Starting from 1950

"Xiao Ai, turn on the lights!"

"It's pitch black," Su Yang cried out, rubbing his throbbing head.

He froze as soon as he said it.

This wasn't his own voice. His voice at thirty was deep and resonant, while the voice just now was youthful and crisp.

"Xiao Ai!" He felt a little flustered and quickly called out again.

There was no usual "I'm here" response in the darkness. Instead, after a moment, a deep, hoarse voice rang out: "Who is it? Are you still sleeping? Can't you be a little quieter if you get up to relieve yourself?"

"Exactly, do you expect to find someone to keep an eye on you?"

"If you keep causing trouble, I'll beat you up!"

Several impatient voices rang out, seemingly from some teenagers.

Su Yang was somewhat bewildered.

wrong!

Am I playing a game?

And it was just daytime, how come it's pitch black now?

He couldn't help but slap his head a few times, and suddenly felt a "buzz" in his mind, as if he had been hit by a big iron hammer.

"Ouch~!" Su Yang clutched his head and started rolling around.

"Huh? Su Yang, what's wrong?"

"Turn off the lights!"

"He seems to be sick, quickly go and call Officer Wang!"

A cacophony of voices erupted around him, but Su Yang had already fainted from the pain.

......

After an unknown amount of time, Su Yang opened his eyes again, his gaze filled with complex emotions.

He transmigrated and merged with his parallel self. The time he was unconscious was during the fusion of memories.

In 2025, Su Yang was an ordinary rural youth who grew up in an ordinary way, attended an ordinary junior college, and worked as a lowly laborer for several years after graduation.

After his parents both fell ill and passed away, his good days suddenly began.

The government requisitioned his house and land for railway construction and gave him a one-time compensation of 300 million yuan.

Without hesitation, Su Yang quit his grueling job with a monthly salary of 4000 yuan, went back to his hometown, a small county town, bought a house worth several hundred thousand yuan, and started to relax.

He is a person who is easily satisfied, and the remaining 200 million is enough for him to live comfortably for the rest of his life.

Su Yang did indeed enjoy two and a half years of comfortable life.

I spend my days at home eating, sleeping, and playing World of Warcraft.

Aside from having to deal with relatives introducing potential partners from time to time, I have no other worries.

Today, as usual, he was in his gaming room, enjoying the air conditioning, drinking iced cola, and playing World of Warcraft.

I never expected to be transported to another world so abruptly.

The original owner of this body, Su Yang, is in a much worse situation.

Xiao Suyang was born in 1938. When he was four years old, he fled famine with his parents. His parents starved to death on the way, and he almost became someone else's food.

He was taken to Beijing. The person who rescued him was not acting out of kindness, but because he was handsome, he sold him to the Eight Great Hutongs for money.

The Eight Great Hutongs not only bought little girls to raise as "jie'er" (young ladies) from a young age, but also had Nanfengguan (a brothel) that specialized in training "xiaogong" (male prostitutes).

Su Yang was bought by a small music troupe called "Zuiyuxuan" in Baishun Hutong.

From the age of 5 to 11, he didn't have a too bad time.

Although he did a lot of hard work, he was destined to marry and earn money in the future. Zuiyuxuan provided him with enough to eat and wear, and even taught him to read and write.

Originally, Su Yang was supposed to start creating value for Zuiyuxuan when he turned 12 next year.

Who would have thought that Red Flag would enter the city this spring!

Not long after, historical debris like the Eight Great Hutongs was swept away.

The boss, the neighbors, and the thugs and henchmen with their hands stained with sin—those who ate peanuts ate peanuts, and those who went to jail went to jail.

The remaining girls and servants who were worth saving were taken into reformatories for rehabilitation.

The reformatory was located in the original Baishun Hutong, with more than a dozen courtyards in total. The children were separated and placed according to their age and crimes.

The courtyard where Su Yang lived was full of boys and girls around ten years old.

......

"What a pity about the demolition compensation money I didn't spend in my account."

Su Yang sighed, stopped thinking about his past life, and sat up, throwing off the quilt.

He first looked around at his surroundings.

This is a room of about ten square meters, the style of which he had only seen on TV in his previous life.

He was on a large communal bed, and there were seven other beds besides the one he was on. The bedding was neatly folded, and there was no one else in the room.

Su Yang picked up the cotton-padded clothes and trousers that were placed to the side. The fabric of the clothes was rough and was earthy yellow, but it felt quite thick.

He put on his clothes and shoes and got off the communal bed. He glanced at a small mirror hanging on the wall by the door and walked over quickly.

"Phew... She looks just like me when I was a kid, only a little thinner."

Su Yang breathed a sigh of relief and pushed open the door to go out.

A blast of cold air hit him, making him instinctively shrink his neck.

"Oh my! Little Yangzi is awake. Is he feeling any better?"

A woman in her mid-thirties was squatting by the sink washing clothes when she noticed Su Yang. She got up, wiped her hands, which were red from the cold, on her apron, and came over with a concerned look on her face.

Su Yang recognized the woman based on his memories.

Ruan Sumei was once a very popular courtesan in the Eight Great Hutongs when she was young. However, she accidentally angered a distinguished guest and was slashed on the face with a knife.

Having lost her looks and her fertility due to drinking too much contraceptive soup, she couldn't even marry a commoner and ended up as a maid at Zuiyuxuan, responsible for washing clothes for the girls.

Although Ruan Sumei had a hard life, she was kind-hearted and took good care of children like Su Yang.

It was precisely because of this that, after the military control commission investigated her upon her arrival at the reformatory, she was given only half a month of ideological education before being released.

However, since Ruan Sumei had no relatives or friends and nowhere to go, she stayed behind as a helper, responsible for washing clothes and cooking for more than forty children in the courtyard.

"Aunt Mei, I'm fine. I'm sorry to have worried you."

Perhaps influenced by the original Xiao Suyang, the word "Aunt Mei" came out naturally to her.

"It's good that you're alright. You scared me to death last night. Officer Wang had the doctor come over but couldn't find anything wrong. He tried calling you but couldn't wake you up no matter what he did..." Ruan Sumei patted her chest and breathed a long sigh of relief.

"By the way! Where are the others?"

Su Yang didn't want to talk about this anymore and quickly changed the subject.

"They've all gone to do voluntary labor. Today they should be wiping the railings on the street." Ruan Sumei's attention was successfully diverted, and she replied with a smile, then suddenly slapped her thigh.

"The steamed cornbread is freshly steamed. I'll go get you one before the others come back."

Before Su Yang could speak, she ran into the kitchen next door and came out a moment later with a steaming gray cornbread in her hand.

She stuffed the steamed bun into Su Yang's hand, urging him, "Same as always, eat it upstairs, don't let anyone see us."

Su Yang took it subconsciously, and by the time he realized what was happening, he had already climbed several steps.

He smiled helplessly. This was a habit left over from the original owner of the body. Every time Ruan Sumei secretly gave him food, she would hide it on the second floor to eat.

Ascending the steps, Su Yang arrived at the second floor.

This courtyard is quite large, with more than twenty rooms upstairs and downstairs. The second floor used to be where the girls entertained guests, but now all the furniture has been moved out, and the place is empty.

Su Yang casually pushed open a door and went in, finishing the cornbread in a few bites.

These coarse grains, which he would never have even glanced at in his previous life, now tasted alright after being eaten.

After finishing his cornbread, Su Yang didn't rush downstairs. Instead, he calmed down and thought about what he should do next.

Although he was from the countryside in his previous life, he had never gone hungry from childhood to adulthood.

But this era was different; people could really starve to death.

It's not easy to survive in this era.

"Huh? What's this?"

Su Yang suddenly noticed that he seemed to see a small black dot in his left eye.

The tiny black dot moved with his gaze, as if it existed within his eyes.

This black dot is very small; it's almost invisible unless you specifically look for it.