Chapter 2 First Encounter at the Shop
Dormitory 510.
At the end of the corridor, in the last room, a red wooden door was adorned with a painting of plum blossoms in calligraphy, the signature in elegant handwriting.
Chen Yun raised her hand and pushed the door open.
creak—
The door slowly opened, revealing a dormitory room of about 20 square meters.
On the left are two bunk beds, and on the right are four bookshelves lined up against the wall. The row of low cabinets under the window is a wardrobe.
Chen Yun was ostracized by the other three, so she couldn't get a good spot for either the bed or the wardrobe.
The wardrobe was partially blocked by the desk, so if you wanted to get your clothes, you had to ask Yang Haiping to move the chair.
At first, the upper bunk next to the door would often wobble from being bumped by Yang Haiping opening and closing the door, but the situation changed immediately after Zhou Xinfang moved into the dormitory.
There were three people in the dormitory. Zhou Xinfang was stupid and was easily provoked by a few words, so he started to join the other two in targeting the original owner.
Cao Qin is a scoundrel who pretends to be a good person on the surface but sabotages others behind their backs.
As for Yang Haiping... Chen Yun looked at the figure sleeping soundly on the second lower bunk, and realized that he was a really bad person.
It's unclear why Cao Qin disliked the original owner of the body, but Yang Haiping's jealousy was obvious.
Yang Haiping is a nurse at the health center. Before the Lunar New Year, she accidentally learned that Chen Yun was earning a salary of fifty-six, which was equivalent to that of a cadre. This was something that Yang Haiping, who always considered herself to be more outstanding, could not accept.
Since her parents' accident, the original owner had lived a cautious and timid life, which made the bullying even more blatant.
Chen Yun casually tossed the dirty clothes onto the lower bunk to the right: "Yang Haiping, wasn't it you who threw my clothes downstairs?"
Yang Haiping was lying on the bed, pretending to be asleep. First, she felt a cold sensation on her face, and then the earthy smell and dampness hit her. Then came Chen Yun's calm and unwavering voice.
"You're spouting nonsense!"
Yang Haiping lifted her damp clothes and sat up abruptly, slamming the clothes to the ground.
"If it's not you, then who is it! I don't believe that clothes hanging in the window could fly around the dormitory building and reach the open space in front."
The dormitory's only window faces the dormitory door. No matter how strong the wind is, it's impossible for clothes to be blown towards the dormitory door. It's obvious that someone took them down, walked to the door, and threw them downstairs.
"How would I know how your clothes flew downstairs! Show me the evidence if you dare, or I'll report you for defamation to the factory's Party branch."
"Go ahead and report it. I was just about to report to the secretary about you going to the market during work hours." Chen Yun calmly counted on her fingers the various excuses Yang Haiping used to ask for leave during work hours, when in fact she was meeting her boyfriend in secret.
Yang Haiping's boyfriend, Zhang Neng, works in a transportation team. Whenever he returns from driving, he always has most of his day off.
Every year around that time, Yang Haiping would always find various excuses to take leave to go on dates with her boyfriend, and everyone in the health center knew about it.
But why doesn't anyone say that... it's because everyone's pretty much the same.
The health center has lax discipline; it's common for nurses to take leave to pick up their children or visit relatives. You can often see nurses using their work time to pick and wash vegetables so they can cook them right away when they get home for lunch.
However laxity is still an internal matter, and if the factory finds out, they will be punished.
Yang Haiping glared fiercely at Chen Yun, then turned her back to him, undoubtedly cursing him countless times in her heart.
Chen Yun ignored her and turned to look at her upper bunk by the door.
The upper bunk was very tidy, with a smooth, light blue cotton twill fabric laid out flat, and the quilt neatly folded at the head of the bed.
The most conspicuous thing in the bed was a stack of books next to the pillow. Judging from the titles, they were all books on ideological education. Only Chen Yun knew that under the covers were actually foreign romance novels.
Reading foreign books is a sensitive matter, especially since they are considered "immoral" romance novels. If caught, one would definitely be publicly criticized throughout the factory, and might even be sent to labor reform.
Thanks to the others' disdain for the original owner, no one would open these books even if they were laid out in the open.
Chen Yun took off her shoes, climbed into bed, and lay down. Her mind was a mess, and she just subconsciously picked up a book and opened it.
How to live from now on... The answer is undoubtedly right in front of us.
Chen Yun's parents were too busy taking care of themselves. She did have relatives in the city, but they had severed all ties with them after her parents' accident. As for Uncle Luo, he had already taken a great risk by letting her enter medical school.
Returning to the city was out of the question; that left me with the option of continuing to work at the Hongri Machinery Factory.
Chen Yun was carefree and easygoing, the complete opposite of the original owner's suspicious and sensitive personality. After accepting the situation, she quickly became sleepy.
This romance novel, with its heavily translated style, is so soporific it's almost boring... but it's certainly good for putting you to sleep.
In a half-dream, half-awake state, I seemed to see the original body smiling and thanking me before walking away.
The resolute figure that walked away disappeared without a trace, leaving only Chen Yun, who slowly opened his eyes and stared blankly at the rooftop.
Glug glug—
Before I could figure out what the original owner meant, my stomach protested first.
The original owner of this body, who was going to "generously die" today, didn't even feel like eating breakfast. By the end of the day, he was starving.
Chen Yun tilted her head and looked under the bed. Yang Haiping's bed was empty, and Zhou Xinfang and Cao Qin had not returned yet.
"call--"
Chen Yun sat up.
The regular canteens would have long been out of food, so we had to go to the factory staff canteen, which had a special canteen for night shift workers.
Just as I was about to get out of bed, the book I had placed on my chest suddenly slid off the bed railing and fell to the floor with a thud.
Chen Yun frowned as she looked at the book.
She rolled out of bed, picked up the book, removed the cover, then took the cover out of the closet, put the real book back in its place, and put it back next to her pillow.
Only after restoring all the books and stuffing them into his military satchel did Chen Yun feel relieved.
No one in the dormitory noticed that there was more content under the book cover than what was actually the original owner's memories, and Chen Yun dared not take that risk.
We need to find a place to dispose of these "time bombs" in a bit.
Thinking this, she casually slung her bag over her shoulder, took the key from her belt, opened the desk drawer, and took out her diary.
In Chen Yun's memory, her diary contained many prose poems that were detrimental to "great unity," which were tantamount to evidence of wrongdoing.
He tore up all the prose poems and stuffed them into his bag, then put the diary back where it belonged.
After searching carefully again to make sure there were no clues left, he took his lunchbox, locked the door, and left satisfied.
As night gradually fell, the glow of the sunset painted half the sky orange.
The area downstairs from the dormitory was full of women taking walks in twos and threes, while only a few stayed in their dorm rooms.
Chen Yun smiled and greeted some people who looked somewhat familiar from her memory. Amidst the astonished gazes of the crowd, she hummed a song as she walked down the mountain.
No matter how harsh the conditions, it completely surpasses its predecessor in terms of air quality!
***
Night shift canteen.
The canteen was just a shed built of red bricks, with a small window barely big enough to pass a lunchbox in. Forget about choosing your own food; you could only eat whatever the chef cooked.
The stewed green beans, potatoes, and eggplant were cooked until they were very soft. The cook saw Chen Yun staring intently at the food and swallowing hard, so he picked up some dried radish from a small bowl next to him.
The food tasted...not very good.
Oil is a rare commodity; large-pot dishes are usually made with more water than oil, and a few specks of oil are considered a good thing.
Salt must be quite cheap; the eggplant was so salty that I had to eat two mouthfuls of rice to get rid of it.
No wonder there's more rice than vegetables; if there's not enough rice, you can't even eat the vegetables.
While eating, Chen Yun glanced at the small window next to the food serving window.
I heard that you can have your food cooked separately as long as you pay money or pay a ticket, but among the employees, they jokingly call it the "cadre window" because only cadres can afford it.
Chen Yun counted the tickets she had saved up, thinking that she would go for a private tutoring session to relieve the pressure when she couldn't take it anymore.
The original owner of this body had lived a life of hardship, so even though her salary was high, she was very frugal. She would only buy one dish for each meal, and she would exchange the coupons she saved for money and deposit them in the credit union.
Before losing all hope in life, the original owner of this body held onto the beautiful expectation that her family could be reunited.
After finishing the tasteless meal, I washed the rice bowl in the sink. It was already completely dark.
There was no one to be seen on the road, only the incessant chirping of cicadas filling the air. Even in the sweltering summer, the mountain breeze at night was still somewhat chilly.
Chen Yun walked slowly, her eyes constantly scanning both sides of the road.
"This is it!"
Finally, Chen Yun stopped in front of a dark place, looked around with satisfaction for a moment, and then walked into the darkness.
Garbage room...
The factory has its own cement workshop, and cement is laid on all the places in the living area where people set foot, except for the garbage room, which is still a muddy area.
A moment later, Chen Yun walked out of the garbage room with his empty military satchel on his back.
The mud left on her palms could only be washed off with water, and Chen Yun thought about where she could wash her hands as she walked up the mountain.
"Night shops?"
Most of the residential area was dark, except for the lighted sports field and a shop across the street.
On the court, many men were sweating it out, their shouts echoing across the sky.
Chen Yun wasn't particularly interested in such a hormone-fueled scene; her attention had long been drawn to the still-lit shop.
The reason is simple... there's a sink at the store entrance, and water is still dripping from the pipe.
He walked quickly to the sink to wash his hands, casually wiped the moisture off his pants, and suddenly stopped in his tracks because of the conversation in the store.
"Thank you, Captain Gao. You really understand us women. I love this brand of face cream."
"Captain Gao, my wife has asked you to come over for drinks several times. You absolutely must come tomorrow."
"We can't buy such good fatty meat at our factory; it's enough for my whole family to eat for months!"
A chorus of excited female voices filled the air, all revolving around a man named Captain Gao.
Chen Yun moved two steps toward the door with some curiosity, and could barely see the tall figure surrounded in the middle in front of the counter.
The man was so tall that even surrounded by several people, he still stood out from the crowd.
The man was wearing a faded green military uniform, had a sturdy build, and a head of neat, short, jet-black hair; he was a very energetic young man.
As for his appearance...
The man suddenly raised his head and looked towards the door. His large, clear eyes fell on Chen Yun's face, but he looked away in an instant.
She has thick eyebrows and big eyes, with eyebrows as dark and thick as her hair. Dimples are faintly visible next to the upturned corners of her lips, and her jawline is well-defined.
He didn't have the pretty boy looks of his previous life, but he was still enough to make Chen Yun, who had lived two lives, think to himself—handsome guy.
With that face and resolute demeanor, it's no wonder he was surrounded by a large group of women.
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