“It’s all your fault! You insisted on sending my daughter to the countryside. Now, she hasn’t woken up yet! I can’t imagine how much she has suffered. Yang Guoyao, if anything happens to her, I won’t live anymore!”

A woman was crying and shouting. It was really annoying.

Yang Xiaoye frowned. At home, she never let anyone into her bedroom. Where did this crying woman come from?

Am I dreaming?

Feeling irritated, Yang Xiaoye tried to roll over and go back to sleep. She had plans to go shopping with her best friend soon and didn’t want to waste time dreaming.

But just then, she felt a sharp pain in her foot.

“Ah!”

The soft quilt under her wasn’t hers, and the room around her looked nothing like her own.

What is this shabby furniture and tacky decor?

Yang Xiaoye was jolted awake by the pain and looked at everything in front of her in disbelief.

Before she could react, a young woman with tears on her face took her hand, trembling.

“My daughter, you finally woke up! I didn’t know how I would live if you didn’t wake up.”

“Mom?!”

Yang Xiaoye stared at the woman in disbelief. The eyebrows and voice were familiar, but the outdated hairstyle and clothes made her look so different.

Is this really her elegant mother in her thirties?

“Mom, what’s wrong with you?”

Yang Xiaoye wanted to touch Chen Yu to see if she was real, but she felt so weak.

“Xiao Ye, what’s wrong? Does your foot hurt? Please don’t scare me!”

Chen Yu gripped Yang Xiaoye’s hand, panic and sadness evident on her face.

Seeing Yang Xiaoye’s dazed eyes and blank expression, Chen Yu couldn’t hold back her tears and started crying again. She felt a deep distress as she looked at the man beside her.

Yang Xiaoye patted her mother helplessly. Even though her mother looked different,

the tendency to cry easily is definitely her mother’s.

“Come on, Xiaoye just woke up. Let her rest..” 

The middle-aged man said calmly. But the concern in his eyes and the trembling of his hands revealed his true feelings.

He wanted to comfort Yang Xiaoye but hesitated, worried about overwhelming her. 

Little did he know that she had been spoiled by them and had grown into a pampered girl.

“Dad!”

After seeing her mom’s surprising outfit, Yang Xiaoye braced herself for what her father, Yang Guoyao, might look like.

But where is this place?

Before she could continue looking around her surroundings, another wave of pain hit her.

She fainted again without even screaming.

When she woke up, it was already evening.

Chen Yu sat by her bedside, nearly in tears.

Her head throbbed, filled with countless confusing thoughts. Yang Xiaoye felt like cursing.

Here’s the situation:

She had somehow traveled back to the 1970s in China, a time when their family of three lived in her previous life.

In that life, Yang Xiaoye had died young due to her own mistakes, leading to her reincarnation into her current self.

For some unknown reason, a being who claimed to be an immortal had found her original body and offered to exchange lives with her. 

The immortal described her future life in extravagant terms, promising endless happiness, delicious food, and fun games.

Although her future was indeed brighter than her present, the naive version of herself believed the immortal without question and agreed to the exchange.

To her surprise, the immortal actually made it happen. Now, the future Yang Xiaoye found herself in this situation.

Feeling frustrated, Yang Xiaoye wanted to confront her naive past self.

What a ridiculous immortal! Why did she trust everything so easily?

Even though she was the same person in both lives, she should have been asked if she wanted to go back in time.

Now she’s in trouble. She doesn’t know where to find that strange immortal or if she can even go back.

Fortunately, the original version of her had asked the immortal for a special spiritual space. In that space, things could be stored, time stood still and there was even a magical spring.

But even with that, Yang Xiaoye couldn’t forgive herself for what she had done in her past life.

In the 1970s in China, there was a severe shortage of goods. You couldn’t just buy anything. You needed special tickets for almost everything.

Although her family wasn’t wealthy, they were living comfortably, and she had grown up spoiled.

She had never worked or farmed in her life.

Now, she found herself in a world focused on hard work and labor. How could someone like her, who couldn’t lift or carry anything to survive here?

The more Yang Xiaoye thought about it, the angrier she became. She lay back on the bed, feeling hopeless. After all, she had been sent here against her will. If she starved to death, at least she could go back. If not, she’d just reincarnate again. She was determined to hold her past self accountable.

“My daughter, please don’t scare me. At least eat something. Look, here’s your favorite egg custard. I also made chicken porridge with extra sesame oil. Could you try just one bite?”

Yang Xiaoye was so upset that she lay on the bed, not moving, which made Chen Yu very anxious.

No matter what life she was in, Chen Yu only had this one precious daughter. She had raised her with love, always fearing that she would suffer.

In the past, Chen Yu always provided the best food for her daughter, never letting her go hungry, let alone endure a hunger strike.

“My daughter, I know you don’t want to go to the countryside. I will listen to you. Let’s discuss everything over some food, okay?”

Chen Yu held a bowl in her tearful hands, sighing as she looked at Yang Xiaoye lying on the bed.

After all, she’s her mother. Yang Xiaoye took one look at her and felt even more sorry for her.

Seeing her mother like this made Yang Xiaoye feel even more sorry for her. She remembered how in her previous life, when she was sick and her father wasn’t home, it was her mother who fed her and took care of her.

“Okay, okay, I’ll eat,” 

Yang Xiaoye said reluctantly. She sat up and took the bowl, her stomach growling in agreement.

What caught her eye was a bowl of bright orange egg cake, sprinkled with chopped green onions and drizzled with sesame oil. The smell wafted through the air.

Maybe it was because she had been hungry for days, but this simple dish made Yang Xiaoye almost drool.

She finished the bowl quickly, the soft and smooth texture almost making her bite her tongue.

Seeing her daughter eat, Chen Yu finally smiled, feeling relieved.

“And this porridge, which I made especially for you. It’s been kept warm. Come and have a bite,” she urged.

The shredded chicken porridge looked simple, but the aroma of rice oil, the clear rice grains, and the scent of chicken slowly filled her nose.

She swallowed again, realizing how much she craved chicken, something she had previously disliked.

“Eat slowly. Come, Mommy will feed you,” Chen Yu said, looking at her daughter with concern. 

She didn’t want Yang Xiaoye to go to the countryside even more now. Just one day away from home had already changed her daughter so much.

With food in her stomach, Yang Xiaoye felt better.

She was grateful that her parents were still with her so she wasn’t alone.

Feeling warmth in her heart, she stopped thinking about a hunger strike.

“Ye Zi^[1]an affectionate nickname for Yang Xiaoye Dad is back, and he specially brought you a fish. Don’t you love drinking fish soup the most? Let your mom stew it for you today.”, Yang Guoyao announced as he rushed in, holding a fish weighing over two kilograms.

“As long as we have food, we can talk about anything. If you really don’t want to go to the countryside, then we won’t go. Dad will listen to you,” he said.

Hearing this, Yang Xiaoye, who was excited to drink the fish soup, suddenly frowned. She had almost forgotten the most important thing.

Why did the original owner faint, and how did she get hurt? This story needed to be told from the beginning.

Originally, Yang Xiaoye was a happy child who never worried about food or clothing. Her father, 

Yang Guoyao, was the financial director of a provincial meat processing factory, and her mother was a workshop director. Their family had a good income.

So even though Yang Xiaoye lived in a challenging time, she never suffered from hunger or cold.

Her grandparents on mother’s side were university professors and her uncle held an important government position. The Yang family was envied and talked about by those around them.

But the problem lay with the ignorant girl herself.

The Yang family had only one daughter, and the Chen family had only one granddaughter and niece.

The original version of Yang Xiaoye had been raised by three families since childhood and had never experienced hardship. This made her very naive and gullible.

Otherwise, she wouldn’t have easily believed in the nonsense about reincarnation.

The Chen family had no ill intentions toward her, but the Yang family in the countryside wasn’t particularly kind.

Yang Xiaoye’s older cousin, Yang Xiaoxiang, had always been jealous of her because Xiaoye grew up in a comfortable environment.

As an only child with few friends due to her naive and spoiled nature, Yang Xiaoye was particularly close to her cousin from the countryside. 

They communicated almost every week, and she would occasionally send things back home.

Recently, Yang Xiaoxiang wrote to her about many progressive young people who had come to their village, working in poorer areas as part of the country’s initiative.

In her letter, Xiaoxiang praised these young people, calling their work great and glorious. She even mentioned that if Yang Xiaoye participated in this, her long-time crush, Brother Song, would surely admire her.

Now, the original Yang Xiaoye believed her cousin’s words without any doubt.

Yang Xiaoye was causing a commotion at home, insisting on going to the countryside, and no matter what anyone said, she wouldn’t listen.

The Yang family only had one child, so they didn’t have to send her to the countryside. Plus, her uncle had helped her avoid it when they were recruiting people a few years ago.

But no one expected that Yang Xiaoye would be so stubborn, even threatening to die if she wasn’t allowed to go.

Unable to resist their daughter’s determination, Yang’s parents tearfully sent her to the countryside.

Yang Xiaoye had never worked in the fields and had no clue what life in the countryside was like. She went there eagerly, thinking she would impress her crush.

However, after just one day, she cut her hands with a sickle and got blisters on her feet from wearing cloth shoes. She threw a fit and was sent back.

Then, Yang Xiaoye from the future arrived.

After receiving these memories, the new Yang Xiaoye became speechless.

While she was spoiled growing up, she wasn’t a fool.

The previous Yang Xiaoye had clearly been tricked by Yang Xiaoxiang, but she naively fell for it.

Now, after causing a scene about going to the countryside, she returned home in disgrace after less than a day.

Everyone in the neighborhood knew about it.

Even the entire street was gossiping.

This current Yang Xiaoye, however, was not the same. Now that she had come from the future, she knew how dangerous the political climate could be during this time.

If she hadn’t gone to the countryside before, it would have been fine. But now, having gone under the pretext of answering the country’s call ^[2]referring to a national initiative to work in rural areas, and then returning after being unable to bear the hardships, it could spell trouble.

If someone with bad intentions reported this, not even a hundred uncles in the Yang family could protect her.

Just as she thought about this, there was a loud knock on the door.

The person at the door had ill intentions, and Yang Xiaoye immediately became alert.

Sure enough, a voice came from outside:

“Is anyone home? We are investigators from the provincial committee.

P.S.: The Yang family all died young in this life, so they were reincarnated. They swapped identities for a reason, but it’s not important to the main story and might be explained in an extra chapter. No need to think too much about it.