Summer, 1980.
The blazing sun cast flecks of shattered gold across the rolling sea, spreading a glittering sheen over the waves. As far as the eye could see, the open waters held only a single four-decked white freighter. Its sleek bow cleaved through the tranquil blue swells, leaving surging trails of white foam in its wake.
On the deck, the salty sea breeze brushed past her. Lin Keying looked back toward the southeast from the imposing ship, but through the hazy distance there was no longer even the faintest trace of the mainland.
The vessel had set out from Ning City for Hong Kong, its hold packed with light industrial textiles that would be shipped overseas from the Hong Kong docks. Exporting goods to earn foreign currency was an important part of Ning City’s economy.
Aside from the cargo decks, the ship had three levels. The first contained a spacious, elegant lounge and dining hall. During the five days at sea, the lounge had hosted several concerts and dances, while lavish delicacies were served in the dining hall.
The second and third decks were reserved for people of status and influence. Lin Keying had heard that the ship carried no shortage of high-ranking officials and wealthy businessmen.
Naturally, Lin Keying was not staying in one of the luxurious cabins on the upper decks. She shared a room beside the first-floor lounge with the crew. It was far smaller and more plainly furnished, but for someone traveling to Hong Kong without proper travel papers, this was already preferential treatment.
It was far better than being smuggled across the border.
Leaning against the ship’s railing, Lin Keying felt the sea breeze lift the loose strands at her forehead. Her two glossy black braids lay obediently over her shoulders. Dressed in a patched navy-blue floral blouse and black trousers, she could feel the occasional gaze falling on her.
Not a word was spoken, yet the disdain and contempt in those looks were impossible to miss.
Lowering her eyes, Lin Keying looked at her own clothes. She did look rather countrified. But there was nothing she could do about it—she had no money in her pockets.
Three days earlier, Lin Keying had finally been promoted after ten years of hard work, received a raise, and bought the first home of her life—only to drop dead from overwork. Then she had transmigrated into a period novel, becoming a pitiful character who shared her name.
In the book, the original Lin Keying appeared without family or friends. Young and beautiful, she was nevertheless insecure and fragile because of the environment in which she had grown up. She gradually became a foil for the confident, gracious heroine. Hopelessly in love with the male lead, she gave of herself without reservation and became bitter enemies with the second male lead, who loved the heroine. In the end, she was forcibly married by the story’s obsessive third male lead. Even in an era of economic takeoff, she was left scraping by on coarse food and hardship, never enjoying a single good day in her life.
As for the original owner’s background, the novel mentioned it only briefly.
When she was young, her family had been wiped out. On the verge of death, she was rescued and adopted by a wealthy merchant’s family. Clever, lively, obedient, and sensible, she was designated as the child bride of the family’s eldest grandson and taught to read and write alongside him.
Unfortunately, the good times did not last.
Two years later, the political climate changed drastically. Sensing trouble, the merchant’s family donated factories and buildings, but still could not entirely escape the danger. As their fortunes began to crumble, they ultimately sold off their property, gathered a large sum of money, and moved the entire family to Hong Kong.
Because the situation was so tense, only blood relatives managed to leave. The original Lin Keying, a child bride, along with the household steward and servants, were stopped and failed to board the second ship bound for Hong Kong.
Later, due to decades of political turmoil, the mainland and Hong Kong had little contact. The original owner of this body never saw the wealthy merchant’s family again. After the Reform and Opening-Up, the old butler finally managed, after countless twists and turns, to get in touch with his former employers in Hong Kong. But he passed away before he could make the journey.
The original owner then set off alone for Hong Kong to seek out her relatives, only to have her engagement called off by Young Master Cheng. In the end, she returned to the mainland alone and embarked on more than twenty years of tangled romantic entanglements with the male and female leads of the novel, as well as the second and third male leads.
Lin Keying, who had transmigrated onto the ship bound for Hong Kong, was numb with despair.
She couldn’t find her relatives in Hong Kong. As a mainland girl, she would only face discrimination there. Yet if she returned to the mainland, the novel’s endless melodramatic love affairs would be waiting for her.
But with the vast sea stretching out before and behind her, she had no choice. She could only steel herself and arrive in Hong Kong first.
As for what would happen once she got there...
Lin Keying carefully recalled the plot of the novel and remembered a brief, easily overlooked bit of backstory.
The original owner’s fiancé, Young Master Cheng, was handsome, wealthy, and lavish with his money. But he loathed the old-fashioned arranged marriage that had made her a child bride, and would rather pay an enormous sum in compensation—one million dollars—than marry a mainland girl.
Lin Keying had spent half her life working herself to the bone, only to suddenly die before she had enjoyed any of it. She truly had no desire to keep struggling.
She would go to Hong Kong. If her fiancé, who despised the idea of a child bride, wanted to break off the engagement, then let him. It would be even better if she could get that massive compensation payment!
After all, one million was an astronomical sum. Even converted from Hong Kong dollars to RMB, it would still come to more than three hundred thousand yuan!
In the 1980s, anyone with more than three hundred thousand yuan was undeniably rich!
At a time when eighty cents could buy a pound of pork, five or six hundred yuan could buy a black-and-white television, and ten thousand yuan could purchase a two-hundred-square-meter courtyard home in the capital, that kind of money was a fortune.
Once she had the money, she could return to the mainland, buy several courtyard houses, invest casually in a few businesses, and spend the rest of her life enjoying herself while the money rolled in.
“Dear passengers, we will soon arrive at the Kowloon Wharf...”
The ship’s announcement suddenly rang out in Cantonese and Mandarin, pulling Lin Keying back to reality. Her slender fingers brushed a loose strand of hair aside as she hurried back to her cabin, where a dazzling world of luxury and excess greeted her.
The mainland was only just beginning to develop in the 1980s, but Hong Kong was already advancing at a breathtaking pace. Even this small corner of the ship offered a glimpse of its prosperity.
“The Blue Danube Waltz” drifted through the first-floor ballroom. Wealthy businessmen and elites raised champagne glasses in celebration as they watched couples dance the waltz across the floor.
Lin Keying had no time to appreciate any of it. She hurried back to her room to pack her luggage, completely missing the lively gossip in the hall.
“I heard Young Master Cheng and Chairman Cheng don’t get along. The chairman even lost his temper during the board meeting...”
“Young Master Cheng is handsome and rich, and he’s made Universal Shipping thrive at such a young age. He’s far better than those other rich young men who only know how to chase women and gamble on horse races. Chairman Cheng really doesn’t know when he’s satisfied.”
“I heard Chairman Cheng wants to arrange a marriage between Young Master Cheng and the daughter of an HSBC director. If that happens, the Cheng family will truly be unstoppable in Hong Kong.”
The Huanyu freighter was one of the five cargo vessels owned by Huanyu Shipping Group, the flagship company of the Cheng family. It had been purchased from M Country seven years ago for nine hundred thousand U.S. dollars.
The passengers had chewed over every last bit of gossip about the ship’s owners. Only after they had thoroughly satisfied themselves did they begin to disembark.
Accompanied by the ship’s long, resounding horn, the freighter docked at the Kowloon Wharf terminal. The deck teemed with people. Wealthy businessmen and professionals in sharp suits filed off in an orderly stream, while Lin Keying—wearing a navy-blue floral shirt and two braided pigtails—looked like an outsider who had wandered into an entirely unfamiliar world, conspicuously out of place.
After several days adrift at sea, the moment her feet finally touched solid ground, Lin Keying felt dazed.
Before her rose rows upon rows of towering buildings; behind her, workers along the shore unloaded cargo in full swing. The place was dazzlingly prosperous, almost overwhelming to the eye—utterly unlike the mainland at this time.
Everyone around her spoke a language she could not understand. Lin Keying’s heart rose into her throat, and she could not help feeling uneasy.
The novel had mentioned the original owner of this body’s background only in passing. It had never provided any specific details about the wealthy merchant family that had taken her in. Lin Keying did not even know her fiancé’s surname. She only vaguely remembered that, in the original host’s memories, the man was usually addressed as Young Master, and occasionally as Brother Songxian.
Still, when the author had lamented the original host’s tragic fate, it had been mentioned that the old butler had already contacted his former employer. Someone would be waiting at the port when the ship arrived, carrying a token of identification.
She looked anxiously from side to side, until at last she spotted a young man in the crowd holding the token.
“Miss Lin Keying?” A familiar hometown accent rang out, immediately stirring a sense of warmth and closeness within her.
“Miss Lin, the Young Master sent me to pick you up.” Ah Hui held a square silk handkerchief embroidered with peonies, a distinctive keepsake from Ning City.
Ah Hui had stowed away to Hong Kong five years earlier. Later taken in by the Chen family, he had become one of their bodyguards thanks to his sturdy build and capable fighting skills.
Lin Keying climbed into the spacious, elegant sedan. As she watched the bustling traffic and passing cityscape flash by beyond the window, curiosity filled her.
++++
Meanwhile—
At the headquarters of Jardine, in Causeway Bay, a security guard pushed open the doors, revealing a tall figure dressed in black.
The man was broad-shouldered and imposing, his black suit reserved and immaculate. Taking one long stride forward, he bent and settled into the Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow waiting by the roadside.
The moment he took his seat and the engine came to life, the secretary in the back began to report, “Young Master, if the chairman finds out about today’s meeting with the Jardine directors…”
The man, sitting perfectly upright as he leafed through that day’s Hong Kong newspaper, looked up. His cool gaze swept over the secretary, who promptly fell silent.
“Do not let the old man find out about this,” Cheng Wanting said in a low voice, sounding almost casual.
“Yes, sir.” Secretary Yang answered awkwardly. Caught between the two generations of decision-makers in the Cheng family, he could only struggle to maintain a delicate balance. “Kowloon Wharf is a prized asset now. Jardine is reluctant to let it go, and that Liu fellow has his eyes on it as well. It won’t be easy for us to take it.”
After speaking with the Jardine directors earlier that day about the shipping business, Cheng Wanting had subtly tested their attitude toward Kowloon Wharf. He had already reached his conclusion.
“Let them fight it out first. The stock price will be driven up anyway. We’ll wait and see.”
Secretary Yang swiftly ran through possibilities in his mind, then raised another question. “What if Liu really manages to take it...?”
“HSBC won’t allow it.” Without even looking up, Cheng Wanting spoke with finality as he skimmed the newspaper. His eyes landed on the entertainment section’s front-page headline—a scandalous report about the eldest son of the Chen textile empire and a newly crowned Miss Hong Kong—and a trace of helplessness flickered across his features. “Make Songxian’s little affair disappear. He’s on the front pages every other day with another scandal. Aunt will have a headache from all the anger.”
“Yes, sir.”
The Rolls-Royce Silver Spur was halfway to its destination when Secretary Yang, having noted down the young master’s instructions, brought up another matter.
“Young Master Chen wishes to see you, sir. He has asked you to dinner at the Mandarin.”
Cheng Wanting had no intention of going at first. But then he remembered that next week was his aunt’s fiftieth birthday, and so he agreed.
The car changed course for Central and sped on until it pulled up before the Mandarin Hotel. In a private, secluded dining room on the twenty-third floor, Chen Songxian—the eldest grandson of the Chen textile magnate—sat properly and listened as his cousin Cheng Wanting lectured him, his attitude unusually obedient.
Cheng Wanting was three years older than Chen Songxian and was now twenty-eight. He often had to clean up the tabloid scandals involving his flirtatious cousin, so he could not help admonishing him a few times.
“Aunt’s health is poor. If you truly care about her, stay off those ridiculous newspaper front pages and stop upsetting her.”
“Yes, yes, yes!”
Chen Songxian was willful and carefree. His parents could not control him, and his grandfather had been in declining health these past few years, no longer able to keep watch over him at all times. He was on the verge of becoming completely unmanageable. Fortunately, there was one person he feared above all others—his cousin, Cheng Wanting.
After all, Cheng Wanting was a man who, at such a young age, controlled half of Hong Kong’s shipping market. He was even more capable than Chen Songxian’s own father.
With his gaze lowered, Chen Songxian explained meekly, “Cousin, Lily and I are seriously dating. Those newspapers are making up lies. Please don’t misunderstand me.”
Chen Songxian drifted through romances constantly, changing girlfriends one after another. Yet he was generous, witty, and charming, and somehow every one of his former girlfriends spoke highly of him—an astonishing feat.
Cheng Wanting disapproved of his cousin’s indulgence in women, but Chen Songxian was not his own younger brother. There was only so much he could interfere in the Chen family’s affairs.
Today, however, Cheng Wanting knew that Chen Songxian had come to ask him for help. Still, he did not bring it up first, focusing only on his meal.
Chen Songxian had been truly troubled of late. Yet his status as the Chen family’s young master was of no use in this matter, leaving him no choice but to turn to his resourceful cousin.
“Cousin, I need a favor. I have a child bride in mainland China...”
“A child bride from the mainland?” Cheng Wanting frowned after hearing this, clearly disapproving of such a feudal custom.
“That’s right! What era are we living in? How could a child bride arranged when I was only a few years old possibly count now? And who knows what sort of country girl from the mainland might show up—it would be terrifying...” Chen Songxian was deeply resistant to the idea. The women he dated were either Miss Hong Kong contestants or aspiring starlets. How could he possibly marry some rural child bride from the mainland?
But his grandfather was authoritarian and domineering. If the old man learned that the child bride had arrived, he would certainly force Chen Songxian into marriage. How could he not be anxious?
“Cousin, you’ve got to save me! You can’t just stand by and watch me jump into the fire pit. That Northern girl is arriving today. I arranged for Ah Hui to pick her up, but I absolutely can’t meet her—and I can’t let her meet my grandpa either. Otherwise, you’ll be drinking at my wedding tomorrow.”
Chen Songxian wailed dramatically, as though if his cousin refused to help, he and the newly crowned Miss Hong Kong would be ruthlessly torn apart. The commotion gave Cheng Wanting a headache.
Cheng Wanting set down his bamboo chopsticks. His deep eyes carried an imposing authority even without a hint of anger. “Oh? Then tell me—how exactly do you want me to deal with your child bride?”
Cheng Wanting: Your child bride? Fine. From now on, she’s mine. [Sunglasses]
Dear readers, I’ve started a new novel! This time, it’s set in Hong Kong—hehe! Updates daily, paragraph comments are open, so come hang out~ [Cat Paw] Twenty red packets up for grabs in this chapter!
●●● Please bookmark the advance collection in my author’s column: *The ’90s: Pregnant with My Boyfriend’s Uncle’s Baby*
Lin Wan was a victim of China’s “overbirth” enforcement. As the eldest child in her family, she had been sent to the countryside from a young age to hide, all because her parents were hoping their third child would finally be a son and allow them to register him legally. Lin Wan wasn’t brought back to the city until just before the college entrance exam.
Fortunately, she was capable and hardworking. She was admitted to Jiangcheng University, where she excelled academically. Pretty, pure, and delicate, she attracted plenty of admirers as soon as she enrolled.
In the autumn of 1994, during the first semester of her senior year, Lin Wan and the boyfriend she had been dating for half a year discussed getting engaged, eagerly imagining their future together.
But when she woke up one day, it was already the autumn of 1995. She had become the wife of her boyfriend’s uncle, Chen Xiuhuai—and she was carrying a three-month-old baby.
Lin Wan, who had always been intimidated by her boyfriend’s stern, poker-faced uncle: ?
====
The Chen family had gotten its start during the era of economic reform, becoming one of Jiangcheng’s first households to earn ten thousand yuan, then one hundred thousand yuan... But an accident nearly drove them into bankruptcy. It was Chen Xiuhuai, Old Master Chen’s youngest son, who turned the tide and led the family back to the top, making them the richest family in Jiangcheng.
Chen Xiuhuai was tall, broad-shouldered, handsome, and rugged. In business, he was ruthless and decisive; in daily life, he was stern and commanding. At thirty, there had still never been a woman by his side.
Until one day, a Jiangcheng tabloid photographed the cold and heartless head of the Chen family abandoning his sedan by the roadside just to trail behind a young woman, step by step.
The lovely young woman softly scolded him for his mistakes, while Chen Xiuhuai—normally always stone-faced—lowered his head obediently and coaxed her in a gentle voice.
Tabloid reporter: What earth-shattering scoop have I just uncovered?
