The whispers slithered into Lin Yun's ears like venomous snakes.
She suddenly realized—she had transmigrated, and into the body of a pitiful girl who chose to commit suicide because she was harassed by thugs.
"A mirror..." Lin Yun said weakly, "Give me a mirror..."
Lin's mother hesitated for a moment, then pulled out a palm-sized bronze mirror from under the bed; the edges of the mirror were oxidized and blackened.
Lin Yun took it with trembling hands. The mirror reflected an unfamiliar face—a face as pale as paper, with almond-shaped eyes that almost took up half of the face, lips so pale they were almost invisible, and a blood-soaked strip of cloth wrapped around the forehead.
Despite her disheveled appearance, her stunning beauty was undeniable.
"Who...who am I?" Lin Yun asked, this time intentionally testing the waters.
"Yun'er, don't scare your mother!" Tears welled up in Lin's mother's eyes again. "You are Lin Yun, your father's and my only daughter! Your brother went to another place to escape debts, and your younger brother is still at the academy and hasn't come home yet. It's just the three of us left at home..."
Mr. Lin sighed heavily, "It's all my fault for being incompetent. I mismanaged the shop, accumulated a mountain of debt, and caused my daughter to suffer like this..."
Lin Yun's gaze swept over the room, which was less than 20 square meters.
Several bolts of inferior cloth were piled up in the corner, and an old, dilapidated loom was covered in dust.
This should be her room in the backyard.
"Who is Wang Wu?" Lin Yun asked cautiously.
Lin's father's face immediately turned ashen: "That local thug from East Street, the loan shark. We owe him ten taels of silver, and he... he's taken a liking to you, saying either pay back the money, or..."
He choked up, his fists clenched until they turned white.
Lin Yun suddenly felt dizzy as fragments of memories that did not belong to her surged in like a tide.
The original owner was cornered in an alley by Wang Wu; his filthy hands touched her face, and the stench of alcohol assaulted her skin... Then came running, crashing into walls, darkness...
"Father, Mother," Lin Yun struggled to sit up, even though the movement made her vision blur.
"I'm alright now. What...what kind of business do we do?" Looking at the family's circumstances, she had a bad feeling.
A hint of surprise flashed in Lin's father's eyes, but it quickly turned to sadness; his daughter had probably damaged her brain.
"Our family's ancestral clothing shop, by your generation...sigh, now we can only take on mending jobs."
Lin Yun's gaze fell on the dusty loom, and a thought suddenly flashed through her mind.
She's a designer, and even in this unfamiliar time and place, her skills won't disappear.
"I want to go and take a look at the shop," she said.
"This..." Lin's mother looked at the injury on her forehead with concern.
"I'm fine," Lin Yun insisted, slowly moving to the edge of the bed.
Her feet touched the cold ground, and she realized that she was wearing a faded coarse cloth dress and no socks.
After hesitating for a moment, Lin's father finally nodded and helped her walk outside.
Pushing open the creaking wooden door, Lin Yun squinted at the blinding sunlight.
The Lin family's shop was just ahead—about thirty or forty square meters in size, with a crooked signboard hanging above the entrance, the four characters "Lin's Clothing" already faded.
There were a few poorly made garments displayed inside.
"Did we make all of these?" she asked softly.
Lin's father nodded in shame: "Now all the rich people go to 'Jinxiufang' to buy clothes, we can only make coarse cloth clothes for the poor..."
Lin Yun walked up to a dark blue jacket with a front opening and touched the rough stitches and the undesigned cut.
Her fingers suddenly trembled—not from sadness, but from excitement.
If people want clothes like this, wouldn't all the clothes she designs be selling like hotcakes?
"Father," she turned around, her eyes gleaming, "how much fabric do we have left?"
Mr. Lin was taken aback: "There are still a few bolts of coarse cloth in the storeroom, all of which were bought on credit..."
"That's enough," Lin Yun said softly, her fingers unconsciously stroking the edge of the bronze mirror.
"Starting tomorrow, I'll be in charge of making clothes for our shop. I'm sure people will come to buy them."
Mr. and Mrs. Lin looked at each other, puzzled as to why their daughter was suddenly so certain.
"Yun'er, go back to your room and lie down first. We'll talk about it after you've recovered from your injuries," Lin's father said, feeling sorry for his daughter.
Lin's mother remained silent, looking at her daughter with a sense that her daughter had changed.
Lin Yun noticed her mother's gaze, realized she was behaving a bit too strangely, gave her mother a shy smile, and went back to her room.
No one slept well that night.
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