Black and White

[Updated monthly] Not abandoned, not paid.

Transmigrate into a semi-fictional setting with a Republican-era feel. Happy ending.

You transmigrate to the Republican era. You have no power, no connections, and no golden finger. What would you do?

[The unserious blurb]

Li Qingbai is an ordinary high school senior. On an ordinary day, she sits in an ordinary cafeteria, eating an ordinary steamed bun. Then, halfway through her meal, she has an extraordinary transmigration...

As she watches the bun in her hand and its plastic wrapper dissolve into tiny specks of light and vanish into the air, Li Qingbai is stunned. At the same time, she realizes that her surroundings have changed...

A remote wilderness, strewn with rocks. Not a cloud in the sky. Someone lies on a winding path, seemingly dead or alive. Should she go check? And, come to think of it, where is this?

When she learns it is the eighteenth year of the Republic, Li Qingbai's head starts to ache. She can live without a phone, but the real problem is that, despite nine years of compulsory education and three years of higher education, she can't read! In this age when traditional characters reign supreme, when new culture clashes with old, and vernacular writing intermingles with classical Chinese, she feels like a complete illiterate...

Still, it's fine. The person she found is a big shot. If she swallows her pride and clings to his coattails, at least she won't starve...

[The serious blurb] (Don't bother reading this. It's just here to look nice.)

This is the best of times and the worst of times. The future is uncertain, war rages everywhere, the land is won with blood, and convictions are defended with one's life.

Generation after generation, people cross mountains covered in gravel and hack through thorn-choked forests, pressing forward without hesitation toward faith and hope. In the cold darkness, they bring forth flowers of hope, woven from light and warmth.

• Amid endless desolation, we make this our dream; across thousands of miles, we journey until this becomes our home.

-- Yu Qiuyu, Cultural Odyssey

• If you had known in advance the lives you would have to face, would you still have had the courage to come?

• The thing that moves people most in this world is a feeling called wholehearted devotion.

• When you are struck down, may you remember your worth and resist malice. When you are lost, may you believe in your worth. Love what you love, do what you do, follow your heart, and ask no questions about east or west.

-- Forever Young

Reader's guide:

1. The heroine talks nonsense to herself a lot. She's thick-skinned enough to have eaten her own dignity.

2. She's a jack-of-all-trades who can do anything, but none of it particularly well: worldly, tactful, and a first-rate social butterfly.

3. The writing leans heavily on snark.

4. The heroine has a very unusual thought process, much like the author's imagination. She seems as unshakable as an old dog when things happen, but inside she's panicking like crazy.

☆ This novel could also be called What to Do After Transmigrating to the Republican Era, Longing for the White, or My Fantastic Journey Through the Republican Era. (Personally, I think Black and White Pairing better suits my writing style.)

○ This story is dedicated to my bestie. Here's Black and White Pairing as a coming-of-age gift! Though it might take a long time to arrive, haha~

Theme: As steadfast as a mountain, as deep as still waters; sing amid the wind and clouds, and take up arms without hesitation. (That's right, I'm just showing off the idioms I recently learned. Please spare me.)