During a famine, Luo He was one handprint away from trading her freedom to work for the next few years for a sack of grain.
That night, a meal and a letter suddenly appeared in the old makeup box her mother had left behind.
The letter was from herself, twenty years in the future.
Her future self remembered what she liked to eat. She also knew what would become of the man offering her that sack of grain, and how he would turn this small favor into a debt she could never repay in her lifetime.
This time, Luo He did not press her handprint onto the paper.
With the money for food and the warnings her future self sent, she reclaimed her unpaid wages, left her old home, and took over an abandoned mill by the river. The roof leaked, and she was short on money, but she wanted to try: hang her own sign over the door, keep the money she earned, and have a hot meal waiting after a day's work.
She had always believed that by then, her twenty-years-older self had already built that kind of life.
Until she discovered that the person sending her meals and advice was also being pressured to take responsibility for a shortfall that wasn't hers.
It turned out that she had helped her younger self avoid the old road, but she was still trapped in that life herself.
The makeup box could send things forward, and it could send them back, too.
This time, it was her turn to stand up for her future self.
