“Xiao Lan, you really don’t want this match?” In a sun-drenched alley, a young woman’s voice rang out.
Immediately after, an even prettier voice replied, “It depends. If the person really isn’t right for me, I’d definitely say no.”
“But… your potential match has really great qualifications. It’d be a waste to turn him down. And you’re about to graduate soon…” This time, it was a young man speaking. His voice had a lazy drawl that made Bai Lan want to knock some sense into him.
“Oh, come on! Da Tou. What do you, a guy, know about what makes a good match?”
Before Bai Lan could respond, the young woman who had spoken first immediately shot back.
Da Tou quickly raised his hands in surrender. “Fine, fine. You win, boss lady. I won’t say anything. I’ll just listen to you two.”
Seeing this, Bai Lan laughed. “Yan Zi, don’t be so hard on Da Tou. We might actually need his help to look into this.”
And wasn’t that the truth? They’d need Da Tou—nickname for Ning Cong, the young man’s full name—to do some digging. Despite his age, the guy knew a surprising number of people. After all, Bai Lan had just transmigrated and was still trying to get her bearings.
That’s right. Bai Lan was a transmigrator. And she had landed in a hit period drama that was currently airing.
To be honest, short-form dramas had been all the rage for the past couple of years. But as a corporate drone, Bai Lan had never had time to watch any. Yet fate had other plans. One day, during her lunch break, she happened to scroll through Little Gold Book and saw a recommended short drama on the homepage. She clicked on a highlight reel—just a few scenes. They were all about the female lead defeating various villains, eventually getting rich and becoming the wealthiest woman in the land.
This kind of satisfying drama made your toes curl with secondhand embarrassment. But it also felt incredibly gratifying—you just wanted to see the villains get slapped down one after another.
Bai Lan was no exception. After watching those few minutes of video, she decided for the first time ever to watch the entire drama. But before she could, she fell asleep during her nap—and woke up transmigrated.
—
It was now the end of May 1974. She was still called Bai Lan, 18 years old, and her family lived in the big shared courtyard at No. 3 Xinghua Hutong.
The young man and woman in front of her were both her classmates and neighbours from the same courtyard. The guy was Ning Cong, and the girl was Qin Yan. The three had grown up together and always had a good relationship.
They were all about to graduate from high school. But most people couldn’t go to university. Their only options were to find a job, go down to the countryside to support rural construction, or get married.
The three of them were stuck at this crossroads. Ning Cong was better off—he was an only child, so no matter what, he wouldn’t have to go to the countryside.
Qin Yan had an older brother who was already working. There were only two siblings in her family. That meant if she couldn’t find a job, she’d have to go to the countryside or get married.
Bai Lan wasn’t in much better shape. There were four sisters in her family. Only her second sister had gone to the countryside. If she couldn’t find a job, she’d either have to go as well or get married.
That’s why her original self had come across this so-called “good match.” Nothing was set in stone yet, and the original Bai Lan hadn’t even interacted with this “good match” at all. But if push came to shove, this arrangement could still be useful.
So after transmigrating, Bai Lan didn’t even have time to sort through more of the drama’s plot details. She quickly set out to get a clear picture of this marriage prospect, so she could plan her next steps.
Of course, she wasn’t too worried about being killed off as cannon fodder or anything. After all, from the few minutes of highlight reels she’d watched, she remembered that the original Bai Lan was a background character whose purpose was to get rich and look gorgeous. Her ending was unknown, and her screen time was limited—but her character design was perfect.
Characters like that usually don’t get taken out in the opening act.
—
“Lan Lan, what are you three doing standing around in the sun?”
Bai Lan heard her mother calling from behind. She thought to herself that if they weren’t standing in the sun, some busybody auntie in the alley would have overheard them for sure.
“Anyway, Da Tou, just do what I asked first and help me dig up some info. We’ll figure out the rest once we have the details…”
Bai Lan quickly said a few last words, waved goodbye to her two friends, and ran toward her mother, who was still calling her name.
“All secretive and mysterious. What are you three up to now?” Mom Bai asked as her daughter ran over, reaching out to straighten her rumpled shirt hem.
Feeling her mother’s touch, Bai Lan warmly linked arms with her. “Mom, what did you buy today?”
Seeing her daughter change the subject, Mom Bai didn’t press further. She just smiled and held up the basket hooked over her arm. “I just came back from your father’s workplace.”
Hearing that, Bai Lan perked up. “Mom, did you talk to Dad about it?”
“I did, I did. I told him you’re not keen on it. Your father agreed to have someone look into it first…”
The mother and daughter walked home while talking about the matter. When neighbours saw them, they sighed—Bai Lan was already an 18-year-old grown woman, and here she was still acting cute with her mom.
And why shouldn’t Bai Lan act cute with her mom?
Who knew? In the two days since she’d transmigrated, what struck Bai Lan most was how incredibly lucky she was to have such open-minded, loving parents.
Take this marriage arrangement, for example. Outsiders all said it was a great match. After all, the guy was the son of the steel factory director. And this steel factory employed ten thousand workers—the director was a very high-ranking official. The guy himself was also impressive. After graduating high school, he joined the factory’s sales department, with a good salary and excellent benefits. Word on the street was that his family lived in a small Western-style house.
A match like this was the best any girl in the surrounding alleys could hope for. Which family wouldn’t envy the Bai family for catching the eye of such a household?
Especially now, at this critical moment right before graduation. An ordinary family would never turn down such an offer.
But simply because Bai Lan wanted to think it over carefully, her parents, despite feeling it was a shame, ultimately agreed to her request.
Now, all Bai Lan could do was hope that Da Tou would come back with some news soon.
—
But after waiting most of the day, Da Tou still hadn’t returned. Her father and two older sisters, however, came back from work one after another.
“Dad, how did it go? Did you find out any secrets that other people don’t know?”
As soon as Father Bai walked through the door, his youngest daughter blocked his way. He just smiled and shook his head. “How could it be that fast? You have to find someone trustworthy to do the digging. Otherwise, the information you get might not be reliable.”
To be fair, this marriage arrangement had been made rather hastily. But since it was only a verbal agreement, many details hadn’t been discussed. If his daughter weren’t about to graduate in just a few days, and if the street committee weren’t mobilizing everyone to go to the countryside left and right, Father Bai wouldn’t have agreed so easily. He had quietly planned to find someone dependable to investigate first and confirm the young man’s character.
Bai Lan felt a little disappointed upon hearing her father’s response.
“Go wash your hands and come eat!” At that moment, her mother called out loudly from the makeshift kitchen partitioned off in front of the door.
Hearing his wife’s voice, Father Bai immediately shoved the lunchbox in his hand toward his daughter and hurried off to wash his hands at the sink in the courtyard.
Just then, her third sister Bai Ping came in after washing her face and asked her twin sister Bai Li, who was opening the lunchbox, “What’s the good stuff?”
Bai Li said gently, “A whole box of four-joy meatballs…”
Bai Lan was delighted to hear there were four-joy meatballs. She had only transmigrated less than two days ago, so she wasn’t exactly craving meat. But the four-joy meatballs her father brought home were a signature dish of the Fourth Restaurant in North City. And the only reason he could bring back a whole box was that he was the head pastry chef there.
—
That’s right. Father Bai was the head pastry chef at the Fourth Restaurant in North City. He held the rank of a Level 7 chef. At the same time, he worked as a technical consultant for a pastry factory in North City. Combined, his monthly salary and subsidies came out to just over 100 yuan. In those days, that was a high income.
So even though Mother Bai hadn’t worked since getting married, the family had always lived quite comfortably. Of course, the reason Mother Bai didn’t work was that the family had many children.
The Bai couple had four daughters together. The eldest, Bai Lian, was already married and currently worked in the Women’s Federation at the steel factory. The second sister, Bai Li, had gone to the countryside for over a year. Half a year ago, through her own efforts, she got recruited by a textile factory and returned to work as a textile worker. The third sister, Bai Ping, was quite impressive. Although the family had used their connections to find her a temporary job at a restaurant, she ultimately relied on her boyfriend’s connections to land a position as a sales clerk at the state-owned department store.
That left Bai Lan as the only one still in school. But she was about to graduate soon. Whether she would work or get married after graduation was currently the most important matter for the family.
—
At the dinner table, Bai Lan had just put a meatball in her mouth when her third sister asked with concern, “So? This morning, I vaguely heard you talking about that marriage arrangement. Are you unhappy with it?”
Bai Lan nodded in response to her sister’s question. “It’s not that I’m unhappy. I just think we need to dig a little deeper.”
Bai Ping said, “You never said anything before. Now graduation is just around the corner. Don’t end up with nothing in the end.”
Hearing his third daughter’s harsh words, Father Bai quickly interrupted, “I’ll handle this. If worst comes to worst, your father will swallow his pride and find Lan Lan a job.”
In truth, given Father Bai’s qualifications and connections, he really could get his daughter a temporary job at the restaurant. Many people there had done the same. A temporary position wasn’t a permanent one, so as long as the restaurant manager approved, it was fine.
The problem was that the restaurant manager seemed to have recently come under scrutiny. That had made arranging jobs much more difficult.
Father Bai did know quite a few people. But finding a job that was close to home and suitable for a young woman wasn’t that easy. So when a suitable match for his youngest daughter appeared before him, his heart stirred. He thought it would be good to have at least one backup option.
Seeing her father say that, Bai Ping dropped the subject. Mother Bai and Bai Li, meanwhile, started talking about other things. Everyone secretly hoped that Bai Lan’s situation would work out smoothly.
—
Bai Lan herself wasn’t too worried. There were still about ten days until graduation. And she didn’t have to go to school during this time anyway. She had plenty of time to thoroughly sort out this marriage arrangement.
Just as Bai Lan was thinking this, a few scolding voices suddenly rang out in the courtyard: “Da Tou, you’re an 18-year-old young man, and you still go barreling around like that? You nearly knocked into your Auntie Hu’s lower back.”
Outside, Da Tou’s cheeky voice replied, “Oh, Auntie Hu, you’re still young! What’s this about an ‘old back’?”
Inside the room, Father Bai laughed and shook his head upon hearing that. “That rascal. So young and already so smooth-tongued…”
Bai Lan nearly laughed out loud too. That was just how Da Tou was—he really knew how to talk.
The fact that he was rushing over now meant he had definitely found some little secrets that outsiders didn’t know.
Sure enough, Bai Lan soon heard what Da Tou had dug up. Seeing the indignant expression on his face, she sighed inwardly: Just as I thought…
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