Chapter 1: An Accidental Journey Through Time

Geshi Village, 1978.

It was the autumn harvest, and the production team worked from dawn till dusk.

The Lu family’s eldest son taught at a high school, while the younger served in the army. The younger son rarely came home, sometimes staying away for half a year or more, so the production team’s work fell to the women of the household.

The eldest, Lu Xiangnan, had been betrothed to his wife as a child. Though big and sturdy, she was timid and withdrawn; apart from working, she barely managed a word no matter how hard anyone prodded her.

The younger son’s wife was a fierce, unreasonable woman, an expert at throwing tantrums and making trouble. Other brides received bride prices, but to marry Lu Yanbei, she had brought a sewing machine and a bicycle as her dowry.

The sisters-in-law didn’t get along, mainly because the younger one was always bullying the elder.

That evening, as everyone was heading home, the younger wife was once again cursing at the elder. Perhaps the elder wife had finally had enough after being pushed around for so long, because she talked back. The two started fighting and tumbled off the bridge.

The Xiangshui River was wide and deep, running through several villages. The onlookers saw the women thrashing in the water, then sinking beneath it. Dropping their hoes, they rushed into the river to save them.

With graduate-school admission settled, Xia Xiaoqi and Qiao Ran, her best friend since childhood, packed their suitcases and went on vacation to Sun Island. Wearing sexy bikinis, they went swimming, only for a huge wave to knock them into the sea.

Xia Xiaoqi swallowed mouthful after mouthful of water. Just when she couldn’t take any more, someone finally hauled her out.

But…

She looked at the people around her in bewilderment. Their clothes were so retro.

And this wasn’t Sun Island. It wasn’t the seashore at all. There was no sea breeze, no beach.

As she tried to make sense of it, someone shouted, “Move aside! Make way!”

The eldest son’s plump wife was being carried out of the water too. She’d apparently sunk faster because of her weight and swallowed more water. She showed no sign of waking.

“What do we do? Is she dead?” someone asked.

Everyone stood helplessly around her. Xia Xiaoqi put aside her questions; saving the woman came first.

“Don’t crowd her. She needs fresh air.”

She knelt and began rhythmic chest compressions. The woman coughed up some water but still didn’t wake, so Xiaoqi bent down to give her mouth-to-mouth.

The villagers had backed off, though not very far. They stared in shock.

“Good heavens! Have those two Lu daughters-in-law gone so crazy for men that they’re kissing each other in public?”

“I heard the eldest wife doesn’t even sleep in the same room as her husband.”

“Isn’t it the same for the younger one? They say she and Lu Yanbei just got their marriage certificate, and he went straight back to the army that very day. He hasn’t been home since.”

The village gossips’ jeers drifted into Xiaoqi’s ears. She was beginning to understand her situation.

Damn. Time travel, a bygone era, and a young wife spurned by her husband. She just didn’t know whether she was the elder or the younger wife.

While her thoughts ran wild, the plump woman on the ground coughed twice and slowly opened her eyes.

Their gazes met. Each face was entirely unfamiliar to the other, yet somehow, each felt a spark of recognition.

Xia Xiaoqi swallowed and tried a familiar comedy catchphrase. “Palace Jade Liquor?”

“One hundred and eighty a cup.”

“Thunderous roar?” Xiaoqi tried again.

“Heaven-shaking cultivation, earth-splitting purple-gold hammer,” Qiao Ran answered.

People talked about meeting an old friend far from home. They’d found their best friend in another world!

Xiaoqi threw her arms around Qiao Ran. “Sweetie, there’s something I don’t know whether I should tell you.”

“Cough… Let go first. You’re choking me.”

“Oh.” Xiaoqi hastily released her and whispered, “We’ve traveled through time, to some historical era. Our husbands don’t like us, and you’re fat.”

“What’s wrong with being fat? Am I eating your rice? Wait…” After their habitual exchange of jabs, Qiao Ran raised a fleshy arm and looked at it. All hope drained from her face. “You might as well choke me to death.”

Qiao Ran didn’t dislike fat people, but she couldn’t accept being fat herself. She was a national defense student with dreams of becoming a soldier, and she wanted to look sharp and capable. Letting her figure go was out of the question.

Both daughters-in-law were safe, and though their behavior and conversation were odd, the villagers were hungry and exhausted after a day in the fields. They couldn’t be bothered to investigate. Assuming the fall into the river had rattled their brains, they gradually dispersed.

To find out where they were and who they had become, the friends coaxed and wheedled the information out of an eight-year-old child.

Qiao Ran was the eldest son’s wife. Her body’s original owner was Qiao Ni, nineteen, a timid woman everyone picked on. Her husband, Lu Xiangnan, taught high school.

Xia Xiaoqi was the younger son’s wife. Her body’s original owner was Xia Xiaofang, eighteen, a hot-tempered woman nobody liked. Her husband, Lu Yanbei, was a soldier.

Their husbands were brothers.

The household also included their mother-in-law, an older and a younger sister-in-law, and the older sister’s two children.

There was no going back.

Since they were here, they’d make the best of it. Surviving a disaster had to mean good fortune lay ahead.

Comforting each other, they got up and headed toward the village.

The Lu house stood at the eastern end: three large tiled-roof rooms built a couple of years earlier. It stood out among the village houses; even the village head’s home couldn’t compare.

Years ago, the Lus had been the poorest family in the village. Liu Chunhua’s husband had run off with another woman, leaving her to raise four children alone. The villagers had looked down on them and refused to lend them money or grain for fear they couldn’t repay it.

Who would have thought her two sons would grow up to be so successful? Neither had to toil in the fields, and both drew salaries from the state.

“In all the historical novels I’ve read, the mother-in-law and sisters-in-law are awful,” Xiaoqi said, a hint of anticipation in her pretty almond-shaped eyes.

“What are you afraid of?” Qiao Ran tried to crack her knuckles. “One comes at us, we take down one. Two come at us, we take down both.”

Xiaoqi glanced sideways at her. “Give it up. Your fingers are too thick to make a sound.”

“I’ve decided on a small goal first,” Qiao Ran said.

“Get down to fifty kilos.”

“You really are the dog in my belly.”

“Hey! It’s a worm. You say someone’s the worm in your belly when they can read your mind.”

“Sorry. Slip of the tongue.”

As they chatted, Xiaoqi remembered that they’d both traveled as souls, borrowing their hosts’ bodies. They could see each other’s faces but not their own.

“Sweetie, look at me.” Xiaoqi tilted her head and flashed a cute V sign. “How much do I look like my old self?”

Qiao Ran studied her for a moment, then sighed. “Heavens, what did I ever do to you? You must be its favorite child, and I’m the one it picked up off the street.”

From that, Xiaoqi gathered she must be quite pretty.

Qiao Ran wasn’t ugly either. She had delicate curved brows, a cherry mouth, and expressive peach-blossom eyes. Her plump figure simply obscured some of her beauty; if she lost weight, she’d be gorgeous too.

They were still chatting on their way home when a bicycle bell rang behind them.

They turned together, and identical lovestruck looks spread across their faces.

Wow. A handsome man!