I Became the Foil in a 1970s Novel, So I Chose to Lie Flat and Watch the Show

When I opened my eyes, I was lying on a hard wooden bed that dug painfully into my lower back. The ocher walls were peeling and blotchy, with a few faded certificates tacked up. They read, "Model Worker: Lin Wan."

Lin Wan.

My head buzzed as memories that weren't mine surged into my mind like floodwaters bursting through a dam. I'd transmigrated into a book, a period novel called The Road to Success in the Seventies. The heroine, Su Xiaomei, was the model educated youth at the Xiangyang Brigade youth station in Hongqi Commune: diligent, brave, and kind. In the end, through tireless effort, she got into university and married the equally outstanding male lead, Chen Mo,