Chapter One: The Fool Is Talking

"Ahh!" A scream broke the silence of the morning. 

"Mom, Mom! The fool is talking!" A young voice yelled out. 

"What are you shouting about?" Wang Guiying made her way out of the kitchen while wiping her hands with her apron. She gave her daughter, Guo'er, a disapproving look. 

The ten-year-old girl was wearing a patched faded blue shirt and a pair of grey pants topped off with a dark green shoulder bag. She pointed at the room beside her with a horrified look on her face, "T-that fool spoke." 

"What do you mean 'fool'? She's your sister-in-law!" Wang Guiying glared at her. It took her a while to realize what she just heard. "What did you just say? She's awake?" 

"Yeah," Guo'er nodded frantically, still looking like she had had quite a fright. "She's awake and she's talking too. I-Isn't she supposed to be dumb? I thought she couldn't speak!" 

"I'll go check!" Wang Guiying was delighted. It had been two days since her son married that woman and she had been lying in bed all this time. She thought she was not going to make it. And now, she had finally awakened. She made her way to her son's room hastily. 

Guo Xiang sat up from the bed and stared and the calendar. It took her a few minutes to register what had happened. She was now positive that she had time-travelled to the 80s. 

Just now, a little girl came into the room, saw her sitting on the bed and screamed out of fright. She somehow managed to scare the little girl by simply asking the question "Who are you". 

Guo Xiang started observing her surroundings. 

This was a room built from mud, with the walls painted grey. On the wall was a vivid drawing of a bubbly child holding a fish. Underneath the drawing was a wooden dresser. The dresser's edges were quite worn down, and the red paint on the surface had peeled off quite a bit as well. It was easy to tell that the dresser was ancient. 

On the top of the drawer, a couple of books were placed on one side. Beside a white enamel cup were two red boxes layered on top of one another. A stand stood beside the boxes where the face-washing basin was placed. An enamel white basin decorated with red flowers was placed underneath two new face towels. The words "People's xxx Society" were printed on the thermal underneath the stand. 

A door with gray curtains was beside the thermal. The calendar beside the curtains read, 15th of May, 1985!

It seemed like the page on the calendar was freshly ripped. You could still see the mark of where the previous date was torn. 

She had transmigrated to the 80s! Guo Xiang was still finding everything a little hard to believe. 

She stood up, and her legs felt a little weak, making her stumble. She wasn't used to the new body. 

She stretched out her hands and looked at them closely. Hm, her skin was pretty fair, and her hands looked like they had been doing physical work. The body didn't seem to be weak. It wasn't too bad, at least she wasn't stuck in a body that was fragile. Otherwise, she wouldn't have known what to do. 

She could feel a slight headache as she was trying to gather fragments of her memory. 

She couldn't remember much. The only events she could recall were from the past few years, and they were quite blurry too. Maybe the previous owner of this body had lost her memories. They were very chaotic. 

She had transmigrated into a body that had no memories. How interesting! 

This worked in her favor anyway. This body was no longer the same as before. Not having the previous owner's memory would save her further trouble. 

However, the most recent memories were still there. They weren't extremely pleasant. 

The original owner of this body was also named Guo Xiang. According to the memories she currently had, the original Guo Xiang was saved by her current family. 

Originally, they had planned to save Guo Xiang and make her marry their son who had been single for very long. However, when she woke up, she appeared to be of low intelligence which surprised the family. Their son may be single, but there was no way they would allow their son to marry a fool. If they were to have a stupid grandson, the Guo family would be done for. 

Guo Xiang was the name of the youngest daughter of the Guo family. She was adopted by the family just so she could marry into the family later. Unfortunately, she fell sick at the age of ten and passed away. 

People from the countryside didn't know that they had to declare her death. On the records, she was still "alive". 

She didn't have a generic name because the Guo family was too lazy to think of anything. They took the first character from Xiang Nan (Southern Hunan) and called her Guo Xiang. 

After they saved the currently Guo Xiang from the river, they just decided to give her this name. 

In other words, this body wasn't Guo Xiang. Because she lost her memories, nobody knew what her name us, so everybody called her Guo Xiang. 

Coincidentally, she, the currently Guo Xiang, had the same name. 

In her previous life, she was always made fun of because of her name and her friends would give her funny nicknames. However, she was pretty chill with it and didn't really care. 

She felt lucky that her name wasn't something lame, otherwise, she'd rather die again. 

The past Guo Xiang fell into the river and was saved by the worker who was returning home to visit his family. 

There was nothing wrong with that. Yet, the Guo family didn't thank him for saving her. Instead, they accused the worker of groping Guo Xiang, saying that he now had to marry her and take responsibility. 

Wang Guiying tried her best to talk them out of it, but the Guo family would not agree to anything see. They threatened to report this incident to his son's workplace so that he may lose his job. Running out of options, Wang Guiying said yes reluctantly. She couldn't risk her son's future. 

The Guo family asked for a huge sum of money for the betrothal gift, 1000 yuan. 

In the early 1980s, 1000 yuan was a lot of money. The usual amount for betrothal gifts was around 100-200 yuan. A wealthy family could probably afford around 500 yuan. The Guo family knew that factory workers were paid handsomely, so they took their chances. 

Not only did they manage to get rid of the fool, they also have enough money now to get their son a wife. If they were lucky, they might also have even money left to renovate the current house. The whole family was delighted. 

On the day of the wedding, the Guo family brought Guo Xiang over. She was still unconscious. The Guo family said she was just feeling unwell and that she would recover very soon. However, she passed away after a few days, allowing the current Guo Xiang's soul to enter her body. 

The worker, or Guo Xiang's current husband, Gu Zhennan, left one day after the wedding due to an emergency at work. In other words, she had no idea what he looked like. 

Guo Xiang didn't know whether she should laugh or cry. She was anti-marriage in her previous life, but in this life, she married at such a young age. 

However, there was no way Gu Zhennan would like her given how the marriage came to be. A marriage like this would never go well. 

She should find an opportunity to divorce him, but she must pay the Gu family back beforehand. She didn't want to owe them too much. 

However, she didn't know anything about her surroundings at the moment. Not to mention, she was also penniless. She should settle down first and see how things would go from here. 

Guo Xiang moved her limbs around. This body was quite strong, but it didn't exercise much and was a little stiff. 

In her previous life, Guo Xiang was a surgeon. Having a fit body was crucial to a surgeon. Every day after work, she would go to the gym. She also practised boxing before and was quite skilled. 

The body was still a little stiff. She would need some exercise. 

The room was quite dark. Guo Xiang pushed the curtains aside and sunlight shone into the room immediately. Not used to the sunlight, she squinted her eyes. It took her a while to get used to it. 

An old lady in her fifties wearing a grayish-blue shirt appeared in front of her. 

She must be Gu Zhennan's mother, her current mother-in-law. 

"Who are you?" Gu Xiang pretended to be oblivious. She only woke up a few minutes ago, after all. 

"I'm Mom. Well, I'm Zhennan's mom, your mother-in-law. Didn't you parents tell you?" Wang Guiying asked. 

"...Mom?" Guo Xiang called out, being a little unsure. It sounded a little awkward, but at least she managed to say it out loud. 

"Yes, yes, that's me. Xiang Xiang, are you feeling alright now?" Wang Guiying was quite surprised. 

Guo Xiang nodded. Tears started to cloud Wang Guiying's eyes. She closed her palms together, "Thank goodness, are you not a fool?" 

"Um..." Guo Xiang didn't know how to answer and scratched her head. Only then did she see the two black long braids on each side of her shoulder. She could not get used to them no matter what. 

"I was sick back then and was a little daze. I'm all fine now!" Guo Xiang smiled. 

"Thank goodness. What a blessing!" Wang Guiying cried with joy. "Our family has been saved!" 

She was extremely troubled a few days back. Her son was doing so well at work, but saving somebody from the water almost ruined him. He ended up marrying a fool as his wife. It made her angry just thinking about it. Her son was such a good man. Now that he had married a fool, Wang Guiying didn't know how to face her husband when she sees him in the afterlife. 

She felt so blessed that her daughter-in-law was back to normal. 

Although she didn't want her son to marry her in the first place, at least she was no longer a fool. They might still develop feelings for each other in the future. The same thing happened to her in the past, and she managed to have a happy life with him. 

"Uh, you must be hungry. I was just about to make some sweet potato porridge. Do you want some?" Wang Guiying looked at her daughter-in-law. She was quite pretty and a good match for her son. 

"Sure!" Guo Xiang nodded. She wanted to know what a countryside family was like in the 80s. 

When Wang Guiying asked her to help light the fire for the stove, she was dumbfounded. She had no idea how to use it. This was the first time she saw a stove that burned wood. Truth was, she rarely even used gas stoves in her previous life. 

She was born into a wealthy family back then. Her father was a university professor and her mother was a CEO. There was always a carer at home, and she never did chores growing up. She knew nothing about any of the chores back in the 80s. 

She grabbed some wood and shoved it into the stove. Not only was there no fire, she also managed to get soot all over herself. 

Wang Guiying was a little amused. She didn't even know how to manage the stove? Had she ever done chores at home before? 

When she thought about it, it all made sense. She was a fool back then, maybe it was impossible for her to learn. Wang Guiying called for her ten-year-old daughter to help her. 

Gu Guo'er wasn't willing at all. She glanced at Guo Xiang and mumbled, "what a fool." 

Wang Guiying heard her and glared, "she's your sister-in-law! Don't be so rude and watch your words!" 

"She is a fool!" Gu Guo'er wasn't willing to give up without a fight. 

She knew how she ended up with this sister-in-law. Her eldest brother didn't like her at all. He was forced to married her, and they lost a huge sum of money because of the marriage too. 

That money was initially for her and her second brother's tuition. Now, the money was no longer there, and they owe a huge debt. She would be lying if she said she didn't hate Guo Xiang. 

"Don't worry, we'll get along soon!" Guo Xiang smiled. She extended her hand in attempt to touch Guo'er head. Guo'er dodged her instead. 

"Don't even try to get along with me! I don't like you!" 

Guo Xiang's hand stiffened and she laughed awkwardly. Is this brat looking for a beating? 

Oh well, forget it. She didn't care what Guo'er called her anyway. She wouldn't be her sister-in-law soon, so it didn't matter.