1902: Shuhong's Struggle for Penicillin

A fanfiction of If Life Were Only as It First Appeared. Main pairing: Shu Hong and Song Chen; secondary pairing: Yang Kaizhi and Li Zhuxi. The early chapters follow the original plot, while the later ones take place in an alternate setting.

Xie Shuhong wakes up one day to discover that she has transmigrated into the story of If Life Were Only as It First Appeared, right at the beginning of Episode One. This time, she decides to change Shu Hong's fate: instead of running away with Wu Tianbai, she'll choose to be with Song Chen.

After the two go to Japan to study, Shu Hong, a liberal arts graduate, grits her teeth and takes up medicine, later switching to microbiology. Together with a German professor, she starts researching penicillin from scratch, enduring countless failures.

“Can we really do it?” Song Chen asks, watching the exhausted Shu Hong in the laboratory late at night.

“Someone has to be the first to try.” Shu Hong rubs her sore eyes.

Meanwhile, Li Zhuxi, the daughter of a wealthy Korean merchant, is forced into a marriage alliance with the Japanese imperial family. With Shu Hong's help, she decides to fight for her own future...

Years later, Shu Hong returns to her storm-tossed homeland with the latest techniques for producing penicillin. She navigates between rival factions and protects national industry.

I originally meant to write a sweet little romance, but as I went along, I felt that if I really went back to that era, I couldn't just stand by and do nothing.