Chapter 57 – The Self-Pitying Stepsister in a Historical-Era Novel (Part 5)

At this moment, Wu Yu walked along a narrow road, eyes drawn to the slogans painted on the wall—bright red characters proclaiming "Grasp the revolution, promote production."

She couldn't help but sigh: as expected, this world mirrored a parallel version of 1973 China, a time when the country was in the midst of upheaval and chaos.

Because of that, she reminded herself to keep a low profile while out and about. Otherwise, it would be far too easy for someone to slap a "counterrevolutionary" label on her.

As for going to the black market? Wu Yu had no need for it right now—she wasn't short on money or supplies. What she lacked was a legitimate excuse to bring her resources out into the open.

So, during this tense period, she wasn't about to wander into the black market for no reason.

But the worry of being "too well-off" could soon be resolved. Once she officially started working at the textile factory, if her days got a little easier, no one would find it suspicious.

While wandering, Wu Yu found herself outside the Saibei City Supply and Marketing Cooperative. As soon as she stepped inside, the staff didn't even lift their heads—each of them wore an arrogant and aloof expression.

Wu Yu didn't take it personally. After all, in this era, store clerks were like civil servants, and they had every reason to be full of themselves.

Her main purpose for coming today was to compare what she had in her spatial storage with what was available here, and see what she actually needed to purchase.

Ceramic tea mugs? No need—her space was full of them. Cloth? Also no need—she had plenty stocked away...

She realized she had almost everything. But certain era-specific items like tooth powder and snow cream still needed to be bought locally.

Tooth powder, for instance, was a must because Wu Yu would be staying in the factory dorms, which didn't have private bathrooms. She'd have to wash up at the communal sinks, and if she used modern-looking toothbrushes or hygiene products, she'd be practically inviting suspicion.

This era thrived on snitching. If anyone noticed anything strange, they'd be all too eager to report her—so she had to stay cautious.

Though she had psychic abilities that allowed her to tamper with people's memories, they weren't foolproof. They only worked on people with weak mental resistance, and using them too much would wreck her own mind.

Honestly, if a mission world wasn't especially dangerous, Wu Yu wouldn't even bother leveling up her psychic ability beyond Level 2. Her space only had so many crystal cores, and she wasn't about to waste them.

After circling the store, Wu Yu only bought tooth powder, a toothbrush, and snow cream. Everything else required ration coupons—and she didn't have any of those.

The Sun family had some, sure. But the coupons were issued through Sun Dachuan and Yang Dani's workplaces. Since they didn't belong to the original host, Wu Yu didn't touch them.

In that regard, Wu Yu held to her principles. If something already had an owner, she wouldn't let greed take over.

You could call her stubborn, but that was just who she was—a lifelong believer in doing things properly.

Under the disapproving stares of the supply store clerks, Wu Yu finally left. She'd spent nearly half an hour browsing, only to buy two yuan's worth of goods. Of course they'd be annoyed.

But Wu Yu didn't feel a thing. After all, she wasn't money or coupons—why should she expect everyone to like her? It wasn't worth getting upset over.

As long as someone hadn't hurt the original host, Wu Yu was willing to be tolerant. There were too many snobbish people in the world to waste energy on.

After wandering a bit more, she noticed that aside from a few state-run shops—supply stores, public restaurants, barbershops—everything else was essentially nonexistent. So she lost interest in continuing her stroll.

As for why she didn't just eat at a state-run restaurant? She didn't have any food coupons, plain and simple. So Wu Yu had no intention of wasting a trip.

By the time she returned to the Sun household, Yang Dani was already instructing Sun Lanting to cook. When they saw Wu Yu walk in, they didn't even lift their heads—treating her like air.

Wu Yu thought this was just fine. She wasn't interested in dealing with the mother-daughter duo anyway. She sat down and began planning her next move—how to publicly expose these people's true colors, and officially sever ties with the Sun family in the eyes of outsiders.

Soon, lunch was ready. Wu Yu had already seated herself at the table, waiting to eat.

But to her surprise, the two women had only cooked enough food for themselves.

Wu Yu raised an eyebrow but didn't waste time talking. She simply carried the entire pot of rice to herself.

The message was clear: If you won't cook for me, then none of you are eating either. You'll sit there and watch me eat.

Yang Dani had hoped her little trick would embarrass Wu Yu. But she hadn't expected her to straight-up take the whole pot. Well, now she and her daughter had to go hungry while Wu Yu ate comfortably.

Faced with such dominance, the pair had no choice but to return to the kitchen and grudgingly boil some sweet potatoes to fill their stomachs.

Technically, Yang Dani's factory had a canteen that provided lunch. But in order to curry favor with her stepson, she had given her meal ticket to Sun Yan and came home each day to eat instead.

Honestly, Sun Dachuan had done a fine job "training his wife." He had Yang Dani completely wrapped around his finger, to the point that she happily sacrificed her own comfort to pave the way for his eldest son. That took skill.

After the meal, Wu Yu was a little too full. The original host had lived a life of chronic hunger, and her stomach capacity was limited. Wu Yu had overeaten just to spite the other two—and now she was paying for it.

So, she went out for a walk to digest. As soon as she left, Sun Lanting grumbled to Yang Dani, "Mom, when is this going to end? Didn't you fool her before?"

Yang Dani wasn't happy either. She didn't appreciate being questioned by her daughter and snapped, "You're asking me? Who should I ask, then? Right now, the biggest problem is the matter of going to the countryside…"

Wu Yu didn't bother listening to the rest.

After all, no matter how hard they schemed, they'd never get a single advantage out of her. She had already cut off every possible route they could take.