Transmigrating to the ’60s: The Ruthless, Sharp-Tongued Female Supporting Charac

Chapter 1: Crossing

Xia Zhizhi was awakened by the sound of a child screaming, though she didn’t open her eyes right away.

She lay still, listening to the noise around her and taking in the unfamiliar—but somehow familiar—smells in the air. It felt like she had arrived in a completely different world.

Strange, yet oddly comforting.

In the apocalypse, she’d spent years being hunted by zombies and mutated beasts. The air there had always reeked of blood and decay, and the only sounds were the growls of monsters and the low, weary voices of survivors.

Everyone—whether ordinary people or those with abilities—wore the same exhausted, haunted expression. There was no rest. Every day was a frantic scramble for survival.

So when the system came to her and offered a chance to transmigrate, she didn’t hesitate to agree.

Tasks like don’t kill anyone, play the supporting role, create drama between the main leads, and stir up trouble? Please. After surviving the apocalypse, that sounded like a vacation.

She wasn’t a murderer, after all.

In the end times, even laughter and crying were muffled by survival. But now? She could smell food cooking in a neighbor’s home to the right and hear a child being scolded loudly in the house to the left.

It was noisy—but it was the noise of life. Even the kid’s crying had a spark of vitality.

She couldn’t lie there any longer. She threw off the quilt and got up.

But the moment her feet hit the ground, her knees buckled, her vision blurred, and she almost fainted.

Damn… what a weak body.

She took a slow walk around the house to get a sense of her surroundings. It was compact—maybe 40 square meters at most. A typical middle unit in a tube-shaped building with two bedrooms and a small common area. Outside the unit, a coal stove sat in the corridor, shared by the residents for cooking and heating water. Almost every door had one.

There was a small living room just inside the entrance. Coal was stacked behind the door, a basic anti-theft measure.

On the opposite wall hung portraits of prominent leaders. The paint on the walls had yellowed and peeled in places, with newspapers pasted over to cover it up.

A dining table and three benches—crude, varnished logs—stood against the wall. One glance told you they were made by a countryside carpenter.

Next to the table was a tall wooden cupboard. The top cabinet held bowls, chopsticks, and cups; the lower drawer was stuffed with thread, needles, and miscellaneous household items. The red-and-black lacquer was chipped and faded. It looked grimy.

Beside that stood a washbasin rack, nailed to the wall. A few tattered towels hung from a string. On the top shelf, there was a half-used bar of soap, a toothbrush, and a squashed tube of toothpaste inside an enamel bowl.

An enamel basin sat on the top rack—it served multiple purposes: washing hands, vegetables, and sometimes clothes. A large wooden tub on the lower shelf was likely used for soaking feet.

The place was tiny, and filled with this much clutter, it felt even more cramped and gloomy.

There were two bedrooms in total.

Her stepfather, Xia Ruhai, and her mother, Li Dongmei, shared the smaller room.

The larger bedroom had been divided in two. Her eldest brother Xia Jianguo slept in one half, while her younger sisters Xia Lanlan and Xia Fangfang shared the other.

As for her?

She slept on a makeshift bed—two wooden planks balanced on bricks—in the corridor between the living room and bedrooms.

In short, the family had no money. But sadly, they weren’t unique. Most households were like this now.

And still—they had it better than many.

Both parents were full-time workers. Xia Ruhai earned a second-tier wage of 37.2 yuan a month. Li Dongmei had a first-tier wage of 32 yuan. Together, that was nearly 70 yuan—a decent income in 1967.

Prices were low: oil cost about one yuan per jin, pork went for 60 to 70 cents, coarse grains were just over ten cents, and fine grains like rice or flour cost 20 to 30 cents. But most staples were rationed and required tickets to purchase.

Meat and veggie prices stayed fairly steady. If you didn’t have enough rations, you could try to buy food on the black market—at a much higher price. But whether or not you actually found any was up to luck.

Transportation was mostly on foot, so even one or two family members could eat a lot. And if people weren’t careful, they could finish a whole pot of food in one sitting.

Many families struggled to get enough to eat. Hunger was common. Those who had extra money could occasionally splurge on market goods.

Vegetables were cheap, usually just a few cents per jin, and didn’t require tickets. Being in the south of the Yangtze River helped—leafy greens were available year-round. The only time prices jumped was for rarer types.

Fruit, on the other hand, was pricier due to transport and spoilage—but even then, local produce was still affordable.

Clothing cost around ten yuan for a set of fabric. For higher-quality materials like Dacron or polyester, you had to pay more.

Tuition was 2.5 yuan per semester for primary school and 5 yuan for secondary.

Even with low prices, a six-person household needed money for food, clothes, school, and occasional medical needs. Plus, Xia Ruhai still had to send money to his parents in the village.

Add in social obligations and favors, and money disappeared fast. Life was tight.

Her older brother Xia Jianguo was already eighteen—time to get married. The bride price wouldn’t be cheap. She’d heard Li Dongmei mention it more than once.

After a quick loop around the tiny house, she stepped outside. There wasn’t much else to explore.

Next door, the woman who’d been yelling at her child was still going strong. As soon as Xia Zhizhi stepped outside, the kid broke free and rushed at her.

Out of instinct, she reached out to steady him.

After all, in the apocalypse, children were a rarity. You had to treasure the little cubs.

But the kid pushed her away hard, trying to escape. She was so thin and weak that she stumbled and had to grab the wall to stay upright.

Good thing I’ve got quick reflexes now, she thought. If the original body were still in control, that push probably would’ve knocked her flat.

She grabbed the boy’s arm gently and said in a low voice, “Careful, don’t fall.”

Then she turned to the angry woman.

“Auntie Liu, don’t be angry. Is this about Tiedan peeing in your coal basket again? Or was it when he and Erniu from next door took rice from home to trade for popsicles? Those things are in the past now. Take it easy…”

“You little brat!” Aunt Liu snapped, not even letting her finish. “I told you not to use up the rice so fast!”

She yanked Tiedan back and raised her feather duster like a whip.

“You peed in the coal basket and made the whole house stink! How many times have I told you?! You’re getting it today!”

Whap! Whap!

Xia Zhizhi sighed and said in a tone just loud enough for the neighbors to hear, “Auntie, it’s fine to discipline him, just don’t hit him too hard. His grandmother will be heartbroken.”

Tiedan’s grandmother, an old-fashioned village woman, always tried to control her daughter-in-law. But Aunt Liu had status and wasn’t about to put up with that.

Since she couldn’t argue with the mother-in-law directly, she took it out on the grandson—fueling tension between the boy and his mom.

Hearing Zhizhi mention the old woman made Aunt Liu even angrier. She raised the duster and beat harder.

Tiedan’s cries grew louder.

Zhizhi tiptoed away and walked downstairs, her eyes scanning the street with curiosity.

Yangshi wasn’t big. A few factory housing units were all clustered in the same area, making the neighborhood pretty lively. It wasn’t close to any department stores, but the nearby supply and marketing cooperative made everyday shopping convenient.

The buildings were short, the walls worn. Whenever someone walked by, dust swirled up from the street. People’s clothes were all patched and faded. Aside from the brightness in their eyes, everything else was covered in a layer of dust.

But she didn’t mind.

It was poor. It was backward.

But it was alive.

And for now… that was more than enough.