Chapter 1: The Young Educated Youth

Knock, knock, knock…

“Ye Educated Youth, are you there?”

A voice came from the courtyard gate. Ye Xin originally didn’t want to respond, hoping the person would leave on their own. However, the person seemed determined not to give up until the door was opened. The knocking gradually escalated into pounding.

Ye Xin had no choice but to compromise. She got up, steadied herself to ease the dizziness, left her room, and headed to the courtyard gate to open it.

Standing outside the gate was a woman in her forties or fifties, short and sturdy, exuding an air of competence. She was holding a babbling toddler in her arms, while a slightly older child, just learning to walk, clung to her leg.

From the original host’s memory, Ye Xin managed to piece together who this was: Huang Yuemei, the wife of Li Xingguo, the captain of the Fengshui Brigade. The two children were her eldest granddaughter and grandson.

Seeing Ye Xin finally appear, Huang Yuemei frowned and said, “Ye Educated Youth, why didn’t you respond earlier? I thought something had happened to you!”

Ye Xin, who at this moment wasn’t much taller than the woman before her, heard the sharp tone of her words and weakly replied, “I… I feel dizzy.”

Huang Yuemei paused, taking a closer look at Ye Xin’s slightly pale complexion and frail, petite frame. The more she looked, the more pitiful Ye Xin seemed. Her tone softened a bit as she said, “Ah, right. I heard you had a heatstroke and fainted in the fields this morning. My husband asked me to check on you this afternoon to see if you’re feeling better. If not, take another dose of Huoxiang Zhengqi Pills.”

Ye Xin lowered her head, avoiding Huang Yuemei’s scrutinizing gaze, and softly replied, “I’m feeling better now. Thank you, Aunt Huang.”

Huang Yuemei adjusted her grip on the toddler in her arms and said, “As long as you’re fine. Rest today, but make sure to return to work tomorrow. Otherwise, when it’s time to divide the grain at the end of the year, you won’t have enough to eat.”

Ye Xin obediently nodded. “I’ll go to work tomorrow, Auntie.”

Huang Yuemei found her unusually compliant today, which struck her as odd. Normally, this young educated youth had a temper like a firecracker—ready to explode whenever she heard something she didn’t like. She also couldn’t take criticism about her work. The Fengshui Brigade had really drawn the short straw by being assigned such an educated youth.

Huang Yuemei didn’t think Ye Xin had suddenly changed her personality. She just assumed that Ye Xin wasn’t feeling well today and thus didn’t argue back.

Still, seeing her being unusually agreeable, Huang Yuemei couldn’t help but say a few more things: “Let me tell you, Ye Educated Youth, Shen Zhuo is a good kid. His father just passed away, and he can’t handle this constant drama from you! If you really don’t want to live with him, then move back to the educated youth dormitory as soon as possible. After all, you two aren’t married yet, so separating now wouldn’t hold either of you back!”

She added in a low mutter, “I’ve never seen a girl dare to move into a man’s house without being married…”

Of course, this topic had to come up! Ye Xin’s scalp prickled with discomfort, and she felt like crying for help out of sheer awkwardness.

Seeing her hang her head and stay silent, Huang Yuemei continued, “Now that you’ve settled here, shouldn’t you focus on farming and earning work points so you can eat? Stirring up trouble all the time doesn’t help anyone—it just holds you and others back while giving people something to laugh at. Don’t you think that’s the truth?”

Ye Xin could only reply, “Thank you for the advice, Auntie. I’ll think about it carefully.”

With that, Huang Yuemei finally left, taking the children with her.

Ye Xin closed the courtyard gate and finally let out a sigh of relief.

The weather in June was scorching hot. She avoided the glaring sunlight and returned to the west-facing room. Although it was stuffy and hot inside, she didn’t want to stay outside.

She felt a bit guilty and wanted to hide.

Ye Xin had transmigrated a little over an hour ago, right after the original host had fainted from heatstroke.

In her previous life, she had been a 21st-century corporate worker from the 2020s. A recent university graduate, she had been working for less than a year. Fortunately, she had passed the civil service exam, though only for a grassroots position. While the pay was low, the work demanding, and the schedule hectic, she considered herself lucky compared to the many who were unemployed or couldn’t find a job after graduation.

That morning, like usual, she was riding her electric scooter to work when she accidentally hit a rock. Both she and the scooter toppled over violently. The pain made her dizzy and teary-eyed, and she vaguely saw her bloodied knee before losing consciousness.

When she woke up again, she found herself in this shabby, old-fashioned mud-brick house. Her injuries were gone, but so was her original body.

Now, Ye Xin sat on a hard wooden bed, frowning deeply.

According to the memories, the original host was also named Ye Xin. However, she was only sixteen, a young educated youth sent to the countryside during the Up to the Mountains and Down to the Countryside movement. She had arrived at the Fengshui Brigade this past March. Now it was June, meaning she had only been in the countryside for three months.

Life as a farmer in the countryside was already tough, but this young educated youth’s difficult personality made it even more of a headache for Ye Xin.

Including the original host, there were currently nine educated youths in the Fengshui Brigade—four men and five women. According to policy, there was a resettlement fund for educated youths to cover expenses like building dormitories and purchasing essentials such as beds and cabinets. The educated youths lived and ate together in shared accommodations.

At first, because the original host was the youngest, everyone took good care of her. However, she soon refused to do her share of cooking when it was her turn, slept in while everyone else woke early for work, loved to take petty advantages, and frequently used others’ belongings without permission… Within less than a month, she had managed to incite the group’s collective anger. Not only did the other educated youths start to dislike her, but she also singlehandedly ruined the reputation of the Fengshui Brigade’s educated youth group.

The original host also looked down on the poor and favored the rich, which made Ye Xin not only feel frustrated but also deeply embarrassed.

In the original host’s second month at the brigade, Shen Zhuo’s father had a serious accident while gathering herbs in the mountains. He broke his leg badly and, knowing he didn’t have long to live, rushed to arrange a marriage for Shen Zhuo.

The Shen family were outsiders to the village and relatively poor compared to the dominant Li clan in the area. Wealthier families looked down on them. After much consideration, Shen Zhuo’s father set his sights on the original host.

First, the match was age-appropriate—she was sixteen, and Shen Zhuo was seventeen. They could grow up together and develop a bond.
Second, the original host was an educated youth from the city, which carried a certain prestige.

At the time, the original host was already being ostracized by the other educated youths. So when Shen Zhuo’s father sent someone to propose the idea, she didn’t take long to agree.

This decision only reinforced the others’ opinion that she was shallow and shortsighted. Most of the educated youths were still holding on to the hope of returning to the city one day, and even if they considered a relationship, it would be with someone among their own group. Her decision to get engaged to a local villager seemed incomprehensible to them.

At that point, the original host didn’t care about others’ opinions anymore. She also didn’t want to continue squeezing into a shared dormitory with several other people. Knowing that the Shen family had a large house with a private courtyard, she used the excuse of taking care of Shen Zhuo’s father to move in.

As for Shen Zhuo himself, he wasn’t keen on the engagement either. However, given his father’s condition and the fact that this was likely part of his father’s arrangements for the future, he couldn’t refuse. Moreover, Shen Zhuo’s mother had died in childbirth, leaving no one else in the family. Shen Zhuo had to go to work daily to earn labor points, so he did need someone to care for his father. Reluctantly, he accepted the engagement and allowed her to move in.

The original host moved into the Shen family’s house on the hillside despite the judgmental looks from others. She had her own room and used taking care of the ailing father as a convenient excuse to skip work. However, she didn’t become any more diligent.

Just over a month later, Shen Zhuo’s father passed away under her care.

It couldn’t really be said that he was “cared for to death.” Shen Zhuo’s father’s health had been poor for a long time, and everyone knew it was only a matter of time. His death wasn’t blamed on her.

But it was utterly shameless of her to start clamoring for the engagement to be annulled right after Shen Zhuo’s father’s funeral!

Especially when everyone found out the real reason: during the month she spent at the Shen family home, she realized how poor they were. The family had drained all their savings to treat the father’s illness, and she had her sights set on a wealthier family in the village. That’s why she was pushing for a breakup.

Her reputation hit rock bottom after that.

The reason she fainted from heatstroke today was that, after skipping work for so long, she had finally shown up in the fields, trying to cozy up to the wealthier family she was eyeing. But after barely exchanging a few words, the scorching heat got to her, and she collapsed on the spot.

Someone had to carry her back, which caused delays in work for everyone else.

What a mess… What did I do to deserve this?

Ye Xin couldn’t help but clutch her head and let out a frustrated sigh.

No wonder Huang Yuemei had spoken to her like that earlier. With a personality like the original host’s, most people kept their distance. Anyone still willing to genuinely offer advice or a few words of guidance must be a truly patient and kind-hearted person.

Now, what am I supposed to do?

“Am I really going to have to farm here?”

It felt so exhausting…

Ye Xin was filled with anxiety, muttering to herself as she paced back and forth in the room.

And then there was the matter of the original host’s engagement… Sixteen and already engaged? Well, she wasn’t going to complain about that—different times, different circumstances.

But she had never been in a relationship before and had no idea how to interact with guys. Now, suddenly, she had a fiancé, lived in his house, disliked him, and was expected to push for an annulment? This… She had a headache!

Ye Xin walked around the room a few more times in distress. Tired from pacing, she leaned against the wall to rest for a bit, only to feel the rough texture under her hand.

Startled, she glanced up and saw that it was a mudbrick wall.

“Ew…” She frowned tightly, quickly pulling her hand back and dusting it off, sending bits of yellowish dirt flying.

The Shen family’s house was already considered decent by local standards, but to Ye Xin, accustomed to living in urban apartments, it still felt incredibly basic.

After brushing off the dust, she turned her attention back to the room, taking a closer look at its condition.

The room contained only a bed and a cabinet—there wasn’t even a chair. It was extremely basic. Both the bed and the cabinet had been purchased with the resettlement allowance, so they were relatively new and made of sturdy wood, brought over from the youth dormitory when she moved out.

The bed was nothing fancy—just a plain wooden plank bed, simple and unremarkable. The cabinet, however, was tall and spacious, capable of storing many items. Due to the region’s humid and rainy climate, the bottom of the cabinet was raised about thirty centimeters off the ground with wooden beams. Beneath it were a pair of cotton shoes, a pair of cloth shoes, and two enamel basins, one containing a towel and a bar of soap.

The entire room screamed two words: poverty.

The stark contrast in living conditions made her sigh involuntarily.

She looked down at her hands—thin and bony, with sallow, unhealthy skin that completely lacked the delicate appearance a sixteen-year-old girl’s hands should have. She reached up to tug at her hair; though it was quite long, the ends of her braids were dry, yellowed, and coarse. It looked far from appealing.

This malnourished appearance was mainly due to not having enough to eat.

It was an era where there was not enough food.

With this thought, Ye Xin stood up seriously, and when no one was around, she went to the main room. On an old wooden cabinet that had begun to rot, she found a very vintage-looking calendar to confirm the current year.

After reading it, her vision went black, and she nearly fainted.

June of 1970—half of the “Ten Years of Turmoil” still hadn’t passed!

She staggered back to her room, clutching her chest, and spent a long time trying to calm herself down.

There was nothing she could do; she had already arrived in this time, and she couldn’t just go back. All she could do was try her best to adapt and survive.

Apart from being thin, she was also quite short—still under 1.6 meters. If she worked hard, ate enough, maybe she could still grow taller.

With that thought, Ye Xin’s mind shifted, and she found herself in a different space.

The space was quite large, about seven or eight acres. At the center, there was a house with a big tree in front of it, its branches and leaves dense and lush. Under the tree was a spring, bubbling with fresh, clear water. Surrounding the house were eight plots of land, flat and tidy, with fertile soil.

This space was something Ye Xin discovered only after arriving here. She had examined it for a while before Aunt Huang arrived, and then she felt a headache.

She believed this space was something she acquired when she fell off her bike. The road had been smooth and level, but suddenly a stone had appeared out of nowhere, catching her off guard and causing her to fall hard. Ye Xin thought she might have died from the fall, which was why she ended up in someone else’s body, taking over their life.

Maybe it was that stone that brought her here, because it caused her death, so it somehow made up for it by transporting her… it sounded a little strange, but the logic made sense to her.

Anyway, no matter what, this was a golden finger.

With a golden finger, she wouldn’t starve to death, right?

Ye Xin felt a glimmer of hope.

This space seemed suitable for farming, and perhaps it could yield better crops than the outside world. If she took good care of herself, it should work out!

But after carefully inspecting everything, Ye Xin was disappointed to find the house was empty, and the eight plots of fertile land weren’t planted with anything. This space, for now, was completely empty.

With a heavy heart, she reluctantly left.

Her head seemed to be getting even dizzier…

Ye Xin pressed her head as she sat down on the bed, her face scrunching up in discomfort.

After a while, a low rumbling sound came from her stomach.

She was hungry too…

The golden finger couldn’t be relied on for now, so Ye Xin had no choice but to leave her room and walk toward the simple wooden shed on the left side of the yard—this was the kitchen at Shen Zhuo’s house.

She needed to find something to eat to fill her stomach; if she stayed hungry much longer, she really wouldn’t grow any taller.

In the kitchen, there was also an old, weathered wooden table by the wall, with pots, bowls, and utensils scattered on it. There was also a bunch of wilted vegetables that had lost their moisture. She rummaged through the kitchen, opening every basket, bag, jar, and container… Fortunately, there was still quite a bit of food, mostly coarse grains.

She rolled up her sleeves, ready to cook.

Cough, cough, the smell was strong!

The stove was a mud stove made of yellow bricks. Ye Xin, covered in dust, finally managed to get a fire going.

As she was busy, the sun gradually set, casting a brilliant glow across the sky. One by one, people returned home from work.