July 14th.

In the drizzle, Ji Ling jumped off the Jiefang brand truck.

In mid-July, the summer temperature in H Province was not high, but it rained for five consecutive days and the temperature dropped sharply.

A gust of wind blew, and Ji Ling couldn't help but shiver through her wet body.

She hugged the plastic-wrapped package tightly in her arms and quickly followed her classmates into the hotel.

There was no examination center in Bei County, so the school rented a truck and took the 18 students taking the college entrance examination to Bei City one day in advance.

The school found a hotel close to the examination venue in advance. There were eight bunk beds in one room. Together with the principal and teachers, three rooms were booked.

"Ji Ling, aren't you going to your grandpa's house? Your sister is also taking the college entrance examination this year, right?" Tian Jing leaned her head out and looked at the upper bunk.

Ji Ling only replied to the first question, "I have an exam tomorrow, I want to review the knowledge points and go after the exam."

"You are unlucky enough to have to repeat two years and your English score is counted toward your total score of 100."

Ma Hui took over the conversation, "Many of us are at a disadvantage. Last year, the total English score was 70 points, but this year it has been raised to 100 points. Compared with the schools in the city, they start learning English in junior high school, while we only start learning it in high school. We are at a disadvantage in English."

Tian Jing, Ma Hui and Ji Ling live in the same residential compound, and their parents are both workers at an agricultural machinery company.

The original owner was arrogant and thought that her grandfather was an old leader of the Institute of Architecture, so she never interacted with people in the family compound. After Ji Ling came through, she became gentle and quiet. Although she was not proactive in getting along with others, she did not put on an attitude of keeping strangers away. After Tian Jing and Ma Hui had contact with her a few times, they also started to interact with Ji Ling.

The conversation between the three of them aroused the concerns of several other girls in the room.

Everyone started talking at once, one after another.

Ji Ling, who was lying on the upper bunk, stared at the book in her hand, her mind a little blank.

Even though it's been a while since I traveled to this body, it still feels like a dream sometimes.

After Ji Ling was hit and killed by a car, she traveled through time and space and was reborn into the body of a person with the same name and surname. She changed from a new-age woman in the 20th century to an unfilial daughter who repeated herself over and over again for the college entrance examination, causing unrest in her family.

What even more subverted Ji Ling's worldview was that the college entrance examination was still a few months away, and the original owner did not want to take the college entrance examination, but wanted to enter the Municipal Architecture Institute. Her father went to beg her father-in-law, the Xu family, for her, and she was not even allowed to enter the family compound. She got seriously ill after being caught in the rain for a day, and the Xu family also announced that Ji Ling was not allowed to go to the Xu family again. The original owner went on a hunger strike after hearing this, and she died. At this time, Ji Ling came over.

Ji Ling is a pragmatic person. She firmly believes that no matter what era it is, reading can change one's destiny. During these days, she did not care about Ji's mother's indifference and picked up the things in the books in the shortest time.

She was the top scorer in the liberal arts in the 1984 college entrance examination. She had a deep impression of the college entrance examination questions in 1983. Moreover, she founded a college entrance examination training school after graduating from university. She had never put down her books. She also had half a month to prepare, so she was not nervous.

In the evening, the principal and the teachers took their eighteen students to a restaurant next to the hotel to eat beef noodles. After dinner, they went outside the examination room to familiarize themselves with the place and then returned to the hotel early to rest.

The college entrance examination in 1983 lasted three days. On the first day, Chinese was taken in the morning, and chemistry and geography were reviewed in the afternoon. The knowledge was exactly what Ji Ling had reviewed. On the second day, mathematics was taken in the morning, and politics and biology were taken in the afternoon. Ji Ling felt that she would lose some points in politics. On the last day, physics and history were taken in the morning, and English was taken in the afternoon. She passed these easily.

She and Tian Jing were in the same examination room, and the two walked out together.

Only after the college entrance examination was over did everyone dare to discuss the answers.

Tian Jing looked very unhappy. "I didn't get any of the seventh question, which required you to complete the sentences in English using the given Chinese characters, right? I also guessed the answer to the eighth question, which required you to complete the sentences using the given Chinese characters. I also couldn't get the fourth question, which required you to complete the sentences using the given Chinese characters, right? I also couldn't get the first question, which required you to complete the sentences using the given vowels."

Ma Hui also ran over and discussed with Tian Jing.

At this time, Ji Ling heard someone calling her.

Across the street stood a young man wearing a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up, blue khaki pants, and green rubber shoes.

After looking at his clothes, her gaze fell on the other person's face. He had a square face and big eyes, and he looked quite handsome.

But, I don’t know him.

"Ji Ling, this is your elder brother." Tian Jing and Ma Hui beside him recognized each other.

Ji Ling: ————

More than 20 minutes later, the college entrance examination students dispersed, and the brother and sister were still standing on the side of the road where Ji Jianhua had just been waiting for someone.

"I just got back from a business trip at noon today. Dad called me at the factory earlier but I didn't answer." Ji Jianhua first explained why he showed up at this time. He said in a cold tone, "I just happened to be going home today. Where are your things? Let's go together."

The Ji family has three children. Ji Jianhua is the eldest, 23 years old this year, and works as a car mechanic in a metal repair factory. Ji Ling is the second child, and the younger one is Ji Ke, 19 years old, who has been raised at his grandfather's house since he was three years old.

The original owner was aggressive and always made trouble for no reason. Ji Jianhua preferred his sensible second sister who was raised in his grandfather's house in the city.

He works in the city, and as the eldest son in the family, family matters are naturally not hidden from him.

So the relationship between the brother and sister is not very good. Even when encountering problems, Ji Jianhua directly stands on the side of the second sister without asking the reason.

Ji Ling refused in disguise, "Brother, the principal said that we should take graduation photos together and then go back together in the truck."

Ji Jianhua still said, "Then I'll wait for you to finish taking the photos and then we can go together."

"Okay." Ji Ling didn't argue any further.

Although she didn't understand why he didn't like her but insisted on going with her, Ji Ling didn't ask any more questions.

Afterwards, Ji Ling brought her eldest brother to reunite with everyone. The graduation photos were taken at a photo studio across the street. The principal and teachers sat in the middle, with girls on both sides and male students in the back row.

After the photo shoot, some of the classmates who were close to each other took photos individually. Ji Ling was not close to any of her classmates, so she only took one photo with Ma Hui and Tian Jing. When it was time to pay, Ji Jianhua had already paid on Ji Ling's behalf.

Ji Ling thought that although this elder brother didn't have a good relationship with her, he still acted like an elder brother, so that was okay.

When she left home, Ji's father gave Ji Ling ten yuan. After deducting one yuan per day for the hotel, sixty cents for a bowl of beef noodles, and thirty cents for a steamed bun and a bowl of soy milk for breakfast, she spent four and a half yuan in three days. Now she had a "huge sum" of one and a half yuan left in her pocket.

Ji Ling sighed. It seemed that making money was a big deal in any era.

She sighed, Ji Jianhua misunderstood, "Forget it if you didn't do well in the exam. The watch factory is recruiting this year. It will be easy for you to get in after graduating from high school."

"Let's talk about it later." Ji Ling said perfunctorily without further explanation.

Ji Jianhua was driving the factory's car. Although he was a car mechanic in the factory, he often had to travel to other places and was very tired. He was also on business trips a lot. This time he wanted to borrow the factory's car to go home, and the factory agreed.

Bei County is not big, with only four streets. Ji's father works as a salesperson at the Fuhe Agricultural Machinery Distribution Company, so the Ji family lives in the Fuhe Family Compound behind the distribution company.

They came to the county from the city at around five in the afternoon, and when the brother and sister got home, it was almost nine o'clock.

Ji Ling was the last one to leave. One second she was still listening to Xu Fang and her son saying “Jianhua is back”, and the next second the atmosphere changed.

There was only a "click" sound.

Ji Ling looked up.

Xu Fang threw the sorghum broom heavily at the door, glared at her fiercely, and turned back into the house.

"Your mother had a quarrel with some customers in the store today. She is in a bad mood and is not targeting you." Upon hearing the noise, Ji's father ran out of the house with a cooking spatula in his hand. He smiled and called his son and daughter into the house. "Xiaoling, come in quickly. Dad made braised pork for you."

I saw Ji's father use the word "you guys" to whitewash the peace.

Ji Ling thought about her own life. She also had biased parents. Fortunately, there was someone in this family who truly loved the original owner.

The Ji family has three rooms, with a kitchen in the middle and a bedroom on each side. However, as the children of the Ji family grew up, they separated out a small north room at the back for them to live in. One of the rooms was Ji Ling's.

As for the main house in front, Ji Yong and his wife live in the east room, while the west room is reserved for Ji Ke, the youngest daughter who lives in Xu's family and rarely goes home.

The house is not soundproof. Even with the door closed, I can still hear Xu Fang's voice in the front room.

"I told you not to spoil her. The more you spoil her, the worse she becomes. She repeated the college entrance exam for two years and is about to take the exam and is making a fuss about joining the art troupe. Your dad has never bowed his head in front of your grandpa in all these years. For her, he went to his house to beg for help for the first time, but he didn't even get in. He was left in the rain at the gate of the staff compound for a whole day. We were so embarrassed. Whatever she thought of, it happened. Look, she didn't make a fuss when she came back today. I can guess without asking that she didn't do well in the exam."

"Mom, don't be angry. I see that Lingzi has become much more sensible after this incident." At least on the way back, Ji Jianhua observed and discovered this.

"Forget it. I get angry when I mention her. She's just here to collect debts." Her son only comes back once every few months. Xu Fang doesn't want to make a fuss and anger that little devil, which would cause a lot of noise and quarrels at home. She pulls her son to look at him and says, "You've lost weight. Did you not get enough rest during the business trip? If not, talk to the factory and let someone else go on business trips next time."

"Mom, it's good to be on a business trip. I can see the outside world. You don't know how fast the South is developing. Look what I bought for you."

"How much does this cost?"

"It's not expensive. It's cheap in the south. It's just one month's salary."

"You spend money recklessly. You don't know how hard you work. When I was young, I saw all kinds of good things. Don't buy them anymore in the future."

"During these business trips, my colleagues and I brought back some items and sold them. Now I have money in my hands."

While the family was having dinner, Ji Ling saw the gold ring on Xu Fang's ring finger.

However, because of her appearance, Xu Fang's face became tense again.

Ji Ling had no feelings for the original owner's family, so their attitude did not affect her. She ate quietly, thinking that when she went to college, she could leave the Ji family with a legitimate reason and live the life she wanted.

"Eat more meat. You like sweet food, so I added more sugar." Ji Yong put a piece of braised pork in his daughter's bowl.

"Thank you, Dad." Ji Ling smiled.

After dinner, Ji Ling helped Ji Yong clean up the table and was about to go back to her own room, but Ji Yong called her to the east room.

There is something to say, otherwise Ji Yong would not let her and Xu Fang stay longer.

The family of four sat down, and Xu Fang said, "You should prepare for the next few days. The zipper factory is recruiting workers. You graduated from high school, so it's no problem for you to take the examination and get a clerical position in the factory. When you get to work, just focus on your work and don't think about other things."

It’s an old saying. Ji Ling hears such words every day after traveling through time for half a month. She doesn’t want to say more.

The solution is also simple, just one word: drag.

Then he said in his usual indifferent tone, "We'll talk about it later."

Xu Fang's face darkened with anger.

She was born into an intellectual family and received higher education. When she was young, she followed her mother Xu to become a singer in the city art troupe because of her sweet voice. She was gentle and would never curse at others even if she was unhappy.

That year, Xu Fang went to the countryside to perform and fell in love with the handsome Ji Yong, but Ji Yong was just an ordinary worker. Xu Fang's parents did not agree, so she broke off contact with her parents and married to the small county of Bei County from Taipei City. A department store in Bei County was recruiting workers, and she was admitted and worked as a salesperson.

The original owner's appearance combined the best features of her parents: pure and clean, with a pair of phoenix eyes that seemed to be permanently covered with a layer of mist, and her voice was more like Xu Fang's.

The original owner had a strong and aggressive personality, so people ignored her voice. After Ji Ling came here, her personality became gentle and quiet, so her voice became sweet and soft. When she smiled, she had two dimples at the corners of her mouth, which made her look cute and adorable.

In the past, the mother and daughter were incompatible, but now they couldn't quarrel. Xu Fang only felt that the evil fire in her heart was even stronger.

In the end, he managed to utter a swear word: Get lost.

That concludes tonight's conversation.

(End of this chapter)