, left, and right like brushing teeth, she took it out and found the toothpaste had adsorbed various plaque from her tooth gaps; her teeth in the mirror were whiter than ever before.
It was the big white teeth of her dreams!
After fussing around to change clothes and tidy her appearance, Xiang Chuan was now certain that the ideas popping up from time to time were the “common knowledge” this era’s self possessed, just like operating that prototype small thing at the beginning to bring up the communication screen.
This made Xiang Chuan breathe a sigh of relief; at least she didn’t have to worry about being sent to a mental hospital by her family due to unfamiliarity with the common knowledge of this sci-fi style world.
At the same time, she was also glad: her transmigration was just sleeping one night.
You know, traditional transmigration was always triggered at moments of life-threatening danger, at least with a mud truck coming.
When tired of writing next door, come write this to relax
