Chapter 1: The Mysterious Shop

“I’ve transmigrated?”

Zhou Yimin looked utterly confused as he glanced around at the home filled with the atmosphere of a bygone era.

He had never expected that working overtime would somehow lead to him silently crossing over into this new time period.

As it turned out, overtime was never a good thing.

As he processed the original host’s memories, Zhou Yimin was stunned once again.

The original owner of this body was also named Zhou Yimin, an 18-year-old who had just started working as a logistics purchaser at a steel factory a few days ago. His mother had passed away when he was very young, and his father had run off not long ago.

Yes, he ran off—with a widow.

However, Zhou Yimin didn’t resent his old man.

His father had raised him to adulthood, left him two houses, a hefty sum of 1,000 yuan, secured a job for him, and even arranged a fiancée.

What more could he ask for?

As a father, he had done everything he needed to do.

Besides, Zhou Yimin still had his grandparents living in the countryside.

According to the original owner’s plan, he intended to bring his grandparents to live in the capital. From what he knew, life in the countryside was incredibly difficult right now—even wild herbs had been completely foraged. He was worried about their well-being.

Zhou Yimin shifted his attention to the store in his mind.

That’s right! He had a transmigration cheat—a shop. This was the main reason why he wasn’t panicking.

The shop wasn’t large, resembling a small supermarket. It sold daily necessities, including food and household goods, all clearly priced. For example, a 10-jin bag of flour cost 1 yuan, a 10-jin bag of rice was also 1 yuan, and a bolt of fabric cost 30 yuan…

Zhou Yimin frowned slightly. The prices weren’t significantly cheaper than those in the real world.

Currently, in the imperial capital, refined flour cost 1.8 cents per jin, regular rice was 1.5 cents, and high-quality rice was 2 cents…

Of course, everything required ration coupons. Having money alone wasn’t enough.

Moreover, this was a time of hardship—supplies were severely lacking, and even with money, grain was hard to come by. On the black market, food prices had already skyrocketed several times over.

Suddenly, he noticed a “1-Yuan Flash Sale” section in the lower right corner of the shop. His eyes lit up.

Today’s 1-Yuan Flash Sale had only two items: flour and eggs.

100 jin each.

That’s right—only 1 yuan for 100 jin of flour or 100 jin of eggs.

What was there to hesitate about?

Zhou Yimin instinctively clicked “Buy Now.”

The next moment, he was embarrassed.

The shop notified him that his balance was insufficient—his current balance was 0.

Zhou Yimin panicked. What now?

How could he increase his balance? Did he have to top up? Then he suddenly remembered the 1,000 yuan his father had left him and quickly took it out. Soon, the shop prompted him to confirm the deposit.

Without hesitation, Zhou Yimin chose to recharge.

Great! Instant deposit. His shop balance was now 1,000 yuan.

The exchange rate was 1:1!

Without delay, he spent 2 yuan to purchase 100 jin of flour and 100 jin of eggs. The purchased items appeared in the shop’s inventory, which resembled an inventory system in a video game.

He wondered if real-world items could be stored in it.

With that thought, Zhou Yimin glanced at a table in his house and silently willed it into the inventory. In an instant, the table vanished and reappeared in his inventory.

Whoa!

This…

Zhou Yimin was ecstatic.

A must-have tool for burglary! Life just got a lot more convenient.

After exploring the shop for a while, he realized that it was already dawn. Today, he had to go to the countryside for procurement.

But honestly, what was left in the countryside now? People were on the brink of starvation, and they were still expected to take from the rural areas?

Throughout history, rural areas had always been the last safety net in China.

Getting out of bed, Zhou Yimin couldn’t be bothered to light a fire to cook, deciding to eat out instead.

He currently lived in a Siheyuan (courtyard house), specifically in the side room on the left of the middle courtyard. Not far from his door was a communal water tap, where people were already washing up.

“Yimin, up so early today?” A middle-aged woman with a pale complexion greeted him.

“Good morning, Second Auntie! Have you eaten yet?” Zhou Yimin responded.

Like in that well-known TV show, their courtyard also had three “uncles.” The First Uncle, who lived in the front yard, was a doctor at the steel factory. The Second Uncle, living directly across from Zhou Yimin in the middle courtyard, and the Third Uncle, residing in the back courtyard, was a Level 6 blacksmith at the steel factory.

However, the uncles in this Siheyuan were relatively normal.

The First Uncle didn’t impose moral standards on others, the Second Uncle wasn’t obsessed with power, and the Third Uncle wasn’t a miser—he mainly helped mediate small disputes within the courtyard.

This was a relief for Zhou Yimin.

Second Auntie gave an awkward smile. At this time, most households had no extra food. Those who weren’t working simply didn’t eat breakfast—only the working men at home had a few mantou (steamed buns).

“Yimin, do you have any extra grain?”

After hesitating for a moment, Second Auntie approached and whispered.

She figured that since Zhou Yimin lived alone, he might have some food to spare.

Zhou Yimin smiled. “I’ve got some. Second Auntie, do you need to borrow some grain?”

He asked directly.

As long as he was capable, he was willing to help those in the courtyard.

Unlike that notorious TV series, the people in this courtyard were decent and united. When Zhou Yimin was little, he had often eaten at different households and received a lot of care from the neighbors.

This Siheyuan was truly a place of warmth and camaraderie.

Second Auntie shook her head. “My family is struggling, but we can still manage. It’s the Xu family next door—they ran out of food yesterday. Yimin, if you can, please help them.”

Her household had three kids and an elderly parent. They weren’t eating well—especially the kids, who often woke up hungry in the middle of the night to drink water. But they could still manage.

The Xu family, however, had two elderly members, a widowed daughter-in-law, and two young children. They were in a dire situation.

They used to be well-off—their son was a truck driver with good benefits. But fate was cruel, and he had died in an accident.

Now, the whole Xu family relied on the widow, barely scraping by.

Zhou Yimin nodded.

After brushing his teeth and washing his face, he grabbed around ten jin of cornmeal from his house and headed toward the Xu family.

He wasn’t fond of cornmeal—it was coarse and scratchy on the throat. So he might as well give it away.

The cornmeal of this era was ground together with corn husks and cobs, making it unpleasant to eat. But even so, many families didn’t even have enough of it.

“Grandma Xu, working on shoe soles again?”

Arriving at the Xu household, he saw the kindly old woman sewing shoe soles.

Shoe-sole stitching was a common craft among Chinese women of the time. From age eleven or twelve, mothers would teach their daughters how to cut shoe patterns, embroider designs, stitch soles, and sew shoe uppers.

Grandma Xu looked malnourished. Seeing Zhou Yimin, she smiled weakly. “Ah, Yimin? How’s work going? Your father, sigh… If he wanted to remarry, he didn’t have to leave like that…”

Zhou Yimin waved it off. “Let’s not talk about him. Grandma Xu, make me a pair of shoes. I’ll trade you some cornmeal for them.”

With that, he placed the bag of cornmeal down without waiting for her response and turned to leave.

Grandma Xu looked at the cornmeal, her hands trembling slightly.

“Such a good child… truly a good child…”

Her family desperately needed food. Since yesterday, her husband and daughter-in-law had been trying to find some, but no one had extra to spare.

Who would trade grain for handmade shoe soles?

It was clear—Yimin didn’t want to see them go hungry, so he came up with an excuse to help.

(End of Chapter)