In Capital City in 1970, summer heat rolled through the lanes with waves of scorching wind.
Inside a run-down old courtyard house, a fierce struggle suddenly broke out. A young girl’s helpless, shrill scream ripped through the stillness of the hot afternoon.
Her face was pale and weak, her whole body carrying that sickly look of someone who had never fully recovered. She clutched a thin wooden stick in both hands and swung it wildly at the people closing in on her.
"Don’t come any closer! Get away from me!" Her voice shook, thick with tears, but she still fought like her life depended on it. "My parents are long gone. The house is empty. There’s nothing left here, not a cent of savings. What more do you want from me?"
The man in front wore a crooked, nasty smile. His eyes moved up and down over the frail girl as he quietly sized her up.
"No money?" He let out a sneer, not believing a word of it. "Your father and mother were both proper scientific researchers. Good treatment, high pay. You expect me to believe they didn’t leave you any family savings at all?"
His face darkened, and he waved to the people behind him. "Open every bundle she’s got. Search everything. Who knows? These research people might’ve been hiding enemy ties all along."
A few of them kept pressing forward, step by step, the pressure almost choking. The girl had grown up with her parents’ careful teachings and her elders’ repeated warnings carved deep into her heart. She would rather die than be humiliated. Gritting her teeth, she used the last bit of strength in her body and suddenly rushed toward the wooden pillar under the corridor, crying out in despair, "Mom, Dad, your daughter is coming to be with you!"
The leading man saw what she meant to do and hurried to block her, but he was still a step too late. By the time he bent down to check, the girl was already gone. He rummaged through the poor, shabby luggage in the room and only found a few hundred yuan. Nothing worth taking. His interest died on the spot.
"Let’s go, let’s go! I seriously don’t get why the deputy director sent us all the way here for this. Not a drop of profit in it. And who this empty house ends up with later isn’t even certain!" The group turned and left, cursing under their breath.
Night slowly fell. Thunder cracked across the sky, and a sudden downpour came crashing down. The old tree in the courtyard swayed violently in the wind and rain, like the girl’s own drifting, helpless fate.
No one could have guessed that the girl who should’ve been dead suddenly opened her eyes.
Staring at the pitch-black, broken-down, desolate room, anger surged through her chest, and she blurted out, "Which bastard set me up? I just won the international martial arts championship and didn’t even get to enjoy a second of the glory. This is some rotten bad luck!"
She sat there in a daze, burning with resentment, cursing in her head. "You little scammer! What kind of hellhole is this? If you hadn’t talked me into it, I wouldn’t have died at all!"
The second she finished speaking, a chubby toddler who looked about three years old popped out of nowhere. With one wave of his tiny hand, the candle in the room lit up. His round face was puffed up with anger.
"My name is Erdan! I’m the heir of Planet X! You are not allowed to call me Little Scam Ball. That’s insulting!" the little boy protested, fuming.
The girl couldn’t care less about his title. Her tone was sharp and impatient. "Cut the nonsense and tell me where this place is. If you keep dragging it out, I’ll call your dad over. Then you’ll be the one in trouble."
Erdan felt so wronged he could choke on it. He truly couldn’t understand why his old man had insisted on becoming sworn brothers with this outsider from who-knew-where, and because of that, he was now stuck in this backward time period. Worse, he had to stay with her through a whole lifetime before he could go back and inherit the family business.
Left with no choice, he simply gave in. With a swipe of his little hand through the air, a clear light screen appeared, and he started seriously explaining the time and her situation.
"This is Huaguo in 1970. It’s a mess right now. The Gang of Four is running wild everywhere. The body you’re in now belongs to Rosemary Thornton. She’s seventeen this year, birthday on August twelfth. Her parents were both senior engineers at the national research institute and worked on a lot of confidential projects.
"When Rosemary Thornton was little, she mostly lived with her grandparents. But five years ago, both of them suddenly passed away, so she was taken to live near the research institute. Ernie Thornton and Ealdgyth Ashby were very busy with work, but they still did their best to teach her well. A week ago, her parents died in an explosion during an experiment. You refused to go to an orphanage and ran back alone to this courtyard house. Then people from the Gang of Four got their eyes on you. To avoid being ruined by them, she smashed herself into the pillar and killed herself..."
Rosemary Thornton frowned. Something about this sounded off. "Both parents are dead? Didn’t the state give any compensation? And she was just left here all by herself?"
That didn’t make sense. Her parents had worked there for years. The organization couldn’t just watch a child fend for herself, could it?