(Sweet, delicate beauty × cold-faced, cunning big shot)
No going to the countryside + no black-market dealings + self-interest above all + pursuing the big shot + a native-born heroine who gets to live the good life (The heroine's methods for rising to the top are unsavory. Don't read if that bothers you!)
It's the height of summer in 1968, and graduation is just a month away for Wu Hehe. But the heavy yoke of being sent to the countryside for rural labor awaits her.
A barely noticed member of a blended family, this frail nineteen-year-old girl has nothing but a sweet, innocent face.
With her head full of nothing, her twin brother feared she wouldn't make it back, so Wu Bai went to the countryside in her place a year ago.
But this time, there is no turning back fate's wheel.
Then, during a sweltering lunch break, a nightmare jolted her awake.
The muddy fields, backbreaking labor, and endless hardship in her dream suddenly cleared Wu Hehe's usually muddled mind. She refused to live that kind of life!
Under the blazing sun, she dashed from factory to factory, desperate to find a job posting, but came up empty every time.
Then her chance came in the public restroom outside the machinery factory.
Listening to people whispering gossip, Wu Hehe knew her opportunity had arrived!
Several major factories were going to hold a joint social event. Some outstanding women from the machinery factory and the pharmaceutical factory would be there, along with the formidable big shot from the government offices!
Wu Hehe clutched the hem of her clothes, digging her nails deep into her palm.
This wasn't just a chance to get a job. It was a springboard to change her fate.
She raced home beneath the scorching sun, and when she pushed open the door, her voice rang out with desperate resolve:
“Mom! Buy me a job!”
Behind her sweet, gentle voice lay an ambition unlike any she had ever felt.
