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Jiang Xinyu touched her chest, calming her wildly beating heart.
Looking at the chicken claw-like hands in front of her, she couldn't help but burst into laughter!
Muttering softly, "I'm not really possessed by a jinx, am I! This chance of time travel is even lower than winning the lottery, and I just happened to hit it? Who said I could never shake off bad luck in my life? Wahaha!"
But perhaps she was too excited and pulled at her rib painfully, letting out an "ouch." She took a deep breath.
It was only now that Jiang Xinyu began to care about her current situation.
Lying on soft dry leaves, she saw a vast blue sky and had never found the color blue so beautiful; the blue sky and white clouds made her want to reach out and touch them.
She wanted to sit up but had no strength at all. Moreover, any movement made her feel that there wasn't a part of her body that wasn't in pain.
Jiang Xinyu thought, maybe it's deep autumn now? The leaves on the poplars have turned yellow, and she's wearing a coat with fabric darning on the cuffs, indistinguishable in color.
And looking at the sun's position, it should be near noon now? Still, there's no feeling of warmth, so this should be autumn.
Lying here is bearable for now, but what about tonight if she stays here? She tried but felt it was still not possible.
This heaven really favored her generously—if it was willing to grant her the rare chance of a time-travel rebirth, couldn't it just be normal?
Her stomach growled, thinking of the space, she summoned a big meat bun from it. It was made in her previous life, and it was still warm in her hand now.
Ignoring the black handprint on the bun, she devoured a bun bigger than her current fist.
With her stomach now filled, she relaxed, tilted her head, and chose a comfortable position to close her eyes.
This sleep for Jiang Xinyu was like watching a film, seeing the life snippets of the little girl since she started remembering things.
This little girl was also named Jiang Xinyu, and this is a small village in T City, H Province. Her parents were honest rural folks living by the land.
But unpredictable calamity struck; the two of them were sacrificed in an explosion when passing by a ground furnace while buying supplies in town.
The home was left with only the fifteen-year-old little girl. Her father was also the only child, so there were no uncles, and her mom was a refugee from afar, having stayed because her grandfather saved her, leading her to marry her father when grown.
The county officials verified the casualties in the explosion, and the final compensation she received was a promise of an official job next year and fifty yuan in funeral and living expenses.
The little girl was a fortunate child; her parents had one child and treated her very well, thriftily sending her to school, and she was already a junior high graduate at fifteen.
After learning the news of her parents, there was hardly any motivation left to live until she dreamt that night of her parents urging her to live strong. This awakened her.
The little girl listened, thought of her deceased parents, and decided she must live well and not make them worry.
With the villagers' help, she buried her parents' ashes (they brought back only two urns anyway), and then the village head took her directly to the county, where she got a job note for sixty-one.
Being late autumn, there was not enough firewood at home, and the field's straw was animal fodder for winter, compounded by disaster though not severe locally, it was drought-stricken, leaving short straw, meaning no firewood allocation. Thus, it was necessary to go to the mountains for wood.
The little girl was very weak due to excessive grief after her parents' sudden demise, compounded by not having eaten for days. She managed to reach this valley, but due to picking branches with her head bowed long-term, she fainted and died, which was really a suffocating way to go.
Jiang Xinyu roughly viewed the entire memory of the little girl and woke up. She tried, and now found she had some strength back, attempting to sit up.
"Since you're already gone, and I'm lucky enough to time travel over, then I must live well for you," Jiang Xinyu muttered softly.
Looking around, it seemed to be afternoon; she should hurry home. Though she hadn't heard of beasts appearing here, it was indeed cold weather.
With her hands on the ground, she tried carefully to get up, truly weak—not her strong previous self capable of lifting a bag of rice.
Wobbling a few steps, she saw a large pile of branches not far away, besides a rake, a basket woven of willow twigs, deciding she had to take them back. The winter here without firewood was unbearable.
Walking to the branches, she waved her hand to collect them, thinking without kindling, a fire couldn't be started, picked up a rake to gather leaves, loosely filled a basket, then crouched to rise with the basket but lacked the strength, after a while the dizziness receding, stood holding the rake.
Though the basket of leaves didn't weigh much, it was still a burden to the current Jiang Xinyu. She had no choice but to lean on the rake while slowly walking out of the valley. This was a good place; no one had come for so long.
But she was rather glad; without this space, she would likely have to abandon this pile of branches.
Along the way, she encountered many children gathering firewood in the mountains who greeted Jiang Xinyu simply, and she responded with smiles.
She walked an estimated couple of hours before finally reaching the village entrance. Mainly unable to walk fast.
This village was a large one with over a thousand people, and Jiang Xinyu's home was in the center of the village.
Low adobe house, fortunately still with courtyard walls, though also made of adobe, gave a bit of safety.
"Xinyu, you're back collecting firewood?"
"Yes, aunt, how come you're going out at this time?"
"I'm not going out, just came out to check after hearing the noise. Hurry home now; with your small frame, what firewood can you gather? These leaves you've brought back can't even boil a pot of water, tomorrow I'll let your uncle go up the mountain to fetch a bundle for you."
"Aunt, no need; I'll gather slowly, my uncle's still working, don't trouble him."
"Xinyu, you've changed, speaking so much now."
Jiang Xinyu's heart skipped hearing this, afraid she might have changed too much, drawing suspicion.
"Aunt, I'll be living alone from now on, can't remain silent."
"Hmm, it's nice you've come around. Hurry to light a fire at home; without a fire at night, the bed is cold."
"I'll go inside then, aunt."
"Go ahead, if there's anything just call out."
"Got it, aunt." Jiang Xinyu took out her key and opened the door to her home.
Slowly crouched down, put down the basket, and squatted a while before standing up; with this low blood sugar in her body, she didn't dare rise immediately.
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