"The host has died, the soul has left the body, system binding in progress... Congratulations, host, the Farming Story system has now been successfully bound!"
"System formatting, system scanning initiated, host has selected the Quickly Transmigrate World, now beginning transmission..."
The noisy mechanical voice in her head made Tang Yuan'er feel her head humming. When the voice finally stopped, she slowly opened her eyes and fixed her gaze on her surroundings, hardly believing what she saw.
"I was clearly lying in the hospital bed, how did I end up here?"
A sudden epidemic had struck without warning, and as one of the first respiratory doctors to be infected, she faced several critical conditions, suffering through the agony.
She woke up to find herself in a dark, damp room with dim lighting.
Supporting her head, she got up and realized that the body's original owner was still feverish, and the profuse sweating made her body uncomfortably sticky.
Looking around, the room wasn't big, merely about ten square meters, yet it housed eight people, with four bunk beds, eight cabinets, and a basin stand—much like her old school dormitory, but the conditions were poles apart since the place was cluttered with sundry household items. Only the table next to the bed was somewhat clean.
She was sleeping on the lower bunk, and inadvertently turned her head to see a calendar hanging on the wall.
The date was... April 3, 1997?
Damn, she was clearly in the year 2020. How did she end up in 1997, the year X city returned?
As she was stunned, that familiar mechanical voice suddenly sounded in her head again.
"Welcome to the Farming Mini-World. The term 'Farming Story' specifically refers to the difficult journey of making a fortune, not just taking a hoe to farm. Thus, the worlds you experience might involve doing business, farming, or even studying. Regardless, persevering in charity is the key—only then will you have more choices."
"You have already died in your original world; to obtain a chance at rebirth, you need to complete various tasks according to system prompts. This is the host's first task, now beginning memory transmission, please wait!"
About ten minutes later, Tang Yuan'er finally understood why she had ended up here. So, she had actually died?
If not for her immense merit, she would not have been granted this opportunity by the system. While feeling fortunate internally, she couldn't help longing for her parents in the original world. Being an only child, what would her parents do if she died?
Thus, she couldn't resist questioning the system profoundly.
"If I complete the tasks, can I really return to my original world and see my parents?"
"Host, please be assured, this system does not go back on its word. You may call me Liang Tian, and from now on, I am at your service!"
As for how rebirth operates? Isn't that my own decision?
Liang Tian?
That name sure is down-to-earth.
"This is natural; this system is a Farming Story system covering all worlds and various types of farming tasks—weren't you fond of farming stories before you died?"
Can you really know all this?
"Yes, it's based on such information that the system classified you under my guidance!"
The original owner, Gong Mingxia, was 30 years old, born in a remote mountain area in the Southern region in 1967. After failing her college entrance exam in 1985, at the age of eighteen, she married a young farmer five years her senior from a neighboring village. Five years into their marriage with no pregnancy, the couple went to the hospital for checks. It was discovered that the husband had oligospermia, making it very difficult to conceive.
Gong Mingxia was a kind-hearted girl, and she did not despise him for his condition. Instead, she encouraged him to go out and work with her because it was 1990, a crucial period of economic recovery and rise in Hua Country. Industrial enterprises were on the rise, and the demand for labor was very high; many young people from their village had gone out to work.
Gong Mingxia felt that rather than being the subject of gossip in the village, it was better to go out and earn money with her husband; this way, they would not be constantly pressured by the local busybodies to have children.
Therefore, five years after the wedding, they stepped out of their house for the first time to work in a factory in S city. After a year of hard work, they finally received their own residence in the company. Six months later, Gong Mingxia felt unwell and went to the hospital for a check, where she accidentally discovered she was already three months pregnant.
That year she was 25, nearly seven years married, and Gong Mingxia was particularly delighted to be expecting a child. However, she completely missed the increasingly grim expression on her husband's face.
At four months pregnant, her husband, using the factory's inconvenience as an excuse, sent her back to her hometown for the pregnancy term. He claimed that with the elderly and several cousins at home, she would be well taken care of. Mingxia, unsuspecting, happily took the trip back home.
By the end of '92, Gong Mingxia gave birth to a healthy full-term baby girl. The elders and cousins at home were extremely happy, after all, given her brother's infertility issue, having a child was no small feat. Although it was a baby girl, she was still the family's bloodline; thus, she was exceptionally valued, and they took great care of Mingxia.
To take care of her child, Gong Mingxia did not go out to work again. Initially, her husband still sent money home, but when the remittances became scant and eventually ceased, Gong Mingxia sensed something was wrong. Moreover, every time she spoke to him on the phone, he was indifferent and dismissive, hanging up before she could ask anything.
When she inquired with her family at home, they too expressed confusion. Eventually, Gong Mingxia had no choice but to leave her child in the care of her in-laws and go alone to S city. She found her way to her former factory only to discover from inquiries that her husband had left shortly after she returned home that year.
Their only contact had been through the village office, where her husband would call and she would come to answer. She did not know any specific contact details, which left her stunned.
How could she find him in such a sprawling city like S?
Desolate, she sat crying in the security office because she only had enough money for the trip there and had nothing for the return journey. Eventually, a few fellow villagers from nearby areas in the factory, seeing how pitiable she was, donated enough for her to buy a ticket back home.
A few days after returning home, her husband called. Crying, she yelled at him, "Where did you go? I went to S city looking for you, but you had already left that factory three years ago. Why have you been lying to us all these years, claiming you were still there? Where exactly are you? You haven't come home in years, why?"
There was a long silence on the other end of the line, and suddenly the call was cut off without another word, severing the connection.
Gong Mingxia collapsed in tears on the spot, causing quite a stir in the village. Her in-laws and three cousins came to take her back home.
That night, faced with Mingxia's probing, the Zhang family was clueless as well.
A month later, her husband, who had disappeared for three years, finally returned, but only to divorce her.
Gong Mingxia incredulously lifted her head and questioned him, and he just sneered.
"I have oligospermia; the doctors said it's highly unlikely I'll ever have children in my lifetime. That spawn you bore, whose is it? Do you think I would have endured till now if it wasn't to silence gossip? What were you thinking?"
In disbelief, Gong Mingxia looked at her husband, hardly able to imagine such devastating words coming from him.
Although DNA testing had been around since the 1960s, whether people in remote mountain villages knew or accepted this technology was a real headache, not to mention their old-fashioned, ingrained feudal ideologies, particularly sensitive towards reproductive capabilities.
If a man decided he was betrayed and didn't want to be with a woman anymore, no matter how innocent and clean she was, they could make it look concrete. After all, a woman's status during that era was nowhere near what it is in the 21st century.