Lin Yin had always been that "child of someone else's" people often praised about, industrious and sensible to the point where she got accepted into prestigious Peking University almost effortlessly.
But in everyone's eyes, Lin Yin was also the one with bad luck. Shortly after graduating from Peking University, she died from leukemia!
At this moment, Lin Yin was lying in this dark and shabby mud-brick room, puzzled: Clearly, she was already dead. Why did it seem like she was still alive?
A loud "bang" rang out as the mud-brick room's door was kicked open. Lin Yin was still in a daze when she heard a harsh woman outside the door cursing, "You shameless girl, pretending to be ill to avoid work! We, the Lin family, don't keep slackers. If you don't want to work, then go and crash into a wall and be done with it!"
Staring at this harsh woman, Lin Yin began to receive memories of the body's previous occupant. This harsh woman is the previous occupant’s, grandmother?
Well, this grandmother was indeed strange, always insisting that her own granddaughter should crash into a wall and die.
Before Lin Yin could grasp any further information, her thin, skeletal body had already been yanked off the bed by the harsh woman, "Get up now! In a while, you will go and earn work points with your uncles and aunts!"
Earn work points? Lin Yin from a young age was a top student, highly skilled at catching important pieces of information. Assuming this harsh woman wasn't talking nonsense, then… did she come back to life, in an era where people ate based on the work points they earned?
With a moment's distraction on Lin Yin's side, she had already been dragged out into the courtyard by the harsh woman.
In the incredibly simple and shabby small farmhouse courtyard, her uncles and aunts were already shouldering farm tools, ready to go work the fields.
"Yin Yin, come over here and go with your third aunt. Later on, I will have the old team leader arrange a lighter task for you", a peasant woman dressed in a grayish-brown shirt gestured to Lin Yin.
Just then, Lin Yin caught a faint scent of food. She turned her head and saw a woman carrying a stack of bowls and chopsticks, ready to go into the kitchen to wash dishes.
Before she smelled the food, it was fine, but once she smelled it, Lin Yin felt so hungry! This was a sense of hunger she'd never experienced in her previous life—it made her head spin and her body weak, to the point where she was even thinking, as long as she could eat her fill… she would be willing to die on the spot!
Die… The original owner of this body indeed died, tortured to death by the bone-scraping hunger!
Even though the original owner was starved to death, none of the people in this family ever gave her a bite to eat. The harsh woman wanted the original owner to go out and earn work points, but she didn't wake her up until after the entire family had eaten lunch.
The rest of the family even believed that it was justified not to feed the original host. When they were eating lunch together just now, none of them even offered her a bite to eat!
Seeing this, Lin Yin was left with a chill in her heart. What kind of family was this?
Lin Yin glanced at her own thin body, she was so skinny that it became almost unrecognizable! She was mere skin and bones! Even when she had leukemia in her previous life, near the brink of death, she was never this thin!
Looking at the other members of the family, even though they were pale and malnourished, none of them were as thin as her!
Lin Yin felt a wave of self-pity wash over her.
She needed to eat! She had to find something to eat soon! She couldn't bear the thought of starving to death again after coming back to life!
"What are you daydreaming about? Has your brain gone bad? Hurry up and get to work in the fields!" The crude woman said while viciously poking Lin Yin's forehead.
Disgusted, Lin Yin dodged the woman's jab only to be hit by her shoe, causing Lin Yin's head to spin.
Gritting her teeth, Lin Yin thought if it weren't for the fact that she was on her way to find something to eat, she would have taught this evil woman a lesson there and then!
Starving, Lin Yin could barely carry farming tools, she made her way onto the fields dragging them. She planned on borrowing some food from villagers while working in the fields. If her family didn't care about her well-being, surely the others wouldn't watch her starve to death.
So, as soon as Lin Yin arrived in the field, she pathetically "fainted" due to hunger.
Yet, just as she "fainted", she heard a couple of beeping sounds in her head, followed by a mechanical voice saying: "Heaven's Poverty Alleviation System has found the host, now starting connection with the host, connection progress 30%... 60%... 90%... Connection complete!"
Heaven's Poverty Alleviation System? What the heck was that?
Just as she was wondering, the newly installed system opened, listing four options: Scholar, Farmer, Worker, Merchant.
After looking at these four options in her mind, Lin Yin couldn't help but smile bitterly. What kind of ridiculous categories were these? Wasn't this supposed to be a poverty alleviation system? Where's the money? Where's the grain?
"Please choose the poverty alleviation option," the system's voice dryly reminded.
Living in the rural area and having to work in the fields every day, Lin Yin didn’t hesitate to choose "Agriculture".
"Selection complete, please check for your Newbie Gift Bag."
The Newbie Gift Bag was a bag of flour. Meanwhile, the system interface turned into a virtual space with a piece of farmland in it.
Just when Lin Yin was about to explore the space more carefully, a sudden pain spread across her face. She reflexively opened her eyes and found an Auntie slapping her face.
Seeing Lin Yin awaken, the Auntie heaved a sigh of relief, "Thank God you’re awake! I was worried to death you might’ve starved!"
She was speaking to the village head who was standing a few steps away.
The village head frowned, took two puffs of his dry pipe, and then said, "If she faints from hunger at home, we can't interfere. But if she faints in the field of the production team, we can't ignore it. Auntie Guihua, later I'll get someone to prepare a bowl of grain, find a place for her to cook it."
After swallowing hard, Lin Yin was finally going to eat something!
According to the original host's memories, a bowl of grain bashed up into a thick porridge should be enough to ward off her hunger.
Before long, Yang Guihua had brought Lin Yin to this vacant house at the entrance to the village.
According to the original host's memories, this vacant house used to be the "cafeteria" when everyone ate together in the village a couple of years ago. But it was left deserted when harvests failed and famine came. Now, it was only used occasionally as a kitchen when they had large communal meals during the field construction period.
Yang Guihua began to draw water as she uncovered the well, explaining, "Eat your bowl of grain here before you leave. If you take it home, you won't have a bite left. There’s an iron pot here, you can cook faster."
During the Great Leap Forward a couple of years ago, everyone had to contribute their iron pots for steelmaking. The iron pot here was one of the only remaining ones in the village. So when the village head mentioned finding a place to cook for Lin Yin, Yang Guihua immediately thought of this place. Though it wasn’t used often, today, with the head's permission, they might as well take advantage of it!
After drawing the water, Yang Guihua scrubbed the iron pot, spatula, and spoon thoroughly. Then, she gathered a large bundle of firewood and started to boil water.
Just then, the grain from the village head arrived, brought by a twelve or thirteen-year-old girl. Holding the bowl as if it were a precious treasure, the girl thankfully was sensible and left immediately after placing the bowl on the stove.
