The wife of a shrewd woman travels to the 80s, and the sick factory manager asks for mercy - Chapter 1

“Sweetheart, just eat one bite, okay?” Shen’s mother tried to persuade Shen Yunqing, who was sitting at the table refusing to eat a single grain of rice.

It had been three days since she was reborn into this body, but Shen Yunqing still couldn’t accept the drastic change in her life.

She used to be the proud young lady of the prestigious Shen family in the capital, yet she had somehow been reborn into the body of a village girl. If that wasn’t bad enough, fate had thrown her into the beginning of the 1980s.

Looking down at the bowl of wild vegetable soup and the half corn bun Shen’s mother handed her, Shen Yunqing had zero appetite.

Seeing her act like some pampered heiress, Shen’s father—his face already dark from years under the sun—pulled a long face and snapped with authority: “Be grateful there’s food to eat. Stop being picky. Don’t bother with her. If she starves, it’s her own fault!”

Her three older brothers had been about to join their mother in persuading her, but once their father got angry, they all wisely chose to keep quiet.

Shen’s mother was stunned by her husband’s shout, and she looked at her daughter with teary eyes, sighing in grievance.

After lunch, Shen’s father took the three sons—Shen Hongzhang, Shen Yunlai, and Shen Anhao—out to the fields with hoes on their shoulders.

Shen Yunqing changed seats and sat on a small stool in the courtyard, deep in thought.

There was no way she’d spend the rest of her life here gnawing on corn buns. But how could she avoid eating this peasant food and still feast on delicacies?

“Yunqing, eat while it’s hot.” Shen’s mother came out of the kitchen after washing dishes and stuffed a freshly boiled egg into her daughter’s hand. Seeing her baby girl’s face looking thinner from hunger, her heart ached. “Don’t be mad at your father. He’s got a sharp tongue but a soft heart.”

The warmth of the egg in her palm brought Shen Yunqing back to her senses. She hadn’t heard a word of her mother’s kind persuasion.

She peeled the egg, split it in two, and handed the yolk to her mother. “You eat it. I don’t like yolk.”

Seeing her daughter give her the yolk, Shen’s mother felt bittersweet joy welling in her heart. Her daughter had grown up.

Watching her mother’s eyes brim with tears, filled with love and pride, Shen Yunqing sighed inwardly.

Something deep inside her stirred. It felt warm but also uncomfortably unfamiliar.

Not wanting to see her mother on the verge of tears, she shoved the yolk into her mother’s hand and casually ate the egg white.

Shen’s mother couldn’t bear to eat it. She tucked the yolk into the pocket of her rough cotton shirt, then walked to the wall of the courtyard and slung a bamboo basket onto her back.

At the door, she turned and reminded her: “Yunqing, I’m taking the cattle to Yue Lian Mountain. Keep track of the time and don’t forget to cook the pig slop later.”

*Sigh.* The thing she’d heard the most these past few days was “feed the pigs” or “cook pig slop.”

After swallowing the last bit of egg white, Shen Yunqing clapped her hands and stood up from the stool. “Don’t worry, I’ll go cook it in a bit.”

Shen’s mother smiled cheerfully at her daughter’s playful pout and went off to fetch the cows.

A young lady who had never lifted a finger in modern times was now cooking pig slop in the 1980s. Shen Yunqing sighed deeply at her own tragic fate.

Living under someone else’s roof meant she had no choice. She was afraid that if she didn’t do it, her father would come back at night and chase her around with a broom again. So she resigned herself to go to the backyard and carry firewood.

She hauled a bundle of firewood into the kitchen and hunched over in front of the stove, carefully lighting the fire.

Just as she managed to get the flame going, someone suddenly appeared, startling her so much she forgot to blow into the stove. The little flame died out immediately.

It was the village chief’s precious youngest son, standing at the kitchen door holding two large meat buns wrapped in oiled paper. His manly face beamed with a wide grin. “Yunqing, look what I brought you today—something delicious!”

Shen Yunqing furrowed her brows, suppressing the urge to explode. She raised her head to glare at him. “Du Ruhai, what the hell is wrong with you?”

Du Ruhai walked in with the meat buns, winking at her. “Nothing serious—just a bad case of lovesickness for you.”

His yellowish, dark face paired with that greasy expression made Shen Yunqing feel physically ill.