Lower Manhattan, Dawling Printing Department.
Winter was cold. Inside the vast print shop, machine steam instantly condensed into white mist in the cold air, blurring the workers' shadows.
Workers moved among the rotary presses, the thick, stinking smell of ink filling their noses.
Jenny pushed a handcart, bent over to lift stacks of paper, placed them on the cart, then pushed it to a machine in the collating room.
She fed sheets into the collating machine. Dozens of machines started at once, the roaring mechanical noise making ears ache.
Jenny had been working as a collator for half a month, tending to the machines all day. At first she couldn't stand the noise and the stench of ink, but now she was getting used to it.
Half a day's work ended in a blink. At noon there was half an hour for lunch.
As soon as the machines stopped, dozens of female workers in indigo smocks stood up in unison from their machines.
Jenny also stood up among the crowd, took off her indigo smock, stretched her stiff and sore muscles, pulled off her gloves, and headed to the locker room.
Behind the printing plant was a street lined with cheap, convenient eateries. Even with snow falling outside, it couldn't stop the workers from flooding in to find food.
When Jenny came out of the locker room, she had on a short quilted wool coat.
Alone, she carefully stepped on the snow along the curb. The cold wind cut like a knife, forcing her to bury her face in her scarf.
Last night she had dreamed again of the time before her transmigration, and hadn't slept well. She was terribly sleepy just now at work.
She planned to grab a quick bite at a coffee shop.
She had only taken two steps when suddenly a young, freckled girl grabbed her.
The girl wore a brightly striped cotton skirt, and her leather shoes were spotless. Jenny shifted her gaze and noticed ink on the girl's fingers, realizing she must be a clerk in the editorial office.
The girl looked Jenny up and down, her gaze lingering on Jenny's face for a moment, a smile curving the corners of her mouth.
"You're Jenny, right?"
Jenny nodded. She looked at the girl's face, trying hard to remember, but couldn't recall who she was.
"I'm John's cousin. My name is Marian, and I work in the telegraph department. John asked me to buy this for you at Leeds Department Store. It's a gift. He said he wants to walk you home today, so wait for him after work."
Marian held out a glass bottle wrapped in kraft paper and handed it to Jenny, urging her to take it.
Seeing it was a bottle of perfume, Jenny quickly waved her hands and pushed it away.
"No, I won't accept his things. Please thank him for his kindness. I can wait for my cousin to finish work and go back together."
Jenny recognized Marian now. She was the daughter of Mr. Yangge, the foreman of the engraving room.
Jenny's current job as a collator was arranged by her uncle through Mr. Yangge.
Seeing Jenny's troubled expression, Marian assumed she was a shy, conservative girl from the countryside.
No wonder John had been pursuing her fervently for half a month. Even when she said no, her emerald-green eyes were as clear as glass, making her face brighter than any magazine girl's, and she didn't seem annoying.
While Marian was thinking, Jenny quickly stepped back two paces to avoid further contact, apologizing as she walked across the street.
Seeing her run off, Marian felt puzzled. Didn't John say that Jenny had started responding to his advances a couple of days ago?
With carriages shuttling on the road, Jenny saw that the other woman was separated and not following, so she breathed a sigh of relief and hurried toward the least crowded coffee shop.
She pushed open the door, went to a corner seat, and sat down, panting heavily.
A waiter came over with a notepad to take her order. Jenny fished a few cents from her pocket and ordered a latte and two slices of buttered bread.
Furrowing her brows, she accepted the coffee that arrived quickly and gulped down half a cup.
John was a mechanical repairman at the printing plant. From the very first day she arrived from her hometown to New York and started working at Dawling Printing, he had set his sights on her.
It wasn't that Jenny was shy; she simply looked down on such a coarse and vulgar man in speech and manners from the start.
Moreover, he often pestered her with the excuse of walking her home, occasionally putting his arm around her shoulder or taking her hand.
Even if New York was liberal, that counted as being handsy.
After she rejected him two or three times, John even went to her uncle's house to corner her.
Jenny's uncle also worked at Dawling Printing as a senior engraver and was well acquainted with Mr. Yangge.
When he learned of the situation, he went along with it and tried to play matchmaker, thinking John was a good marriage prospect.
He also privately urged her to settle down, not to be like other young women who came to New York looking for shortcuts.
Though John was inexperienced and didn't earn much, at least he had a steady job and a good uncle like Mr. Yangge—everyone knew each other.
Her uncle said that if she didn't get her life together, he couldn't face her mother.
Jenny pretended to comply on the surface, but in her heart, she wasn't resigned.
She had known since childhood that she was pretty and had worked hard to learn to read and write. She had traveled all the way from her small town to a bustling place like New York, not just to marry some crude fellow with a meager income.
Still, Jenny was a bit timid. She was temporarily staying at her uncle's and had to keep working at the printing plant, so she couldn't afford to offend everyone.
Thus, she pretended to accept, planning to act shy and string John along for a while, at least to have a few peaceful days.
The unexpected accident happened three days ago. Jenny accidentally fell at her uncle's house and hit her head.
That day, she regained all her memories.
Before her soul transmigrated, she had lived in another parallel world as an ordinary New York girl, also named Jenny, looking exactly the same as now.