The Female Boss of the Thirteen Hongs in the 1980S

[The full story is complete. Writing is hard, so thank you for supporting the official release!] By the time Zhou Zhiyi graduated from university, her younger classmates hadn't even started the new school year, yet she'd already completed the trifecta of getting a job, losing it, and staying unemployed at home. She'd tried to change a workplace that knew nothing but copying designs, and, well, the result was obvious: Zhou Zhiyi got fired. Her mother, sitting nearby, launched into the same old story about how she'd started her clothing stall back in the day and achieved great success. Zhou Zhiyi had heard it so often she could practically feel her ears growing calluses. She didn't buy it. The clothing business had been taking off back then. As the saying went, "When the wind blows, even pigs can fly." If she'd been there, she could have done just as well. Fate smiled faintly. "Then go and give it a try." And so Zhou Zhiyi transmigrated, becoming that very "pig." No, to be precise, a "piglet." She opened her eyes on a train in 1984, now a young woman whom her cousin from the same village was taking to a big city to work as a shampoo girl at a hair salon. The 1980s. Hair salons. Shampoo girls. Zhou Zhiyi: ...Maybe not. With the help of a kind male passenger on the train, Zhou Zhiyi cleverly evaded her cousin's search and didn't get off at their planned stop. As the train continued south toward the city she knew so well, Zhou Zhiyi knew the clothing industry there was booming. Of course, even a "happy place" wasn't always easy to live in. Even if you caught the "wind," that didn't mean you could just fly. A women's clothing stall on Heping East Road opened for business as usual. A woman who had traveled from afar came to buy stock. Zhou Zhiyi noted down her name and contact information, assuming she was just another ordinary customer. But that night, she dreamed of a book. The next morning, as soon as Zhou Zhiyi opened her eyes, thoughts flashed through her mind like comments scrolling across a screen. [An ordinary customer? That's the heroine.] [So it wasn't transmigration, it was transmigration into a book.] Zhou Zhiyi thought back. In the book, she was merely a passerby mentioned in passing during the heroine's trip south to buy stock: a clothing-stall owner whose name wasn't even given. She looked toward the man sleeping beside her, at the hand draped across her neck. Besides buying a batch of clothes during this trip south, the heroine's greatest gain was probably him. Zhou Zhiyi scratched her head. So what did that make her now? A passerby had gotten together with the second male lead? [Reading guide] 1. The heroine's personal growth is the main focus: a clear-eyed college student boldly takes on the opportunities of the 1980s. She'll be somewhat naive at first, as a college student might be (idealistic, not stupid), and gradually mature. 2. This is a novel within a novel, and its setting is very loosely based on reality. 3. Neither the heroine nor the hero is weaker than the other. They're both strong, and this is the story of two entrepreneurs building their businesses. 4. The hero isn't just window dressing, and this isn't a joint business run by a married couple. The heroine's business belongs entirely to her, while the hero's business is partly hers too, since she holds shares. 5. Although she transmigrates into a book, there will be no rivalry with the original heroine. Everyone is the protagonist of their own story. 6. The book-transmigration plot comes much later. You could say the heroine's butterfly effect creates a new prequel. The hero ends up alone in the original book, and has no romantic storyline with the original heroine. 7. One more heads-up: the heroine's transmigration is similar to a body swap. I really dislike stories where the original body's soul disappears after someone transmigrates into it. The heroine will occasionally be able to contact her parents in another time and space. That's a bit of a golden finger. 8. A chapter about the later lives of the controversial supporting characters has been added to the author's note after Chapter 126. The events some readers have speculated about will not happen. 9. One more thing: this is entirely a story of growth, not just for the main characters but for the supporting cast too. Please don't judge them based on their early actions. If there were no room for change or growth, what would I be writing? Thanks for understanding. The completed novel "Six Zero Auntie Wants to Build Airplanes," a similar story about a heroine striving in a bygone era, is also available. Come check it out! Theme: Work hard and seize opportunities.